Trundle Build Guide by gladBats

Introduction

Hey there folks! Been perusing the changes to the ol' league lately and have finally tried to catch up on all your comments and stuff on both my Youtube channel and on here. Wanted to thank you all so much for the kind words and because of this will be rewriting this guide from scratch as well as doing new videos for Jungle and, most likely, solo top. Here's to all you trundle players out there!

A side note before you even get into the guide: all that I ask is if you're going to downvote, please leave an intelligent comment as to why, preferably before you do so. If there is a problem I need to address, I will, and I'll fix it.

Hey there everyone and welcome to gladBats' All Around Trundler's Guide.

This is my first guide and I really wanted to make it for a champion that I like a lot, which happens to be the humble Trundle. He is such an underplayed jungler in the current meta, which I find to be a real shame since he's quite good at it.

I know this may be rather long and the TL;DR reflex is probably tingling, but if you really want to figure Trundle out and try to use him as a jungler, read through these sections and I promise it won't be a waste of time.

As further proof that you can do well as Trundle, here is my very recent, Frejlord Trundle streak, featuring 7 Jungle games and 1 Solo Top game.

People and This Guide

Here are some screenshots provided by some of the awesome people who used this guide and their performance from it! If you want your screenshot of your performance put up I'd gladly update it on here to show people how it works. Just send me a message on here with a link to your pic and a small quote detailing which game it was or whatever you want, just keep it appropriate. Any submissions are greatly appreciated (: Cheers!

jkast

Kyrrr

Payntedd

Cakefirst

CimB0m

Edits & Updates

May 6th: Updates to Runes and Masteries!

May 1st: Minor updates to icons and suggestions from comments!
April 19th: Major overhaul for the Frejlord patch!

PRE FREJLORD
December 7th: Updates Masteries, Builds, and Items Sections!
September 30th: Changed up the rune pages a bit thanks to a comment by Incendiax !
August 8th: Uploaded a Jungling Video Guide to youtube as per request. Go check it out!
July 26th: Added a Supporting and You section for Trundle!
June 24th: As per request I made a video explaining how I play Solo Top Trundle and added it to the guide! Go check it out and give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it!
April 23rd: Updated the incorrect stats on Bloodthirster. Very appreciative of people who pick out errors like that, thanks a ton! Also over 298k views, wahoo!
April 9th: Fixed up a lot of messy sentences and spelling/link errors thanks to a friend's proofreading! Over 260k views, thank youuu (;
April 6th: Fixed a missing point in one of the skill sequence on one of the solo top builds! Added the People and This Guide section, feel free to send in your experience with my guide if you'd like. Over 210k views, thanks again :D
April 3rd: Added the Solo Top Section! Over 128k views, thanks so much everybody!
April 2nd: Updated Pros/Cons list! Over 75k views, thanks everybody!
March 29th: Over 20k views! Wow, somehow got to the highest ranking, wanted to say thanks so much for all the support! I'll try to keep this updated as things come along. Keep it goin', trundlers (: Also fixed the broken images. Very sorry about that!
March 27th: Updated builds with Maw of Malmortius! Item Section Updated! Over 18k views, thanks again for all the support!
March 20th: Builds Updated/Expanded Again! Added the Tanking and You Items Section! Over 10k views!
Marth 13th: Item Selections updated! Updated builds! Over 7k views!
Mar 9nth 2011: Manamune Section created! Over 5k views!
Feb 22nd 2011: Team Comp Section created! Over 3k views!
Feb 13th 2011: Jungling Section updated!

Jungler Pros / Cons

Pros + Still a fast, self-sustained jungler + Great initiate with Frozen Domain (Contaminate) and his Pillar + Natural damage sponge with Subjugate (Agony) + Great at jungle invading and dueling junglers + Amazing at peeling AD priorities with slows & Chomp (Rabid Bite) + Really really weakens scary enemy tanks + Still aren't gonna see him banned

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Cons - Range > Trundle, unless you get the jump on them - Blue dependent early - Really needs items - Doesn't Work Well With All Team Compositions - Doesn't Have a Hard Stun -> Ganking Requires Skill and Practice - If you're first to pick, it might be a bad idea to go Trundle

Masteries

INDENTDeemed 'Normal' Trundle masteries this is a solid option for Trundle all around. Gives him the early game tankiness he needs to soak damage while dealing it. Feel free to make adjustments, this is just my perspective.

