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Choose Champion Build:
- Top Build
- Jungle Build
- Support Build
Runes: Damage
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
King's Tribute (PASSIVE)
Trundle Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Trundle
If you ever happen to be facing an even enemy trundle as trundle, you want to bait out his ult by faking an all in and then fleeing. If you still have ult while his is wasted its a free win for you. If he doesn't fall for bait you want to hold onto ult for as long as possible and make sure to ult after him since his ult will steal your resistances but then your ult will steal it right back plus more.
Introduction
If any of this is confusing, if you have any further questions, or if you even think I am wrong in some parts and want to give some better suggestions, hit up the comments please. I am glad to hear any feedback, and I will do my best to work your suggestions into the guide. :)
WOW we just hit 1 million views! I can't express how thankful I am, I never thought this guide would become this big. Thank you to each and every one of you trolls :) Good luck and have fun in future games!
EDIT: Well, guess we hit 2 million views while I was away. I don't even know what to say. It makes me happy that I can help Trundle gain the recognition he deserves. Hope it helps you dominate in season 10. As always, good luck and have fun in future games my fellow trolls :)
Top:
Trundle is very powerful in the top lane since he can win almost all even 1 v 1 matchups after level 6 with his over-powered ult. Before then he is relatively weak, so play cautious and patient until 6. He has pretty bad waveclear so often Trundle players at top will rush Tiamat which helps with split pushing and lane control. The main objective is to gun for the top tower when you can and once the enemy top towers goes down, focus on split pushing and team fights.
Jungle:
Trundle in the jungle is very effective since Trundle is so fast at clearing camps and is very effective for his ganks with a well-placed pillar. Make sure to use vision to make smart choices and gank lanes often since they usually end up with a kill for your team
Support:
For Support Trundle your only goal should be to get as tanky as possible while spamming as many pillars as possible. Use judgement to dive towers when you know you can get a kill and roam when your adc is farming to gank other lanes and ensure more kills.
+counters tanks
+amazing split push effectiveness
+great at ganking
+has good sustain and tankiness
+deals decent damage
+can block paths in jungle
Cons:
-easily kited
-has bad lane control without Tiamat
-relatively weak without ult
-not very good against enemy team comps with high burst
-countered by ignite and grievous wounds
-lack of cc except for pillar knockup
Grasp of the Undying is a great pick for top since it allows for more health and healing making you harder to kill, and synergizes well with your trading effectiveness in melee matchups. Demolish is necessary to finess reworked tower gold. Also, Second Wind is good to win early lane trades and Revitalize is a must since it boosts healing from King's Tribute and Subjugate. I have also found that the keystone Conqueror works well with Trundles kit at top along with a lifesteal build. You also want to amp up the attack speed as much as possible since his kit is all basic attacks with the occasional chomp.
Jungle:
You want to use Press the Attack for the bonus damage in ganks, and you want Celerity and Waterwalking for bonus movement speed to help out your team around the map. Nimbus Cloak is useful to stay on top of a kiting enemy champion since it gives you a boost of movement speed. You can also go resolve for second path if you want tankier options with Revitalize and either Conditioning or Demolish.
Support:
Glacial Augment is very useful since it adds a very effective slow to your kit which is very helpful to engage and kill an enemy adc. For secondary you want to take Demolish for tower gold and Bone Plating for extra tankiness.
Top:
Usually take Teleport to help your mates in sticky situations and have global pressure. Only take Ignite when you are against heavy life regen champions such as Aatrox and Dr. Mundo.
Jungle:
Take Smite of course.
Support:
Exhaust is very effective, but if you are very confident in your ability to trap people with pillar you can go Ignite since you won't really need exhaust in this case.
Maxing Q first gives insane dps while also sapping AD from enemy so max this first. Max W second since it further boosts your kill potential in a duel.
The power of the Troll:
Jungle:
Same as top, except at level 3 you want to put a second point into q instead of e to clear camps faster. If you see a clear potential gank before then you definitely want to learn Pillar of Ice instead since this ability is essential for ganks.
Support:
Max e first to reduce cooldown and increase slow of pillar, then Q for increased damage and extra reduction of enemy AD, and finally W for sustain and domination.
