1.What is Jungling?
Jungling is a style of play, in which instead of going to one of the 3 lanes, a champion chooses to fight the neutral monsters located in a variety of camps scattered across the map. If correctly done, this provides the champion with gold and experience, as well as some additional benefits aquired by killing specific neutral monsters. We will cover this in detail later.
2. Why should I jungle?
As you may have noticed, people in 5v5 follow the pattern 2-1-2 when assigned to a lane, with the standard 1 person being in the middle lane. Thus the side lanes need to be shared by two people. As a result, minion gold and experience need to be shared among those two players, and they level up/gain gold a lot slower than a solo player would.
Should you decide to jungle, this means that your team will have the priority of two solo lanes instead of just one. While still having a player in every lane, your team isn't loosing any potential experience. On the contrary - every neutrall you kill is in both your and your team's favor. Every kill you make is a "bonus" for your team because it's "en plus" to the normal spawning minions. Thus your overall team experience and gold is higher than the enemy team's.
In addition, a jungler has the opportunity to gank people all over the map, provide global benefits to his team (by killing the dragon) and improve the map control of his team.
3. Sounds cool. What do I need to jungle?
a) the right champion
Not everyone can jungle. Keep that in mind. A list of champions that are good at jungling:
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Classic (DPS junglers)
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As you may have noticed, we will discuss masteries and runes. Thus, the question arises:
What summoner level do I need to be to be able to jungle?
And indeed, you can't jungle with a level 1 summoner acc, not that effectively anyway. You will need at least a level 16 summoner, depending in the champion that you're playing. And if you're asking yourself: "well, this is a guide for new players, but it turns out I can't jungle till high level, what's the point?", fear not! Even though it is required to be high level to start jungling with a level 1 champion, you can wait up for level 3 in a lane and then go to jungle, and for this you require not more than a level 10 summoner. Furthermore certain easy junglers, such as warwick, can be played by even a level 10 summoner. So don't give up!
While we won't discuss every champion separetly, some general directions will follow. As you have noticed, some of the junglers above were tagged as "classic". This means that they follow pretty much the same route:
Runes: not that specific. DPS set in general, any one will do.
Masteries: 21:9:0 or 21:0:9. The second one implies points in awareness, which increases your experience gain and your speed of jungling. A normal player is almost level 2 from killing the gollem and the two little enthusiasts with him XD A player with this setup will hit level 2. It makes a difference.
In the offencive tree, make sure to get offencive mastery, wich increases your damage to minions. Also be sure to get the upgrade of smite. Should you choose to put your 9 points in defence, push down to get one point in harden skin.
Update: Due to recent changes, the 0:21:9 setup is becoming more and more popular.
Summoner spells: you'll need smite. even though some champions can jungle without it, it increases a lot the speed and the effectiveness of the jungler. Speed is a factor if upmost importance, as you'll want not only to kill the neutrals, but do it in time to avoid being interruptes, to make it in time for ganks and to level up faster =) Unlike a laning phase where you just stay around for XP, when you jungle you keep your own pace. Thus, if you're a good jungler you can keep a higher level-up rate.
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Items: (again, only for the classic junglers) Starting items: Cloth armor + 3-5 health potions. First time back: razors. Second time: boots + ruby. later on: champion specific. |
Since we're still in the basics, the most classic way to jungle is to start from the golem, smiting him and drinking health potions, and then to proceed to the other neutrals using the golem buff (see section II) for the mana and cooldowns. I know this is very brief, but we'll go deeply into the jungling strategy later on.
d) a good partner
Remember that as a jungler, you're going to leave your partner to be a second solo lane, most often 1v2 (unless the enemy team has a jungler as well). This is generally a good thing, but your partner must be preared to do so and aware how he is suppposed to play. Not every champion feels good 1v2, and not every player can handle the pressure. That is why the most efficient method is to do a 2-man premade and have a buddy fill this role for you. So, to help you in your choice, here's a list of champions that do well 1v2:
Tier 1: (best)
- Mordekaiser
- Morgana
- Cho'Gath
- Singed
- Kennen
- Heimer
- Malphite
- Nasus
- Nunu
- Katarina
- Janna
- Sivir
- Mundo
- Gankplank
Tier 3: (will do, but must be extra careful)
- Soraka
- Anivia
- Malzahar
II. ADVANCED
As a jungler, you must know the jungle. Know your advantages, where to go, what to look for, why. Before we go into the detailes of the advanced stuff, here is a brief info to help you mathcraft.
1. Kreeps and stats. XP rates. Leveling up.
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Experience table for kreeps and minions: melee minion: 89 (increases as the game goes on) ranged minion: 41 (increases as the game goes on) catapult: 138 (increases as the game goes on) Golem (with blue buff): 220 companions [the two small kreeps next to the golem] : 30 each Big Lizard: 200 small wolf: 50 big wolf: 90 two ancient golems: 140 each wraight-small: 20 wraight-big: 140 Dragon: 400 local XP 240 global gold, 25 gold to killer As of version 1.0.0.107, Turrets NO LONGER give any global XP! Instead they provide 150 global gold (used to be 100)! |
Some neutrals give buffs to the killer when they're slain. These buffs can be very helpful to get the upper hand in battles, and to quickly execute ganks. If the champion who posesses the buffs dies, they're transfered to the killer.
