Hello, I'm Knightro, a League of Legends player and this is my guide to Trundle jungling in the 2015 Pre-Season. I have been playing Trundle since season 2, when he was known as, "The cursed Troll". He is one of my favorite champions, and I have played over 200 games as him, so I have a fairly good grasp of what works and what doesn't on Trundle.

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Before Voting on this guide, please read it thoroughly before deciding to vote. Don't make a hasty downvote based on the runes, cheatsheet, or even something I might have said to you previously, possibly on one of your own guides. Downvoting hastily without reading and testing this guide and build is unfair to the guide author, who took the time to write and code out a proud creation.

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I will not be going into the top lane whatsoever, as this is primarily a jungle-orientated guide. If you wish to read an in-depth top lane guide, then please refer to my friend Ireliavent's Time to start an ice age - Season 4 Trundle. It goes well in-depth into Top lane Trundle, and I recommend you give it a read. If you enjoyed their guide, don't forget to vote on it!

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Who is Trundle? Trundle is a beefy, melee DPS champion who disrupts team fights with his Pillar of Ice and tank-melting ultimate ability. He has very strong gank potential and a relatively quick clear speed. He is also a strong duelist, and can repel many junglers who would attempt to counter-jungle him. Trundle is a very strong jungler in the 2015 pre-season. This is because of his good sustain and fast clear. Since the gold changes to Hunter's Machete only permits you to start with 2 health potions, any champion without any form of built-in sustain is going to struggle in staying in the jungle for a long time during the early stages of the game. Fortunately, thanks to King's Tribute, Trundle doesn't have to worry about that! His passive keeps him healthy as he clears camps, and when you add in a Vampiric Scepter he doesn't even have to but health potions anymore.

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No. It will not. No guide will. Only practice can make you a better player for any champion. The point of guides is to give you an idea of what to build, what to skill, and a few tips and tricks. They cannot make you a better player, only tell you how. You can read this guide down to the BBCoding, but the only way to get better is to simply practice! Do not blame the guide if you cannot win games, you can only blame yourself.

Pros

+ Tanky + Sustained + Strong Duelist + Tank-melter

Trundle is a tanky champ who stays relatively sustained in the jungle thanks to his passive King's Tribute. He also an amazing duelist and can stand tall beside the strongest of duelists like Jax and Aatrox. His ultimate Subjugate also melts tanks by sapping their health, armor and magic resist, and buffing Trundle with those stolen amounts.

Cons

- Easily Kited - Poor scaling - Item dependent - No hard CC

Trundle is easily kited, and with my luck, always under the enemy turrets where I end up dying for the kill. He has relatively poor scaling with either AD or AP, as only his Chomp (as an auto attack reset) deals physical damage, and an ult that does magic damage. He also relies on items to define his role, as his base stats are rather poor. He also lacks any hard crowd control, only equipped with 2 slows.

Marks

Attack speed marks and attack speed quints grant the fastest clear time for Trundle, allowing him to farm up more effectively and improves his dueling potential.

These are the best jungling runes. This is because the early damage taken from monsters leaves you at larger risk if the enemy jungler comes around looking for first blood. If you negate more damage, then there is less of a chance that you will give up the first kill of the game.

Seals

Glyphs

The best glyphs for Junglers, they give the most magic resist at level 18, which will help reduce damage taken from enemy mages and AP fighters, making them more useful then flat magic resist glyphs. They help to make you more durable and resistant to magic damage late game.

Attack speed lets Trundle clear as fast as possible, and also increases his dueling strength. They are especially useful since the first attack speed item trundle gets is usually either wriggle's or BORK, so he will not have a ton of attack speed for the early game.

Quintessences Spac

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I don't take Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed since Trundle is really easily kited, so a little more movement speed isn't gonna help him very much. Also, he gains a ton of movement speed from Frozen Domain anyways, so they become even more redundant.

I don't take the 6 Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction + 3 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist combination because Trundle is not a heavy cooldown based champion. 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist will serve nicely.

Life steal quints have been nerfed pretty badly, so I find them no longer viable.

Offense Tree The nine points in the offense tree aim at granting as much extra damage as possible. Double-Edged Sword gives a small damage boost that could mean the difference between a kill and an enemy escaping with less then 10 health. The other points give a small amount of damage, and since this guide does not build a huge amount of damage from items, these masteries will give a total of 14 additional attack damage, which is like an additional full set of attack damage marks and quints.

