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Early Jungle Strat

Vekkna·6/16/2015, 6:19:38 PM·1 votes·1,295 views

I've had zero success at jungling, and part of that is the 1-5 decisions you have to make regarding:

  1. Upgrading knife - do you recall asap at 475 gold to get more out of your camps, or is it too much lost time in early game? Should you wait until you have enough extra to buy a pink, a green, and 2 more pots?

  2. Buying boots - I feel like I need them asap, but I feel like I need a small offensive item to gank

  3. Buying pots - Never leave base without them? How many?

  4. Buying wards - Early and often, but they feel so easy to skip when I feel behind all the time

  5. Clearing camps - (blue side) Say you just pulled a gromp at level 3. Top goes all-in and is chasing your laner under turret. It's a favorable gank. If you finish gromp, you'll be too low to do it safely. Kill frog or risk gank?

  6. Ganking - Everything I read says to start ganking top at level 2-3 (Evelynn) and mid 3-5. Ganking with no boots, no pots, no wards, and no upgraded knife feels like a suicide mission. If I but first, there's usually a bigger level difference. Advice?

On another topic, I generally like champs that are ranged and don't look like monsters or brutes. There seem to be a dearth of champs I like capable of jungling. Are there any mage-type junglers that won't force an insta-dodge from teammates? I saw that Zyra used to have jungle builds. I tried her and Teemo in bot games and cleared camps well, but it's been nothing but dodge-bait in normals.

14 Comments

GundayMonday6/16/2015, 8:00:59 PM2 votes

  1. Depends on the champ and strat you're playing. Do you have trouble clearing camps quickly? Warwick Trundle , grab an early item 3713. Need gold? Grab the upgrade early since you get an extra 15g per large minion kill. Do you need to apply early pressure to win the game? LeeSin Shaco , then gank gank gank.

  2. Depends on champ, strategy, and how fast the enemy team is. Some junglers will rush item 3117 to be super gank heavy. Others will prioritize late game builds so they can win team fights. Both are correct decisions depending on the situation.

  3. At least one always. Gives you a item 1028 worth of health for 35g.

  4. Will the ward get you an objective or stop your team from dying? Buy it. Do you have 100 extra gold? Buy it.

  5. Depends. Where's the enemy jungler? What summoner spells are up/down? How much damage do you have? How much health does the enemy laner have? How is the lane pushing? Will you give up a dragon if you show top? All these things matter.

  6. Ganking is an art. You need to know where the enemy jungler is, where the enemy team is, and if you can win 2v1, 2v2, 2v3, etc. Only gank if it will put your team ahead, otherwise farm. Also realize that since every guide is saying to do a thing, that players will probably expect it. So it may not be worth your while if you're walking over wards used to prevent obvious strategies.

There are master players that run teemo jungle. Kayle can also work, but it's a little tricky since the camps reset sooner now.

My $0.02.

AyRe CoNteMpT6/16/2015, 8:42:18 PM2 votes
  1. this depends highly on your champion and on what you are planning to do. i VERY MUCH prefer to see the jungle as a lane, this means, my main objective is the enemy jungler as my lane opponent. i want to invade him, i want to countergank him once im stronger and i want to push him out of his jungle, securing vision for my team.

for that, i like to play junglers who farm fast and are good duelists. with that, i can always farm up nicely even if the game isnt going so well (for example, you play pantheon and you find no gankable lane -> enjoy losing the game by your own pick). dueling is very important because if you cant duel, you cant go into the enemy jungle alone. the advantage of strong duelists is that they build pressure easily. if i go somewhere and there is an enemy, he needs to either die, run away or call for help. by calling for help, i free up my allies to push towers, get farm or even come to 2on2 with me. or i just take some of his camps and leave while warding. im strong, feels good.

to answer your question: i have a couple of different jungle routs and first-back-times depending on the enemy jungle and the lane matchups. if i can, i prefer doing a full clear including one crab for a total of 950 gold, thus being able to upgrade my machete, buy one dagger and two potions and do another full clear very fast. now i go into the enemy jungle and if he jungled fast too, he will be level 5 while im one camp away from 6. if i can now take one of his camps, im level 6 and can either start ganking strong or, preferably, stay in his jungle and beat my laner directly.

  1. boots are really good and even mandatory on some junglers. you could say, the more your champion relies on ganking pre6, the more important boots are. since by level 6, you will basically have the spare gold for them for sure, you dont need to think about it anymore. depending on how my first clear went and what the matchups are, i sometimes go for upgraded machete, boots, pots and wards too. but having the extra DPS for clearing is prefered.

  2. indeed. USUALLY you could say, carry as many healpots as possible. this goes for ALL champions in all roles. if you have some spare gold, pour it into healingpotions. i try carrying 2-5 of them at all times until full build. and always remember, drink one while dueling or ganking. also, if you play a mana champion, try having 1-2 mana potions around too. doesnt hurt but can help alot. like, i wouldnt miss out on fully upgrading my jungle item, but i would certainly miss out on buying a second longsword on the way to it just to get in some potions if i otherwise couldnt. pots are GOOD, use them.

  3. generally speaking, the bigger your power is over the enemy jungler, the less wards you need. the more behind you are, the more wards you need. if you feel like you got fucked hard by an early invade or some failed ganks while your enemy jungler just farmed up and got off 1-2 good ganks, get a sightstone. viable on basically any jungler, even shaco. just get that thing, it DOES bring back your winrate by quite a bit if you are behind.

but usually if my farming goes well and i become strong, i only buy a few wards, put them in really sweet positions i couldnt reach if i was behind (like enemy wraith-brush, my favorite) including a pink (keep up a pink at all times. the more behind you are, the deeper you put it into either his or your jungle. only put it near the river if you actually can defend it.)

