Jungling Tips?

Jad·Apr 14, 2016·1 votes·587 views

Hello! So lately I've been playing jungle, I find it really fun and I wanna get better at it. There seems to be a lot the jungler has to do; such as farming, ganking, counter jungling, and grabbing objectives. The main problem I have is determining what I should do and when. Any tips for this?

(I may have some more questions later but this is the main problem I am having currently.)

7 Comments

WukongMainApr 14, 20163 votes

Don't Forget Smite.

NetherlifeApr 14, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Don't Forget Smite.

Flash backs to season 2, OH GOD. OH GOD WHYYYYYY!

JadApr 14, 20161 votes

Oh wow! I never knew.. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

NetherlifeApr 14, 20161 votes

Alright so this may not seem helpful, but. Jungling is all about flexing to the needs of the moment. You need to be able to project where the game will be, at least 1 minute in advance. Then position yourself to be ready to gank a lane at that time. ** Also, never underestimate the major jungle objectives.** If your top lane has pushed to the enemies turret,** TAKE. HERALD**. It's easy money, the buff is useful for the top laner, and Herald is generally overlooked as much as Baron.

If one of your lanes, such as top or mid need to recall and they are being pushed, then cover their lane. If the minions are going to go to turret, you might as well get exp from them, and maybe even some gold. HOWEVER, do NOT push their lane. Only last hit until they are back, and generally don't spend too long in top lane. The reason for this are the following, top lane is the farthest from bot lane, AND dragon. If you are top for too long, it leaves bot lane open to enemy jungler ganks, and dragon open to be taken by the enemy without you to contest with your smite. On the same coin, if the enemy jungler is top lane, gank bot then try for dragon. You also almost always want to go for dragon if the enemy jungler dies, as it is for the most part, a free objective/gold/buff for your entire team. Which if you haven't gotten the point already, DRAGON! DRAGON! DRAGON! This is a crucial objective that should be kept control of.

If the enemy team has a Twitch/Shaco/Teemo/Akali smiting the birds is the last remaining oracles effect in League, if you are about to gank an akali, ALWAYS smite birds before hand, it will make her smoke screen/invisibility worthless. Not to mention its use for clearing wards to set up a bot/mid lane gank. and speaking of birds don't clear them if you can kill the dragon Snail Crab/Snugglebutt/Puny Peasant/Rift Scuttler. Speaking of scuttle, if your champion has no hard CC, smite the Gromps/Rocks for the ability to stun, stunning the Scuttlecrab will give it -10 armor and MR, making it massively easier to kill.

If you're higher elo, and your team is doing well, do NOT be afraid to try for a 20 minute baron. This is one of the most unexpected plays you can make in the jungle roll, and since it JUST spawned, NO ONE expects it. If you want to try for this play, make sure you take the scuttle crab about a minute before it spawns, and have your team take the path above blue buff if you are blue team, and below red buff if you are red team. This is to hopefully avoid any wards that may be around the area, if you are suspicious have your support go first with a sweeper to check it out. The reason why this works so well is because no one wards baron that early, but if you get caught by a stray ward off in the side, you're boned.

If bot or mid lane are doing well, don't hesitate to give up your buffs. It's easy to be selfish and horde them as a jungler. But if you can bear the pain of actually having to recall once and a while, then let your mid have blue buff, and your ADC red buff. Their success because of you handing a buff to them, will allow you to have an effect on other lanes while you're farming or ganking more isolated lanes, such as a struggling top lane.

I would not recommend counter jungling, or at least until you're more experienced with your own jungling. And because of this, I don't recommend junglers that are best suited for counter jungling, such as Shaco, Nunu, or Aatrox. The main issue is that you don't want to counter jungle without proper vision. And unless you KNOW where their jungler is, it's not worth the risk most of the time. Counter jungling effectively is the highest mechanic in jungling, and playing it well is the equivalent of playing a Vayne with really good mechanics.

Obviously jungle path is versatile and will change to fit your needs within a game. But here are some videos that show optimal jungle pathing for farming. Whether it's farming for gold, or farming for devourer this will help your optimal clear for maximized efficiency. I will link a few other videos that will help you a lot, and sorry for the wall of text.

Highly Recommended How to effectively clear jungle camps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhNrIjbYmM

Amazing jungle guide for almost all jungle champion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo4u5RSAHt4

Effective Farming clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oECw20l6TGI

I hope I helped, good luck on the Rift!

MunchCrunchLunchApr 14, 20161 votes

you see enemy jungler on map somewhere else. you go on the opposite side of the map of his jungle and take the camps. you gank when you see an over extending enemy and you know the champion you have has the tools to get a good gank going. but your main mission is to farm.

a good strategy is to camp a single lane where your team mate got fed and can contribute a lot to a team fight. its usually top lane or bot lane since mid lane isn't the easiest to gank safely.

Wayfinder22Apr 14, 20161 votes

One of the most important things to know as a Jungler is what smiting any camp actually does. Gromp (big frog): gives you a buff that applies poison (which can actually be used for Cassiopeia's E, fun fact!) to anything that attacks you. Blue Sentinel: restore a huge portion of your missing Mana Greater Murk Wolf: gives you a traveling ward, lasts about 1:30, pinpoints enemy champions in that section, and even pings the map wherever they are in that section. Raptor (big bird): gives you stealth detection, triggers when stealth is noticed, lasts 10 sec when triggered. Red Brambleback: Restore a huge portion of your missing health Ancient Krug(rock): stuns Jungle monsters every 6th basic attack. Attacking a turret will deal a pretty big amount of True damage and remove the buff.

EndlessSorcererApr 14, 20161 votes

I would suggest watching videos by high-ELO and/or professional junglers (i.e. Nightblue3, Stonewall008, Valkyrin, 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.
Each of the smite buffs are quite useful in different situations. Be sure to take proper advantage of them.
- Raptor's buff is great for ganking
- Gromp buff provides extra damage during clears and fights, especially for champions with a lot of health
- Krug's buff reduces the damage you take while clearing and lets champions without CC kill Scuttle Crab faster
- Wolf buff is useful when you are being counter-jungled or invaded (or after your initial towers have fallen).
If you have a weak early clear, Krugs -> Raptor's -> Red Buff is probably the route that conserves the most health.
Kill the little Raptors and the little Krug first on single-target clearers. They deal a significant amount of damage for their health value, so you will be healthier if they die early.
If you think the enemy jungler will invade you early game, it can be safer to start on a buff camp rather than a little camp since you are less likely to be where they are looking.
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 pink 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 on blink past you.
Use Raptor's smite buff to determine if you have been spotted by wards when ganking to reduce the risk of them escaping or receiving a counter-gank.
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).
When against aggressive early counter-junglers (i.e. Shaco) it can be a good idea to start on your buff camp and/or to start on a different side than you usually do. If he invades your buff, you've already taken it and/or you aren't there to be killed.
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.