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What is in a DECENT junglers head?

Occams Raiser··3 votes·873 views

How does a jungler decide what lanes to gank and when? I have seen some common sense factors overlooked on a regular basis. I have gotten all excited to see bot lanes with no flash, only to never receive a gank. I have seen allied junglers come in lane to gank with 1/3 health. They get smashed. I have mentioned that a bot lane has double heal and without a gank the odds of bursting them down is almost nil, and if we poke we will run out of sustain. The other side seems to be going for a cs only lane. The gank never comes. And of course my personal favorite, "I never came cause it seemed you were ok".

I use to think it had to do with what buff they started. Whenever they hit three they would gank the closest lane. But they seem to have their favorite lanes. And there are champs that must be shutdown early or its GG. They don't camp that lane successfully or instill fear. Is this just the woes of dealling with crap junglers or is lane selection pretty random until you hit GOLD?

Bear in mind, I am aware that if you push the opponent to tower you get no ganks and if you lose lane it doesn't help to gank your lane. YET THEY DO!

9 Comments

Dryditch5 votes

Yes, I know I'm Bronze4, blame placements and the lack of ranked games I've played since then.

Here's how I see it when i Jungle. The Jungle is one giant lane. I have my own objectives and respawns and enemy to worry about. If I have the time, I will roam into your lane and help you get a kill.

Otherwise, I'm farming to get enough gold to take a solo 5 - 6 minute dragon, then a 12 minute dragon, then the one after that.

My jungle is run like a lane. When my objectives are down, I assist lanes, and it has a lot to do with who's got something available when i'm ready. Running 1-2 levels behind the entire enemy team is too large a risk to take, trying to assassinate them without a guarantee that my laners are going to back me up.

Only Play Darius4 votes

Pre-6 ganks are hard with new jg, and if we fail our gank the enemy get a kill, then our teammate won't stop giving us shit for feeding their lane.

Leti the Yeti2 votes

am i healthy? are they healthy? is my laner healthy? are we close by? are they pushed? is my laner's ult up? is my ult up? is their ult down? is their flash down?

shit like that, more yes the better

Marcq341 votes

I consider the jungler a mercenary who only shows up to your lane if he can be paid to do so (guaranteed kill). If he comes to your lane for anything less than a kill or assist he has wasted precious farming time and will fall behind the rest of the game. When you are trying to solo carry in ranked you can't depend on your teammates to play well or to make good use of your time so your only aim is to make sure you get fed. I've played so many jungle games where i snowballed all my lanes and still lost due to them not grouping or helping me with objectives. You also get the sympathetic jungler who makes the mistake of trying to help a dead lane to avoid them feeding or going or tilt.

Veraska1 votes

i jungle a lot and while im like silver 4ish i like to think im a pretty good jungler for my level of play, what works for me is "where is the enemy jungler?" and a lot of my decision making comes from that honestly, is he starting krugs on red side, ill cheese a kill on blue buff if it's someone weak, one of my lanes pushed hard/ their opponent a snowbally stomper?, probably should hover around their to counter gank or try to shut down the lane,

try your best to not be proactive and not reactive, if you're making stuff happen then your opponent has to react to you, and you'll always be one step ahead of them.

thats what works for me, also pick champions with REALLY strong post 6 ganks, wukong, rengar, and kha'zix are my favorites for this because they can duel solo laners even if their a level or 2 behind if you know what you're doing. jarvan and vi are super popular in the meta partly for this reason.

Zyras Banana1 votes

bot lane especially can be a hard and dangerous lane to gank with certain champs

Khell DarkWolf1 votes

Rule of Thumb(s):

  • Can I gank with my laner being able to follow up on it to help with damage and/or CC them down to secure the kill or force a summoner spell?
  • How low HP is my laner vs. their laner vs. my own HP
  • Does their opponent have a slippery way to just avoid a gank or or they just playing too safe?
  • If I have no damage (being tank jungler), does my laner have the damage to make up for it?
  • Is my Laner out of mana
  • What is the level difference between myself + my laner vs. their Opponent
  • How do items look on the opponent that I'm about to gank
  • If my laner is winning, do I think giving him a gank to solidify his lead even more so it will help to relieve him so I can have him help roam to other losing lanes?
  • If my bot lane is losing, how can I help get pressure off them so our ADC can catch up?
  • **What jungler am I facing against and what can they do against me and my team and how can I plan against it? **
  • **Whose MIA at the moment as I scan the map? Where can I predict they will be at **
  • If I got a laner stomping his opponent, how I can plan a counter-gank or the moment I know they are gonna try to shut him down by sneaking an objective tower or dragon etc as they spend time being per-occupied
  • If We lost something like an objective tower/dragon, can we trade it for one of their's? Tower for tower, eye for an eye?
  • Can I hold that lane that went back/died so I can soak some extra exp? Always a plus

Thats what goes through my head.

If I have a teammate losing hard, its not that I don't notice it or don't want to help. I have alot more variables to think how I can turn the game around for you and everyone else and I promise you that I never forgot you.

Frost the Reaper1 votes

So I'm unranked, and I'm not the best jungler in the world. That I'll admit now. But here is essentially the things that are in my mind when I'm deciding who / if I'm going to gank.

-Will I lose and objective like Dragon or Baron for this gank? -Have I already cleared my jungle? -Position of Enemy Jungler as well as Enemy Mid Laner. -Can we get our Mid laner to help gank? -Do I have enough damage to successfully complete this gank? -Will I have enough health after ganking bot lane to take dragon?

Sincarnation1 votes

Jungle Main what goes through my mind when I look to a lane -Where is their jungler?

  • Can we feasibly get a kill?
  • Do they look like they could really benefit from just pressure?
  • Where is their jungler?
  • Can I countergank them?
  • Are they behind leaving us vulnerable in the 2 v 2?
  • Where is their jungler?
  • Can I sneak this drag?

If the answer is "idk" or "no" keep farming

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