[Jungling] When to buy a Sightstone?

Nova Skye·Mar 23, 2015·3 votes·1,664 views

I main bot lane and am a very heavy B5 warder (even as ADC). To work on my map awareness, I have been venturing into the Jungle more, and I have noticed several things.

No one wards. No. One. (B5)
I usually don't have the extra gold after purchasing necessary items to get additional wards, though I try to when I can. It's just never enough.
Because of #2, I cannot get a sweeping trinket (rely on warding trinket for primary vision and raptors buff for clearing)
I focus the scutters every time I pass them, but they don't last long
No lanes respond to counter-jungling measures (meaning if I get jumped in jungle, I'm on my own, and I can guarantee a lost buff at the start of the game because of heavy counter-jungle comps as recent meta and lanes that won't ward the opposite jungle for me)

I have, after a month of trying to learn this role, decided that my ONLY option is to start buying a Sightstone myself. But I can't figure out when or how.

Do I prioritize the Sightstone just after the finished enchanted smite item?
Do I wait until after an item or two?
Do I tell my laners repeatedly to buy wards and leave their lane to ward (does NOT go over well in bronze)?
Do I just completely skip the Sightstone and give up my jungle instead?

12 Comments

TOY W4RRIORMar 23, 20151 votes

I main the fill role, and for me I usually skip buying a sightstone as a jungler, UNLESS i'm Lee Sin. Try to buy at least one sight ward when you back, and always strive to keep your pink on the map. item 2044 item 2043

Nova SkyeMar 23, 20151 votes

I starting learning jungle with this in mind. But my buys usually leave me with under 20 gold remaining, so making those purchases almost never work out. What do you do to ensure you can have those purchases?

Kei143Mar 24, 20152 votes

Like you, I'm a support main with jungle as my 2nd preferred role. Granted I'm only B2, so probably won't work at higher levels.

I do prefer to buy sight stone first as I like to keep track of the enemy jungler / potential roams but keep in mind I play tanks more often. Normally I buy sight stone after the first machete upgrade.

If you are going back too often / don't have enough money you might want to try out these things:

use trail blazer, giving you hp and mana when you smite = more sustain = last longer to fight things to get gold.
if you have enough hp and mana to only take 1 camp, take wolves, they give you more gold than the rest of the small camps.
see if you can learn to leash out your monsters a bit longer by stepping out of their atk range, you can take less hits while waiting for your skills to get off CD so you can get more dmg , also, it'll help you manage your potions more effectively. There are plenty of youtube videos out there you can watch to learn about this.
sometimes its better to save your smite instead of using it every available time. Like .. save it for the red or blue buff so you can get a chunk of hp or mana back if you are low on either resource.

Personally, I always gets wards when I back, unless I'm forced because of ganks /getting caught out.

GrimmrockMar 23, 20151 votes

Sightstone is okay anytime you have a high utility jungler, this includes tank jungles like Mao, Sej, and Naut, and even Rek'Sai and lee Sin can use it effectivly, the hope is that the vision makes up for a lack of kill potential, you hit your jungle stride a bit later, but the vision potentially ensures that your lanes dont feed.

Lanes not feeding is the difference between jungle success and jungle fail. getting lanes fed is all well and good, but lately I find that until teamfight time/objectives, the jungle is a safety net, just as botlane ADC gets a safety net dedicated to his lane, we junglers are the safety net of the game.

This doesnt mean its our job to win a losing lane, sometimes you're going to have to cut losses and just let a lane lose, sometimes you just cant gank something (looking at you leblanc/Zed) reliably enough to make it worth the time, so what do you do in that offtime? Ward. Ward and farm jungle. prevent the enemy from achieving that juicy juicy laner death gold. It makes such a massive difference in the long run.

as for when to pick it up? somewhere between upgrading your machete to the smite buff, and your second item after finishing your jungle item. ie. Machete->Chilling smite thingy+boots->Sightstone (trade out your trinket for sweep, vision denial is important)->Cinderhulk/Warrior/Magus. If going this route do not go devourers, you're going to be too far behind in creepscore or! this route Machete->Chillingsmitethingy (or others I dont judge)+Boots+whatever you can afford for T2 jungle item->Tier2 jungle item (devour/cinder/warrior/magus)->Sightstone.

