Introduction
I have been asked many times in the past to make a Tryndamere guide. As a thanks to all of you, for your continued support, I contribute this to the community.
I want to clear up a few things before I start this guide. For the sake of time and length, this guide will not be overly-detailed. I will only cover solo top lane - not jungle, not mid lane, not bot lane. I'll try to give tips and hints to keep in mind, but this guide can by no means be exhaustive.
I want to clear up a few things before I start this guide. For the sake of time and length, this guide will not be overly-detailed. I will only cover solo top lane - not jungle, not mid lane, not bot lane. I'll try to give tips and hints to keep in mind, but this guide can by no means be exhaustive.
Pros and Cons
Pros:-High damage output -Great escape mechanism -High sustain(  Bloodlust)-Awesome mid/endgame farmer -Excellent ganker | Cons:-Easily focused -Item dependent -Weak earlygame -Low team utility (only  Mocking Shout)-Countered by  Exhaust and  Ignite |
Summoner Spells
Ghost 
: Ghost. You need Ghost. No matter what other summoner spell you take, Ghost is essential. It is the summoner spell that lets you chase, stay on target, and escape. Unknown to many people, movement speed is actually one of the most important factors in considering whether or not your champion gets to autoattack while chasing. This has to do with the programming, and most people have experienced it whether or not they're aware of it (Ever chase someone and your character suddenly stops before attacking/using ability? This is due to programming and movement speed. This is also why it is recommended that you manually move in-between autoattacks)
You already have the gap-closing spin and you have a possible-slow Mocking Shout. Trust me. Take Ghost.
Ignite : Here's where it gets tricky. You actually have a choice, here.
This is the summoner spell I take, most of my games. It really helps me get kills with my play-style. I am very kill-oriented. There are a few advantages Ignite offers that you should keep in mind.
A) Healing debuff. It helps you kill and burn through pesky healing whether in the context of a 1v1 or a teamfight.
B) High Damage & DOT (Escaping targets & Teamfights): Ignite's damage is actually very significant. You can apply it for a killing blow on a target that would otherwise get away, since it is a Damage over Time. Players with a late flash or a built-in flash that's coming off cooldown can be effectively killed with ignite. This is especially true when they reach "safe zones" such as towers or their allies.
You can also use ignite to kill a target that's almost dead but trying to kite you/escape in a teamfight. Tryndamere needs to be constantly attacking. You don't want to spend too much time chasing after one target, even if you kill him, and you don't want him to get away. Ignite solves this dilemma.
Lastly, you can use Ignite to kill a target or help your team in last-ditch situations where you're about to die or you have to escape.
Exhaust : This summoner spell is honestly amazing. It helps shut down enemy carries and it helps you & your team catch them. It's pretty self-explanatory. I wouldn't necessarily put this summoner spell over or under ignite, as far as a good summoner spell choice.
Cleanse
: This summoner spell is interesting. It helps Tryndamere attack more times in fights, and chase/escape more easily in smaller encounters. It might be a great pick situationally, but I actually value this as slightly below Ignite and Exhaust - it's a great summoner spell, but it has a long cooldown and it offers your team no overall utility. You can make a great argument for it within teamfights, especially because of its built-in tenacity. But, from my experience and thoughts, Exhaust and Ignite are slightly better picks. In fact, the only Lane Tryndamere over 2k that uses this is Jenika, and after talking with her, we came to the conclusion that it is great in certain cases, but most of the time it is "outshined" by some of the other summoner spells.
Flash
: Oh, the metagame summoner spell. This summoner spell has uses, specially coupled with Tryndamere's spin. Honestly though, I put this summoner spell as slightly below Ignite and Exhaust. It doesn't bring team utility and you can't really do very good initiations with it on Tryndamere. Sure, it's great for escaping, but Tryndamere should already be able to escape with ghost and his kit. If he's not able to, you probably got into a terrible situation, to begin with. Tryndamere is more of an all-or-nothing champion. Either you do great when you go in, or it just doesn't work out. Yes, you can escape and heal up on minions. But unless you are extremely overfarmed, your chances of doing something meaningful without your ult after a teamfight has been lost are heavily reduced, at least at high ELO. For these reasons, I place Flash as below most other summoner spells.
Teleport
: Situational. EXTREMELY situational. It can be good for backdooring and getting to team objectives midgame like dragon. But I would caution you on using this spell. Think long and hard before you decide it's worth it or not.
