Is ganking absolutely necessary as a jungler?

Lapis·Mar 25, 2017·7 votes·3,945 views

I'm new to the jungle role, as in, I've only played a handful of games as one. I think I've got clearing down, but I'm having trouble doing ganks. I try, but as often as not I'll just end up dying or getting my laner killed or just making things worse in general. I was thinking, would it be okay for me to just farm during the early game so I can be useful later, or is this a big no-no? I mean, just until I get some experience and stop being absolutely terrified of the role.

44 Comments

Blue Collar BearMar 25, 201714 votes

I'm a D3 peak jungle main/mentor, and I write educational content for free. I linked you all the stuff I've written on jungle.

While ganking isn't the primary reason that the jungle role exists, it is incredibly important to take advantage of resources where they're available (i.e. ganking lanes). To not waste time and ensure resources are gained for time spent, try ganking lanes that are 100% successful ganks (summoners gone, no escape spell, etc). If you need more help, I teach in my spare time through the community I linked you. Cheers.

EDIT: I'll be sticking around in case you need something.

FaustavianMar 25, 20172 votes

I really like what you're doing, but something you might want to know is that although they describe what their concepts are, the guides dont necessarily illustrate how to do the subject, excepting the jungle route guide. And the guide you might want to create that would address OP's concerns more would be one that approached Ganking and how to do it effectively. Using different champions as examples with different ganking patterns. He seems to find the issue to be not securing kills or summoner spells and instead feeding kills to the enemy champion. Again, I do like that you're doing this for new players who may need help. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Blue Collar BearMar 25, 20173 votes

Thanks for the feedback. I rarely get it, unfortunately. I've seen that in my writing, and I've debated about writing a new guide to illustrate further basics since jungling requires more forethought than mechanical skill.

Alright, so ganking is ONLY done when there's a high probability gank to be done. This can be in the case of a counter match up, summoners blown, or they're just downright overextending so far that there's no way the gank fails (turret diving, right at turret). For example, Olaf lanes are pretty atypical. If they extend and they get hit by an axe, they're dead. All you have to do is show up to that lane, and Olaf will have them permaslowed for the two of you to kill at leisure. It's even easier when they have no summoners. This is a good example of overextending and a counter to immobile tanks in the top lane.

Now, the trick to ganking safely is in something called the shallow invade. Shallow invading is when you invade as little as possible, just enough to pop a ward on a camp. Raptors / Gromp are prime examples, since these are the least risky of all the camps. This lets you know where the jungler might be, or currently is. You want to gank when the enemy jungler is not around, or isn't able to counter your gank. In any other case, taking a gank can be risky. It's up to you to use your experience to decide whether or not you can win a potential skirmish (2v2, 2v3, 4v3, etc) which happen often when you don't have full knowledge of your opponents.

Here's how to actually gank: lane gank, river gank, and tri-bush gank. Different junglers will do different kinds successfully. Lane ganks are when you walk up lane to enter a bush, or bomb rush the opponent. These are great for champions like Hecarim, Rengar, and Zac. River ganks are 50/50, since it's often warded. It allows you to get a lot closer to your opponent, and you might get lucky and catch them warding. It's good for champions with a gap closer / cc, like Xin Zhao. The tri-bush gank is when you wrap around the terrain of a lane to get behind a laner. These are the most potent ganks, but they tend to be dangerous since they overlap into enemy territory. Stepping on a ward could mean death.

This is a mess of information that's unorganized, but hope it helps.

EDIT:

This mess will be turned into an article on the blog I linked you, so be sure to bookmark it if you ever should need it.

Mecha MaIphiteMar 25, 20176 votes

I'd say just pick a jungler that's easy to gank with. You're not really going to get enough experience by just farming (jungling experience, not actual experience).

Also, never gank a fed juggernaut no matter how much your laner cries, not unless you're also fed or it's a 3v1

LapisMar 25, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mecha MaIphite,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=bt1NBydi,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2017-03-25T11:42:19.692+0000)

I'd say just pick a jungler that's easy to gank with. You're not really going to get enough experience by just farming (jungling experience, not actual experience).

