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When do I gank as JG?

Duke Dryfocker·6/11/2018, 8:56:52 PM·2 votes·2,064 views

The Duke here. Still OG noobing after all these years. I need opinions! Some have told me, "don't worry about it. They should be handling their lane." Some have said, "always at least by level 3". Some by level 5. some at games beginning and always. So i'm a bit confused, and I get yelled at a lot for "not helping". I spend a bunch of early game pathing to try and stay leveled. Sometimes when I go in to a gank it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm not great but I'm trying. I do care how my team does. And I have actually been winning more recently. The most effective strategy I have found for myself, has been to treat lane invading decisions more like lane help than a gank. When I can, and have the time to go help push lanes, I seem to help more than hurt. But folks seem to want exciting kills from the bushes, not boring lane push. IDK. JG seems a little confused by it's own changes lately, so any advice is welcome. TY.

8 Comments

Ghazter6/11/2018, 9:06:16 PM4 votes

Lots of people are idiots and don't realize that that extra push or just map pressure could skew the game in their favor.

Anyways, generally what you want to do as most junglers is check if any of the opponents are pushed up enough for you to come behind them and kill them with your laner. If a lane is seriously behind, only gank if it'll save your turret or you're sure you'll get the kill, otherwise focus on your carry lanes and gank whoever is ahead to snowball them to carry the game for you.

There aren't really set times, just lane positionings. If nobody's gankable, just keep farming and (very importantly) warding.

Another key factor is knowing when to back off and making sure to ping your laners. I assume you're probably pretty experienced in this, but still, I've seen too many junglers come in to gank my lane when the wave isn't pushed, they didn't ping, or they didn't know to back off. Also, be sure to watch the mana of both the enemy laner and your own to avoid giving them a double or not getting help from your lane.

That's about all I know about the jungle, and it's not my favorite role.

Linna Excel6/11/2018, 9:08:24 PM3 votes

Depends on the jungler you are playing, the laners' champs, and what the lanes and other jungler is doing. Are you playing someone like Lee Sin or Elise? You need to gank early or else it was a wasted pick. Are your laners pushed up or at their towers? Did they pick champs that are easy to gank for or not? Did the enemy laners pick champs easy to gank for? Where is the enemy jungler and which lane is he most likely to gank right now if he were to suddenly appear?

The only hard rule I'm going to give you is never gank a lane that's falling behind.

[{quoted}](name=Duke Dryfocker,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=v3RhVQxx,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-06-11T20:56:52.095+0000)

When I can, and have the time to go help push lanes, I seem to help more than hurt.

Sometimes you want to freeze a lane. In higher elos if your laner is trying to freeze the lane and you push or reset it, that'll piss him off and hurt his laning. If you've got a bad match up you might not want the minion wave near their tower. If the enemy jungler is fed or is able to gank well, you don't want to be pushing hard.

Sounds like you need to learn about minions and wave management in addition to lane matchups.

Zeppelins circus6/12/2018, 2:52:36 AM1 votes

This might be slight off topic but, the golden rule.

Never get counterganked. Always ward up the best as you can before you gank. Never forget their jungler can gank you! Crabs, pinkwards, trinkets will make you a perimeter to save you from game-changing disasters that would shut down two people at once on your team. I always slam a ward in front of their jungle entrance just to ensure this. Even sacrificing a pinkward in the middle of the river is effective. It is only 75 gold after all.

Also, intuition is a key factor. From my experience, a lane that you already successfully ganked is ALWAYS easy to gank more since your laner has control and leverage to manipulate your enemy laner.