Any other spell than these = no. Just no.
: Ghost. You need Ghost. No matter what other summoner spell you take, Ghost is essential. It is the summoner spell that lets you chase, stay on target, and escape. Unknown to many people, movement speed is actually one of the most important factors in considering whether or not your champion gets to autoattack while chasing. This has to do with the programming, and most people have experienced it whether or not they're aware of it (Ever chase someone and your character suddenly stops before attacking/using ability? This is due to programming and movement speed. This is also why it is recommended that you manually move in-between autoattacks)You already have the gap-closing spin and you have a possible-slow
Mocking Shout. Trust me. Take Ghost.Ignite
: Here's where it gets tricky. You actually have a choice, here.This is the summoner spell I take, most of my games. It really helps me get kills with my play-style. I am very kill-oriented. There are a few advantages Ignite offers that you should keep in mind.
A) Healing debuff. It helps you kill and burn through pesky healing whether in the context of a 1v1 or a teamfight.
B) High Damage & DOT (Escaping targets & Teamfights):
Ignite's damage is actually very significant. You can apply it for a killing blow on a target that would otherwise get away, since it is a Damage over Time. Players with a late flash or a built-in flash that's coming off cooldown can be effectively killed with ignite. This is especially true when they reach "safe zones" such as towers or their allies.You can also use ignite to kill a target that's almost dead but trying to kite you/escape in a teamfight. Tryndamere needs to be constantly attacking. You don't want to spend too much time chasing after one target, even if you kill him, and you don't want him to get away. Ignite solves this dilemma.
Lastly, you can use
Ignite to kill a target or help your team in last-ditch situations where you're about to die or you have to escape.Exhaust
: This summoner spell is honestly amazing. It helps shut down enemy carries and it helps you & your team catch them. It's pretty self-explanatory. I wouldn't necessarily put this summoner spell over or under ignite, as far as a good summoner spell choice.Cleanse
: This summoner spell is interesting. It helps Tryndamere attack more times in fights, and chase/escape more easily in smaller encounters. It might be a great pick situationally, but I actually value this as slightly below Ignite and Exhaust - it's a great summoner spell, but it has a long cooldown and it offers your team no overall utility. You can make a great argument for it within teamfights, especially because of its built-in tenacity. But, from my experience and thoughts, Exhaust and Ignite are slightly better picks. In fact, the only Lane Tryndamere over 2k that uses this is Jenika, and after talking with her, we came to the conclusion that it is great in certain cases, but most of the time it is "outshined" by some of the other summoner spells.Flash
: Oh, the metagame summoner spell. This summoner spell has uses, specially coupled with Tryndamere's spin. Honestly though, I put this summoner spell as slightly below Ignite and Exhaust. It doesn't bring team utility and you can't really do very good initiations with it on Tryndamere. Sure, it's great for escaping, but Tryndamere should already be able to escape with ghost and his kit. If he's not able to, you probably got into a terrible situation, to begin with. Tryndamere is more of an all-or-nothing champion. Either you do great when you go in, or it just doesn't work out. Yes, you can escape and heal up on minions. But unless you are extremely overfarmed, your chances of doing something meaningful without your ult after a teamfight has been lost are heavily reduced, at least at high ELO. For these reasons, I place Flash as below most other summoner spells.Teleport
: Situational. EXTREMELY situational. It can be good for backdooring and getting to team objectives midgame like dragon. But I would caution you on using this spell. Think long and hard before you decide it's worth it or not.Any other spell than these = no. Just no.
Masteries
| MASTERIES | |||||||||||||||||
3/3
 |
1/3
 |
4/4
 |
4/4
 |
1/1
 |
3/3
 |
1/3
 |
3/3
 |
1/1
 |
3/3
 |
1/1
 |
4/4
 |
1/2
 | |||||
I run standard 21/0/9 with improved buff duration (Red on Tryndamere midgame is pretty amazing. You can chase soloers and junglers)
I also take improved ignite. The only other thing I could spend it reasonably on is +1 damage....I'd rather take +10 AP for spin and heal. It can make a difference.
"WHY NOT DEFENSIVE MASTERIES?" <--- I hear that a lot. I get 10% increased crit damage and 4% increased damage in offensive. Since I have my ult and I'm supposed to deal damage anyway, I think offensive are honestly better
Runes
There's honestly some variation, here, among top tryn players.
