A Guide to Trundle Jungle with DIG Santorin
It's time to bludgeon your enemies on Summoner’s Rift with this hulking troll of a pick!
Now that the 2023 season is in full swing, it’s time to come out from under the bridges and start swinging at your 2023 solo queue goals! While this pick might seem like a boring, or even cheesy Champion to pick up this season, in the right setting, Trundle can truly overwhelm even the strongest on the Rift. That’s why I spoke with Dignitas’ jungler, Lucas ‘Santorin’ Larsen, to ensure we all get started on the right foot.
Sporting one of Santorin’s highest career win rates of 69% and a whopping KDA of 8.56 across 42 games, if anyone is going to help us make the best guide for Trundle jungle, it’s him!
When is the Right Time to Pick Trundle?
As we all know, there is always a good time and a bad time for every Champion in League of Legends. Trundle is no exception. Trundle has been in the game for a dozen years and has gone from a filthy dumpster-diving Troll King to Troll King of the Frejlordian tundra, and on the Rift, from top laner to jungler to Support and back. Because of his overwhelming presence on the Rift, players have been able to experiment with the position that Trundle provides the most value for his team. Right now, that’s in the jungle.
With all of this in mind, when is the right time to pick Trundle jungle? Well, because of his trundling nature, his jungle clear is not the best, but that’s more than made up for by his early game prowess and his mid-to-late game juggernaut-like viciousness. Of course, like every well-balanced Champion, he has his weaknesses. Trundle has a fair few, and as a result with the game at its current state, he’s not worth first picking, and ideally, not blind picking either.
He’s kind of one of those Champions where if you see a couple of Champions on the enemy comp and he looks good, that’s when you pick him. It’s usually something like an Olaf, Xin Zhao, Viego, or Wukong that you want to play against. Bruisers with low escape tools where he can win the 1v1. You also really like playing against tanks. If they have an Ornn top, Nautilus Support or something like that. That’s what you should be looking for before you lock in Trundle.
In terms of the Champions you definitely don’t want to be playing against, the main problem is with ranged junglers that clear faster than Trundle. These are Champions like Karthus, Lillia, Graves, and Kindred. In solo queue, you’ll definitely want to be using your ban on one of these Champions if you’re committed to playing Trundle. It might be a good idea to see which of those Champions has the highest play rate in the current meta to get the most bang for your buck!
There’s a couple of Champions that are really annoying. Generally speaking, Kindred, Graves, or Nidalee are pretty annoying, but that depends what ELO you are in too. They still have to play the Champion well. Those kinds of Champions, or Champions like Karthus and Lillia can be really annoying as well.
So, we know what we should be looking for on the enemy team, but that’s only half of the puzzle.
Teammate Synergies
Drafting the right team composition with Trundle is just as critical. Despite his use of brute force to barrel towards you, he doesn’t have a reliable engage. This means that someone else on his team needs to fill that void. Additionally, Trundle enjoys the typical battle of front-to-back, so having a strong control mage for reliable area-of-effect magic damage to contrast his physical damage makes for a tremendous tank-shredder!
Trundle is one of those Champions that really likes to play front-to-back. Having a control mage paired with you is something really really enjoyable to play with. You can throw down the pillar and start poking. Front-to-back with tanks coming at you is perfect because you get so strong with your ultimate.
Runes
With Trundle being so basic attack-reliant for damage, it’s important to make each attack worth the commitment. When it comes to selecting the best Runes to work with, it boils down to what will provide the most value for Trundle in the given game, and with your personal playstyle in mind. For a more balanced approach focused on scaling well into the late game against a predominately melee team, Lethal Tempo will be the best bet. If you know you can stack Lethal Tempo in a fight because of the team compositions, then the added attack speed and range will come in handy when chasing down your enemies. In combination with Lethal Tempo, you’ll want to run Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, and Coup de Grace or Last Stand. As for secondary, you’ll want to run Magical Footwear and Approach Velocity to help stick to your target! This setup will help deal insane damage over time and stick to even the slipperiest of enemies!
