League of Legends Jungling Basic Guide

League of Legends Jungling Basic Guide by hossamg1493

NA soloq is notorious for having shitty junglers and personally I am tired of it (yes Diamond and Plat jungle “mains” still don’t know how to capitalize properly) so instead of bitching about it I decided to make a guide to help others out there who think jungling is all about ganking or just farming their own jungle.

• If your team has a mid laner that if snowballed can hard carry the game by roaming and getting kills off bot or top lane; champions such as Fizz, Zed, Leblanc, Akali then you should make that lane a priority in ganking. Your goal as a jungler is to win the game, and you do that by getting your stronger lanes ahead enough to carry. The easiest way to do this is by finding the champion on your team that can snowball the hardest.
• If you see your laner is pushed and you know that you and him would win a 2v2 against the enemy’s 2, then make your way up there in order to counter gank. Too often I find junglers just farming in the jungle complaining about all the lanes being pushed up and unable to gank, at those times your job is to look for chances to counter gank, especially if your laners are pushed that means that they have minion advantage so it’s more like a 3v2 anyways.
• If on your first back you don’t have enough money for a second item after spirit stone, then buy boots and a pink ward if you can. This is to establish map control, the first person to put down the pink tends to be able to control the general area where the pink is located. It relives pressure on your midlaner, and even if the enemy sees it, they most likely won’t have time to kill it and now they know that whenever they’re around that area they will be seen and will likely be unable to pull of a successful gank.
• If you’re playing a champion who is not that strong pre 6 but hits a huge powerspike after level 6 ie. Warwick and Nocturne, then farm till hit 6 as fast as possible. However, I try to make sure that I show up top lane around the 3 minute mark because I know the enemy jungler will most likely gank, I’m not going there to get kills just going there to give some presence and prevent my top laner from dying to the enemy jungler.
• If you’re playing a jungler that is extremely strong after level 6, Vi, WW, Skarner, Amumu, then it’s best to gank bot or mid. Too often I see junglers top lane after about 12 minutes in the game which is stupid because you want to be controlling dragon and mid lane at this point in the game. You want to try camping bot as much as possible and get your duo ahead. Think about it, by getting bot lane ahead you get TWO of your players ahead while getting TWO of their players behind, it’s raises your chances of winning a lot more since you get more players ahead on your team and behind on enemy team.
• If you see enemy jungler ganking top lane while dragon is up and your team can take down dragon fast enough then go and make the dragon call this is very simple.
• If you see enemy laner gank and they didn’t get their buffs yet then go invade their jungle and take their buffs, don’t let them get away with ANYTHING for free. You don’t understand how many junglers that I see not do this at all.
• Don’t do dragon or baron when your smite is just used…
• Switch your yellow trinket to a red trinket on your second back, it reduces enemy vision and forces you to buy wards so that your support isn’t the only one warding (serious mid laners and top laners STILL never seem to buy wards). Remember the point of the jungler is to apply pressure across the map and always have the enemy on their toes, it isn’t to gank, it isn’t to get kills, it’s to control the entire map by putting your enemy on the edge of their seats and keeping them guessing where the fuck you are.
• If you’re playing a weak 1v1 jungler and the enemy has a Shaco/Eve with ignite or a Lee Sin, for the love of god do not make it obvious what buff you started. It’s so obvious that these junglers will end up invading your second buff, so plan accordingly. How? Well you can ward the entrance that they’d likely take before minions spawn to your second buff so that you can see where the enemy is coming from and you and your mid can collapse on them. Another tactic you can do is to ask your bot lane (because bot side buff is the one junglers tend to start) to go to lane late as if they helped you with your buff but really start on your top side buff with your top laner aiding you. This gives enemy jungler no indication of where you actually started and they’ll feel very unsure and less likely to actually invade your buff.
• If your team has no dedicated tank then for God’s sake do not build a fucking triforce after your elder lizard on Vi, or a Hydra on Lee sin after your elder lizard. I see junglers do this crap all the time and it makes possible comebacks impossible since now the enemy syndra can oneshot you before you can even get in range to ult with Vi or kick her into your team with Lee Sin. Don’t be selfish you can still end up with tons of kills as a tank…
• And last but not least. If your teams tower is about to fall and you can easily clear the minions at the turret, stop doing your fucking wraiths or wolves and go defend the goddamn tower.

I’m not a jungle main but I have really good success whenever I do jungle for whatever reason, it honestly feels like junglers are not thinking at all about what they’re doing and just “doing” things rather than CAPITALIZING on openings presented in the game. Don’t be a stupid mindless jungler running around the map as if he’s Mundo with his ult on, be a smart jungler. I hope this helps anyone who happens to read this.

TLDR; Gank shit, don’t feed, ward and you’re on your way to Challenger!