Boards›Gameplay

The role of jungle is not to win your lane for you.

Ch0c0lateJesus·12/30/2015, 2:52:54 AM·61 votes·5,421 views

To all those crybabies that blame the jungle because they lost their lane. The tactical role of jungle is to farm the jungle, and secure jungle objectives. Ganks are a bonus.

It became meta back it season 2-3 because not having a jungle was less efficient gold and xp/wise. Having 5 people in lane meant you were sharing all the lane xp and gold between 5 people. Having a jungle meant even a 1v2 lane got ahead much faster, and all of the gold and XP on the map was being used.

Teams with junglers got more gold and more XP. So it became the norm.

Now apparently if you go 0/5 in your lane, it's the fault of the jungler. The role of jungle is apparently supposed to be to compensate for lack of skill, and inability to know how to lose a lane without feeding like it's your job.

Even IF a hardcore camp on your lane might have stopped the enemy snowball, the weak link is still you .

If you need special attention from the jungler to keep your head above water, you have no place blaming anyone for a loss. If you arent skilled enough to win, or lose without feeding, then the problem is you.

75 Comments

Krelador12/30/2015, 4:45:38 PM17 votes

Rubbish,

As a Jungler main my main priority is to assist in winning the game by any means required, letting a lane go out of control by neglecting them (specifically in cases when the enemy jungle is pressuring them) is on me.

I should look out for poor matchups (melle vs teemo top, I'll be ganking at least twice pre six before the dreaded shrooms) - snow bally mid lands I'll keep at bay & bottom lane I'll always come if my team is under the tower.

Ontop of this I'll attempt to ward, look for dragon opportunities & counter-gank the enemy jungler/invade when possible. Finally, I will always focus on some lanes if they have a huge potential to carry the game (riven, I'll gank for her a few times so she's stomping the map like a pro)

Simply thinking your job is just dragon & farming the jungle is the hallmark of a terrible jungler.

SaltyKracka12/30/2015, 3:38:12 AM15 votes

Incorrect. The role of the jungler is to keep objective control, get vision, and help their team's lanes win.

Nobody says a jungler should win lanes for a player. But if there's a laner with a bad matchup in lane and the jungler isn't helping out, that's on the jungler.

Narvuntien12/30/2015, 6:14:07 AM9 votes

Okay so the role of a jungler is not to win the lane for you: true

The role of a jungler is to protect and obtain objectives! Red, Blue, Dragon, Hearld, Baron.... and.... Turrets so many turrets.

It's the job of the jungler to protect and take down turrets. To do that you need to gank and you need to help struggling teammates.. to protect thier turret.. you want to gank with winning teammates to take the enemy turret.

The turrets are important objectives that you as a jungler are in charge of, turns out ganking is a huge part of protecting them.

Fatalitý12/30/2015, 7:36:03 AM8 votes

I wouldn't say ganks are a bonus. They are mandatory. I agree though its the laners fault if they lose lane, but as the jungler you do need to help them out if they can't cs because of the enemy or constantly being poked etc..

Divewing12/30/2015, 12:00:01 PM6 votes

God sakes... Yes, but the enemy jungler IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. If he/she is ganking all lanes and getting leads his/her laners would otherwise not have gotten (at least easily), you will be expected to do something.

Maximum Morde12/30/2015, 12:41:52 PM5 votes

Based on the number of junglers I've seen do nothing but farm the crab while the enemy laner is pushed up to my turret at half health, I believe your statement is accurate. The jungle on your team will never come in that situation no matter what.

I guarantee you that if you do the same though, the entire fucking enemy team will collapse on you.

P.S. The extra gold and exp from the jungle is nice, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't use it to impact the game.

Indominus Blade12/30/2015, 12:38:13 PM4 votes

No it isn't you low elo troll. Only bad low elo junglers think that "winning lane" is not their job. The job of the jungler, a good one, is exactly that, to gank/camp lanes and make their team mates win.

Diamond 2 wisdom.[slayer-jinx-wink]

CoolKnightST12/30/2015, 11:38:54 AM4 votes

It depends what type of jungler you are playing. For example if your are a Nidalee that didn't gank or cheese ones pre 6 something is clearly wrong. While a Rengar ganking on level 7 for the first time is perfectly acceptable.