Example Lethal Tempo Setup
An aggressive, early-game alternative for proactive junglers is Press the Attack! The rest of the Runes being the same, the point of this Keystone is to maximize the damage dealt to a single target when you know you won’t be able to stick to them for long. This is especially beneficial in early ganks when combining this damage with Chomp can kill most Champions in a matter of a few seconds! An additional change with this Press the Attack set up is to take Legend: Tenacity for the added Tenacity on takedowns!
Against ranged Champions, I really like Press the Attack. It’s more about hitting only a couple of times and doing as much damage as possible. You won’t be able to stack Lethal Tempo reliably in those matchups. I like level 2 ganking a lot, and PTA just does more than Lethal Tempo. It also works really well with Divine Sunderer. You can burst and wait for the next rotation of your Q, so I would say Lethal Tempo is probably better in most Trundle situations, but the way I play Trundle is very aggressive early game and more looking for chunks of damage instead of an all-in.
Santorin’s PTA Setup
Summoner Spells and Ability Orders
When selecting your Summoner Spells on Trundle, Smite and Flash are obviously your go to options. There are some situations where Ghost can provide tremendous value to help stick to those slippery enemies. However, the power of Trundle’s ganking is at its highest when Trundle can Flash Chomp an enemy and use his Frozen Domain and Pillar of Ice to prevent their escape!
In terms of leveling abilities, Trundle’s Chomp (Q) is a must at level 1. At level 2, you generally want to take Frozen Domain, but if you know you can go for a level 2 gank and the Pillar of Ice will seal the deal, then it’s an option. However, if the gank doesn’t go well, this will put Trundle pretty far behind pace! Ideally, your order until level six is: Chomp, Frozen Domain, Pillar of Ice, Chomp, Chomp, and then Subjugate. After getting your ultimate is where there tends to be some difference in opinion. Most will continue to max their Chomp first, but Santorin suggests an alternative focused on Trundle’s more powerful ability.
The first skill I actually max is W because it’s the most OP skill that Trundle has because of how much movement speed and attack speed you get. I’ll start with three points in Q first and then max W though because of the added burst damage. Then, I actually max E second because it's actually really OP as well!
Example Ability Order
Core Build Options
Trundle’s main strength in the early game is his damage and gank power. To make sure you are synergizing with this, you should be aiming for a Mythic Item that enhances his burst that also scales well into the later stages of the game as a front-liner. The best option for this is Divine Sunderer. The ingredient items that build into Divine Sunderer feel really nice to build as Trundle, and the Mythic Passive grants other Legendary items Armor and Magic Penetration which is perfect to assist in shredding the enemy front line!
I’ve always been a fan of Divine Sunderer start, and then you can go into tankier items after like Frozen Heart or whatever you might need. Starting out of the game with Long Swords or a Sheen helps a lot in killing camps and skirmishing.
Of course, with building tankier items after, the specifics depend a lot on the game at hand. But, Trundle should start with Mosstomper Seedling, rush Divine Sunderer with priority on the Caufield’s Warhammer, then your tier two boots which will likely be Plated Steelcaps or Mercury’s Treads against heavy CC. From there, if you need more damage, you can build Titanic Hydra, or simply transition to the tankier items. An example final build might be something like: Divine Sunderer, Plated Steelcaps, Titanic Hydra, Thormail, Frozen Heart, and Spirit Visage.
The Early Game and First Clear
Trundle’s early game and first clear run are crucial. You need to be as efficient as possible in terms of applying pressure on the lanes. If the opportunity presents itself, or you know a matchup is volatile, you need to get there as soon as possible to swing that matchup in your favour!
With the early power of Trundle, this can be in the form of a level 2 gank after getting red buff, or after a three or four camp clear at level 3. If you’re attempting a level 2 gank, Pillar of Ice might seem like the better option to take over Frozen Domain, but unless you know without a doubt that the pillar will make the gank successful, Frozen Domain will provide better gap closure and the follow up damage needed to secure the kill. In the worst-case scenario where the gank fails, Frozen Domain is much better for returning to your camps as well.
In general, if there’s a matchup that I know is going to be volatile level 1, then I’ll look for a level 2 gank. You can also ward a bush early to scout if they drop early vision before the camp spawns. If they don't, you can go for it. If they did, then you obviously don't go for it. You can also do a 3-camp clear like Blue>Gromp>Wolves and look for a level 3 gank or Blue>Gromp>Wolves>Red and go from there. You want to kill the camps you can clear easily first.
