I'm new to jungle and melee champs in general and I've been using a mix of stalkers blade and skirmishers most games with good results, the problem is this account is low elo and the only wards on the map are usually mine with a random one dropped from the support from time to time.
Should I stop getting a sweeper and just focus on keeping the trinket+control wards up or would sacrificing the extra dueling power be worth it to sweep while still gaining vision?
BzRazor2 votesAll depends on who you are playing and if you think the enemy is gonna roam a lot.
SGT Dingle Berry1 votes[{quoted}](name=Vayne Doom Bot,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=utt1mQbt,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-12-03T19:15:03.070+0000)
All depends on who you are playing and if you think the enemy is gonna roam a lot.
Currently my jungle pool is pretty small. Hecarim > Olaf > Poppy. I'm gonna run some normals to add in Jax, Elise and Pantheon.
EndlessSorcerer2 votesI used it frequently in the previous season on tank junglers since the value of Smite Buffs (especially Gromp and Raptors) made up for the lack of combat stats and I loved providing vision.
This season, sacrificing combat stats for wards probably isn't worthwhile on many champions and there is no point smiting jungle camps after your early clears unless you need a heal.
Talisid1 votes
tends to buy Tracker's Knife a lot because it lets him ward-jump with his W.
In the general case Tracker's Knife is a very good pick up if your team is not warding enough. The main problem is that if you end up having to 1v1 duel the enemy jungler it really sucks to have Tracker's Knife instead of a combat smite. Thankfully in lower Elo jungle invades tend to be pretty rare so its generally fine.
Zen Ineth1 votesOther have said it already, but I'll reiterate. Skirmisher's Sabre is good on auto-attack reliant champions, or on duelists in general. Stalker's Blade is useful for when you need to catch up to a champion, either because you're playing a one who's easily kited, or the enemy team has disengage. They both have their merits and are generally, as with everything, picked over the other due to varying situations.
Tracker's Knife is in its own category, and is usually taken on champions that need neither. Kha'Zix, Nidalee, Lee Sin, Zac, and a handful of others don't really benefit from having either of them, since they lack the dueling capacity to make use of Challenging Smite, or they're bursty enough/have a jump to where they don't need to peel away an enemy champion. In those cases, it's good to have extra vision of the field to help your teammates know where the enemy jungler can be, especially if you aren't going to be applying pressure if you're counterjungling.
Sona Ping1 votesThat's actually more champion dependent than anything else. Generally the one's who consider buying it at all are those who can't even use the other two well at all or it's somewhat redundant on them (And Lee-sin). It's only after that where strategy for that match would come into play in the decision.
"Should I stop getting a sweeper and just focus on keeping the trinket+control wards up or would sacrificing the extra dueling power be worth it to sweep while still gaining vision?" That depends on how low in low-elo you are.
DeadlinWalking1 votesVision.Is.Power