Defense Tree The defense tree is where Trundle really shines. This makes Trundle very tanky and also sustained. Juggernaut and Enchanted Armor are more effective the more resistances we build, which is how Trundle should be built in the first place. Perseverance and Second Wind keep Trundle sustained and harder to kill throughout the entire game, and works nicely with Trundle's healing-based kit. Oppression works perfectly with Randuin's Omen, as every time you get hit with a basic attack, you slow the enemy, so they will deal reduced damage to you.

Smite

You must absolutely take Smite when jungling. You cannot buy a Hunter's Machete without it, and the new jungle is much stronger then the old one, and you will not be able to clear camps quickly or effectively enough without it. It now upgrades into 4 different variants based on which upgrade you choose for your machete.

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This is perhaps the most useful spell in the game. Almost unlimited uses, it is a good spell for almost any champion. Since Trundle doesn't have any sort of escape (other then the movement speed boost from Frozen Domain), Flash is very useful more filling in as an escape. It is superior to Ghost since Frozen Domain already gives a huge movement speed boost, and if you take Ghost then you cannot blink away over a wall or escape at a moment's notice.

Flash

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King's Tribute Trundle's passive ability heals him for a percentage of a nearby enemy unit's maximum health when they are slain within 1000 units of trundle. (The max range on Pillar of Ice, and the AOE radius of Frozen Domain). You won't notice it activate throughout the game unless you keep your eyes glued to your health bar (not recommended)! It keeps Trundle sustained through the jungle phase, and heals a ton of health when capturing epic monsters such as dragon and baron. It procs on any non-allied unit, including minions, monsters, enemy champions, and even champion pets.

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Chomp Trundle's bread-and-butter spell. People underestimate the power this spell has in duels. It's on a low 4 second cooldown, so you can use it multiple times, and it's low mana cost lets you spam it almost indefinitely. Since it is on such a low cooldown, it will always proc Sheen and any Sheen upgrades, like Trinity Force and Iceborn Gauntlet. This makes these items very smart purchases on Trundle.

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Frozen Domain Trundle coats a large area with ice for a few seconds. While he stands on it, he gains bonus movement and attack speed, as well as increased healing from all sources. (Like spirit visage). This healing affects health regeneration, life steal, potions/biscuits, and the health gained from both his passive and ultimate. Be careful about using it while jungling though, as it reveals a large area, basically giving away your position to the enemy team. It also has a static mana cost, so using it without blue buff with drain your mana quickly. This spell synergizes really well with Spirit Visage, increasing healing by 40%!

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Pillar of Ice Trundle's most valued ability. He creates a small beacon at the targeted area, creating a pillar of un-passable terrain. This pillar emanates a small AOE slow around it, refreshing if enemies stay in the area. This skill is definitely the hardest part of mastering Trundle, but when you get it down it's really not that hard. You need to cast it just in front of enemies, so that the spell knocks them back a bit and interrupts their movement orders. Casting it too early will allow them to simply walk around the pillar. One point it sufficient for most scenarios, but maxing it second lowers the cooldown and increases the slow, improving its effectiveness. It also will interrupt channels when cast directly underneath the target. The best use of this skill is trying to pin someone against the wall with it.

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Subjugate Trundle immediately steals a percentage of the targets maximum health, armor and magic resist. Over the next 4 seconds, the same amount of health, armor and magic resist is stolen again. Trundle also heals health equal to the amount stolen, and this is increased by Spirit Visage and Frozen Domain (but this will not affect the damage dealt). He also gains the stolen armor and magic resist for 4 seconds after the full drain. It is this skill that makes Trundle a tank killer, sapping almost 30% of their max health and 40% of their total armor and magic resist. Make absolute sure to target the tankiest member of their team to benefit most from this ability. Finally, keep in mind it deals magic damage, so armor will not reduce the damage. One trick I use when fighting someone is wait until I am very low health before targeting them with this spell. It will drain their health and start healing me, keeping me alive while they lose health. Its sort of like Volibear's passive. It works to its maximum potential when used with Frozen Domain, Spirit Visage and Second Wind.

Obviously, you should max Chomp first since it is Trundle's only real damage source. Whichever comes second depends on the enemy team composition.

