Full AP Tryndamere – Complete Build Guide

AP Tryndamere is a trendy build in URF as you can deal tons of damage with your E, and it has a very low cooldown. 

On top of the burst damage from his E, Tryndamere can heal much with his Q as it scales with ability power. AP Tryndamere can be very hard to counter and still deal tons of damage with his basic attack because of magic on hit items. 

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What Made AP Tryndamere Possible?

Okay, so let’s start with Tryndamere’s scaling; he has AP scaling with his E and his Q; let us first discuss his E, which is his primary source of damage.

Spinning Slash E: is Tryndamere’s primary source of damage; it is also a great skill to engage or disengage from enemies. 

He can also use this to get over walls for surprise swindles or jungle invades. Tryndamere’s E has a base damage of 80/110/140/170/200 (+80% ability power) (+1.3 per bonus attack damage). 

AP scales with his E’s damage much better than AD does. Most mage items also increase the ability of Tryndamere, making him cast this ability more often. 

Bloodlust Q: His Q allows him to consume the Fury meter he generates each time he hits an enemy. 

This scales with how much Fury he has and has an AP scaling of 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 (+30% of ability power) Health , plus 0.5 / 0.95 / 1.4 / 1.85 / 2.3 (+1.2% of ability power) Health per Fury consumed. 

This is the active effect of this item; you can see how much he heals each time he fills his fury and uses it after a trade. This should be the first ability that Tryndamere should max as this is his way to stay in lane with high HP. 

Another reason AP Tryndamere is possible is becathate mage items synergize so well with his build. Items like Nashor’s Tooth and Riftmaker make him an even better skirmisher.

AP Tryndamere Runes

Precision

Conqueror

With AP Tryndamere, you will want to focus on increasing your healing and longevity during team fights. 

This is also great as Tryndamere is a champion that excels at extended fights because his damage becomes higher the lower his HP gets. 

His ultimate allows him to fight at a meager HP without dying for several seconds. You will significantly take the value of this rune because of the heals you will get.

Triumph

This is a basic rune but greatly helps during the early game for sustainability.

Legend: Tenacity

Tryndamere’s greatest weakness is being crowded controlled, as his only means of dealing with enemies is through his basic attacks and E. 

Last Stand

This is a no-brainer because of his ultimate and his passive

Resolve

Second Wind – Great for the early game if your enemy laner has pokes 

Unflinching – Synergizes Legend Tenacity and improves Tryndamere’s tenacity.

Bonus

• +10% Attack speed
• +9 Adaptive 
• +6 Armor

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Mythic Options

AP Tryndamere has two choices of mythic items with Riftmaker and Night harvester; these two items can be picked depending on the state of the game. 

If you know the game will last very long, pick Riftmaker as the item scales with Tryndamere’s level. If you feel you can end the game fast, pick night harvester. 

Riftmaker synergizes with the extended fight capability of Tryndamere; with this item, Tryndamere can deal actual damage with a percentage of the damage he deals with, and this item also has a passive that increases Tryndamere’s Omni Vamp.

On the other hand, Night Harvester is a tremendous poking item as Tryndamere can deal tons of magic damage with his E and gains movement speed as he disengages from the trade. 

This is great for dominating the lane and pushing fast. This item also allows Tryndamere to clear the wave fast because of the ability to haste.

Legendary Item Options

Lich Bane (Core item)

This is one of the two core items of AP Tryndamere; when he uses his E, he can easily proc the effect of Lich bane, which will follow up the burst damage of his E plus this item also gives a very high ability power bonus of 75 and bonus movement speed as well. 

Nashor’s Tooth (Core item)

Tryndamere should maintain the strength of his elemental attacks; Nashor’s Tooth gives so much bonus attack speed and ability power that scales with the item’s on-hit effect damage.

The higher Tryndamere’s AP, the more significant On-hit damage he inflicts on his enemies.

Rabadon’s Deathcap

The ultimate item for mages if you want to have a very high ability power. It gives the user an insane amount of 120 ability power and a passive that increases Tryndamere’s ability power by 35%. 

This is great if you want to increase the on-hit damage of Nashor’s Tooth and the damage of your E.

Cosmic Drive

This item acts as an alternative for Phase rush; after engaging an enemy, Tryndamere gains bonus movement speed and ability power until the fight ends. Cosmic Drive also gives Tryndamere 30 ability haste, which is a massive buff for his E. 

Morellonomicon

Grievous wounds is an offensive passive that most low elo players seem to forget, but if you build this item, it has a considerable impact whenever you fight. 

If enemies have potions or supports that can heal, Grievous wounds significantly mitigate the heals they receive. With Tryndamere’s E dealing AoE damage, he can also easily inflict Grievous wounds on multiple enemies.

Zhonya’s Hourglass

This acts as Tryndamere’s emergency item if he runs out of abilities to use and his ultimate is down. He can activate this item’s effect and be on stasis which is excellent while you are waiting for the cooldown of your E. 

This item also gives 45 armor which is a significant increase in Tryndamere’s defensive stats while having 65 ability power as well and ten ability haste.

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AP vs. AD Tryndamere

Tryndamere is typically built as an AD Champion that relies on his basic attacks and critical strikes to lower the cooldown of his E. 

This is a great build, but because it is the most common build, people find it very easy to counter. Some people pick Armor stacking champions or pick a team comp with lots of crowd controls. To stop Tryndamere from ever getting near them. 

AP Tryndamere is a unique build, and people usually don’t know what to do if they see an AP tryndamere. 

This is a better build than AD in some cases because of the heal Tryndamere receives from his Q, and the low cooldown of his E. 

Stacking ability haste is also the main point of this build, so Tryndamere can dash around the map allowing him to kill enemies even he doesn’t trade hits with them.

AP is a much better build but harder to pull off because of its complexity. This build revolves around your micro ability to counter champions by using counter picking and even item counters. 

Final Thoughts

This is not a generally good build path as it only becomes valid occasionally if you already have mastered the build. This build sacrifices many things compared to AD tryndamere, like his damage to significant objectives. 

Regardless of the complexity, this can be a fun build if you are only playing casually, as it gives Tryndamere a very low cooldown on his E, which would feel like you are playing URF on a regular game.

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