Hey guys, my IGN is ApexZulu, and I've been playing LoL for around 2 years now. About 7 months ago, I started to play Trundle. At the time, I was Silver 3, and I had dropped down from previously being Gold 4. I was a Nasus main, and had peaked Gold 3 at the beginning of season 8. The reason I got to this point was due to split pushing alone, and I ended up in a game against a Trundle top. I remember having one bad back, and ending up losing my entire tower top because of it. After realizing the split push potential of Trundle, I decided to pick him up and add him to my jungle roster. I ended up winning 15 games straight, going from S3 to S1 in my promos for G5. Last season I ended up putting up 114 games on Trundle in the season, finishing with a 63% win rate in Gold 2 (Peaking Gold 1 40 lp). This season, I am currently sitting at Platinum 4, with a total of 53 games on Trundle and a 64% win rate. At the time of writing this, I'm ranked as the 4th best Trundle NA ( https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/rankings/summoners/trundle/na ). I feel as though Trundle is a great champion for new junglers to learn, as even though he isnt very good right now, he teaches a lot of important things about taking objectives and learning proper rotations.

Pros

-Fast and effective clear
-Strong 1v1 potential early
-Easy to learn, moderate skill ceiling
-Strong split push potential/1v1 potential
-Can easily punish enemies for being out of position
-Ult on right target makes him extremely strong in fights
-Strong ganks with Q slow, W move speed, and E slow/escape block

Cons
-Very useless if behind
-Lacks cc other than pillar
-Easily kited late
-Falls off if not built tanky
-Ineffective in team fights

Passive - Kings Tribute:
Whenever an enemy unit near Trundle dies, he heals for 2/3/4/5/6% of their max health, increased at levels 5,9,12, and 15.

Trundles passive is fairly simple, any enemy unit that dies near you will heal you for a % of their max health. While it may not seem like a lot early, the healing greatly increases Trundles effectiveness in the jungle by giving him a very healthy clear. Trundles Passive also synergizes with his W, which increases healing from all sources.

Q - Chomp - Trundle enhances his next basic attack, dealing 20/35/50/65/80(+110/120/130/140/150% of total AD) physical damage and slows the target by 75% for .1 seconds. This attack increases Trundles AD by 20/25/30/35/40 for 5 seconds, with his opponent losing half that amount for the same duration.

Trundle's Q is his main damage output early. It is an AA reset, which means that after you auto, immediately clicking Q will instantly start the empowered auto. The gain of AD for Trundle and subsequent decrease in AD for his opponent gives Trundle a large amount of his 1v1 potential early. The slow applied is also useful in ganks to allow allies a chance to hit cc while the enemies movement is impaired.

W - Frozen Domain - Trundle turns target location into his domain, gaining Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and increased healing from all sources while on it.

Trundle coats target location with ice for 8 seconds, gaining 20/25/30/35/40% Movement Speed, 20/40/60/80/100% Attack Speed and 25% increased healing and regeneration from all sources.

Trundles W is the most important part of his kit in my opinion. The amount of stats gained make him a 1v1 beast when within the range of his W. Trundle's W makes his ganks so much more effective, as it doubles a gap closer and damage dealer with the increased attack speed. Because it lasts for 8 seconds, if timed properly it should remain active for the duration of most ganks, and can allow Trundle to get in range to AA,Q, which will apply the slow and put allies in position to follow up with more damage.

E - Pillar of Ice - Trundle creates an ice pillar at target location, becoming impassable terrain and slowing all nearby enemy units.

Trundle creates an icy pillar at target location for 6 seconds, becoming impassable terrain and slowing all nearby enemy units by 15/25/35/45/55%.

Trundle's E is his only form of real CC within his kit. There are so many different ways that pillar can be utilized in ganks that its difficult to cover them all here. Mainly, Trundle's E will be used as a means to stop the escape of enemies and apply a slow during ganks. However, Pillar also has other uses, the most noticeable I can think of being cancelling enemy spells such as Malzahar R. Trundle's E can also synergize with champs such as Yasuo, who can actually R off of the tiny knockup that Trundle's pillar can cause if well placed. Other synergies include Poppy, who can use the pillar to stun a target. In the mid-late game, pillar will mainly be used as a means of zoning off enemies, or punishing enemies for bad positioning.

R - Subjugate - After 0.5 seconds, Trundle starts draining the life force out of the target enemy champion, healing for a percentage of the target's maximum health, dealing the same amount as magic damage and stealing 40% of their armor and magic resistance. Half of the total damage and stealing is applied instantly, and the other half is applied over the next 4 seconds.
Total Damage:
20 / 27.5 / 35% (+ 2% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health
The armor and magic resist will remain stolen for 4 seconds after the drain has ended.

Trundle's R is extremely powerful, and is what gives him so much power in 1v1s. Trundle's R essentially uses tanks high resistance stats against them, and gives them to Trundle instead. In team fights, targeting is extremely important with Trundle's R. Make sure you ult the closest and tankiest target available. The only exception to this is when ulting a carry will guarantee a kill that would have otherwise been impossible.

