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Some serious advice needed - jungling

princesocapuyo·9/5/2014, 11:02:15 AM·2 votes·493 views

Hi. I come from LAN where I was silver 1 but I just came to NA to escape the toxicity on that server. Well that doesn't really matter. I'm looking for help on jungling.

I've been jungling a lot lately, I play champions like xin or jarvan, sometimes udyr. I buy an agressive jungle item most times and then I like to go full tank. The thing is, what can I do when all lanes are pushed and I can't snowball any lane? happens in ranked a lot, when the vladimir on my team overextends without flash or wards and he dies over and over again because he has no escapes. and is getting camped.. I consider playing carrying junglers but they're also dependent on snowballing lanes. If I can't trust my teammates to play good when I play Jarvan then what do I do? I can't carry if I'm going randuins after my elder lizard, because I won't have as much damage.. Many times the enemy lanes just get ahead because my team gives opportunity for the enemy jungler to camp them.... that sucks really, and I can't be farming jungle camps all day that's apparently not good on junglers like J4. And yes I know about counterganks but when enemies get so far ahead they just start taking dragon and there's nothing we can really do as we would get raped if we tried to teamfight. Something really interesting is that even when I actually snowball my lanes and keep ganking and taking objectives, a yi that farmed the jungle nonstop and got 1 item just destroys everyone. Is it really worth to snowball people in ranked if you can't trust anyone? if a yi can stop a pretty snowballed team so easily by himself then there's no point on ganking or playing junglers like J4, is there?

Jungling's the hardest role in the game there's no doubt about that. Some advice?

7 Comments

Worgslarg9/5/2014, 12:51:50 PM1 votes

This is the main reason I dont jungle in ranked. Your job is to help the lanes, but you cant fix stupid players.

If you cannot gank, do not waste time trying to. just farm or go buy, because wasting time on a jungler is a sure way to fall behind.

Don't underestimate simply running through a lane though. It relives a bit of pressure from the enemy team, which is always a good thing.

Hyrum Graff9/5/2014, 12:53:07 PM1 votes

Coming from a fellow S1 player...

Contrary to popular belief, you can gank a pushed lane.
- Walk up the lane.
- Wait in the most forward bush.
- Have your laner freeze the lane at the next wave
- The enemy will either get zoned off xp, or they will come forwards, and you can kill them.
If you have a lane that is pushing because they are dominant in that lane, you can just walk into that lane and help them take a tower, and dive if the enemies try to stop you.
What you said about counterganks is totally true.
If you can get some wards in the enemy jungle, you can see where they're going to gank a lot earlier, and show up at the right moment to countergank.
Along similar lines, if you can figure out where the enemy jungler is, you can do things like take a free dragon when he's ganking top, or even just in his top-side jungle.
- You can also invade his jungle. This is especially effective against the likes of Yi, who isn't a strong duelist early.
- Again, this is more effective if you know where he is.

GundayMonday9/5/2014, 6:58:11 PM1 votes

Hi, Diamond IV Sejuani Jungle main here.

Carrying isn't always about doing damage. It's about giving your team subtle advantages that stack up until you've won the match. Lanes all pushed up? Cool, go farm your jungle. Go ward the enemy jungle. Go fight the enemy jungler and make it so he can't gank your pushed up lanes. Go take a dragon when the enemy jungler goes to gank one of your pushed up lanes (Any jungler can solo dragon from level 5 onward, some like nunu sooner). I carry 90%+ of my games building straight tank and peeling for my carries. I know how to win the game, so I make the correct calls, spam pings, and get my team to focus on what matters.

If you're not ganking, you should be farming. You should be tracking the enemy jungler and warning your team of his position. Jungler shows for a gank? Click him and see what buff he did first (you can tell by which of his two buffs has less time on it). That gives you an appoximate timer which lets you know when the enemy buffs will spawn again and where the enemy jungler will probably be. If he shows on the other side of the map when his buffs spawn, take his buffs and get some deep wards (this is one way to carry).

Another point, you talk about snowballing other people. That doesn't work in solo queue. You could be playing with a robot. You could be playing with someone that somehow loaded League onto a blackberry and is playing from Antarctica. Do you really want to snowball them? Or would you rather snowball yourself? If a player proves themselves as competent, then by all means feed them some gold, but until that happens I would focus on yourself.

You can learn a lot watching higher level jungling streams. I'm a big fan of Nightblue, TheOddOne, and Trick2g. All have different styles of play and will teach you different things. I'm waiting on a webcam upgrade but plan to start streaming regularly too if you want some 1 on 1 advice. Happy to help if I can: http://twitch.tv/GundayMonday

FantasySniper9/7/2014, 9:28:25 PM1 votes

Your job is to snowball lanes and prevent behind ones from failing beyond repair. Don't bother ganking if you know you won't be able to prevent the death of a teammate or of your own.

Control Dragon early and maintain that control throughout the game, it's the most sure-fire way to snowball your team and/or assist those falling behind without even interacting within their lanes.

Counter-Gank lanes being camped, it's worth it if you can save a teammates life or send one of the enemy back to base. If you know where the jungler is, it can even means free counter-jungling.

Work with your teammates, tell them that they shouldn't push if they need to receive a gank. Call for help with dragon. Give the blue buff to your APC, and the red buff to your ADC when you can.