[Guide] Specific Role: Jungle
####Last Update: 4/11/14
Hello, and welcome to my weekly [Guide] post. I’m just your friendly neighborhood Gold player that wants to impart some knowledge about general League knowledge through tips, tricks and experience to hopefully help you or maybe a friend of yours through your games. This guide will be on the general role and actions taken by the Jungle Role.
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####1) What do you mean, Jungle?
####2) Who?
####3) Pre-game Decisions
####4) Invading
####5) Jungle Paths
####6) Using Smite
####7) Awareness
####8) Covering
####9) Ganking
####10) Items
#1. What do you mean, Jungle?
Jungle is the role that tips the balance you find in most lanes. A champion in this part of a team receives their gold by killing the mobs within the area between lanes (the jungle) and uses the slightly faster exp gain and the red/blue buffs as an edge against any lane he/she chooses. A good jungle will have constant map awareness and plan their position within the map entire minutes before hand. It is the hardest position to learn to do well in, but by and far it's the one that can have the most impact early game.
#2. Who?
What champion you pick will influence your strategy as a jungler in a significant way, as well what champions your team chooses. It defines what buffs will benefit you more, how you can gank, how often you can gank well, where you can be and how much you can do. And while you should consider a champion’s kit and team synergy as well, the easiest way to start thinking about who you’ll choose is what their best jungle focus inherently is. None of these are simple do exactly this tips, these are focuses of playstyle that should be a mindset, but you have to mix and match these ideas in a real game to do well.
###Ganking (Offensive) Jungle
This jungle style is heavily dependent on gap closers and cc to net a kill or two before they can scurry back to their turret. These junglers try to gank, and gank often, to abuse this. Even if a kill isn’t had, the constant pressure to lanes can be a great boon to a lot of teams, allowing for easy zoning and farm denial. Be careful though, if you like this idea keep in mind that every gank you do is less farm and exp for you through jungle mobs. It’s very easy for an enemy jungle to stick in their jungle and farm up to snowball past you and make you regret it past laning. Always make sure your ganks are worth it, and if you notice the enemy jungle passing you in level and farm, go back into the jungle and clear it as fast as you can to stay relevant.
###Farming (Defensive) Jungle
This is a safe choice. These champs farm very healthily and can get gold and exp very reliably. This means that the best plan is to **stick in the jungle, clearing it as often as fast as possible, **to make your after-laning presence very very strong. This doesn’t mean avoid ganking in its entirety however, a strong teamfight presence means very little if your lanes lose due to your lack of action. Defensive ganks and covering are things you can do to prevent this, more on those later.
###Countering (MUAHAHAHA) Jungle
By and far the most difficult playstyle to emphasize. Counter-heavy jungles are not known for ganking, they’re not known for farming, they’re known for shutting down the enemy jungle. Hard. This is done through a combination of actual counter-jungling (taking enemy jungle mobs), ambushes to the jungler in question, and counter-ganking. Counter heavy junglers do everything in their power to prevent the enemy jungle from being relevant while profiting off of their misfortune. The easiest way to play against this is to counter-jungle the counter-jungler, but some champions are simply poorly equipped to do so. Also, only some champions are truly capable of shutting down an enemy jungle (I see you Shaco...and now I don't DX), but that doesn’t mean no one can do it. Taking the occasional enemy mob camp can give you that slight edge you need.
#3. Pre-Game decisions
#####Early game Stats (Runes/Masteries)
Armor is your friend. Be sure to grab Flat Armor Seals before ANY other rune for your jungle page. Most pages will already have this, as flat armor seals are naturally overpowered right now compared to any other seal but that is another story. Early armor will drastically help your health pool on your first few runs through the jungle. This can mean the difference between nearly dying to your second buff and having enough health to gank!
####Other stats to consider:
Attack Speed - More hunter machete hits->more early damage->faster clear
Movement Speed - Faster moving->faster clear->faster ganks
Mana Regen - More mana sustain->more spells->longer stay power->less blue dependency
AD/AP - More damage->faster clears->harder hitting ganks
Cooldown Reduction - more spells->faster clear->more money (but less mana, careful)
#####Playstyle Sometimes this is the hardest thing for a jungle. Deciding what your playstyle should be, what champion can work best with the team, and who you as a player are comfortable with. I find it easiest to think about what I’m most likely going to be dealing with in the game based on my team’s decisions.
Is everyone playing very aggressive champions? Farm jungle will work best, maybe Amumu if we also need a tank?
Top bringing teleport? He’ll probably be fine if he’s pushed because he can jump right back into lane, I should get someone who can gank bot lane well, Zac maybe?
Mid is mana thirsty as all hell, I should give them blue as often as possible. So I should probably play a champ who doesn’t need it from the start. Shyvana?
