question as a jungler

I Main Swain·Mar 22, 2018·1 votes·245 views

alright so im tentatively trying to wiggle my way back into being able to jungle properly again (avoided it like the plague last season and wasnt playing for a year and a half before that), and theres something that ive never been able to properly figure out. as a jungler, what can you do when your lanes are all in desperate need of help, but you also still need to clear your camps for gold/exp? do you try to focus on the most impactful/skilled lane and try to get them snowballing? do you try to approach it objectively and just help them in order of desperation? how do you properly help any of them while still clearing enough camps to stay in the game?

edit: for reference sejuani and wukong are my two junglers that i currently feel good using (sejuani being my preference by a significant margin), although im wanting to expand that a lot more and ive found promising results with rammus and volibear.

6 Comments

RewtMar 22, 20181 votes

You more or less go for the freelo ganks. If your laner is pushed to tower that gank is free.

You farm while you watch lanes. Once you see a lane start to push up you go help them.

Now there is something called the lost cause. Its where the enemy laner could 1v2 you guys..... so yea. in that case just farm.

TormentulaMar 22, 20181 votes

If a lane is losing hard, don't bother with them because chances are they won't comeback into the game and should just be left alone to farm. A behind person is going to be a lot harder to get to the point of matching their ahead laner, then somebody even or already ahead who can match that person quicker or immidiately.

As for gold/XP, generally you want to make sure your side of the jungle is cleared so it can respawn sooner. Jungle camps give catchup XP (with jungle item) for every level they're above you.

So if gromp is level 14 and you're level 12 you'll get 100 bonus XP i think. level 13 vs. level 12 = 50, etc. If you're even or ahead of levels vs. the camp, you won't get that bonus XP so it'll be wasted somewhat. This is why a lot of players hate junglers because we can spam gank, but get that catch up XP to gain the full amount or even more XP then we would've if we just stayed farming.

Camps only level up if you kill them and they respawn, so if you skip krugs for the first 10 minutes of the game, you'll notice a dip in XP gain, and then you'll notice you're not catching up because you're not only avoiding krugs, but when you do do them, they don't grant much XP because they're level 2 and you're level 10, and by the time they respawn you'll be level 12 and they'll be level 12 so you'll miss the bonus twice. (I'm throwing numbers around I could be off about what time you're level x)

Also remember to help your laner shove his lane in. scenario 1: you kill the enemy laner, "leash" him the minions until the wave goes into their tower so they can base and it'll bounce back to him, you'll get XP from being in the wave as well.

scenario 2: he gets the kill, thats 300 gold for him so try to take as much CS as you can, up to their tower (unless he wants to freeze it near his then come back to it with TP)

I Main SwainMar 23, 20181 votes

thanks, i didnt know that about the leveling with camps! ill try to remember that [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

skoulkerMar 23, 20181 votes

Basically how I think of it is this. A gank is an investment. It's that simple. Don't gank the 0/4 Aatrox, because honestly at that point his game has been put behind too far. Top lane is most likely lost and theres no way to fight that. Use the time the enemy jungler spends on that lane and get something for it. Gank bot and get first turret or turret in general. Freeing up your bot lane (especially that toasty cc bot like blitz, thresh, bard, ali) to roam will help that losing lane more than you ever could. Get priority dragons (Infernal, Ocean, Cloud, Mountain) Importance of dragon is in that order. Also camping mid can be good if the enemy opens themselves up to ganks. If you can get a good gank off on a lane, keep coming back. After you blow a flash its a free kill, and after you get that free kill that lane is done; at least in the enemy's head. I don't know your champion pool but another options is to counterjungle/duel the enemy. Good champs for that are shaco, graves, lee sin, jarvan, rek, even eve after some items. Every game will be different but be consistent. If you want to gank then camp a lane hard, and hope that the snowball from that will help offset the fact that the enemy jungle is doing something else like drag or herald. My thoughts were kinda jumbled here but feel free to ask questions.

catastrophicSkilMar 23, 20181 votes

Jungler Exp/Gold is less important than laner Exp/gold you falling behind at the expense of getting a lane ahead should be a victory to you. If none of the lanes look like they will be in a position for you to capitalize then you should farm NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND DO NOT farm then look to capitalize on a lane the jungle camps aren't going anywhere unless you're going to get a level up or the gold means you reach a power spike the camp can usually wait. The reason your exp/gold matters less is simple in a 1v1/2v2 lane a small level lead or a small item lead goes a long way because they are constantly interacting with each other in the lane while you the jungler spend 50-75% of your time playing the PVE game. A large number of kills happen in the first 6 levels of the game usually the player that got an exp lead is the one that gets the kill and then snowballs.

There is a reason there is catch up exp. instead of going to farm an extra camp or 2 you should be looking to see what you can do for your lanes in that time get vision/scout out the enemy jungler/ gank/ counter gank. Get involved in the game. Obviously you can't just force plays but you should be looking for opportunities whenever you can

You have 2 options if your team is getting destroyed:

If your teammates have level headed and can control themselves its really easy in solo Q to play passive and farm up and turtle until late game. Honestly there are so many greedy and bad players the other team will eventually tilt into you force bad plays and a lot of the time will ignore big objectives like baron even when they can clearly take it with little to no risk. The only issue with this is the league community is super toxic an impatient and unwilling to play from behind in like 90% of cases I've experienced.
If all your lanes are in desperate need of help currently the best lane to help is bot lane. It's a 2v2 lane meaning if you are able to impact you can get 2 people on your team gold/exp and make the enemy duo lose gold and exp on 2 members. There is some number out there like getting first tower bot lane will win you like 70% of the game vs top lane which is like 55%. If your team is not willing to play the passive and farm up until you can fight or create an opportunity this is the way to go. The go big or go home strategy. Personally I think this option is better because it will tests your mechanical and macro abilities and if you're willing to analyse yourself it really helps you improve and understand the game as a whole. If it doesn't work out you can think why did it not work out could you have played it better was it just a bad call. Would it work if you were on even footing or ahead. The only big issue with this option when things don't work out you will get flamed at that point just mute everyone and keep playing as long as you don't verbally abuse someone or inhibit negative attitude getting reported means nothing because you made a choice you thought created the greatest chance of winning a game.