Also, never gank a fed juggernaut no matter how much your laner cries, not unless you're also fed or it's a 3v1

Do you have any recommendations? I tried Vi, but that was a disaster, I don't even have the words for it. So I've been playing Warwick and that's been going better. Unless I do something stupid like try to gank a Syndra and get ulted. Last game was pain, haha

Mecha MaIphiteMar 25, 20174 votes

I'd say Warwick is a decent choice. He isn't too hard, and his clear isn't the worst.

If you do intend on farming a lot, shyv has a really good clear.

HethaleanMar 25, 20174 votes

is a really good choice. She takes some practice but it has some good return on investment for your time there. If you liked her, hang in there and you'll get there.

Warwick isn't too hard, though his build is weird. He needs item 3077 because this jungle is just 'Can you aoe clear? No then you can't really jungle'.

Zac has good pre 6 ganks (extremely important to have mobility spells before 6), and has a great amount of burst early and AoE clear.

To answer your post, no, it is not absolutely necessary. Your laners do need to know how to play safe when they're getting ganked and jungle isn't helping. It's a skill they need. They may complain, but sometimes a lost lane is lost and nothing you can do will do anything about it.

That being said successful ganks do provide a TON of meta advantages:

Summoner spells down that makes the enemy laner uneasy so they probably won't be as aggressive or successful in laning against your team.
Gets YOU gold (if you get a kill).
Makes enemy laner lose CS a lot of the time (+effective gold difference for your team)
Gives you pressure on that side of the jungle since your laner can probably roam to where you are before the enemy laner can to help invade.

Sire HippingtonMar 25, 20172 votes

Udyr is pretty good for learning the jungle, he clears well and sustained, and his Ganks+dueling are pretty strong, and you susually realise prety fast when a gank won't work as udyr doesn't have tools that eventually give him succes - either he gets in AA range for the stun or he doesn't, and if he doesn't till the opponent reaches his tower, you just turn around and leave it be. The main issue with Udyr is that he has issues really doing much later on in the game. But for learning the early jungle, he's a good choice.

AptestMar 25, 20174 votes

In general, the jungle has been nerfed specifically against "farm now, ignore lanes, be useful later" type of junglers. Not being a jungler main myself, I would say non-interaction is definitely not a good strategy, and it should not be.

However, ganking is not the only available option. Pressuring and sieging is one option (come to a lane, push it all the way, put some damage on the tower, then GTFO, repeat in other lanes), making plays on dragon or buffs (the ally mid or sup or top come with you to the enemy jungler buff and you steal the buff or kill the jungler), leading the team into a team fight you choose (ball as 4-5 with team around dragon or tower, engage in brawl) or stealing the enemy jungler's small camps are all viable options. or counter-ganking i.e. showing up when the enemy has comitted to a gank, lost some HP and cooldowns in the chase, and cleaning house.

"macro" junglers exist and are good.

draecinaMar 25, 20173 votes

Your teammates will flame you if you don't gank, more than if you fail your ganks, because then they at least feel like you're trying to help them. Not only that, but if the enemy sees you don't gank, then they know they can punish your teammates and won't face consequences. It's about presence. They have to know you could be coming any second. For example, I had a recent game where mid was getting destroyed (around 0/6/0 in like the first 15 minutes) and and top wasn't doing well either, but my add and I were at least even with the enemies. That is until they realized Jax would not come bot, not once, and so the enemy team proceded to gain complete control of our bottom side map. You couldn't go in the jungle. Then thresh started roaming, and getting lots of assists and kills around the map. Any time we tried engaging the seemingly alone twitch, their team would come out of the woodwork and go ham on us, but we were still 1/1 the whole time, asking the jungle to come. I told him it would be a good idea to get fed in our lane first before trying to save other lanes, because we were at least even before they started roaming. He ignored us and dragon after dragon was lost and eventually our tower. He had no presence and the enemy knew it. Could we have won that game if he ganked for us first a few times? Doubt it, the enemy was VERY fed, but we'd have a chance of turning it around. Anyway, that's just an example. Besides..the more you jungle the easier it will be to know a good gank when you see one, so don't worry if you don't do so well at first. Ignore any spelling errors I'm on mobile :)

RequiemsfireMar 25, 20173 votes

The most important thing is that you get gold and experience without fail, you just like any other laner require items just like everyone else and you fall into irrelevancy when you can't achieve anything.

