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Please help me on Jungling

Danjeng··1 votes·311 views

When I started League, I played one champion and one role only: Ryze mid. This was because of my obsessive personality to master any challenge presented to me. I wouldn't considering doing anything else. My goal was to master that specific champion. The enemy was only myself, not the other team.

But I now realize that to truly master the champion, I must master the game. I need to understand every aspect of it. This is a team game and it is important to know the jobs of different roles.

Jungling has always confused me. Why spend time attacking random monsters when I could be attacking enemy champions? Why waste time walking around instead of being in a lane? I could just go with the top and completely dominate the lane!

So I seek help from people like you to please teach me the ways of the jungle. I'm so clueless that I don't know whether I'm doing good or bad. It would be especially really, really nice if you could go into an in depth analysis of map control, warding, etc.

My journey in the jungle begins...

6 Comments

EndlessSorcerer2 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.

Danjeng1 votes

Holy crap that response was quick. I didn't even post 4 minutes ago. Thank you!

EndlessSorcerer1 votes

They are fairly general tips so I have them pre-written and saved in Evernote for whenever this topic comes up.

I just had to copy-paste it.

It's a bit of a read, but hopefully it helps.

Darkslayer851 votes

You learn jungling mainly from experience, but there are a few basic tips I can teach you.

Save your gapcloser for AFTER they burn theirs or use their CC.

Ping on the enemy when arriving to gank. This coordinates the engage and sets up a 2 v 1.

And DO NOT gank a lane that is losing badly. VERY BADLY. Ganking a lane a kill behind is fine, but not if your laner is two levels behind and 40 cs behind. He's just gonna get a double kill.

theArtifacts1 votes

Your role in jungle is to

  1. Help the lanes get fed
  2. Keep the enemy jungler from being able to gank by counter ganking and counter jungling when possible
  3. Provide jungle vision
  4. Give objective control by helping take turrets after successful ganks and by taking power via Drag/Harold.

You need to clear your camps as fast as possible to level quickly and be able to gank as much as possible. You need smite and jungle specific items cause they enhance the exp given by jungle camps, allowing you to level at an appropriate pace. You need to understand various jungle champs to anticipate their locations and where they're going to move next.

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