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Advice for new jungle?

Buffalo of Lies·12/10/2014, 4:00:29 PM·1 votes·825 views

I need some advice on how to approach the new jungle, whether that be a new champ or new playstyle (or both). I started learning to jungle at the end of S3, and I did pretty well with j4. I was a bit less effective with the s4 changes, but I still managed well enough. With these changes though, I have no idea how to play jungle any more. J4 is already a champ who's vulnerable to counterjungling, so a lot of the changes instituted made it tough if not impossible for me to do well. In the few games I've played, I'd always be recalling after 2 (or even 1) camps, and the time it would take for me to run back and wait for the camps to respawn would inevitably make me fall behind in gold and levels and remain unable to catch up, particularly because my camps were being stolen.

More and more it seems j4 is falling out of favor, as counterjungling and early ganking seems to be the new jungle strategy. Can anybody recommend some new jungle champs (other than warwick) who will do well here?

Also, how do I survive in the jungle? From what I've heard from various people, I'm supposed to recall every 2 camps (which can't be effective, for the reasons stated above), smite the "gromp" (whatever that is), and gank early (which basically screws j4 outright). Can someone give me some advice?

tl;dr How do I jungle without having to recall every 30 seconds and what in the hell is a gromp?

4 Comments

Waffletimewarp12/10/2014, 5:19:50 PM2 votes

Gromp is where the big Wight by blue was. Birds/Razorbeaks are Wraiths, Krugs are twin golems.

I have had some success Playing Trundle, starting at Krugs, smiting to get their Heavy Hands buff, then using W either at the start of a camp for the AS or right when the big monster is about to die for the HP. With AS reds and quints, armor yellows and AP blues and liberal use of Q, I can hit level 4 after a full clear with roughly 60-75% hp. Q>W>Q>E sets you up for good ganks at that point assuming your lanes are pushed. Heck, depending on the other jungler and their position, I can do some counter jungling as well if I'm sneaky before my first back.

Another plus with trundle, unless you are taking Red or Blue at low hp or stealing one, you never need smite on them.

Zanathax12/10/2014, 4:21:27 PM1 votes

If you want to jungle easily, pick Warwick, Nunu, or Fiddlesticks. Make sure your runes and masteries are decent - maybe go with full defense/support masteries until you get used to the jungle. With any champ except the 3 I mentioned, you'll probably need to recall after 3 or 4 camps. They increased the price of the jungle item, so you can only start with 2 pots unless you go deep into the support tree and pick up the extra starting gold mastery, in which case you can get 3 pots to start. For experimentation, it may be worth it. The new jungle is tough. Go on youtube and watch a video of a pro jungler talking about the changes in S5. There are a LOT of them, and some of them are actually designed to be helpful. You don't even know the names of the new camps, apparently, so you probably don't know about most of those changes.

A lot of champs can still work in the jungle, but if you don't have some kind of sustain or shield, it's going to be miserable. J4 does still work in the jungle, but it is VERY different now. There are mechanical things you can do to cut down on damage taken as well. If you just stand there and facetank the mobs in the S5 jungle, you're GOING to get messed up. Learn to take advantage of what Riot calls 'soft' resets. Watch a pro. Seriously.

Buffalo of Lies12/10/2014, 4:27:51 PM1 votes

I saw that the camps were renamed. It's just that the new names don't mean anything to me, you know? I can tell what a "wolf" or a "golem" is just by looking at it, but a "gromp"? Which one is that?

I did read the patch notes, so I'm fully aware of all the changes. What I'm asking for is advice on how to deal with them, not what they are.