INDENTDeemed 'Scary' Trundle masteries this is another option for people wanting to build pure damage Trundle, which is indeed viable. He's harder to manage overall due to the fact that he can be focused and harassed easily, but once locking on a target he will tear them up. This is more suited towards the dps builds.


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IMPORTANT:

As stated before, don't conform to these once you're comfortable with Trundle. Many different masteries in each section are good with him, so experiment until you have a setup that gives you everything that you need.

Runes

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Summoner Spells

Smite Trundle doesn't need this to jungle, but smite is useful for more than just clearing camps faster. You job as a jungler is to give the biggest EXP, gold, and lane advantage. Smite helps with: Stealing Dragon Stealing Baron Stealing Enemy Buffs Making Sure You Get Your Buffs Some Extra Gold From the Mastery Smiting Cannon Minions to Push Lanes Clearing Annoying Heimer Turrets And I'm sure much more. Nuff said.

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Ghost Great for map mobility, clearing big distances quickly when paired with Contaminate, and also a nice chasing/escaping tool. I prefer this one over exhaust personally because if you're chasing a kill, ghost will get you 6-7 more basic attacks and 2-3 more Rabid Bites on the target, whereas exhaust has a short duration and will only net about 3-4 and 1-2 respectively.

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Exhaust This is a great spell for gaining an advantage over annoying carries or runners. Also great for ganking if you already have a lane with slows.

Flash I hate this spell personally and wish it would fall out of the meta, but for a long time you'll always see a full team running this. Critically, Trundle doesn't need this. He already out races most champions with just Frozen Kingdom. Throw in some movement speed and smart placement of your Pillar of Ice and you're fine. Rant over.

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Promote This is not a spell for a Jungler. Don't even pay any mind to it.

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Surge It's a decent spell in its own right, and I like that Riot tried to throw something new into the mix, but for Trundle there are simply better options.

Trundle and Team Comps

Unfortunately for Trundle, he is not the greatest on or against every team and here is some information on this.

Here are some great champions in various positions that have a good synergy with Trundle and a short description as to why.


AD Carries Bottom Lane:
Ashe She's got the utility CC to complement a successful Trundle gank.
Graves With his dash and buckshot combo he can get in to support your gank and deal some heavy damage.
Corki Corks McGorks here can Valkyrie into combat at the drop of a hat and while his machine gun and your ult destroy their armor, you can focus on mashing up the pieces.
Varus He's got a slow and chain root at 6. His spells carry a lot of synergy with Trundle.

Supports

Taric Hard stun and a heal to save your carry/you if you're injured. Nuff said.
Zilean Can speed you up (which you need) and, if the gank goes wrong, resurrect you so you can escape or destroy them for focusing you in the first place.
Alistar CC, a headbutt, and heal. So long as you can catch them off guard, gank assured.
Blitzcrank He can pull them to the other side of your pillar. That's why he's banned.
Thresh DRAG 'EM ON BACK COWBOY, DRAG 'EM ON BACK THEN

Solo Tops

Darius Darius is a natural gankbuddy for Trundle. Has a pull, slow, and uber damage. Go for it.
Jayce If they're good they can knock someone to the other side of your pillar, or into it. Plus super damage and slows.
Wukong He's a tricksy monksies who can initiate and jump on a target super fast, letting you meander in an pillar the heck out of stuff.
About any other solo top that can provide hard stuns or slows will benefit you.

Unfortunately for Trundle, he is not the greatest on or against every team and here is some information on this. (Note: this is more geared toward ranked/draft play.)

Here are some great champions in various positions that you should enjoy destroying on the enemy team.

AD Carries Bottom Lane:
Ashe Unless she dedicates herself to kiting you, she's got no real escapes. Nom it up.
Quinn No big escapes and a short range. If she jumps to you to slow you, pillar right behind where she casted it from.

Supports

Janna Annoying because of knockup and slow.
Soraka She has no escapes, but a decent heal. Have an ally ignite her and go for the kill.
Taric He has his stuns and a heal but an otherwise low damage output and is tanky. Use that tankiness against him with your ult and beat on his AD carry.

