Trundle General Guide by CrowElder

Introduction

Greetings!
I am Growncrow, EU nordic player. I have played hundreds of games in a role of jungler and now I'm about to introduce one of my favorite champs, Trundle the cursed troll.

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Lore

Trundle is a hulking and devious troll with a mischievous streak. There is nothing he can't beat into submission and bend to his will, not even the ice itself. With his massive, frozen club, he chills his enemies to the core and runs them through with jagged shards of ice. Fiercely territorial, Trundle chases down anyone foolish enough to enter his domain and laughs as they bleed into the tundra.
Trundle's warband once followed a foolish and cowardly chieftain. Under such a weak leader, Trundle feared he and his kin would fall prey to the other troll hordes scattered across the tundra. When his challenge to the chieftain ended in humiliation, Trundle did something that wasn't very troll-like: instead of his fist, he turned to his wits. Thinking on his hairy feet, he spun a tall tale about the troll leaders of old, claiming they wielded weapons of great power as symbols of their right to rule. Though he'd made up the story on the spot, Trundle wagered that if he could find or steal such a weapon, he would become the rightful leader of the warband. The trolls believed him, but none thought him capable of undertaking such a challenge. Knowing the boastful troll would die trying, the foolish chieftain agreed and Trundle departed to the familiar sound of laughter.

Alone but undaunted, Trundle ventured into the foreboding realm of the dreaded Ice Witch. There, hidden among the many ancient and dangerous secrets, he hoped to find a weapon to prove his elaborate tale. He out-muscled the Ice Witch's guards and outsmarted her dark magic traps, but nothing he scavenged matched the power he'd described to his kin. Finally, he found an unexpected prize: a huge and magical club of never-melting True Ice. Grasping the weapon, he marveled at the cold power that ran through him. But then the wrathful Ice Witch herself appeared. As she summoned her dark magic, Trundle believed he had met his end, but another clever idea struck him. With a knowing grin, he offered the Ice Witch a devious proposition: a troll army, he told her, would be of much more use to her than one troll corpse...

When Trundle returned to the warband, his fellow trolls bowed to his conquest. Calling his weapon "Boneshiver," he took a moment to enjoy the look of numb shock on his chieftain's face before he caved it in. Seizing command, Trundle announced that there would no longer be chieftains - only a Troll King before whom all of his kind would kneel. The trolls rallied behind their brash, new leader and prepared for the coming war. With Trundle leading the charge, the time of the trolls had finally come.

"Outsmart anyone you can't beat, and beat anyone you can't outsmart."
―Trundle

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This guide is my first in mobafire, Ill appreciate constructive criticism, but if you're here just to troll, you've chosen wrong troll and you should go create better guide!

Pros & Cons

PROS

- Amazing sustain
- Great chaser
- game changing pillar
- Very tanky upon using his ult
- crazy slow with frozen mallet and Q

CONS

- Ganking needs skill
- no stun (pillar is effective, but doesn't inflict stun)
- No AoE damage(natural)
- Low range on attacks and makes Trundle easily kitable if silenced
- Blinding Trundle eats the most of Trunde's damage, only his R does damage in addition to his basic attacks and Q(don't forget E, which does 1 true damage to change the tower's aggro)
- very low armor per level (2.7), but quite high early armor (19), but in result of low armor per level results having 67.6 armor at level 18, which is one of the lowest
- early buff dependent

Masteries

Jungle

9/21/0OFFENSE
Summoner's Wrath Increases damage on target you casted Exhaust, because it decreases target's armor and magic resist. Also if you prefer Ghost, which comes handy in chasing and escaping gets increased movement speed boost.
Fury attack speed comes handy, it scales well with Trundle's Chomp.
Butcher makes jungling faster and easier last hits if you decide to lane.
Deadliness gives nice amount of ad at level 18.
Weapon Expertise MUST! Just one point for +8% armor penetration, sounds a great deal.
DEFENSIVE
Summoner's Resolve gives you 10 gold when you cast your smite, also boost something what Trundle won't need, Barrier and Heal for example.
Durability more hp is always good.
Hardiness armor comes in handy in jungle.
Resistance you can't say no to magic resist, just one point means +2 magic resist.
Unyielding makes Trundle bit tankier.
Relentless Reducess the effectiveness of slows.
Veteran's Scars There's always use to hp.
Block reduces 3 damage from champions basic attacks.
Tenacious gives you tenacity, 2 points gives 10%.
Juggernaut makes you lategame really tanky.
Reinforced Armor critical strikes won't hurt you as much they do without this point.
Honor Guard reduces the damage taken from sources by 3%.
21/9/0

