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Some questions about jungling

Lv16 Flaaffy··3 votes·741 views

So I am a support main and have been for about a year now, but I realized that no matter how good you are as a support, if your jungler or top or mid feed hard early game you will lose. Sure, I can help feed my adc against our lane and mid or top (if they come down) but against 2 fed lanes (and even a fed jungler)? No way. So I started jungling in the hopes to help carry myself out of Bronze but I need some help with the basics.

Where should junglers usually ward? As a support I always ward bot lane and dragon, but people have told me that's the junglers job to ward dragon. Confused. Also, how do you know which buff to start at for each champion? When is it too early to gank?

Also, I am the type of jungler where I hate getting kills, and love getting assists (support type). I want to feed my lanes since the gold income I get is pretty fair and I don't need kill gold. So I can go a game (say 1/1/6) Amumu and the enemy forfeits at 20, then at the end in the lobby one of my team members will say "First time jungling Amu? Your kills were pathetic". Is it wrong not to want to kill in lanes? The ONLY time I will kill is if I am defending a lane when they backed or (obviously) protecting myself.

So, can anyone help me with any of this?

7 Comments

WukongMain2 votes

you're doing it right. giving kills to the laners is okay. however, dont take that to heart, i've had games where i camped a lane got them suuuper fed, but then they just go in 1v5 and die. so sometimes, it is okay to take the kill. as long as you still plan on helping that person. like say you never gank top, but you found a gank opportunity top and so you gank and in your mind you never plan on coming back up anytime soon. i would give the kill to the laner so that he can solo hes lane better. but if you plan on doing a return gank, don't be afraid to take the kill.

as for warding, id suggest watching high level games and pay attention to where the jungler's are warding, their patterns, stuff like that.

as for knowing when to gank, it really depends on which champions are in the game, how the lanes are pushing, where's are the wards being placed.. like warwick for example, he should never gank untill hes level 6. then you got champions like say shaco or rammus, that should gank as early as possible, and often. As a jungle main, i can safely say, it all comes down to experience. :D. watching pro games helps too.

DorkunedAuras2 votes

I myself am a jungle main (Rammus) and I hope to give some advice.

I almost always have a pink up, usually either at the bush inside of blue, or on the bush on the other side of red buff. I usually upgrade my trinket ASAP for the free sightstone, and I tend to ward the enemy buffs, tri-bushes, and the little death bushes in the river, and I say dragon wards are on the support. I have so many better places to roam and ward, while the support pretty much has their tri-bush, and river brush.

As for when to gank, that varies based on your jungler. You'll almost never gank pre-3 with any jungler, though I've seen a few really good Shaco do it. On Rammus, I go krugs (smiting) to red, to raptors (smite) to a lane to gank while having about 2/3 hp. People don't really expect my early pressure and I often score first bloods that way. However, if you're playing someone like Warwick, just hard farm until 6, then back for jungle item and gank.

Choosing a lane to gank is pretty complex, and varies a lot. First thing to look for is whether there are any lanes pushed up. If all your lanes are pushed to the enemy tower, then there's no point ganking, unless you know 100% you can successfully tower dive, which is really rare. Next, think about who you are ganking. It's easier to gank a Mordekaiser than it is to gank a Leblanc for example. And also think about who you are ganking for. A Nasus almost never wants ganks, even if he's pushed to his tower, because then he can safely farm his Q and scale up. On the contrary, a Katarina loves ganks, and getting her ahead will win you games.

Jungling is the most complex role in LoL, hands down. You have to keep your eyes on the map, and focus on many things at once. It takes practice, but I welcome you to join the elites of the best lane, the everywhere lane.

Winrams1 votes

I main jungle and pretty much play it 90% of the time.

Do not always give kills to your lanes, you will have situations where you could have always gotten the kill. But you being nice and trying to give them the kill will end up allowing the other team to escape. If its obvious they will die, sure give the lane the kill. Make sure to be aware of your team comp as well, if you are the only tanky engager, you will want the kill because you are rewarded more experience. So you will be ahead of the other team and making your engages way easier to stay alive. Your team will have an easier time surviving if you can get ahead of the whole other team in level.

Where to start for jungling, I always go gromp, wolves, to red and then golems. Port back to base to get jungle item and 5 health pots. Then I continue to blue, gromp, wolves and birds. At that point you should be lvl 4-5 and hopefully your lanes are not retarted and die before that. Port back to base to get basic boots and armour/magic resist item depending on the other team comp. After all that if you team is good, I start trying to get some ganks in if the other team has pushed your teams lanes in. If they arent then keep farming.

