Jungle advice for a beginner, really need help :(

ZanjotheMonster·12/9/2013, 6:35:19 PM·1 votes·204 views

So I've been playing League for a little while, right before came out, and i've tried jungling and it was fun but i just can't get the hang of it :(

My jungle champs i own are quite a few coincidentally, like ,,,, and then . Sadly though, I've never gotten really good at jungling with any of them expect , and I've been wanting to get better with and since my main mummy gets banned all the time DX I understand that they play completely different so learning how to play them at the same time is difficult so i'm gonna start with since he seems to still be really good.

So please guys, help a noob out and teach me DX!!!! lol thanks for any advice and tips i get from you guys :)

8 Comments

PopesDeathGlaze12/9/2013, 7:15:54 PM1 votes

Practice, practice, practice. I also didn't start as a jungler but switched after a few years of trying top and adc. I am by no means the best jungler but I more often than not come out on top of my opposing jungler. My best advice is to watch streams of pro junglers. They have the best advice and can teach you a lot about the flow of the jungle. There is no substitute for just practicing til you get better. Jungle has a lot of hidden nuance, for example where do you start? when do you gank, and where? Learning your matchups helps a lot too. Knowing what strengths and weaknesses champs have in the jungle and counterplaying the other jungler using that info. Try looking up jungle builds on the internet as well. You can find all sorts of good bits of info from these guides. LoLpro.com, mobafire.com, solomid.net, and LoLking.com are good places to look, or just google it. All that being said what benefited me the most was just trial and error. Jungle takes time to get good at and even more to master. Just keep with it and utilize the LoL community. Sorry for the length of this post but there is a lot to be said on the subject. To touch on Hecarim he is a good jungle but squishy early. He is all about his q and timing his w correctly to survive his initiation with r. My advice build him tanky due to his all in nature. For masteries I go 21/9/0 this is to maximize his dmg early since he can shred and is hard to control when he gets going. An example final build (this is in purchase order) item 3209 item 3117 item 3065 or item 3143 next depends where their main source of dmg comes from (always get both if the game lasts that long) item 3078 or item 3025 (if you are rolling hard go triforce if you need to be more tanky go iceborn obviously dont get both) the last item is more a preference call a few good ones item 3068 item 3026 item 3083 (remember different games will call for different items) Again sorry for the length of this post. To finish however remember that your play-style and preference will have the largest impact on your success and that just because something works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for you. Experiment and have fun! Hope that helps a little good luck!

ThatSign12/9/2013, 8:28:14 PM1 votes

its all about counter picking, considering your not playing ranked yet because of your play time that's probably not solid advice, some of the best jungle's that i can see in the current meta is Zac , Maokai , Nautilus , Warwick , Hecarim , all 5 of those champions have gap closers which is essential for ganking, noc is also a insanely god like jungle but is super underplayed like Skarner .

your on the right track, just keep up at that role and you will get way better at it in time.

Rgamer68412/10/2013, 5:48:11 AM1 votes

Nautilus is probably my favorite jungler, because he's fairly easy to both gank and contribute with late game. Additionally, his W scales off bonus HP, which means that building primarily giant's belt items works very well for him. Still, his low damage means you have to remember that you basically can't 1v1 anyone, which makes it frustrating when you know you can take an enemy but your damage dealers run away.

Also, if you can sneak up on people, you can gank with your E, and use your Q (Anchor throw) to prevent escapes.

As far as item build goes, I would say to always rush a item 3207 first, it's your main gold source, followed by item 1001 then item 3083 , item 3143 , and/or item 3065 , because the HP scaling is just too good to pass up for his W. Order really depends on the enemy team. You might want a sunfire cape, might not. Depends on the game. Boots choice is almost always oranges, but you might get ninja tabi or merc treads, if you're having a lot of trouble or your team is behind. Also, don't forget that your first basic is a root!

My favored Nautilus combo is Q -> Auto -> E. And if they look like they're getting away, smack them with your ult. Because of his low damage output, Nautilus really needs smite to get acceptable jungle speed, in my experience, and flash is just too useful to leave out.

Feel free to experiment, of course, I'm pretty bad at jungling, but that's mostly because I tend to tunnel vision one lane, and then the other lane gets wrecked because they needed ganks and didn't get them.

Also, super jealous of that Nocturne you have. He's one of my favorite champs to play because if you favor damage when building him, you can burst most ADCs in a single ult combo. Which is just too fun.