You wanna pick up that sighstone early though, as vision compounds from early application.

Considering early game the support should have one botlane bush warded in the lane, Tribush/river bush and dragon, you should be warding at the enemy redbush (the bush around the corner, not the one on top of red, Near wraithcamp, and blue exit. (or vice versa depending on mapside)

Nova SkyeMar 23, 20151 votes

In that last paragraph, the key word is "usually". Unfortunately, when I solo que in ranked as Jungle, it rarely happens. Or it will happen early game, and then the support will start saying "too busy to ward, can't leave lane" (I've heard that a lot).

I have no problems ganking. In fact, I gank to a fault and am now learning to balance the ganking verses the farming (got tired of constantly being two or more levels behind because I got over ambitious on the ganking). My problem comes when I am counter jungled. Many games I get jumped in my jungle and no one responds (well, except with the typical "noob sej gg ffs" at the 5 minute mark). After that point, I get too nervous and their jungle too confident, and our team will not punish further counter-jungling (and by this point I'm too behind to punish the enemy myself). And because I main Sej, missing that blue buff is really bad.

In all, the first time I get counter jungled, I typically lose my mojo. It ends up being on the lanes to carry, and I end up (usually) giving up on the jungle totally and just roaming lane to lane to make sure they do carry.

This only works part of the time and I can tell it's not correct, but I don't know enough about jungling to correct this. I can find plenty of videos on how to jungle, but so many of them are made by good jungles that don't get countered. I can't find any help or examples on what to do when you DO get counter jungled, and how to handle it when your team just doesn't have the smarts to help.

Linna ExcelMar 23, 20151 votes

Do I prioritize the Sightstone just after the finished enchanted smite item?

Not with some champs. If you are going devourer, you need to finish it now. If your champ needs the finished item, you need to finish it now. If you are playing jungle Irelia or Leona, you need a sheen before a sightstone and maybe before finishing your jungle item. On other champs you might not need to finish your jungle item first. Also if you are getting aggressively counterjungled early on, you want to bump this up earlier assuming you can either kill him right off or he can kill you right off.

DarkwindMar 23, 20151 votes

On tanks- Cho, Sej, whoever else- my build is usually item 3717 item 3111 item 2049 in that order. start with warding trinket, swap to sweeper when you get ss.

Poptart EvelynnMar 24, 20151 votes

Honestly, never now that the trinket exist.

Early on just buy a couple greens and one pink. Once you get to level 9 rush that trinket, it's 250g for what is basically a sight stone in your trinket slot.

2-3 greens is 150-225g, 1-2 pinks is 100-200g and combine cost at 250g for trinket at 9 = 675g max.

IcyPepperMar 24, 20151 votes

You don't have to. You can upgrade your trinket at level 9 and buy wards throughout the entire game.

But you can buy SS on certain junglers who use it well. If you buy cinderhulk, the HP% passive will make sightstone (and ruby) a decent slot. It synergies decently with champions who use HP in their kit, such as and Shen . It's not that powerful, but it's certainly more useful now.

MerxamersMar 24, 20151 votes

On your first back, you should look to:

Complete your first machete upgrade
Buy a green ward (+ a pink, if you can)
Buy boots
Buy health pots

In that order. Wards are EXTREMELY important; if you don't have enough money to buy them, you're either spending your money on the wrong things or going back too early. For your first clear, try Krugs -> Red buff -> Blue buff -> wolves -> scuttler (this is what i do with junglers like j4 or naut; not sure how sej clears). Always try to take the scuttler before you back the first time; it does no damage to you, so it's basically free gold.

This should give you plenty of gold for all of the above.

I only time i build sightstone is when my team falls severely behind, and we really need a ton of vision plus a sweeper (red trinket). in that case, buy it as your 3rd item (should be about the time you realize you really need a sightstone, after completed jungle item and first defensive item). Usually, the 250 gold yellow trinket upgrade is just much more cost efficient.

If you get invaded, make sure you ping so your teammates know something's up; if they don't respond, then it's on them. If you're worried about invades, use your initial yellow trinket ward defensively; i usually us it in the river right when i walk out of the fountain to watch for an obvious first-buff invade, and then i use it behind the wall of my second buff (should be off CD by then) before i take it.