If you are facing a tough enemy jungler who is a strong duelist like Jax or Vi, then you should max Frozen Domain second, for the stronger attack speed and greater dueling potential. This way you won't be out-dueled so easily and can hold your own should they come around looking to counter-jungle you.

If the enemy jungler is a weaker duelist and a slower jungler, who is more gank-orientated, such as Nautilus or Amumu, then you should max Pillar of Ice to improve the slow for greater ganks. The slow increase is remarkable, and the reduced cooldown makes it invaluable for early-mid game team fights and skirmishes.

Naturally, take points in Subjugate at levels 6, 11, and 16.

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The only item to start with for any jungler, especially since you can't jungle properly without it.

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This is my favorite smite upgrade. Chilling Smite gives Trundle a little more CC when he ganks, which is great considering he has very little innate crowd control. I prefer the warrior upgrade for the bonus attack damage and armor penetration, but the Devourer upgrade is also very strong at the moment, and gets even stronger as the game goes on.

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An extremely efficient item for Trundle. Once you purchase this, you won't need to spend any more money on health potions. It also has many build paths, all that benefit Trundle nicely. I advise upgrading it into a Bilgewater Cutlass ASAP.

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These boots are so immensely strong. Not only does the armor negate monster damage, but the 10% reduced damage from auto attacks is HUGE. Since all monsters do is auto attack, these boots basically negate all damage while jungling. They also help out when the enemy team has a lot of physical damage dealers.

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These are good when you need magic resist and more importantly, Tenacity. These should be taken when the opposing team has either a high-magic damage comp or a large number of crowd control spells.

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This is one of the few items that is absolutely essential on Trundle. The attack damage and attack speed makes it good for dueling and clearing camps, and the health % damage on each hit lets Trundle take down targets that have a huge health pool. The active slow also lets Trundle stick to his target easier for a kill.

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This is one of my favorite items in the entire game. The health and magic resist increase Trundle's tankiness, and the cooldown reduction is a nice added bonus. The selling point of this item though is the increased healing, which stacks with Frozen Domain and makes Trundle very difficult to kill, especially when he gets some life steal items.

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Around the mid game, vision control becomes extremely important. Making sure that you clear any enemy wards before attempting something like Dragon or a team fight is crucial, as it gives your team the element of surprise.

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A massively tanky item, super useful on Trundle. The tankier you build, the better the slow on the active. It helps to keep you from getting kited. It also synergizes perfectly with the Oppression mastery, as the unique passive Cold Steel slows an enemy anytime they attack you. Since they are slowed, they will do 3% reduced damage to you. The two go hand in hand. I would only not take this is if they have no AD on there team, and instead have an entire team of AP casters.

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If you need more health, this is my preferred health item, because it grants magic resist as well. The spell shield can block any spell that might have been fatal, be it Requiem or Javelin Toss, and lets you run into the enemy team for their adc blocking a spell that might have stopped you.

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This item gives armor, CDR, and mana, and the item ability lets Trundle stick really well to targets and keep them disabled, in addition to boosting his own dueling potential. It also helps him to clear waves and minions faster.

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This item is great in that you don't need any other damage items to compliment it. It offers a lot of stats, but when it comes to pure offense or pure defense, it falls short of the likes of Blade of the Ruined King and Spirit Visage. I would primarily take this as a replacement for one of my core items.

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If you find yourself in need of more damage and magic resist, then this item is perfect for you. The shield can protect you from some magic damage while you Subjugate someone to leech their life and heal yourself, (similar to Volibear's The Relentless Storm). It also grants more attack damage the lower on life you get, making you stronger as you accumulate more damage.

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A very effective damage item. The flat armor penetration is godly, and the active helps a lot in duels and seizing objectives such as Dragon and turrets. The movement speed active also helps stick to targets or escape from them.

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This item lets Trundle clear minion waves and jungle camps very quickly, and the active acts as a third basic attack, improving his dueling potential. Mainly use it for split-pushing, other wise you should just build another defensive item.

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This enchantment helps to defend your base or quickly rush back into a skirmish. Not much else to say about it.

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Lowers the cooldown on Flash. Very useful when you need Flash up as often as possible, but still inferior to homeguard.

ON RED TEAM Gromp( Smite) Blue Buff Red Buff From here, clear whichever camps you feel like and Smite whichever ones give the bonuses you need.