Solo Tops

Irelia Ganking her might be a little annoying with her CC reduction, but later on in the game she'll only contribute to buffing the hell out of you from Agony.

Any top who doesn't have an insanely good escape or isn't getting fed should be a prime target when bottom lane isn't a problem.

Tanks/Tanky dps
Rammus
Shen
Shyvana
Gangplank
Galio

The list goes on. If their team comp is really tanky, you'll only be better. If you're going to counter pick them in a draft or ranked, and notice they have lots of tanky characters, Trundle will do awesome against their team under normal circumstances. And always remember, target the tankiest enemy champ with your Agony, do not waste it on Teemo!

Trundle Jungling Video Guide

[UPDATED VIDEO COMING SOON]

This video is meant to help show all of the information in this guide out on the Fields. Enjoy!

Also, sorry for the weird background noise. I think my mic is getting a little old or I have to change some recording settings. If it's too annoying, lower the volume a bit. You should still be able to hear me but it won't be so annoying.

Trundle and Solo Top

So, this position is fairly new to me and at first I doubted Trundle's viability in it, but after a few games I have found it to be a very good slot for him. I have updated a few builds for Solo Top trundle, but they ended up being VERY similar to his jungle builds. Late game is nearly the same, only the early game is a little different.

Here are the Pros/Cons I have found with Trundle top lane:

Pros + Nearly Unbeatable Sustain in Lane + Good at Shutting Down Otherwise Scary Bruisers ( Nasus, Jarvan IV, etc) + Still can get fairly tanky + Decent at Farming While Not Pushing the Lane Aggressively + Damn near the best duelist 1v1 with his Ultimate

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Cons - FARMING TAKES TIME TO GET USED TO - Needs Items - Still Doesn't Work Well With All Team Compositions - Doesn't See Much Action Top

If you're looking to solo top Trundle, look no further! All of the content in this guide (except the jungle-exclusive things) is applicable to solo laning with him. It just requires a slightly different mindset, skill order, and playstyle.

So these are the pros/cons. The biggest ones to pay attention to, as always, is the team comp note. He STILL will not work with everyone, but he can be a nice counter pick solo top.

Trundle Solo Top Video Guide

[UPDATED VIDEO COMING SOON]

[AND I PROMISE I'M WAY BETTER AT FARMING NOW]

So here it is, the video I compiled featuring my commentary on how I play Solo Top Trundle. Enjoy (:

Psychology of Solo Top and Notes

Where jungling is about early game advantage through ganks, solo top is a much more selfish position. It's about getting as big and bad as possible, for as long as possible, until your team ABSOLUTELY needs you. As Trundle you can profit off of this immensely and tailor yourself for a late-game self.

That being said, try not to be aggressive as Trundle. You have sustain, you have self buffs, you have debuffs, and you have great escape potential. There is no reason to aggressively push the lane and make yourself gankable, in my opinion. With all of these advantages that Trundle naturally has over other tanky DPS, just let them engage. Let them push. Just focus on last hitting, then catch them off guard with your ult, pillar, and chasing speed with contaminate. This has been working very well for me, whereas I find being very aggressive leads to a downfall.

Early game you need health and lifesteal. Consider starting cloth armor and 5 health pots or boots and 3 health pots. First back try to get a health crystal and vamp scepter or just haul in for a Wriggle's Lantern. Combining early tankiness with some sustain makes you really formidable against AD Bruisers.

If you're having troubles against your opponent top lane, buy Ninja Tabi. They are an underrated item in my opinion, but they can really help when countering a heavy AD bruiser up top with the damage reduction and armor. Pair this up with Trundle's Rabid Bite debuff and the lifesteal and the stolen stats from Subjugate (Agony) gives you an amazing early game advantage.

One very important rule to remember as Trundle is that he's not quite as free to roam. He can push towers and stay in lane for a very long time, but roaming lanes with him if your opponent top is gone can be difficult. He doesn't have a hard cc and I've just found that letting the enemy solo top push out while I'm gone to /maybe/ get a kill is not worth it.

So, these are my thoughts on Solo Top with Trundle. Things are pretty straight forward but if you have any questions/comments/concerns with any ideas I have proposed just leave a comment and I'll address them as soon as I can!

Skill Details

• King's Tribute (Previously Decompose)
  Range: 1000
  Whenever an enemy unit near Trundle dies, he heals for 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 % of their maximum health.
  
