In case you haven't realised, I have included a lot of information and detail for the Items, Runes, Summoners and Skill Order. Don't forget you can hover over "Notes" to read!

Hey, I'm Kagaroo. I am a multi-season Challenger (EUW & EUNE) Trundle OTP and self-proclaimed best Trundle in the world, peaking 1200LP+ Challenger EUW & 1500lp+ Challenger EUNE (Rank 6) playing Trundle top only.

With the removal of mythic items, re-introduction of Lethal Tempo and the changes to Hullbreaker, Trundle's itemisation and playstyle has shifted from a one-dimensional "no skill split-push only" playstyle to something increasingly complex.

While Trundle's kit and mechanics might seem straightforward (which they are), there is a MASSIVE difference in how he's played across different ranks and skill levels.

The difference between a Challenger Trundle compared to an average (Platinum) Trundle can be condensed down to three core principles:

1. Laning Phase (most important)
2. Experience: Matchups & Limits knowledge
3. Itemisation

This in-depth guide will focus on these three principles to help you understand the importance of laning phase, matchups and how to optimise your build.

I stream on Twitch and post on YouTube & TikTok! Please check them out!

Twitch: twitch.tv/kaagaroo
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kaagarooTV
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaagarootv

Feel free to join the TrundleTop1 (my goat) discord to ask questions and chill with the BEST Trundle players across the globe!

🟩 Pros ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

🟢 Zero mechanics and easy to play

🟢 Independent

🟢 High sustain in lane

🟢Tank shredder with R and BOTRK

🟢 Can recover & play from behind

🟢 Has high income - towers are worth a LOT of gold and can collect shutdowns easily.

🟢 Great statchecker and can snowball well and force games into late game if played correctly

🟢 Strong 2v2 skirmishes with Jungler, can create priority for Grubs on spawn consistently

🟢 Incredibly strong early game & mid game

🟢 Can Solo end games on side (1v9 potential)

🟢 Strong after level 6

🟢 Hard pressure on side lanes

🟢 Great wave clear after Tiamat

🟢 Spikes extremely well on Ravenous Hydra, and becomes a monster after second item which is BOTRK

🟢 Can catch enemies off-guard and secure shutdowns after Hydra+BOTRK, even while being lower levels.

🟢 Can stay on the map for a long time with sustain from Hydra + BOTRK + W + Revitalize

🟢 Can have really high CS per minute count after Tiamat

🟢 Flexibility in playstyles (Sidelaning, great front-to-back teamfights with R, catching enemies with E)

🟢 Becomes a major threat on the side when objectives are spawning

🟥 Cons

🔴Can be ganked and punished hard

🔴Has a lot of counter matchups and hard matchups

🔴Can be easily kited / neutralised by CC

🔴Struggles against champions with mobility

🔴Team Reliant -> relies on your team to play opposite of you and slower

🔴Requires vision on the map and high map awareness & concise decision making when playing on side

🔴A single mistake on the side can solo lose the game

🔴Mastering the champion means knowing your matchups & limit-testing which can take a lot of games

🔴Harder to win in higher elos when the enemies know Trundle's strengths

🔴Requires a lot of patience even when ahead

🔴Falls off late game as enemies are completing items

🔴Semi-Squishy & plays on limits (lifesteal)

Feel free to skip this part if you are only here for the guide and how I play Trundle

1. Why not demolish?

It might come as a surprise when you see that I do not take demolish often. This is because in high elo, it is harder to get solo kills & punish the enemy for leaving the lane open.

Furthermore, if you cannot threaten or kill the enemy laner on the side, in most cases you CANNOT push.

The setup I opt for aims to benefit you in laning phase as much as you can so that you can scale and reach your two item power spike thus winning the side lane.

The addition of Void Grubs to the game has made it so that tower damage buffs like Trinity Force Sheen and Demolish are not really needed. Trundle will easily be able to crush these towers if there is no one there to defend them even with just one Grub.

The best case scenario is to be able to take Demolish + Overgrowth. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury to be able to "greed" for Demolish every game and I would rather take a defensive rune (Second Wind / Boneplating) to ensure that lane is easier to play than to pray that the enemy is bad and makes mistakes to open the lane.

