Jungle in League of Legends

In League of Legends the "Jungler" is the player who does not match up with an opponent in a minion lane (Top, Middle, or Bottom), but rather gets his gold and experience from killing neutral monsters, found in the "Jungle" area of Summoner's Rift. While this role is not required to play or win a match, it is a standard part of the Summoner's Rift team strategy. The total gold and experience gained by the team is maximized through jungling, and the ability to ambush, or "gank" opponents in lanes is paramount to high level matches.

Steps

Choosing Your Champion and Item builds

  1. Pick a champion. In League of Legends one of the most important parts of jungling is, picking the correct champion. Pick a champion who has skills which allow them to keep themselves alive in the jungle, like built in life lifesteal, shields, and/or health regen. You must also look for champions with gap closers so that you can assist, or "gank", your teammates' lanes. Some junglers include Warwick, Master Yi, Vi, Lee Sin, Rek'sai, Cho'Gath, Pantheon, Xin Zhao, Kha'Zix, Graves, and many more.
  2. Obtain jungle Items. With every jungler, you should begin with hunter's machete or hunter's talisman, as many health potions as you can buy or a 150 health canteen, which allows you to heal many times before returning to base to refill, and a warding trinket. You should probably buy the yellow one (standard ward) first and then get the red one (sweeping lens) later. (The raptors give you an ability to see enemy wards, so you won't need the red one unless the enemy keeps killing the raptors.) Pick one that most suits both your style of play and the champion you are playing. You should enchant your jungle item as soon as you can, depending on your champion and desired stats (see item build section).
    • The "Tracker's Knife" allows you to place "wards" on the map to increase vision for your team.
    • The "Stalkers blade" allows you to cast smite on an enemy champion and applies a slow, which is useful for ganking and chasing enemies.
    • The "Skirmisher's Sabre" also allows you to smite an enemy champion and "marks" them for 4 seconds. The mark grants vision of the champion and makes you deal extra true damage from your basic attacks.
  3. Your item build. The items you purchase should be dependent on three things: the champion you are playing, the enemy team's composition, and your team's composition.
    • Your champion:
      • For junglers who are meant to do large amounts of physical damage (for example Master Yi), build items with attack damage.
      • Junglers who do more magic damage (like Fiddlesticks) should build ability power.
      • Some junglers, like Amumu, are better when they build health, armor and/or magic resist (also known as "building tanky").
    • The enemy team's composition:
      • If the enemy team is comprised of mostly AD champions, consider building some armor.
      • Likewise, if the enemy team deals mostly magic damage, build some magic resist.
      • If you are building attack damage and the enemy team is building a lot of armor, buy a least one armor penetration item. Last Whisper, Youmuu's Ghostblade, and Black Cleaver are some examples.
      • Similarly, if you are building magic damage and the enemy team is prioritizing magic resist, build magic penetration items such as Haunting Guise or Void Staff.
    • Your team's composition:
      • If possible, it is good to have a balance of attack damage, magic damage, and tanky stats on your team. If you already have heavy attack damage and magic damage carries, you may be able to contribute more to your team by building some tank stats and "peeling" for your carries.
      • If your team lacks a distinct carry in attack damage or magic damage, consider building whichever of these is appropriate for your champion.
    • Upgrading you jungler item into "enchantments" can help you complete your build while saving one extra slot for more stats.
      • For "tanky" champions, e.g. Amumu or Volibear, Cinderhulk is a must.
      • If your champion scales more with AD, or Attack Damage, the Warrior enchantment gives a lot of AD. Some examples of AD junglers include Vi, Xin Zhao, and Graves.
      • AP, or ability power, junglers can upgrade to Runic Echoes. Junglers such as Diana, Shaco, Ekko, and Fiddlesticks are examples of AP champs.
      • Finally, if your champions are more reliant on autoattacks/attack speed, such as Master Yi, Bloodrazor increases their attack speed by a lot.
  4. Take Smite. Smite will help you kill large monsters quickly, and secure the team objectives of "Dragon" and "Baron" (see below). As Smite does a significant amount of true damage, it can be used to finish off large monsters with no worries of any enemy player stealing the kill. For your second summoner spell, it is most common to take flash. Ghost is a pretty good summoner spell, but ghost can't get you over walls, just flash can.) With certain champions, you can also make use of teleport, ignite or exhaust as your other summoner spell. As an example, many Shaco players take Ignite or Exhaust, allowing them to play very aggressive early game and adding to their kill potential. Or, if you feel like you need to travel across the map more often to gank or take down towers, dragons, or barons faster, teleport is a viable spell, esp. with champions that rely on attack speed.
  5. Select Masteries specific to the Jungling role. Create a new Mastery Page, and distribute points based on survivability (Health/Armor/Regen) and damage to minions/monsters. "Mandatory" masteries for this role are Runic Affinity, Dangerous Game, Wanderer, and Explorer to help you make use of your ganks and jungle buffs.
    • You also should think of your Masteries like free items or runes, so the rules on what items to build apply to Masteries as well.
  6. Select Runes Appropriate to your Champion. Perhaps you want to have increased survivability, inflict more damage, or move faster around the map. A specific rune page for the jungling role will have to be built prior to the match. A typical rune distribution is Flat Armor Seals, Flat Damage Marks, Scaling Magic Resist Glyphs, and Movement Speed Quintessences. However you should customize these runes to your champion and play style, as suggested in the item build section..
  7. Buy Wards. If you have extra gold after recalling and buying items, buy Vision Wards (aka "pink wards"). Warding can be extremely advantageous if used correctly. Vision of enemy champions in their own jungle or in the river can make the difference between a death and a kill by allowing your team to back away from an incoming gank. Typical ward locations either border the river, secure vision of team objectives (Dragon/Baron), or can even be used to "Counter-Jungle"
    • Building Sightstone or Tracker's Knife can help you place more wards at a time, though you are limited to putting three wards in the map for until a ward reaches it's 90-second time limit.
    • Also, don't forget to upgrade your trinkets to allow better vision of your opponents. Consider upgrading to Oracle Attention to spot stealth champions so that they can't perform surprise attacks on you.