You need to assess the threat level, mobility, level of aggression a lane typically has, like for example a Riven is typically aggressive at level 6 due to her ult power spike and being able to wombo combo. But you'll only be able to gank when her spells are on cooldown so you need to predict her aggression. Ganking a fed darius or Renekton is generally a lane you want to avoid, as they can turn it around, there are ways to play around Darius and Renekton but it's generally best to not gank it otherwise you might snowball them harder.

The gankability of a lane, now knowing a champions flash is down is really important because it means that their most vital mobility spell is down and if that champion has no escape then it becomes extremely vulnerable to a gank if they overextend by any amount of even sometimes a tower dive. A mage or ADC typically have low mobility so they're vulnerable without their flash when the jungler comes by, However let's say your Udyr, right, now I know and the enemy midlaner is Leblanc, should you try to gank that lane? If that opportunity presents itself, yes, but if she plays correctly, then it's really difficult to make an appropriate play with Udyr thus you should generally focus your efforts other lanes.

Wards in the river, I know laners should do this but it really helps to serve as an early reminder when a possible gank is imminent. It also helps warn about invades, and gives you the potential time to prepare to countergank depending on your side of the map.

Warlord ScrapMar 25, 20172 votes

I mean try it in norms explain your learning the jg role hopefully someone will try to help you instead of just flaming.

SandrahyMar 25, 20172 votes

One thing I would add, learn to use F2-F5 keys, not only will it help you check how specific lanes are doing, but also whats happening.

Personally jungle is my worst role, I don't hate it, I do OK sometimes... but mostly because, I try to stay on top in levels while making myself present. (Aka I die during ganks but my laner gets a kill (sometimes two)... It's not good, ik)

Even if you don't get off a successful gank, just show the enemy team: "Hey, I am here, lurking in the dark". Which causes a lot of pressure.

Also super good map awareness. Keep an eye on where the lanes are, an option to counter jungle/invade is best when your laners are pushed up, say you want to steal raptors. Your mid is pushing, well then it's safer to counter jungle since your mid can come to your rescue. But still be careful.

On top of that, try to throw out some red wards for your top/mid (which can also protect your own jungle), clear wards etc.

You have to keep in mind, yes you can carry as a jungler, but you are a secondary support for the team... Aka why this guy is listed as a support, because he has such a damn good peel Ivern

DracocrashMar 25, 20172 votes

if you want to win, YES.

I would highly suggest playing junglers that can farm comfortably but have one hard cc to gank.

ex- ww,skarner.

BLACK REALM GODMar 25, 20172 votes

depends on your champion.

jungle does quite a few things, but basically the only reason why you're in the jungle and not a lane is because of the way gold and xp work in the game. camps give xp and gold and therefore someone needs to gather it.

since there are 3 lanes and 5 players the lanes can never be equally distributed. 1 player per lane and then the 2 leftovers will walk between lanes. those leftovers are jungler and support.

however since bottoms always want to play marksman (the squishiest, least mobile, and slowest scaling champion in the game) support ends up having to babysit the marksman to prevent them from being murdered 3v1.

your job as jungler is to farm the jungle and to go where-ever the enemy jungler goes or doesnt go in order to earn your team more gold and xp.

Earl EulrichMar 25, 20172 votes

no, not really...in many situations it´s better to keep on farming if no opponent lane is giving you a good setup to gank.

but if you see that opponent lanes play defensivly and don´t give you an ankle to attack them you have to make sure you know what your opponent jungler is doing and are ready to counteract his ganks or punish them by taking his jungle/drake on the other side of the map.

i personally am a big fan of jungle-shen for beginners...he may clear a little slow in the beginning, but his lvl 2/3 ganks are rather impressive and from lvl 6 on you can just focus on your game and counteract the opponent jungler with you ult. He´s a really good one to learn to play a makro focused jungle-style instead of the snowball or die consistent ganking style that is more popular, but ultimatly just abuses bad laners that keep on overextending, thus will lose out in higher elos to a jungler that truly understands where he has to be on the map and where ganks will actually be successfull because your setup (proximity to turret+available cc/dmg+proximity of opponents+summoners available or not) is good, not just because you showed up and hit sth you really shouldnt have hit to a non-bot).

