So as you have probably noticed from how frequently he comes up in my other articles, Tryndamere is one of my favourite champions in the game. His mechanics are seemingly easy to handle, but there is a lot of fine tuning as to what separates a good Tryndamere from the kind of Tryndamere you never want to meet again. So I want to begin this article by tackling some FAQs that I see get thrown around a lot.

1. Tryndamere takes no skill so why play him?
Tryndamere takes a different kind of skill, but a skill that is there no less. Whilst he may not have any skill shots, there are skills that a good Tryndamere needs to fine-tune, such as checking for the crit animation, fury management, timing his ultimate, above average map awareness and awareness of how to play each individual lane matchup. As with most champions that get stronger as they lose health, knowing just how strong you will get to call those close fights also helps a lot.

2a. Why does nothing beat Tryndamere?
A lot can beat Tryndamere, he should - on paper - lose most of his matchups. Tryndamere wins off the back of exploiting weaknesses in a champion and then scaling high. A good Tryndamere needs to focus on what cooldowns he does and doesn’t have, and how they affect him and his ability to do damage/dive you. As someone playing against Tryndamere, it's important to not squander abilities that may be key to fighting him.

2b. What do you mean by that?
By that I mean that champions who quite frequently lane against Tryndamere, have the opportunity to beat him, it depends entirely on how both players play. Tryndamere players have to exploit their opponent’s weaknesses to win, i.e. attacking Jax while Counter Strike is down, zoning Nasus early to prevent out-scaling, keeping Malphite’s shield down or reaching level 2 before Teemo. So playing against Tryndamere you just need to do the opposite.

3. What makes Tryndamere fun?
Tryndamere is made fun by his snowballing potential and the diversity within his laning phase, whilst his basic mechanic (that his damage sources from crits) remains the same, every lane varies in difficulty. Tactics to come out on top are different and some of your challenging matchups can leave you feeling pumped when you succeed.

Abilities;

Now that those are out of the way, it is time to break the champion down so we can look at what makes Tryndamere Tryndamere. We will be able to distinguish what sets him apart from other melee champions, and some of the fun ways you can use his abilities to your advantage.

Traditionally a top laner, Tryndamere has been bullying and slapping champions since the early days of League. There were many problems in balancing this champion initially with his crit damage increasing, his heal being more frequent and stronger as well as his ult duration being longer whilst its cooldown was shorter. This champion still has yet to find his place in the meta-game but works incredibly well as a solo queue champion with all of his potential.

Passive – Battle Fury; Tryndamere receives 0.35% critical chance for every point of fury, at 100 fury this grants him an overpowering 35% critical chance, and is one of the reasons his early fighting power should be feared. This is also one of the reasons I prefer my Tryndamere to be based around attack speed in the early levels.

Q – Bloodlust; This is Tryndamere’s lane sustain as it heals him for a flat amount plus more for every point of Fury consumed with the maximum numbers on his heal being 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300. It also provides him with a flat amount of AD, plus additional AD for every 1% of life he’s missing. When Endless Rage comes in to play this makes his last few attacks the deadliest with the maximum AD bonus being 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60. I take this ability at level 2, but max it first.

W – Mocking Shout; This reduces an enemy’s attack damage by 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80, and if they are running away from you applies a slow of 30 / 37.5 / 45 / 52.5 / 60%. Remember they don’t have to be facing away for the AD reduction to apply, just the slow. I take one point at level 4, and max this last.

E – Spinning Slash; Tryndamere’s bread and butter escape ability, able to travel a reasonable amount of distance and also traverse terrain. It deals 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (plus 120% bonus AD) and has a radius of 225 which is quite large. It also grants fury per enemy hit and 5 times as much fury per enemy killed. Its cooldown is also reduced whenever Tryndamere lands a critical strike, (1 second on minions, 2 seconds on champions). As the source of my mobility I take this first but max it second.

R – Undying Rage; Commonly called Endless Rage, this ability stops you being reduced below 1 HP and also grants you a pool of fury. It has a 0.5 second activation delay and will heal to 3% automatically if your health is below 3%. It can be used under all forms of CC and has a reasonably low cooldown. As with most ultimates I take this when available.

Now that we’ve looked at his kit, we can begin to talk about how it all works together. Each individual element is strong but it’s how you tie the abilities together that make Tryndamere stronger. Using W into Spinning Slash has 2 primary uses:

Your W lowers AD regardless of whether it places the slow on your enemy. If you’re about to trade but don't want to commit to a fight, you can W, strike your opponent then spin away taking minimal damage because of their lowered AD. Alternatively you can slow your opponent and use your spin to catch up to them; this is Tryndamere’s basic chasing combination and is seen frequently.