2. Why do you not build traditional tank items?

Simply put, traditional tank items (items that ONLY give defensive stats) are not optimal on Trundle.

The only champions that benefit from building traditional tank items are those who have armor/magic resist/health scalings and/or percent max health damage in their kit.

Trundle does not fulfill any of these requirements and there are plenty of great hybrid "defensive" items that provide armor/magic resist/health/shields as well as providing some sort of offensive benefit.

Additionally, Trundle gains resistances when he ults another champion, so the only defensive stat we should prioritise are health especially when we factor in Trundle's synergy with lifesteal. Trundle has incredible sustain when he gets an ounce of lifesteal.

For example: Sterak's grants health, tenacity AND a shield, Death's Dance provides anti-burst, armor and AD, Black Cleaver & Trinity Force both provide a solid amount of health.

The only traditional items that I can recommend wholeheartedly is Spirit Visage, Randuins and Force of Nature (versus certain champs e.g., Gragas, Mordekaiser).

3. What about Trundle Jungle?

To clarify, I personally would not recommend you to play Trundle jungle in higher elos (Masters+).

Trundle jungle is definitely playable in higher elos, however it is not optimal due to Trundle's champion identity. The issue with Trundle jungle is that he does not fulfill a specific role in the jungle. Trundle is NOT a carry jungler (unlike Kindred, Graves), he is NOT a tank (unline Sejuani, Zac, Skarner) and he lacks CC, mobility and is limited to melee range. Trundle cannot frontline like other tank junglers, Trundle cannot carry like other carry junglers and he does not provide enough utility for the team.

Additionally, Trundle's success rate is higher when the enemies do not respect Trundle. In lower elos, the players tend to have worse kiting, movement and misposition often thus, Trundle Jungle can succeed in lower elos. For example, in lower elos at the 3:30 crab skirmish, enemies will just fight Trundle even though Trundle is extremely strong in the early game. On the other hand, in higher elos, the enemies understand Trundle's strengths and weaknesses and will simply respect Trundle until late game when he becomes completely useless.

To conclude, I am not saying that Trundle jungle is unplayable, but I am speaking from experience to say that Trundle Jungle is not optimal in Masters+, especially when you encounter good players who can counter-jungle and out farm you easily.

4. Why no Trinity Force second?

Play Video Video above is satire, please go to "Trundle's Identity & Mindset: Itemization ~ Why not Trinity Force?" to understand why I don't build Trinity Force second

To understand why I don't recommend building Trinity Force second, despite being his recommended and highest win-rate item even across a larger sample size on EVERY analytics site, it is imperative to understand Trundle's champion identity and the mindset you should have whilst playing Trundle.

What is Trundle?

Trundle is a very strong early game champion, winning 1v1's with ease and can even win some 1v2s in the early game.

He is a farming monster, one of the easiest champions in the game to farm minions due to his Q auto-reset and AD buff and AS steroid from W. Trundle can easily reach 8.5+ cs per minute consistently and reach his item power spikes without even killing his opponent just by farming well. Additionally, once Tiamat is entered into the equation, Trundle can EASILY proxy waves and take jungle camps with his high mobility from W.

As a result, Trundle can create great tempo and has freedom on the map which allows him to easily cheese tower platings and take neutral camps (grubs + jungle camps).

By simply farming well, Trundle can reach his 2 item power spike (Hydra + BOTRK) with ease and start to create pressure on the side lane and threaten the enemy base.

To conclude this section:

Trundle is an extremely simple and low mechanical stat-check fighter that excels at split-pushing and 1v1 situations, with the prize for winning the fight being an open lane to take towers and force the enemy into a predicament: reset in numbers to stop the Trundle or let the Trundle end the game.

Therefore, apart from the semi-rare situations where the enemy has completely left the side-lane or base open, if you cannot win the fight on the side against the enemy, it is unlikely that Trundle can take the base freely.

Why Hydra + BOTRK and not Hydra + Trinity Force?

Statistically speaking, Trundle's win-rate is highest when the games end at 20-25 minutes with a 55.62% winrate. Every minute on-wards, Trundle's win rate starts to fall due to the enemies starting to complete items and match Trundle's stats.

