The Jungle and you.

Junglers are probably the most blamed persons in League of Legends, if anyone is losing their lane they immediately turn around and blame the jungler, “Why haven’t you gang my lane! It’s your fault I’m 0/5 ten minutes into the game! GG Noob, AFK!” that is probably the most common interaction a jungler has with his team.

What the jungle probably saw though was a teammate pushing his lane and overextending without wards. How could he see that? Well that is what junglers do. Every team game or sport has a playmaker, a person that his job is to watch the positions of his teammates around the field, call the shots and make the plays. In League of Legends that person is the Jungler, or at least he should be.

In the early game he spends most of the time versus neutral monsters, something that allows him to check the mini map constantly and focus on the way his team plays; he can spot when a lane is prone to ganging either by him or his enemy counterpart, he is the person that knows when he is strong enough to take an objective like an early dragon or tower dive an enemy at level 6. He can alley-oop the top lane with a gang for a slam dunk or give a long range pass by warning the overextending bottom lane that they are getting 3 man ganged.

Right now, LoL lacks variety. There are four gold sources for five champions, that has set the lane format in stone, two solo lanes, one duo lane with a support that farms nothing and the jungle. Yes there are various combinations in those lanes like double AP or bruiser/AP, sometimes there are even bruiser and support bottom lanes with the ranged AD champion taking over top but the general format stays the same. That cannot change unless the game is redesigned.

That variety comes from the jungle. The jungler is the person that completes a team. He alone gives the team the ingredient it needs to become successful, he can be a crowd control train that can lock down the enemy, a strong bruiser that can initiate any fight and dive the enemy AD carry or he can be the AD carry that can destroy the enemy team.

You make the jungler look so important but all he does is farm neutral creeps for 20 minutes
Well that is what a bad jungler would do. A good jungler would communicate with his teammates (he is after all the playmaker as we said) and try to force a gang on a lane as early as possible. He will shut down that scary Irelia on the top lane so she won’t snowball and destroy your team.

And what if a lane is 0/5, what can the jungle do then
Well that is probably the hardest decision for a jungler. Usually he would try to camp that lane and try to give his teammate a chance to get back into the game, if the teammate responds that lane might be saved and the playfield might get even. That tactic though can bring up another problem, leaving your other lanes exposed to gangs with the danger of losing them to.

Do you forsake it then and try to dominate the other two lanes with the hope that they can be farmed enough to carry the game?
Not exactly, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Go to the losing lane a couple of times and try to force a gang, see the reaction and the way your teammate plays there, if he doesn’t respond to your gangs or does so inadequately then yes, that is a good time to switch your focus elsewhere.

What about counter-jungling

Counter-jungling or simply taking your enemy’s jungle is not as important as you think. With the jungle changes there is enough farm in your own jungle to keep you busy so you don’t really have much of a down time doing nothing in order to try and counter your enemy. Most importantly though when you enter your enemy’s jungle it is very possible to be spotted by a ward, that leaves both you and your lanes open to gangs. If for example you try to get the enemy’s wraith camp and they have a ward there, mid and the jungler can close up on you and kill you or the jungler can proceed to a bottom lane gang or even a counter jungle towards your wraith camp.

You should counter jungle though if you have a strong jungler and you know your advantages over the enemy. Let’s say you are a Shyvanna while the enemy jungler is an Amumu, you have a clear speed advantage, what you can do is ask your team to help you on your blue so you don’t have to use smite and from there transition to their red and kill it fast since you will still have your smite and you are a much faster jungler than Amumu.

So how do I become a good jungler

Master the basics. Runes, masteries setup and jungle paths. A very popular rune setup for tanky junglers such as Malphite and Nautilus is:

Attack speed reds, Movement speed quints, armor yellows, magic resist per level blues along with the typical 9 offense (with magic penetration) and 21 defense.

As far as paths go there are two standard routes. Wolves->Blue buff->wraiths->double golems->red buff or you can go Wraiths-> Red buff-> Double golem-> Wraiths -> Wolves -> Blue buff. Of course If you see a gang opportunity don’t let it pass just so you can kill your golems or wraiths. Skip them and go straight to the lane, then come back to farm.

Remember the timers. Five minutes for the blue and red buffs, six minutes for the dragon and seven minutes for baron Nashor. It is best to type in chat the time that each buff is going to respawn so you and your team can have access to it.

Learn to play some good junglers that can complete every team composition. Shen, Shyvana, Maokai, Alistar, Nautilus, Nocturne and Olaf can fit every team and every role but don’t stop there, try to learn as many junglers as possible, we did say after all that the jungle provides the variety in the team.

Mini map is your best friend. Be always aware of your surroundings, check where your enemies are, how far your lanes are pushing and if they are open to an enemy gang.

Help your team with wards. You are the person that roams all over the map, it is easier for you to ward the part that your teammates cannot reach. Your middle jungle entrances and the enemy wraith camp are just some examples. Enemy blue and red buffs are also great places to ward and challenge for a fight.

Last but not least, try to gang the opponents. This is the alpha and omega of every jungler but also a bit tricky, don’t just run down the river and try to gang, the river will be one of the first places to have a ward, instead try to come from the lane and into the side bush, opponents rarely ward that spot early in the game so that can give you an advantage.

I hope you found the article useful and got a new perspective when it comes to Jungle. Looking forward to meet you in the fields of justice.