Welcome to the Jungle

About me:

• Playing since Cassiopeia Release (~Dec 2010)
• Diamond for 3 seasons
• Dead Inside
• Never missed a smite
• Also never missed a Sejuani Ult
• “Galio will be broken full AP on 7.21, QUOTE ME” - Me

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Why Jungle?

• You can play literally every type of champion in the jungle.
• You have the chance to influence every single part of the map, and choose which parts you want to influence.
• The Jungle meta changes the most often, so you won’t feel like you have to pick Caitlyn every game for three quarters of a season.
• Don’t have to play the “dance” of laning, or be pressured to cs well.
• If you like getting yelled at for things that aren’t your fault (as well as things that are!)

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Champions to Play

• Sejauni is S tier (pick/ban) Nerfs on 7.21* (but probably still top tier)
• Every other champion is viable to get to at least Diamond, but you need adapt your playstyle to the meta.
• To climb, play champions that are less micro intensive (Rammus, Maokai)
• Playing a less micro-intensive champion allows you to focus more on your macro. Micro will be learned in time as you play, it can’t be taught as well as Macro.

The Current Meta (Picks and Playstyle)

• Due to the change in cost of crit items, as well as ardent censer being so cost efficient and bought early nearly every game, we are in a hypercarry adc meta. **Ardent Censer nerf in 7.21, most likely still an adc meta though.
• As a jungler, in order to be relevant in this meta, we need to either play tanks that will protect our backline, and/or catch theirs.
• If you aren’t playing a tank, you need to be extremely aggressive early game and snowball in order to be relevant, ideally with a champion that clears 3 camps quickly to get level 3 and pressure the enemy as fast as possible. (Ezreal, Kha, Rek’sai, etc.)

The Current Meta (Early Clear)

• 90% of the time, your start (as well as the enemy jungler’s) will be (botside) buff -> camp (wolves/gromp) -> buff.
• During these camps you want to be looking at lanes. If top or mid is extended and you have a faster clear, gank. If both are shoved in, you can invade. If just top is shoved, you can sit in lane for a countergank.
• If you have a similar clear time, warding for your lane and looking to countergank is the safest option, but you can look to force.
• If playing into a champion with a high clear speed like Ezreal, play safe at second buff and ward ahead, or go for a more full clear instead of rushing level 3.

The Current Meta (Mid Game Objective Control)

• First tower is the first and one of the most important objectives in the game. It is easiest to get after setting up a big dive bot, however it can also sometimes be taken after killing top. If you go for this top, expect to trade for first dragon.
• Dragon importance changes per teamcomp/game, but general guidelines is ocean is the best early game, mountain/air are the best mid game, and infernal is the best late game. Stacking multiples of Mountain, Air and Infernal is amazing, denying the enemy team the chance to get an ocean will help out in most games.
• Rift Herald spawns at 10 minutes and can be soloed at any time, but is a risk, the time it takes to get is also a tradeoff. However, Herald used well generally guarantees a tower. Look to back and group around a lane to use Herald immediately in Soloq.

The Current Meta (Ganking and Invading)

• Due to catch-up exp., ganking and counterganking nonstop is the ideal situation.
• Red and Blue buff should be taken on cooldown, but other camps should only be taken if there is nothing else to do.
• Invading is fine, however, counterjungling normal camps isn’t really a priority. Counter jungling red and blue buff are still high priority. Your goal when invading should be to force the opposing jungler out so that he can’t pressure your team, or kill him and put yourself in a better position to carry the game, as well as getting vision and information on the enemy jungler.
• If you are counterjungling, red buff side is better than blue buff side.

How Catch-up Exp. Works

• Your jungle item (Machete or Talisman and upgrades) will give you 50 bonus exp. on LARGE monster kill. (NOT catch-up exp.)
• Additionally, you will get 30 bonus exp. on ANY kill of a monster that is higher level than you.
• Ex: You are level 4 and Raptors are level 5. Assuming you don’t level up during the process, you will get 6 instances of catch-up exp. For a whopping 180 bonus experience. That’s an entire camp.
• This is why taking Raptors or Krugs when behind is much more important than Wolves or Gromp, so that you get 6 or 10 instances of catch-up exp. rather than 1 or 3.
• This is another reason why junglers like Ezreal are so bad when behind, because they struggle to take these camps more than a tank or someone who deals AoE damage (especially magic)

How Catch-up Exp. Works (cont.)

• In addition, if you are over the level of a jungle camp, you will get 10% less total exp from each monster for each level, up to 50% less.
• Finally, all jungle camps spawn as the level of the average level in the game, and then stay that level until killed again. This along with the combination of the above bullet and catch-up exp. means that you need a couple camps that you are clearing throughout the game, so that you don’t fall behind.
• *** In 7.22 Catch-up exp. is being changed, so that only large monsters will give catch-up exp., and they will give more than the +30 per monster current value. Counterjungling will likely become a bit more relevant.

Red vs Blue (Side)

• Blue/Red side disparity changes the jungle matchup more than any other role in the game.
• In general, Blue side is better for basically everything as a jungler besides baron steals.
• Sejuani is also the biggest pick/ban jungler by far, so having first pick on blue side is a big plus.
• It is much easier to invade level 3 on blue side, as the blast cone northeast of baron pit gives an easy escape, as well as there being two entrances to the buff.