Q Chomp: Chomp is an auto attack reset, meaning you can auto and then immediately chomp them afterwards without any delay. Use this ability for quick bursts of damage in trades with the auto-q-auto combo. Chomp also briefly slows the enemy and saps some of their attack damage, so you always want to use it at the beginning of a fight in a duel. Chomp can also be used on towers and it does ridiculous damage late game which is why Trundle is so effective at split pushing. In teamfights you want to chomp the enemy adc as soon as possible to sap their attack damage, use your ult to gain resistances to get close to them.
W Frozen Domain: Frozen domain is very powerful since it boosts your attack speed, movement speed, and healing. Enemies are stupid to try to duel you while you are on frozen domain, so most enemies won't engage you while you're on it. When split pushing, cast it behind you so you are on the edge so you get the attack speed buff on the tower and the movement speed buff in case you need to leave quickly.
E Pillar of Ice: Pillar Of Ice is a unique ability that is very effective at trapping enemies or peeling for your team. If the enemy is next to the wall, place the pillar just barely off the wall enough so that the enemy has to walk back and around the pillar. There are also many paths in the jungle that you can block off completely with pillar, so I recommend practicing in battle training to test what paths can be blocked off and how to trap enemies walking next to walls. When blocking off paths, try to make sure the enemy doesn't have flash up or else you will wall off a path while your team is chasing but they will just flash over and your team wont be able to follow up and will flame you. Additionally, whenever enemy champions walk around the narrow side of their tower, you can do the same thing with pillar and block off the path behind them. This is very effective for tower dives, and if done correctly will always grant you a kill. Note the pillar is a knockup which cancels many abilities such as Katarina ult or Malhazar ult, so if enemy team has a champion with a strong channel such as these try to save the pillar to make these abilities worthless for enemies in teamfights.
Here's a video from one of my supp games where I completely block off a path after I see blitz use flash so I know we can secure the kill
R Subjugate: Trundle's ult Subjugate is lowkey one of the most powerful ults in the game. It gives you so much sustain and steals the enemies defenses, allowing you to turn almost any fight. Subjugate immediately does damage (also healing you for same amount) after it is casted on an enemy so you can also use it to kill an enemy who you're chasing and is super low but is just out of your basic attack reach. It then drains more health over 4 seconds and saps 40% of the enemies MR and armor, so if you use it on a tank, you will become extra tanky and they will become easier to kill. Be patient when deciding to use Subjugate because enemies will always try to bait it out and then just run, and when your ult is down, you lose most fights. In teamfights ult the front line tank to steal resistances and go for the enemy adc.
Okay so here I'm gonna try to give you some tips and tricks on dominating the top lane as Trundle. I recommend watching some videos by SoloRenektonOnly on Youtube, he has fantastic advice for the top lane.
Level 1 -> 5:
At the start you wanna just try to last hit minions while avoiding as much poke from enemy champion as possible. If its a melee champion you can hit him with the auto attack -> q -> auto attack combo whenever he walks up to kill a minion but don't walk towards him into enemy minions to trade or you will most likely lose. If the enemy has better lane control and is able to push you under tower, just last hit minions under tower by waiting for two tower hits to full melee minion and then one auto from you, or one tower hit to full caster and then one auto or q from you; you also want to rush a Tiamat to get more lane control but if you cant afford it get a vamp scepter to heal through poke. If you get poked below 25% health its probably a good idea to back, otherwise use potions and passive to heal on minions, which can be boosted by domain. With tiamat you can use the auto -> q -> auto -> tiamat combo for even more quick burst damage. If you push the wave under enemy tower, look to roam and take scuttle crab or gank mid while you wait for the minion wave to slowly build back up for you.
Level 6 -> one top tower goes down:
This is where you can start playing aggressively, push the wave and trade when you can. Only ult when you get very low or you know you can kill the enemy. Keep in mind the tips for every other top lane champion guide against trundle is to bait out the ult, so your opponent will most likely try to do this by faking an all in and then retreating as soon as you ult him. Try to watch minimap whenever you can (such as when farming or if enemy top lane is playing passive) to keep track of where enemy jungler is or scout a potential battle that you can tp to.