For warding always have dragon warded, early game it is nice to get the first dragon around 7-8 minutes. If you jungle udyr or nunu then you can solo it, nunu the earliest at lvl 4 with a few pots and udyr I believe youre safe at lvl 5-6. Other areas to ward are obviously your red or blue to see if the enemy jungler is trying to counter jungle. As well as tri bush down at bot lane and the bush in river at top lane. Just to help them out if they used theirs already and you happen to be in the area.

When to gank depends on what champ you are. If you are a champs like shaco or fiddlesticks for example, you want to gank early like lvl 3-4 if your team absolutely needs it or you notice the other team way out of position, because they are high damage champs with a reasonable cc early game. But keep in mind you need to also focus on farming jungle, because if you try to gank and end up not killing the other team you will fall behind greatly in level. So if you are ganking a lot just make sure you get kills/assists.

Well that is my 2 cents on jungling, I hope it helped. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

-Winrams-Sejuani Skarner Volibear Vi Nautilus JarvanIV Malphite Fiddlesticks Chogath

junglerboy161 votes

Support should ward dragon, as should the jungler. Just because one of you has one ward there doesn't mean it is taken care of. You want that whole half of the jungle lit up like a christmas tree whenever there is a dragon within 1-2 minutes, because you don't just want to know "hey, they're doing drag" you want to know "hey, it looks like their top and mid came down, and drag is almost up, we should get in position early". Early knowledge is key, you don't want to be the one reacting to their call, you want them to have to react to you, since whoever gets in position first can have a better setup for a better fight (which often sets up kills for your team on top of the dragon buff). The same goes for Baron whenever it is about to spawn, and as a whole, when the game progresses, you either want to ward deeper and deeper when ahead, or ward more defensively t catch people out when behind.

Getting kills as a supportive jungle isn't optimal, and that guy who is asking why you had so few kills probably would have been even more mad if you finished with 11 kills that could have gone to him. People are like that, they never look at assists and think that no kills but assists=bad player, instead of no kills but assists=team player. You are doing exactly what you should be doing as an Amumu (although don't be alarmed if you do get a kill as Amumu, if he gets ahead he can get more tanky damage items sooner and snowball lanes harder). If you are someone like a Master Yi, or a Vi, or any other high damage carry jungle, then you should try and take kills when possible (but never to the detriment of your laners), so that you can snowball and help carry the game. The advantage you have is you already got past the myth that you have to be the carry in order to climb. That is only true if the enemy team doesn't know how to kill a single fed enemy, which isn't hard to do. Keep on using those supportive junglers and work with your team and you'll be out of bronze in no time.

IcyPepper1 votes

Where should junglers usually ward? As a support I always ward bot lane and dragon, but people have told me that's the junglers job to ward dragon.

It's everyone's job to ward. Support generally wards dragon, but you can too. No biggie. If you're in the neighborhood without a ward, secure scuttlebug. It's basically a ward that pays you!

Also, how do you know which buff to start at for each champion?

Most start at krugs/frog with bot lane's leash, but it depends. Starting at your buff isn't always optimal for who gives you a leash, but then again it depends. As Fiddlesticks, you need blue buff so you get a leash there, so that's an exception. People generally take blue first (for faster clears), then smite red near the end for health.

When is it too early to gank?

Depends on the jungler, but early is never too early! If you see a lane pushed to your tower at level 3, get up in that bitch. That adc is dealing maybe 30 damage per auto with your armor runes, so punish that cocky champion.

ANd it isn't wrong to give laners kills. That's why I prefer tanky junglers than carry junglers. You get your laners fed on purpose, and they realize this, they'll have your back wherever you go.

Dryditch1 votes

  1. The jungler and support should always buy red trinket. Support has sightstone early so it doesn't Matter. Jungler picks up a green or pink every back and uses the rest of their gold for items they need.

  2. Tanks start Gromp. AA-reliant champs start krugs. Smite gromp at start, krugs at end. The stun carries through at least 3 camps and a scuttle if you're fast.

  3. Gank when you're comfortable with damage and health and your lanes are in your favor (enemy past river on your side. Make sure you communicate with team by pings first.

  4. Get your laners kills, but secure one that might get away.

mkman20081 votes

The most important thing i have learned jungling is that if they steal your red, they are going to their red immediately. Use some counter logic and go steal their blue. See what buffs they have on them and work from there. Also, pots are an investment, 5 pots= tons of gold without backing so in the end its worth it. Edit: Also, start yellow trinket. On your first gank, smite the raptors, and whether successful or not, drop the trinket for your laner. Then on your next back upgrade to red and shut some vision down.

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