Bill Gatez12/30/2015, 7:58:39 PM4 votes

This argument is so tired. Everything is situational.

It is the jungler's job to decide when and where to gank. A jungler who knows when and where to gank is a great asset to your team. A laner who can sustain through lane phase, build proper items to counter the enemy laner's damage if necessary, and can create the environment for a successful gank is an equally valuable asset.

If the laners were to decide when and where the jungler ganks, the jungler loses a very powerful tool. The power of independent thinking.

The laners can request a gank if they want, but that does not entitle you to a gank. Some lanes are harder to gank than others, and humans are naturally inclined to take the path with less resistance.

Games will go smoother if people realize that the only unit in the game they can control is their own. This isn't some dictatorship where you get to boss people around like they belong to you.

Dystopiac12/30/2015, 9:55:27 AM3 votes

However the role of the jungler is NOT to ignore my pleas for assistance,after i'm playing for 8 mins under my tower as Nasus,and then only to watch the ENEMY jungler dive me first.

Llanite12/30/2015, 11:19:01 PM3 votes

Your role as a jungler is to protect objectives and supplement firepower to whoever needs it, otherwise Riot would have just made a 4th lane.

Sire Hippington12/31/2015, 2:49:39 AM3 votes

Kinda agree, just that the way you put it sounds like it's not the jungler's job to care about lanes. Cause frankly, it IS the junglers job to help put lanes. This does not mean that he automatically decides lane for you, nor that he can turn around a 0-4 feeding lane, but a jungler has to do more than farming his jungle and eventually going to dragon just to notice that the opponents have more pressure and it would be to risky...

While a jungler does not have to camp every lane, he should have some impact. That means either sticking to the winning lanes and trying to snowball them even more, getting some feed your self in the process, or tilting an even lane or helping a loosing lane to not get crushed completely, or just counterjungle. and no, counterjungleing is not takeing the wraithcamp and leaving one of the little ones, counerjungleing inclouds atleast some deapwards and ,if on the bluebuff side, a wolf ghost. The purpose of counterjungleing is less to deny farm from the other jungler, but to get vision on him and maybe force him out of his jungle or even kill him, with other words: the aim of counterjungleing is to make it harder for the opponent to pull of succesfull ganks, which is why counterjungle often is colsely related to counter ganks. Since the vision changes, it is impossible for laners to keep their lanes wared, they are really vulnerable to ganks. The best way to provide security is getting vision on the enemy jungle, so you know on which half of the map the jungler is, giving your laners opportunities to be aggressive without fearing the jungler.

A big mistake many junglers do is thinking that ganks are only good for kills. If you have a loosing lane, just showing up as a big minionwave hits the tower and zoneing away the opponent helps your laner alot to savely pick up the farm and xp. Same the other way around, showing up in an even or winning lane just to zone the oppoent away from farm and evt takeing a tower can have a huge impact on the lane without any kill.

What really makes a good jungler is knowing when to gank a loosing lane, and then to drop it and focus on other lanes, when to counterjungle or countergank and mostly when to 'just be there'

Just for clearity: i totally agree that going 0-5 can't be fully blaimed on the jungler, and that there are situations in which a lane has to be abandoned, and if 2lanes are loosing and the 3ed isn't winning hard, there is nothing the jungler can do. However, that does not mean that it is nevert the junglers fault that a lane looses. Especially toplane, there are many snowbally matchups, where who ever gets the first kill will totally dominate, and 2v1 towerdives are easily done. If there is such a matchup and you ignore it as a jungler, don't be upset if top maybe looks 0-4 15 min into the game because the opposing jungler did camp that lane. And if you didn't snowball another lane duering that time, when it was your fault as the opposing jungler had the better decision makeing and thus way more impact.

Decrit12/30/2015, 11:32:46 AM3 votes

I agree that the laner is mainly in charge of the lane, but ganks are not a bonus. Jungle is not meant to just get the farm, but to exercitate pressure over the map - the jungler is a mostly unknown force that the laner has to deal with. If you keep only farming you are giving a great disadvantage to your laners, and the enemy jungler has more way to distrupt your allies, hence is your care too.

