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New Jungle: Routes, Farming, Ganking, Priorities

Evongelo·12/3/2014, 8:07:50 PM·1 votes·2,087 views

I've been out of the game since August and I see a lot has changed with the new Rift release. Jungle was always my favorite and I consider myself to be proficient. I gank well, farm well, invade well, and above all else, I do not feed when I come to lane. My deaths each match are almost always the lowest of the team.

Every good jungler will agree that jungling is not about ganking, it's about farming. Keeping control of your jungle and robbing the enemy of theirs is priority number one. No one wants a jungler 2 levels behind and half dead ganking their lane. Good farming is achieved by good route running, but with the new additions I'm curious on how things may have changed. One thing I've never been good at is Dragon. I often go far too long into a match without getting it. I'll keep it warded and guarded, but that's it. When is it generally a good time to go for dragon?

7 Comments

Keisto12/3/2014, 8:39:11 PM3 votes

Every good jungler will agree that jungling is not about ganking, it's about farming.

Before I get into answering the question, I'd consider changing your mind about this statement. There are champions that excel on farm and others that should be ganking frequently, effectively putting a higher priority on that. Some champs have a ganking power spike while others are able to do it from level 2. Make sure you're well versed in this.

With that out of the way, let's get down to business. Dragon can be obtained in a few of ways:

  1. Keep track of the enemy jungler: if he's ganking top lane, first check if midlane and botlane are in a comfortable spot (not pushed to tower, underfarmed or enemy laner is fed), and proceed to call them to dragon with pings, chat, etc. I suggest a item 2043 for the pit if you can afford and plan ahead.

  2. If your bot and/or mid lane is winning, dragons are free for the pickings. If you don't have tabs on the jungler then I'd suggest you only go for the drag if you're confident in your summoner 11 skills. Again, make sure you have a item 2043 on hand or at the least a item 3341.

  3. If the your top laner has summoner 12 up, dragons can be done confidently. If the enemy top lane also has summoner 12 you are responsible to keep tabs on both your top lane's summoner 12 and theirs when it comes to dragon control. If you have even the slightest idea that the enemy top has theirs up and yours doesn't, I would revert back to way 1. or 2. because the risk of being wiped at drag would be high.

There will be situations where portions of these tips may be intertwined with each other, make sure you know the situation and think ahead.

I hope that helped a little.

Good luck on the Rift, Afro

Alljoy12/3/2014, 8:14:04 PM1 votes

I think it would depend on how well your bot lane is doing along with who you'll be jungling against.

Skia Asteri12/3/2014, 8:48:42 PM1 votes

The best time for getting dragon is when the enemy cannot contest is the best time. Namely at least two of their mid/jungle/adc were just killed. And there top does not have the ability to teleport in when yours cannot.

Evongelo12/3/2014, 11:39:56 PM1 votes

What about time? Can anyone give me an approximation on WHEN to try dragon. Let's assume ur bot lane is pushed and outfarming the opponent. The enemy jungler just went in for a gank in top lane, and your mid just sent his lane opponent back to base hurt. So the timing is perfect, but should they just stay where they are and keep doing good, or should they leave lane and do dragon? I guess that is what I have the most trouble with. When is it the best idea for teh whole team to ask them to come to dragon and when is it better that they just stay where they are and enjoy their present advantage?

iluvalar12/4/2014, 5:28:35 PM1 votes

I found the cost for a dragon is pretty high in S5. If you only get a kill and try to "sneak" a dragon like in S4, You will most likely lose all the map pressure, probably a tower and maybe even lose a few teamates. Doesn't worth that much.

People need to adapt to this and invest less effort in dragon, specially early game. If you are aware of this and your opponents don't, you won't have access to any dragon. Instead you will win with them having 3-4 dragon buff. Of course, it's a matter of time, but right now don't get crazy if you can't control dragon. The opponents might as well throw for it.

For my route, I usualy clear krug or gromp everytime after I go to shop. I also try to time my clear to be able to smite red as it gives a lot of hp back and it's perfect for sustain.