Things like this are easy decision points to base a choice off of. But are by no means the only ones. You have to make sure your also comfortable with that champion, that’s very important. Don’t let your team peer pressure you into a champion you don’t want to unless you feel you can do it. Champion knowledge and practice are very important in a jungle.
#4. Invading
http://i.imgur.com/SRRYjH4.png
You have more than likely experienced an invade at least once already. For those few who haven’t, an invade is the practice of the entire team rushing one of the buffs on the enemy team in the first two minutes of the game. This can result in either a lvl 1 teamfight or an uneventful leash on the wrong side of the map. It all depends on where the enemy jungle is getting their leash.
#####Defending against an Invade
Station your mid in a bush along the invade paths shown in the pic above (best place is Step 2 area). The LoS given by that teammate will tip you off to an invade. Obviously the mid alone can’t take a team but it will give your far lane (top/bot) time to come and help. If their team’s level 1 is just very good however (i.e. 5v5 you would still lose) simply run to their buff. Their entire team, or at least most of it, is at your buff taking it, so their buff will be easy and uncontested, and you will take away their advantage.
#5. Jungle Paths
Your planned jungle path is a very important lvl 1 decision, but can be as complicated or simple as you want. As a quick reference Leashing, for those who do not know, is the action of helping your jungle with the buff they start with, by adding extra damage on. This is very beneficial, as it will keep your jungler healthy and you will lose very little by helping.
####http://i.imgur.com/xTUIk4o.png Basic Path
This is the best way to start your jungling career. Start with a buff, make sure you get a leash, and work your way to the other. Once you hit either wraiths or wolves (blue start, red start respectively) you can either burn smite on them, move to the other non-buff mob and continue to the buff when your smite is back up or save your smite and use it on the buff to use in a gank next. This is one easy example of decision points of using your smite, which is covered later. Keep in mind the lane you will usually end up ganking is the farthest lane from where you started, and you will have double buff and an additional level on the gankee if you clear it fast enough. Don't let that advantage go to waste!
####http://i.imgur.com/cxNk5np.png Early Counter/Kill Path
Not for the weak of heart, this involves starting at one of your buffs, with leash, taking a single mob, and then gunning for an enemy buff. The key here is to know which buff they are most likely starting on (amumu for example will almost always start blue as he is very mana dependent) so you don’t end up at an empty mob area.
#####Early Kill (solid line in pic)
Be very careful with this, because the idea here isn’t to take the buff as soon as you get there, but to ward it. Then proceed to wait until the enemy jungle (who is assumed to be using the Basic Path set-up) starts taking the buff. Most jungles will already be weak at that point, but the best chance you have is just after the buff dies (to your smite or his). Jump on him immediately and that will hopefully be a first blood. Most players will have flash, so watch for that, but if he doesn’t have flash this will be an almost guaranteed kill in most match ups.
#####Early Counter (dotted line in pic)
If you don’t like the match up but still want to hurt his early jungle, then ask for a hard leash (they stay in for longer than usual), don’t use smite and run to their buff immediately. If you have a friend in mid and they want to leash you again that will help a lot but isn’t necessary. The goal is to simply get the buff and run. With any luck they won’t notice until they get there and depending on the champion it will really hurt their jungle.
####Lvl 1 Gank
Very simple, but hard to do and not something I suggest doing often. This idea sacrifices your early leash with the hope of getting a kill with your teammates in a lane (usually bot). With S4 trinkets this is pretty much only feasible if you have a Blitz or Thresh now, but if you can get that first blood for your team it can go a long way. Especially if you get their adc. Just hide in the bush with your buddies and cross your fingers for a good grab/hook. Proceed to pounce and burst ASAP before they can flash. In summary: Land pull->mash all buttons->get first blood->profit.
#6. Using Smite
#####Push a button right? I mean come on, it’s not rocket science! 
I’m sure (or at least I hope) you know how to use smite, but there is a subtle art behind when to use smite. As that can influence everything from your jungle path to Dragon kills to counter jungling to even Baron. This will largely come down to practice but the easiest way to decide is to ask yourself will I seriously need smite again within its cooldown? In other words, is Dragon up? Is Baron up? Can the enemy team get it now? Is an enemy buff up and can I take it? Is one of my buffs up and can they try to steal it?
The primary drive behind smite is Smite Securing a buff or epic monster (Baron/Dragon). Essentially, it’s last hitting with smite, and this idea can be applied to your buffs to prevent a steal, enemy buffs to steal, and either or for Dragon and Baron. Having smite on cooldown is a serious disadvantage for Dragon and Baron fights, and as such you can abuse that if you saw the enemy jungle just use his. With the appropriate reflexes that can mean a 99.99% chance of a Baron Buff.
