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New player seeking Tips & Tricks for low level jungling, laning & TF with Trundle: the Troll King...

HdjSeqzgAJ··2 votes·1,014 views

Dear boards,

I come to you today as a new player seeking Tips & Tricks for low level jungling, laning and team-fighting with Trundle: the Troll King. Trundle is a champion I found as I was leveling up my first account; which I got to level 10. Seeing him and his "Lil' Slugger" skin ( the jersey with his name and the number "86" on the back, the baseball bat with the nails, etc. ) on YouTube instantly made me fond of him and I wasted little time in making this account and purchasing Trundle and said skin. I don't regret the choice as I've found that I'm able to enjoy losing while playing this champion the majority of the time and this has increased my resolve to learn his ways.

What I'm specifically looking for are three things: getting the most out of Trundle's laning phase to prepare him for his middle and late game, how to effectively jungle at low levels with him ( I'll be using T1 runes given they are only 5 IP a piece ) so he can scale into his middle and late game and finally what to do when I have to team-fight instead of split-push. Laning phase seems simple enough at a glance ( I've been trying to use his sustain to outlast foe/trade, W and E to escape ganks, Q and W to siege towers ) but I'm not sure what I should do with him in the jungle upon hitting level 10. The thought of team-fighting with Trundle seems even more confusing to me and I've only found success in ulting their tankiest player while chasing down anybody who tries to run using my slows. I'm looking forward to any advice anybody has to offer.

Thanks in advance, TRUNDLE 86.

12 Comments

junglerboy162 votes

At the moment, Trundle is best in lane rather than the jungle, because he is a strong counter to many currently popular top laners. during lane phase, you want to do two things: Farm aggressively (try to get as many last hits as you possibly can, even at the risk of taking some harass) and take frequent trades with opponents (if you don't have a minion to last hit, look for an opportunity to land an AA>Q two hit combo on your lane opponent for a good chunk of damage). The only reason you can do this is because you have arguably some of the best built in sustain in the whole game. Every time an enemy unit dies, your passive heals you (as you undoubtedly know), meaning you can afford to take a bit of harass when last hitting where most champs would suffer a lot more for it. the same goes for taking otherwise unfavorable trades, since you can heal it all up very quickly leaving you with a health advantage over your opponent.

Pre level 6, you do not want to try and kill your opponent in lane unless you get a jungle gank or they are stupid and standing right next to you at very low health. Going out of your way to get a kill early game only serves to make you miss CS and put yourself at major risk of being ganked or simply getting killed outright. Once you hit 6, your kill pressure in lane becomes quite immense. If you and your opponent haven't backed yet, you should be much healthier than them, and if you have both backed, your CS advantage should mean you have better items. Try to harass them consistently and then go for an all in when they are vulnerable (i.e. if they have a mobility ability, bait it out first, if they have flash, ghost, heal, etc. do the same, try to fight them starting as far away from their tower as possible) To begin with, place your pillar behind them somewhere that they have to walk far around it (ideally next to a wall so they get stuck behind it) then drop your W ahead of the area they will run to and start beating on them with AAs and Qs, and pop your ult before they get under tower range so you get extra tanky and they become squishier for you to kill more quickly. If you have ignite, use it now to help secure the kill. At this point, if you did it right, they should be dead, you'll be at about half HP, and should be able to sustain off the minions and then take their tower.

As for build, I really like starting BotRK most of the time, since it is great for early dives like your level 6 all-in, and generally offers a lot of what trundle wants. after that, go for a sheen item (Trinity force if your ahead, Iceborn if your team needs you to tank up quick) because sheen items help you get off better burst trades with AA>Q combos. After that, getting a Spirit Visage is excellent and really works great with your passive, your BotRK lifesteal, your ult, and your W. Dead man's plate is a great pickup after that, since it helps you stick to enemies while keeping you durable, and to round out your items I like to get a titanic hydra since it allows you to deal a huge amount of damage while being very very durable. Boots are something you should choose based on the situation and build whenever you feel you need them. Trundle as a champion is able to use all except for Sorc shoes very well. Ninja Tabi make him much more durable, Merc treads help him in CC heavy team fights, Swifties help him stick to enemies really well and run away effectively, Lucidity boots allow you to spam Q and have pillar on an incredibly short cooldown, and mobi boots help you roam and split push really well.

