Good Jungle Champ

KenichisWill·Aug 24, 2014·1 votes·1,018 views

So I have accepted that I cannot play damaging roles because I like to tank or at least be able to take a good amount of hits. I have a top and tanky support. I was looking for a jungle though that will be worth buying runes for and paying in ranked. I have rammus who I like, but idk how he measures in ranked. I was thinking J4 or nocturne as well. I have Vi and do not enjoy playing as her. Xin Zhao was suggested to me as well. Any other suggestions or feedback for the mentioned champs?

16 Comments

The Red WardenAug 24, 20142 votes

Play as AP xin zhao jungle and collect freelo Standard build is usually build in this order: item 3206 item 3115 item 3006 item 3100 item 3065 item 3091
If the game goes on long enough trade wraith for a rabbadon's

You may be thinking why build xin ap right? But what you don't probably know is that ap xin is possibly the best duelist in game and gains the ability to tank through his insane healing. You may enter a 2 vs 1 fight with half health yet beat both and now have a full health bar

WorgslargAug 24, 20141 votes

You forgot the solo towers with no minions.

The Red WardenAug 24, 20141 votes

Well that is something ap xin is known to do

12talesAug 24, 20142 votes

Rammus actually has one of the highest win rates in solo queue. You can make of it what you will, but if you enjoy playing him, I'd encourage you to keep it up.

Jarvan is an excellent champion, I'd definitely recommend him if you enjoy playing tanks.

Elise is obscenely powerful at the moment, but she can be a bit tricky to pick up if you're new to her.

Xin Zhao is fun, but pretty gimmicky - as a champion, he lacks defensive mobility, which means that he suffers a lot should he get behind. If you're very confident in your ability to snowball early leads (or just really enjoy playing him), he's a decent, if risky choice.

ShockforceAug 24, 20142 votes

Amumu is pretty solid. His general win-rate is pretty high.

In fact, Amumu, J4, Rammus, and Warwick have higher than average win rates at all levels of ranked play and get tanky.

Would not really suggest Xin since he is ridiculously binary and Vi does Xin's job better. Nocturn is pretty good but he requires good decision making, his ult is a one way ticket which makes him pretty hard to play (it is pretty easy to press it and go in without thinking... to your detriment)

Besides those there are Rengar, Pantheon, which are less tanky but more scary in terms of ganking, and Skarner, Maokai, and Sejuani, which are very tanky but have low use.

Lee, Elise, and Evelynn have become pretty hard to pull off because they have been nerfed based on their ranked 5 game potential rather than solo queue.

67chromeAug 24, 20142 votes

Gotta go with the tree, Maokai.

To truly be a jungler, you've got to think like a jungle. Be one with the jungle, and put that tree where he belongs!

BlueharlequinAug 24, 20142 votes

I'd say good ol bear man Udyr . He's got one of the best clears in the game and all of skills are straight forward. His ganks are pretty solid despite having no ult (beast stance ftw). You can learn him literally after one game but then the options open up to build how you want from damage, full tank, bruiser, etc.

WorgslargAug 24, 20141 votes

I agree with this. Udyr is the most versatile champion in the game, in regards to how you play him.

He is almost unlimited in how you build/play.

If you want pure tank junglers, nautilus, maokai, and rammus are a good spot to start.

Xin is usually built as a bruiser, and played as more of a fighter than a tank. Nocturne is even farther to the fighter side of the tank/fighter scale imo.

KenichisWillAug 24, 20141 votes

Yeah with Xin I want to wait for him to be free to play first. I am afraid that the challenge mechanic he has is going to make me hesitate when I play him so I am wary of buying before trying. Thank you for the advice :)

The Red WardenAug 24, 20141 votes

Buy xin now he is very cheap and is one of the easiest champions in league, just don't dive into a 4 vs 1

Also in soloque people are usually not focused enough to have themselves realize they have to burst ap xin down before he rips through them while healing through all of the damage done to him

DocRedgraveAug 24, 20141 votes

I really hate the idea of people calling Nocturne a true tank. He's not a tank, he's an Assassin/Fighter who can offtank to an extent.

KenichisWillAug 24, 20141 votes

I used to play him last season and building him with tank items he was fairly capable, but I know what you mean

WałkerAug 24, 20141 votes

I would play warwick, you can build him really tanky or kinda tanky depending on what you need.

MakeHongKongFreeAug 24, 20141 votes

If you're willing to farm up the IP, Sejuani can be a great jungler. Her farming is really weak early on, and can be fixed by getting an early quill coat, and her hanks are amazing, and can almost guarantee a kill in a lane after level 6.

MAZZ1M0Aug 25, 20141 votes

Amumu and Rammus do fairly well jungling. Little dudes can tank.

Sejuani and Nautilus are also great tanks, but having used them I find they're too blue-reliant for my liking. You may not have an issue with them. They're ridiculously good if you get fed.

MrBuffingtonAug 25, 20141 votes

I've been holding off commenting on this post, since I really wanted Olaf jungle to work, but at the moment, he's pretty weak since he has very few options as far as engaging (and is not as much of a pure tank as many other junglers). I still want to say he's strong despite being suboptimal as far as picks go, but he does have heavy weaknesses in the current, mobility heavy meta. Speaking of the meta, J4 and Maokai are probably the top tanky supports, J4 more on the offensive side and Maokai on the defensive side. Amumu is a good pick as well.

One pick that I haven't seen mentioned yet though is Nunu; he's somewhat situational and very unique as far as junglers go, but he gets very tanky with very few items, has pretty much unparalleled objective control (since his Consume is basically a second smite), really good synergy with many of the hypercarry ADCs that are popular now because of his Blood Boil (and also counters a lot of the hypercarries since his Ice Blast reduces attack speed). His ult is great for teamfights, as an engage or disengage, and he has a lot of jungle control; his job is really to provide great utility to his team through vision and also denying (aka annoying the living hell out of) the other jungler by stealing big monsters or buffs with his consume+smite, following them around and smacking them with snowballs, then running away before they can retaliate, etc. I'd say he might be harder to play in solo-q since he needs a team that actually knows what Nunu is doing and supposed to be doing, but he can be a very powerful pick.

I also want to mention that there's more variation to champions than full-tank and squishy-carry. I'm sure you understand this, but from the sound of your first sentence, it seems like you making a very hard distinction. A full tank Amumu with nothing more than a Sunfire Cape and Haunting Guise in the way of damage still can wreak havok on the enemy carries. A traditionally squishy jungler like Evelynn still builds tank after Elder Lizard and maybe a Hexdrinker or something, and mid to late game really transitions into being a good off-tank. Most junglers are like this actually; offensive jungle item + a lesser damage item, then build full tank.