Jungler- Ways to play the role

ArtoriusIV·4/7/2014, 1:21:34 AM·1 votes·269 views

I want to start of by saying a few things about me, I am maining jungle this season, primarily Udyr, Evelynn and skarner right now. I am ranked bronze III but feel I should be dropped another league because I am weak mechanically. My theory crafting/strategy understanding is not that low though so, now that we are done judging me, lets talk junglers

There are three primary ways of playing jungle, and then I will finish it off with what I experience a jungler must do no matter how they are playing. First off there are things every jungler must do, secure their buffs so that the enemies can't get multiple buffs onto multiple players, avoid feeding, secure kills.

Clear junglers also called Farming Junglers this type of jungling is best suited to junglers with high late game scaling, or need/better with ults for ganking, A jungler that galls in this category might be Jax, some evelynn styles, some Pantheon styles or Warwick. Junglers who play like this prefer to avoid lane presence and instead focus on making a difference in teamfights. They will/should help a lane that is falling behind, but should not turret dive for kills, since they want to focus on their own scaling as much as possible.

Gank junglers these junglers have strong gap closers/heacy CC and farm off assists and scale not so well into late game, starting to fall behind in the mid game due to lack of levels. good examples of ganking junglers would be Shaco, Nocturne(post-6), Vi, and lee sin. Their focus is feeding their allies to carry the team fights, they should feel comfortable turret diving, and won't spend much more time then necessary clearing.

Counter Junglers these junglers want to farm the enemies jungle faster then the enemy can to put them behind in the later game, this is used more as a counter strategyu then a standard play, but it can be used as such. since this is more of a strategy then a full playstyle, there is no definitive jungler who does this, although ones who do this often typically have strong dueling prowess.

Bronze expectation of a jungler prepare for ugly bias

gank, often, every lane, no matter how far you are, instantly

farm

not fall behind

don't die

don't take kills

give buffs to laners

let laners jungle

hold lane, even if the enemy is far from turret

ignore your buffs for kills

The way I have seen/heard/play jungle secure buffs to avoid aiding enemy

attempt to steal buffs to more easily give mine away

give buffs to laners who benefit from them whenI no longer need them

gank when and where I can, and when I can guarantee a summoner spell or a kill or an ult.

stay safe

push enemies off turret to prevent damage on the turret while maximizing your farm

Now I don't think my way is the only right way, and there are other ways of doing it, that work well, but, the expectations of a jungler and what feels realistic is off and not acheivable b the jungler, allowing for people to easily blame their losses on the jungler's inability to be in five places at once.

Plaese share your thoughts of jungling if they are different, I would love to hear them, if they are the same, what do you think should/can be done about it, and how do you deal with it.

TL DR stop being lazy and go read it. There is to much info for a single line to replace

8 Comments

MagiSean4/10/2014, 5:45:26 PM2 votes

Jungle is my main. I like to help lanes which are pushed most as a priority so that laners can receive help to recover from a lane push and maybe get a kill out of it.

Of course, I have no real authority to say on this, but if the enemy Jungler benefits strongly from red buff and gets it second, maybe think of going for a smite steal. Evelyn especially. But you need a good jungles to be able to do this. That is why I generally pick astrong tacky jungles in ranked if I haven't seen the other juggler yet. What about asking your bot/top lane to help out? I haven't tried this myself yet, you could hand it to them potentially. With vi I love doing this and then jumping right over baron/dragon pit with a free red buff. It's such a great feeling. Plus, it effects the quality of their ganks. So, you arehelping your team from within the jungle. Once I had a udyr angrily chase me after he realised - very amusing. But go straight to your red after so it doesn't get recountered.

Finally, after every back make sure you have two wards every time. This can include trinket if you have it. This allows you to ward buffs, maybe steal 2nd blues from enemy mid laners preventing them from being ale to spam abilities which they can with the mana regen from the buff; and to help lanes with vision and objective control.

Hope this may give you a few more ideas ontop the ones you have already suggested :D

Chaotic1344/7/2014, 1:50:58 AM1 votes

I don't have many opinions about how to play jungle because I don't play that lane much. I literally play every other lane except jungle. I will say this. If you want to learn the ins and outs of jungle just go to youtube and go to FissMortune.Green's channel and watch all the TheOddOne streams and all the Meteos streams and all the Nightblue streams. Watch Foxdrops channel and then put everything you learn in those streams and channels into practice and if you screw up then maybe you learned enough from the videos to know what you did wrong so you can fix it in the next game.

Like I said I don't play much jungle but the way you play it sounds right. Jungling isn't just about snowballing your own lanes it's about counterjungling and hurting the enemy lanes, too.

Sir ArmaMalum4/7/2014, 2:09:38 AM1 votes

As a Gold IV and climbing, I will completely agree the finer points of jungling can vary depending on the person. The higher you go, the more jungling becomes a reactive thing, and reactive to what is going to happen based on your experience and judgment.

i.e. you see another lane pushing in your teams favor, you start heading there because you know by the time you get there you're going to be needed for a countergank.

Because of this a functioning jungle should (imho) have a general understanding of all positions so they can identify where they can be best used, and that very well may be nowhere at the moment (#farm).

Granted, that advice is useful anywhere, no matter what lane, but jungle is the first to need to know this and make hard decisions. Naturally this doesn't fly well with the "I'm the only lane in the game, gank me always" people. There are still people like that in Gold, but not nearly as often I'm glad to say.

######I have my own Jungle Guide as well explaining in much more detail but I do not want to de-rail