I’ve been fortunate enough to nab Trundle in every game I’ve played today except for one, so I’ve been able to test a few different builds and get a little time in the jungle as well as the lane. On the whole, I’d say he’s the best champion release I’ve seen in months. I think Riot really hit the mark with his design and his artwork, which makes for a rewarding play experience.
I tried for a long time to come up with a character with which to compare Trundle, but I’m just not sure who it would be. In the jungle he feels a bit like Warwick – use Q to burst units down, W to buff up your attacks, ignore E and R until you need to gank – but his ganking is very different. Trundle also performs well in lane and I think we can agree Warwick does not. Trundle’s passive is probably among the best in the game, not because it does anything interesting but because it allows him to lane forever. It’s not quite as good in the jungle, but it will keep you plenty healthy when other characters would have to recall. I can make it through the entire jungle with plenty of health to spare long before my small creep camps will respawn.
I was a little shocked at the AoE of his Contaminate, but the skill can be a bit of a double-edged sword. The size is great for chasing and those sprawling teamfights, but it can also give away your position if you aren’t careful. Pillar of Filth is similarly huge, though, you won’t have to worry quite as much about it revealing you. My one complaint about these two skills is that they don’t deal any damage. It’s not really a complaint, though, because both skills provide enough utility that you don’t need the extra damage.
Utility is where Trundle really shines. I have yet to see any “wow” moments with him, but I have seen him used and used him to create highly favorable situations for my teammates. With just a Phage and a maxed out Contaminate buff, Trundle is nearly impossible to get away from, and he hits fast and fairly hard. His Pillar of Filth seems to hit the magic median between feeling good when you land it and bad when you miss. I have already blocked my teammates out of several kills. I even blocked a Fiddlesticks in the enemy base after a particularly nasty Rocket Grab, but I’ve also successfully shackled enemies in my team’s grasp.
Surprisingly, the only skill I found truly underwhelming is his ultimate. It’s a good skill, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not great, and it certainly doesn’t have that “ultimate” quality. Let’s compare it to Mordekaiser’s ult, which I think is closest in function. At rank 3, Kaiser’s Children of the Grave deals 34 percent of the target’s health in damage (17 percent on cast, 17 percent over the duration) and, on target death, gives Kaiser 20 percent of the target’s AP and damage for 30 seconds plus a pet with improved stats for the same duration. Trundle’s Agony deals 250 damage and drains 25 percent of his target’s magic resistance and armor and then that same amount again over an 8 second duration. I’m sure you can see where this is going. While it’s cool that his ult both deals damage and saps resistances, it’s sort of the worst of both worlds. The damage is pretty low, especially at level one (200 damage total, seriously?), and it doesn’t scale well. Conversely, the armor/MR reduction is terrible early and only really works late game against tanks. Granted, it’s very good against them, but you need to be hitting them for it to be good, and that’s not really the skill’s best use. Ideally, you want to be in the mix, stealing armor from the tank for survivability while you beat down the carry. The fact that you’re debuffing the tank is almost moot.
Even with those issues, though, I’ve found Trundle to be a lot of fun. I think he could have a very steep learning curve; expert players may take some time to get proficient with him, but he could very well become a force to reckon with. He deals very solid damage, can survive a bit of burst, and has a nice set of utility spells. All in all, he seems to be one of the most well-rounded characters in the game, while still managing to remain balanced.