  Alright so this is the reason why Trundle is great in the jungle and a solo lane. It may not seem like much but the healing really does add up, especially in the jungle when the bigger creeps die. In lane pair this up with early lifesteal to have a big upper hand in out sustaining your opponent. Don't forget, in a pinch smiting a minion while on your Frozen Domain can save your life!
  
• Chomp (Previously Rabid Bite) (Q)
  Trundle bites his opponent instead of attacking for his next basic attack, dealing 20/40/60/80/100 (+1.0/1.05/1.1/1.15/1.2 attack damage) as physical damage.
  
  This attack increases Trundle's attack damage by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 for 8 seconds, with his opponent losing half of this amount and also slows target by 75% for 0.1 seconds on hit
  
  This attack's animation scales with Trundle's attack speed, getting faster as his AS goes up.
  
  This is still your bread'n'butter and it just got a whole lot better. Like golden sourdough spread with white truffle butter. The little slow attached to it makes Trundle much more relevant in ganking situations since that tiny slow can literally be the difference between a successful gank and slinking back into the jungle.
  
  Key note: This ability makes your basic attack animation timer RESET. This means that if you want to get the most efficiency out of spamming Chomp, spam it right after landing a basic attack as it will immediately start up another attack right after instead of staggering and interrupting them.
  
  
• Frozen Domain (Formerly Contaminate) (W)
  Trundle throws down a gang sign, making an area as his domain for 8 seconds, 20/35/50/65/80% attack speed, 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 % movement speed, and 8/11/14/17/20% increased healing on Trundle FROM ALL SOURCES.
  
  So you don't quite turn into a CC-immune god among trolls when walking around on nasty, putrid ground, but this spell is still pretty cool. Instead of CC-reduction (tenacity) you get a pretty sick healing and regeneration buff. While running around in his domain all regeneration and healing from ALL sources that affect Trundle goes up by a pretty significant percentage.
  
  
• Pillar of Ice (Previously Pillar of Filth) (E)
  Trundle creates a not plagued beacon at a target location for 6 seconds, which becomes impassable terrain and slows all nearby enemy units by 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 % while they are in the vicinity and for 1.25 seconds after. Now interrupts channels.
  
  
  Welp, it's a pillar of ice now. This spell is pretty much the exact same as before except you can interrupt channels with it now, which is just sick. Been really wanting that displacement to interrupt every since I started to seriously play Trundle. This will still be his signature ability and the one that everyone remembers.
  
  
• Subjugate (Previously Agony) (R)
  Trundle immediately steals 20/22/24 (+2 per 100 AP)% max health damage of his target's health (magic damage) and 20% of their armor and magic resistance. Over the next 3 seconds the amount of health, armor, and magic resistance stolen is doubled.
  
  Trundle's ultimate is simply a really sweet ability. It heals you immediately, has an okay range, and also boosts your resistances while decreasing the target's. This ability is great to use on tanks in team fights since you essentially steal their role and pit it against them. If you're getting low on health, it can also save you in a pinch when paired up with Smite and Decompose. Now that this ability does percentage health it makes Trundle even better at shutting down scary tanks.

Properly Using Pillar of Ice (Previously Pillar of Filth)

Pillar of Ice (Previously Pillar of Filth)

This is the skill that seriously differentiates good Trundle's from bad ones. Proper placement of this can assure kills, save lives, and win team fights or buffs, so it's very important to learn to use it correctly. Here are places to focus on putting your Pillar of Ice:
Choke Points (entrances/exits to the jungle)
Middle of Enemy Team (to break up their team slightly)
Between Tanks and Squishies
Enemy Escape Routes
Between Allies and Enemies
The Bushes When Ganking Lanes

Here are some pictures to help out with placement ideas.

Didn't effectively block off this Nocturne's escape route. Also, the Cho'Gath that was coming from their jungle could easily have made it past my pillar. Try to place better than this.This one was just silly of me. Sion was doing a lot of back and forth, and I guessed that he'd charge forward from the bush for Lux and Graves, but he doubled back after I placed my Pillar. It's important to wait until you can clearly see which way they are going before throwing the Pillar of Ice down.

