League of Legends’ Tryndamere gets reworked, given new Champion Spotlight

Big changes have come to one of League of Legends’ earliest heroes, as Riot continues their attempts to balance out their large, sprawling roster of champions. This time, the powerful Tryndamere has gone under the knife, and emerged with a Fury-based skill system, similar to the one used by Renekton. It’s a mana-less system that builds with autoattacks, critical hits, and killing blows, rewarding Tryndamere with critical strike chance and damage (as well as letting him use his abilities). With this update also comes a tweak to his Bloodlust skill, which now allows him to consume his remaining Fury to gain health, while still giving a passive damage buff.

In the past, the hero has lived and died by his critical hit chance, and Riot claims that these changes will help the hero do more consistent damage without significantly changing his damage output—making him more dependable in combat, instead of a hero constantly at the mercy at a randomized number generator. Obviously, the League of Legends community is split down the middle, with half complaining about this significant “buff” to an already strong hero, and the other half crying about this incredible “nerf” that has taken the already weak hero down to an unplayable level. It’ll be a little while until we know which side is right, but we’re willing to bet that, as is usually the case, the answer is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

If you’re interested in finding out more you can check out the recently released Champion Spotlight (a video series Riot produces introducing new and heavily-modified heroes), where the developers explain the changes in full, and show off some of the new mechanics they’ve worked out for the hero. They also demonstrate the newest Tryndamere skin, Demonblade Tryndamere, who looks suspiciously like a character wielding the Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur series. This skin comes with new animations, new effects, and new voicework, and can be purchased for your hand-earned money. Also, it might keep you up at night. Be warned.

Aug 8, 2011

In the past, the hero has lived and died by his critical hit chance, and Riot claims that these changes will help the hero do more consistent damage without significantly changing his damage output—making him more dependable in combat, instead of a hero constantly at the mercy at a randomized number generator. Obviously, the League of Legends community is split down the middle, with half complaining about this significant “buff” to an already strong hero, and the other half crying about this incredible “nerf” that has taken the already weak hero down to an unplayable level. It’ll be a little while until we know which side is right, but we’re willing to bet that, as is usually the case, the answer is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

If you’re interested in finding out more you can check out the recently released Champion Spotlight (a video series Riot produces introducing new and heavily-modified heroes), where the developers explain the changes in full, and show off some of the new mechanics they’ve worked out for the hero. They also demonstrate the newest Tryndamere skin, Demonblade Tryndamere, who looks suspiciously like a character wielding the Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur series. This skin comes with new animations, new effects, and new voicework, and can be purchased for your hand-earned money. Also, it might keep you up at night. Be warned.

Aug 8, 2011

In the past, the hero has lived and died by his critical hit chance, and Riot claims that these changes will help the hero do more consistent damage without significantly changing his damage output—making him more dependable in combat, instead of a hero constantly at the mercy at a randomized number generator. Obviously, the League of Legends community is split down the middle, with half complaining about this significant “buff” to an already strong hero, and the other half crying about this incredible “nerf” that has taken the already weak hero down to an unplayable level. It’ll be a little while until we know which side is right, but we’re willing to bet that, as is usually the case, the answer is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

If you’re interested in finding out more you can check out the recently released Champion Spotlight (a video series Riot produces introducing new and heavily-modified heroes), where the developers explain the changes in full, and show off some of the new mechanics they’ve worked out for the hero. They also demonstrate the newest Tryndamere skin, Demonblade Tryndamere, who looks suspiciously like a character wielding the Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur series. This skin comes with new animations, new effects, and new voicework, and can be purchased for your hand-earned money. Also, it might keep you up at night. Be warned.

Aug 8, 2011

In the past, the hero has lived and died by his critical hit chance, and Riot claims that these changes will help the hero do more consistent damage without significantly changing his damage output—making him more dependable in combat, instead of a hero constantly at the mercy at a randomized number generator. Obviously, the League of Legends community is split down the middle, with half complaining about this significant “buff” to an already strong hero, and the other half crying about this incredible “nerf” that has taken the already weak hero down to an unplayable level. It’ll be a little while until we know which side is right, but we’re willing to bet that, as is usually the case, the answer is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

If you’re interested in finding out more you can check out the recently released Champion Spotlight (a video series Riot produces introducing new and heavily-modified heroes), where the developers explain the changes in full, and show off some of the new mechanics they’ve worked out for the hero. They also demonstrate the newest Tryndamere skin, Demonblade Tryndamere, who looks suspiciously like a character wielding the Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur series. This skin comes with new animations, new effects, and new voicework, and can be purchased for your hand-earned money. Also, it might keep you up at night. Be warned.

Aug 8, 2011

Hollander Cooper

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.