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The Revival of Trundle Top?

Pepsì·6/20/2019, 6:13:36 AM·1 votes·1,521 views

Recently, I've been thinking of the state of Trundle in the top lane, as ever since 2016 he has minimal to any play, let alone when he did it was primarily in the Jungle. Though after some consideration of what killed his top i noticed a few things that have slowly been implemented that may potentially bring him back to a S Tier pick.

Trundle had his split push nerfed when he was a top lane behemoth, stopping his q from procing on towers, this is no longer the case and hasn't been for a while so his split push is restored to former power, though there is one component that has now just furthered it, Demolish. This rune allows trundle to collect free plates with little to no loss as he can q proc demolish with some additional autos it is able to take the plate.

Trundle was also known as only strong when tank champions were viable as he is a direct counter to them, this is somewhat untrue anymore, this is due to the strength of conquer with trundle's playstyle. Trundle loves to auto-trade and his q and w allow for alot of autos to happen. Pair this with a Triforce and he feels much stronger than many top lane champions.

In addition bruiser items have never been better with death's dance and spear of shojin being overtuned and great for extended trades. Trundle also synergises well with these items as he has extended trades thus death's dance is a great way to sustain. Also his ultimate is a massive stat steroid, matched with the spear of shojin passive, it allows for multiple w's which stack attack speed individually aswell as additional q's for higher dps and e's for zoning.

These three core items with either more focus on being tanky or AD bruiser. Is able to increase trundle to at minimum an A tier top.

The only disadvantages are the relatively lackluster, pre 6. Recommended that you play relatively passively and utilise your pillar as a defensive tool/ gank assist never use aggressivley pre 6.

Ranged matchups ensure to ask for jungle assistance and itemise earlier resistances.

Finally the reason of wanting to share this is due to me finally recognising the amount of time trundle has been in this state and still has horrible playrates

TLDR: Trundle is Batshit broken now, use conquer and demolish(Rest is preference), Build Triforce, Death's Dance and Spear of Shojin as core. Due to great kit synergy, Bruiser strength and extended trades. Preference for more AD Bruiser or Tank afterwards. Play safe till 6 and ask for assitance against range matchups

Kind Regards

  • Pepsì [sg-ahri-2]

1 Comments

Lovelle6/24/2019, 5:06:15 AM1 votes

I use Trundle almost every game and have for years. I would say he's decent, but far from broken, there are way worse offenders to champion balance right now.

Conquerer isn't even that good on him IMO because it doesn't help him early on, which is where he is weakest. In comparison, Grasp and PTA are far easier to apply, since his opponents are going to be running from him (oops I meant kiting) the majority of the time. Plus, in lane with Grasp all you have to do is Q them every 4 seconds to do a ton of damage. PtA is better in lane and jungle than Conquerer, since all it takes is auto-Q-auto to get the full benefits.

Conquerer is strong as hell on him late game, especially with a Triforce, but most games just don't reach that point anymore. His ideal build for damage output just isn't possible in most circumstances since his core damage items are so expensive (compared to his competition). The only other bruisers top with similar expensive itemization are Jax and Irelia, and both of them are far easier to win games with. Jax outscales Trundle while having a better early game, and Irelia is Irelia, she can destroy teams near single-handedly when played well.

item 3078 While this item is decent on him, his damage doesn't scale well enough to justify prioritizing it in a build over health and resistances. He's not like a Jax, GP, or Irelia, who all start destroying people once they complete the item.

item 3812 Too expensive for having no defense attached it. This item is mainly for AD casters, while Trundle does 90% of his damage through auto attacks. If you really need lifesteal Ravenous Hydra is far superior, and much easier to build since Tiamat fixes his waveclear issues.

item 3161 This costs a lot of gold for a champion that needs to build tanky to do his job. Trundle doesn't scale well enough damage-wise to justify pure damage items that cost over 3000 gold. His sustain, Pillars and debuffs are what make his late game, not his damage. Basically, it competes with Triforce for the same slot and in a game against decent opponents he won't be able to buy both without being setback.