LoL: How Did Tristana Shift To Mid Lane?
Tristana is an ADC that is now mainly played in the mid lane in higher elos. But why is she not being played bot lane? What makes her such a great pick in the middle of the map?
Tristana is one of the oldest ADC's in the game. She plays quite different as the rest as she has some traits that she shares with assassins. Usually ADC's are picked to deal consistent damage over a long period of time, but Tristana's damage can more be described as a burst. She looks to jump in, blow up an enemy and jump out in quick succession. Unfortunately, that is not really a thing that can be done in a 2 vs 2 scenario. So Tristana switched lanes.
LoL: Why Is Tristana Good In The Mid Lane?
The tool that allows Tristana to be so aggressive is one of the reasons why she is so safe. She has an incredibly long jump that can be used as an engage or disengage. If she fully stacks her grenade and procs it, this jump also resets allowing her to double jump if done correctly. It is also a great roaming and ganking tool to impact the map better.
Tristana's huge burst potential is also a reason why she is played. Jumping on a squishy mage and fully proc'ing your E Grenade combined with the Ultimate and an Ignite is a death sentence for any champion dumb enough to stand in her reach. Tristana cannot do this in the bot lane as she will get out damaged by the enemy support and ADC combo, but in the mid lane she doesn't have anybody else to fear.
In the end she is still an ADC though, so even after she has used everything she can still auto attack for huge damage over time. Tristana's passive increases her range with every level, so getting solo experience in the mid lane can also be beneficial.
Another strength of Tristana is that she can place her E Grenade on towers and push them really quickly. If left alone she can take the tower very quick, which opens up the map and allows her to look for assassination targets in the enemy jungle and on the side lanes.
Tristana is a popular pick in the current mage populated meta, but she struggles quite a bit against the assassins in the mid lane as she is after all still an ADC. She also doesnt bring a lot more than damage to the table and boasts close to no utility and no crowd control. She is very much an all-in champion and if these fail she can fall behind and be incredibly useless in the game.
Tristana is also one of the few AD mid lane choices if you dont want to play assassins which gives your jungler the opportunity to play great AP champions like Lillia or Ekko.
In summary, Tristana is a great AD champion that offers loads of damage and pushing power but no utility. Her lane is pretty safe as she can engage very aggressively, but also disengage over long ranges. She can be a great source of sustained damage, but it is also able to pick off targets on the side line. She works really well against immobile mages that cannot cancel her jump as she is guaranteed to get her bomb off and can just jump back out again if need be.
Do you play Tristana mid lane?
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