Sire HippingtonMar 25, 20172 votes

Not ganking is ok, but just farming your jungle isn't. If you don't gank yourself, you need to prevent the opposing jungler from ganking effectivly aswell. This means you try to counterjungle(don't invade without backup from your laners though, unless you know the opposing jungler is on the other side off the map) and provid deep vision and/or force the opposing jungler out of his jungle. Deepvision is not as helpfull in low elos as your laners usually lack the mapawareness to make any use off it though, but therefor you can invade without backup from your lanes cause chances are good that the opposing lanes won't react either, so you just need to win the 1v1 vs the other jungler. Another way of screwing your opponents day are counterganks, though it's much easier to set them up succesfully if you are ahead(bullied him out off his jungle) and have proper deep vision so you can make a good guess on where and when he's going to gank.

But simply farming your jungle and leaving your lanes for there on won't work if the opposing jungler is any good, cause no jungle farm in the world will help you if all your lanes start to fall behind, either on there own or due opposing jungle preasure.

Also, try ganking lanes that are already winning, it's usually much easier to get succesfull ganks that way and you can start snowballing from there. Trying to turn around a loosing lane sadly can backfire alot, especially since the lane usually is loosing for a reason.

The Yetii RiderMar 25, 20172 votes

There are three types of jungling strategies in existence.

Ganking, Control, and Farming.

These generally overlap somewhat. A control jungler may gank here and there, a farming jungler may try to establish control, and a ganking jungler will usually take advantage of a lul to get in some power farm.

Here is the main point of each strategy.

Ganking involves establishing an early level lead through fast clear speeds, healthy clear speeds, and mobility that allows you to interrupt enemy champions and give gold to your laners through kills and assists. This is an early game strategy that falls off hard if the game goes longer than thirty minutes, as by that point gold leads start to balance out naturally. This is a high risk, high reward strategy as it creates a level disparity between the dead champion and the free-farming champion, which will make the trades in lane more in favor of the ganker's laner, which can roll into another kill. That is what people mean when they say 'snowball'.

Since the introduction of the item 3706 , which grants the jungler a point and click true damage nuke that slows the enemy and speeds up the jungler, ganking has become less high risk while retaining its high reward.

When you combine this with the ability of an early game jungler to end the game before he falls off, and the visibility of ganking impacts (in other words, your teammates appreciate it more because it affects them directly) people tend to think of ganking as the primary or even only strategy. If you want to jungle, you need to tune out your teammates. They don't know when it's right to gank a lane, you do. If your laner asks for a gank, tell him either you're on your way after red / ping on my way or politely tell him that you won't be ganking his lane. This is especially important if the lane has already lost. If the mid laner is 0/3 and the enemy mid is 3/0, you could potentially give up tower, dragon and buffs if you gank the lane and give a double. Plus, it's likely that there's just an honest difference in skill between them. Giving a worse player extra gold won't help. He's got less skill, he won't win the fight anyway. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

Ganking jungling counters farming jungling, because if it is done successfully the hyper scaling farm jungler will be fighting against a more powerful team while his own team has lowered morale, thus making it harder for him to win the game.

Control jungling is a strategy that involves putting your team as a whole ahead while putting the enemy jungler behind (as opposed to ganking, which puts the enemy team behind and you as the jungler ahead). You accomplish this in several ways. Warding and taking camps from the enemy jungle, taking scuttle and dragon/herald/baron as often as you can, and acting as a shot caller. A large part of this job is issuing pings because your teammates will tunnel and not even use your wards in the enemy jungle, especially in the laning phase. Because control jungling involves moving into the enemy jungle, it is medium risk, medium reward.

Control jungling has become a more powerful strategy with the introduction of the new elemental drake system. Each individual dragon provides a permanent slotless benefit to your team which can more than make up for the power of raw gold and XP granted by a ganker, especially if you can stall the game out long enough to farm up equal gold. (Every dragon except Mountain will help you stall the game out).

Control jungling has had several nerfs in the past, both directly with the removal of Poacher's Knife and indirectly with changes to the jungle experience system which was intended to nerf farming junglers. It is largely invisible power, and will frustrate your teammates because they are meta sheep who think your role is all about them.

Control jungling counters ganking jungling, because if your teammates are not terrible ganking will not always result in a kill, and then you punish the enemy jungler by stealing his camps and potentially setting up a gank inside his own jungle with vision. If done correctly, you can end up as many as 2-3 levels ahead of the enemy jungler and easily 3-5k gold ahead.