See Image: Sourced by Lolalytics.com

Statistically speaking, Trundle's win-rate is highest when the games end at 20-25 minutes with a 55.62% winrate. This is likely due to game deciding objectives spawning (Dragon Soul or Soul Point, Atakhan and Baron) and Trundle creating the most pressure around these times or split-pushing to end games on these timers.

Every minute on-wards, Trundle's win rate starts to decline due to the enemies starting to scale and complete items and match Trundle's stats. We have already established that Trundle is a stat-checking machine and succeeds when his stats are much greater than the opponent. Thus, it makes sense that once the enemy scales, Trundle starts to lose.

Looking at these stats, we can deduce that Trundle is at his strongest during the mid to early-late game. At 20-25 minutes, on average you should have 2 and a half items completed. Now what is the strongest two item spike for Trundle?

Trundle is a stat-checking bully and the core stats that Trundle needs to succeed are: Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Health, and wave-clear (Tiamat). If we are looking at stats alone, the best first item for Trundle would be Stridebreaker - as it has all the stats that Trundle needs to succeed. However, theory ≠ practical.

Speaking from successful experience and discussion with other accomplished Trundle OTP's, the best TWO item spike is Hydra + BOTRK. As we have previously concluded, if you cannot win the duel on the side you will not be able to push and threaten the end.

Trinity force is without a doubt, one of the BEST items, practically suited for Trundle. It is a well-rounded item that has ALL the stats Trundle needs. However, it falls off as the game goes on due to the enemies building more defensive and gaining health from levels. As a result, Trundle becomes too reliant on his R to run down enemies. The issue with being reliant on our ultimate is that the enemies can simply run away once they see us cast our Ult and then we are neutralised for the next minute which can be pivotal for the game.

When pairing the idea that the opponent could kite around your R, it becomes harder to vouch for Trinity Force. On the other hand, BOTRK is a monster spike for Trundle, comparable to Irelia/Warwick/Yone/Sett BOTRK spike. Trundle's source of damage is from auto attacks and BOTRK is an INSANE buff to this, allowing you to fight basically anyone and win even without your R.

To further support this, the Hydra + BOTRK lifesteal synergy allows you to stay on the map longer, therefore increasing your gold income and impact on the map a lot more. The sustain from this combo allows you to take "negative" trades, where you can take more damage than the enemy for a few more hits under tower and sustain back to full HP on the next incoming wave or jungle camp. This is something you cannot do as efficiently with Hydra + Trinity Force.

However, this does mean that you will be a lot more squishier as you won't have the health from Trinity Force. Despite this, the lifesteal you gain from BOTRK (and the synergy with Hydra) effectively is your tankiness/health (as you can see in the video above).

To conclude this section:

Hydra + BOTRK, is a higher risk, higher reward build compared to Hydra + Trinity Force which is "safer" and weaker. I am not discrediting Trinity Force on Trundle, as the stats (winrate) clearly do not lie - the item is VERY good on Trundle. However, if you are trying to climb higher (Diamond+) and might want to push the simplistic champion to the utmost limits, you should opt for a Hydra + BOTRK setup.

This item combination allows Trundle players to express more skill and can clearly show the skill difference of a Challenger Trundle player and an Emerald Trundle player. I'd love ot heard your thoughts and discussions on this rant, feel free to leave a comment below or message me directly on discord: kagaroo

As Trundle is such a low mechanical, simplistic champion, optimisation is core, even the smallest stat matters. Here are some goals:

Goals

> Try to fight in minion waves, whether it be sitting in a wave or running towards the next incoming wave. After you have Hydra, the minion waves are basically a cheat-code, healing for 1500+ per wave.

> Try not to die in laning phase, especially in 1v1 scenarios as you are a stat-check champion and flourish when you have more items than the enemy

> Try to have atleast 8.5+ cs per minute on average

> Don't be afraid of dying, dying for towers (especially after tower gold buffs) can be crucial for accelerating spikes

> Try to identify and understand when you can punish your enemy (if they step too forward, short trades)

> Understand that Trundle is not only about killing the enemy but rather farming and impacting the map / game.