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Top

15/15/0

• more balanced than 21/9/0
• more tankyness

21/9/0

• easier to finish enemies with 21/9/0
  

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Support

9/9/12 gives offense,defense and utility, but if you prefer faster Trundle, you can go 0/9/21

Runes

Jungler

Marks

Greater Mark of Attack Damage gives you some early damage (8.55) to boost your jungling and ganking

Seals

Greater Seal of Armor helps your early jungling alot by giving 12.69 armor.

glyphs

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist gives pretty much magic resist at level 18 (24.30).

Quintessances

Greater Quintessence of Life Steal gives you more sustain.
Situational:
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage extra ad is always good.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed speeds up your jungling and boosts your ganks, scales well with Trundle's high movement speed (350).

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Top

Marks

Greater Mark of Attack Damagegives you some early damage to help lasthitting and beating up your enemies.

Seals

Greater Seal of Armor gives you quite much armor to protect you from attack damage.

glyphs

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist gives pretty much magic resist at level 18 (24.30),
but Greater Glyph of Magic Resist would be good pick, when facing ap
champ, for example Elise.

Quintessances

Greater Quintessence of Life Steal You will need lots of life steal, when you're solotop

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Support

Marks

Greater Mark of Armor gives you protection against adcs.

Seals

Greater Seal of Armor gives you more protection against adcs. (More than marks.)

Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Trundle will need some magic resist as a support

Quintessances

Greater Quintessence of Health gives you hp to last longer in lane.

Skill sequence

Max Chomp first for insane damage and max frozen kingdom for increased movemement speed, attack speed and healing, then max Pillar of Ice last for smaller cooldown and increased slow.Pick Subjugate always when possible.

Skill explanation

King's Tribute -Passive

Whenever an enemy unit near Trundle dies, he heals for 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6% of their maximum health.
Range: 1000 (estimate)

TIPS:

• Trundle can heal alot from minions and neutral monsters with King's Tribute.
  From ancient golem at 1.55 Trundle gains 2%x1500=30hp and from young lizard Trundle gains 2%x300=6hp, which isn't much,but can be major help in lategame teamfights. For example enemy team has Dr. Mundo, who receives heavy damage from Trundle's team and dies. Trundle happened to be in range (1000) and gains 6% of Mundo's max hp, which was 5000. Trundle heals 6%x5000=300. Not bad...
• King's Tribute provides nice heal after taking baron or dragon no matter, which team took it.

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Chomp -Q

Trundle enhances his next basic attack, dealing physical damage equal to a base amount plus a percentage of his attack damage and slowing its target by 75% for 0.1 seconds.
This attack increases Trundle's attack damage for 8 seconds, with his opponent losing half of this amount for the same duration.
Cost: 30 mana
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Base Damage: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90
Scaling: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120% of attack damage
Attack Damage Bonus: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40

TIPS:

• Chomp resets the attack timer. Learn to bite right after you attack for a double hit.
• Bite has a slight range and can be used to lunge towards an enemy if they are outside of his autoattack range.
• Chomp is good for lowering the physical damage of enemies; try to focus it on enemy physical damage dealers. When facing multiple melee enemies you may want to bite each one every 8 seconds to keep the AD debuff active.
• It can also be used to pop the opposing champion's Banshee's Veil(spell shield) before using your subjugate.

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Frozen kingdom -W

frozen kingdom
Trundle coats a target 1000-radius location with ice for 8 seconds, gaining bonus movement speed, attack speed, and increased healing and regeneration from all sources while he is on it.
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Range to Center of AoE: 900
Diameter of AoE: 1000 (estimate)
Movement Speed: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 %
Attack Speed: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 %
Increased Healing: 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 %
TIPS:

• Trundle excels at fighting within his frozen kingdom zone. Try to draw enemies onto it.
• If you are having trouble escaping or chasing champions, frozen kingdom gives you bonus movement speed so you can drop it out in front to help chase fleeing enemies or speed your escape.
• Since frozen kingdom has a wide radius and fairly short cooldown, you can use the movement speed it grants to move quickly from pack to pack in the jungle by dropping it in the proper location(,but remember, enemies can see your frozen kingdom zone and locate you and it also needs alot of mp and can make you run out of it.)
• frozen kingdom should always be used when attacking a tower for the attack speed increase. Place it so that most of the frozen area is behind you so that you can run away from any champion or tower shot.