ON BLUE TEAM Krugs ( Smite) Red Buff Blue Buff From here, clear whichever camps you feel like and Smite whichever ones give the bonuses you need.

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Why This route? I start with the Krugs on the Blue team, for the Gift of heavy hands buff, which stuns jungle monsters every few attacks and lets me clear them without taking as much damage. Don't worry, clearing them still gets you to level 2, and a lot faster then if you started at one of the buff camps. I start with Gromp on the Red team for the Gift of the Toadstool buff, to help me clear other camps quickly thanks to the poison damage they take every time they attack you.

What if I get counter jungled? If you are nervous about being counter jungled, then you can start at the opposite buff if you want. Sometimes you don't need to worry, like if you know that the enemy jungler will be starting at his red buff, then you don't have to fear him stealing yours. But if it is a champ who can start blue and easily go straight to your red, such as Shaco or Lee Sin, then you will need to be extremely cautious. If they jump you mid-clear, then back away immediately. Dying trying to secure your buff is never worth giving the enemy jungler first blood.

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Thanks to the Smite buffs, smiting different large monsters grants different bonuses! This means that you should be very selective about which camp you want to use it on. But don't use Smite when there is an important objective like dragon or your blue buff available, or if it is about to spawn. Save Smite for that camp! Make sure to keep track of the camp timers to know exactly when they respawn:


You can now just check the in-game timers by checking the score screen with TAB.

The Dragon is an important early-mid game objective. You do not want the enemy team racking up those Dragonslayer stacks! They grants fantastic bonuses based on how many dragons you have slain: 1 Dragon: + 8% Attack Damage and Ability Power 2 Dragons: + 15% damage to minions and monsters 3 Dragons: + 5% movement Speed 4 Dragons: + 15% damage to turrets 5 Dragons: + Doubles all previous bonuses and basic attacks burn enemies for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. This lasts 180 seconds (3 minutes)

Baron is a very important objective to secure in the late game. The best time to take Baron is when you have aced the enemy team, and you have both the tier 1 and tier 2 turrets down in a lane, and the minions are pushing that lane. An even better scenario is you have an inhibitor down and the super minions are swarming into the enemy team's base. This is good because it means that even if the enemy team re-spawns, they will have to defend their base and be unable to contest your team taking baron. You always need to keep a ward on this buff once it spawns!

This new camp spawns in the river near the Dragon pit and the Baron pit. Attacking it causes it to run away, to which you need to chase it down and kill it. Once slain, it swims to the entrance to the Dragon/Baron Pit and grants vision in a small area for a brief time, also granting movement speed to any ally that walks over it. This camp is especially valuable when you need to keep eyes out for the enemy jungler or if you need to make sure the enemey team is not attempting to sneak a Baron or Dragon undetected.

As the jungler, you will be roaming all over the map. Because of this, it only makes sense that you should be warding as you go along, right?

Remember that you can have up to 3 stealth (green) wards, and one Vision (pink) ward on the map at once. With this in mind, you need to using them sparingly! I recommend using one ward for each of these locations listed below:

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Ward Locations (Outlined) Blue: Defensive wards, to help prevent counter jungling. Red: Offensive wards for counter jungling or keeping tabs on the enemy jungler's position. Green: Wards to help lanes against enemy ganks, or to protect important buffs like dragon.

Warding the map is extremely easy with Trundle. Most of the time, you have your Stealth Ward, which gives a free ward. So all you have to do is buy one or two wards whenever you go back to the shop. You should also get a Vision ward up as soon as possible, and place it in a space where the enemy team won't likely find it, but where it will grant important vision. An ideal location is the single small brush on either side of the rive nearest to the mid lane.

Ganking as Trundle takes practice, because if you miss with Pillar of Ice, then you are forced to either chase them or hope to auto attack them to death. Fortunately, there are a few tips and tricks to make it a bit easier:


1) Use Red Buff! The Red Buff makes ganking very easy, especially in the first few minutes of the game. While you have red buff, try to gank with it as often as possible, as the slow effect will more often then not cause a Flash or other escape tool to be burned.