> Avoid teamfighting if possible, and play on the opposite side of the contested objective.

Tips & Tricks (Video showcasing the following soon)

> AA + Q + AA ~ Chomp is an auto attack reset

> Trundle W (Frozen Domain) has a target range and you can choose where to place it depending on where you or your enemy are likely to be. Example: Place it behind you when you are hitting a tower so you can run away (Or place it forward to chase after taking tower). If you are kiting backwards, place it behind you, if you are chasing place it forward. If you have no idea, place it in the middle

> Trundle ult steals stats at time of cast ~ ult on aftershock, malphite shield, rammus W, Leona W

> Try not to start with R unless you know for certain your enemy has no flash or mobility ~ you should use R when you can guarantee a full commit fight where they cannot kite / run away from the duration

> Trundle R + Ignite deals a LOT of damage ~ can be used to catch enemies offguard

> Q a target before for the AD steal bonus before fighting your main target

> Pillar attracts tower aggro

> Wits' End on-hit damage + BOTRK on-hit damage benefit from Lifesteal

> Use your Passive range as an estimate for EXP range

Early Game: How to exploit Trundle's strengths.

Laning phase is by FAR the most important stage of the game for Trundle. Every high-elo Trundle player has an impeccable laning phase, leveraging Trundle's strong early game to consistently build a lead over the opponent or scaling to his two item power spike.

To exploit Trundle's early game, here is a gameplan that you can employ into your games consistently. Consistency is key and by approaching laning phase like this will allow you to create a gold lead in most of your games.

There are two ways to approach laning phase as Trundle:

1) Easy Matchups and Skill Matchups
2) Counter Matchups: how to play weakside

Early Game: Trundle Favoured Matchup

Trundle is often misunderstood. Most players think that his early-game strength guarantees easy kills. However, this is only partially true. Trundle can punish opponents who disrespect his early game strengths by mispotioning or taking bad trades but this is not the case in most games.

In higher elos, enemies typically understand Trundle's limitations. His kit is one-dimensional and predictable: he lacks dashes, ranged abilities and hard CC (unlike Riven/Irelia/Yasuo/Darius). Skilled opponents will exploit this by playing respectfully, minimising opportunities for Trundle to snowball.

To succeed, you must shift your mindset. You should reframe your approach from "How do I solo kill my laner?" to "How do I scale to my two-item spike while leveraging my early strength?" Solo kills are inconsistent and can vary from game to game, but farming well and securing minions is something that can be done in every game. Consistency wins games and you should focus mostly on how you are playing your first few waves. You should prioritise the following:

Slow-pushing: Stack waves and crash them into the enemy tower. By slow pushing and zoning the enemy you are denying minions and therefore gold, slowly building a steady gold lead.

Resetting early: Don't be afraid to reset often to buy stats (e.g., Long Swords) to ensure a stat advantage on your enemy. However, keep in mind tempo. You can't reset on EVERY wave or you'll lose out on exp and gold. The rule of thumb is to try to reset on cannon waves (or shoving waves completely) before resetting to minimise losses.

Punishing mistakes: Capitalise when enemies overstep for minions or trade poorly. Trundle excels in extended fights with Lethal Tempo. By taking good trades, you can set up dives with your jungler or force your opponent to reset and lose waves.

Optimising Priority: If you are hard shoving every wave, there will be moments of idleness where you are waiting for the next wave. Whilst waiting for the next wave, you should be looking for deep vision into the enemy jungle and placing great deep vision to help your team track jungle.

The main goal of the laning phase is to ensure that you are scaling well (farming well - 8.5cs+ average) and securing priority for Void grubs (spawns at 6 minutes). Whether you snowball or farm safely, consitency in wave management and farming well will ensure that you hit your power spikes reliably.

Early Game: Tiamat and Proxying

Once you are able to buy Tiamat, you should reset when you can and purchase it. Trundle's wave clear becomes unstoppable at this point and we can fast-shove every wave and exit laning phase by transitioning into proxy style (clearing waves between enemy towers) gameplay.

This strategy denies enemy tempo by forcing the laner to farm under tower, forcing them to eventually take a bad reset (if they lack TP). In this case, you can fast shove the wave and take plates before they enter lane again.