Farming jungling is a strategy that involves staying inside your own jungle to try and take advantage of a largely PVE experience. You can farm up gold and experience relatively quickly without any player interaction, and then come out in a team fight with more items than the other players. Champions who generally prefer to farm jungle have hyper-scaling elements to their kits and can do a lot if they are given a harass-free gold source. This is a low risk, low reward strategy because it offers the bare minimum of interaction and the reward is basically just raw gold without the risk of being killed or ganked.

In the preseason 7, Xypherous stated in a PBE thread that Riot is actively suppressing the farming jungler strategy because they don't like it. They want players to interact at all points in the game and instead of simply cutting the laning phase out entirely and making ARAM the main supported game type, they just want to force junglers out of the jungle. They did this by drastically increasing the amount of time camps take to spawn, which means that you have a lot of down time as a farming jungler. Whole lot of doing nothing sadly.

Farming jungling counters control jungling because farming junglers will generally clear their own camps faster than a control jungler can invade to steal them, and then the game becomes about who can scale more off their own jungle (and the answer to that is clear).

Hope this helps.

wishbone25Mar 25, 20171 votes

ofcourse why stay in your own jungle while enemy lanes get camped or crush down , what is the point of you staying in your own jungle ? snow ball the game

LapisMar 25, 20171 votes

{quoted}

ofcourse why stay in your own jungle while enemy lanes get camped or crush down , what is the point of you staying in your own jungle ? snow ball the game

Well, I mean, to avoid snowballing it on the wrong direction. But that answers my question I guess, thank you.

wishbone25Mar 25, 20171 votes

your welcome be aware when your own team mates starts feeding you might lose patients at that point because when your not even 5 min in game and your team feeds 20 is like GG b4 even 10 min

FireDrizzleMar 25, 20171 votes

If you die when you gank your execution was wrong.

If you just gank when people ping that would explain your laner's dying. If your botlane are 40% hp each and the enemy laners are almost full for example, just ignore the brainded pings and leave it. Dont gank just because you get pinged.

If an enemy laner is overextended or low you should gank. I would recommend you play a farm jungler till you get better at ganking. Wait for someone to push up near your tower or low hp before ganking and it will pay off mostly. If you chunk someone badly or burn flash your still doing work without killing.

MrHaZeYoMar 25, 20171 votes

You could always go with the invading method.

If your bot side and enemy jungle ganks top, invade his bot side and take away as much as you can and back out. This won't help your lane at face value but it could but the jungler behind enough that if they try to gank they'll be to weak and die.

Some Junglers are also good duelists so when you invade and run into the enemy jungler you can just flat take them out.

Learning to gank would be more ideal though.

CrimzynMar 25, 20171 votes

Yes.

Now the Jungle mentality should always be the same, but the way in which you progress through the match will be different based on the Jungler you picked. Some Junglers are best at early game and early ganks while others need to farm up to be useful.

Examples of champs you will want to gank early with: Evelynn Elise Fiddlesticks Khazix Twitch XinZhao

Examples of champs you will want to farm early but gank later with: Ekko Diana Jax MasterYi

Ganking is required. If you are going to start playing Jungler, just know that you are suppose to be the most influential role there is in the game. Your main focus will be to farm, gank lanes(And counter gank), take objectives (Towers/Dragon/Baron) and counter Jungle by taking enemy camps. (in no particular order)

My suggestion is to watch Youtube videos on Jungling and specifically the Jungler you want to play so you can see what their mindset is when playing that champ. Personally I like watching Foxdrop. He actually explains everything he is doing and why he is doing it. It is very educational and helped me a lot. Good Luck!

D3m37r1Mar 25, 20171 votes

It depends on which jungler you are playing. Tank junglers like Amumu need to gank early because even if you make a perfect initiation later on, if you team is too far behind you can still lose. Everyone else it's pretty much up to you how often you gank.

Sun Wu RyuumokuMar 25, 20171 votes

When u make post like this please explain more ur situation (ur pick...)

Is ganking absolutely necessary as a jungler ?

No. Sometimes u just need to take vision. It depend of the situation... so ur pick, ur mates, ennemies laners and jungler...

