Trundle is a powerful fighter champion in League of Legends. His physical damage is unavoidable because it mostly comes from his auto-attacks. But there’s also a full AP Trundle build that deals an insane amount of magic damage too. And you only need to press R!
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry. Here I’ll explain everything about building and playing Trundle AP in season 13 of League of Legends. But I’ll also touch upon Trundle’s abilities and explain how his damage actually works.
So with that in mind, let’s jump into the guide!
Is Trundle AD or AP?
Trundle is an AD fighter champion in League of Legends. His damage mostly comes from his basic attacks. But Trundle’s Q – Chomp can also deal great damage since it can scale with up to 55% of his AD. And Trundle’s ultimate is the only ability in his kit that deals magic damage and scales with AP.
One look at Trundle’s ability kit info is enough to convince you that he’s a pretty simple champion.
Put in simple words – Trundle deals AD damage with Q and basic attacks and magic damage with R. Most players build Trundle as an AD bruiser, which means a lot of attack damage and tank items. For example, Trundle’s core item build in season 13 consists of these 3 items: Divine Sunderer, Titanic Hydra, and Sterak’s Gage.
So if you’re going up against Trundle, expect him to fight from melee range and to deal physical damage to you. You can counter him by building a lot of armor as well as items that increase your maximum health.
Additionally, you should definitely build anti-tank items against Trundle since he’ll definitely switch to tank in the late game.
Aside from his basic attacks, players should also be careful of Trundle’s R – Subjugate. It is a simple point-click ability that drains up to 35% of the target’s maximum HP over 4 seconds. This damage gets increased by 2% per 100 AP in Trundle’s build and is especially powerful when combined with other damage-over-time effects in the game.
So, if you ever see Trundle with a full AP item build, expect a lot of magic damage from his ultimate!
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AP Trundle S12 Runes – Explained
Recommended runes for playing Trundle full AP in season 13:
- Dark Harvest
- Cheap Shot
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Celerity
- Scorch
DARK HARVEST is one of the most interesting runes in League of Legends. It allows you to deal bonus adaptive damage to enemies below 50% HP. The damage is calculated based on how many soul stacks you have.
And the soul stacks are collected by hitting enemy champions when they glow red. The hit deals extra damage and improves your damage for the next time you do the same. This way, you can scale extremely well for the late game.
CHEAP SHOT is a simple rune that deals bonus true damage to your target if they’re under a crowd control effect. This includes slows too, so Trundle can always activate Cheap Shot when he uses his E – Pillar of Ice.
EYEBALL COLLECTION is here to passively increase your AP without you having to do anything out of the ordinary. This rune works on stacks you collect by scoring champion takedowns. And when fully stacked, it gives you a total of 30 bonus AP which is a pretty good deal.
ULTIMATE HUNTER reduces the cooldown of your ultimate ability based on whether you’ve scored a champion takedown on each enemy champion. So if you want to fully utilize this rune, you’ll need to have at least an assist on all 5 enemy players.
Since Trundle’s R is the main ability in this build, you’ll need to have it available as often as possible. And Ultimate Hunter helps you with that.
CELERITY is a great rune for all champions with bonus movement speed effects, including Trundle. It makes it so Trundle’s W grants 7% more movement speed along with all other similar effects.
Additionally, Celerity increases your overall MS by 1%.SCORCH synergizes well with Trundle’s R as well as with the items you’re going to buy. It’s a damage-over-time effect that procs whenever you strike an enemy with an ability. It does magic damage and it only has 10 seconds cooldown.
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AP Trundle S12 Items – Explained
Recommended runes for playing Trundle full AP in season 13:
- Sorcerer’s Shoes
- Liandry’s Anguish
- Demonic Embrace
- Morellonomicon
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
SORCERER’S SHOES should be your first boots of choice on AP Trundle. Besides the increase in movement speed, you also get 18 magic penetration. And since AP Trundle depends on his ultimate for damage, you want to make sure the ability has enough magic penetration throughout the game.
LIANDRY’S ANGUISH is the only mythic item that synergizes with Trundle’s R. This item burns your enemies with magic damage based on their bonus health. So the more health they have the more damage you do.
Subjugate already burns the enemy’s health when you use it. But together with Liandry’s, the damage becomes insane.
DEMONIC EMBRACE is the second burn item you’ll need to make this playstyle work. It adds another damage-over-time effect to Trundle’s R that lasts for 4 seconds. Its damage is based on how much maximum health your enemy has, so the item is great for all situations.
Demonic Embrace and Liandry’s Anguish are here to make sure that Trundle’s R stays relevant throughout the game and against all targets. Against squishy champion, your AP will do the work. And against tanks, these two items will help you deal so much bonus damage.
MORELLONOMICON is the fourth item you’ll want simply because it improves your damage. It lowers the healing effect of your target by up to 60%, making all your draining much more effective.
When your target’s HP is rapidly going down and they can’t heal themselves, there’s nothing else they can do to survive.
RABADON’S DEATHCAP is the best item for increasing your ability power in League of Legends. You’ll want its raw power of 120 AP and definitely the 35% increase in AP too. This item will make Trundle’s R a much more powerful cooldown.
VOID STAFF is here to give you maximum penetration for the late game. The item grants 45% magic penetration, so it’s really important to get it. You’ll want your Subjute to bypass all of your target’s defensiveness and be the hardest-hitting ability in the game.
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Optional and Situational Items for AP Trundle
Here are the optional and situational items I go for on AP Trundle.
If you find it difficult to deal damage only with your ultimate, I heavily suggest buying Nashor’s Tooth. It significantly improves the damage of your auto-attacks, so you can stay relevant in the early game too.
Zhonyas’s Hourglass can be a good defensive item, as well as Banshee’s Veil if you need to counter specific abilities.
Does Trundle’ W Slow?
Two of basic Trundle’s abilities don’t deal damage at all. Instead, they’re utility spells that influence Trundle’s movement speed in one way or another.
One of these abilities is Trundle’s E, which upon activation summons a pillar of ice that knocks back enemies and slows them down.
But Trundle’s W – Frozen Domain does NOT slow down enemy champions in LoL. Instead, it only increases Trundle’s movement and attack speed by a certain percentage that grows with new ranks.
In other words, you can’t slow your opponents only with Trundle’s W. The best way to do so is to activate Frozen Domain to speed yourself up while slowing your enemies with E – Pillar of Ice.
Here’s a list of items in League of Legends that apply a slow effect to help you out.
Read Also: Shyvana AP Build Guide
Conclusion
The full AP Trundle build isn’t a popular one. It’s a cheeky playstyle that some players go for in ARAM or URF, but almost never on Summoner’s Rift.
Personally, I really enjoy playing Trundle AP because it’s a lot of fun. And if you want to try it yourself, the runes and items for season 13 above will help you out.
You can also check this funny YouTube video by Darkk Mane playing full AP Trundle. It will definitely make you try AP Trundle!
Good luck and have fun!
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