The other staple combination of abilities you need to know as Tryndamere is using your Q at the end of your R, this gives the Tryndamere that annoying chunk of health that stops him from dying as he then uses his E to escape from you and your team. The more you can put off using your Q, the more likely you are to keep that health and survive.

Remember that Q provides a pretty decent heal and this can lure opponents into fights early before you even have your ultimate. However, as your fury is also your source of crit chance, remember that in your mind as you will also do less damage having used it.

Item Builds;
When I play Tryndamere, I always end up with the same items. The path I choose and the order of which I buy these items vary on my lane, success and matchup.
By the end of the game, my objective is to become a split-pushing, duelling terror. So my final build looks something like this:

Blade of the Ruined King provides me with attack speed, damage, lifesteal, HP shred and a way to further stick to my enemies. I like it too much so I very rarely don't buy this on Tryndamere.

Trinity Force is something I buy at the very end of the game, when my build is already complete. At that point I sell my boots for it as with all the other MS granting items I do not lose any real amount of MS, but get a bunch of extra stats that help a little more than my boots would.

Statikk Shiv is a wonderful little item that decimates creep waves, provides attack speed, crit, move speed and mixes in some magic damage with those hard hitting crits making it great for hit-and-run attacks on armoured opponents.

Infinity Edge is pretty self explanatory, when you spend most the game critting, you're going to want that extra crit damage. It provides a nice chunk of AD and some heavy crit chance too.

Last Whisper helps you cut through the enemies who WILL have been buying armour to deal with you.

Zephyr is often seen as a substitute for boots, it provides tenacity, attack speed, move speed and a little more damage to help flesh out the build.

There are many alternative items that work just as well on Tryndamere, and the item I usually sub out for an alternative is the Zephyr (and then I don’t sell my boots for Triforce), other items that are effective on Tryndamere include, but are not limited to:

Mercurial Scimitar offers Tryndamere a more instantaneous CC removal than Zephyr does, it provides more AD but at the cost of the attack speed and move speed.

Ravenous Hydra adds to Tryndamere's already ridiculous wave clearing capabilities, taking very little time to obliterate a creep wave.

Guardian Angel is just there to make you even harder to kill and bring down permanently.

Since Tryndamere scales most effectively with attack speed, my builds both prioritise attack speed, but one more so than the other. In slightly tougher lanes, I generally like to go Cutlass > Boots > Shiv > IE.

The reason I do this is because Tryndamere only really needs the sustain from the Cutlass and the slow to help him a little more. The amount of gold required for upgrading to BotRK in relation to what you get for your money is not worthwhile in tougher lanes because Statikk Shiv will provide much more help, particularly against armoured opponents as the lightning proc can crit.

When I am ahead I focus entirely on attack speed because I know I’m always in a position when I can apply pressure, win fights and chop down towers quickly. When doing this build I generally go BotRK > Boots > Shiv > Zephyr. Tryndamere does get some passive damage from his Q and BotRK also provides some AD as does the Zephyr. With this attack speed heavy build you become a formidable split-pusher that is difficult to lock down, and you can really get value out of Shiv procs in fights.

Summoner Spells, Runes, Masteries

Tryndamere works with most Summoner Spells, the standard spells I often take are Ghost and Ignite. Ghost helps you chase targets down or run away after a successful spin and Ignite just helps you bring down targets, particularly those prone to healing or trying to outlast you.

You can also consider:

- Flash: I don’t take Flash as I use my spin to clear terrain or close distance and then just run away from there. However, the extra gap closer can be frustrating for your enemies.

- Exhaust: Makes Tryndamere an even scarier duellist. I don’t take it often but have been known to take it against some other right click top lanes.

- Teleport: Just adds to Tryndamere as a true terror split pusher. It makes it almost impossible for the enemy to alleviate the pressure unless they kill you. Enemies generally get frustrated and begin to use more on you than they should and your team should be able to punish that.

- Heal: Heal is particularly strong right now, and although you lose some killing power, it does help stop those Ignite kills while you are ulting. I don’t like taking Heal because I feel it shows you want to be slightly more defensive, but I do see Heal Tryndamere perform very well from time to time.

Since Tryndamere scales with attack speed, my rune page reflects that. Since Bloodlust gives AD, CS’ing is not difficult: more attacks build fury faster and mean more crits. I do favour this over AD runes Tryndamere.