Routes and Tactics

  1. Start at either gromp or krugs. If you can convince the nearby lane to help with the first camp, it will increase the speed and safety of your first clear. Use potions as you take damage to maintain your health. After you've cleared your jungle (especially if you are low HP) you should upgrade your hunter's machete into one of the four jungle items discussed earlier.
    • The most common jungle routes are to start at your bottom side buff (red for blue side and blue for red side) followed by wolves for blue side and gromp for red side. Next, you want to do your top side buff and finally proceed to river to kill the scuttle crab. This route allows you flexibility to either look for a gank top or mid, invade the enemy jungle, or continue farming.
    • Reminder- "Blue" and "Red" objectives have a 5:00 minute respawn timer. Note when they will respawn. Keeping these buffs on your champion will help immensely with your jungling and ganking (see below). In the meantime, continue to clear out the rest of your jungle as monsters respawn.
    • Always save your smite for the last hit on large/epic jungle monsters, to ensure the kill. In higher levels, the enemy jungler will try to steal your buffs, and if you waste your smite, then they can steal the buffs away from you with their smite. 
  2. "Gank" when an enemy champion over-extends themselves in a lane. "Ganking" is the term used for ambushing an enemy unexpectedly from the side or behind. Typically a teammate will call for a gank if an opposing player has moved too far toward your team's turret. However, a good jungler will keep an eye on the mini map to spot these situations. Be sure to communicate with your teammate that you are attempting a gank, either through chat or map pings.
  3. Coordinate with your teammate to spot enemy wards. An opposing ward will see you coming for a gank and spoil your attempts at a kill. If your allies are desperate for a gank, have them place a pink ward in the area to gain vision of enemy wards.
  4. Counter-Gank. If one of your lanes is ganked by the opposing team, the ensuing fight usually lasts a short period. Spot this as early as possible and head in the direction of the fight to help out. Even if you are late to the engagement, you may be able to finish off an enemy champion who is left at low life or save an ally.
  5. "Farm" lanes when your allies are not present. If your teammate is busy buying items or simply somewhere else on the map, minions in their lane will begin pushing toward your team's turret. Step in and prevent this by killing the minions, which will also give you additional gold and experience. Make sure to communicate with your lane player first, as sometimes they will become angry. If you are going to push a lane, try your best to push the minion wave all the way to the enemy tower to deny experience and gold from the enemy.
  6. Secure Global Objectives - Dragon/Baron. These "boss-like" neutral monsters provide global gold and experience for your team, and can be the difference between a win and a loss. Dragon spawns at 2:30, with a 6:00 re-spawn timer, while Baron spawns at 20:00 with a 7:00 re-spawn timer. Both of these objectives will more than likely require teammate assistance to kill (especially Baron). A good tactic is to place a Pink Ward in the area to prevent enemy vision prior to engaging either of these objectives. It is also best to attempt these when your team has sufficient map control over the enemy team.

Advanced Tactics

  1. Give blue buff to your mid-lane. Middle Champions are usually mana based, and therefore benefit immensely from the increased Mana Regeneration and Cooldown Reduction of the blue buff (technically known as the Crest of Insight). If you decide to do this, ping the Blue Sentinel for their assistance. This will inform them to move over and kill it with you.
  2. Steal an enemy's Red or Blue buff. Once you are comfortable, doing so will not only give you extra experience and gold, but also denies these buff advantages from the opposing team. This is best achieved by warding the enemy jungle appropriately to give vision of these areas. A strong player can also time not only their own buff respawns, but also those of the opposing team for maximum effectiveness. When you go to steal a buff, keep an eye on enemies in the nearby lanes and retreat if you see them coming to stop you.
  3. Check enemy's items. Once enemies are shown on the map, it will show their most current items. Check to see if there are any enemies with wards and assess whether or not they have placed down the ward or not. Get an idea of which lane is best to gank. For example, if you see bot lane did not purchase wards, it could be best to gank them while they have limited vision.
  4. Learn to Counter-Jungle. Counter-Jungling is farming the enemy's jungle. This can put the enemy behind in experience and gold, making them a lesser threat. Note that the enemy can do the same to you, if you are preoccupied in their territory.



Tips

  • Players can often lose lanes beyond recovery. In this case they may be calling for ganks when it is not in the team's best interest. A player who has died multiple times is not worth as much to the enemy team (via the 'Bounty' gold bonus), as a player who is on a kill streak. It can be advantageous to focus your attention on the winning lanes, rather than one which is already lost. This is a judgement call made by the jungler frequently.
  • Don't jungle if you aren't comfortable. Play some custom games or Co-op vs AI as the jungler to get used to it. If you plan on playing ranked, it is recommended to be proficient.
  • Remember your mechanics. Last hitting, kiting, map awareness and placement are all factors that will help you excel in playing, regardless of role.
  • When teammates call for ganks (usually signalled by a ping on the enemy champion), it is recommended to gank when you see the opportunity. Ganks always needed. Ganking for this lane will show map presence, and if you successfully gank and kill the enemy, this will give the laner a chance to be back on equal footing with their opponent.
  • Many players tend to blame the jungler for a bad laning phase. If this happens, don't be discouraged. Instead, focus on the late game. Many games will start poorly, but end with your team being significantly stronger in team fights near the end.
  • One of the most important jobs the jungler has is to keep track of where everyone on the enemy team is at all times.
  • Reflect on previous games, not for how badly things went, but you could have performed the situation better to get a better result. You could download LoLReplay to spectate previous matches that you have played, or watch Pro players video streams on Twitch.tv

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