Then again you might be playing a champion that needs to farm a lot, like Warwick, i am not saying that afk farm in jungle is bad by itself, but has lots of disadvantages that you have to keep in mind.

DIRU12/30/2015, 9:57:53 AM2 votes

a jungler should gank if they can, and are sure they will get a free kill/advantage/objective (dragon after bot lane/countergank success)

Jiharu12/30/2015, 8:06:19 PM2 votes

All of my experiences in jungle involve someone expecting ganks before I get my level three. If you are getting camped, stop pushing to tower and wait for me to back for full health gank instead of trying to fight a 1v2 and blaming the team for not "helping" you. [slayer-jinx-unamused]

When I'm in lane, the jungle will go to a fully pushed lane and sit for 20 seconds in a bush, while I get my lane pushed in and tower dived by two or more. I often get a response like "I didn't want to camp mid, top or bot." [zombie-brand-facepalm]

Player of Games12/31/2015, 4:49:50 PM2 votes

As a lower Diamond jungle main, it is my humble opinion that Jungle is the most important role in the game. Why? You are the sole person to choose who you wish to snowball, you have to exert objective control, and pressure lanes well with ganks as well as balancing farming. At higher elo one kill, just one kill, can mean the difference between a huge snowball or a lost opportunity.

Whenever I play Kha I look for opportunities to gank immediately after double buffs. Sometimes on purple side I'll do a full clear by blue buff side and do an early gank on botlane. Since it's still so early in the game lanes are still trying to establish dominance leading to early aggression, and my goal is to force sums or get a kill off. While I don't feel that it's necessary to "win" your lane for your laner, if you aren't ganking for a lane that is; 1. easy to gank, 2. has huge snowball potential, or 3. helping an ally that has a hard lane but is holding their own and you don't pressure, you're probably doing it wrong.

Espy Psyche12/30/2015, 6:27:41 AM2 votes

Something people should understand about that though:

  1. A Devourer jungler needs to farm the jungle if you want to have a chance late game. Champions who build Devourer build it for a reason. Either they have super fast attack speed (Yi, Udyr), a three hits to win mechanic (Jax, Vi, Diana), or benefit from on-hit effects more than most (Warwick, Shyvana). In the case of b), the power spike granted by hitting Sated is so powerful that a feeding jungler can start getting triple kills by finishing it. A three hits to win mechanic becoming two hits to win is so overpowered it can turn games around. Let it happen. You might lose lane and give up a few kills, but when they finally do start running into me, I can obliterate them.

  2. If I am low HP, and you start flaming me for not ganking, I am going to run to your lane immediately and dive the enemy with no care for whether I die or not. When we feed them a double kill and they start stomping you, I'm going to report you for intentional feeding despite the fact that I don't believe in reporting for intentional feeding unless you're suicide rushing every respawn. You intentionally fed by flaming a low HP jungler for not ganking. And when you tell me to quit coming to your lane, I'll take it as a win and go back to farming the jungle.

SpecterVonBaren12/30/2015, 6:17:03 PM2 votes

I don't expect a jungler to win my lane but unless every lane is shoving to the enemy turret (Which happens too often in my experience...) I do expect the jungler to contribute something to the team.

If you just want to farm the jungle, that's fine too so long as you're getting dragons and warding the map for your team, counterganking when the opportunity presents itself and trying to make yourself useful later.

I don't need to jungler to help me win lane unless I know the matchup requires outside help to prevent the enemy from snowballing (Like being Singed vs Darius... god I hate that matchup) but I do expect them to do something somewhere on the map.

Troiann12/30/2015, 6:19:26 PM2 votes

It's the junglers job to contribute something to the actual fucking game.

If you're sitting somewhere as shaco farming your krugs while I'm getting three man dove repeatedly over and over, the weak link in the game is you. While the jungler may be blamed for stuff that's not his fault, if he's doing literally nothing the entire game while the enemy jungler is raping everyone with their sick dives, the loss is largely at your fault. You don't get a free pass on everything by saying "not my job to win your lane for you". That's like a support taking all the CS and telling the adc "not my job to babysit you".