League of Legends: Tristana rework detailed

Continuing to delve into their backlog of older champions, Riot Games has revealed their latest rework recipient: Tristana. Most of Tristana's rework is visual — new model, textures, voice work and ability effects — but perhaps the biggest change is one to her kit.

The good news is, most of her abilities will remain the same. The only change is to her Explosive Charge (E). The passive will remain the same, as Tristana wills till deal AoE damage to nearby enemies when she kills a unite; however, her active is getting totally reworked.

Passive: Whenever Tristana kills a unit, her shot explodes, dealing damage to all nearby enemies.

Active: Tristana attaches a charge to a nearby enemy unit or turret. After a few seconds, the charge detonates, dealing damage to the target and all nearby enemies. Attacking the target with basic attacks amps the charge up, making it deal extra damage as it explodes. Tristana can also Rocket Jump onto a target with Explosive Charge for extra damage.

According to Riot, the idea behind the change was to create a more clearly defined weakness.

"Her power dipped in the mid game, yeah, but when you look at other super powerful late game carries (think Vayne or Kog’Maw), she just didn’t have the same Achilles heel-type glowing red spots for her enemy team to pew pew at. She had insane range and speed with her basic attacks, and even when she did get caught, she had a decent knock back AND a lengthy jump that let her GTFO. Changes were needed, and after deliberating with the rest of the champion update designers, we decided to cement Tristana as a daredevil reset carry who gets bonuses from (rocket) jumping into fights while removing some of thesafe strength she had in her kit.

Now, instead of operating as an uber safe right-clicker, new Tristana’s power is windowed, with huge power spikes when she’s played to meet specific goals. Her basic attack speed still increases per level, but the boost is lower than before. This makes Rapid Fire actually important, as she’s not just switching from stupid fast attack speed to soul-crushingly fast attack speed. Her Rocket Jump now deals lower base damage, but can deal way more if she stacks up Explosive Charge on her target before landing on their face."

It sounds like the idea is to use Explosive Charge and then Rocket Jump as more of a damage-dealing initiation rather than saving Rocket Jump for an escape.

In addition to her kit change, Tristana has also received a visual update. She now looks like a yordle mixed with a super cannon commando.

"Her appearance is slightly more feral and nature-themed than before, with wilder eyes and animalistic ears that steer her away from little girl territory and towards yordle status," Riot described of her new look. "Tristana’s cannon is now a full expression of her, too, thanks to exaggerated animations that we’ve added to the cannon itself whenever she uses Rocket Jump or Buster Shot."

As an occasional Tristana player (only when I'm forced to play Marskman in ranked), I'm not the biggest fan of the change. Since I don't play the Marskman position too often, I tend to play a little more safe when I do so obviously the change hurts me. However, for those of you more comfortable and aggressive in the role, I could see how this increase to damage would be beneficial.