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Can someone PLEASE explain the new jungle to me?

Atik L Yar·6/19/2015, 11:26:04 PM·2 votes·1,122 views

I... I don't understand how to jungle now.

Coming from season 3, I remember it was fairly simple. You started with 5 pots, would slowly work through them while taking both your buffs. If all goes well, you rotated to whichever lane you want to gank, and hit them with a level 3 gank, score an early kill. Back, buy items, go back to farming and kick someone's ass for over-extending.

Then I come back to the game after a fairly long hiatus. And I simply can't grasp this new jungle. The only way I can grab both buffs without backing is with an absurdly cheesy mastery page setup. And even then, I NEVER have the health for an early gank. The gold income for smaller camps feels terrible. I feel like I'm basically just taking buffs and running around looking for ganks. Which feels awful, and causes me to fall way behind if the enemy team isn't stupid.

Am I missing something? Is jungling supposed to be an 'optional' thing like Dota2 now? Is there any champion that can actually stay alive in the jungle?

3 Comments

Their Jungler6/19/2015, 11:50:09 PM2 votes

Jungling is still essential. So you always start with hunter's machete and likely 2 health pots, Pick your trinket. Google what the camps do because I cba to type them all. Hopefully you have good runes. Look up cheat sheet according to the type of jungler (most are AD tank but there are many types).

If you are blue side, this is a good path:

Krugs (previously golems) with leash----> Red buff (previously lizard) ----->Wolves or birds (previously wraiths). Then you can either back if you have low health/mana or gank/keep clearing.

There are new items that are an upgrade to hunter's machete.

These are: Ranger's Trailblazer Poacher's Knife Stalker's Blade Skirmisher's Sabre

Poacher's is rarely used. Stalker's and Ranger's allow you to smite other people and not just camps. Ranger's gives AOE to your smite but can only be used for monsters.

Then, you will want to upgrade it even more to:

Enchantment: Cinderhulk, which gives tankiness Warrior: Which will give you more AD, CDR and Armor Pen Devourer: Extra attack speed and bonus magic damage Magus: AP and CDR

They all cost around 1500 and have recipes. The most common are Warrior and Cinder but Devourer and Magus can be used in some situations.

Frank3276/20/2015, 9:48:58 AM1 votes

The jungle can't be done by every single champ anymore like in previous seasons. In return you get bonuses for smiting camps as follows:

Gromp (formerly big wraith): Every minion/monster/champion that attacks you receives damage over time Krugs (Golems): every 4 autoattacks against a monster you stun them for one second Razorbeaks (wraiths): If in the next minute (or so) you go near an enemy ward, you get truesight for a short period Wolves: An orb is spawned that provides vision in your blueside jungle and chases after enemies to keep sight of them. Red buff: You heal a percentage of your maximum health Blue buff: You regain a percentage of your maximum mana

As you can see, Gromp and Krugs give a bonus that's really useful for clearing the jungle and because they're so close to your lanes you want to almost always start at that camp and get a leash. The krugs bonus is usually enough to clear both of your buffs without dying, make sure to smite the first camp immediately when you start it to get the bonus as early as possible. If you started at gromp, your third camp is red buff and you can smite it to get health back and complete the clear without dying. Wolves and Razorbeaks provide some map control so they're great camps to smite after your first clear.

Some basic routes:

Xin Zhao: Gromp (smite) -> Blue buff -> Red buff (smite) -> gank with full health, lvl 3 and plenty of time with your red buff or: Krugs (smite) -> Red buff -> Blue buff (smite) -> Level 3 gank You can also lvl 2 gank with either red buff or gromp as first camp.

Amumu: Gromp (smite) -> Blue buff -> Wolves (smite) -> buy ranger's trailblazer -> clear the other side of the jungle or: Krugs (smite) -> Razorbeaks -> Red buff (smite) -> buy ranger's trailblazer etc.

If you're really having problems, the rift scuttler (crab in the river) gives good xp and gold and won't fight back. Actually it's good to get it often. Also upgrading your hunter's machete gives extra gold for every big monster, so get it early. Also ranger's trailblazer is ideal if you lose too much health clearing the jungle.

Kei1436/20/2015, 12:37:33 PM1 votes

Every Jungle camp now gives the same experience. So its not essential to start with Red / Blue buff. Keep in mind though, the smaller creeps within the blue / red camps give more experience, so it is a viable option to just kill the two smaller creeps as a counter jungle method.

As Frank327 mentioned, the camps now give different buffs when you smite them (not kill them) and planning them properly is essential to having a good clear. One thing he didn't mention was the scuttle crab in the river, which after killed (not smited) grants vision around either the baron / dragon pit (depending on which side you are on) and a speed shrine. Its pretty good for rotating into the side lanes and skirmishes around the epic neutral objectives.

I suggest you check the the lolwiki on jungle and patch 5.1 rundown for a high level breakdown

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Jungling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FtlNkxsJDU