Handling the Jungle Bronze-mid Silver

I noticed people trying to get out of bronze trying to mimic pros. This isn't really a great way to plow out of bronze IMO. Yes, you can, but it's not the ideal way and it's the slow way to learn. Probably no one will read this, but that's fine.

I've been bouncing around Silver-Gold area since pre-season 1 based on downtime etc. When I'm lower I can visibly see my own mistakes, and know where my knowledge gaps are, but sometimes still make them while I get back in the swing. I also occasionally play with total newbs and have a taste of bronze. That said, the tips here will look totally asinine to top players. Again though, while "get good" will work, I think you still do get good while catering to your skill level, and learn different ways to play and evolve onto your overall game. Once you climb one step, you look for another way to climb the next and grow as a player IMO. I think it's faster, easier, and if you can climb to a point, you belong at that point til you find that next step. I also have some competitive tournament experience in non LoL games, just never really got into that here.

Anyways I've been doing a lot of JG lately, and have a handful of champs, but there's not a lot in JG. So I'll give some thoughts. The way you should play definitely varies based on where you're at though, which is why following "ideal" guides to the letter isn't always a good idea. KNOWING the information and how it works is important, branching out and doing something entirely different just because it works is perfectly fine.

Generic:

1. For Bronze, you want pure jungle clear speed, since people aren't great at last hitting, or are good at it but poor at teamfights/objective play the gold alone should give you serious carry potential. In this area, you're looking at champions like Master Yi, Warwick, Xin Zhao.

For Silver, of the ones I play I'll list some thoughts, as well as some I don't.

Top Tier

-Master Yi - Easy to play, hard to master, especially as some forget that he does require mastering. If you don't position him right, or try to initiate, you may as well kiss your butt goodbye. People aren't joking when they say CC shuts him down. Also, get used to using his Q to dodge hard CC, and holding it to gap close. In this regard I find him to be a bit better than Warwick at this tier simply because between the Q gap closer and his ult, it's way easier to stick to opponents. Also has low CD on ult. Great at chewing up tanks, barons, and dragons with BOTRK, Guinsoos, and Bloodrazor. Can even solo baron pretty easily if you find a good time at a power spike and use your ult.

-Warwick - Easy to play, easy to master, great sustain. Even with his "W" it's much harder to stick to certain team comps with him than it is with Yi. Because of this, I'd say he's not quite as good (but close). He's also off tanky just enough that he can still get chewed apart. It's a lot harder for him to get in and out alive than it is Yi once you get good at timing Yis Q's surprisingly. Some team comps will just kite you around til you cry little Warwick tears. Don't be afraid to ult to escape if you need. Overall still pretty much god tier, and as a champion, better than Yi, just not here.

-Xin Zhao- Easy to play, a lot of the same things to master as Yi, tons of smart positioning, and timing spells right can be tricky, he has a few orders IMO simply because Q lowers CD on other spells, but also the best time to pull off a "W" is when the enemy is knocked up. There's also various tricks, like if you and a team are trying to catch someone, hitting them with the tip of his "W" as a ranged slow can do wonders. His ult can also be used as an engage, a position displacement, or an escape. Since it doesn't knockback your target in some situations flashing behind someone and ulting, then jumping to them with E will work well. Or even hit with W to slow them if they have flash up to get back the other direciton and save your E. As you can see, there's a lot more decisions to make on Xin.

-Jax - Great counter, or at minimum challenger to anyone above this, super tough against Yi in particular as Yi has nothing but autos making Jax's E kind of OP against him. Can jump to wards like Lee Sin to escape.

-Evelynn - The only real viable mage at this tier, but also very hard to master healhy jungle clearing, also probably a good reason to pick her up and learn. If you're going to play Evelynn, research is a must, which means this stream: https://www.twitch.tv/sunsetwastaken

-Shaco - Oh god where do I begin, hard to master, hard to play, the enemy will hate your guts, your allies will hate your guts, but if you want to put the time in to master him, well worth it. Like Eve but more so, you really need to dedicate yourself if you want to play Shaco. Also a great pick when the enemy bans eve, it means stealth champions tilt them. (same goes between xin/yi, if they ban one, pick the other) Mid Tier:

• Amumu - Oh god I love you amumu, but riot really hates you. Great if your team really needs CC, kind of weak in the jungle, and serious mana issues limiting your pathing, really fun to play, but also exceptionally frustrating if you have a bad ADC. The higher you go with Amumu the worse he becomes as the enemy becomes more aware of his weak jungle. At bronze he's kinda godly, by mid silver he's a headache to play unless you like being near top damage in your team when you have a bad ADC. Very fun champ, but very frustrating losses, expect S's where you lose. I'd say if you duo with an ADC you trust he's asbolute god tier at bronze-low silver though.
• Elise - The only viable AP mage besides Evelynn, definitely weaker though, can't really control the map well, just mediocre across the board. If you need AP and don't play eve, just grab the mummy honestly, he's crazy useful to the team.

Trash Tier:

• Nidalee - She's one of those champions that your enemy and your own team hate to see, kind of like shaco, but actually trash. She's my best champion mechanically speaking and has a kit similar to Elise. (again mechanically speaking) I played her since Pre Season 1 pretty much, and even through the changes, she's a champion that mechanically I have to put 0 effort into to nail her. Even if you master both forms she's still trash. Please don't.