COMBOS:

Trundle's main combo early is simple -- AA,Q,W,AA (Procs PTA).
Once youve purchased tiamat -- AA,Q,W,AA,Tia,AA (Or) AA,Q,W,Tia,AA. The second one will deal more damage quicker, however the first one will deal more damage over a slightly longer time span. The reason I dont like to tiamat right after W is due to the fact that activating your W gives you attack speed and also takes up a small portion of the time taken to reset your AA timer. It's important to note that you always want to W right after you Q due to the fact that as soon as you Q, you have 5 seconds of increased AD. Activating your W immediately after this timer starts allows you to maximize the potential damage gained by utilizing the passive attack speed gained within your W.
Once you have your Sheen, it's important to remember that you can proc Sheen on ALL of your abilities, not just your Q. Activating W and E both give you a Sheen proc, which will give you a large increase in damage once your Tri Force is complete, so make sure to weave in autos between these abilities.

Start Blue, head straight to Gromp after. Make sure to only use W one time to clear Gromp. I like to use a health pot while im on Gromp in order to ensure that im at full health, as this will make me a lot more effective in 1v1's at crab. If you take crab uncontested then do as follows -
I immediately check to see if mid is gankable. If so, I like to go all the way around through the enemy jungle (In front of the raptor camp) and gank that way. Since you'll only be level 2, you wont have E yet, so its important to gain the advantage of not having a gap to close like you would if you came in from the side. If the gank goes well and you get either 1) Large amounts of damage (70% ish) or 2) A kill, immediately go for the topside crab. Usually this will have been taken by now (Since bot side crab was un contested), but it's always worth a shot.

If you fight for crab and win (Which you likely should), and mid is NOT gankable-

immediately path straight to topside crab and secure it. I never like to gank bot before I do my first clear, as unless we manage to secure 2 kills, I will likely lose topside crab and red buff.

Regardless of whether or not you secure top crab, after you check it check top lane and mid lane to see if either is gankable, if not, take red buff and then once again check mid and top lane to see if either is gankable.

Start at Red buff, immediately go to raptors. First small raptor should die to an AA Q and AA, and then every small raptor afterward will die to 3 autos. Try to only use W once on this camp, as using it twice will put it on CD while you contest botside crab. Taking botside crab should be easy with red buff, as there's not many champions whom can 1v1 a level 2 Trundle with red buff. After crab, check to see if mid is gankable, if so, gank by using the path through the enemy jungle (In front of wolf camp), if not, walk back through your mid lane tower (Or farther back if necessary, the point is to not be seen). Check topside crab, if there, take, if not, check mid for ganks, path back to blue and then gromp. Check top and mid for ganks, and if nothing is available, go ahead and back and reset. Start your next clear by heading botside, clear krugs, check bot for a gank, and then move up into the enemy jungle. Place a ward somewhere between their gromp and blue, and then check mid/bot again for ganks.

When I first started playing Trundle, I like many others came onto Mobafire in order to know what to properly build and max first. All of the guides that I saw recommended maxing Q first, and building Cinderhulk into Zeke's. After trying this many times, I realized it simply was not the build for me. I transitioned over to building the Warrior enchant first, and going into Tri Force, while maxing W first with only a few points in Q. I decided it would be important to explain why I do this differently to answer any potential questions people might have.

W max over Q Max?
-The reason that I prioritize W over Q max is because I, like many others, like to put myself in aggressive positions. This might mean running into the enemy jungle when I know he's at his red and weaker than me. When I make decisions like this that have risk, its important to know that I have my W as an escape. As soon as Trundle hits the river and Celerity and Waterwalking kick in, you can easily escape. However I feel as though the extra movespeed gained by a W max as opposed to Q max helps you get in and out of tricky situations more effectively. I also appreciate the W max making the most of Press The Attacks period of extra damage after proc, and the extra AD given from Q. I think that a Q max will have more damage up front, but with Sheen already being built eventually, I don't think that this particular build needs more than 2-3 points in Q early.

Warrior over Cinderhulk?
-When I first started playing Trundle, a lot of people asked me about this in games, or why I didn't go Cinderhulk. My answer was always simple, in SoloQ, especially at lower elos (Silver/Gold) you have to be able to impact the map on your own, and independently of your team. This might mean taking towers quickly when their available, or rushing down a dragon when the enemy shows topside. However, that being said there is of course a time and place to build Cindehulk. If your team is severely lacking a tank, and you don't have the luxury of waiting until you get your late game items to be tanky, building Cinderhulk into Tri Force is not that bad. After that point, I would recommend substituting Deadmans or Randuins for Zekes, just because its late game damage potential when synergizing with an ally is extremely strong.

Tri Force?
-I feel like Trinity Force is an item that works so well on trundle, since you proc it both on your Q and on the auto immediately after your W (Of course). When you're in a teamfight, you'll be using your Q every 2 or so seconds, and since the build path includes ~30% CDR, your W will be on around a 10 second cooldown, making it to where in fights there will only be a couple of seconds between uses where you'll be without it.