This is rough. With some few suggestions from you guys, I have decided that I'm going to try to jungle. However, it's rough at low levels. I know you're not supposed to use runes or masteries at low levels but this is growing more and more frustrating, especially when I don't get a leash. Should I go ahead and try to use runes/masteries? What would you suggest?
These are the only champions you can jungle with without runes. They all have sustain. You would think that Xin Zhao and Aatrox would also be good, but without runes, their Attack Speed and Attack Damage isn't really high enough to have a safe clear until level 3. Level 1 is a real struggle.
play warwick
Nunu and Warwick have great sustain, even without full runes and masteries.
you should use masteries at all levels
use masteries at all levels, get tier3 runes at level 20, and in the mean time warwick is my suggestion for a first jungler because his sustain means he can do it without runes or masteries.
Hey,
So, it used to be true that tier 1 and 2 runes were a complete waste of money. However, a couple months ago Riot did a pass where they made those runes cost basically nothing, so I'd advise that you go ahead and spend a couple hundred IP on T1 runes, at least.
Other than that, stick with the champs Orbv suggested and you should be fine.
Good luck!
Always use masteries! Runes you have to buy with IP and stuff but masteries you can always make more pages/change pages. Without runes jungling will be hard unless you player Nunu or Warwick, champions with very high natural sustain.
the tier 2 runes are really cheap. Go ahead and pick those up. maybe it will cost you a total of 100 IP and make it so you can jungle. When teir 3 become available replace them.
Tier 1 runes are fine. They are so inexpensive in IP that you can buy a full set of armor seals, MR glyph, and AD/Mpen marks plus AD/AP quint and wind up not even spending as much as a single champion from the past 2 years.
Skip tier 2 runes, they are significantly more expensive and the marginal utility isn't worth the cost (edit: I'm reading riot reduced their cost, if this is true you can consider them).
Once you hit level 20 (maybe a bit sooner), start buying tier 3 runes with your IP and don't spend it on anything else. You'll hit 30 with tier 3 armor seal/MR glyph/2 sets of marks/2 sets of quint. From there you can build champion pool or pick up more diversified runes.
But what to do for now? Pick junglers with better sustain. Nunu, fiddlesticks, warwick are examples of inexpensive champions who can jungle with minimal-to-no rune investment even now. Amumu is a great jungler too and inexpensive but rough without runes.
I'd suggest playing duo top until you hit level 20 and can buy T3 runes.
I wouldn't recommend buying runes before level 20. Because once you have access to Tier 3 Runes, the ones you have immediately become obsolete. For such a minuscule window of your league career, it's a huge waste of IP/RP. Honestly, a lot of players are pushing for them to remove Tier 1 and Tier 2 runes from the game altogether because they only exist as a trap for new players.
The jungle is balanced around full mastery and rune pages. Masteries are free, and tier 1 runes are nearly free (just buy 3 to 6 of the non-quintessences and 1 to 2 quintessences depending on if you plan on getting any from tier 2).
Warwick and fiddle sticks you can not go wrong with them
Also not a horrible choice to take into the jungle early on. I have a smurf account (level 13) that uses him in jungle. It is indeed rough but its manageable. Just don't do Eve jungle... even with runes you truly have to be skilled at jungling to get through the clears with her without losing 80% of your hp.
Shaco jungle works if you're willing to risk counter jungling the other guy.
dont jg at low levels, it's stupid.
Smite should be only obtainable at lvl 30.
You can jungle with practically any jungler (even Sej, who has awful first clears) as long as you start with a leash (no runes needed). Nunu has extremely strong clears and can start without a leash. And at lower levels, since no one counter-jungles, you can try to invade the enemy jungle and steal some camps qith him as well.
Warwick is a good jungler with sustain. But honestly, since no one really bothers about invades early levels you'll be finewitg anyone.
