Jungle Help

Neox455·Feb 23, 2017·1 votes·736 views

OK guys, Im just a Silver 2 Fill main. I spend most of my time in the bot lane (Usually support but sometimes adc) but i sometimes play in the jungle. I get yelled at a lot when i'm in the jungle, Everyone says i don't gank and i'm not doing my job right. I understand that as the jungle i need to be helping at least one lane. But i often feel like I cant do a lot until i hit 6. Even with champions like Amumu or Hecraim i still have trouble getting a good gank off. What kind of advice do you have or tips i could use for this? PLease keep in mind that i dont jungle often and want a general advice, not advice specific to one campinon or another thanks.

9 Comments

EndlessSorcererFeb 23, 20171 votes

I have some pre-written advice. Hopefully, it helps.

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.

Neox455Feb 23, 20171 votes

Thanks for that list, thats the stuff im looking for, i have a question on that last point, when i try to help them shove their lane after a gank, most top laners in my elo start freeking out and pinging the crap out of me, even if im letting them last hit the minons, what is a good way to explain why im doing this.

EndlessSorcererFeb 23, 20171 votes

It depends on the ELO.

At higher ranks, players understand that the jungler helps shove the lane to:

deny the enemy gold/experience
allow the allied laner(s) to base earlier (so they have more time to roam or get back to lane)

If people start freaking out when you help them push their lane after a kill, you should probably stop pushing their lane.

While shoving is the correct decision, you don't want an allied laner to begin raging/AFKing/trolling/inting due to it.

Don't needlessly provoke volatile players.

Neox455Feb 23, 20171 votes

Alright thanks.

EunsonFeb 23, 20171 votes

Ignore them, they're dumb.

feryvunnyFeb 23, 20171 votes

I didn't even know you could be a "fill" main lol

Neox455Feb 23, 20171 votes

Its quite easy, you just allways select fill. jsut end up playing support mostly, but you get other roles 1/7 i think

feryvunnyFeb 23, 20171 votes

At that point why not just become a support main with a secondary role of preference?

I'm not criticizing you or anything, but it just makes more sense to pick a role and get good at it, instead of filling whatever is open every game. You never hear about "fill mains" in higher ELO cause it's pretty pointless unless you are trying to be a jack of all trades, which is pretty inefficient anyway.

This puts you in situations like what you described above, where you are filled into JG and don't know how to properly JG. There could have been a more competent JG on your team, but he just happened to snag another role. JG has arguably become the most important role in the game, and has huge impact. It's not something you can just "fill" and expect to do well in if you don't know what you're doing.

ThistleminFeb 23, 20171 votes

Pick on the extended lane. Try to coordinate with a lane teammate that has hard cc of some kind, makes netting kills easier. Pantheon is very easy to kill with for example.