Late game I usually prefer to use Trundle as a split pusher because he kills towers SO fast (usually at level 16 I can kill an inhib tower in about 7-8 seconds), but he can team fight pretty well anyway. Taking teleport is a good idea if you aren't using ignite for kill pressure, because it allows you to do both really well. In a team fight, your job is to run at the other team headfirst soaking damage and clobbering their front line. You don't care about diving the backline, that's an assassin's job, what you care about is outlying the tankiest guy on the enemy team so you become nigh invincible and they become a wet paper towel. if your team can blow up the enemy tank quickly, you have a major advantage. That said, if the enemy tank isn't present or by some fluke you are already in their back line, go ahead and ult their carry since you should be able to kill them in only a couple seconds between your steroids, % HP damage, AA resets, and Trinity force procs. If an enemy is diving onto your carries, you can try to block them off with a well placed pillar so your allies can escape. You can also use your pillar offensively to separate the enemy team to allow you to slaughter their frontline while their backline is helpless to get to their aid. This strategy of dividing a fight is particularly good in the jungle because the corridors are so narrow and you can really throw a wrench in the enemy's positioning.

That's pretty much it for Trundle, just remember to use your AA reset correctly with Q and eventually titanic Hydra's active for maximized DPS, play aggressively when possible, and don't be afraid to take a seemingly bad fight if you have your ult since it can often turn things around really well.

Sorry for the long read, but I hope this helped!

HdjSeqzgAJ1 votes

Thank you for the amazing read; don't apologize for it being long given the information given. I hadn't thought of using his pillar offensively but the way you talk about it reminds me of watching a Gragas use his ulti and I'll experiment with using Trundle's pillar in a similar fashion. I was hoping you could tell me more about why you choose to use the Titanic Hydra given Ravenous Hydra seems to do more for Trundle in terms of damage/sustain. Would you also be able to tell me a little about who Trundle counters/why and who counters him/why?

Looking forward to learning from you, TRUNDLE 86.

junglerboy161 votes

I prefer Titanic Hydra at the moment for a few reasons.

  1. On a tanky champ, it can actually give more damage, especially if they have a lot of AS (because it deals on-hit damage based on max HP).
  2. The AA reset hurts more than Ravenous' reset unless you have a lot of AD and not a lot of health.
  3. The AoE effect does not have a decay effect like Ravenous; an enemy right next to the primary target takes just as much damage as someone at max range.
  4. it simply offers better stats for Trundle. Up until titanic's release, I always wanted to build Ravenous, but it left me too squishy unless I was already ahead. Giving 400 HP and helping me convert extra tankiness into more damage is fantastic for Trundle.

Of course, there are advantages to Ravenous too.

  1. You can lifesteal from the AoE (as far as I know, this does not work with Titanic Hydra).
  2. the active has a shorter cooldown.
  3. it offers stronger damage if you are building damage heavy already.

Basically, Titanic is better in my opinion because i allows Trundle to tank up a lot while still dealing equal or sometimes superior DPS. The sustain isn't as great, and it is more reliant on having a fair amount of other items already in your build, but it feels like a more natural last item than Ravenous.

P.S. Yes, using Trundle pillar offensively works very similarly to using a Gragas ult, or a Janna or Rumble or J4 in order to split up a team. Independently, each pillar you cast is less impactful than any of those ults, but they are still similar and are often how people judge how good you are at trundle. Any bum can build a bunch of damage and durability and kill things, but only a thoughtful player knows how and when to use their pillar.

HdjSeqzgAJ1 votes

Thank you again for your information but may I pick your brain one last time? How would you play if you found yourself up against somebody who could constantly avoid you while chunking your health and in the event that was uneffective what would your back-up plan be?

I had a game where I was top against Leblanc and kept getting poked/chunked whenever I went forward to get CS; even under tower. My Alistar-Jungler told me to just stay under tower until I was eventually dived a 3rd time and killed. Building MR wasn't enough to stop the onslaught and my jungler eventually told me to just start roaming in spite of the fact we had very few wards on the field/top lane was being shoved hard while already being down a tower.

junglerboy161 votes

Yeah, I can't really help you much, because burst mages are the strongest counter to trundle in the game. Trundle is specialized to fight other fighters, tanks, and DPS champs, not burst or heavy AP damage. Against Leblanc, not only are you at a range disadvantage (which is a pain in the butt for any melee), you are also a DPS champ facing a hugely bursty early game assassin who is often considered a lane bully against normal ranged champs.