Dominick DestineMar 25, 20171 votes

Shyvana ?

6SfoolMar 25, 20171 votes

Ganking is tricky. When I jungle, I absolutely do NOT gank people who have a better chance of killing me than I do them, like Yorick into Leblanc. If the laner counters me I ask one of the other lanes to gank while I cover. The lanes I gank are usually the ones who are about even, so that a stalemate turns into a fed teammate. Also, when I lane I rarely want ganks, so don't worry about taking the initiative. If someone truly wants ganks they will ask, and if they do not they might remain silent all during laning phase or just ping you away if you come into lane.

Also, different junglers work differently. I play Yorick, Warwick, and sometimes Nocturne. Yorick has no need to gank, so I only gank if the enemy has no non-ultimate dashes in their kit. He focuses on objective control and scaling, so I mostly roam the jungle with him picking fights with whoever I see. Warwick is pretty good for ganking overextended lanes, but lacks the burst to dive most anyone over half health. Nocturne is great for ganking and diving post-6 but mostly just farms until then. Some champs like Lee and Shaco MUST gank, and their ganks are mechanically tricky, so I do not recommend them for new junglers.

If you're scared of dying in a gank I recommend tankier champs with good clear and mobility. Udyr comes to mind, since he has great clear and very straightforward ganks. He farms hard and ganks whoever overextends too much with good results.

DuskDaUmbreonMar 25, 20171 votes

Not always. You can spend laning phase in the jungle, depending on your champion (some can do this, others suffer too much if you try) and how your team's doing. But you'd have to make up for it in very strong counter-jungling, and in taking Herald/Drake as often as possible. Yi can do this, and is (in)famous for doing it all the time in low ELO.

paisyMar 25, 20171 votes

If I have flash and ult on Malz then a gank would be nice (had a Lee not gank after letting him know of this)

AirKingNeoMar 25, 20171 votes

Obviously yes. You can't just play a powerfarm jungler and not gank and expect to hypercarry 100% of the time late game. I play Kayle jungle and only gank top and bot, barely ever mid. I powerfarm mostly, but I do gank to take objectives.

Deathspasm84Mar 25, 20171 votes

Farming is fine if all the lanes are pushed or your lanes are doing ok. When bot lane is pushed into their own tower from the getgo and Jg is still clearing and never attempts to help them at all is going to result in a bad game.

logic301Mar 25, 20171 votes

Which junglers are you playing? Some need to gank

DunkinNoobsMar 25, 20171 votes

Depends on how the enemy laners are ganking. Sometimes, they'll play in a way that makes ganking impossible for you, especially on more farm oriented junglers. Other times, they play with complete disrespect towards you and can be killed by basically any jungler. You need to gank in the second situation.

ShonjlMar 25, 20171 votes

It depends on how comfortable you are, and who you are playing. Something like a Shyvana can't gank at all pre 6, it just won't happen 99% of the time. But if you are Lee or Hecarim, you can gank as early as 2, and its pretty effective.

It also is on your judgement, not the laners. You will find out that a lot of players are stupid in this game, asking or yelling for a gank when the lane is pushed into the enemy tower. Or they are at 30% hp and the enemy is full, or you are at low hp. Or they fed out the ass.

It also comes down to is it worth it? Why help a Maokai when it really doesn't make a difference since he does the same thing if he is 3/0 and 0/3. Is putting a lot of time into a Malz mid really going to make any difference when he is basically a farming champ til he wittles you down a little then all ins you. Vice versa if you get that Talon mid ahead, he will literally eat faces for the rest of the game basically. It also depends on the player as well, you can be a Talon all you want, if you are garbage you aren't worth a gank.

Lastly I would say it isn't worth it to help a lane that lost insanely hard, which I see a lot of junglers make this mistake. Say bot lane has lost repeatedly in a 2v2 multiple times, chances are even if you help, not only will you possibly die due to the enemy being strong as hell, but even if you do get them somehow, chances are it will do nothing since as soon as you aren't there, your bot will just die again. If you have a feeding bot lane or feeding top lane, the best option is usually to let them rot, and help the other 2 lanes get ahead. Sure your ADC may cry a ton and do typical ADC rage crap, but get your top laner ahead hard or your mid laner hard, or even both and suddenly it doesn't matter anymore. The opposite is true as well though, maybe that ADC is actually good but the support fed hard, or they were ganked nonstop, and helping them may get them in the game again and suddenly they are eatting everyone's faces, it comes down to what you have seen of them, if you seen them playing poorly, it usually isn't worth your time to help them, if its them getting dived and they can't really help it when Lee does that every minute, then helping them out may get them back in the game.