EpicLunacy12/11/2013, 2:35:19 AM1 votes

Personally I just like to mess around in the jungle with doing Swain Swain , Kennen Kennen , Garen Garen , and Cho Gath Chogath (Cho jungle was surprisingly good I dont play often so im not sure if others actually do this) and a bunch of other people jungle but a good jungle thats fairly/kind of easy is Rengar Rengar so you might want to give him a try but what is your problem with jungling specifically is it routes builds or just ability to play the champs? btw can you give me an opinion on my Amumu build? (Spirit of Ancient Golem, Ninja Tabi, Rod of Ages, Rylis Crystal Scepter, Liandry's Torment, Warmong's) the route you take depends on the jungler, so for junglers with CD,energy, fury or other stuff take red first then wraiths and golems then wolves blue and the new thing (not sure if its name) and repeat and if you have mana or you just want the CDR then start blue then wolves then wraiths then red and then golems and repeat and add the new jungle mob in there. also i dont play ranked much and im still unranked but Amumu is supposed to not get banned very often in higher ques. but good luck and happy jungling :D

ZanjotheMonster12/11/2013, 8:00:39 AM1 votes

Thanks for all the advice you guys :) and iusually always start blue with any chamo i play as, except for Rengar (but my first time with him failed horribly lol XD) but i get what you guys are saying and i'm gonna try to get better with Hecarim before the actual season starts :)

Lord Solar Bear12/17/2013, 7:39:00 AM1 votes

Hey Buddhabob9,

I'm actually really glad you're trying to get better at jungling! I love Nocturne , and I find him to be a GREAT jungler in the right hands. You will get more and more pro with him if you use your spellshield properly. Try to burn it when an enemy attempts to crowd control you, or root, stun, snare, fear you in place. You'll be a lot more successful in your ganks if you do that. Try to watch the map for enemies that are pushed up too far. Ping your laner that you're coming and ask them to CC them before you get there. Land your Q on top of them while they are standing still and just rush them. Don't use your fear right away- if they flash it'll break the chain. You can position yourself behind them and then use your fear so even if they jump over you it still fears them. This will almost always lead to a kill.

What you can do with Paranoia is tell a lane to fight their laning opponent. You want to Paranoia when they commit to the fight and then jump right on top of them. I've lost so many battles to enemy Nocturnes because they use this little trick. A pretty standard build that will work with ALL of the junglers you provided is starting item 1039 and 5 item 2003 , and then building a item 1080 , item 3117 , and then a item 1028 . You'll get a item 3207 later on after potentially damage items, or different kinds of defenses. I usually start either red or blue, depending on what side my bot lane is. This allows you to get a way better leash and reduces the chances that you get invaded. The exceptions are when you play Amumu or Fiddlesticks , as they are VERY mana intensive.

If you want to branch out into other junglers, I highly suggest JarvanIV , Udyr and LeeSin , all of which have brutal early ganks, are good "invaders" as well as "counter gankers" and also are not commonly banned. Jarvan IV is my person preference, he just creams people.

I mentioned that those 3 are really good at "counter ganking," which is when you predict where the enemy jungler is going to gank and then gank him! I've gotten so many kills this way, it protects your laners and it counts as a gank for them too. You can completely blow up a game by counter ganking their jungler as they go bot and getting 1 or more kills on their team, as well as the enemy jungler's buffs. Be careful though to go in after the jungler commits their gank.

Finally, you have to use a system to assess risk vs reward for ganking a lane. This is a loose guide to what I do mentally every time I look at a lane. The more points a decision has, the more desirable it is to gank a lane.

Enemy warded, -10

Our team warded, +5

Enemy is over extended, +20

Our laner is low on health or mana, -15

The enemy is low on health or mana, +20

The enemy has no tower, +10

The enemy jungler is in a different lane, +5

The enemy has no flash, +20

Our laner has no flash, -10

I have more than 1 strong CC ability, +10

The laners are already in a fight, +20

I'm low on health or mana, -30

A good ganking score would be around a +15, imagine if they warded but are at our laner's tower and we have river bush warded. That's a good gank, even if they see you coming you'll be able to just wreck face.

As a final piece of advice, this is the most important thing you can do as a jungler: DO NOT FEED BUFFS, EVER. You literally lose lanes for people if you die being greedy, you have to make sure you don't hand buffs to an enemy laner unless your laner gets a kill on their jungler, or your laner gets both of them. You cannot afford to give the enemy ADC red buff, or their mid blue buff, or their top both buffs.

With this advice, best of luck buddy and if you want more help jungling you can feel free to add me in LoL, or message here and I'll try to remember to respond. GL, HF.

Steven

BlastoiseSlayerX12/29/2013, 3:01:31 AM1 votes

if you are having trouble with jungling you should try LeeSin or Zac they are both strong picks and require little skill (lee sin's sonic wave is not really that hard to hit and if you do it is all over for them) or try an early game gank with Hecarim or Nocturne . it will enable an early snowball and you can really dominate with levels,gold,and overall mentality

Rolf841/4/2014, 10:48:16 PM1 votes

Learn to counter jungle. Keep in mind, any time you see the jungle, you KNOW hes not in his jungle somewhere, so its open season. Nice little trick is place a ward in the brush by wraiths in the enemy jungle, that way whenever he passes that way, youll have an idea of where he is.