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Pillar of ice -E

Trundle creates an icy pillar at a target location for 6 seconds, creating impassable terrain and slowing all enemy units around the pillar. Enemies caught in the center of the eruption are briefly knocked back.
The pillar blocks movement within 62.5 range, slows enemies within 187.5 range, and provides vision within 600 range.
Cost: 60 mana
Range: 1000
Pillar Diameter: 125
Slow Diameter: 375 (estimate)
Sight Diameter: 1200 (estimate)
Cooldown: 23 / 20 / 17 / 14 / 11 seconds
Slow: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 %

TIPS:

• Pillar of Ice can be used to block the final destination of some dash spells like Akali's Shadow Dance, Alistar's Headbutt, and Tristana's Rocket Jump . This prevents the damage, crowd control effects, and affects the final positioning of such spells.
• The ability deals 1 true damage, for the purposes of drawing tower aggro. It also serves to remove abilities such as Strut and Move Quick.
• Pillar of Ice may not be big enough to block off a lane or a passage in the jungle, but if used effectively, a Trundle can make other champions have to walk around it in order to get to you, giving Trundle time to escape or to chase.
• Pillar of Ice can be used to check the area, like baron or dragon, but remember Pillar of Ice has quite long cooldown and you may need it before it comes from the cooldown, also it shows a signal to enemy team, that you're there and they can come after you.

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Subjugate -Ultimate

Trundle immediately steals health (by dealing magic damage) and 20% percent of target enemy champions armor and magic resistance, then the same amount over the next 4 seconds, totaling 40% armor and magic resistance stolen. The resistances are returned back to normal for both Trundle and the enemy 4 seconds after the drain ends.
Cost: 75 mana
Range: 700
Cooldown: 80 / 70 / 60 seconds
Initial % Health Stolen: 10 / 12 / 14 (+0.01% per ability power)
Total Magic Damage: 20 / 24 / 28 % of the target's maximum health (+0.02% per ability power)

• Use Subjugate to soften a powerful enemy tank for your own survivability or to create a target for your team to focus fire. Sometimes, it may be better to Subjugate a squishy target as once they die, Trundle will be healed by King's Tribute.
• When a early team fight breaks out, use Subjugate on the squishiest targets, like whomever is doing more damage between the ranged attack damage carry or ability power carry. As the game progresses, Subjugate should probably be saved for the second or third tankiest person on the team to take them down a little quicker and it offers you a good amount of armor and magic resist against those carries from earlier.
• Subjugate would probably be wasted if used early on the tank because although Trundle will be pretty tanky, no one would focus the tank until everyone else is dead.

Spells

BEST PICKS

Flash

Overall good spell on Trundle to suprise enemy or escape.

Ghost

Excellent spell to chase or to escape. Might be overkill with frozen kingdom

Exhaust

Excellent spell to slow the target or weaken him by slowing his attack speed.

Must on a jungler to make jungling faster and to secure/steal red buff , blue buff , dragon or baron nashor .

Ignite

To finish enemy champs or reduce annoying health regen/ life steal etc.Good to pick if you're solotop.

Teleport

Teleports to friendly target (including minions,towers,pets and wards, but not champions).
Useful to pick, when going top to come quickly back to lane.

Items

How to build Trundle?

Spirit stone Trundle Lantern Trundle Trundle should buy Spirit Stone or Madred's Razors if you go Wriggle's Lantern, which isn't as good as Spirit of the Ancient Golem anymore from my opinion.

Trundle's earlygame goal is to buy jungler's item ( Wriggle's Lantern or Spirit of the Ancient Golem), boots and item with slow ( Phage or even Iceborn Gauntlet).

When Trundlehas bought these items I just mentioned, he should start raising cash for Blade of the Ruined King, which is really awesome item on Trundle. Trundle should start building Blade of the Ruined King by buying Bilgewater Cutlass first. Trundle can start build Bilgewater Cutlass earlier, if Trundle chooses to build Spirit of the Ancient Golem, because Trundle will need lifesteal.
After BOTRK Trundle should finish his slow item by upgrading it into Frozen Mallet, Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet and buying some defensive items like Randuin's Omen, which provides armor and hp and nice passive or Trundle should buy an item, which gives mr, like Spirit Visage.
Trundle can also build some more ad, like The Black Cleaver, which gives armor penetration (10+5%x5), ad(55), cdr(10%) and some hp(200). When Trundle completes his build, he should be really tanky, but also really scary damage dealer.