• Rumble - Okay I admit I only played him once to get my S crate and destroyed the enemy, but I'm pretty confident he's still not a good idea.

• Fiddlesticks - I give up, screw the S crate, this guy is trash. What really makes his kit is his long fear with Q. The problem is, you need allies to really take advantage of it, and you won't really get that until at least high silver/low gold. He's just kinda weak and frustrating to play. Also, everyone and their dog is aware of how his E works, even in bronze, so it's not really going to do what you want it to. Ever since they added rift scuttlers, they're also a bit of a headache for him to deal with (yes the little things that don't even fight back). Complete pass for me anyway.

Top tiers I don't play:

-Lee Sin does exceptional at this tier, Jarvan IV as well who seems to play similar to Xin, including screwing up the enemy teams positioning.

Mid Tiers I don't play:

-I'm hesitant to call him mid tier, but don't see him enough to be sure. Trundle seems like a handfull though. Udyr is hit or miss, would pass on this one personally, his kit has some limitations.

Trash tiers I don't play: -I see a ton of Kayns and kindreds at this tier, but they all suck. The better Kindreds will ignore their passive, the bad ones will be more predictable than normal junglers and you can constantly ambush them for free kills. I've even seen seeveral unaware that their passive told the enemy where they were going. I don't have either Rammus or Malphite, I imagine Malph has same issues as amumu (mana) but it's probably a good diea to get one of the two as a counterpick to 100% AD enemy teams which do show up at this tier. Kha'zix and Rengars all suck at this tier. If you practice you can do well with any champion at this tier, but I think the goal of most is to move forward. Nunu is trash, he's like a support in the jungle, but who are you supporting at this tier? He's also trash in high silver/low gold. Zacs honestly all just do bad at this tier, maybe not entirely the champ, but pass for now.

The rest I left out as I don't see them much down here. The main ones probably worth trying if you really want that I didn't mention are Sejuani, Vi, Shyvana, Wukong. They all have pretty strong gank potential. I left out skarner as people down here can't seem to get a handle on him. I realize there are other jungle options, but I'm going to leave those out here. I'm very curious how Hecarim would do down here, I don't see anyone really touch him though.

For Bronze and LOW silver you should almost always try to take 1-2 enemy jungle camps at the start of the game. More often than not, you'll succeed, even if you do solo it. If you're bottom side, generally the red will be abandoned (you'll have to get a feel for this based on champ as well). If you're top side, generally the blue; loop around the back, if they're in brush they're blind until you're on top of them. If you have to blow a flash to escape, don't worry, just don't get in a position to need it before it refreshes (you rarely would anyways). People like their bottom lane help at this level of play, and there aren't many experienced junglers. You'll get a feel for what Junglers like to start red regardless (Like Lee Sin), who is also likely to invade yours. As you get higher up in silver, the big difference is you'll start to see laners having awareness of the map and what's going on in the jungle. Until then, you don't have to worry too much, but the first 5 min should give you a good idea of how your lanes will react to what will become a war in the enemy jungle, and you can react accordingly. I like to start with a pink ward always and ward entrance to enemy blue, or in front of red in the bush people rarely go in.

--An alternative start is do your left side of the map, then wait next to enemies red, when they come fight it, wait til it's low hp, then take it and kill them, I find this to be somewhat unreliable since junglers at this tier can often suck bad, be unpredictable and actually take forever to get there (which is a waste of your time). It is less risky than taking their buff at lvl 1 though. This is easier from the bottom side going to top. If you do take 2/3rds of one side of the enemy jungle, have the courtesy to drop a ward at one of the exits of the JG and warn both mid/top that a gank WILL come soon due to the enemy JG having no choice.

Bronze:

-- In the case of Master Yi, and Xin Zhao particularly, it's important not to follow traditional builds if you want an easy path out of bronze. The reason for this is that they're positional type champions, you need good timing and positioning to play them well with their traditional builds. Barring that, you have to keep in mind that you're going to have way more gold than the average player this game. Because of this, you can remove your weak points with non-traditional builds.

--At this tier of play Frozen Mallet is a god tier item for someone like Master Yi, and honestly pretty much any AD jungler. It gives you soft CC, but more importantly, HP. It allows you to give your red away to ADC as well. Add to that Armor/Mres boots depending on the enemy team, then the opposite armor/mres+HP item on top, then the rest pure offense. This sounds asinine for a Yi to do, but at this tier with your extra gold, you can. It's not asinine if it carries you out of bronze. For mages, I'd avoid them entirely if you're trying to plow out of bronze.

Low Silver, not a lot different than high Bronze, but at this point you really want to start waning off the really off-item builds into more traditional setups. The plus side is that knowledge of building weird crap in Bronze can really help teach you the importance of building different items sometimes based on the enemy composition. You'll be more aware that additional options exist in certain situations. Here you may also want to pay a little more attention to counter picking the enemy rather than picking what you want. Try to diversify your lineup enough to do so. Or to support your teams stupid all AD/0 CC team composition picks for example.

If this helps 1 person cool, if not oh well, I just felt like writing.