Additionally, proxying secures map control. For example: proxying before Voidgrubs spawn forces the enemy to clear waves whilst we help secure grubs with our jungler. Not only are we securing 100% of the minions, but we are also impacting the map. While proxying, drop deep vision into the enemy jungle. If opponents rotate to stop you, your team can take Dragon, invade camps or crossmapping a dive on bot. If no one comes to stop us, we can steal enemy jungle camps inbetween waves. Denying jungle pet stacks (whilst gaining gold and exp) cripples the enemy jungler and accelerates our scaling.

Whilst plates are valuable, do not tunnel-vision onto them. To put it simply:

Pre-Hydra: Only commit to plates if they’re low (1-2 hits left) or the enemy laner is absent. Overstaying risks unnecessary deaths.

Post-Hydra: With lifesteal and wave sustain, you can safely ignore most laners. Shove waves, melt plates, and heal off incoming minions.

Remember, Winning Lane ≠ Kills
Focus on gold differentials, not kill counts. Even if you die occasionally, you’re “winning” by:

Outfarming your opponent (aim for 8+ CS/min).

Securing priority for Voidgrubs.

Play for macro pressure, not kills. Proxy waves, starve the enemy jungler, and prioritize grubs/dragons. By mid-game, your item lead and splitpush threat will make you unstoppable.

For video examples, please check out my twitch (I stream often!), catch my VODS or watch my youtube videos!!

Here is a GREAT video showcasing the concepts explained: Play Video

Early Game: Versus Counter-Matchups and playing weakside

If you're in a counter matchup (enemy laner outranges, out-trades, or kites Trundle), your goal should instantly shift to survival. You will be isolated in a losing 1v1 so your main focus should be on minimising losses and maximising the resources you have. Focus on the following:

Minimizing deaths: Prioritize health over risky CS. Give up minions if taking poke risks a dive.

Resource efficiency: Buy Doran’s Shield + Second Wind for sustain. On early resets, consider Cull + Refillable Potion to offset gold deficits.

Wave management: Let the wave push to your tower. Last-hit safely and avoid overstepping—exp is irreplaceable, while gold can be recouped later.

Under Tower Basics

Avoid dives: Stay healthy. If the enemy slow-pushes a stacked wave, retreat and sacrifice CS rather than dying and losing the entire wave.

Respect junglers: Don’t bait your jungler into a doomed gank. Communicate to let them focus the opposite side of the map.

Scale quietly: Accept that you’ll lose lane gracefully. Your job is to draw pressure while your team capitalizes elsewhere (e.g., taking Dragon if grubs are lost).

Cross-map trades: If the enemy commits resources to dive you, your team gains windows to secure objectives, invade camps, or pressure other lanes.

Counter matchups test patience, not mechanics. Survive, soak exp, and trust your team and scaling. Even if you're behind, Trundle's splitpush threat and duelling potential at two items (Hydra + BOTRK) can flip the game in our favour. Even by bringing an enemy onto the side during the mid-late game can be beneficial for your team to play 4v4.

Early Game: Long Sword + Refillable Start

You might see that I have listed Long Sword + Refillable as starting items in the guide. This is something that I personally have been running in almost every single matchup that isn't an obvious doran shield + second wind scenario.

The benefit of Long Sword start is that it accelerates our Tiamat and we can buy Tiamat consistently at 4-5 minutes without any kills, just by farming. This means that I can enter the proxying stage of the game extremely early, giving deep vision to my team and GUARANTEEING grubs priority (grubs spawn at 6). The goal is to buy Tiamat before 6 minutes and proxying the wave before grubs spawn to ensure the first set of grubs. By permanently shoving waves, I create priority for my jungler and it opens up the map for them. I can proxy a wave, ping and instantly move to assist my jungler for a top side invade.

With this set-up, I don't even need to interact with the enemy laner and I can get Hydra by 7-12 minutes consistently. Once I get Hydra, I can ignore the enemy laner on cannon waves and hit the tower for platings, sustaining on the next incoming wave.

The negatives of this set-up is that it makes you extremely vulnerable before Tiamat. However, I am confident in my experience and I know my limitations well. If you can use refillable potion well, you essentially have the 100hp you lose from doran's blade back in regen.

