In the jungle the mighty jungle #1: Why and how we jungle

Are you tired of spending the first fifteen minutes last hitting creeps so that you can be useful to your team mid-late game? Are you tired of running around with 5gp10 items, warding and trying to babysit that Gangplank whos building Manamune instead of Trinity Force? Do you want to farm (mostly) in peace and quiet, setting up ganks on your own and being the one who can turn the tide, help your carries getting fed or set up counter-ganks to save them? Do you want to not be limited to your own lane for the early game phase but instead take on the most stimulating and important role in your team?

Then why not jungle?





Jungle? Like Tarzan wat is dis?

The jungler is the one person in the current meta line up that has the ability to roam the forested area between the river and your base (called jungle). Killing neutral creeps for buffs, gold and xp allows the jungler to roam through half the map whilst keeping up with gold/xp, giving his team the chance to set up ganks and get the early kills to feed your carries. It also means that if he’s lucky, he can set up a counter-gank. A counter-gank is when enemy players try to kill your laner but before they can do so, your jungler, or other teammates show up and kill them first. Thus, the gankers got ganked = counter-gank.

Why would I want a jungler in my team?



If your team has a jungler you will have two solo lanes instead of just one, namely mid and top. Having a solo top instead of duo top results in more experience and no cs contest (cs = creep score / last hits). The higher cs you get, the more gold you get and the more gold you get, the stronger you get. So with one person being able to theoretically take all last hits and gain 100% xp from top lane, that player will grow stronger, faster.

The jungler will roam the forested area and kill neutrals, gaining xp and gold on his own, resulting in higher global (total) team gold and xp. This way your team will get stronger and your champions be able to build much faster. The jungler will also, if good, be able to deny the enemy jungler (if they have one) buffs and golems (called counter-jungling) as well as see when ganks are needed and provide that. If they don't have a jungler your top lane will have more difficulties but your team will get total map dominance.

So in short; having a jungler gives your team higher global xp and gold rate, extended map control, better gank possibilities early game and counter-jungling.

Trundle - A God tier jungler commonly used for his sustain and difficulty to be countered





Hm, alright this sounds interesting! But how do I do it?

There are several different ways to jungle and they all depend on what type of champion you’re playing. Some heroes, like Shaco and Lee Sin rely on early ganks and thus after wraiths & red buff they often seek a top lane gank, whereas some junglers like Nocturne and Warwick prefer to farm up to level six to get their ulti before ganking.

There are, however, three general main points you need to know regardless of your champion:

Keep an eye on the timer

There are several respawn timers you as a jungler have to remember, and they are baron, dragon, blue and red buff. Baron respawns seven minutes after it has been killed, dragon six minutes after it has been killed and the blue and red buff five minutes after they have been killed. You also have to remember that after fifteen minutes, baron spawn for the first time.

Knowing these timers by heart means you can be a really efficient jungler, picking up the buffs as soon as they spawn and preparing yourself as well as bot lane to do dragon as soon as possible as well as warding the baron around the fifteen mark.

Communicate a lot

Telling your teammates where you are and pinging the map before you want to gank to let them know what’s going on is crucial for your performance as a jungler. You do not want your teammate to push top lane or recall when you’re on your way to gank it. You always want to ping your AP-mid carry as soon as blue buff is up and give it to him so he can harass and out-trade his opponent.

Communicate does not only mean telling them where you are, it also means sharing your level, if your ult is ready, your jungling route and asking them about the enemy summoners, where their jungler is etc. You can never share too much information as a jungler!





Read the lanes

Knowing when to gank is extremely important as a jungler. When you show yourself for a gank the entire enemy team knows where you are, not managing to land a kill in (for example) bot lane will give their top lane a great sense of security and maybe allow their jungler to go top to gank there as they know you will not be able to assist. Furthermore you would have lost very valuable farming time.

Make sure you have all your spells ready, your summoner ghost/flash not on cd and the player whose lane your ganking need to have mana/cd ready to get the kill. It's always the carry that should get the last hit for the kill gold. You also need to be aware of what's happening, if someone gets harassed a lot you need to be able to cover when he/she recalls and anticipate enemy movements.

From left - Dragon, Baron, Golem (blue buff), Lizard (red buff)

If you communicate a lot, read the lane plays and utilize your presence in the forestry area you will make sure you’re higher level than the bot lane players, you will give your team free kills, you will raise map awareness for the entire team and most important of all, you will win the early game for your team. Keep it up and it will snowball to a clean victory, thanks to the jungler.

Terminology

Next time we meet we will talk about jungling rotations and warding.

/Blai