2) Keep track of enemy summoner spells and wards. If you are premade with an ally, and possibly using some online chat or other such application (Skype for example) then this gets so much easier. Your lane buddy sees his opponent Flash, or drop a ward, then he can just tell you asap so you don't waste your time sitting around in a warded bush, or you know you can gank a lane without Flash available. If you aren't in a premade and are just running some solo queues, then just do your best to communicate with your teams about wards and spells.

3) Be smart about picking a lane to gank. If your mid laner is pushed to the enemy's turret, and your mid laner wants you to come and gank, forget about it! Wasting time trying to gank a pushed lane is a classic noob mistake. If they rage and complain that you didn't gank, ignore them. They obviously have little common sense if they expect a gank from that. But if you see that the enemy has overextended and is pushed to your turret, then that is a great gank opportunity you should take advantage of.

4) You need to make sure that ganking a lane will be worth the time and effort you put into ganking it. In other words, you shouldn't gank unless you can get something out of it. For example, if you gank top, and they just walk away without dying or even burning any summoner spells, then that was nothing but a huge waste of time. However, if you gank and successfully kill them, or even burn their summoner spells, then it was not a waste of time.

5) Don't gank when your laner is low. If your top laner is really low on health, and requests a gank, they will more often then not end up getting killed by the enemy laner during the gank. Just tell them to go back and heal, and hold the lane for them until they return. This will give you a little more CS and experience while holding the lane. If the enemy top laner is still in the lane, don's shove it, just last hit like if you were the laner. If the enemy top laner left the lane, shove it to the enemy turret. This will cause the enemy laner to lose out on gold and experience while the tower kills minions.

6) Let your laner engage. This way, there is a better chance that your target will blow more cooldowns dueling with your ally, and then they won't have any way of dealing with you when you show up to gank. If they see you first, most likely they won't continue the fight, but immediately flee, and thus you loose a gank opportunity.

Trundle does not initiate team fights. What he does is instead isolate targets during said team fight with Pillar of Ice and then take down targets with the help of your team. It is best to leave the engages to someone with stronger initiate, such as Zac or Malphite.

During a team fight, make sure that you use your ultimate, Subjugate on the tankiest member of their team. This will in turn make you even tankier, and able to soak up a ton of damage for your team. Once you ult the enemy tank, then you should charge at the most important enemy on the opposing team. They will have to back up to re-position themselves away from you, and the enemy team will have to in turn turn their attention to you and peel you off their carry. With them focused on you, your team can focus them down and kill them easily.

If you need to escape a team fight, then drop Pillar of Ice behind you and run. It can slow your pursuers and gives you and your allies enough time to escape. You can also use the slow on Randuin's Omen to keep enemies off your back. And don't forget that Frozen Domain gives you a movement speed boost so you can run away easier.

A key factor to winning games is punishing the enemy. Punishing is, well, pretty self-explanatory. The enemy team f**ks up? Punish them. Punishing the enemy team sets them back and moves your team ahead, which is really how the game is won. Its not about who had the most kills. Its about who messed up the least, who got more objectives, and overall who played better. If the enemy jungler gives up 5 kills in the first 10 minutes of the game, he can still come back and win the game for his team if you don't punish him for it.

If the enemy laner messes up and dies, then take his turret. Enemy jungler gets caught out and killed? Take his jungle. Set him back. Enemy team gets aced because their ADC was out of position? Punish them. Take some turrets. Take dragon. Take baron. Every single mistake needs to set them back further and give your team a larger advantage. If you just won a fight and aced the enemy team, and your team is low, don't simply back. That won't change anything! You need to push lanes, take objectives, ANYTHING that can set your team ahead. If you simply back and let them all re-spawn, it won't benefit your team in the slightest, and that whole fight was just a waste of time.

Thank you for reading my guide to Trundle Jungle in the 2014 season. If you have any input or questions, or feel something is incorrect, leave a comment for me to read and I will reply to it. And if you felt it was useful, consider a +1, it's always appreciated. GLHF!

• Jhoijhoi, for her Guide to Making a guide, and for use of her custom dividers
• Lugignaf for answering some questions I had with BBCoding (twice)
• Throatslasher for suggestions about the skill order
• Hawkken and his BBCode codex - how to super-design your guide
• Ireliavent for their allowing of me advertising their guide and of them advertising mine
• The_Nameless_Bard for telling me how to add pictures to my mastery chapter
• Everyone who upvoted or gave useful input (You guys rock!)