I take Armor Pen reds
.
Armor yellows
.
Magic Resist blues
.
Movement speed quints
.
I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
I used to take crit chance on yellows
and blues 
(around 7%), but I like the resistances more, now.
Some other rune types to keep in mind: flat AD, attack speed, crit damage.
I take Armor Pen reds
.Armor yellows
.Magic Resist blues
.Movement speed quints
.I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
I used to take crit chance on yellows
and blues (around 7%), but I like the resistances more, now.Some other rune types to keep in mind: flat AD, attack speed, crit damage.
Items
A) Starting Items
If I'm up against a tanky/high harass opponent in lane (Udyr, [[Garen,
Renekton, Etc.), I take Doran's Shield. The extra base health, the armor (vs the opponent AND creeps, when you get creep aggro), and the health regeneration are very, very important.
If I'm up against a squishy/low harass opponent in lane (
Nidalee, 
Vladimir, 
Irelia, etc), I take boots + health potions. The mobility is very nice, but you have to think about whether the potions will last you and how effective it is vs Doran's Shield.
There are honestly a lot of fringe cases, and a lot of it can be decided by how much jungle support each team will be granted, and whether or not anyone can lane swap. I might take Doran's Shield sometimes vs 
Jarvan IV, and at other times take boots + pots vs Jarvan IV. This isn't an exact science, but these are general parameters I have.
I've seen many people asking about and advocating two other starting item sets:
Cloth Armor + potions: The biggest problem with this is that Cloth Armor doesn't build into anything you should get on lane Tryndamere (please don't say 
Wriggle's Lantern.... please.) Furthermore, it's a lot of money on pots, and not necessarily optimized. Sure, it will help you stay in lane indefinitely...but it is it really worth it? I say no.
Doran's Blade: The biggest problem I see with this is that it's extremely risky. The 4% vamp won't really help unless you're autoattacking (you should be last hitting) and the extra damage isn't necessarily better than, say, boots + pots or Doran's Shield. I don't think this is a good buy, generally speaking.
B) Midgame Items:
I always buy
Berserker's Greaves on my first time back to base. Very cost-efficient, and they give stats that you need. Yes, sometimes you may want 
Mercury's Treads instead of Berserker's Greaves - but you won't need Mercury's Treadsuntil much later in the game, and you can buy/sell Berserker's Greaves at a minimal cost, when compared to the benefit. Basically, buying Berserker's Greaves gives you the level 2 boots ASAP with stats that are useful, at a very low cost.
Here is, again, where it gets tricky. I change my build immensely at this point based on many factors, such as how much gold I have, the enemy team composition, and what I want to accomplish.
To elaborate and give a couple of examples:
Vs. a Nidalee, I might rush a 
Zeal and a 
Vampiric Scepter to match her mobility and lane sustain.
Vs. an Irelia I might stack 
Daggers to impose my advantage upon her, since she's low-harass and melee.
There are many routes to take. My most common ones are:
1) Zeal -> Vampiric Scepter -> 
The Black Cleaver
2) The Black Cleaver, directly.
3) Dagger stacking (2-3) + Vampiric Scepter + possibly Zeal -> The Black Cleaver.
Another route to think about is rushing
Youmuu's Ghostblade. I tend not to do it, but it's certainly not bad. I much prefer The Black Cleaver, most of the time. I think Youmuu's Ghostblade might be a better buy in SOME cases, though.
Let's compare.
Youmuu's Ghostblade: 2687 combined cost. 30 attack damage. 20 armor pen. 15% CDR. Activatable.
Pros: 1) You can rush
The Brutalizer for its benefits for 1337 gold. It grants 25 damage, 15 armor pen, and 10% CDR. It is extremely cost efficient and a good early-buy.
2) Activatable 20% movespeed / 50% attack speed for 4 seconds / up to 8 seconds if you're attacking.
Cons: 1) Without its active, it is lackluster. Very lackluster.
2) It is not even close to being a best-in-slot item for
Tryndamere. You will need to sell it later on in the game for better items, and have lost a good deal of gold.
3) If you are CC'd / kited during your active, you will only get 4 seconds instead of 8. This is pretty significant.
The Black Cleaver: 2865 combined cost. 55 attack damage. 30% attack speed. 3-time stacking debuff (up to 45 armor penetration debuff)
Pros: 1) Very reliable. Does not depend on a cooldown activatable. Grants extremely good stats to Tryndamere (attack damage, armor pen, attack speed) at all times.