So here are just a few of my examples on how to use it. Hopefully the pictures help to give an idea on where you should focus on putting it in different situations and, as always, practice will make perfect.

Properly Using Frozen Domain (Previously Contaminate)

Frozen Domain is a pretty easy one to master in comparison to Pillar of Ice. Here are just a few helpful hints to keep in mind when throwing down your contaminate, and I'll post pictures of these later if requested.


-Keep the outside boundaries within your jungle when using it to clear camps. If you don't it's a huge bullseye as to where you're at in the jungle, since the enemy can see it clearly.
-Throw it down where it will cover most of the action in a team fight
-Cover not only what you need it for (minions, turrets, creep camps), but also your escape routes.
-Use it to cover the most ground during a gank, and especially cover the bushes.
-Use it to take Dragon and Baron, again keeping in mind the boundaries


-Put it directly on yourself, unless that covers all of the above criteria.
-Ruin ganks by throwing it down too early and giving away your position.
-Give away your position
-Use it too often when you don't have blue buff

Jungling Routes

This is the jungle route that I personally use. I find it to be the quickest and the most convinient for ganking personally, but that doesn't mean it's the best. It is as thus:

Wolves -> Blue Buff -> Wraiths -> Red Buff/Little Golems -> Whatever you didn't choose before -> Ganks/Repeat

This is if you're feeling saucy and want to try a jungle invade.

Wolves -> Blue Buff (ask for a heavy leash, don't smite) -> Enemy Red Buff (smite steal + contaminate the heck out or fight) -> Wraiths -> Your Red Buff (donate or take) -> Ganks/etc

Here is a route suggested by b3astliness. I tried it and things went pretty smoothly, but I found that I was underleveled by the time I got to blue and then needed to gank before I could run all the way back to red. This was my first impression of it, but it's definitely worth a try to see what you like.

Little Golems -> Wraiths -> Wolves -> Blue Buff -> Wraiths -> Red -> repeat/ganks

Always remember that your job as a jungler is to give your team every advantage in the early levels as you can. This means you have a few specific jobs to keep in mind:

CONTROL YOUR BUFFS
Don't let your buffs go to waste and, whenever you can safely, steal the enemy buffs as well! If you already have a buff, but your camp happens to be up, give it to your AP or AD carry, or anyone who is near. Just don't let them go to waste.

WARD, WARD, WARD
This is not just the support's role. Once you have Wriggle's Lantern, great, you get a free ward every 3 minutes. This should be used every time it's off cool-down. Remember to always prioritize warding Dragon and your own Red and Blue buffs early game, and Baron plus the enemy buffs late game. As a general rule, if you have an extra 75 gold after basing, buy a Sight Ward. Think of it as an investment. In fact, if people /aren't/ warding for some reason, build a Ruby Sightstone!

CONTROL YOUR GANKS
We junglers don't always get a kill when we attempt one, but that's okay. Unless your teammates are in a rough spot, make sure to gtfo and don't mess up their farm/exp. If the enemy is gone, put off the jungle for a bit to help push down the turret, even a little. Common things, but they're good to keep in mind.

As far as warding goes, here's a nice picture to go by, courtesy of Your Tryndamere Resource.

Red Locations: High-priority warding zones that should be up at all times.
Yellow Locations: High-priority warding locations that protect your jungle.
Orange Locations: Warding locations useful for ganking the enemy jungle and stealing buffs.
Blue Locations: Warding locations that help against enemy ganks.

Ganking

There are only a few notes that I want to make on Ganking with Trundle.

Trundle can gank lanes as early as 3. You shouldn't try to gank without Pillar of Ice because it's really the only CC you have to assure kills in a lane. Going off this build, you will get your pillar at level 3 while taking red buff. After that, it's up to you to get the Little Golem camp or to gank.

When ganking, try to rush toward the center of the lane first. This is a helpful tip I learned from a friend, since I tend to rush right at the opponents. This makes your gank vulnerable to failure due to flash or juking on the opponent's part.

Always ping for ganks. Make sure your allies know when you're coming and who you're focusing.

Try to keep these things in mind and you'll make a great Trundler (:

Items

Comparing the stats on the two items, you get:
30 Ability Power
30 Attack Damage
30 Attack Speed
15 Critical Strike Rating
250 Health
250 Mana
12 Move Speed
Unique Passive: 25% chance on hit to slow target by 35%
Unique Passive: On cast increases your next basic attack damage by 150%
for 4,070 gold total with Trinity Force.

