❗UPDATED❗✅ 2x 1200lp+ Challenger ✅ Patch 14.22 ➡️ Climb with Trundle Top like a Challenger 📈 Complete Season 14 In-Depth Guide😈

Guide Updates: (07/11/2024) ~ Patch 14.22

Tacter does NOT support Lethal Tempo, please take Lethal Tempo instead of PTA in ALL matchups!

Updates:

• Matchups updated
• Why not demolish explained (Check updated runes)
• Barrier + Flash explained (Check updated summoners)
• Knight's Vow added to situational items (Check updated situational items)
• Why not traditional tank items explained (Check updated Trundle Identity)

🔴 Updated for 14.17 ~ streaming now ➡️ twitch.tv/kaagaroo

Hey, I'm Kagaroo. I am a Challenger Trundle OTP and self-proclaimed best Trundle in the world, peaking 1209LP Challenger EUW & 1500LP Challenger EUNE (Rank 9) playing Trundle Top only and currently hovering with two Challenger 1200lp+ accounts.

With the removal of mythic items, lethal tempo and the changes to Hullbreaker, Trundle's itemisation and playstyle has shifted from a one-dimensional ooga booga split-push playstyle to something increasingly complex.

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

The difference between a Challenger Trundle compared to an Emerald Trundle boils down to three core things:

1. Laning Phase (most important)
2. Matchups & limits knowledge
3. Itemisation

This guide focuses on helping you understand the importance of laning phase, matchups and how to optimise your build.

Please join the TrundleTop1 Discord to ask questions and theorise with the BEST trundle players in the world.

Special shoutout to the following: @trundledaddy TrundleTop1 @sepehrkiller - go follow these GOATs.

They have also made guides on Trundle and I can vouch for the validity of guide:

trundledaddy mobafire guide

TrundleTop1 GoogleDoc guide for matchups

🟩 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)

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 bad resets.
• Furthermore, if you cannot kill the enemy laner on side 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 to your two item spike and win the side.
• Trundle has enough tower damage without Trinity Force + Demolish, and honestly these aren't needed.

Keep in mind, although some matchups might list as PTA, you can also take Fleet instead and vice versa.

Example: Kayle -> Fleet, Ornn -> PTA, K'sante -> Fleet

🔴 Any of the runes above can be played into ANY matchup and still be "okay", although it may not be optimal. Feel free to follow the above as a guide, but please do experiement with Fleet + PTA into duelling/tank matchups. You might prefer fleet into tanks!

To understand why Trundle's core items do not include Trinity Force, despite being his recommended and highest win-rate item (even over a larger sample size) it is vital to understand Trundle's champion identity & mindset.

What is Trundle?

• Trundle is a very strong early game champion, winning 1v1's with ease and even winning some 1v2s in the early game.
• Also he is a farming monster, one of the easiest top laners to farm minions, proxy waves and take neutral camps with his Q auto-reset, AD steroid from Q and Attack Speed steroid from W.
• He also has very high mobility with his W and is extremely good at playing between the lanes for proxying waves. As a result, Trundle has great tempo and freedom on the map which allows him to easily cheese tower platings and steal neutral camps.
• Trundle can easily reach 8.5+ cs per minute consistently and reach his item power spikes without even killing his opponent once just by farming.
• By farming well, Trundle can reach his 2 (Hydra + BOTRK) or 3 (Hydra + BOTRK + Hullbreaker) item power spikes with ease and start to create pressure on side-lane and threaten an open-nexus.

To conclude:

• 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 & destroying enemy bases.
• 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 likely that you will NOT be able to 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 54.33% 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.

• Looking at these stats, we can deduce that Trundle is at his strongest during the mid to early-late game.

• At 20-25 minutes, you should have 2 and a half items completed. Now what is the strongest 2 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, Tiamat.

• If we are looking at stats alone, the best first item for Trundle would be Stridebreaker - as it has all the stats Trundle wants to succeed. However, theory ≠ practical.

• Speaking from experience, success and discussion with other 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 end games.

• Trinity force is without a doubt, a well-rounded item for Trundle. However, it falls off as the enemy starts to build armor ergo you become too reliant on your R to become a threat.

• When paired with 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, allowing you to fight basically anyone and win even without your R.

• Additionally, the Hydra+BOTRK+W+Revitalize synergy allows you to stay on the map longer and therefore impact the map a lot more. The sustain from this combo allows you to take "negative" trades, where you can trade your health for a few more hits under tower and sustain back to full HP on the next incoming wave. This is something you cannot do as efficiently with Hydra + Triforce.