If you do suspect you will be against an AP opponent, I suggest taking this variation. It provides a little MR and they normally won’t have the armour to deal with you, so you lose very little in dropping the AS glyphs.

Tryndamere is an aggressive champion and a standard 21/9/0 reflects this. I focus around the raw damage and attack speed aspects.

Laning Tactics

Tryndamere’s laning phase is both incredibly strong and pathetically weak, it comes down entirely to how the player plays. This phase is often as hard as the Tryndamere makes it, going into a matchup unaware or scared will make the lane hard from the start. Tryndamere has the potential to be a gigantic damage dealer at early levels IF he can build up his fury, and that’s where players should begin. As Tryndamere you should be less scared about pushing your wave, to build up as much fury as possible and to rush that level 2.

How you engage on every champion differs slightly based on their skillset, but the important thing is to have as much fury as you can get so that when you hit level 2, you’re as close to your 35% free crit chance as possible. Learning how to fight each champion will come from experience and knowledge of the game. As I mentioned before as an example, it’s highly recommended to bait a Jax into using his E, retreating and then re-engaging while it is down.

If you get ganked, remain calm, your spin may get you to safety, or you may see an opportunity to get a kill, quite often junglers come out injured. If you’ve maintained your fury well and have summoner spell Ignite, you can surprise an enemy jungler, kill them and sometimes even still get away with some shiny new buffs.

This is one such jungler prone to underestimating the Tryndamere lane in my experience

Tryndamere’s Spin does not have to go directly through a target to injure them, often targets stood next to you will be hit by the spin as you activate it. This makes Tryndamere great at harassing under the tower, timed right you can crit your enemy and then immediately spin dealing both crit and spin damage whilst sometimes avoiding the retaliating tower shot.

Tryndamere’s ult makes him an exceptional tower diver, to the extent that the pressure you exert cannot be ignored. You will attract a lot of jungler attention and so should ward. If the enemy recognises you as a winning Tryndamere they will be committing more resources to shutting you down and open up the opportunity for your lanes to really take advantage. Alternatively a countergank from your jungler coupled with Tryndamere’s duelling power can further put you in the lead and inflict that beloved tilting status upon your enemies.

By cancelling your animation (right click and then quickly push S) you can see whether Tryndamere is going to crit a specific target or not. When about to dive or harrass, you can right click the enemy champion, if Tryndamere's crit animation starts you can then crit and spin away or dive. If it doesn't, you can push S to stop the attack going through and sometimes bait an ability out of the enemy before you even have tower aggro.

Against certain matchups, however, you should use Tryndamere’s duelling power to zone your opponent and just farm easily. This is often done when you cannot dive your opponent and they are particularly good at farming under tower, a perfect example of this is Nasus.

Laning is over, what now?

Push, Push, Push. In one of my other guides I spoke about the power of split pushing and Tryndamere is one of the best at it. Put as much pressure on the top lane as possible and continue to lure out enemies. You’ll find they’ll use a lot to try and get you, and if you take advantage of this and play correctly, you can escape anyway. This opens up a space for your team to take objectives.

Alternatively you can fight, provided you’ve been winning your lane. If you target correctly you will most likely be able to 1v2 but this is almost entirely dependent on the enemy champions. If you take Teleport, your split push is even stronger but your actual killing power is weaker. Despite this you can be back to the lane almost as soon as you left it.

It’s easy for Tryndamere to get locked down in teamfights and kited, despite being unable to die for 5 seconds. It’s off the back of this that Tryndamere players should avoid certain teamfights and look for picks instead. Picking someone out and then focussing them down benefits everyone as it is then one less player to stop Tryndamere from decimating the back line. It also helps if your team has some strong lockdown abilities and champions, like Leona. These types of champions can hold a vital target still just long enough for you to kill them.

Towards the late game you can solo baron which is another novel little trick that you can use to give your team the edge, so long as you don’t get caught doing it.

In summary, Tryndamere excels at a splitpusher, and when played correctly can often snowball out of control. I’m not going to argue that he’s the hardest champion in the game, he isn’t. However, I think that there is a lot more to him than people give him credit for, and I for one hope more people start having as much fun with him as I do.

Whilst Tryndamere supports a very independent playstyle, I do not say you should ignore your team. It is still a team based game and even as you splitpush and play alone, you are doing that for your team. Don't be afraid to co-operate with what they want if you see an opening and make sure you don't behave in an uncooperative manner.

Good luck out on the rift and happy critting!