I suck at jungling!

[Deleted]

The most important thing being a good jungler is to set your priorities right. If you farm wolfs instead helping your teammates who are being ganked a few steps away or their tower getting destroyed, then you are bad and no amount of good ganks will help you.
Sadly there a many such jungler in lower elo who fail to help their teammates cause they want to finish killing wraiths.

This too, you also really need to get what I call the 3 W's in your head when ganking.

Who - who is the enemy? Are they tanky? Squishy? Do they have peeling/kiting abilities? Is their flash up?

What - What items do they have? Are they stacking armour/MR against you?

Where - Is the enemy over extending? Could you kill them under the turret without taking too much damage? Is your team mate in the same lane ready to help?

In addition; don't be afraid to avoid ganking a doomed lane. Too often I get demanded for ganks from a top laner going 0/8/1 or something and constantly over extending themselves plus buying poor item choices. I don't bother helping a lane when there's a big chance we'll just both be killed, you get too greedy or submissive to your laners and you will just end up feeding the enemy team. Carry and help the lanes you can trust will help and follow up on your ganks, and lanes that you can push hard without a risk of death. You'll be raged at, but that's just how it goes. No point wasting time that could be spent farming/ganking elsewhere on a lane that COULD be saved but will require too much time on your part to be worth it.

[Deleted]

This too, you also really need to get what I call the 3 W's in your head when ganking.

Who - who is the enemy? Are they tanky? Squishy? Do they have peeling/kiting abilities? Is their flash up?

What - What items do they have? Are they stacking armour/MR against you?

Where - Is the enemy over extending? Could you kill them under the turret without taking too much damage? Is your team mate in the same lane ready to help?

In addition; don't be afraid to avoid ganking a doomed lane. Too often I get demanded for ganks from a top laner going 0/8/1 or something and constantly over extending themselves plus buying poor item choices. I don't bother helping a lane when there's a big chance we'll just both be killed, you get too greedy or submissive to your laners and you will just end up feeding the enemy team. Carry and help the lanes you can trust will help and follow up on your ganks, and lanes that you can push hard without a risk of death. You'll be raged at, but that's just how it goes. No point wasting time that could be spent farming/ganking elsewhere on a lane that COULD be saved but will require too much time on your part to be worth it.

REally good said, even I took a tip from you

[Duronos]

Surprised nobody has mentioned Elise. She is quite strong in the jungle, just picked her back up today and tried the tanky build and my god is she just a bit overpowered in many aspects. If you play her, I recommend getting used to smartcast on all three of her moves because you need to make split second decisions. The great thing about Elise is she does decently well in the jungle clear and her ganks are good if you can hit her E because that usually causes a flash and if they aren't near turret that's an easy rappel afterwards.

She's an AP jungler but you should generally build spell penetration early with the tank jungle item in mind. I generally go: Hunter's Machete + 5 health pots > spirit item > boots > haunted guise > Spell pen boots > tanky spirit item upgrade.

That's the basic core you need to work towards early to mid game. Once you have built that, if you play correctly then you will melt people while being relatively tanky and that isn't even being fed... If you're fed then by god I hope the enemy team doesn't feel the pain too much.

[Deleted]

I didn't mention Elise because she's a bit complex to play for a beginner.

Same reason I didn't mention Lee Sin, Shyvana etc

J4/Xin/Udyr all have a very low skill-floor, you can't go much wrong (except for J4's ultimate obviously) with their skillset.

[Duronos]

I didn't mention Elise because she's a bit complex to play for a beginner.

Same reason I didn't mention Lee Sin, Shyvana etc

J4/Xin/Udyr all have a very low skill-floor, you can't go much wrong (except for J4's ultimate obviously) with their skillset.

Come on, Elise isn't too hard.

[Deleted]

Been trying J4 like recommended in one of the first posts and it's doing better now!

I have a question though, how do you guys keep track of your red/blue? Like how do you know they're close to respawning and stuff?

[Deleted]

Been trying J4 like recommended in one of the first posts and it's doing better now!

I have a question though, how do you guys keep track of your red/blue? Like how do you know they're close to respawning and stuff?

Personally have all the timers in my head (I'll write it in teamchat during team ranked for my teammates to keep track of them as well).

But you can just type it down in chat

"tr 12:30" being 'their red'; "ob" = 'our blue', etc.

[Deleted]

Been trying J4 like recommended in one of the first posts and it's doing better now!

I have a question though, how do you guys keep track of your red/blue? Like how do you know they're close to respawning and stuff?

7.15, 12.30, 18. That's the rough times for the first 3 respawns I use, after that just keep an eye on the mini-map or ward.

I would recommend trying Fiddle also. At low elo he really allows you to dictate the game, especially late game. Ulting over walls into the enemy team to silence them and fear the carry then poping zhonyas pretty much will guarantee a kill on the carry, waste half the teams CC and puts the rest of the team on half HP, allowing your team to come clean up and get fed.

[Deleted]

Hah, nice.

Thanks for the new tips. Will give Fiddle a go too so I can have 2 junglers, at the least!

(Or Fidel, as people like to call him... Whenever I see someone say Fidel I immediately think "Por la revolucion!")

[Axethor]

The problem with Fiddle is he is really only good at low ELO, when the enemy isn't smart enough to steal/delay first blue and screw you over completely. You also then have to rely on your top laner to play a tank instead of having two beefy bruisers or you on a tank in the jungle.

[Deleted]

Don't try Fiddle.

He's only really usable by experienced players who knows wtf they're doing. Despite what people think, to be really useful as Fiddle you really need to know what you're doing. If you don't, then you're not using Fiddle's true potential and you're gimping yourself.