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Mindset (Pre-Game to 2:00)

• Before the game even starts, you should be looking at what side you have, as well as lane matchups, your jungle opponent, and your win condition. Keep your opposing jungler’s clear time in mind.
• You want to keep volatile lanes in check. I would be much more likely to gank a Fiora/Riven matchup than I would to gank a Malphite/Shen matchup.
• Also think about what each champion, or even player in lane wants to do. A smurf is much more likely to be aggressive and overextend than someone who belongs in the elo.
• Keep in mind that junglers like Vi, Warwick, or Shyvana may look to early dragon, sometimes before they even pressure a lane.
• Be looking at each lane during your first clear, so that you know where the opposing jungler started, as well as what lanes are gankable and what is warded.

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General Guidelines of What Lanes to Gank When

• Pre 6, it’s safest and easiest to gank top. This isn’t the best in every matchup, but in soloq, many immobile top laners overextend and are pretty much free kills. Staying top lane too long is asking for the other jungler to take a free dragon.
• Once level 6, you have a lot of pressure bottom side of the map. You can make lane ganks, set up a 4v2 tp play, and can get twice the amount of kills as you would for ganking another lane. You also get dragon pressure, and are able to swap to top and take rift after a successful gank.
• Because mid is a fairly short lane and people can escape to the other side fairly easily, it usually isn’t worth the trouble in soloq. However, if your mid is playing a champion like Leblanc or Syndra, and you have a high pressure jungler like Gragas or Ezreal, mid ganks can be extremely helpful, as they open up two man invades, roams, etc.

Invading

• Learn to be comfortable with invading, it isn’t cheese, it’s a huge part of the game.
• It allows you to get information on where the other jungler is, based off what camps are taken or finding the opposing jungler himself.
• If you can live in the one side of the opposing jungle enough to the point he doesn’t want to mess with you anymore, it becomes extremely obvious of what side he’s on.
• Camps respawn every 2 minutes 30 seconds, with buffs being 5 minutes. Time your invades around this. If the opposing jungler starts raptors, expect to invade them around 4 minutes 15 seconds.

Learning First Clear Times

• This Google Doc is a compilation of most junglers’ early clears based on what they want to do.
• It tells you runes used, time taken to clear, level ending at, route taken, and shows a video example.
• Learn these clear times so that you know where the opposing jungler will end up when, and what you can do to abuse that.
• Keep in mind that these clears are with no leash, so it will change a bit during game.

Talisman Raptor Trick

• Good on Gragas, Brand, Eve, Cho, Rumble, etc.
• Can be done with any champion that uses talisman and has an AoE ability.

Abusing Plants

• Take advantage of the utility that blast cones have during invades, to dodge wards, or to get off a surprise gank.
• Sight plants should only be used to get emergency vision on an objective, to clear wards, or to scout others when you have no vision. When you hit a sight plant, the enemy team sees the wave of vision come by, and you don’t want to give the opposing team unnecessary information.
• Honeyfruit first spawns are anywhere between 5:00 and 5:30, abuse this. Up to two Honeyfruit can exist on the same side of the river if it has not been taken since its spawn timer.
• All plants take anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes to respawn.

Jungle Smites

• On Tank Junglers, or the occasional counter jungler (Elise, Nid, Rek’Sai), and Lee.
• Generally not the best option for Soloq.

• When you want to skirmish and pressure the enemy jungler.
• On tanks to amplify early and mid game damage. (J4, Olaf)
• On more sustained damage threats.

• On bursty Champions (Eve, Kha’zix)
• To activate a damage requirement (Kayn)
• On champions with no cc and no way to get in (Morde)
• If you want to set up a free skill (Elise cocoon)

Tank Items and When to Get Them (First Item General)

• When your adc is ahead.
• Don’t get when your support is going to buy it (Ali, Blitz) unless
• You have a 5-0 Darius or a Corki mid.

• Really good when ahead.
• Shines on Junglers with hp scaling (Sej, J4).
• Gives you a huge hp buffer in combination with Cinderhulk.

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• *** You will buy one of these two items first in about 80% of games.

Tank Items and When to Get Them (First Item MR)

• Strong on champions with Built in Hp Regen (Gragas, Maokai).
• Or with a Soraka or Sona on the team.

• Really good into Corki, Swain, Kog, Syndra, Rumble, etc.
• Worth getting at some point into one of these threats.

• ***Only get these as first Item if the enemy team has 2+ AP threats.
• ***If the enemy team has only one Magic damage carry, generally Locket is Enough.

Tank Items and When to Get Them (First Item Armor)

• First Item into 2+ crit threats (adc + Yasuo, GP, etc.)
• Get Fourth/Fifth item if their adc uses crit.

• First item into all ad teams OR if their AP threat is behind.
• Really good to buy later in the game if they have an adc + some other auto attackers.

Tank Items and When to Get Them (Second Item)

• Get this if you really need to protect your backline from a burst threat.
• Or if they have a large AoE threat (Ori, Brand)

• ***Both of these items have good synergy with Warmogs.
• ***These items also have good synergy with each other, and if you need to itemize for 2 different threats getting both second and third isn’t a bad idea.

• Get this if you need to be a big frontline, and soak up a ton of damage.
• Good for stalling their backline while you tank their damage so your backline can kill their frontline.

Gimmicks

• There are occasions where you have to opportunity to play a minigame inside the game.
• For Example, if you know that someone on the other team tilts hard, or is a known ragequitter, you can look to make that into your win condition.

Questions?

• Feel free to ask me questions about whatever I think about a champion in the meta, an item, a concept you think I skipped over, etc.