  1. also depending on your champion. with my champs, i wont go and help. i wll do my clear, recall and do my second clear 95% of the time. like only if i am 100% absolutely certain that i can just walk up to the lane and grab a free kill in 2 seconds, then i will go out of my way to gank some noob. but if i have to depend on my laner to make that kill or have to care of the enemy jungler being near, i wont risk it.

ALWAYS REMEMBER

if you make a play and it doesnt work, you know it sucked. but if you make a play and it works, you dont know it was good. it might have been a very bad play that just happened to work this one time but the next 47 times it will backfire and lose you the game. this means you should only make COMPLETELY CLEAN PLAYS that have no risk of backfiring and only a slight chance of success. if you gank only once every 3 minutes but successfully and farm up hard during the meantime, you will be about double the power of your enemy jungler who ganked 3 times a minute but he is only 3:0 after 10 minutes. it takes me about 15 seconds to clear a camp and reach the next one (before one item completed), this means if i gank between level 5 and 6, i very well lose about 4 camps which would be an additional level and the same gold as the gank.

  1. despite common belief, ganking isnt an art. its a craft. you cant gamble on a gank working and you cant artistically make it work with amazing skill and insec kicks. you can only make it clean and with full focus and all power and resources you can muster and only when you have those resources, and then you can go back to your jungle and become even stronger. and then you can go and do it clean again. and if there is no opportunity for a clean gank, im always glad i picked a good farming jungler so i can get strong without depending on my laners and then at lvl 9+ i can still be of big impact even if im 0/0/0

PS: i mainly play shyvana, nocturne and sometimes tryndamere in the jungle.

Their Jungler6/16/2015, 7:45:11 PM1 votes

Here are some standard paths:

Blue side:

Krugs with leash (smite), red, then wolves or wraiths with smite again. Wolves are a bit easier to kill IMO, but wraits are closer so they are faster. Then back or keep going dependign on your health. Do blue immediately after. You can also skip wraiths/wolves and go straight blue. If you did wraiths or wolves you will be nearly level 4 after killing blue. You can kill scuttle crab at top side or gromp to level up, or you can also gank. Early ganks can get your first blood easily because if you clear correctly you will be equal at level 3/4 with the laners, so the gank is easier. Obviously the cs differential grows as the game progresses so they will outlevel you, which is normal.

If you go krugs red blue, you will have barely enough to buy your jungle item and maybe a pot. Try doing wolves or crab if you have the health. This is what my ideal first back looks like:

Just clearing camps: item 3715 (or any jungle upgrade) item 2044 item 2003 , usually 1 or 2.

If I clear all the camps (which some champs are able to do) or get a kill in a gank opportunity:

item 2003 item 1001 item 2044 item 3715

Randomonium6/17/2015, 7:00:37 PM1 votes

  1. I've done a lot of custom games where I just practice my jungle routes and with most champions it is typically better in the long run to back as soon as you get enough gold to upgrade your machete. If you back after 3 camps you should always have enough gold. The reason for this is all upgraded machetes give you additional gold for killing jungle camps and this gold advantage can make a huge difference. This also sets you up to gank a lane at level 3 with full health rather than being close to dead after clearing the camps. I recommend you try it out in custom games for the champs you jungle most. Pick a specific goal (i.e. level 4, 5 or 6) and experiment with the fastest way to achieve that goal and keep track of how much gold you have when you reach that goal.

  2. I usually buy boots after my jungle item is fully upgraded (i.e. cinderhulk, warrior, magus complete.) Typically you don't need the extra movement speed before that as long as you have good map awareness. If you are unsure about your build order check out probuilds.net to see what the pro junglers do.

  3. Depends on the champ. I tend to prefer buying wards over pots but if I have the extra gold I'll pick one or two pots up.

  4. An early green or pink can help your laners just as much as a gank because it can prevent them from dying. You can only gank one lane at a time but if you help your allies ward then you can help two lanes simultaneously. I also love picking up sightstones on junglers and switching over to sweeping lens so I can deny the enemy team's ward coverage while maximizing my team's vision.

  5. If I think I can get a kill or save an ally I will always stop whatever jungle camp I'm doing. Plus, the assist is worth way more gold than gromp.

  6. Ganking with no items is definitely possible, but usually only if the enemy is pushing the lane. When and how to gank is a really hard question to answer in concrete terms. Its much more an art than science. Junglers with gap closers and some form of CC have a much easier time doing this.

Ranged champs typically don't do well in the jungle. Nid is the only one I can think of that does it well. If you like ap champs Evelynn and Diana are also great choices in the jungle.

I am by no means a jungle god but I have gotten a lot of compliments on my jungling from high level players (plat and diamond.) I do instructional replays at least once a week to help improve my play and my teammates play. Please let me know if they help you as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EZm50wNGmfJal7IHM_b8Q

http://www.twitch.tv/randomoniumlol/profile/past_broadcasts

AbrakaDoodle6/17/2015, 11:45:41 PM1 votes

I'd recommend Diana andFiddlesticks , possibly eve? TwistedFate jungle can work nicely if you get like 20 games in normal as him