• However, this does mean that you will be a lot more squisher as you won't have the health from Triforce. But the lifesteal you get from BOTRK effectively is your tankiness/health (as you can see in the video demonstrating below)

Why do you not build traditional tank items?

• Simply put, traditional tank items (items that ONLY give defensive stats) are not very good in this current meta.
• The only champions that benefit from building traditional tank items are those who have armor/mr/health scalings and/or % max health damage.
• Trundle does not fulfill any of these requirements and there are plenty of great "defensive" items that provide armor/mr/health/shields as well as providing some sort of offensive benefit. For example, Steraks (AD+Health+Shield), Wits' End (On-hit [benefits from lifesteal]+AS+MR), Death's Dance(Anti-burst, armor, AD)
• The only traditional items that I could recommend are Randuin's and SOMETIMES thornmail. Thornmail is an extremely situational item, especially when mortal reminder will outclass it in most situations.
• Randuin's has been buffed many times, the defensive stats it provides & utility (active slow) are incredibly strong.
• Additionally, Trundle gains resistances when he R's another champion, so the "defensive" stats we should prioritise are health.

🔴 To summarise, Hydra + BOTRK is a higher risk, higher reward build compared to Hydra + Triforce 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 Hydra + BOTRK.

🔴 This item combination allows Trundle players to express more skill and can clearly show the skill discrepency of a Challenger Trundle player and an Emerald Trundle player.

🔴 I'd love to hear your thoughts & discussions on this thesis, feel free to leave a comment below or message me directly on discord: kagaroo

🔴 If this thesis does not convince you, check out a compliation of clips below 😎

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

Laning phase is the most important stage of the game for Trundle. Every high-elo Trundle player has impeccable laning phase, leveraging Trundle's extremely strong early game to consistently build a lead over the opponent, and creating pressure to allow the team to succeed at objectives.

To exploit Trundle's early game, here is a gameplan that you can employ into your games EVERY SINGLE GAME. It is incredibly consistent and will allow you to create a gold lead in 80% of your games.

Early Game Plan: Level 1 invade 1 vs 2 cheese

NOTE: You should first identify the enemy Top & Jungle champions, and ask yourself the following:

1. Is it likely the enemy Jungler starts topside?
2. Are they strong early champions? (e.g., Kha'Zix, Darius, Olaf) Do they have mobility or kiting potential? (e.g., Phase Rush, Graves E)
3. Is my Jungler in a position to take advantage of this play? (e.g., starting on raptors, invade pressure, snowballing champion)

🔴 If you can understand the above criteria and come to a justified conclusion, try for a 1v2 invade cheese.

1. Run top and check the three bushes, sit in the bush closest to the enemy tower. If the enemy face checks you in the bush FIGHT THEM! Press [TAB], and when it shows 30 seconds until the buffs spawn, run to the pixel bush / tri-bush and take a trade if the enemy shows there. You win EVERY time, they lose the fight and can't reset in time to regen in base unless they use TP
2. At 1:26, you run to the enemy buff and 1v2 them. Focus the jungler and the trick to winning the 1v2 is to let the neutral buff hit the enemies. Blue/Red buff does a lot of damage so it's practically a 2v2 if you manipulate the aggro well. Example shown below.

Early Game Plan: How to create a consistent and automatic lead

By employing this game plan, you ensure stability and create consistency in your ever-so "coinflip" games, which will ultimately help you improve fundamentally as a player as you will learn to recognise wave states, reset timers and patience.

1. Play the first 3 / 4 waves exactly like this:
2. Play for last hits on minions while exerting your pressure (slightly stepping up with Q's, threaten the enemy away). However, if the enemy is hitting the wave, you must match this and hit the wave an equal amount of times. Trundle is incrediblly strong in the early levels, so use this to your advantage and play for the slow push and wave priority.
3. Once the 3rd wave is entering the lane (cannon wave), CRASH the wave with your minion advantage. This means you need to hit constantly hit the wave instead of last hitting. If you have done this correctly, then there should be a stacked wave under the enemy tower.
4. Walk back and depending on the enemy jungler, place a ward in the river bush OR in the lane bush to avoid incoming ganks and take a reset. After farming 3 waves you should have 400-500 gold.
5. Reset and buy a Cull + Potion. The priority is to buy Cull.
6. Walk back to lane and the wave will be bouncing back to you. This is where patience comes into play. Sit in experience range (TIP: hover passive range as an indication of experience range), don't step up and let the wave come into you and try to hold a freeze if they allow you.
7. However, if you can identify where the enemy jungler is, you can choose to fight the enemy with your item advantage whilst threatening a freeze with the stacked wave. (CARE: enemy will be level 4, if you look to fight you should focus minions to level up before fighting)
8. Play for freezes and maintain control of the lane. You can punish the enemy laner when they step up and ping for support from your Jungler.