###Not using smite can be just as useful as using it, plan ahead before making the decision of using smite.
#7. Awareness
I could also re-name this section to Foresight. Being aware of the game around you and how each individual lane is doing (and acting accordingly) is what separates the beginning jungles and the experienced jungles. This can range from judging lanes pushing and when they’ll need help to guessing where the enemy jungle will be coming. Let’s look at some examples:
##http://i.imgur.com/kduOokI.png Example A
Here, blue side is going to be hugging turret very soon. So the blue side jungle (in this case Elise) would do well to start heading bot (which she did, good on her). But it’s a short window of opportunity as Blue side can be pushing back shortly thereafter. It also depends on whether purple side has a ward. If they do the Elise can still apply laning pressure to allow blue side to get back to an even stance. ##http://i.imgur.com/lHmRTXR.png Example B
Here would be a perfect ganking opportunity for the purple side jungler. As long as he was there already, as purple side would (and did) push back very soon. In this specific game, the purple side jungle was Sion, and was on the other side of the map. This isn’t a mistake, as sometimes it’s impossible to truly guess what will happen far in the future, but it is a missed opportunity.
For the blue side jungle it is also a perfect ganking opportunity (which they did indeed take later). Notice the circled bush, this is an ideal spot for what’s called a lane gank, which is a gank involving the jungler to approach through the lane.
The key to awareness is to see these situations before they happen and make sure your choice of helping or not helping will be worth it. Don’t expect to make every right call in a game, but recognizing situations for what opportunities they can bring will seriously help out your results.
#8. Covering
Covering is the simple action of defending a teammate’s turret while they aren’t there. Whether it’s because they’re ganking another lane or because they had to back covering consists of last hitting minions and preventing turret damage without pushing the lane. Keep in mind covering will reveal where you are for an extended period of time, allowing smart laners elsewhere to apply pressure to your team, as well as the enemy jungle. It’s never an ideal situation to be in, but it is necessary at times. At the very least you can get some laning farm and exp while you are there.
#9. Ganking
Okay here’s the real deal. The main meat, the nitty gritty of jungling. Honestly it can be the most difficult part and where junglers will make or break a play the most. There are an infinite number of reasons a gank can go well and an endless number of ways it can go wrong, but let’s break it down to three main areas of focus:
###http://i.imgur.com/Tpy2bGi.png Positioning
This is the first thing everyone learns jungling. The key is to not to head straight for where someone is, but to cut them off as they will inevitably retreat. Most of the time when you start jungling, this will result in a burned flash and a bit of chase, with a little frustration on top. Which is why your positioning should take flash into account when you can. Try to watch out for lanes with an enemy that recently used flash, as that will drastically increase your chance to nab a kill.
###http://i.imgur.com/j7ToZpM.png Power Gauging
In the above picture I actually did not follow through with a gank and instead covered the lane. Any guess as to why? You may not have noticed, but the enemy Rengar is level 8 and I was level 6. Along with the fact he was in the middle of a large group of minions. Both of these are factors in Power Estimation or Power Gauging, the ability to appropriately plan for an enemies’ power level and adjust accordingly. If I had tried to go after the Rengar above I would be at a severe disadvantage, even with the turret. As a jungler in a normal, everyday game will naturally fall behind in levels unless fed, this becomes a serious concern. If I had a nickel for every jungler (myself included) that thought he could take an enemy only to be very much reminded he can’t via horrible painful death, I would have my college tuition paid for! Ok, not really that’s an absurd amount, but I would have a decent amount for extra spending money!
Keep in mind Items factor into this as well. Some are more obvious than others, but if they rushed a final tier item (BT, IE, Mogs, Thornmail, RABS, etc.) that can single handedly change an outcome. As well as current health, obviously a low health enemy has much less power than one at full health.
###http://i.imgur.com/lo3nZFh.png Map Awareness
Can you see why the above picture is actually not a good gank? Look at the mini-map. Who’s missing? Only 3 enemies are accounted for, most notably we don’t know where the Vi (enemy jungle) is. Our mid is dead and bot lane is pushed. This is a perfect storm for a sour gank, and it’s somewhat apparent already. In the fact that Ahri is acting so aggressively. This is because the Vi had just taken blue and was ready to assist should, say, the Ahri gets jumped by a Cho’gath and Rengar. If the Ahri was at lower health and/or had her ult down, we could have bursted her down before this was an issue, but the time commitment needed to kill her was not worth it after the fact.
#####So, in summary...
doing well in any one of these areas does not mean it’s a good gank, but doing decently in all of them does. No one expects you to pull off perfect ganks all the time, so don’t let this section on how difficult a successful gank is scare you. Practice and experience will get you past these barriers, as well as realizing your opponents can make mistakes too. Every gank has an inherent risk, and you shouldn't let that stop you from trying, but it does mean that weighing the possible losses versus the possible gains and the chances for both is essential in making good calls. This applies to every role, but none more so than jungle, as their calls will be what decides who wins early game in an evenly matched game.