For Frozen Mallet you get,
20 Attack Damage
700 Health
Passive: Target is slowed by 40% by basic attacks
For 3,025 gold.

All of the numbers point to Trinity Force being a better item for Trundle, and I would agree. However, you are only as good as your ganks early on. Frozen Mallet's slow should help in kill securing when you come in to muck up a lane, whereas Trinity Force is not a for-sure thing.

My advice is to only rush a Trinity force if you're getting very fed early game and have completed Wriggle's Lantern and whatever boots you went for. Late game you're going to want to sell off your Mallet for Trinity force once you have sufficient funds and a full build.


Okay, so I've been torn between these two items ever since testing them both with Trundle on the PBE. Here are my reasons why, typically, the Blade of the Ruined King is chosen over the Bloodthirster now for Trundle.

First off, there's a nice progression of items that go into the Blade of the Ruined King. You'll basically always have a Vampiric Scepter, then you get to upgrade it for mid-game with Blackwater Cutlass, then it turns into a compeltely amazing item for Trundle late game. It makes you a total tank killer with your ultimate + the health you leech from very healthy champions. The active makes for an AD semi-nuke that will save you in a pinch. The active also induces a pretty heavy slow which, with Frozen Mallet, your pillar, and contaminate, nobody except for Nidalee or Ezreal (seriously screw both of those champions) will get away.

Overall the synergy the item holds with basically every single one of Trundle's spells outweighs the little bit of AD and Lifesteal you get from the bloodthirster.

And finally, the even bigger reason why I choose it: IT'S NOT A RISK! Yeah, the Bloodthirster has amazing base stats, but it's bought for the stack mechanic. Unless you're getting horrendously fed and are just unkillable to your enemies, you'll be losing stacks very often. The Blade of the Ruined King is consistent and always consistent and will always give you what you need to be a scary troll.

These items are what Trundle really needs in his early game. Wriggles gives you some relief from buying so many wards, plus handy lifesteal and a great passive for jungle clearing/farming. The treads give you some additional tankiness when running into lanes to gank or even meeting the enemy jungler in 1v1. Phage, which should immediately be built into Frozen Mallet or Trinity Force, is for early game gank securing. In the case of Trinity Force, the proc doesn't always happen but when combined with the slow from your pillar it will really help with ganks.

A new addition to this is The Brutalizer. The Black Cleaver has essentially become one of the best AD bruiser items and it gives Trundle everything he needs. This item will be prevalent in almost every damage-oriented build for Trundle.

Alright, these have both changed and stayed the same a bit. The blade of the ruined king is essentially replacing the blood thirster in most of my builds. I consider it a much more stable, consistent, and useful AD/Lifesteal item for Trundle. You don't have to worry about stacks, you get a slow, a mini-AD-Nuke, and plenty of lifesteal to sustain your way through, well, everything.

The new Black Cleaver, well, just look at it. With the changes to how Armor Penetration is calculated it just makes your damage bonkers. Not to mention it's pretty dang cheap, has great/useful items that build into it, and gives incredible stats for someone like Trundle.

Not much to be said about Frozen Mallet. It gives health, AD, and a very essential slow to Trundle. Trundle really needs to stick on targets and this helps with that greatly.

Blade of the Ruined King gives you the lifesteal to keep yourself sustained in combat, while randuin's and aegis give you the resistances, health, and AS enemy-neutralizing passive to get heavy in the team fights and use Trundle like the great initiator he is. A Guardian Angel can be a great option over the Aegis late game if you're taking too much physical damage or getting focused down. Otherwise it might just be getting you re-killed (;

A very IMPORTANT note on this build: DO NOT USE THE FIFTH BUILD UNLESS THEY HAVE VERY, VERY HEAVY AP NUKES. The reasoning behind this is explained the in Maw of Malmortius section of this guide. For the most part though, if you're taking significant AP damage, or they have one too many champs who deal lots of magic damage that you need to soak up, this build is it. It'll pack you with move speed, some health, and LOTS of MR/AD. This being said, AD champs might get the better of you here, so you have to be very conscious of their team composition.

