Preseason 6 Jungle Strategy

Tl;dr at the bottom for you lazy people.

I'm just going to go right in to my experience with this new Jungle.

As for a lot of champions, this jungle wasn't too hard of a hit. For example, Yi, Xin, Warwick, Udyr, etc. are all still very powerful and their ability to farm in this jungle wasn't affected much. Champions like these shouldn't need any more help to succeed in the jungle.

I'm not sure if anyone still plays Kayle jungle, but I've noticed that her early game is disgustingly difficult. It's hard to clear more than 2 camps at a time without backing before you get your first item. I'm sure this problem applies to other junglers, but I haven't had time to try too many of them so far. It's because of this "inability to clear" that a lot of previously meta and not-so-meta junglers are becoming ineffective.

As for a solution, I've devised a plan that I have yet to test. Let's go back to Kayle for an example of how this could work.

As for runes and masteries, they should be about what you normally bring for the jungle, with a few possible changes (which I will discuss in a bit). Bring smite and another spell of your choosing, as always.

The goal here is to bypass your shitty early game clearing in order to remain effective late, while also snowballing your team. For a support-ish Champion like Kayle, this will be quite easy.

Start off by buying either Ancient Coin or Relic Shield. This is where I talk about that change in your masteries. If you want Ancient Coin, it might be advisable to pick up Bandit. This will increase your gold income to help you get that first item faster. Your playstyle will determine which item you pick up.

If you plan on picking up Ancient Coin, you'll be tied to a lane a lot more in order to keep your gold flow. If you get Relic Shield, you can leave to do a camp or two while waiting for a charge.

Anyway, once you have your item, head to top lane with your top laner. Your goal is to deny the enemy top laner as much farm as possible, and try to poke them down so that they have to back. The lowered experience for your own top laner will be (or should be) counteracted by the fact that the enemy top laner is being bullied to such an extent. Just make your laner's game as easy as possible.

When the enemy laner backs, your item will determine your course of action. With Ancient Coin, stay in lane and try to push down the tower. With Relic Shield, use your charges and go clear a few camps.

Once you have enough gold for your first item/are a high enough level/feel that you can effectively farm the jungle, you can sell your laning item and get to farming the jungle.

There are obviously benefits and disadvantages to this, so let's go over them.

Pros:
Snowballing Top Laner
Bypassing bad early clears
Shutting down enemy Top Laner Makes you more influential earlier on

Cons: Free/Almost free camps for enemy jungler No gank pressure in other lanes early game Less experience for top laner/both of you could get stomped anyway No Dragon control (mitigated if you take Tele/pressure Herald)

So, if all goes well, this could be a viable strategy to bring junglers less adept at clearing back into the meta while also assisting top lane. However, there is a risk that you face a godlike toplaner that ends up shutting down both of you, where it would have only been your top laner before. Tell me what you think in the comments, I'd love to hear your opinions.

Tl;dr - Become a toplane support until you can clear effectively.