Trundle support was pioneered by Fnatic's Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim in the summer of 2015. The pick spread to the NA LCS and stayed in the meta as late as the spring of 2016. Unfortunately, he was hit with a series of nerfs that forced him top lane. The pick is rarely seen now: only 12% of Trundle games have him in the bot lane. While not as strong as he used to be, Trundle is again a tough contender as support due to Season 7's meta shifts.

Trundle's biggest counters in lane are poke/disengage champions like Zyra and Brand. These champions were recently buffed with a price reduction of both Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment. Though harass supports received some love, the current support meta caters to enchanters and tanks. Courage of the Colossus and Redemption have drastically shifted power to champions like Janna and Nautilus. These lanes mitigate early harass while letting Trundle take full advantage of his zoning and tank shredding strengths.

In addition to the support meta changing, we are also seeing new ADCs take over the bot lane. Vayne and Twitch have had dominating performances after the preseason changes to stealth. Trundle again benefits from this. Pillar of Ice is a great zoning tool to deal with these hypercarries while simultaneously helping to protect your own. These champions also struggle to deal with Trundle's level 2 trade, while at the same time synergizing with it fantastically.

Abilities

Passive: King's Tribute

Whenever an enemy dies near Trundle, he heals for 2-6% of their maximum health based on Trundle's level.

This is useful for lane sustain. It acts as a pseudo-Dangerous Game in teamfights.

Q: Chomp

Trundle's next basic attack deals 20/40/60/80/100 (+0-20% AD) bonus physical damage and slows his target by 75% for 0.1 seconds. After biting his target, Trundle gains 20/25/30/35/40 bonus attack damage for 8 seconds and reduces his target's attack damage by half that amount for the same duration.

This is your bread and butter ability. Try to keep the AD steal on as many targets at once, as the debuff lasts longer than the cooldown. This is useful for helping your ADC push and to execute minions. It resets your auto attack, so use it right after an auto attack lands to maximize your DPS.

W: Frozen Domain

Trundle coats the target area in ice for 8 seconds. While inside, he gains 20/35/50/65/80% bonus attack speed, 20/25/30/35/40 bonus movement speed, and 20% increased health restoration from all sources.

This spell should always be used to leave fountain. It will speed you up, increase the heal it gives you, and refund the mana as you walk off. Remember that enemies can see this ability even if they don't have vision of you, so be careful if you are sneaking an objective to keep it out of vision.

E: Pillar of Ice

Trundle projects a Pillar of Ice at the target location for 6 seconds, knocking back everyone directly over it on cast, acting as impassable terrain for the duration and slowing enemies around it by 30/35/40/45/50%.

This is what makes Trundle support work at all. Pillar of Ice is an extremely potent ability if placed correctly. Remember that it knocks back enemies AND allies. If placed between your carry and a melee threat, you can separate them by an even greater distance than if you just Pillared the opponent. It is also great for denying recalls.

This spell grants vision around it when placed, so it can be used to check a brush or scare an enemy off an objective. If it is maxed second, the long cooldown can be punished. Think before you cast!

R: Subjugate

Trundle drains the life force out of the target enemy champion, dealing magic damage, healing for the premitigation damage dealt and stealing 40% of their armor and magic resistance. Half of the total damage and stealing is applied instantly, and the other half is applied over the next 4 seconds.

Max Order: R>Q >E>W

This seems counterintuitive. Why max your Q when your E is the support part of your kit? In late season 6, Riot nerfed E to have a 3 second higher cooldown at max rank. If you max E, you will have up to 8 seconds of downtime between Pillars. This seems like a crippling nerf, but it can be worked around by slightly changing your playstyle. Assuming you get a Flash at level 2, the Q max will give you better kill pressure and better teamfight presence in sub 20-second fights. The increased stolen AD is very impactful against auto attack reliant carries like Vayne and Twitch. As always, this max order is subjective. There are a small percent of games where E max first can work in lane.

Masteries

My philosophy for masteries is that they should compensate for a champion's weaknesses rather than build on their strengths. For this reason, some of the masteries I take may seem strange. Because Trundle has so much healing in his kit, you might think that it is best to take Runic Armor. Though this would be true in any other position, you will be laning against at least one ranged champion. The extra base health of Veteran's Scars helps mitigate your ability to be harassed. To outsustain the 50 health from this mastery, you would need Runic Armor to empower 635 points of healing. This will not happen until you drink all of your potions, making Veteran's Scars the best option for early levels.

My keystone mastery of choice also plays into my philosophy. Grasp of the Undying will help you during your level 2 trade and will give you more damage potential throughout the game. Although you can proc Courage of the Colossus by knocking up opponents with your Pillar, optimal Pillar placement does not always knock someone up. You will rarely feel like you need the shield anyways: full tank Trundle with Subjugate active is extremely hard to kill.

Runes

Marks: Flat Armor

Seals: Flat Health

Glyphs: Flat Magic Resist. If you are going into a low pressure lane such as a Janna or Soraka, you can take Magic Resist/lvl instead.

Quintessences: 2 Movement Speed, 1 Flat Armor. Quintessences come down to preference: you can take 3 Flat Armor and do just fine. I take the Movement Speed quints to place my Pillar a bit better and to get on top of ADCs early game.

