Trundle Build Guide by voidflame

Introduction

Trundle is a tanky dps champ who excels in the jungle. I would far prefer a jungle trundle over a lane trundle. Trundle is a good jungler and is relatively easy to learn how to play, save for his Pillar of Filth. This build goes for balance between DPS an tankiness, but as a result may have less damage than other Trundle builds. On the other hand you'll be tankier and you'll be able to initiate fights. In my situattional item section, I mention some DPS items if you would prefer more damage over tankiness.

Pros / Cons

PROS
Good jungler
Great ganks if Pillar of Filth is used correctly
Awesome chaser with Contaminate
Jungle sustain is good thanks to his passive Decompose
His ultimate, Agony can help take down even tanks
Pretty much impossible to be counter-jungled with Contaminate and Pillar of Filth
Pretty tanky.

CONS
Not the greatest damage in the game.
Pillar of Filth is very hard to use as it can prevent your team from getting kills
Contaminate reveals your location in the jungle because it's the size of China, thus making it very hard to counterjungle.
Is a rather poor farmer when he enters lanes.

Summoner Spells

GOOD SUMMONER SPELLS
I highly recommend using these summoner spells. Smite is the only MANDATORY summoner spell on jungle Trundle. I still recommend your second summoner spell to be one of the below.


I like Flash to go over jungle walls, escape, or catch up to enemies who are running away. This is just a great spell with tons of uses.

On Trundle, you can Flash in to dragon or baron and Smite steal it (but you'll die) or just Smite steal it and THEN Flash through the wall.


This is an ABSOLUTE necessity on jungle Trundle. Smite deals loads of damage to minions allowing one to jungle far faster and far more efficient. As mentioned above, Smite can be used to steal key minions from your opponents as well.


You can take Ghost or Flash and it's really just preference. Ghost is usually better for chasing, but for escaping I like Flash for its ability to go over walls. This is your preference. So basically, use Flash or Ghost and Smite.

Decent Summoner Spells

These spells are meh. I can see why one would use them, but I feel Ghost or Flash are far better.

Exhaust would be an okay choice for the slow, allowing you to chase more. But Pillar of Filth slows and Contaminate + Ghost/ Flash should be enough for chasing.

Ignite could be used as well for extra damage, but in general, your carry will grab this. Trundle is NOT a carry unless insanely fed. And this build is pretty tanky so you probably wouldn't carry very well anyways unless you took all DPS items.

Clairvoyance, also known as CV, would be ok to check the enemy's jungle, check important minions like dragon and baron(this can save you money on wards. But CV doesn't last as long so I don't recommend relyin on Clairvoyance alone) , and can be used to prevent counterjungling. But considering that you can't be counterjungled and you have a Wriggle's Lantern to ward, Clairvoyance is just not worth a summoner spell slot. Furthermore, you support is usually the one who takes this summoner spell.

BAD SUMMONER SPELLS
Don't even consider these ones.

Fortify is for your tank.
Clarity isn't needed as you have blue buff.
Rally is never used by anyone nowadays.
Revive = noob
Heal not needed unless you're really really bad. You have lifesteal from Wriggle's Lantern, crazy passive Decompose, and Agony. Your health can rise very fast.
Cleanse is ok but I still would never use it since you get Mercury's Treads and you get CC reduction on top of Contaminate.

Runes

greater mark of desolation is good for armor pen. Greater Mark of Attack Damage makes you have more AD early on. Greater Mark of Attack Speed can work as well.

Greater Seal of Armor is good for the armor and tankiness. You can alternatively used Greater Seal of Evasion, but these are far more expensive so for the sake of saving money, I would go for the armor.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist is good for MR when tamfights start.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is good for movement speed and ganking.

Items

I start with vampire scepter because it gives you more sustain along with your passive. This will then build into Wriggle's Lantern.


Wriggle's Lantern is good because it lets you kill minions faster and lets you ward your jungle/important location like baron and dragon. It also gives some armor which is very helpful early game and gives you more tankiness.


Mercury's Treads are the shoes to go since it gives you some magic resist and with Wriggle's Lantern armor bonus, you're pretty tanky early game. Furthermore, the CC reduction works with Contaminate, so you'll pretty much be like "Huh? What CC?" .


I love my Trinity Force because it's a good overall item which can help you out a lot. I like getting the Sheen first because it works with your Rabid Bite allowing for a very powerful auto attack. Then I follow up with Phage for health an an ability to slow during your ganks. Finally, I build the Zeal and then the Trinity Force.


This gives you more crazy resists and can let you revive. Even though you'll have very little hp after you revive, you can still escape if your Pillar of Filth an Contaminate get off of CD in time for your escape.


I grab this for some Magic Resist and Hp regen for more sustainability (as if you didn't already have enough). Plus this movement speed boost along with Contaminate lets you chase, escape, and gank that much faster.


I finish with The Black Cleaver to gain more damage since Trinity Force is your only other damaging item. This lets you reduce armor in addition to Agony.