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A comparison of the items

Spirit stone or lantern?

• gives 500 hp
• gives tenacity
• 10% cooldown reductioon
• very cost efficient

• gives lifesteal
• gives armor
• bonus ward
• Madred's Razors and Vampiric Scepter are both great earlygame items on Trundle and are used to build Wriggle's Lantern.

Both are good items on Trundle, but after Wriggle's Lantern's cost increase
(+400 gold), I've started to prefer Spirit of the Ancient Golem.

Who's the Slowking?

frozen mallet

• amazing slow
• lots of hp
• +30 damage
• overall very good tank item

iceborn gauntlet

• +70 armor
• gives 10%cdr
• aoe sheen + slow
• gives ap, which isn't so good on Trundle

Trinity force

• gives many stats, that Trundle benefits
• icy passive(slow)
• sheen in it, increases chomp damage
• bonus ms

They're all good items on Trundle. Iceborn Gauntlet and Frozen Mallet are great tanky Trundle items and Trinity Force is really good too, especially if you're feeded. Then you'll be even more feeded! I prefer Frozen Mallet if you aren't very feeded, because extra 700hp it gives make you alot tankier than 70 armor from Iceborn Gauntlet, unless they have full ad team.

Supporting

Trundle is tanky support (if built to be support) and can deal quite damage and protect adc well with Pillar of Ice and reduce enemies ad with Chomp, especially enemy adc's ad.
Trundle is very uncommon support and picking Trundle as a support may lead to that your teammates will think you're troll (and they'd guess right in that, because Trundle is a troll :P). When Trundle reaches lv 6, enemies are in practice dead, because Trundle's ult reduces enemy's armor and m.res instantly with 20% and another after 6 seconds. You can defend your carry alot better and adc will do alot more damage to target (if Trundle is going for towerdive, it's wise to ult enemy to gain extra protection). Trundle's E can be used defensively by placing it in front of enemies to complicate enemies route to hit adc. Pillar can also be played to reduce the effectiveness of incoming gank. Offensively pillar can be played by placing it in front of enemy (adc) or by placing it next to him so he will get stuck into wall and you'll get adc sandwich. Chomp slows enemy a bit and it makes enemy's escape bit harder in addition to Trundle's pillar.

Jungling

Jungling route

ancient golem -> wolves -> wraiths -> lizard elder if you're going for a early gank or golems ,if you're needing lizard elder later.

Jungling video coming soon ;)

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Counter jungling

Trundle can counter jungle by taking enemy red, if they're taking blue first or vice versa.
This reduces the effectiveness of the enemy jungler. Without red, jungler won't gank very effectively, unless jungler has lots of cc. Trundle can also ambush enemy jungler in the jungle by killing him if he's on low hp.Situations with enemy jungler on low hp may happen often in early game. Warding enemy buffs helps counter jungling. you can smite enemy's buff and after that take a kill. Stealing buffs can be risky, because jungler might get help from lanes.

Ganking

The key to the succesful gank

Solotop

Trundle is immersive solotop. Trundle has easy lasthitting with Chomp and with huge damage. Trundle is great duelist and hard to kill after Subjugate is activated. Ranged champions may cause trouble by poking like Jayce or Teemo, but overall Trundle doesn't have many major counters and Trundle can counter some really scary toplaner like Yorick, Riven and Jax. When Trundle is fed, nothing can stop him (if you Trundle plays with his team) and can carry the game.

Laning against...

More to come ;)

Teamfights

Trundle can initiate teamfight, if it's wise to initiate (enemy caster out of mp, low hp etc.).The best way to initiate a teamfight is to use Pillar of Ice in narrow places (jungle) and use Randuin's Omen (if you have it) to slow them even more.Cast Subjugate to focus fire and weaken the target, you can make yourself really tanky by casting it into enemy tank, but then it can change the fire to carries, because no one wants to kill Trundle, when he can't die. Better way to use Subjugate is to cast it to carry or to off tank. Trundle should focus his Chomp into enemy adc to reduce his ad in order to kill him. Trundle can also be a good bait with his W & E to "taunt" enemies to attack him and run into bush where rest of the team are waiting for kills.