Itemization

Ruby Sightstone: If you are Diamond or higher, rush this item after Relic Shield. Supports at a high level of play are at a huge disadvantage if they have one less ward for the laning phase. The item active CDR is also mandatory because of the impact of Redemption.

Redemption: Even if your champion does not have shields or healing for allies, Redemption is the strongest item available for supports. During IEM Gyenoggi, Core JJ built it on Miss Fortune support and won. The active is too strong to pass up. Note that if this item is nerfed after patch 6.24, reconsider the purchase. Spirit Visage might be a better way to cap out CDR after a nerf or two.

Face of the Mountain: The Relic Shield line is great on Trundle for sustain and additional peeling. I recommend finishing this after your Sightstone, but the build order is very flexible.

Frozen Heart: Just by being in the bot lane, you'll make use of this item. While a Sheen item might feel better, you have to remember that you're there to peel for your carry. This will reduce the damage they take just by standing near them.

This build gives you a cheap 40% CDR with tank stats and two utility actives. You can finish the build with Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel, Locket of the Iron Solari, or Zz'Rot Portal. Build whatever boots are appropriate to round it out. Buy Control Wards when you still have slots for it!

Laning

Before we discuss how to play out the lane, you need to get into the right mentality as a Trundle player. You are looking to punish mistakes. Watch your opponents and dart in and out of brush to make them path to avoid/attack you. When they misstep, Pillar for a good trade or kill. Be patient but analytic: blowing your cooldowns for nothing hurts, especially if you max E second. When keeping brush control, remember that your Q resets your auto attack, letting you easily clear wards as they are placed.

In lane, your goal is to shove as fast as possible for level 2. Use the auto reset from Q to quickly execute two melee minions. The bonus AD will help you shove the casters afterwards, but make sure that your ADC can last hit them. Hit level 2 on second wave and go in with E. This is the only time in the laning phase that Trundle should be pushed. Trade at level 2, even if you come out worse for wear. You will likely heal more than they will during laning phase, giving you an advantage.

To trade correctly, just run at the target after you Pillar behind them. The opposing lane will have a hard time stopping you if you beat them to level 2, but some lanes that start with crowd control level 1 will make it difficult. Use the brush control tactic discussed above to try to make the running distance as short as possible.

If you get a Flash during your level 2 trade, do not follow with your own unless you are 100% sure it will result in a kill. A Flashless laner into Trundle will be easily zoned off of farm if you freeze the wave. After the trade, attempt to bounce the wave off of their tower and get a freeze for yourself in front of your own tower. It is important to remember that your key zoning ability was probably what blew the enemy Flash in the first place. Flashing after them will usually leave you walking into all kinds of slows and crowd control with no way to catch up. It is better to save your Flash for when the lane resets.

For the remainder of the laning phase, plan on trying to maintain a freeze. If you do get a kill or push someone out of lane and decide to go for turret, Q a minion before attacking tower. Trundle Q does not work on towers, but the bonus AD from chomping the minion will. After taking first tower, push the line of vision behind dragon. If you can maintain Control Wards in bot river, mid lane will be very scared of overextending.

Teamfighting

Trundle teamfights differently as a support than in other positions. You lack the damage and raw tank stats to run in alone. Instead, you should be looking for a pick. The easiest way to do this is by baiting with wards. Because of your early Ruby Sightstone, you will have plenty of wards to place. The main challenge is making sure that a) your ward is visible and b) your target does not suspect that they are being caught. This is simple enough with a Control Ward to bait and a red trinket to check your position. There are more advanced techniques to do this though. For example, pretend that the red circle below is your team, the purple circle is an opponent, the pink circles are allied Control Wards, and the yellow circles are allied normal wards. We begin with a fairly normal set up. Presume that drake is alive and that the Scryer's Bloom is spawned. You must have a Control Ward and a red trinket with you to execute this play. You begin by normal warding drake pit and the bot river brush. Move into the bot lane tri-brush, sweeping or Control Warding to be safe. If there is a ward there, kill it and feign turning around to better control drake pit. Move on to the brush under red buff, using the other ward/trinket to check for vision. If there is a ward here, just back up and take the drake. If not, wait for an opponent to use Scryer's bloom. No matter which way they aim it, it will either spot the river or drake ward. When they go to break it, move in from behind with your pillar. This play can give a drake, mid tower, and a kill very safely. There are many paths to the mountain top. Use Scryer's Bloom as a bait tool whenever you can!

If you are not initiating the fight, Pillar between your carry and a threat closing in on them. If a melee character like Xin Zhao is attacking your ADC, chances are he burned his gap closer to get there. A well placed Pillar will make him virtually unable to get back onto the carry. If the enemy team is disengaging, you can use your Pillar to corral them. An example would be Pillaring an opponent against a wall: he will have to run away in a straight line, allowing a Twitch ultimate to land a few extra hits. In the early game, especially when maxing Q first, you will likely only get one Pillar off in a teamfight. It is smarter to save it for peel most early fights unless you are certain you will get a kill with it.

Trundle support is in a great spot in early Season 7. He performs well into most meta lanes and fits into most team comps. With new items and plants, he is more versatile than ever. Get out on the Rift, play smart, and try not to get cold feet.

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