It takes a a few games to get used to but I can whole-heartedly recommend Long Sword + Refillable start to any Trundle veterans. If you are a new Trundle player you should stick with dorans blade / doran shield and be comfortable with Trundle as a champion (his damage, his sustain, his limitations).

For video examples, please check out my twitch (I stream often!), catch my VODS or watch my youtube videos!!

Here is a GREAT video showcasing the concepts explained: Play Video

Mid Game: Sidelaning

After laning phase is over and you have at least Ravenous Hydra completed, you can start to impact the map by pressuring sides. At this point, you should have taken the first tower. You can now paply more pressure and start to push for Tier 2 towers.

Ideally, you should be playing on the opposite side of the map from the contested objectives and action because you can crush side lane towers extremely fast and Trundle enjoys playing in isolated 1v1's where you can show case your high single target damage.

Since you are on the opposite side of the objective, it is imperative that you are the aggressor, pushing the waves fast and looking to fight the enemy as mucha s you can. With the sustain from Hydra + Passive + W (and BOTRTK if you have it!), you can start to take "negative trades", trades where you are willing to take MORE damage than the opponent (taking a worser trades, tanking one or two tower shots) in return for more damage on the opponent. With Trundle's high sustain, you can heal back to full HP on the incoming waves and slowly chipping at the enemy tower or diving the enemy. Keep in mind that you should be looking at the map a lot, tracking the next minion waves and timing your trades as the enemy wave appraoches you.

Additionally, you need to keep your eyes glued to the map as you may need to prepare to use your Teleport in case a fight breaks out. With Trundle's oppressive side lane nature, you should be able to push the waves before your opponent and if a fight occurs on the other side of the map, you will have first move (by walking) or teleporting first.

However, if the opponent TP's first and you decide that the fight is lost or that there is no need for you to match the TP, do not cancel the TP with pillar and instead use this to your advantage and push the waves to take the towers. Do not underestimate your tower damage. After the tower gold buffs, towers are one of your main sources of income.

Tier 1 Towers: 300g
Tier 2 Towers: 700g
Tier 3 Towers: 400g

It is important to understand that the first two drakes are not that important. At this point, the death timers and waves are too low to push significantly. If you want to fight for drakes, the first two are the ones you are most likely participating in. I must re-iterate that if you HAD to choose between a Tier 2 tower or a non-soul dragon, you should play selfishly and prioritse the Tier 2 tower to snowball your items.

In regards to Soul Point / Dragon Soul, Atakhan and Baron, each game has a different scenario so there is simply no way for me to explain the BEST decision each game. Your individual decision making is significant when it comes to these objectives. Each scenario is different, and depending on death timers and wave states, it might be better to continue pushing the sides.

You should adopt a semi-selfish playstyle until you have reached your 2 item duelling power spike (Hydra + BOTRK) as until then, you won't be able to take over the side-lane completely. In the event that there is no objectives on the map, you should play patiently and wait for the next objectvie to spawn. During this period of time, you should be collecting jungle camps and shoving out waves on the side. After shoving waves on the side, you can safely walk towards your team and hover them and try to find some pciks with your Pillar (find opponents close to walls for easy pickings).

Ideally, you shouldn't push unless a fight is breaking out and you should instead push your side lanes and rotate to cover your team.


IMPORTANT: Please remember to type to your team on how you want to play the game. Your team mates are not mind-readers and likely do not have much experience playing with a monster side-threat like Trundle. When you are playing for side, you need to micro-manage your team. This can be done by easiest by typing and abusing your pings. Communication is key and you need to have confidence in your callouts.

🔴 To conclude: Play on the opposite side of the map to the objective/action and focus on collecting neutral camps, farm and towers to accelerate your core items.

🔴 Look for TP angles at objectives, but use your decision making to decide whether its more worth to TP or push the tower. In most scenarios, it is more worth to push the tower for the gold.

Mid Game: Teamfighting

During the mid game, unless you are incredibly ahead of the enemy team, I would NOT recommend you to participate in most team fights unless you don't have the timing to threaten the side lane.