The former of the offensive builds is if you have a fear of dying, are being focused, or are taking too much damage in team fights. It will result in less damage output, but will help with those scenarios.

The latter is basically straight up damage. You can still pair these items with a last-slot Guardian's Angel just to gain even more of an advantage, but these three items will really max out your damage output. Between the AD, AS, and ArP that you get from The Black Cleaver and the AD + Lifesteal you get from Blade of the Ruined King, this setup will make you a very formidable troll indeed.

Tanking and You

So let's talk tank items.

First off, they are fantastic on Trundle and at least one should be built on him every game. They give him the flexibility and durability he needs to get in and cause some trouble at the heart of teamfights, which is really all he's good for late game. That being said however, Trundle is /not/ a true tank. He does not fill the typical roles necessary by proper tanks, namely he has no hard CC and doesn't have naturally high defenses or health. If you've got to go a tankier route, consider the followin':

and
Best Time of Acquisition: EARLY-GAME through LATE-GAME
Reason/s For Purchase: This is your utility. If the enemy team is very balanced and you find yourself taking too much of each kind of damage, this is a good item. It provides some durability and resistances and not to mention helps your team. Get this early-game if you have the spare gold and are tanking for your team.
Cautions With Purchase: THE AURA DOES NOT STACK. Communicate with your support so that they can focus on other aura items.


Best Time of Acquisition: LATE-EARLY through LATE-GAME
Reason/s For Purchase: This is an item built for Trundle. If you need to be a bit beefier (HP) and the enemy team has significant Attack Damage/Attack Speed champions, Randuin's is a very high contender for an early item slot. The active will reduce AD carry potential in teamfights and give your team crucial time to focus down important targets while they're slow.
Cautions With Purchase: None, honestly. You lose out on a lot of damage replacing an AD item with this, but if you're tanking it's no worries.


Best Time of Acquisition: MID-GAME through LATE-GAME
Reason/s For Purchase: This is a nuke-canceler. If the enemy team has a fed, or just heavy, AP nuke like Brand or LeBlanc, this will really help in shutting them down.
Cautions With Purchase: Be careful not to replace slightly more important items with this one, or to get it too early. Rushing a veil can be pretty good, but Trundle needs his Frozen Mallet and Mercury's Treads before getting something like this.


Best Time of Acquisition: EARLY-GAME through MID-GAME
Reason/s For Purchase: As mentioned by ventrolt in the comments, this item is actually quite good on Trundle, especially with the way Frozen Domain (previously Contaminate) now works it could mean hella good sustain in many situations. It's also pretty cheap MR and CDR. If you have a pesky mage starting to carry, pick this up and sell it late.


Best Time of Acquisition: MID-GAME through LATE-GAME
Reason/s For Purchase: Thornmail is an item that facilitates tanking against heavy AD teams. If you're taking too much AD damage or the enemy melee carry is getting fed, Thornmail is the item for you.
Cautions With Purchase: Thornmail is a very situational item and should only be bought when the enemy team is either AD heavy or their carry is getting out of hand. It will help you in team fights, reflecting the peripheral damage or if they decide to focus you. However, the big problem with Thornmail is that it doesn't award you any other stats apart from armor. This will make you take less damage from AD, but won't up your health pool at all. Remember, it's mainly a counter item.

There are some others that I could probably go into detail with, but if you need to fill that tank/off-tank position, these ones will help out a lot.

Maw of Malmortius. Y/N?

Okay, here's another item that I wanted to dedicate a section to due to requests, my own personal intrigue/testing, and also just because it's a new item. The scary thing about Maw of Malmortius to me is the fact that it's inevitably going to replace one of Trundle's core items. It's only effective in my opinion as an early-game survival utility, used to shut down mages. As Trundle you should have no problem breaking up teams and helping to single out targets. With MoM you can soak up a bit of their magic damage, while still getting some AD to beat them down with. This makes a Trundle much more efficient at taking down squishy mage targets and surviving AoE damage.

Maw of Malmortius will also help you very much if a sketchy 1v1 happens between a more sustained AP caster like Swain or things like Gangplank's ult in a severe pinch.