If you want another jungler, try out Udyr, Nocturne, Xin Zhao, Volibear or even Maokai. Any of these are fairly easy to start off with, Nocturne might be a bit harder.

[Deleted]

Considering the vast majority of players are bronze/silver then he works well. At higher elo maybe he isn't as great but having the ability to initiate and blow the enemy's CC in a team fight is a godsend in low elo. Focus the Zhonya's while taking loads of damage = GG. You can even dive turrets at low level with drain if you have flash up and since next to nobody wards correctly you can ult into lanes over walls without the enemy having a clue you're there.

He's also got the 5th highest win rate just now in Yolo queue over all and 7/8th in diamond/challenger, jus' sayin'.

[Deleted]

Considering the vast majority of players are bronze/silver then he works well. At higher elo maybe he isn't as great but having the ability to initiate and blow the enemy's CC in a team fight is a godsend in low elo. Focus the Zhonya's while taking loads of damage = GG. You can even dive turrets at low level with drain if you have flash up and since next to nobody wards correctly you can ult into lanes over walls without the enemy having a clue you're there.

He's also got the 5th highest win rate just now in Yolo queue over all and 7/8th in diamond/challenger, jus' sayin'.

He's also got the 5th highest win rate just now in Yolo queue over all and 7/8th in diamond/challenger, jus' sayin'.

You're just confirming what I just wrote..

He's a solo-queue champion, meant to stomp dumbasses. So ofcourse his win-rate is high, still doesn't change the fact that you need to know popular ward spots; which walls you can- and cannot jump over. As I said, you wont use Fiddle to his true potential. It's much more than just "derp ulti over wall press hourglass geegee".

Besides, meet any decent jungler and he'll wreck your face in low-level yoloqueue where no one responds properly to invades and counterjungling.

Fiddle is a great champion, I never said he was bad. Just said he actually required you to know what to do (as does every other squishy AP jungler).

[Duronos]

You're just confirming what I just wrote..

He's a solo-queue champion, meant to stomp dumbasses. So ofcourse his win-rate is high, still doesn't change the fact that you need to know popular ward spots; which walls you can- and cannot jump over. As I said, you wont use Fiddle to his true potential. It's much more than just "derp ulti over wall press hourglass geegee".

Besides, meet any decent jungler and he'll wreck your face in low-level yoloqueue where no one responds properly to invades and counterjungling.

Fiddle is a great champion, I never said he was bad. Just said he actually required you to know what to do (as does every other squishy AP jungler).

So like Shaco.

[Deleted]

Go watch Stonewall's videos on youtube... It's a more entertaining way to learn how to jungle. After watching 5-10 of them you should have a good idea of what to do..

[Deleted]

You're just confirming what I just wrote..

He's a solo-queue champion, meant to stomp dumbasses. So ofcourse his win-rate is high, still doesn't change the fact that you need to know popular ward spots; which walls you can- and cannot jump over. As I said, you wont use Fiddle to his true potential. It's much more than just "derp ulti over wall press hourglass geegee".

Besides, meet any decent jungler and he'll wreck your face in low-level yoloqueue where no one responds properly to invades and counterjungling.

Fiddle is a great champion, I never said he was bad. Just said he actually required you to know what to do (as does every other squishy AP jungler).

He's not hard to learn imo. Knowing ward spots and walls to flash over is basic mechanics for any champion. Fiddle has like an extra few walls near lanes to learn and that's it. Watching a single guide will teach you that. Champs like Lee Sin or Shaco are much harder.

[Deleted]

He's not hard to learn imo. Knowing ward spots and walls to flash over is basic mechanics for any champion. Fiddle has like an extra few walls near lanes to learn and that's it. Watching a single guide will teach you that. Champs like Lee Sin or Shaco are much harder.

I know they're much harder.

But he's a squishy AP, you need a lot of gameknowledge to maximize his potential. His skilll-set isn't exactly hard, neither is Shaco's, it's his potential that's hard to maximize.

He'll have a much easier time starting with a jungler like Jarvan, Udyr, Xin Zhao; any of the ones I've previously mentioned because they're much easier and you can't really go wrong with them.

[Deleted]

I'd go for J4 too, strong toolset, has every tool to learn how to maximize jungle and ganks (since E Q can bypass loads of common places) fits in basically every team with the current meta, isn't that hard to learn.

Champs like Fiddle (while being tons of fun) do require extra attention, even though their skills aren't necessarily hard to use.

J4 also has the advantage of being a great top and midlaner too. (Hell, you could basically support with him too).

[Deleted]

Not sure if it's been mentioned; but ask your team mates for "smiteless blue/red". Basically they tank/damage the big critters for you then leave you alone with them when it's about to die. This means you take less damage, spend less time farming initially and can save your smite for double buff or counter jungling.

As for counter jungling; if you're just starting out, only CJ when you can see the enemy jungler is elsewhere but you are not needed/too far away to help. Run into the enemy jungle and take out what you can and high tail it out. If you go for an enemy buff, try to kite it into the nearby bushes and fight it there in case an enemy passes by.

To avoid being counter jungled, don't be afraid to buy a ward or two yourself to mark your buffs and jungle entrances. Plus, when waiting for a buff to respawn hide in the bush nearby!

And finally; always be doing SOMETHING. Very rarely should you be sitting in a bush waiting for a chance to gank, you are much better off spending your time farming or giving lane presence (Just poking your head past mid-lane but not doing anything can unnerve the enemy in mid who will usually play more passively and not dive in case you are nearby). And don't sit and wait for a respawn unless you know it's coming within the next few seconds.

[Deleted]

try udyr in jungle, is so easy