Once you have bought your cull, you should play for slow pushes into crashes into resets. You will slowly builld an item advantage and once you get Tiamat you can start to fast show waves and make pressure on the map.

Video showcasing this below:

Early Game / Laning Phase Continued:

• After countless games of Trundle Top in high elo, I can safely come to the conclusion that Laning Phase and Early game is BY FAR the most important phases of the game for Trundle.
• As I mentioned many times in this guide, the early-mid game are when Trundle is the strongest, thus it is imperative to understand that levels 1-13 are the most important for Trundle.
• Consistency is key and the most consistent factor in every game is farming.
• You should exploit Trundle's early dominance in lane to control the lane, pressuring the enemy when they step up for last hits.
• However, this relies heavily on matchups and knowing your limits so it might take some time and limit testing to gain experience.
• Preferably, play for your 3rd/4th wave crash and create priority for your Jungler or reset and buy cull. You can walk back to lane and have a stacked wave ready to farm safely under your tower.
• As you are usually playing in isolation (weaksided), you must be patient and be aware of the map state as it is likely that the enemy Jungler may try to camp you as you have low mobility and prone to CC. This is why it is best to maintain a freeze on your opponent and farm safely closer to your tower.
• Furthermore, you are strong in the early game so you should aim to play for slow pushes -> stack the wave -> crash the wave under tower -> reset for items
• With your early game strengths, you may be able to outplay a 1v2 gank with a stacked wave to your advantage.
• You need to understand that you don't always need to play for kills, especially as you climb higher you'll find that the enemy will respect you more.
• Keep respecting the enemy Jungler and preferably only playing aggressive when you are in a position to either: 1v2 the enemy, when the enemy shows on the map, or if you have jungle presence near you.
• If you manage to get an early kill or two and have a more expensive recall (1200g+), you may opt to rush Tiamat to snowball your lead and impact the map with your presence. If you have purchased cull, look to farm up until you have enough for Tiamat.
• Once you have Tiamat, you can look to hard push every wave and place deep vision in the enemy Jungle and proxy waves. Whilst your minions attack the tower, you can swoop in at the last second to collect the tower plate gold.
• If you are playing demolish you can push for tower plates, ignoring the enemy laner on a cannon wave. They will be forced to choose to attack you and lose minions or to farm and lose platings.
• Also, if the enemy jungler shows on the opposite side of the map and you have just proxied a wave, you can look for neutral camps (Krugs / Wolves / Krugs / Blue / Red) and steal them whilst you wait for the next incoming wave.
• Remember that you are playing for your 2 item spike and you can reach this by either playing to scale or for snowballing.
• Scaling is pretty much farming until the point that you aiming for without playing risky or taking flippy fights/plays. On the other hand, Snowballing is the opposite, requiring you to be the aggressor by making the plays to accelerate your income. This can be done by fighting more (1v1/2v2s), invading enemy Jungler or forcing tower plates.
• Typically you should always start with a scaling mindset, and switching to a snowballing playstyle if the enemy makes mistakes and you grab early kills.
• The best thing about Trundle is that he can exploit enemy mistakes really well. For example, if the enemy takes a bad reset, you can push waves fast with Tiamat and take plates really fast to snowball your lead.
• You should aim to get Tiamat before / as Grubs are spawning as this will guarantee you push and priority for Grubs which are insanely great for Trundle. Please keep in mind that although Grubs are insane on Trundle, they are not worth "flipping" the game over or ruining your lane for. You have enough tower damage just from your Q+W.

🔴To conclude, you should opt for a scaling playstyle and only shifting to a snowball mindset if you get early gold. Play passively, exerting your strong aura to dominate the lane and only playing aggressively when you can safely do so. Create a steady stat/item lead and win the lane by impacting the map with vision, roam threats and securing tower plates + neutral camps.

🔴It is more rewarding to be a snowballer, being more activing in everything that you do. However, I am sure it can be hard to adapt to a newer playstyle ~ playing safely, patiently and passively despite being a champion with strong early capabilities. However, this is the most consistent and rewarding way to play Trundle in EVERY elo and it is totally worth to at least give it a try.

Mid Game: Sidelaning

• After laning phase is done and you at least have Ravenous Hydra completed, you can start to pressure the map significantly.
• At this point you should ideally have taken the first tower. You can now apply more pressure and start to push for the Tier 2 towers.
• You prefer to be on the opposite side of the Map from the action & contested objectives because you can demolish side lane towers extremely fast and enjoy playing in isolated 1v1's where you can showcase your high single target damage.
• Since you are on the opposite side of the objective, you need to be the aggressor, pushing waves fast and looking to fight the enemy as much as you can. With the sustain from Hydra + Passive + W (and BOTRK if you have it!), you can start to take "negative" trades, where you can tank one or two tower hits in return for more damage on the opponent. With your sustain, you can heal back to full on the incoming wave and threaten a dive or start hammering at the tower.
• Additionally, you need to prepare to use your Teleport in case a fight breaks out. With your oppressive side lane nature, you should be able to push the waves before your opponent does and if a fight occurs you will have first TP.
• 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.
• After the tower gold buff, towers are your main source of income. Tier 1 towers are worth 300g, Tier 2 are worth 700g and Tier 3 are worth 400g.
• It is important to note that the first two drakes are not as important as you think. The death timers & waves at this point are too low to notably push. If you want to fight for drakes, the first two are the ones you are most likely participating in. However, again I must say that if you had to choose between T2 or drake you should choose the T2 to snowball your items.
• Your decision making becomes core when it comes down to Soul Point / Soul & Baron. Each scenario is different, and depending on death timers, it might be better to continue pushing the sides.
• You should adopt a semi-selfish playstyle until you have reached your 3 item spike as until then, you won't be able to take over the game completely.
• In the event that there is no objectives on the map, you should play patiently and wait for the next objective to spawn. You should just safely collect and push side lanes and walk back and play to hover your team and try to find some picks with your Pillar.
• 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: Team fighting

• During the Mid Game, unless you're incredibly ahead of the enemy team, I would NOT recommend you to participate in any 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 3rd item (hullbreaker), and the best way to do this is to claim the Tier 2 towers.
• You are really squishy without a target to lifesteal on so in a front - back teamfight you will get oneshot instantly.
• If you do choose to teamfight 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 waveclear, pushing side waves -> rotate into mid for a flank angle.

🔴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.
• It is important to understand you do NOT need to solo kill on the side or push towers to win the game.
• Creating pressure on the side takes a lot of 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. If you see them you can push forward. If your teammates are not in a position to start an objective you don't push, you only push when you have information on the map OR if it's to bring attention to you.
• The pressure and threat you create on the side forces the enemy into a predicament: who will stop the trundle? do we give the objective to stop trundle?
• In the scenario where an objective is about to spawn < 60 seconds until spawn, you should look to create pressure on the side.
• This means pushing waves, walking in and out of fog and pushing really hard when the objective is about to spawn < 10 seconds.
• This way, you respect if the enemy is about to cross-map you whilst simultaneously positioned in a way to push the sides.
• Remember that it is worth to die for towers, especially if you are bringing 2+ 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. The only difference being that every kill and death (friend or foe) is significant and can be the difference between winning and losing.
• Also, your decision-making becomes even more important as you will likely be forced to make game-winning/losing decisions.
• Like side-laning in the mid game, you should be playing on the opposite side of the map and 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 important to understand that ideally you shouldn't TP to the fight unless you have no wave / opportunity on the side lane, as you should aim to threaten the side lanes.
• At this point of the game, you should have 3 items (Hydra+Botrk+Hull, and with these items, if you are stronger than the enemy then you can ignore them and take the tower with your hullbreaker damage. But 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 and limits come to 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

• Ideally, you should avoid grouping in the late game unless your team composition needs you to succeed and there is a likelihood to win as a 5v5 team. In these cases, it is likely that you build a situational frontline item 3rd to compensate for this.
• Additionally, in the event that you get caught on the side before an objective spawns but respawn before the objective spawn and there isn't a wave to TP to on the side, then it is better to fight the objective as a 5v5.
• It goes without saying but if you have taken 2 inhibs or 3 inhibs, 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 + prone to CC. You are not really a front line champion nor can you engage, however your front to back 5v5 is extremely strong with your R. You should Ult the first person that enters your team so that you and your team can burst them down.

🔴 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.

🔴 Massive shout out & credits to @trundledaddy @TrundleTop1 for being the trundle goats and helping me out + inspiring this guide.

Conclusion

• 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!