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Need help from Platinum and Diamond jungle mains

beastkitty·10/28/2015, 4:36:50 AM·1 votes·4,678 views

Hi guys,

I recently made it to Gold IV while pretty much only jungling Rammus, Akali, Malphite and Nocturne. It seemed like I could do no wrong and every game was going very well. With Akali, Malphite and Nocturne, I would try to farm up really fast so I can hit 6 and then provide quality ganks. I would typically hit 6 one camp behind the solo lanes (sometimes earlier with Nocturne). However, recently, my games with nocturne have been going really poorly, and my team was very behind by the time anyone hit six. This was mostly due to lvl 3-4 jungle ganks by the enemy jungler. (this cause me to drop to Gold 5) When I get my ult I would gank a lane, but by then in the past few games, it has been too late. I feel that with certain junglers like Nocturne, Akali and Malphite you are better off waiting until you are six, but then run the risk of having your team be way behind. I'm conflicted on whether I should try to gank earlier, run the risk of a fail gank and lose on farm and experience, or if I should continue waiting to gank at 6 with a higher chance of success.

I could try to get the scuttle crabs every time to help my team not get ganked, but as far as I know, you can walk around those wards with very little effort (correct me if I'm wrong). Thanks!

7 Comments

360D3GR3SS10/28/2015, 4:43:45 AM1 votes

It doesn't hurt to take a look at the lanes to see if they are easy ganks. If you are against nasus top and he is fully pushed, try just walking up to do the scuttle crab and see if he makes any movements away from you, if not he should be an easy gank to help your lanner (even if it just means lowering nasus hp and forcing him to play back) So where lanes are easy to gank you should at least pay attention to them.

Stereo Dreamer10/28/2015, 4:57:23 AM1 votes

Just some random things.

  • Can always get Stealths and ward enemy jungle or start by warding enemy jungle // ping and/or counter accordingly
  • Map awareness is big // lose no advantage
  • Sometimes, the 15 seconds it takes to walk to a lane being ganked can result in your double. Calculate with game knowledge.
  • Animation canceling is cool
  • Camping a single hyper carry lane can be beneficial, but don't get caught up in it and lose easy ganks or objectives
  • You don't need to even hit them, your presence is enough in lanes. Just hyper clear the closest mid lane camp right after to throw off enemy jungler on where you could be and place yourself in a position to go back or through mid to see if they're countering you. Mind games depend on people and the game -- be intuitive.
  • Know enemy jungle path and champion ; if it is Xin for example, know where he starts and stay around the lanes he could gank early to drive off
BluePolarizer10/28/2015, 9:03:58 AM1 votes

If the enemy laner has flash, try to avoid burning gapclosers before they flash by using terrain to only appear out of the shadows at the last minute.

That way, you can force their flash then jump on them. This is especially important for champs like Nocturne, Rammus, Malphite, Xin and Maokai who have point and click gapcloser CCs but aren't as sticky otherwise.

Aeko10/28/2015, 4:02:59 PM1 votes

One of the biggest things that most gold-plat junglers don't seem to realize is the first 7 minutes of the game generally determine the outcome of your lanes. That being said, unless you can carry from behind as nocturne or malphite, I would suggest picking other junglers who can apply a ton of pressure early on. Malphite or Nocturne are better champions in higher elo, because most players will be able to account for their scaling and play a safe lane while in gold people just go ham and then get mad when they get ganked while you are trying to get to level 6.

It's not just ganking early, when you gank you need to commit make sure you get something out of it. If coordination is good, a gank should almost always result in a kill. Gold player's usually don't ever predict the enemy jungler. This is something that only happens in higher elo, counter ganks, especially on the bot lane. With enough experience and knowledge, you should be able to predict where the enemy jungler is and set up counter ganks. In higher elo this usually results multiple teleports from solo laners and next thing you know, it becomes a full blown teamfight at 10 minutes in the game.

The next step to taking your jungle to the next step, is be where you need to. I really see too many junglers just farming the jungle while our bot lane gets 4 man dived. There's no reason why junglers should be on the opposite side of the map, even if you're working for sated!

JustJayson10/28/2015, 6:00:43 PM1 votes

Perhaps try learning a jungler that has more of an early game presence such as Lee sin, rek'sai or elise. Having to wait for lv6 to make ganks is fine if lanes are all being played passively. Try to predict where the enemy jungler is also and what they want to do.