Learning jungle (Ganking) before ranked

dallas adams·4/13/2015, 10:11:59 AM·4 votes·1,811 views

I'm level 25 and am trying to learn as many roles and champs as i can before hopping into ranked. Currently i want to learn how to gank as a jungler in S5. Any tips or guidelines on ganking or something i read called counter ganking (any info on that is appreciated) would be great since id rather not have every match end up in me behind on levels and farm and i just walked in other lanes and fed them :/ seriously though, i would really like some advice. Oh yeah also ill be using Lee Sin if that changes anything you'd say.

9 Comments

junglerboy164/13/2015, 3:34:48 PM6 votes

Lee sin is actually a rather unreliable ganker until you get good at him, if you want good ganks I'd suggest someone like Nautilus or Amumu instead.

When you actually gank, don't just run at a lane guns blazing, try to be sneaky about it. If you have a sweeper sense, check that there are no wards near you (meaning the enemy can't see you). If you see a ward, kill it, go do a camp, and then come back 30 seconds later, because by then they won't know if you've gone somewhere else or if you are back in the brush again, which gives you the element of surprise. if you see a golden opportunity (like your enemy lane is shoved up to tower and you can run right at them and kill them) don't throw it away because of a ward, I only mean don't go in like a maniac if the enemy is aware of your presence and can get away if you go in too fast. Patience and judgement are key to a good gank, so if you can get a fast one, go for it! If not, be patient and double back in a little bit.

A few general rules of thumb to remember:

Don't use your gap closer until after the enemy you are ganking uses their escape or (preferably) their flash. this allows you to stick to them for longer.
Don't gank a lane when below 80-90% health, or if your laner is low unless you are counterganking (which I'll explain in a bit), except in certain champion specific cases (like your lane is Aatrox and he will revive if he dies during the gank).
Don't try to 1v1 gank a lane if your laner isn't there. As the Jungler, you are almost always going to be down in gold and exp in comparison to everyone except the support, and you will almost always end up feeding a kill if you go in alone.
If your laner just died but the enemy is really low, don't get greedy. Going hard for a kill all by yourself can be very risky, but if they are right in front of you, go for it (basically, avoid unnecessary risk, if the enemy is right there, fine, but if not, just cover the lane for your ally).
DON'T EVER DIE TO THE ENEMY LANER. If you are in a position where you won't come out alive from a gank, back out when you have the chance. This is especially important when you have double buffs, because giving the enemy a kill and double buffs will set your ally very far behind.
Decide whether a losing lane is worth trying to save. If your lane got FBed and is in a snowball matchup, dedicating several ganks to them can halt the enemy's progress and rebalance the match. If they are 0 and 4 at 10 minutes in, don't waste your time on them and get your other lanes ahead. They will complain about it, but if you try to help everyone stay even instead of getting 2 lanes really ahead, you will lose.
In the opposite scenario, don't waste your time getting your 4 and 0 Nasus even farther ahead, because then you are wasting your time. He will keep crushing his lane as he scales, and you ganking over and over again will just leave your other lanes starved of help. Generally speaking, having 2 reasonably fed lanes is better than one super fed lane, unless that super fed lane is the kind of hyper carry that can 1v5 late game (like Poppy).

Here are some good gank methods for each lane that should help you get started (most of ganking just comes from practice and personal judgement though, so I can't just give you a hard and fast "how to gank" rule book)

When ganking top lane as the blue side jungler, go through the tri-brush around the giant wall so that you come at your opponent from the direction of there tower (meaning they have to run past you to get to safety, giving you more time to deal damage and they have less chance to just avoid you altogether) ganking like this is especially effective on Lee since you can kick them away once they get to you, putting them even farther away from their tower than before. You can also perform a lane gank by seeking up the side bushes while your ally pushes the lane, so that when the lane pushes back, you can jump right onto your enemy.
When ganking top lane as a red side jungler, you can lane gank in the exact same way. However, since you can't really gank them from the direction of their tower without walking in turret range, wait for them to push the lane in towards your tower, and then come up from the River brush.
When ganking mid as either blue or red side, you really have to let your enemy mid lane shove in a bit. You will then want to come gank from around the wall on either side that is closer to their tower, again so they have to go past you more to get to safety. Md lane is hard to gank without diving them most of the time, because most mid laners are relatively mobile, and the lane is quite short.
When ganking bot as a blue side jungler, treat it in the same way you would a gank for top as a red side jungler. Lane banks are the most effective, but also the hardest to do, since most supports keep the brush well warded. If you can sneak into the brush near your tower, sweep for wards, and kill any you find. If you find some, you want to then leave the lane in plain view of the enemy laners. this is actually pretty important, because they will already know you were there (because of the ward you killed) and leaving lane instead of just waiting in the bush gives a false sense of security as you immediately loop back around back into the brush. You should be able to surprise them quite easily in most situations like that. Other than that, if you have a really good ganker (like Vi Nautilus or Amumu) you can go in from the river when the enemy is pushed in towards your tower, and usually get a kill because of your lockdown power.
When ganking bot as the red side jungler, it is basically the same thing, because you can't reliably sneak past their outer tower like a blue side jungler ganking top can. Lane gank is usually best or river gank if you have a lot of lockdown in your or your support's kit.

