Uhhh, mmkay. This probably sounds really bad but I'm a level 30 who doesn't know how to jungle. I feel like I've done enough leashing to know that you usually start gromp and move on, etc. However, I'm not actually sure if there's a certain route a jungler takes. I also don't know how to gank. I main mid, so I'm familiar with being ganked but never knew how to gank someone. Can anyone help?
@DarkAurora7
I'd like to point out that you cannot smite the smaller neutral monsters anymore. It will always cast on the large monster.
This is what I normally do.
To start the game, you get a leash at gromp or krugs, depending on if you want blue or red buff first. When the camp spawns, you immediately smite it for the bonus(poison armor from gromp, occasional stuns on attacks from krugs). Make sure you smite the large krug for the bonus, as the small one won't give you anything. After you clear the camp, proceed on to the buff, which you should be able to take with your bonus and a 
, then on to wolves or raptors, depending on which side you started, with another . Feel free to smite that camp too. Once you've cleared that and are at a decent amount of health, look to see if any nearby lanes are gankable.
The best time to gank is when the opponent is overextended, such as trying to take your turret. Approach the lane from the side, and go after the squishiest target or the one dealing the most damage(often the same). Use your CC, and at that point your lane teammate(s) should have closed in. If you are sure that your target has no escape abilities such as 
or 
's Rocket Jump, feel free to use your gap closer in if necessary. If they do have an escape, just walk in, CC them, and if they use an escape, follow them with your gap closer.
If there is no good ganking opportunity, or if you just pulled off a successful gank, return to base and pick up your jungling item: 
and whatever else you can afford. Prioritize your jungle item enchantment over anything else, and make sure to pick up a few more and wards. With the cost reduction to 
and 
, I always upgrade at level 9. Head to whichever side, you didn't clear, and take the buff and camps. From there on, gank where there are opportunities, and clear camps while you are waiting. Ward often. If you have killed the enemy jungler and maybe their ADC, or if you see their jungler up in top lane, call your bot lane and mid laner to dragon. Make sure to ward routes the opponent would take to approach dragon pit, including over the wall into blue side if you are on red side. If they have a stealth champion such as 
or 
, try to have a 
handy to place in the pit, so you can see them if they approach. Don't bother smiting the dragon if it isn't being contested, as it is a waste of a smite. If you ever see both their mid lane and bot lane empty, and if you haven't seen them recall, make sure to check dragon to make sure they aren't there. Warding dragon is essential, as is warding baron later in the game. Once you have the timer on dragon, be sure to recall about a minute before it respawns so you can get items and heal up before contesting or possibly defending dragon.
I'm not the greatest jungler myself (and good on you for asking for help instead of just sucking), but a few things I've learned:
Watch some YouTube videos on how to jungle. Older stuff is OK; it doesn't have to be a S5 jungle guide. If it's older you'll have to adapt what you learn, but the strategy is almost exactly the same. An hour of YouTube for hundreds of hours of jungling is not a bad trade. If you're a mid main, learning to jungle will also help you learn to roam better, as the thought process behind that is "I'm ahead now, I should probably help other lanes get ahead by ganking".
Well depends on which champion you choose. Most of the time you want to start a bot lane leash because it's better. But if you have a good jungle clearing champion like Udyr you can choose to start gromp on blue side and get a good gank bot lane. After the first camp you go to the closest buff, and you will probably need to pot up most of the time unless you are playing warwick or fiddlesticks. After that, the safest thing to do next on red side is to do wolves and back then go to red. If you want you can do raptors, but they hurt more, and if you are confident you can do red but you will definitely need to smite (again unless you are warwick or fiddlesticks). On blue side what I like doing is getting wolves and smiting it if I do a bot lane leash, this way you can back without having to worry about your blue buff being stolen. After that you should be fine and just gank whenever you can so you can stay up in xp. Edit: Also since it is first time you should get a ranger's trailblazer so you have it easy. When you get more confident you should start getting stalker's (depending on your champion) because of the ganks. After smite started stacking I am loving this item.
Some really good answers here, so I'll add what hasn't been said yet:
The best junglers for learning the role are Warwick, Fiddlesticks, Yi, and Vi right now (Amumu would be but he's weak at the moment, Nunu can be tempting but he's actually an anti-jungler that's supposed to crap on the enemy jungler and if you don't do that he's mostly useless). Warwick just farms to 6 and then ganks with his ult, Fiddles can sustain for days and gank decently and scales well into lategame, Yi farms up into a monster (although you can also gank if they're really pushed), and Vi is just all-around strong and pretty mechanically simple for a 6300 champ.
Build every game until you're comfortable ganking, and then instead depending on how much you want to gank. Get if there's an enemy champ that goes invisible, or if you're being invaded by the enemy jungler.
Pulling off good ganks takes a lot of practise. I'd recommend looking at the lane before you commit to the gank, check everyone's health and mana, levels, etc. This is where youtube really comes in handy, find a youtuber who talks while they play (Foxdrop is great) and you'll pick this up faster.
If a lane is losing badly and crying for ganks, just mute them and camp another lane. Once they're 0/4 or whatever, getting them a kill will just increase the amount of gold the enemy gets for killing them. Try to get the other lanes ahead to compensate. Junglers take a lot of crap from the laners because a lot of laners don't jungle and don't understand what a jungler can or can't do, so they assume that because you're not magically 50/0 before you get your buffs done you're trolling.
Keep an eye on the dragon timer on the scoreboard (press Tab to see it). Dragon control wins games.
Don't play the invade champs (Nunu and Shaco) until you're really good at jungling. And even then, just play them a bit to learn invading, but invading is a really bad idea what with how the jungle is right now.