I would suggest you play Hecarim if you want to get into ganking, his ganks are simple but hard to work against. Unless the enemy has a ward further out than normal, it won't help when he E's in going about 500MS and rams into you, moreso if he Ghosts as well.

DunkinNoobsMar 25, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I would suggest you play Hecarim if you want to get into ganking, his ganks are simple but hard to work against.

Do not do this. The number 1 mistake I see Hecarims make is gank too much when they should be farming and force ganks when they should be doing other things.

MorticianjohnMar 25, 20171 votes

Pick a jg like tryndamere whose ganks aren't really good so the lanes really can't expect too much. Plus Tryndamere is best split pushing so your primary objective is to farm up and then split push. Gank if the opportunity is there but it's not really needed as much on a tryndamere as it is on a jg that relies on getting good ganks off like volibear.

Yara0Mar 25, 20171 votes

Bot lane is won more by what team ganks it more then it is the actually laners.... at least thats what it feels like when your a support and your getting 2v3 and 2v4 dove all fucking game. If your new to the role focus on your jg control. once you got that down make sure before you gank a lane you check certain things such as.

The laners mana and HP Who has ults up Where the enemy jg is Who has what summs where people are in the lane If your laners have cool downs how many minions your laners or you might have to tank.

For real im in gold and i see people fucking gank a lane and eat damage from 15 minions or some shit during it then get mad at the adc for not wanting to take 500 damage from minions. Imo the best jungler to learn on right now is Rammus Cause it allows for allot of mistakes and his clear is pretty easy. OH YES VISION IS GOD even if you arent the support if you can just buy a vision ward and place that shit near your jg entrances also i recommend getting item 3341 and item 3364 so you can check for wards and clear them if your planing to gank the lane later and also sweep things like baron and dragon.

It seems most junglers think they should gank that 0/6/0 top lane because they are bitching for ganks so much. But TBH if they are that far behind all that usually happens is the other top laner getting a double kill. Try to focus on getting the laner that is ahead more ahead so they can help carry.

Only Play DariusMar 25, 20171 votes

MasterYi No

SwiftKitten88Mar 25, 20171 votes

it depends... in some games and matchups it's absolutely necessary in others, it isn't

for example... if the enemy team has a Xerath ganking mid would be wise as he is immbile and ganks are his mains weakness

other time if the enemy is really pshed in you can get an easy gank...

but if your lanes are winning and done need help then just focus on on farming

or is one of your lanes is so far behind that it would take 3-4 people to shut the guy down trying to gank them by yourself would be idiotic

DarkRitualMar 25, 20171 votes

Yes. Very much so. If your lanes are getting pressured, you need to help so they can swing things back in their favor. You don't always need a kill. If you can make the enemy back off so your laners can actually farm, then you've done what you need to do.

If your lanes are pushing, you can do one of two things. 1: prepare to counter-gank. Figure out where the enemy jungler is going to be going and go there also. 2: Ward for your laners and counter-jungle. If you see the enemy jungler ganking top, you can take their bot-side jungle camps.

2 is easy to do if, for example, your toplane is pushed into the enemy and you have wards or scuttle crab to see the jungler nearby.

foinhasMar 26, 20171 votes

First rule of ganking: If you're playing as a meele jungler, you DO NOT gank heimer.

MannnyMar 26, 20171 votes

I'm no master jungler myself but a couple things I can tell you are that a gank will only be successful if a few things are checked:

-Your laner is ready at a good amount of health to engage -Enemy laner is not too fed to insta-kill you -You aren't too behind from the enemy laner in terms of level -Enemy jungle is clearly not there to react to the gank -Enemy laner has no summoners If those are checked even if a few a gank will most likely be successful.

Triple3TMar 26, 20171 votes

Imo it's fine not to gank as long as you put press other places. If you aren't ganking I expect the jgl to be counter jgling like crazy, warding and taking drakes.