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Blue buff (from golem): gives 25% Cooldown Reduction.
Increases mana regeneration by 2,5% of max mana per sec. Increases
Energy regeneration by 1,5% of max energy per sec. lasts 150 sec. Red buff (from lizard): Gives 20% slow on hit. Grants a damage over time, based on champion level. Don't have exact formula but it's 20 damage per sec at level 5 and 30 at level 10. Seems to always be a multiple of 5. Doesn't increase each level. lasts 150 sec Purple Buff (Baron Nashor): 40 dmg and 40 AP. 1% hp and mana reg every 3 sec. lasts 3 min |
1. reminder of concept
Always remember that as a jungler your role is to help your team gain an advantage, not feed yourself. Often people think that as a jungler they should free farm and roflstomp late game. WRONG! As a jungler you should create zones of advantage for your team, open solo lanes, help map control. If you see a lane falling down, you should help defend it. If you see mid going back, take it for a bit. lanes should not stay empty.
2. prime objectives
Sometimes you will have choices to make. Enemy team is regrouping, teamfight will be soon. You have some time, but not enough to jungle all the neutrals. So, which one should you get? What do you think? - always get dragon.
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| One of your prime objectives as a jungler is to get dragon as many times as possible. this will help your team a lot. If you manage to get dragon 4-5 times: you've done very well. This is a good 1000 gold for your team. |
3. How to counter a jungler.
There are several ways a jungler can be countered. We'll start by discribing the most common and effective methods:
1. Interception - an interception is a direct attack on the jungler. it can be a kill, but it's not necessairy. Even a single champion can easily intercept a jungler with a spell or two, because the jungler is not able to fight neutrals while being attacked, or if he decides to do so, he risks to have them stolen. Furthermore, if you attack him for even a medium amount of damage, there is a high chance that this will force him to go back because ho won't have enough helath left to fight the neutrals.
If you see that someone has smite and he's a jungler - try to wait for him at his golem. Chances are good that he will start from there, as it is the most common pattern. If you have reason to believe that he will start elsewhere, you can wait there as well (example: Shaco often will start with the lizard). In higher-elo games usually the whole team is involved in an early interception.
2. Hunger - every jungler has a pattern, and usually most factors are pre-calculated. But you can indirectly counter him by taking away buffs and killing some neutral camps which are on scedule. That way you'll be denying him gold and XP. Some examples: if you're a semi-jungler and notice that they're running a full jungler, you can try to take away your own golem and lizard so he doesn't get them. Also you can try to farm the lesser creep camps in his teritory - the two golems and the wolves. It may not be a lot, but it will hurt him nontheless.
3. Wards - If you see a jungler at the loading screen, might as well counter him from the beginning. Some champions have the possibility to start with boots + a potion + a ward. you have enough gold. Shen is a champion that can run this tactic very well. Place the ward on their lizard, or on something which is close to you (golem, dragon, etc). Note: if you're gonna ward dragon, don't place the ward at the start, it will jst be wasted. wait untill 6 min wark. This ward will help you do coordinated interceptions and also improve your map control.
4. Theft - if you have a ward placed, and you see the jungler taking a buff, you can kill him. But there is a better option. Wait in a nearby brush till he fights it, then steal the monster with an ability and kill the now low-health jungler. Congratulations - you've scored a big advantage for your team.
4. How to protect myself as a jungler from being countered?
a) Your main defence tool is being unpredictable.
While the standard jungling path starts from golem, if you're playing against a good team you may consider starting from lizard or the two lesser golems.
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| The two golems are the most protected jungle start, chancer you'll be ganked there are close to 0, and even if you get ganked, with some team coordination they will easily loose a few team members on the way back. |
b) Ward, award and ward. I mean it. WARD!
And with good wards too. If you notice an excessive quantity of enemy wards, your best option is to buy counter wards. This time the expensive ones, which also detect invisible units. 150 gold may not be insignificatn, but it's totally worth it to free a spot from enemy control and have it for you. Buy a few of these if you know where the enemy team warded or if you need an area absolutely 100% enemy ward free.
In addition, you may consider buying a lantern. This cheap item may not look like much, but it's awesome. Many champions don't need Bloodrazros, and sometimes enemy team doesn't have that many "fat" champions to make good use of bloodrazros anyway - in this case I really advise you to consider lantern. It accelerates your jungling further than razors, and the free ward every 3 min is awesome. If you've decided to buy lantern, try to get your team to kill Baron early game. This item will allow you to do so VERY early, provided you warded well and are sure not to be interrupted. If your jungling didn't went so well, Nashor is an excellent way to make up for it.
c) WARD BATTLE! What to do?
