Source
r/summonerschool•
Anonalish

New-ish player trying to adapt to the Jungle

Jungle

Been averaging about 3-4 games a day for the past 6 or so months, while only having delved into ranked a few months later. I've also tried a few games in every lane/position but found the jungle role to be the most interesting and engaging, especially after finding myself struggling when playing on any of the lane roles.

I'm not completely new to the MOBA genre, having invested a good chunk of time into Dota 2. I'm also aware those skills don't really translate into the LoL scope, but it's helped me with getting into the habit of map awareness, understand basic power levels, farming and objective control at its basic core.

I'm currently stuck in Silver 4 where it feels like I lose 3 games for every 2 that I win. I'm not entirely sure what I should change about my playstyle or approach to the game, but I know it's something I'll want to resolve as soon as possible since it takes me quite a while to adapt.

I've tried a few junglers I thought were interesting (Ekko, Graves) but only really found myself comfortable after playing Warwick, where it felt like I could truly control objectives, due to his healthy clears. My early game (while not perfect) typically tends to go quite well, where I would usually attempt a lane gank on mid or top to (at the very least) burn a flash, then grab the scuttle, then eventually the drake (I would often tell my laners to push while I attempt to sneak/solo it). If the game goes well, and I feel the enemy jungler isn't a threat, I would also solo the rift herald.

It's usually after that where I feel directionless, and unsure of what exactly to do, outside of drakes. One common advice I get is to pick up meta junglers, but I feel the ones that are considered S-tier don't really appeal to me as much. I'd still be willing to change mains if it is considered a good move even though I'm lacking the blue essences.

(Sort of new to this subreddit so I'm unsure if its needed but my IGN is Kamencide on EUW)

Posted Feb 29, 2020, 10:46 PM UTC

813
ActuallyRelevant•

Meta junglers atm are champions like Zac, ornn, sett, sejuani, karthus, j4, and gragas. Also a little shout out to graves and ekko even if they're one dimensional.

There's also rek sai, Lee sin, and Elise which perform worse in the current meta but scale with player skill and creativity. They allow for great early game jungling but the champions mentioned before but require way more execution.

If none of these junglers really appeal to you you're going to have a bad time.

You're job as jungler in soloq specifically is to be the shot caller or determine who the shot caller should be (usually the most fed player on the team). You need to understand how you win the game and make or follow the calls that lead to the win.

So your first thing every game is to identify your win conditions and the enemy win condition. Next is to evaluate how you can influence this. For example you have a Kayle but they have a Vlad. If you let those two scale in top lane by themselves while you ignore that lane you're doing a 50/50 on how the late game will turn out as they are both hyper carries.

Next you should identify what objectives your team can dictate vs what objectives you must give up. If you having a winning bot but a losing top give the rift and aim to secure drake.

Lastly you need to understand matchups in the game and the impact of drafting but that's a huge beast to type out.

2
AnonalishOP•

This is perfect, thank you!

Outside of Ornn and Karthus I have no issue picking up any of those champions. I was thinking more along the lines of Olaf, Yi and Jax when mentioning meta junglers I disliked. Unfortunately the only problem is that I don't have anywhere near as much blue essence to pick any of those champions up at the moment.

I've been told it's usually a good idea to stick with a simple jungler to learn the intricacies of jungling first before rotating to other champions, but it seems more like you need to have a stable roster in your arsenal as a jungler compared to other roles/lanes (I'm assuming).

1
ActuallyRelevant•

There are no real intricacies of jungle. There are several clears to memorize each patch that let you path towards a lane, and let you farm for specific exp amounts. When you learn how to kite in practice tool that is universal for all junglers. For example for a healthy krugs clear hit the big krugs and circle it while the smaller Krug tries to path around it to hit you.

1
theonliestcakeman•

Wanna look over a VOD together?

1
AnonalishOP•

That would be amazing :) DM me the details

1
Lemons224•

Directionless on WW? How? Blood scent will literally tell you “hey...this guy is low...go gank him now” If you don’t know what you should be doing just farm. His farming speed is godly once you have tiamat and cinderhulk and the new jungle rewards that kind of strong farming. If you are farming well you should be the same leve as thier solo laners or maybe one level lower. Farming is what will stop you from “falling off” later in the game junglers don’t have the luxury of exp just coming to them freely like laners you need to keep farming consistently.

If you are ahead from early game invade the enemy jungler and start taking all his shit too. You need to think about where he is and what camps he has already taken. So if you spot him top and realize he has not taken his bot side jungle then steal his entire bot side jungle. Or if you know you can take him just walk in wherever you please and attempt to track him down. Once you get ahead on Warwick you need to start playing like a thug and pressing your lead. Just killing and fighting everyone you can.

Also buy pinks. Pink the dragons and rifts when you solo them. If they have vision of you they will usually try to stop you, so it is very important that you KNOW they don’t have vision.

Warwick is super strong imo I have an 80% win rate with him in ranked you honestly don’t even need another jungler.

1
AnonalishOP•

The Blood Scent is why I manage to do well in the early to midgame, but that's precisely the issue. After a while I rarely find the enemy is ever low enough for that buff to come into much effect.

Either that or they constantly group up and I'm left being the one to engage with a leap + aoe fear into the enemy ADC to try and initiate for my team. Oftentimes I'll find my best contribution to teamfights is to be a meatshield for my team, as I'll have a decent chance to soak all of the enemy's damage.

I've heard about stealing enemy jungle camps a lot, although I'm unable to properly gauge what camps they have taken. Should I familiarise myself with what camps/buff each jungler usually starts with, or get a general sense of their clear speeds?

1
Lemons224•

They usually will start with their bot for a leash. From there you can kinda gauge where they go based on where they show up on the map.

1
ActuallyRelevant•

In lower elo tell your team to group and walk with you to ward an enemy camp. This is how you track what your enemy jungler is doing. Either do that or track them by seeing which lane arrives late to lane. This way you can deduce who leashed for him. However people will start taking leashes in higher elos.

1
yhomboid•

Most specifically towards the “not sure what to do outside drakes” but get some deep vision down, and next time you’re not sure where to go, hopefully you’ll spot them and you can clear their opposite side jungle. Also keep track of the enemy buffs because giving your midlander your blue buff is great, but giving them the enemy’s is even better. I’m low elo as well, but if you’re always thinking about farming, it isn’t difficult to end the game with more cs than anyone else (even though that shouldn’t be the case)

1
AnonalishOP•

Farming is definitely one thing I could focus more on. The issue is that I constantly get asked for ganks, and I'm afraid my team will just get into the FF mentality if I don't.

1
yhomboid•

Yeah I’ve definitely been there but the way I get around it is spam pinging the “on my way” ping so first off they know and if they’re competent they can set up the wave a little better. And then after see what you can take from the enemy. Just ganked mid? Raptors. Top? Gromp. The reason I love jungle and I find it so engaging is because of the “three steps ahead” mentality. You also said you tend to have really good early games so you might want to consider fighting the enemy in their jungle because in the current meta that can make the rest of the game really hard. As for your teams mentality, sometimes there’s just not much you can do, but I usually try to communicate my lv 3 gank and if I see a laner behind, I’ll tell them to pick up krugs/raptors/gromp whether they do or don’t doesn’t really matter, but it shows them that you’re playing for the team and that can change mentality

1
Krazy_X•

From my experience, WW realy dacays in late game, so you have to kind of turn him into a tank. Think of him as a tank that can engage with his R and E.

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