EDIT: Forgot counter ganking lol!

When your ally is shoved up a lane in a way that makes you think "hmm, if I were on their team, I'd want to gank him right now" then make your way to that lane, sweep for wards, and wait. If the enemy jungler shows up somewhere else on the map, back away and go back to farming/ganking another lane with a "be careful" ping for your ally. If the enemy jungler does show up, you go in on them hard with your lane ally (always communicate your intentions with chat and pings) while trying to make sure both you and your ally are working your way back towards the safety of your turret. If either of your enemies gets low, and you and your lane ally are confident, you can try to dive them when they come to gank.

Hope this was helpful!

Drunk Rummate4/13/2015, 3:05:01 PM2 votes

don't use your gap closer early when you gank. walk up to your opponent and try to burn theirs first, that makes hitting your skill shot easier and you also might get their flash early if you're lucky. best advice i can give you.

SH Azykan4/13/2015, 10:38:51 AM1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTUS9hOvUds

This guy has some great video guides for jungling. Covers pretty much everything you need to know.

4nth0l0gy4/13/2015, 10:42:35 AM1 votes

Okay. LeeSin . You're one of the best gankers in the game. In fact, if you DON'T gank with Lee, you're probably wasting your time.

With most junglers, you have to worry about wards spotting you coming into lane. However, LeeSin has 2 high-speed gapclosers, so as long as you have a ward to drop for your W, your enemy won't have time to react. It still HELPS to think about where the enemy might be warding, especially if you're going to wait on a lane for a while, but you're usually fine.Sweeper is a good item if you get a item 2049 . Never hurts to double check.

A challenge with LeeSin is deciding whether or not you actually should follow your Q if you land it. The answer is typically yes if it's a gank, but be careful you don't jump to an enemy who is under tower or about to have their jungler and mid join them. (to be fair, you win just about any fair fight early since you do amazing base damage and have the extreme mobility to dictate engages.)

Lee can be creative if he has a lot of free wards ( item 2049 , item 3361 ). Hop dragon pit and circle around bot lane tribrush, ward hop behind enemy carry, ult enemy carry into your teammates, follow enemy carry with a Q double-tap.

there is almost never not a good time to gank with lee. farm, certainly, but feel free to spend time in the enemy jungle for that. You win many 1v1s, you can escape easily, and it keeps the enemy jungler down, since youre already going to be more valuable as a ganker in theory; in other words, it's a low-risk high-reward endeavor.

But remember: for all of LeeSin 's strengths early, he suffers late game unless you get ahead.

Mayor Stubbs4/13/2015, 1:41:44 PM1 votes

Focus ganks on the lanes you can actually gank (ie don't bother much with that zed or lb mid) Keep in mind you want to apply pressure as well, not just sucessful ganks (just showing up in a lane often will force the other laner to play safer at all times, letting your laner farm easier and safer even though you didn't get a kill) As for counter ganking this took me the longest to learn well, it's just about knowing where the enemy jungler will be and being there, if your bot has been overextended for 1-2 mins it's a pretty safe bet the enemy jungler is gonna be there any minute. You'll pick up on it the more you jungle

CubedJustice4/13/2015, 4:10:15 PM1 votes

Lee Sin is a very very strong in lane ganker. If your lane is pushed up to the point where their minions or players can't see you walk into the back brush, or even the next one, do that. If you're able to ward behind the enemy and jump to that, kicking them into your team, that should be an easy kill.