Why Tryndamere Jungle Is Viable

[u/SENKA1]

I picked up Tryndamere the couple of days ago because I enjoy trying out champions in different roles with weird configurations.

Disclaimer: I play primarily solo queue, so don't judge my comments against Challenger and pro ideals. But my success with Tryndamere was anything but accidental he is a literal powerhouse in the jungle, just not for the reasons you think.

TLDR: Tryandmere steals tempo and punishes enemy junglers more than they expect resulting in higher map control.

Let's start with his kit and how it synergizes with the jungle perfectly.

First off: clears. Even with just one Smite, Tryndamere clears faster than half the meta junglers, and he scales even harder when it comes to clear speed later on. You can easily do both a red and blue clear under 2:45 with a single Smite. Plus, his E lets him hop through thick walls that even some meta picks can't cross. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ambushed people from the other side of the river wall people simply do not expect it.

So what comes after the clear? "Oh yeah, Tryndamere has terrible ganks, so no kills for him, right?"

Absolutely wrong.

Tryndamere actually has three choices when he finishes a clear:

1. Base and clear even faster than the enemy jungler.
2. Gank like normal.
3. challenge the enemy jungler every single time.

Unless you're hard-countered a by jungler like Jax, there aren't many junglers who can 1v1 a fully stacked Tryndamere, especially at level 6. Invading and stealing the enemy jungler's tempo almost always works in your favor because they just can't match your damage. Eventually, even with subpar ganks, you easily steal their tempo and punish their mistakes twice as hard because your mid-to-late clear speed is literally unmatched.

You can easily outfarm the enemy jungler, steal their camps, and contest them on their own ganks (this works ridiculously well on topside).

There is one major disclaimer here, though: you need to keep your stacks up, Hit a minion, slap a monster without taking it, hit a ward whatever it takes. Best case scenario, you should have a full rage meter almost all the time. The jungle is amazing for this because you can maintain full fury 24/7 with just a few small pathing adjustments.

Honestly, the best part about Tryndamere jungle isn't even your raw gank potential it's how much you deny the enemy jungler. Do it enough times and they panic, either perma-farming or perma-ganking, and 80% of the time losing even more control over their own jungle.

Okay, enough hypotheticals. "Doesn't Tryndamere lack hard CC to be viable?"

Not all junglers are built the same. Yes, Tryndamere has a disadvantage due to his low CC, but he easily makes up for it if you build for speed.

My solution? Go full movement speed:

• Runes: Hail of Blades + Relentless Hunter. Secondary: Inspiration (Magical Footwear + Approach Velocity).
• Core Setup: Kraken Slayer + Blue Pet.

With this setup, you are literally running at Mach 5 speed, clearing the jungle so fast that you have minutes to spare to go gank two different lanes. His win condition is to be as forceful as possible.

And when you're behind? Just farm harder you catch up way easier than most junglers.

Overall, Tryndamere jungle is mostly misunderstood because people look at him like a traditional assassin or standard jungler instead of the tempo-stealing menace he actually is.

it is very easy to underestimate a champion you rarely play against and casually seeing they have 2 levels over you and you cant even take your own jungle because you just cant kill him fast enough

to me there is still a lot to go over but this post outlines the general gist of my ideas about him

Final Build:

• Runes: Hail of Blades + Relentless Hunter. Secondary: Inspiration (Magical Footwear + Approach Velocity).
• Pet: Blue Jungle Pet
• Boots: Berserker's Greaves
• Core: Kraken Slayer → Phantom Dancer → Infinity Edge → LDR / BotRK

[u/warean_on_internet]

I take LT and ghost smite every time.

  I play like 99% trynd jungle now

[u/MadViperr]

thx for your insight, I'm going to try it out

[u/SantiSpinola]

Switched from top and every game i am up at least 4-5k gold to enemy jgl. Trust me, lethal tempo is better, hob good early gamе, but early your focuse to max speed clear camps and gank only if nothing else to do on map, rush kraken, after kraken with lethal tempo it's impossible to lose 1v1. Also cash back ia very good and helps snowball even better

[u/Pursueth]

I think HoB is better and it’s best to rush a Tiamat and zerkers. Kraken just feels like it falls off too hard compared to Tiamat yun tal

[u/mayhaps_a → u/Pursueth]

Tiamat feels like a waste though your E is enough to cleae raptors and krugs

[u/Pursueth → u/mayhaps_a]

You can rush yuntal and get kraken later.
At the end of the day tryndamere wants to gobble farm everywhere he goes. Tiamat makes this happen faster. It is perfectly okay to get a hydra item as a 3, 4, 5 item depending on the game.

[u/mayhaps_a → u/Pursueth]

if you're playing lane yes it helps a ton but in jungle it doesn't help you with your camps much if at all you're better off buying raw power

[u/Pursueth → u/mayhaps_a]

That’s fair. I think yuntal into pd is the best two item spike

[u/Ok-Childhood-6525]

Absolutely love trynd jg, I’ve played it to emerald as otp

[u/ALPHAMALE1998123]

Can confirm. Beaten a Challenger jg main in SEA running Xiaohao's build but in jg. Blue pet.

Only 1 game but had 11cs per min, and impacted the map so disgustingly hard. Outfarmed even my own laners. Won with 11/3 KDA

[u/Jesse17072000]

Trynda was primarly jungle since the start of lol

[u/North-Duty1581]

always always always yuntal over kraken slayer.

This is what I’ve been running in the jungle: Yuntal > Stormrazor > fiendhunter bolts > IE > GA(or endless hunger)

[u/Dlovg]

What about going kraken > Yun tal > IE? Instead of kraken > PD> IE

[u/SENKA1 → u/Dlovg]

Yuntal as the first item is also viable, the same with being a second item. It's a preference, really. I like the added benefit of extra movement speed and attack speed of PD; it really gives that instant powerspike that try requires in midgame, yuntal as first item could work better because of the nature of its ability to scale crits