A NOTE ON MAGIC RESISTANCE (from the League Wiki):
Stacking magic resistance
Every point of magic resistance requires a unit to take 1% more of its maximum health in magic damage to be killed. This is called "effective health."
Example: A unit with 60 magic resistance has 60% of its maximum health in its effective health, so if the unit has 1000 maximum health, it will take 1600 magic damage to kill it.
What this means: by definition, magic resistance does not have diminishing returns, because each point increases magic durability by 1% whether the unit has 10 magic resistance or 1000 magic resistance.
Note: Unlike health, increasing magic resistance also makes healing more effective because it takes more effort to remove the unit's health than it does to restore it.


This Mage-Killer tank build has a nice synergy with Trundle since he has naturally high health and does a lot of self-healing. Maw of Malmortius has great synergy with your tanky items, and if you want to build health later in the game that's also a viable option.

As far as the passive goes, on Trundle it doesn't work so well. He's the type that isn't going to get focused down (hopefully) and has so much sustain that he should stay at relatively high health. The passive is only great if you're 1. losing or 2. super low health and are not getting focused. A good example of this is after your team aces and rush to take turrets. The passive would do better on a champion like Olaf who already gets terrifying with low health and wants to turn into the ultimate 1v1er.

So all in all: it's a good item against a very AP team. However, I WOULD NOT suggest this item for every game. The shield can be negligible against very heavy AP nukes (like LeBlanc and Annie ) and the passive unfortunately only helps you when you're on the losing side. Remember to always experiment and find out what works for YOU on an INDIVIDUAL game basis. Nothing will work every time!

Manamune. Y/N?

On reflection of Muramana and how it is actually quite a good item overall now, I still don't change my opinion on building this item on Trundle. That being said, if you like using it, go for it (:

Now, you may be thinking, gladBats, is Manamune really worth a full section discussing why or why not to use it on Trundle? And the answer is, since I've gone through the trouble of writing it up, yes.

I've seen a few Trundles (who were doing quite well actually) using Manamune, and, though it was working for them, other items benefit the champion more in my opinion. I can't even imagine how much better they would have been doing with other competent items, but let's get into the discussion:

ALL BELOW VALUES ARE SUPPOSING THAT THE TRUNDLE IN QUESTION IS LEVEL 13 (mid-game, for around when one might have a Manamune with full stacks)

Manamune
So, Trundle starts out with a base of 206 mana + 45 per level, giving him 791 base mana around the time he has Manamune. With the additional 350 + 1000, he'd be at 2141 mana. Taking the passive into account (grants 2% of total mana as flat AD), you'd be getting approx. 42.82 AD at level 13 from the passive. Add that to the base +20 that the item gives, Manamune during mid game at level 13 with full stacks will net you basically 63 flat AD and some minor mana regen.

So, for 2100 gold you get:
63 AD
1,350 Mana
+7 Mana Regen

ONLY at the best possible outcome with the item at level 13.

That's a lot of AD, one might say! And I would have to agree, but here are the downsides:

Stacking mana on Trundle is a waste, true and true. This is the same reason as to why Manamune is sub-par on champions like Talon: If you're good/smart, you won't have mana issues. Getting a Sheen, Phage, or Zeal early on while building up to Trinity Force will give you stats like flat Health, flat AS/AD, and a great passive proc that will benefit you way more than that high amount of AD, Mana, and Mana Regen.

Trundle is a great champion to have really high AD with, but the case is simply that there are more efficient items to get it through. If you're having problems with mana, try to use Contaminate less, or ask yourself "Do I really need to spam Rabid Bite to take out wraiths?".

Trinity Force will give you damage increasing passives, slowing passives, AS, AD, Health, Mana, AP, Critical Strike Chance, and even Movement speed. All of those things (save for the AP) will benefit a mid-late game Trundle far more than some mana and a good amount of AD.

WITH ALL OF THIS SAID:

If you still want to use Manamune, please do. It is /not/ an awful item on Trundle. I just feel that it slows down your build, delays getting core items, and does not benefit a dynamic champion such as Trundle as well as other items do.

Summary

Well, that's all the Trundle information that I have as of right now! I'll try to update this guide as frequently as needed and if you found this useful don't forget to leave a comment and +1 it (:

Cheers~

-gladBats


Also, if you want to support me or just like my style, feel free to go and check out my Champion Guide for Diana, the Scorn of the Moon!

CREDITS:
jhoijhoi's Guide to Making Guides
Your Tryndamere Resource