Decision making as a jungler

lHopeBotWins·Oct 21, 2015·2 votes·1,510 views

Not sure if this is the right section for this but it seemed the most appropriate.

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not the best jungler and I'm honestly just looking for advice.

So you've just started your first clear and you're playing an aggressive early game jungler. Let's say Lee Sin just for the sake of argument, but it can be anyone with a strong early game presence. Upon looking at your lanes during farming and through your first recall (which I hear is what many junglers do in solo q), you notice that your toplane is doing very well, say 10 cs in the lead already fairly early in the game. You also notice that your midlane is not doing so hot (getting poked very hard and being shoved under turret) to the point where you can make the assumption that the enemy mid laner is fairly skilled (more so than your midlaner, obviously you don't say anything because you're not a bad mannered 13 year old and you understand that people have bad games/get outplayed sometimes)

Now my question is: Is it better to camp a lane where the enemy laner has an obvious skill advantage, trying to negate his effect on the game? Or is it better to accept the fact that your laner will be outplayed and try to win the game by other means (helping other lanes, etc) which would be getting top fed, and perhaps trying to set up some dragons for instance.

tl;dr As a jungler is it better to help a lane that you foresee losing, or to focus your efforts on other tasks?

I get that the example I gave is very general and there probably isn't enough information to make a decision straight away, I simply wanted to promote some discussion on the topic.

9 Comments

lofi n chillhopOct 21, 20152 votes

it's better to get the lane winning to win harder, I always hate when I'm losing lane and the jungler ganks for me and I'm too low to get the kill anyway and all I can do after is finish the wave and recall, and then some other lane gets ganked and now they're behind because our jgler showed presence in my lane

epiclegend0669Oct 22, 20151 votes

Not trying to seem rude or anything though that's how the internet makes it seem but as an aspiring jungler I should gank wining lanes? Also after which back should I begin looking for ganks if you have any knowledge or experience.

SewpraTVOct 22, 20152 votes

gank at 3 if possible, after first recall if possible, and at 6 if possible. Then move bot side to grab first drag. I say if possible bc if a gank isn't open just farm, it's better than wasting time. A lot of people will knee jerk flash even if you show in lane as a lvl 3 ww.

TyrenOct 22, 20151 votes

{quoted}

gank at 3 if possible, after first recall if possible, and at 6 if possible. Then move bot side to grab first drag. I say if possible bc if a gank isn't open just farm, it's better than wasting time. A lot of people will knee jerk flash even if you show in lane as a lvl 3 ww.

I've seen flashes burned trying to dodge Naut ulti, Fiddle E, and a Thresh auto attack from a bush (I guess they thought it was a hook?). Once someone tried to flash Taric stun. It's amazing what people think they can flash from.

lofi n chillhopOct 22, 20151 votes

there is a lot more to a good gank than just which lane to gank.

in general I'd say it's usually better to snowball whoever has a lead. if someone has a strong enough lead, the opponent can't even farm under turret, and that gives you a huge advantage. but if you're on the opposite side of it, and you gank, and the opponent is strong enough you can't kill them or bully them out of lane, you might give your laner a chance to get 3-4 more cs than they woulda had but as soon as you leave they're in the same scenario.

actually hey wait, one way to help out a losing lane, might be to use a ward on their side of the map, so that you can warn that lane if someone is coming or even counter-gank if you are close by.

MrDantesOct 21, 20152 votes

Gank for a lane that is winning, and then gank it again as soon as they come back. In lower ELOs they will not only fall way behind, but will probably start fighting with their team.

ExoNauticOct 22, 20152 votes

eveything when it comes to ganking is situational. if youre playing an early game champ then yes you should gank early, it could possibly be the difference between a loss and a win. then you have to look at the champs that youre considering ganking. assess which one could become a bigger threat if they get ahead: if either champs a)rely on snowballing or b)are a late game champ than you should try and put them behind. alternatively if the champ is hard to gank early, like say a rumble, then unless you know you can secure a kill, steer clear. same theory for your team but vice versa. if your teammate needs to get ahead early to succeed then definitely try and help them out. hope this helps.

SewpraTVOct 22, 20152 votes

Always camp the winning lane. Unless you are super ahead if enemy jg ganks the losing lane you will lose 3v3/2v2 of you gank winning lane you win 3v3/2v2. You get more gold and bigger lead for winning lane and then they can move to losing lane and take that tower. That's what snowballing is.

ShacownedOct 21, 20151 votes

Honestly, it depends on what champ the mid laners are as well. Like if its Zed (On the enemy team) Crushing my Vel'Koz then ill likely gank because if a Zed is shut down they become really easy to fight. If its just that my mid laner obviously is making mistakes and the like than ill likely end up roaming the other 2 lanes and snowball em to victory. Velkoz Zed