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[Discussion] The Current State of Top Lane Trundle

Creator: ZeUnit December 27, 2015 6:06pm
ZeUnit
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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep December 27, 2015 6:06pm | Report
I've been a big fan of Trundle since I started playing League at the end of season 2. He was thematically my favourite character and I saved up all my IP to purchase him as my first champion. First off, I'm definitely not some League of Legends MLG pro, I am just about average on a good day since I don't play often enough to improve, but I feel like I know Trundle quite well. I remember back in the day when he was another forgotten champ along with pre-reword Sion, Galio and the rest of the reject crew, but he has recently rose to the limelight as a strong pick for top lane, as well as a niche support pick too.

I want to talk about Trundle in the top lane, as that is my preferred lane, and want to discuss how Trundle's life as a top lane champ has changed. Back in the day Trundle's "optimal" play-style was to be a auto-attack bruiser, using his ult and Q to make the enemy tank squishy and supplement his own tankiness so he could be a frontline chaser or a peeler. He was also a capable split-pusher; his auto-attack and AD steroid from his Q and W allowed him to melt tower, and his pillar and ult allowed him to combat the inevitable 2+ champions that would be sent to stop him and trick them into chasing him around the jungle, using his pillar to block of paths and make them waste time to make space for his team elsewhere on the map.

I want to specify the builds that were used in the past as they will be relevant to his current state. The best rush was Blade of the Ruined King, as it game him the best duelling, chasing and tower melting powers with the AS and AD boosts. The rest of the build was simply "buy tanky items" path that you would see a typical Jax buy after they get the core damage items: Spirit Visage, Randuin's Omen and other items that gave health + a defensive stat. And this typical build was very good at letting Trundle be himself; he had enough damage along with his kit to allow him to duel and enough tank to be a meat shield. If you got fed early you could get a Trinity Force since his Q was an excellent Sheen proc and he got a benefit out of all the stats, but otherwise you couldn't afford to get tri-force usually along with BoTRK since you weren't really Jax.

Enough thinking about the past. How does this all tie in to the current Trundle? Well, first of the nerf to Blade of the Ruined King hit Trundle in a bit way. The decreased AS and increased cost made it not really worth rushing on Trundle since the final stats don't really do their job by the time you can afford them and the tower melting that was once there is now gone. And this is bigger than you may think. A lot of Trundle's power came from the BoTRK, since it synergised perfectly with his kit; the Q allowed you the steal damage so you wouldn't have to build any and the auto-attack reset helps with the passive, the W boosts AS and the life-steal of BoTRK and his ult removed the resistances of your opponent to reduce damage resistance to your hits. All in all this meant you wouldn't have to build more than 1 damage item and could steal be a superb duelist, even being able to beat Jax 1v1.

So I want to ask; what do you think is the best build for Trundle now? After trying him out in the pre-season I have some ideas, but most seem sub-optimal;

One typical build I go for is rushing Trinity Force since it synergises with his kit as mentioned before, and continuing with tanky items ( Dead Man's Plate is a good addition as it allows him to stick to targets.). This allows good chasing from Phage, damage with Sheen, and AS from Zeal, and this does really help melt towers again. There are a few problems with this build path I find. Firstly tri-force is an expensive first item and Trundle really doesn't have the farming powers of Jax, and although he takes towers quick he has a real problem taking minions. Also I always feel like a follow-up damage item is needed. I have tried following up with Sterak's Gage and Death's Dance but am still unsure of what is best. Another good item is Ravenous Hydra, the life-steal, damage and AOE helps with pushing, but the main problem is the lack of AS because it really hinders his tower taking and pushing and duelling.

A build I have seen but never tried is rushing pure tank items first and relying on his Q and ult as damage sources, I have seen a couple of streams do this. The build is to rush Spirit Visage or Dead Man's Plate / Sunfire Aegis depending on whether your opponent is AD or AP, and then getting the item you didn't get second. After 3 defensive items they got a damage item to prevent falling off, and Titanic Hydra really worked well here as all the health that was stacked up added to the damage. Again I haven't tried this build but have seen it work. The obvious problems is the lack of damage, so no duelling or split pushing power but way better front-line power.

I also want to quickly discuss masteries. In the former build I mentioned I usually go 18/0/12, getting the Fervor of Battle mastery since Trundle is heavily auto-attack based and he really prefers drawn out fights which allows the keystone mastery to build up. I have also seen a 12/0/18 getting Grasp of the Undying, which works with the latter build, allowing better tanking and synergises with stacking health. I always preferred going offensive masteries top lane unless you were clearly a tank champion, e.g. Shen, Singed, Malphite, Maokai etc, and I felt Trundle was more a bruiser so getting damage was better.

TL;DR Top lane Trundle has changed a lot since previous seasons, and I have yet to see an optimal build path for him to allow him to do his job since the Blade of the Ruined King change. I am not Trundle or top lane god so I would be interested to hear what people have to say about what they think and have experienced when playing Trundle top and what has worked for them.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any replies!
Mooninites
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Trundle got a lot better because of Grasp of the Undying, I think he's fine without BotRK and generally I think his itemization is a lot stronger. Since the meta became so AD heavy because of the AP item nerfs and malphite rose in popularity, it meant trundle also rose as a counter pick. He's a lot better this season
Thanks for the Signature MissMaw!
Troy Sin
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You should get Frozen Gauntlet as your first item most of the time. (vs. AD champs) Triforce is to expensive when u compare these two sheen items.

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