Okay, you warded. And again. You counter-warded. They counter-warded. This is a very rare scenario, and it means you're already playing at a high level to have this degree of map control, but I guess knowing waht's ahead is never a bad idea. So, if the enemy team has a ton of wards, you have a ton of wards, everybody is killing wards and you just don't feel safe anymore... buy an oracle. It may sound like a big investment, but clearing 4-5 wards pays back + interest, becuase you cleared the map. You can use this also if you have a big advnatage, have never yet counter warded but feel enemy team has warded a lot. It's a radical, yet often effective solution. Extra effective if they have stealthers too.
III. FAQ
Q: Can a team have two junglers?
A: It's not impossible, but it's very difficult. It works with a jungler and a semi-jungler, but this strategy is very dangerous due to a high-risk of interruptions and the fragilety of two solo lanes. it's better to avoid this situation unless you're an expert jungler.
Q: What do I do if both teams have a jungler?
In this likely scenario, you'll have to jungle and counter-jungle at the same time. This is not an easy task, and involves the whole team rather than just the jungler. An additional quantity of wards is advised, and oracle may be required. I hope to do an in-depth article about this case in the future.
Q: Jungling seems badass. Does the team with the jungler always have an advantage? Should a good team composition always have a jungler?
I believe that a good team composition does not absolutely have to consist of a jungler. However, since jungling is such an important aspect of the game and can't be easily neglected, at least a semi-jungler is strongly advised. Buffs must be taken and used in order to maximise team potential.
Updated for version 1.0.0.107
Added better formatting, updated articles, updated champion lists, updated global XP with the recent changes.
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============================= TWISTED TREELINE ================================
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I. THE BASICS
1. Difference from Summoner's Rift
To begin, Twisted Treeline has a very different concept than Summoner's Rift. It's much more intense, fast-paced and games end relatively quickly. There are only two lines and as you'll soon notice, they're both side-lines. Meaning the center area of the map is jungle terriotry. So are is the far upper side. There is a reason why this map is called the twisted treeline - and I'm sure that if you've played it, you already know. Most of the action here will take place in the jungle. The laning phase - if any - is short and you may expect ganks at any time, from level 1.
In this context, Twisted treeline is a lot about jungle control. If you control the jungle, you're probably winning the game. Having a jungler on the team is absolutely mandatory. Furthermore - apart from your jungler, you'll probably want to bring at least 1 more champion with some jungle potential, because you may be forced to regroup, defend or push and it's often about being able to survive in the jungle without being underleveled or loosing too much gold.
2. Champions, runes, masteries, summoner spells.
First of all, the champions. You'll see the standrad list of junglers slightly modified. This is due to the early game emphasis, and because there is no blue buff on twisted treeline. So champions that rely heavily on that are no longer a viable choice.
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Classic (DPS junglers)
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3. Some basic strategies
Ok, let's cover a few of the basic things you'll want to aim for.
a) 2 + 1
This basicallly means that you'll pick 2 champion for each lane and one dedicated jungler. a classic example is Singed/Morgana in a lane + a physical jungler like Mundo and an other mage in the lower lane.
In this scenario the jungling can follow several paths, here are some popular ones:
Central side creeps (the trio) -> Upper side creeps (wolves/golem), lane a bit (try to gank), and go for the rune.
my preffered path is - take the white buff first, recall imidiately and come back with a ward, place it center and continue jungling. The speed buffs helps you do it quickly.
I've seen some people cover both central camps at the start, it's also possible. Remember that your jungling will consist of a lot of ganking, so at level 2 you should keep an eye and probably try to gank. This is why the paths are so short. You'll mainly jungle wherever it's possible.
b) Duo Smite
This is a good one, and I've seen the best teams use it. The concept is that you have two people with smite, pick champions that exceed at level 1 (Mundo, Morde, Rammus...), then wait for the lizard to spawn and duo smite it with some hits. This will allow you to pressure them really fast, possibly gank right away and push.
Mid game the two champions take turns in jungling and use the duo smite to get dragon asap.
This is indeed a 1600+ and I'll be honest in telling you that my team isn't using it atm. It's hard to accomplish properly, because you need to still win the fights with one less summoner spell (the second smite), but I can tell you, we've been totally dominated by this one, and the people who were using it are currently in the top 25-30 in the ladder :P
4. More insight on items
This is very champion particular, but in general you should sacrifice some potions for an early ward. Really gives you an advantage. I always start with a ward and head back when needed. May slow me down a bit, but it ensures my team safety, which is a lot more valuable.
Wriggle's lantern is diamonds. don't hesitate to get it. Speed in jungling, as well as a bonus ward - and you'll need many wards!
In addition chances are that the jungler will be tanking in one way or
an other - more often than not you should forget bloodrazors and go
lantern. This will allow you to have other sweet items.Pink wards - I can't stress this enough. As soon as you hit lvl 6, forget about the green ones - buy vision wards, you need the clear those enemy wards, particularly center and dragon.
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