The mid game is about accelerating your income to reach your situational third items (hullbreaker/deathdance/spirit visage/trinity force/cleaver)and the best way to do this is to take the Tier 2 towers.

You are really squishy without a wave or target to lifesteal on so in a front to back teamfight you might get one shot. However, if you do choose to group with your team then you should look for pick angles with your Pillar and follow up with your team rather than starting the fight.

You can also look for flank angles with your insane side wave clear. For example, you can push side lane waves and then rotate into mid for a flank.

🔴To conclude, don't participate in team fights unless you don't have side lane threat or timing to do so, play for picks with your Pillar and if a fight occurs, let your team mates engage first before following up. Opt to play for a front-back teamfight with your Ultimate on the first target. Flanking is really strong on Trundle with your fast wave clear.

Mid Game: Creating Pressure

Creating pressure is Trundle's strongest trait and biggest bluff.

It is incredibly important to understand that you do NOT need to solo kill enemies on the side or push towers to win the game. Creating pressure on the side takes a lot of experience, patience and decisive decision making. You need to have your eyes glued to the map, tracking the enemy movements and looking at your teams position.

If you see zero enemies on the map, you don't push the wave because they COULD be grouped to kill you and your team may not be in a position to take advantage of this. If you can spot enemies on vision on vision or if you know your team is in a position to take advantage of your pressure then you can start to push forward. You should only push when you have information on the map or if it's to bring attention to you.

The threat and pressure you create on the side forces the enemy to react to you:

Who will stop the Trundle?
Do we give the objective to stop the Trundle?

In the scenario where an objective is about to spawn less than 60 seconds, you should look to create pressure on the side. This means pushing waves, walking in and out of fog of war and pushing really hard when the objective is about to spawn in < 10 seconds. This way, you won't get caught by the cross map and if they do, they will lose the objective for it. On the other hand, if they don't react to you then you can push hard and threaten the end.

Remember that in most scenarios, it is worth to die for towers, especially if you are bringing multiple enemies to stop you.

🔴To conclude, you must pay attention to the map and track the enemies and allies positioning. You need to jiggle in and out of vision to force the enemy into a predicament of giving the objective or to stop you. Ideally, you should push on cannon waves and pushing hard when the objective is spawning.

Late game: Sidelaning

Fundamentally, side-laning in the late game is extremely similar to side-laning in the mid game. However, the only difference is that every death (friend or foe) can be game winning or game losing. Additionally, your decision making becomes even more important as you will likely be forced to game game winning/losing decisions.

Similarly to side-laning in the mid game, you should be playing on the opposite side of the contested objective, but instead of playing for gold/resources, your focus should be on creating pressure for your team or threatening the enemy base.

It is incredibly important to understand that in most cases, you shouldn't TP to the fight unless you have no wave / opportunity on the side lane especially after the TP changes. You should aim to threaten the side lanes and preferably let your team play a 4v4 game (enemy lacks the tank or front line or carry in the team fight since they're matching you).

At this point of the game, you should have at least 3 items and with these items, if you are stronger than the enemy then you can ignore them and take the tower with Grubs or Hullbreaker. However, if the enemy can hold the wave or neutralise you, then you must fight to zone them off or kill them. This is where your patience, experience and limits come into play. You should focus on taking negative trades to get them as low as you can ,sustain on the incoming wave and then dive the enemy or take the tower for free.

IMPORTANT: Please remember to type to your team on how you want to play the game. Your team mates are not mind-readers and likely do not have much experience playing with a monster side-threat like Trundle. When you are playing for side, you need to micro-manage your team. This can be done by easiest by typing and abusing your pings. Communication is key and you need to have confidence in your callouts.
🔴 In conclusion, similar to Mid-Game sidelaning, ensure that you can win the sidelane fight to pressure base. But it is easier and more consistent to bring more enemies towards you whilst your team secures the objective.

Late game: Grouping

Like the mid-game, ideally you should avoid grouping in the late game unless your team needs you in the fight to succeed and there is a chance to win 5v5. In these cases, it is likely that you would need a situational front line item third to compensate for this. Additionally, in the event that you get caught on the side before an objective spawns but respawn before the objective spawns and you do not have a wave or side-lane to threaten, it is better to fight the objective as a 5v5.