#10. Items
###---Starting Items
Are you jungling?
#####Yes? Then get:
#####No? You're really just roaming around pretending to jungle gorging yourself on the blood of the innocent (the enemy jungle) and nothing but? Ok, makes sense, get:
#####
Warding Totem
Grab this trinket to start with of you are either a) worried about an invade or constant counter jungling to play defensively or b) you are going for the Early counter/kill pathing you can use it to track your enemies' buffs and keep an eye on them for smite stealing and ambushing.
#####
Sweeping Trinket
Start off with this item if you plan to gank early and you don't mind having the vulnerability to counter jungling. It is recommended to switch to this item after laning phase except for specific reasons (Lee Sin jumps).
###---High Priority Jungle Items
#####
Spirit of the Ancient Golem
Very popular jungle item. Any spirit stone item is incredibly gold efficient and should be one of the very first things to finish due to the conservation stacks allowing additional gold income. This item is one of the few that gives tenacity and gives a superb amount of defensive stats. Farming (Defensive) Jungles love this item , but ganking jungles in need of survivability will profit as well.
#####
Spirit of the Lizard Elder
AD based, this item benefits very assassin and caster based AD champs. The true damage on this item combined with the true damage of red buff can deal an insane amount of DoT. This item is the sole reason why Jungle Twitch can work.
#####
Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
The biggest advantage this item gives is the extra 30 AP that is possible with large minion kills. It is deceivingly difficult to get these stacks quickly, but once you do this single item gives a whopping total of 80 AP, making it one the highest AP items in the game fully stacked. The health and mana sustain in all spirit stone items also helps AP jungles in particular.
#####
Wriggle's Lantern
Not a particularly viable option at the moment. Chief reason being it does not last long enough to be a considered a final tier item. Buuuuut that will change soon, see below.
Feral Flame
This is the upgrade to the Wriggle's Lantern path, and will come eventually with enough large monster kills (currently 25). This item heavily benefits a high damage farming strategy and can produce a 'timebomb' effect with enough stacks. Champions that best abuse this item are ones with attack speed steroids and are heavily autoattack based. It gives AD so will be somewhat inefficient on AP junglers.
#####
Frozen Mallet
This item will increase your ganking potential very well. And will decrease your reliance on red buff for chase. Champions with very little or no cc like Shyvana benefit the most from this. It also has a respectable amount of health and is therefore more of a defensive pick than anything.
#####
Boots of Mobility
With the recent nerf to in-combat speed this is now a risky pick and benefits burst casters almost exclusively. Anyone who can jump in and out (assassins) and experience the drastic loss of MS while in combat for the smallest amount of time while still getting a kill will still love these boots.
#####
Boots of Swiftness
If you are playing a jungle that is either getting slowed to all hell or benefits from extended engages (Volibear, Udyr) this is usually a good buy. Other boots are still very good to get but between a jungler's high need for mobility and the availability of Tenacity through Golem SS mobility based boots are almost always a good choice.
#####
Blade of the Ruined King
A very offensive focused jungler that benefits from attack speed will use this item to great effect, provided you remember to use the active! The survivability and offensive stats are best utilized by a non-tanky jungler, keep that in mind.
#####
Warmog's Armor
Warmog's is a great item, and it gets better the earlier you get it. Watch out for an enemy BoTRK (above) however. Without armor that item will make this purchase very ineffective.
#####
Spirit Visage
Visage is a great bulwark against Magic Damage, as well a great synergy item with spirit stone's passive. A lot of jungler's require a sustain mechanic to function that this amplifies, so this item does very well on most.
#####
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire is a very good buy, because it's damage is stat independent and the armor+health will help you in the jungle. It is effective the most on junglers that benefit from close range engagements, however, so keep that in mind.
#####
Zhonya's Hourglass
An AP assassin jungle (Fizz, glass cannon Diana) can really make this item go far due to it's armor helping jungle sustain and it being one the highest AP items in the game. Do not forget the active
#####
Randiun's Omen
This is currently one of the strongest defensive items in the game. As well as allowing for an AoE movement speed slow, making for easier chase and a superb survivability increase. Tanky jungles utilize it the best, but if you find yourself taking shots it may not be a bad idea to get anyway.
#Addendum
As with any of my other guides, I do not claim infallibility in any form, so feel free to call me out on anything you disagree with, you feel should be clarified, or I’m just flat out missing. I will be happy to explain anything that may be confusing as well as edit this guide to make it as clear and concise as possible. Feedback and questions are not only accepted but encouraged.
