Rapidfire Learning Guide to: Jungling
I can't even remember who I started to jungle on, it was so long ago.
However, I learned by trial and error. Watching other people's videos will give you an idea on what to do, but finding what fits your play-style can only be done through hard learning. I do a lot of my initial learning on my alt account and here is how I do it.
I play that champion until I've won roughly 25-30 Games in that role as a bench mark. Why? I've found that I can get the routes down fairly easily after a couple of successful games and by the time you've won 25-30 games on that champion, you've typically played around 40-50 games unless you won every single time, which doesn't typically happen if you're playing at your level. I spend the first couple of games trying out different routes and starting points for each jungler and when one works, I try it again the next few games to make sure it wasn't a fluke. If it continues to work well for me on that champion, I continue to use it.
**Ganking **is also a major part of the jungle. You have to know when to go in, where to go in and how to go in.
Shaco, for example, is very good at ganking. However, you have to anticipate the reactions of the enemy. If you're ganking an Ezreal for example, you have to go in far enough behind him to where your box would intercept his E, since you know he's going to go that direction with it once you appear in lane. You also have to debate using your E. If you're close enough to the champion to get an Auto attack off after the box, go for it and get the initial slow and then use your dagger after it decays to keep up on them.
Other junglers have their own varied initiates and a lot of them are situational to the circumstances of the lane.
Lee is a really strong ganking jungler since you can enter the lane to gank from just about anywhere, especially Post-6 with your Ult. Other junglers like Udyr don't have a gap closer so you really have to catch them by surprise or slam into them as hard as you can where you see an opening.
Counter-Jungling is also important to understand. When to do it and how to do it are really strong bits of knowledge that can turn the tides for you and sink the other jungler. If the enemy jungler is going for devourer, counter jungling will be your bread and butter if you know how to do it safely. Buy wards. LOTS of wards. If you can get both sides of the jungle warded for the enemy team, you're going to have a beautiful advantage. This will help you safely counter the enemy. If you have it warded and you see Yi over at his blue and you know you can safely go kill his wraith(Toucan? Raptor?) camp, go take out 3 of those birds and leave a little one. and move to the Krugs camp. Pink wards are also very important here as if they have their jungle warded (Which they most certainly will after you start countering), you're going to need to clear them.
Now, I know I mentioned leaving the camps countered, however, you shouldn't always do this. When should you clear them and when should you counter them? Easy. If you have constant control over the enemy jungle, you should be abusing this and constantly clearing their camps in addition to your own. Take advantage of it. If you take out the enemy jungle, they have to resort to lanes for their gold and exp. If they're siphoning a lane's exp, they're taxing that laner and it builds a beautiful snowball.
A tip I have is to try and play all roles and familiarize yourself with as many champions as you can. Learn their skillsets, their escapes, the moves they can use to stop a gank / counter a gank. If you know the kits, you can anticipate the reactions and ability usage when you gank.