Situational Items

Tanky Items
Sunfire Cape is a good situational item for its defenses and its passive lets you kill jungle minions faster. I just feel it's not very cost efficient on Trundle.
Banshee's Veil is a really good item. Feel free to replace Force of Nature with this as they are both good. I just like FoN because it has more MR, but if they have loads of CC, get the Banshee's Veil.
Frozen Heart is good for HP and slow. Build a Phage into this if you don't like Trinity Force.
Atma's Impaler is a good item, but since my build has more resists than health, I don't get this. Grab it if you get Frozen Mallet.
Spirit Visage is good for magic resist and it gives some more crazy sustain.
Warmog's Armor is good with atma's too, but Trundle isn't such a great minion farm, so I feel it's not worth it.

Offense Items
Wit's End gives attack speed and MR. Not that great toward late game if you ask me though.
The Bloodthirster is good for more AD and if you need more lifesteal. However, Trundle isn't a super fast minion farmer, so it might not build that fast.
Madred's Bloodrazor can be built from the original Madred's Razors if you don't need Wriggle's Lantern or if their team is really tanky.
Phantom Dancer is ok, but I feel Trundle really doesn't need more move speed with Contaminate and Force of Nature and he doesn't have much in the Crit department either.

Skill Sequence

Rabid Bite is great in jungle to lower minion damage and increase your own. I max this first.


Contaminate is a HUGE AoE "the size of China" as my friend says. It helps you in jungle by increasing attack speed (note that people will know you're in the area because they can see the AoE.) This increases move speed, attack speed, and gives CC reduction. I take a point at lvl 2 and max this second.


You put up a huge filthy peni- I mean pillar up. It blocks off your opponent's path and slows them. This is the most important skill for Trundle's ganks and the hardest skill to master. Sometimes you use the skill and seal off your teammates during a teamfight and doom them. Sometimes, you might chase someone, misplace you pillar, and your team can no longer chase. Knowing the timing and location appropriate per scenario is VITAL to playing Trundle. This takes a while to master, but practice makes perfect! :D

This also gives vision in bushes. Sometimes you want to use it to check somewhere, but keep in mind that this lets your enemies know you are in the area.


Agony is awesome because it steals stats and HP. You can also use it on major jungle minions like dragon and baron to increase your HP and increase your tankiness. When using this against champs here are two things to consider:

1. You can attack a squishy carry with this. You'll deal damage and make it a lot easier for your team to kill them. You won't get much resists though.
2. You attack a tank to gain a bunch of resists and make it possible for your team to kill the tank as they lose their resists.

Depending on the scenario, you'll have to choose your target appropriately.

Jungling

Here's your jungle route and plan. First, buy the Vampiric Scepter and put a point in Rabid Bite.

Then, head on to blue buff. Get your team to protect you in case the enemies decide to invade the jungle. Attack wolves and get your team to damage them after you initiate the fight.

Get a leash (someone on your team auto attacks first to attract aggro) ) for the blue golem. Focus the golem and use Rabid Bite whenever it gets off CD. Kill it with Smite. (Using it while the golem is around 500 hp should be good). After it dies, take out the lizards. Get a point in Contaminate now.


Now, you have two options. You can now take your wraiths or if they have a jungler and you are confident in your counterjungling abilities, take their wraiths. Their wraiths are relatively close by and it will deprive them some XP. However, you might be found and killed. So basically, I recommend going to your own wraiths now. Set down Contaminate and focus down the blue wraith. Then kill the other wraiths.

Go to small golems. Kill them and you hit lvl 3 and get a point in Rabid Bite.

Next, go to red lizard. Set down Contaminate and focus the big lizard. Use Smite on it. After killing it, slaughter the small lizards.


kill the wraiths or wolves again for lvl 4. Get Pillar of Filth.

CONGRATS! YOU'VE CLEARED YOUR JUNGLE.

You now have six options:
1. Clear the lesser creeps that have respawned in your jungle.
2. If the enemy has no jungler, wipe their jungle.
3. If they do have a jungler, you can attempt a counter jungle.
4. You can now gank now that you have Pillar of Filth.
5. Cover a lane.
6. Recall and buy boots.

When you hit level 6, you can solo dragon. Make sure you have Wriggle's Lantern by now. Blue buff is very helpful for this. Buy one Vision Ward. First use your Wriggle's Lantern on one of the river bushes so you can see an enemy approaching. Then put your Vision Ward on the dragon camp so you can see if they placed wards. If they did, destroy it and leave since they know you're nearby. If they don't have one, take the dragon. Use Agony, Contaminate, keep using Rabid Bite and Smite to secure it.

At about lvl 16+, start warding baron. As far as I know, Trundle can't really solo baron, but two people is usually enough. Use a Vision Ward.

Ganking

When ganking, first ping the enemy you want to focus and see if your teammates are willing to commit. Try to put Contaminate in between the enemy champ and their turret so you can cover more ground. Use Pillar of Filth to slow them or block their escape path. Use Rabid Bite. Use Agony if needed.

A funny video, BUT DO NOT EVER DO THIS. THIS IS CALLED TROLLING

Scores

To prove this works:

Summary

All in all, Trundle is a fun champ to play with some awesome unique skills. He might no deal great damage, but he is an excellent ganker and disrupter.