I would agree with your jungler that you should work on roaming (if there aren't enough wards up, upgrade your trinket and put them down yourself) and splitpushing. Just try your best to avoid head on confrontation with the opposing laner since they will likely punish you hard. Rush sustain and MR and try your best to farm up and pressure objectives whenever possible. Later on, take advantage of your tower killing kit to split push hard to make up ground for having been pressured early game.

No matter what, you have to be able to know when enough is enough and back before you ever get killed. Even if it costs you CS, backing and avoiding a death is better than being dead for 20 seconds, giving the enemy your kill gold, and losing CS anyway.

Burst mages are Trundle's hardest lane matchup, and there isn't a clear cut way to win the lane, but you can take steps to not lose it either.

Inphernal1 votes

item 3153

HdjSeqzgAJ1 votes

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by posting a BotRK. If you mean for me to buy that single item or just wish to alert me to the BotRK's power I thank you but am already aware of both facts.

ownagepants111 votes

Well for me their are two trundles Utility trundle and all out damage trundle .Utility is best used when jungling your going to build tanky with some lifesteal so you can sustain in team fights your main goal is to get the carries fed with ganks using pillar then domain so you can slow the enemy champion run up to him and beat the shit out of him till the laner comes in for the kill if you can try to get them to run into the bushes for top or bot and you can place the pillar in front of them so they are blocked by the wall to the side and the pillar to the front the only way out is straight into the enemy team.In teamfights your gonna be building tanky/sustain so you can be first into the fray using pillars to keep their melees away from your carries and domain to keep the pressure on their squishes to be honest your not gonna carry the game this way but you wont have to if you do it right the rest of your team can carry you to victory .your most important ability is gonna be pillar using it to keep your team safe from baron/dragon steals, ambushes this is your strength. All out damage is not gonna build as tanky your gonna build sustain and damage/attack speed this is for top lane rather then using your pillar as a safeguard for your team your gonna use it to help corner the enemy laner /adc so you can demolish them it is a pretty straight foward build and to me a bit of a waste of Trundles unique strengths . Most importantly you can bring towers down faster then anyone else using Domain so always be their when your team is bringing down structures trundle is arguably the best at split pushing because of this and the speed boost it gives him for a quick getaway .
If you have any specific questions feel free to ask me .

HdjSeqzgAJ1 votes

Thank you for offer of specific question asking/your views on the two different Trundle's - the "utility" version seems to be what I feel most comfortable trying at the moment. Are you able to tell me anybody Trundle counters/why and who counters him/why? When would I pick Frozen Heart over Randuin's Omen and Titanic Hydra over Ravenous Hydra? While you made a great case for him being able to use almost all of the boots which boots/boot enhancement do you find best on Trundle in which situations/why?

Looking forward to learning from you, TRUNDLE 86.

ownagepants111 votes

Well as for counters trundle can mess up anyone burst champs like xin while they will hurt you at first once their combo is done their sitting ducks on the other hand you will have a hard time with jungles like Udyr who has a stun that trundle lacks my advice is keep running away from him unless you can get help from a teammate if he invades your red and no one can help let him have it and run to his and steal.Also you will have a hard time ganking people like irelia anyone that can take advantage of your lack of ranged attacks by stunning you so they can flee.To be honest that is up to the team comp if the enemy team has a lot of escape ranudins omen and if they have high attack speed then get frozen heart I dont think you should ever get titanic over ravenous it works to well with him and domains lifesteal increase .With boots you have 2 choices IMO going Mr or Ninja tabi its just based on team comp .

HdjSeqzgAJ1 votes

Thank you again for your information but may I pick your brain one last time? How would you play if you found yourself up against somebody who could constantly avoid you while chunking your health and in the event that was uneffective what would your back-up plan be?

I had a game where I was top against Leblanc and kept getting poked/chunked whenever I went forward to get CS; even under tower. My Alistar-Jungler told me to just stay under tower until I was eventually dived a 3rd time and killed. Building MR wasn't enough to stop the onslaught and my jungler eventually told me to just start roaming in spite of the fact we had very few wards on the field/top lane was being shoved hard while already being down a tower.

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