Inexperienced Jungler Surviving First Clear

Nick Valentine·11/23/2014, 7:19:51 PM·1 votes·812 views

I'm a very inexperienced jungler. That is, I have to follow pre memorized paths when clearing the jungle. Ganking is not a problem for me. Because my jungle roster is small, I only have a few champs I can take in there and I've been having a lot of difficulty. Is there any advice for me? I usually start blue.

I had her start blue and clear wolves and I was unable to clear red. The enemy Pantheon had ganked mid and had quite a bit more health than I did so I assume he would have been able to clear red? I had to base. High damage runes and mastery.

I had him start blue and struggled through a very risky red clear (low) and was unable to gank with double buffs. Tank oriented runes and mastery.

As far as I'm concerned, she cannot clear red.

I have not tried this yet.

4 Comments

Incognonymous11/24/2014, 12:58:51 AM2 votes

Some low damage champs can squeeze out a little more damage by intermixing AAs with abilities, and/or using abilities to reset their AAs. Sejuani, Leo, and Naut can all do this, with W, Q, and W respectively. That's actually pretty important if you're going to play Nautilus. Q into a big camp, AA it, immediately activate W, AA till splash gets camps low then E for the AoE execute. Same for ganks. Q into champ, hit them (for Spellblade proc if you have one of those items), immediately reset AA with W, hit them till they get out of AA range, slow with E, AA (potentially another spellblade proc), ult them if they continue to get away.

If you have an On Hit based jungler or have AS steroids, Gromp -> Blue -> Wolves is a good way to hit 3 fast and still be at decent health.

I did jungle Leona last season, but I haven't tried an updated route. I'll let you know if I find anything. She always been a ganker. If you can manage, do enough camps to keep your head above water, but best-case-scenario your gold is coming from assists from ganks.

Arsenals11/23/2014, 7:47:28 PM1 votes

You don't start at your buff. You start Krugs or Gromp, depending on what buff you start at (doubles/wight). Bottom lane is always good because you'll get a better leash (though not necessarily the best ganking path for everyone). You must smite Krugs (for the stun buff) and Gromp (for the poison buff), you'll then be able to easily kill blue/red buff with your big minion buff.

Blueharlequin11/23/2014, 7:50:21 PM1 votes

With most champions early I follow this path. I tried it with Eve recently and it worked so I think it's a path that can work universally. If you're on purple side, have your team help you leash Gromp. Smite Gromp early and get the poison barb buff. Once you've killed him get both your health pots going at the same time and then fight blue. You should be able to kill blue with about a third health left over. Go straight to red and fight it. When your health gets low, smite early and get the health back. Kill red go back to base and buy your jungle item and more health pots. You should be good to go from there.

If you're on blue side have your bot lane leash you the red buff. You shouldn't need to smite it. Use both your health pots at the same time and run over to wolves. Here you have options. I smite wolves, get the little watcher and kill the camp. If I think I have enough health I'll fight and kill blue buff. If I don't think I have enough I'll back and then come back for blue buff, then smite and kill Gromp. With this you lose a little time but not as much as you would think.

Or you can run from red straight to Gromp, smite and kill him. If you think you have enough health fight blue as well. If not back and then come back for blue. With the Gromp bonus you can clear a lot easier than you'd think and it pays to take advantage of it. Hope that helps a bit.

As for your Leona clear problems, I personally don't think you should take Leo into the jungle. She has no good clear period and since the jungle got buffed it'll be that much harder for her to jungle.