Countering a Jungler: More Common Junglers

This article is a continuation of the "Countering a Jungler" series, discussing more of the common jungler picks, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Nunu

Nunu is a tanky champion with plenty of nuke, incredibly hard slows and great sustain in the jungle. His passive - Visionary - gives him a free spell cast for every 5 auto-attacks, so if he combos this with his Consume ability (deals true damage and restores health to Nunu) he can restore his health for no mana cost. His Blood Boil ability increases his attack and movement speed, giving him a nice boost for ganks.

His Ultimate ability - Absolute Zero - is a massive AOE (Area Of Effect) nuke that can completely decimate entire teams. His only weakness is the compromise you have to make between damage and durability. He can be either a tanky peeler, or a glass cannon nuker, not both. His Ultimate is also rather weak if he can't channel for the entire duration. If he's played against a team with good cc, his Ultimate can be less than useless, effectively removing him as a threat as he doesn't deal much damage otherwise during the late game phase.

 

Nocturne

Nocturne is a surprisingly tanky assassin who can duel with the best of them, or can jump straight past the enemy team's bruiser line (the line of tanky champions stopping your team destroying the squishier AD and AP carries towards the back of the fight) to chunk the squishier champions and remove them from the fights. He has good jungle sustain thanks to his passive - Umbra Blades - topping up his health every 10 seconds, with a second taken off the cooldown for every auto-attack.

He is arguably the best ganker in the game, thanks to his Ultimate - Paranoia - that gives him nearly global presence, with a range of 3500 at maximum level, along with his fear ability - Unspeakable Horror. His most significant weakness is his gold dependence. Unless he's successful early on in the game, he can fall off before you even reach mid-game. He's also very squishy early on and somewhat susceptible to counter jungling.

 

Skarner

Between his short cooldown, AOE damage skill - Crystal Slash - his movement and attack speed buffing shield - Crystalline Exoskeleton - and a skillshot that adds marks to enemies that can be consumed to regain health - Fracture - Skarner has a fast jungle clearance speed with great sustain. His gank and initiate potential after level 6 is ridiculously high, since his Ultimate - Impale - allows you to grab and drag an enemy champion completely out of position for an easy kill.

However, until level 6 he's not really a threat. He doesn't have the cc or damage to gank successfully without his Ultimate. Even when he does get his Ultimate, he lacks the damage output to finish off his opponent before they get away. As a result, he requires good team synergy, he can grab an enemy and the rest of his team will have to finish them off.

 

Nautilus

Nautilus is a cc monster, with a short stun on his first basic attack due to his passive - Staggering Blow - a pull that literally drags his enemies out of position - Dredge Line - an AOE slow from Riptide, and an inescapable knock-up that has the potential to hit an entire team in the form of his Ultimate - Depth Charge. As a result, he's a powerful ganker. If he can land Dredge Line the chances of his target surviving are minimal.

However, he doesn't have brilliant sustain in the jungle. He has a shield - Titan's Wrath - but no healing abilities. This can make him susceptible to counter jungling, and means he'll rarely be in good enough shape to gank during the early game phase.

 

Alistar

Alistar is a force to be reckoned with. Even at level 2 he should be feared. Alistar is one of the best and most dangerous champions when it comes to Level 2 ganks. As soon as he hits level 6 he gets even more dangerous, as his Ultimate - Unbreakable Will - allows him to tower dive with impunity thanks to the massive reduction in damage.

Also, he has great sustain in the jungle due to his healing ability - Triumphant Roar. His passive - Trample - also deals out AOE damage to nearby enemies every time Alistar uses an ability, helping clear those jungle camps effectively. His main weakness is his lack of damage output. Even with his passive he's a slow jungler, and when ganking he really needs his team to follow up on his cc, as he can't secure the kill himself.

 

Shen

Shen is one of the few champions in the game who has near-global presence. Anywhere an ally is, he can be there in a matter of seconds. He also happens to be one of the only champions to have a hard cc ability that can hit an entire team if timed correctly that's not an Ultimate - Shadow Dash. He has a relatively slow jungle clearance speed, and he doesn't have particularly good sustain either.

However, what sustain he does have is more than enough to keep him going when coupled with his shield ability - Feint. He's another one of those junglers who suffers from a lack of damage. If he's lucky, Shen can most likely get the kill. However about 70% of the time he'll require help to finish off his target.

 

Malphite

Malphite is one of THE best engagers in the game. His Ultimate - Unstoppable Force - allows him to dash forward insanely far an knock up every enemy in an area around his collision zone. The AOE damage from Brutal Strikes and Ground Slam give him reasonably fast clearance in the jungle, and the sustain afforded by his passive - Granite Shield (gives Malphite a shield equal to 10% of his health, recharges after 10 seconds without taking damage) - allows him to stay in the jungle and be well prepared to gank.

His ganks are facilitated by his Seismic Shard ability, lowering the movement speed of his target and raising his by the same amount. This allows him to be a threat before level 6. However, again, another jungler who doesn't have much damage on his own, he needs help from his teammates. He's also susceptible to magic damage, having low scaling for magic resist, being only 1/3 of the scaling he receives to armour.

 

Olaf

Olaf is amazing at ignoring an entire team and running straight through them to get to the squishy damage dealers at the back of the fight. He's also impossible to peel and nigh on impossible to escape if he can aim his axes. His Ultimate - Ragnarok - makes him immune to any kind of disable and increases his armour and magic resistance and makes it possible for him to become a juggernaut in a team fight. His Vicious Strikes ability is his main source of sustain, increasing his attack speed and life steal. The same ability is responsible for his fast jungle clearance speed.

He can have somewhat weak ganks due to his lack of hard cc, but if his teammates in lane can throw down a stun or bind he can quickly dive in and wreak havoc, and can keep his target from escaping with the slow from Undertow. He is, however, weak to burst damage. In a straight up duel he can usually out-sustain most champions with his lifesteal, but lifesteal doesn't counteract burst damage.