Late Game:
Now you just split push lanes near your mates so you can quickly join them whenever a fight breaks out (you wanna save tp for securing objectives, more to come on this). Always be aware of minimap and keep track of where enemy champions are, never split push if you don't know where 3 enemy champions are, even two is kind of risking it. Also whenever objectives start to become relevant (such as when no one is pushing and baron or dragon is up) start split pushing the lane farthest from the objective while your team goes for objective and tp in whenever it looks like a fight is about to break. This is to distract the enemy from the objective by them focusing on stopping you while your team benefits from the objective, so its okay if they catch you and kill you. If the enemy team doesn't fall for the bait, at least you get a tower or so out of it.
Trundle's split pushing effectiveness:
Team Fights
For late game team fights, make sure to keep track of what items the enemy team has, ult the one with the most MR and armor, and try to isolate the damage doer with your pillar. If you are tanky enough usually you can just ult the enemy tank and just stroll right through all of them to the adc, soaking up all their damage, and just chomp them to death while your team melts the enemy tank who had his defenses stripped and follows up on the rest of them. This strategy will usually end up with more deaths for you but will ultimately help the team to win since it renders enemy tank worthless and distracts enemy adc long enough for your team to shut down their front line. Just make sure your teammates are on board with this strategy, and that they don't bail on you.
Every jungler will have his own preferences on how to go about, so don't take my advice as the set-in-stone path to take. Always adapt upon different situations based on previous encounters. The more you play the more knowledge you have to succeed. :)
Start:
Normally, I start at the bottom-side buff, and I ask my top laner to sit by topside buff until 1:15 so I know I don't get cheesed. If I am on Red side of map, I take gromp second and immediately gun for bottom scuttle crab and only use smite if other jungler contests it. Then I take wolves and move on to top side where I check if topside scuttle has been taken yet and ward red buff as I pass by to make sure enemy jungler doesn't take it. Then finish out camps and look to gank a lane or two. At this point, if all went well, you should have enough for tiamat.
If I am on blue side of map, I go immediately to take top-side scuttle after taking red buff and ward blue buff as I pass by to make sure enemy jungler doesn't steal it. Only use smite on scuttle if enemy jungler contests it. Then I either gank top if hes pushed really far in or I go to finish out top-side camps. Once you finish top-side go check if bottom scuttle has been taken yet and then finish out bottom-side camps and then look for a gank or two. At this point, if all went well, you should have enough for tiamat.
After First Rotation:
After your first back, depending on how your first clear went, gun for the dragon and try to rush it after you set out wards to make sure the enemy jungler is not around. Pay attention to bot or mid lane, if you see them immediately move your direction when you start hitting the dragon, chances are they know you're there, so you should definitely evacuate. Farm camps and feel free to gank if an enemy pushes too far, and try to keep track of enemy junglers pathing so you can try to catch them by surprise or counter jungle them.
Ganks:
Ganks are relatively simple, just go for immobile champions (lack of escape abilities such as leaps or dashes) and try to bait out flash with pillar if they have it. If they don't have flash up, try to catch them next to terrain so you can use pillar to create a trap and chomp down that mfer. Usually you can dive them under tower if you have ult, just make sure you know where other enemies are so you don't get counter-ganked.
Builds:
I like to go the damage/sustain build which takes warrior enchantment when the enemy team has lack of cc and my team comp includes other tanks, but normally you should go a common build in the pros which has cinderhulk enchantment with Titanic Hydra and Zeke's Convergence. This Pro Tank Build helps shut down enemy front lines while making you impossible to kill so it is very useful if your team has good damage output. I tend to use this build more often in ranked play since otherwise you will be too squishy to reach the adc in late game team fights and really soak up all the damage.
Team Fights:
For late game team fights, make sure to keep track of what items the enemy team has, ult the one with the most MR and armor to shut down the front line, and try to isolate the damage doer with your pillar. If you are tanky enough usually you can just ult the enemy tank and just stroll right through all of them to the adc, soaking up all their damage, and just bite them to death while your team melts the enemy tank who had his defenses stripped and follows up on the rest of them. This strategy will usually end up with more deaths for you but will ultimately help the team to win since it renders enemy tank worthless and distracts enemy adc long enough for your team to shut down their front line. Just make sure your teammates are on board with this strategy, and that they don't bail on you.