2) It is a DEBUFF. What does this mean? It is better than just armor penetration. ANY person attacking the target with AD (Tryndamere + allies) will benefit from the 45 armor penetration debuff. Also, you can actually get people BELOW 0 armor and do OVER 100% damage with this debuff (which you cannot do with regular armor penetration.)
Cons: 1) You need to stack the debuff. Yeah, it's only 3 hits, but I should mention it.
2) It does not have a big "payoff" until you have the combined item.
For only an extra 200 gold, I'll gladly take The Black Cleaver most of my games.
Either way, these armor pen/attack speed items are actually core for Tryndamere. 
Infinity Edge costs 1000 more gold than either of these and it doesn't offer armor penetration or attack speed. I buy IE in long games after The Black Cleaver, but unless the enemy is all stacking armor (which they shouldn't be doing because of marginal cost), armor pen / attack speed items are better than 
Last Whisper / Infinity Edge
If I'm up against a tanky/high harass opponent in lane (Udyr, [[Garen,
Renekton, Etc.), I take Doran's Shield. The extra base health, the armor (vs the opponent AND creeps, when you get creep aggro), and the health regeneration are very, very important. If I'm up against a squishy/low harass opponent in lane (
Nidalee, Vladimir, Irelia, etc), I take boots + health potions. The mobility is very nice, but you have to think about whether the potions will last you and how effective it is vs Doran's Shield.There are honestly a lot of fringe cases, and a lot of it can be decided by how much jungle support each team will be granted, and whether or not anyone can lane swap. I might take
Doran's Shield sometimes vs Jarvan IV, and at other times take boots + pots vs Jarvan IV. This isn't an exact science, but these are general parameters I have.I've seen many people asking about and advocating two other starting item sets:
Cloth Armor + potions: The biggest problem with this is that Cloth Armor doesn't build into anything you should get on lane Tryndamere (please don't say Wriggle's Lantern.... please.) Furthermore, it's a lot of money on pots, and not necessarily optimized. Sure, it will help you stay in lane indefinitely...but it is it really worth it? I say no. Doran's Blade: The biggest problem I see with this is that it's extremely risky. The 4% vamp won't really help unless you're autoattacking (you should be last hitting) and the extra damage isn't necessarily better than, say, boots + pots or Doran's Shield. I don't think this is a good buy, generally speaking.B) Midgame Items:
I always buy
Berserker's Greaves on my first time back to base. Very cost-efficient, and they give stats that you need. Yes, sometimes you may want Mercury's Treads instead of Berserker's Greaves - but you won't need Mercury's Treadsuntil much later in the game, and you can buy/sell Berserker's Greaves at a minimal cost, when compared to the benefit. Basically, buying Berserker's Greaves gives you the level 2 boots ASAP with stats that are useful, at a very low cost.Here is, again, where it gets tricky. I change my build immensely at this point based on many factors, such as how much gold I have, the enemy team composition, and what I want to accomplish.
To elaborate and give a couple of examples:
Vs. a
Nidalee, I might rush a Zeal and a Vampiric Scepter to match her mobility and lane sustain.Vs. an
Irelia I might stack Daggers to impose my advantage upon her, since she's low-harass and melee.There are many routes to take. My most common ones are:
1)
Zeal -> Vampiric Scepter -> The Black Cleaver2)
The Black Cleaver, directly.3)
Dagger stacking (2-3) + Vampiric Scepter + possibly Zeal -> The Black Cleaver.Another route to think about is rushing
Youmuu's Ghostblade. I tend not to do it, but it's certainly not bad. I much prefer The Black Cleaver, most of the time. I think Youmuu's Ghostblade might be a better buy in SOME cases, though.Let's compare.
Youmuu's Ghostblade: 2687 combined cost. 30 attack damage. 20 armor pen. 15% CDR. Activatable.Pros: 1) You can rush
The Brutalizer for its benefits for 1337 gold. It grants 25 damage, 15 armor pen, and 10% CDR. It is extremely cost efficient and a good early-buy.2) Activatable 20% movespeed / 50% attack speed for 4 seconds / up to 8 seconds if you're attacking.
Cons: 1) Without its active, it is lackluster. Very lackluster.
