How do I stop or prevent counter-jungling?

Vore Monster·Nov 17, 2014·2 votes·1,614 views

When I jungle, I usually play champions that can't hold the enemy jungler off if they pick Lee Sin or Kha-Zix. I've tried relying on my teammates by pinging for assistance and asking, but in the game I just had, I was ignored for the 8 seconds it took for the jungler to walk to me and left to die to the enemy Lee sin while I was pinging and asking for help at the warded location.

I ward the entrances to my jungle and ask my allies to ward other parts in the beginning of the jungle phase (1:55). They usually never do unless they have a ward to spare. But I'm getting tired of getting killed and giving first blood to the enemy without any fighting chance.

13 Comments

Bears Dont CareNov 17, 20141 votes

Unfortunately you'll just have to play a Champion that can deal with counter jungling very well. Solo queue rarely results in the jungler getting any help from the other laners, which is ironic considering how they often demand you come help them.

Lord DusteonNov 17, 20141 votes

If your laners won't help you when he's in your jungle, ward your own jungle, and if you see him, go and take his.

Otherwise not much you can do except going a strong jungler yourself.

SmokingPuffinNov 17, 20141 votes

Pick a strong duelist jungler.
Pick a slippery jungler that can evade when attacked, like or .
Rely on your teammates to help.
Don't be where he is. The jungle is a big place and you can take his stuff too.

DehornNov 17, 20141 votes

I ward the entrances to my jungle and ask my allies to ward other parts in the beginning of the jungle phase (1:55). They usually never do unless they have a ward to spare.

thats all you can do. buffs are objectives just like dragon or baron. if you ward and your team doesnt help with counter junglers, theyre choosing to lose. and you can politely remind them that an under leveled jungler with no buffs cant gank.

SkiasNov 17, 20141 votes

I usually just let him have it and repeatedly gank one of his lanes so his team will cry for his return. Then I counter jungle.

phyerbertNov 17, 20141 votes

it's a tough one, i have a good friend who is often mid, we've been getting better at working at this. if you have wards up to see you've done the lion's share of work. if you see them heading in, consider if you should stop them or just go steal his jungle instead, or can you punish a lane for his absence. These are all contextual decisions based on position. I switched from vi to warwick for this purpose alone, I wanted to counter more and be able to deal with countering better, been having a blast since the switch, though i miss my officer vi skin...

Vore MonsterNov 17, 20141 votes

Thanks for the advice, guys. Any idea on a good dueling jungler that can help out a team after the laning phase?

doviendeNov 17, 20141 votes

This will drastically change in the upcoming preseason patch (which might actually be coming this week, I'm not sure).

Take a look at the announced item changes to jungle items. All current jungle items will be gone, and there will be 4 new ones that build out of Machete. Then there will be 4 more "enchantments" that go on top, for 16 total combinations.

Upgrade your machete to Skirmisher's Sabre:

Passive- Challenging Smite: Smite can be cast on enemy champions, marking them for 6 seconds. While marked, you deal bonus true damage to them on hit, have vision of them, and reduce their damage to you by 20%.

This means that you no longer have to choose the correct champ in champ select in order to fight the other jungler when he invades. You can strategically choose to enhance yourself for these jungle fights. You'll still need to remind your teammates how to play the game and get them to help repel jungle invades, but such is life. You'll also have to teach them how to buy wards sometimes ;)

Vore MonsterNov 17, 20141 votes

I'm really excited for the jungle item changes, but I fear that Challenging Smite will be used to invade the enemy jungle as well. This makes dueling for 6 seconds back to how it was before they were smitten.

doviendeNov 17, 20141 votes

Yes, that's part of the intention of Challenging Smite, is to create a new emphasis of counterjungling. You'll have sort of the "passive counterjungling" of running in, taking a big minion, and running out (ie "poacher's knife"), and you'll have the aggro variety where you purposely run in to pick a fight with the opposing jungler (skirmisher's sabre).

If you're both using skirmisher's sabre, then you've both reduced the other's damage output by 20% (if smite was still up), and you both get some true damage on-hit, so perhaps the winner would be determined by a) attack speed to use the on-hit, or b) attacking the other person after she/he has already used their smite on a monster, giving you the dueling advantage. This means warding and timing will help determine your victory, as it should.

SkiasNov 17, 20141 votes

He would still be in your territory though with a giant beacon on him. The advantage would still be with the defender. Using it to invade would be insanely risky if the defender had it as well. You'd give the advantage to the person you are hunting.

Vore MonsterNov 17, 20141 votes

Looking at how my ranked games have gone when I got counter-jungled on multiple occasions, the enemy jungler would not have much trouble taking a kill and leaving without anyone following him.

1 4m 4 n00bNov 17, 20141 votes

ward your jungle, run when you see them coming. If you aren't comfortable with just running take ignite or exhaust over flash if you don't want to do that then play a champion that can stand toe to toe with them.