Trundle is so effective at jungling because his pillar is so effective at catching enemies out of position. Make sure that you are comfortable with using the pillar and that you know what paths to block off to efficiently guarantee a kill.
Goal: spam as many pillars as possible.
Start:
At the very beginning, you can't really do much since you don't have a ranged attack so you should just focus on using spoils of war to farm while avoiding poke from enemies. Let your adc farm up and peel for him using pillar if he ever gets caught out. Don't just throw around your pillar because it will have a long cooldown and you may need it in case of a gank.
Mid Game:
Once you and your adc feel strong enough to engage, watch for when enemies ever stray to close to the walls and then pillar just off the wall so they have to walk around the longside. Usually the enemies will think they are getting ganked and may panic and waste their flash. When engaging, always ult the supp to steal defenses and then focus the adc with chomp to steal attack damage. Always look for if they ever step out of position and make them pay with pillar. Here's a good example of catching someone out of position and a good example of a well placed pillar which leads to two free kills:
Tower Dives:
If you and your adc ever catch an enemy alone under tower with your wave pushing walk to the far side of tower zone, which will either cause the enemy to flee so you can kill him out of tower zone or to move closer to the tower. If the latter happens, you can initiate a dive with e+w+auto+q to draw tower aggro and then saunter to tower zone edge while adc kills the enemy so you can quickly lose tower aggro when you need to. You can also use ult to have a better guarantee of success. This takes a lot of judgement so the more you do it the better you will be at it. Remember that if the enemy ever walks around the narrow side of tower you can block off the back with pillar. Also use pings to alert your adc that you are planning to dive so they don't just bail on you.
Late Game:
With just supp item and Iceborn Gauntlet you will be pretty much unstoppable while able to spam so many pillars and still deal moderate damage. If your team is dominating you can start building AD to try to steal some kills, but you don't need to as in this video where all I have is frozen gauntlet, eye of the aspect, and merc treads.
Now I will label what champions work well with trundle on your team. There arent really any champions that Trundle does bad with since his kit doesn't really rely on much from others, except for damage.
Good:
+ Vayne: She is able to stun enemies on your pillar. Also easy to peel for.
+ Jhin: he can stun enemies walking around your pillar, and his high damage synergizes well with your tankiness.
+ Miss Fortune: you can use your pillar to trap enemies in her ult, this is super effective in battle over dragon and baron since you can trap enemies in the cove with your pillar while her ult shreds them away.
+ Bard: can use your pillar to stun enemies
+ Ornn: can use your pillar to knockup enemies
+ Diana: if you gank for diana at mid, your pillar plus her Moonfall will almost always guarantee a kill.
Usually any champion with a stun, knockup, or root will grant a kill when combined with your pillar during a gank. At jungle, look to punish lanes with immobile champions. If you are top lane against an immobile champion and you have a jungle with a good slow or stun, tell them to camp your lane since you will be able to guarantee a kill every time the enemy pushes up in lane. Your teammates should always be on board with these strategies because it means more kills and assists for them.
Additionally, if your lucky, you can find yourself at home with other trundles, and get trolled yourself:
Patch 9.23: Yeah so I lied :) but I'm back and oh boy is Trundle strong right now. If the enemy has a tanky comp its basically a free win with the troll. Get some good use of jungle Trundle while you can before insanely fast clear times and sanguine blade get nerfed for season 10. Use the damage build for jungle to carry you out of elo hell. Good luck trolls!
Patch 9.6: Long time no see :) I took a break from the game but I'm back to trolling now. Trundle got 2 huge buffs to his frozen domain, boosting his kill potential in a duel. This definitely helps at top lane duels and gives a slight edge in jg for better clearing speeds and increased healing. Changed around a lot to match current Trundle stats in the pros and moved the two top guide paths into one. I'm sorry for the absence, but I will try to keep this guide up to date with each patch from now on. Troll on mfers!
Patch 8.24: No significant changes.
Patch 8.23: Huge update, but nothing hits Trundle directly. However, new runes affect all builds so check them out :) Will be adding synergies soon.
Patch 8.22: More damage to Q in later levels and increased AD ratio. This is helpful for more damage, and you should definitely max Q first to maximize the buff's effects. Changed the ability order for the top builds since maxing Q first now has a much higher dps than previous ability order in a duel.
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