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Help On Learning How To Jungle?

Souperbowelz·6/2/2017, 3:34:15 AM·1 votes·2,101 views

I believe I've posted a forum post akin to this a very long time ago, when I was even more of a noob than I am now (not much of an achievement, really), but I have decided to post a Discussion on the same topic in an attempt to get some tips and tricks from more skilled players, maybe find a jungler champion I can get behind. I really do want to learn jungle - it is the role I need to work on the most, taking the spot of mid by a mile - but I'm just so unbelievably bad at it. My main problem with jungle is knowing when and where to gank; really, I feel that's always been my main problem with the role. Occasionally I'll find myself in the enemy's jungle like an idiot (which, don't get me wrong, I definitely recognize is a big problem), but aside from that, I have no problems getting jungle creeps. But what's the point of a jungler if he can't even gank properly? That's probably the most important part of the role. So far, I've tried these junglers:

Hecarim - I really enjoyed this champion during my run with him. Ganking as Hecarim is as simple as having E or ult up to gallop towards some poor soul, and I like how you can be rather tanky but not have to sacrifice much damage in return. Sadly, I've had some less than satisfactory games with him, either because my ganks ended up getting me killed or I focus too much on trying to gank, resulting in me losing considerable amounts of farm. One time, an enemy Katarina got fed because her jungler camped mid, and I just felt so bad for our Katarina...Overall, I do enjoy playing the Shadow of War, although I feel that there's certainly improvements I need to make if I want to be good at him.

Fiddlesticks - Mid is one of my worst lanes because you can pretty much only play mages and assassins, both of which are roles I haven't found a niche champion at. Naturally, I had a bad time with Fiddlesticks because of this. I didn't realize that he's a jungler that really needs you to have your ult up for ganks, but wow, I really learned the hard way. Needless to say, I felt useless when I played him and it made me want to die. Overall, I hated playing the Harbringer of Doom, and I don't really want to play him again. At least, not anytime soon.

Nocturne - Oh boy. This was when I really realized that squishy junglers just don't work for me. I actually uploaded a video last year of me just utterly failing at everything I do on this champion, and I couldn't even grab any kills with my ult because, surprise surprise, I didn't read the nifty little description that told me how to use it. I've seen a lot of fed Nocturnes nowadays and that ult looks really good, so maybe I'll try to play him again sometime, but that time is definitely not now. I felt even more suicidal in the match I tried Nocturne out than I did with Fiddle. Overall, I sometimes want to try the Eternal Nightmare out again, but I ultimately don't think it's worth it.

Zac - Now, I actually played this champion before he got reworked, but I was only able to play him twice due to not owning him beforehand. I feel that Zac looks like he could've been a strong and enjoyable jungler for me if I just learned him a little better, so the rework making him a more complicated champion saddens me. Zac's simple old kit was just really fun for me (but the ult was pretty useless, I admit), and I'm not sure why. I never put the camera on free camera during my E, which made me look quite silly when I used the spell since I couldn't aim it right when ganking. Honestly, I don't know why it didn't occur to me that it'd be best to put it on free camera. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the Secret Weapon, and although I'm ultimately glad he was reworked, there's some sadness in my heart seeing that I never really took the opportunity to learn the old Zac.

Warwick - I've only played Warwick once despite owning him, and I don't feel it was enough for me to really form opinions on him. My main problem was ganking at bad times, since I really overestimated the speed of Blood Hunt and underestimated it's cooldown, so when I ran to gank and was (unsurprisingly) too late, I felt like I was doing something wrong when I had Boots of Swiftness yet was unable to run up to fleeing champions and chomp them down. Now I know that Boots of Mobility might be better on Warwick for that out of combat speed, which Blood Hunt kinda prioritizes on. I was playing Warwick with my friends, so I got all kinds of input - I always thought Warwick was a kind of early gank champion now, but it's best to wait for the ultimate before going in due to it being Warwick's only gap closer. Overall, I want to play this champion to try and learn him more, but my first impression of the Uncaged Wrath of Zaun wasn't very great.

To my memory, the only other jungler I've tried is Udyr, but that wasn't even in a normal game - it was in Co Op V.S. AI and one Practice match. I'll probably try him in normals sometime soon. But yeah; with my personal thoughts on all these champions, do you guys have any idea of what junglers I might like? If not, I'd love to receive just some general tips on playing the jungler role, mainly on pulling off successful ganks. Thanks for reading all this, and I appreciate your attempts at helping a trash player.