2) It is not even close to being a best-in-slot item for
Tryndamere. You will need to sell it later on in the game for better items, and have lost a good deal of gold.3) If you are CC'd / kited during your active, you will only get 4 seconds instead of 8. This is pretty significant.
The Black Cleaver: 2865 combined cost. 55 attack damage. 30% attack speed. 3-time stacking debuff (up to 45 armor penetration debuff)Pros: 1) Very reliable. Does not depend on a cooldown activatable. Grants extremely good stats to
Tryndamere (attack damage, armor pen, attack speed) at all times.2) It is a DEBUFF. What does this mean? It is better than just armor penetration. ANY person attacking the target with AD (
Tryndamere + allies) will benefit from the 45 armor penetration debuff. Also, you can actually get people BELOW 0 armor and do OVER 100% damage with this debuff (which you cannot do with regular armor penetration.)Cons: 1) You need to stack the debuff. Yeah, it's only 3 hits, but I should mention it.
2) It does not have a big "payoff" until you have the combined item.
For only an extra 200 gold, I'll gladly take
The Black Cleaver most of my games.Either way, these armor pen/attack speed items are actually core for
Tryndamere. Infinity Edge costs 1000 more gold than either of these and it doesn't offer armor penetration or attack speed. I buy IE in long games after The Black Cleaver, but unless the enemy is all stacking armor (which they shouldn't be doing because of marginal cost), armor pen / attack speed items are better than Last Whisper / Infinity EdgeLet's recap for a second. Our build should now be something like:
C) Endgame Items: From here, I tend to buy
Infinity Edge or 
Quicksilver Sash or finish a 
Phantom Dancer or build a 
Stark's Fervor or build a Last Whisper. Endgame items are mostly determined by enemy team composition and their items and summoner spells. Quicksilver Sash lets you take out an exhaust or a stun or an Ignite or dots. Infinity Edge can do some massive damage combined with The Black Cleaver if the enemy isn't stacking armor. Maybe you need high movement speed and reliable crits. Phantom Dancer will help. I can't really give you guys a comprehensive analysis, but keep these items in mind.NOTE: Many times you will need to buy things in a different order or buy different items altogether. In general, I feel AP items to be a waste on
Tryndamere. I make an exception when there's an enemy 
Karthus, and I buy 
Abyssal Scepter to counter his 
Requiem until endgame. Just want to let you guys know that you have to adjust your build to the situation. Maybe buying an endgame 
Guardian Angel is the way to go! It just depends.NOTE 2.0: This is a general build for optimizing at high-end ELO games. Yes, you can build differently and "do well" at different ELO ranges. But the thing is, my build is focused around high ELO. Atmogs(
Atma's Impaler with 
Warmog's Armor) build can be strong, but it is also extremely expensive, you don't optimize tryn's role, and you don't get any payoff until very very endgame. There is only a certain amount of time and gold that you have in high ELO games. You have to optimize for that.Skill Sequence
| ABILITY SEQUENCE | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
 | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Spinning Slash level 1 gives you mobility that prevents enemy harass / ganks. Bloodlust gives you sustain. Mocking Shout's slow and AD debuff is awesome and worth taking over slightly reduced ult CD (the rage is basically a non-factor).Gameplay
As much as I would love to help the community with this, I simply can't. I have to vastly change how I play depending on what champions I'm up against and how they're playing and what they're building and what team composition my team has and what we want to accomplish.
Sometimes you have to afk farm.
Sometimes you have to be aggressive.
Sometimes you have to teamfight.
Sometimes you have to afk push.
Sometimes you have to tank.
Sometimes you have to play cleanup crew.
Sometimes you have to tower dive.
Sometimes you have to defend.
I'm sorry, but it is impossible for me to tell you everything on such a case-by-case aspect of the game. If you seriously wish to improve and discuss how to do well in a certain situation, I'll be glad to help. Just try to keep the questions short for me. It's a lot of work. :)
Sometimes you have to afk farm.
Sometimes you have to be aggressive.
Sometimes you have to teamfight.
Sometimes you have to afk push.
Sometimes you have to tank.
Sometimes you have to play cleanup crew.
Sometimes you have to tower dive.
Sometimes you have to defend.
I'm sorry, but it is impossible for me to tell you everything on such a case-by-case aspect of the game. If you seriously wish to improve and discuss how to do well in a certain situation, I'll be glad to help. Just try to keep the questions short for me. It's a lot of work. :)
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