In this example 4-Camp Clear: Red Start, Skip 2 and 3
Trundle can truly wreak havoc on the enemies before level six when piloted effectively. A big part of piloting Trundle effectively is also what it means to be playing the jungle role effectively: keeping track of enemy vision and maneuvering the map to avoid vision and keep your enemies guessing!
Usually when you level 2 or level 3 gank, if you Flash-Q, the enemy they will have to Flash after, and then you can just Pillar them and then they will die. It depends what ELO you are in, but when I’m playing, there’s a lot of vision level 1, so sometimes you just won’t have those opportunities. Trundle is one of those Champions that just wants as much action as possible in the early game because he farms slower.
Transitioning to the Mid Game
Trundle’s kit allows him to take down objectives quite quickly. Dragons and Rift Heralds are no different. While Dragon stacking helps scale towards a win condition, Trundle’s early game pressure means that the Rift Herald can crack a game wide open! Especially when your top lane matchup is volatile, the early gank options with Trundle can start that lane off in Trundle’s favor and can easily continue to the point when the first Rift Herald spawns. Use this priority to get the Rift Herald, cash in on the first turret of the game, and you’re well on your way to a dominant mid game!
Getting Herald is really, really strong. If you kill the Herald, you pretty much get two kills. When you kill it, it gives 300 gold, and when you use it, it’s 1.7 plates which is another 300 gold which is at least 600g for one objective. I always try to prioritize Herald whenever possible. There are games where you can go for both because of your bot lane priority, so you can definitely go for Dragon at 5 minutes and Herald at 8 to get the most benefit.
Using the Rift Herald is a great way to facilitate opening up the map and freeing up a laner to start influencing the map with you!
Maintain Early Pressure and Push to the Victory
At this point in the game, if you’ve reaped the benefits of Trundle’s early strengths, you should be working towards completing your second and third items, making you an absolute menace. You should be able to use your movement speed and pillar to capitalize on rotating enemies around the objectives and transition those picks into more map priority.
The main focus of the mid game is to not ‘let off the gas’ that you applied in the early game and keep pushing forward. Try to have your teammate force fights with hard engage whenever possible and lock down a target. Some teams will feel the pressure to teamfight to salvage the situation, and others will leave the teammate out to dry. Both situations are ideal. If they stay to fight, they are likely to commit, and your ultimate will be massive when used on their front line. If they don’t commit, don’t waste your ultimate or it’ll open a window of opportunity to take you out!
You want to use it when they have committed and don’t have a way out. If Rakan Ws you, for example, and you ult him, then he Es out, you kind of just wasted it. You need them to commit before using it because, if they can instantly jump out, then you’re left wondering what to do. Without the ultimate, Trundle is actually pretty weak, so if you use it correctly, he’s really really powerful!
Quick Tips and Tricks
Trundle is a relatively simple Champion, but one of the trickiest features that separates the good Trundles from the great Trundles is Pillar of Ice usage. Pillar of Ice sets up terrain that enemies not only have to walk around, but also are slowed in the immediate vicinity. Not only this, but when used directly on an enemy, it will displace them which can work as a knock up for abilities like Yasuo’s ultimate and can interrupt channeling abilities like Teleport! Knowing these interactions is incredibly beneficial and placing the pillar in the perfect spot in a gank can easily secure a kill!
When you go for ganks, starting with a Pillar is actually the wrong thing to do because they will Flash the Pillar so they create so much distance and you can’t catch them. I like to start with Flash into Q, and if they don't Flash, then you can Pillar them, so they are stuck towards you. Watching a lot of players who play Trundle, it takes a lot of time to learn, but getting used to it gives you a lot more opportunities to kill people.
Conclusion
While Trundle might not currently be the most OP Champion in the game, he’s certainly a pick worth keeping in your back pocket for when the right opportunity presents itself. His early game power and overwhelming team fight presence is truly unmatched in the right setting!
We’d like to thank Santorin for taking the time to sit down with us and create a Trundle jungle guide! You can keep up with Santorin in the upcoming season on:
