So I been seeing things around that Trundle is a secretly OP champion and I have some interest in picking him up.

So would you suggest to do so. Also mind giving me opinions on builds? I can obviously go up on SoloMid or LOLPro but having more opinions on the matter can be helpful. Looking more for a Lane Build over Jungle. Although throwing in a Jungle build may be nice and when he would serve as a good pick.

I personally love Trundle. While playing him so much and owning both of his skins, I won't lie to you, he's not very OP. He is very fun to play though and has an amazing niche role in teams.

As for builds he can only really jungle, in lane he gets bullied a lot, so Wriggle's is an obvious first choice, and then Merc Treads because it stacks with his Contaminate. Then go straight for Trinity Force, he absolutely loves the Sheen procs with his Bite. Finish off with super tanky items like Randuin's or GA to make sure you have a lifespan of more than a couple seconds, damage won't be very useful to you compared to like, Irelia.

If you really want to lane though, go top. But be prepared for a relatively tough time. Go straight for Trinity then grab at least a Vampric Scepter. I wouldn't recommend Top though he relies on blue buff a lot.

As for Move build in any case it should be:
Q-W-Q-E-Q-R-Q-E-Q-E-E-R-E-W-W-R-W-W If I didn't put too many of any letters there.

I'm 4/0 with Trundle in ranked, sitting at 1512 until the season is over. I play him often, as he's now my favorite champion.

There are a lot of things you should know about him before playing him. Firstly, he's not OP. He's a secretly "strong" champ but he has some very clear weaknesses.

1. He's not a tank.

2. He's a very good jungler.

3. What makes him a good jungler is that he is a great duelist.. This means he favors an aggressive jungle style. This works best with coordinated teams. Noob teams will leave you hanging out to dry if you get caught in someone elses jungle. Good teams will not.

4. He does not scale well into late game.

His weaknesses?

See #4, but for more details:

The Animation on his Q and his W often cause him problems. They cannot be cast while moving so they can force you to lose ground while casing someone.

Furthermore, his Q steals a "flat" amount of AD. This is one of the major reasons he does not scale well into late game. Riot should fix the animations for Q and W and make his Q steal a % of enemy AD. This would make him considerably better, late game.

His R is very nice, but I would like to see it be a litttttle more front loaded and possibly last slightly longer.

His W should have some benefit for the team. Currently, his W is only useful for himself.. Which reduces his effectiveness in team fights. I think your team gaining 50% of the bonus that Trundle gets from contaminated ground would make it (and him) much more useful in team fights.

All of that said... here's my build:

9/21/0 Masteries

AD/ARpen mixed Reds/Quints.
Flat Armor Yellows
MR/Lvl Blues

Flash/Smite for summoners.

Start Boots 3 pots

Do Blue, steal enemy red, gank bot/top depending on whether you are blue/purple team, and who you are matched against.

If you are matched against someone you absolutely should not counter jungle (Skarner and Udyr come to mind), I would go Vampiric Scepter, farm my own jungle, and gank accordingly.

Build order

Boots + 3 pots, Wriggles, HoG, Phage.

Somewhere in there if I got first blood, a lot of assists, or just a kill or two, I will definitely buy an Oracles and do a lot of ward clearing. Only do this once you are comfortable with Trundle enough to not die (often).

He has a great disengage with his E, but he has no real "initiator". Keep that in mind. He is difficult to chase for most champions, but there are a few who can ruin your day no matter how slick you are.

Later build:

Merc Treads, Wriggles, Trinity Force, Randuins Omen, Banshees Veil

Last item's.... it's a toss up. FoN, Last Whisper, Maw of Malmortius, etc. Any MR and/or Damage item is good. At some point you could sell your wriggles and possibly pick up a Blood Thirster if you want... but most games do not last that long.

Why would you say Trundle's E is only good for himself? It's an awesome tool for chasing/escaping and seperating the enemy team. You can save your carry with it, screw the enemy carry with it or just make it really annoying for the enemy team to move in a teamfight. It's like Anivia's wall (not quite as good but w/e).

Trundle's R is also less of a damaging ability and more of a tank killer. He 1v1's better than almost anyone specifically because he steals their AD with Q and then he steals their resists with R. It's also incredibly fun to have an enemy bruiser/tank initiate on your team a little too far, and then have his armor/MR reduced to the point where your team can just blow him up.

Personally I think Trundle's a great champion but he's probably for higher level play than where I'm at. He doesn't do enough damage and he doesn't have enough hard CC to secure kills when ganking, so you need to depend on your laners to finish your targets off which is...yeah not very encouraging.

Sorry, I mistyped that. I meant his W does nothing for his team.

Also, I think you're mistaken on his damage. Early game his damage is amazing. AA->Q->AA does lots of damage and when combined with E and any contributed damage from your team, it's almost a guaranteed kill early game unless they blow Summoners.

I never meant to suggest that R should be a "damaging" ability.. Only that the effects shouldn't be spread out over 6 seconds. By the time 6 seconds is up, the target is either dead or escaped or kited you around for long enough that it doesn't matter anymore. If the effects were immediate and lasted either just as long or slightly longer, it would have more of an impact.

Trundle is easily kitable. That's his largest problem, in addition to his buggy animations and the like.

If they fixes Trundle's Q animation so it doesn't end up reducing your overall DPS once you get some attack speed (from triforce) i would play him much more.

Didn't read much of the replies but by no means should you get merc treads. I think whoever recommended them thinks they "stack" additively, but they don't. You only get about another 10% CC reduction from mercs once your W is maxed. A waste of gold. Get ninja tabi.

There are junglers who get gank effecively just by their speed and damage potential, like Shyvana or Shaco LS for example, and then others who gank by screwing an extended laner with CC, like Maokai or Nautilus. There are also junglers who combine a bit of both, like Xin or Jax, but Trundle is in a weird spot. His Q has good damage, but early game the cooldown is too long to land more than 1 or two unless you're ganking a brutally over-extended lane. He doesn't have the CC to hold an opponent down so unless your friendly laner is right on top of the opponent when you gank, there's a good chance he can get away. I've had similar experiences with Skarner, where pre-level 6 he's just a lousy ganker and without competent laners your ganks won't be successful.

No. I'm fully aware Merc Treads do not stack additively. I'm also aware that you cannot always have your W up, as it's on a cooldown and is not a passive ability. I also enjoy the additional 10% Tenacity, and I rather take early game MR over Armor since I am picking up Armor from Wriggles and Health from HoG/Phage.

A well placed E can really screw people over, especially when combined with ANY CC from the lane you're ganking. Nautilus is dependent upon landing his Q. Maokai's snare is good but it's arguable that a well placed E can effectively result in "more gap closing" ability. Trundle also has the additional movement speed from his W, combined with the fact that you start boots gives you a significant speed advantage over potential escapees. There's also the factor of having red buff, which grants more move speed, damage, and applies a slow.

You only really need to land 1-3 Q's in order to secure a kill depending upon who you're ganking and who your teammates are...

I'm not saying it's "impossible" to escape a gank from Trundle. Only that his level 3 ganks are pretty damn strong in comparison to most tanky junglers, and in my opinion are FAR superior to Shyvana, Shaco, or even Udyr.

At worst, your E slows someone for a few seconds and they flash out of it and get away.

At best, you pin them against a wall and completely screw their pathing while you and your teammates destroy them.