A message from your Jungler, and the Jungle Role as a whole.
Lengthy post ahead, get out your reading glasses and TLDR's, it's time to get into this.
The Jungler as a role
Jungling in itself is the easiest to play but the hardest to master. It has an incredibly low skill floor and a limitless skill ceiling.
Jungling is so easy to play. If you in lower ELO's, just pick a Lockdown burst jungler and you will win every game if you don't have a feeder. The sudden presence of a Jungler turns a bad fight into a favorable trade, and having a snowballed Jungler means your lanes are snowballed. A snowballed Jungler is easily the scariest out of all the roles (unless it's like a Nautilus or something) because of what he brings to the table.
A Jungler is responsible for the maps pressure and neutral objectives, while at the same time 'laning' against the other Jungler. Most of the time, their actions should be based on The other Jungler. Their Primary objective is pressure. This does not mean getting your lane fed. A Jungler can be doing a fantastic job even when there isn't a single kill in the game yet.
The Junglers goal is to get the lanes ahead, take the contestable objectives, and win the vision war. Without a good Jungler, you LOSE the vision war. End of story. You know why that Sona is too scared to ward the river? It's cause that 4/0 Lee Sin is out there somewhere. A good Jungler gets you paranoid.
The absolute Basics of a Jungler is not hard. You gank lanes and clear camps. Not difficult at all. Then you step into the objective based Jungling, Then a step further with correct pressuring, then a step even further with punishing the enemy Jungler, and a step even further with Predicting map events.
What do I mean by 'predicting map events'? This is simple on paper, but difficult in the heat of the moment. A Jungler who's mastered the role will know exactly where the enemy Jungler will be and when just by looking at the map. It's terrifying really. The super high level Jungler will time his clears and resources to where he will be near that lane and able to defend against that gank he predicted. Fear not low ELO players, this element is not necessary at your ELO. People do not make optimal plays, and thus is pointless to try to predict them, because odds are you will anticipate the correct response, which they don't give.
At higher ELO's you NEED a good Jungler. Playing that gank n' clear is not going to cut it. High level jungling takes dedication. A mastered Jungler will win games singlehandedly, like playing a game of Chess by yourself.
My Jungling and what you need to know
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, this is what I want YOU to know about ME. I'd consider myself a GOOD jungler, but by no means mastered it. I still have a long ways to go predicting the map events, but I've come a little bit into that last step. It may take months, or even years to get to that point, but this is what I want you to know about me.
> When to expect my attention, and when not to.
If you have a favorable lane matchup in the top lane, expect me to not pay much attention to you unless necessary. Your lane will naturally have an advantage due to your pick, and unless I can predict a gank coming your way or your ass is getting camped, Top is gonna stay and island. This can go both ways for any and all lanes.
However, mid and bottom are more important because of the dragons. The buffs are so important cumulatively and each one counts. Getting a kill top lane isn't going to get me that dragon, in fact we might LOSE dragon because of it, the enemy Jungler will see I'm not in a position to contest and take it himself.
> Mids, I'm sorry, Unless you are 3/0 or I have a lot of faith in you, you aren't getting this blue buff.
This buff is mine. If I am confident that I can put it to good use, use the gold, and not give the buff away, I'm going to take it. However, if you are 3/0 winning lane on a snowball champ, asking for it wouldn't hurt. It may not be guaranteed you'll get it, but most of the time you will.
At no point will I ever give a 0/3 laner a blue buff unless you're my duo and I know your play. I'm sorry, but your score shows you're doing poorly in lane, and giving that blue buff to you just makes you a bigger target. Giving that away is a wasted resource.
> If you really want ganks, you need to track their warding.
I can't count how many times I'm on red team, their bot is pushed to our turret, but river is warded and they leave before the danger gets to them. Ganking warded lanes IS possible, but you need to know how to play it.
If the lane is warded and you want a gank, tell me, and engage as they leave because I'm in vision. If you don't nothing will happen. If you do, worst case scenario I will be there to clean up the two kills, and best case it's a 2 for 0 trade because I'm there.
Even better, if you can clear the vision, do it. Ranged supports, if you have red trinket, you can place and kill the ward over the wall, then place another. No one is asking you to risk your neck to clear the wards.
> If your lane is getting ganked, and I'm on the other side of the map, my priority becomes taking the enemies jungle, taking the objectives on that side, and ganking another lane, not saving your turret.
Leaving your turret to die is not always a bad thing. If I'm playing my jungle properly this basically means you have free farm provided the wave is behind your first turret. Don't push out all the time. They are in my territory and can't push up. If they are consistently killing you with the wave frozen outside the second turret, I'm not doing my job right.
> Contest my camps
I'm not asking you to contest my gromp, but if I'm being invaded at my blue buff, YOU NEED TO HELP. Even if he gets the buff, if you start running as soon as he shows up, hes not getting away. Putting a ward in my Jungle helps, but is not necessary. I just need you to pay attention.
> It is not my job to make sure you don't lose lane.
Vision isn't guaranteed to prevent a gank (As I said earlier) so don't act like putting a ward in river is a 'Jungle-be-gone spray'. You being 0/4 because you can't position correctly isn't my fault, and it's not my job to make sure you don't get there. I have my own business to attend to. Your ass can be getting camped and it can still be your fault. Yes it sucks I'm not giving good pressure, but if you're 0/4 and you're still pushed to their turret, you're begging for a gank. Don't be surprised when it shows up.
To the low ELO players, get the basics of jungling down and you'll win every time. To those on my team, just know this, and we will win. Thanks for your time.
