Level 1 Trinkets
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As you can see the level 1 trinkets all provide much more utility than any other starting items before. The first one (yellow) is a free explorers ward. Very useful in lane bushes and/or following an enemy into brush. The next one (red) is basically an oracles on a cooldown, and the final one (blue) is clairvoyance.
Of the three, the yellow trinket seems the strongest, right? Many times this is the case, but other times you're better off with another trinket. Blue trinket is not as weak as many would like to think (Caitlyn ult anyone?). Also, the red trinket helps a lot when your jungler plans on ganking your lane a lot. When using the red one, you don't have to even kill the ward. It disables vision for 4 seconds. That means your jungler can sneak in while they're thinking you just wanted to kill their ward but missed the opportunity.
Of course even with all that knowledge, I'll usually buy the yellow trinket simply for an extra ward (on top of the wards you already have to buy, and I'm not only talking to the supports out there). Early game this is the strongest trinket, though sometimes it's better to get red for safer ganks. Remember, most people will get free wards, so sometimes red can be stronger to increase the chances of a gank working.
Level 9 Trinkets
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At level 9 all the trinkets automatically evolve into stronger versions of themselves. Yellow trinket now lasts 2 minutes. Red trinket will disable and reveal for 2 seconds longer. Blue trinket will allow you to reveal a farther distance. Honestly, you shouldn't have your tier 2 trinket for long, as their upgrades cost just under 500G. Let's just move on to tier 3.
Greater Trinkets
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Now is where things get interesting. Let's get more in depth with the strategies behind these trinkets at their full potential.
Greater Vision vs Greater Stealth
I think both of these trinkets are crap. Don't get me wrong, their early game counterpart is really strong because it provides vision on gold depraved champions, but both tier 1 and tier 2 are free, and free vision is always good. If you're adamant about upgrading your early game giveaway into one of these, Greater Vision is stronger if you're winning, and Greater Stealth is better if you need to pick someone off.
The Greater Stealth Totem gives you one ward every 2 minutes, that will last 3 minutes. Good for any split push/pick team composition. This trinket is especially strong when one pick can win or lose you the game.
I don't think I really have to explain the Greater Vision Totem, but for good measure: It gives you one vision ward every three minutes. Each player can only have one vision ward out at a time.
Personally, I'd rather buy my own wards until I get 6 items. I can drop them whenever I want, and have more vision on the map in a smaller amount of time.
My verdict on Warding Trinket: Great early game, weak before sixth item, great after sixth item.
Oracle's Lens
With the removal of Oracle's Elixir, this becomes the key to having a vision war with the other team. Especially strong on junglers and supports, you can easily clear two or three choice warding spots with one activate. Though on a long cooldown (90 seconds), it's necessary to have at least one of these on your team. Also, since it's so easily attainable, stealth champs will hate you for taking this trinket.
Ever had an Akali or Talon almost wreck your carry then stealth to finish off the job? Pop this bad boy right when they get into stealth and find that your carry will be safe with the enemy assassin dead. Just remember to use it at the right time, because it'll be another 80 seconds before you can use it again.
My verdict on Lens Trinket: Situational early game, great mid and late game. At least one person must have this per team.
Farsight Orb
While many find this trinket especially useless, I'm finding most games in SoloQ definitely need one of these on their team. Remember that game where one guy (usually the one not warding) goes "support ward baron pls omg"? You know where this is going already. In the time it took for you to get to this sentence, it's happened dozens of times, across many games being played right now, at every ELO, on every server.
So what am I saying? Sometimes it's better to have a clairvoyance on your team, especially when losing. If the entire enemy team is missing even though your support dropped all three of her/his allotted stealth wards on the map, face-checking a bush near Baron is probably not the best idea in the world. Use this.
Many times if your jungler gets the Oracle's Lens you can spring for this as a safety net for you and your team not to get picked off by the pentault waiting in that bush your "omgwtf support" didn't ward because "omg how come there's only three wards on the map".
My verdict on Orb Trinket: Situational, but most likely better to get in SoloQ. This is simply because some people still think only the support has to ward. Save your team with 475 gold. Definitely requires advanced game knowledge and intuition.
Strategy
Now I can't speak for everyone, simply because I think that it's largely based on preference and team comp, but here is my personal buy pattern for trinkets in SoloQ.
Always buy yellow first on everyone but the jungler. Junglers, unless they plan on counter jungling early, are much better off with the red trinket to increase chance of ganks being pulled off.
Once I hit level 9, I'll either keep the tier 2 yellow trinket or if I'm jungling or supporting I'll buy the Oracle's Lens simply because of how great it is. If I'm the ADC or top I'll usually end up buying the Greater Stealth Totem for split pushing/following in bush/helping the support and jungler ward.
If support or ADC, blue trinket gets strong late game depending on how little your team is warding and if your jungler has an Oracle's Lens.
Conclusion
Find your own personal playstyle with the new dynamic in the game. When the normal season starts, you don't want to be left in the dust thinking you can just yellow trinket every game ever in SoloQ. I'm even predicting that some people will gain a lot more ELO by knowing how to use the trinket system, simply by abusing the new game mechanic that others haven't fully figured out yet. Don't get left in the dust!
