Jungle priority when multiple lanes are failing?

Scoggs·6/26/2015, 11:29:13 PM·1 votes·2,569 views

I'm a fairly new jungler and I'm having a bit of an issue with priority when my lanes have fallen behind. If it's one lane I can normally handle that, knowing when to apply pressure and when to focus farm and or objectives. The issue is when I have two lanes failing and I don't know where to apply pressure. Do I focus on farm, help push the strong/weak lane, counter jungle.... I think this is where good junglers shine. They know exactly what to do in situations like this. I find myself trying to make plays and falling behind myself, extinguishing any hope that our team might of had. I know there are certain times where it's better to let a lane fail and devote your efforts to feeding lanes that are already ahead, I'm just not sure exactly when that's the play. Any tips would be very helpful. Thanks!

9 Comments

Skia Asteri6/27/2015, 12:23:14 AM2 votes

First and foremost, a lane you are sure you will have number advantage due to wards or everyone on the other team being clearly elsewhere. After that, base it on the ability to gain objectives afterwards.

Hotpes6/27/2015, 1:05:37 AM2 votes

Mm as a jungle main myself i would say try to get as much info on your jungle opponent location timers etc with vision control so your lanes dont get destroyed even more by dives with the jungler. Once you get some control with that vision farm up thats the best, hold lanes if needed and just constantly check the lane clicking on the map to see for any opportunity to give ur laner an edge. If the chance appears dont waste time clearing the camp just go do it cause those openings dont always last long and when losing you NEED those little plays to happen, but always making sure it WILL work thats why so much deal with setting up the vision. If u go and nothing happens u are falling behind thats prob i would suggest farming and just be really map aware during all this time. Remember its not your fault that they lose lane and some games just cant be won. Goodluck bro

Scoggs6/27/2015, 2:41:28 AM1 votes

Thanks for the tips! Definitely some things to work on. I do need to keep better track of the enemy Jungler, but most of the low elo players I play with don't lend much help in the vision department. I try to buy at least one ward when I have spare gold.

TehNACHO6/27/2015, 3:39:12 AM1 votes

I'd just like to note that overgeneralizing too much is really bad and you need to learn certain patterns.

Example: Cho'Gath top just fell behind really far. Luckily, your Cho'Gath isn't a retard and is rushing CDR tank so that he doesn't mercilessly feed. With his E, he'll be able to keep the minion wave off the tower (or at least not on it for extended periods of time) meaning that leaving him alone even when behind won't immediately lead to a lost objective. This is a situation where it is safe not to gank Cho'Gath if you think you can do something more important somewhere else.

Example: Yasuo mid has just barely fallen behind, but is holding in there. He is a stubborn butt though and is rushing damage, hoping to keep on his opponent's toes and outplay them. This is a lane you want to gank as soon as possible, because with Yasuo's current build, if he falls behind he'll fall into near uselessness but given his matchup, he's still a solid damage source if you were to gank his laner.

Example: Your ADC is fed as hell, but the enemy tower hasn't fallen. This is a situation where you can choose to gank and rush the objectives down, or let the lane sit for a while as your ADC scales harder and harder without too much risk of dying because they're fed.

Example: A heavy CC/Utility Champion, like most top lane tanks, gets fed. Follow them when they roam or cover their lane. Unless the enemy is already low, ganking them isn't the best guarantee for a kill. On the other hand, if they were to roam to another lane, their ganks are usually extra dangerous. Communicate with them so that they can carry the burden of a feeding team.

There are patterns to notice. Most dedicated carries want ganks before they fall behind too hard, but don't necessarily need ganks or view ganks as an extra luxury if they are ahead. Most dedicated utility tanks don't need ganks to recover from falling behind, but they tend to provide the most assistance when ahead. There are also others that are more specific (Jax for example is a weird champion in terms of your priorities ganking him), but the important thing is that you learn that there is a pattern to when you need to gank instead of this one big unified rule.

hater free zone6/27/2015, 7:24:56 AM1 votes

Priorities can change due to a lot of factors. Typically though, if I see a lane feeding REALLY hard, I leave it alone and try to facilitate kills in another lane to offset and create a balance to the overall field.

Last game I played I was jungling Nautilus. We had a top lane Morde vs Garen who was feeding really hardcore. I wasn't in a position to really help him and he was overextending and dying a lot. I left his lane alone, despite him raging at me, in favor of assisting my mid and bot lane who were playing better that game. Despire having a blackhole of deaths happening at top lane, I was able to give mid and bot lane a strong enough edge to survive long enough until our Morde was able to farm enough to be competent. The game lasted 50 minutes, but we ended up winning.

Also, always keep tabs on where the enemy jungler is. Learn where each jungler typically starts and plan your plays around that. Ping your teammates to where you would expect the enemy jungler to most likely gank, and try to time your ganks around when the enemy does. You play a sort of mirror match on the map, hitting opposite or equal parts as their jungler.

Need Gold 4 Tent6/27/2015, 8:30:22 AM1 votes

No hope: 0/12 Yi who sold his items to build AP - probably not worth it. Giving him more kills just means he's gonna get a Deathcap sooner... and a gold reset.

Hypercarry: Yasuo/Vayne/Nasus/Jax can tough it out, if you put a bit more effort on them you'll possibly experience the miracle called lategame scaling where the 0/6 Vayne magically goes 25/8. Otherwise, just stalling the game could work also.

Camping the winning lane: Sounds pointless but it is demoralizing for the enemy laner to be the only 0/6/0 on his team, and might get him playing worse (or running the suicidal Tryndamere strategy which you can capitalize on). Even better if your laner happens to be a hypercarry which can earn back some hope for your team.

Splitpushing to the point of "This is farmville and I'm playing PVE with occasional bossfights": This tactic is ridiculed and hated by both teams for a reason - it's extremely selfish for your team with only a small chance of success, yet merely an annoyance to the enemy (assuming they're fed). Good candidates for this are Godyr, Yi, Tryndamere and Shaco who are demolition experts while being slippery. If you can't carry and can't make your team carry, you ignore everyone and farm up the whole map while splitpushing. Hopefully if you took teleport, when they chase you top you tp elsewhere to knock down another turret. Your dueling power is another thing, you might be able to take on one of them if you're farmed enough (and some people don't realize that when they just judge you by your score without checking your items).

BluePolarizer6/27/2015, 4:03:44 PM1 votes

Always save the ADC unless your mid is a low utility mid like Katarina or LB that can snowball hard.

Here's the thing:

Mages (whether burst mages or utility mages) already have alot of base damage and alot of utility. Even a "low utility" mage like Annie or Brand contributes alot to a team when behind: even Annie, for instance, can stun a carry, chunk them hard, and have a bear to tank for the team. Similarly, bruisers also contribute alot of base damage and utility. Even Riven, for instance, when behind can build AD/tank like item 3077 item 3082 item 3071 item 3047 item 1033 for mid game, rather than go full glass; now she's a source of heavy sustained AOE DPS and CC, while being able to tank a huge amount of damage. Late game she can transition to damage: item 3074 item 3143 item 3156 item 3035 anyhow when she gets fed from kills/assists in teamfights, but if she insisted on still building full glass, she won't even get assists in teamfights; she'd get blown up too fast.

Meanwhile, ADCs are useless when behind. There are very few ADCs with enough utility to survive when behind.