10 Comments

Weathered6/2/2017, 4:23:14 AM2 votes

Hey Souperbowelz, if you have a mic and skype to screen share, I'd be willing to go through some teaching on jungle if you are interested. I'm a platinum jungle main who's played since late season 4, IGN: Weathered. You can message me in the client and I'll respond when I'm able to skype for a while (need to manage some end of school year tests/exams).

Elkington VI6/2/2017, 3:38:54 AM1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFyPCuHFDMI

Sp33d Zer06/2/2017, 3:41:52 AM1 votes

I would recommend you look up foxdrop on YouTube. He has several jungling guides on every aspect of jungling.

Also the most important job of a jungler is objective control. That job is just usually easier if you have fed lanes.

oSEXYPLATYPUSo6/2/2017, 3:42:29 AM1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/user/stonewall008

watch this channel/videos

EndlessSorcerer6/2/2017, 3:43:10 AM1 votes

I would suggest watching videos by high-ELO and/or professional junglers (i.e. Valkrin, Meteos, Stonewall008, Nightblue3, and FoxdropLOL). They will typically provide a lot of useful tips while playing and you can often see or hear their decision process and some optimizations throughout the game.

Off the top of my head, some basic optimizations may be:

  • Use hard-CC when the monster camps are about to attack you to cancel that attack and delay their next.
  • Attack Speed is extremely efficient at clearing on most junglers. I'd recommend using about 15% on champions when you need to speed up their clear even if they don't use the stat much later (with a few exceptions, such as Nidalee and Evelynn).
  • Keep a control ward out (or in your inventory) whenever possible. This is important for every champion, but I thought I should emphasis it. There isn't really a good reason not to.

As far as ganking is concerned:

  • When possible, conserve your gap-closer while ganking. If you can get to the enemy champion without using your mobility spell(s), then you can save it to catch them after they try to escape (Flash, dash, blink, etc).
  • You should should try to stay between the enemy and their escape route. You should be trying to move backwards (towards their escape) in-between attacks so that you can body-block them and slow their escape. This also leaves you closer to them if they try to dash or blink past you.
  • It can be risky to gank top-lane while Dragon is up since the enemy team can just group and take it 4v3. I'd recommend ganking top-lane early if possible (after your initial clear) and when Dragon is down; that lane can be quite snowbally due to isolation, so you want to get your ally ahead.
  • Learn to recognize the general times when buff camps spawn during games. If you see the enemy gank bottom lane while their top-side buff is up, you can go steal it from them.
  • Watch when top and bottom lane initially go into lane. If that lane has leashed for their jungler (missing health, mana, or showed up to lane a bit late), then you know where the enemy jungler has likely started and where they will end their clear (where is closest for them to gank).
  • If you have killed the enemy laner, you can either allow your laner to freeze or shove the lane into the enemy tower. If you shove the wave under tower and the next minion wave is coming up, it can be helpful to proxy it to ensure that the wave fully resets and the enemy laner misses as much as possible. This is very situational though and you will have to learn when through experience.

Other tips:

  • Whenever possible, walk up to the enemy champion during a gank and save your gap-closer for after they use their escape abilities.
  • Watch the enemy laners when they go into lane. Whichever lane shows up later and/or missing mana will likely indicate which side of the jungle the enemy jungler started on (which is useful for predicting gank paths and for counter-jungling).
  • Watch the minimap to see when and where the enemy goes to ward, which laners are pushing, which laners are vulnerable
  • Know, roughly, how most laning matchups go so that you can prioritize which lanes are the easiest to gank or require an early gank to decide the matchup.
  • If you have blown an enemy's Flash during a gank but haven't killed them, swing back around immediately after an gank them again. Many people don't expect it
  • If you've killed an enemy during a previous gank in top lane, kill them again immediately after they return to lane. They likely won't have wards up yet and a second back-to-back death can be enough to completely crush any chance that opponent has to recover the lane.
  • Top laners rarely bother warding the lane bushes. As such, lane ganks can be quite surprising and effective.
  • When you kill an enemy laner, shove the minion wave into the tower so they miss gold and experience and so that the minion wave will reset to the middle of the lane. If you can get away with it, clear the upcoming minion wave as well to ensure the reset and maximum missed minions.

You will learn a lot through experience, but these tips should help you at the start.

wishbone256/2/2017, 4:20:58 AM1 votes

start wolves for ez level up or start blue or red with leash map awareness on top mid and bot see wich one is easy to gank drag priority , rift herald priority , know enemy routines on champs they pick wards be aware where the enemy jungler might be , warn your team mates a lot and focus towers in order to push lane and win game

make easy routes to fullfill your jungle , then make it your skill to gank and follow up on your mates GL

try yi , jax ,xin , evelyn , j4 , elise , sorta easy champs for ez carry