It goes iwthout saying but if you have taken 2 inhibitors or 3 inhibitors, you should just group and play 5v5, using your hullbreaker buffed minions to push for you whilst you pressure the enemy.

You should avoid grouping in the late game because at this stage of the game, everyone has a lot of damage and you are easily kiteable and prone to CC. You are not really a front line champion nor can you engage. Despite this, Trundle's front to back 5v5 is quite strong especially if we R the first target or Tank. You should ult the first person that enters your team so that you and your team can burst them down. If not, ult the tankiest opponent and absorb damage for your team or ult the enemy carry to make them extremely squishy.


🔴 In conclusion, you should try to avoid grouping in the late game if you can, but if you cannot and you are forced to team fight, you should play a front-back playstyle and ulting the first one that enters the team so that your team can full focus them.

🔴 TIP: You should ult someone who has procced aftershock since your ult works as a snapshot, giving you the most resistances while stealing the most resistances too.

Late game: Playing for Picks

If you are not pushing the sides or if you are not teamfighting, then you must play for picks. One of the most underrated things about Trundle and what flies through people is his Pillar (E).

In the late game, when you have more points in your Pillar, the slow is huge and the terrain can be game changing. You can push the sidelanes with your fast wave clear, and walk into mid with a flank angle to catch the enemy if they are out of position with your E. With a well-placed pillar, if the enemy doesn't have any mobility you can burn their flashes which can be significant in the late game.

Conclusion: Final Words

Playing Trundle is a perfect example of the Macro > Micro arguments.

To play an extremely simple champion, where you can auto-pilot 95% of your mechanics so that you can direct 100% of your focus to the macro/decision making aspect of the game is something that will help you fundamentally improve at the game.

Understanding the game and how to play the map, the macro and map decisions is a skill that every high elo player has. This skill is transferrable, no matter what champion you play you will have the same knowledge. Playing Trundle is a good way of improving this skill.

It forces you to improve into a playstyle that revolves solely around your own gameplay and own actions.

To be 100% honest, Trundle is an extremely easy champion and you honestly do not even need a guide to play him for the first time in lower elos as all of his recommended items and runes and summoners are playable into every matchup and state of game.

However, I disagree with the fact that Trundle is "only a low-elo stomper" that "relies on the enemy being bad". Trundle can be an extremely strong champion in any elo but it all comes down on how well you play the map, decision making and experience since the champion has a lot of advantages and disadvantages.

I would even argue that as you reach the apex ranked tiers, Trundle becomes even better than in low elo ~ as the majority of enemies are not well-versed with the side lane pressure and your teammates are likely to play slower and around your sidepush.

Take small steps each time and actively show responsibility to improve if you want to become a better player. The champion has the potential to reach the highest ranks and myself and others have already proved it multiple times.

Don't blame the removal of mythic items, lethal tempo for the "weakness of trundle". Take it as a lesson and improve.

I hope this guide was useful and helped anyone reading this to understand how to min-max Trundle to make your games easier and hopefully climb higher!

🔴 If you have any further questions, join the TrundleTop1 Discord or ask questions on my twitch: twitch.tv/kaagaroo - I will be streaming more now!

Twitch: twitch.tv/kaagaroo
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kaagarooTV
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaagarootv

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak."

"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.

Kagaroo, what does this mean? Why did you include this?

League of Legends Ranked Solo Queue is more than just winning and losing games. It is a test of patience and respect. The ranked environment is disgustingly toxic for no apparant reason. It's easier to follow the crowd and unfortunately, the easiest and most popular thing to do is to be toxic and disrespectful. Everyone is human and everyone should be treated with respect. What does losing in a game mean? Nothing. There is humility in losing. There is humility in winning. No one can read your mind. If you want someone to play a certain way, then use your chat and pings to communicate it. You don't need to instantly take an aggressive stance or flame your teammates to achieve this.

Don't be toxic. Try to be like the Sun and radiate positive energy. When someone flames you? Say my bad and play on. The best mentality to have in Solo Queue and in life is to have the mindset to improve.

There is no such thing as losing. We either win or we learn.