So, you’re bored of playing lane roles and not winning your games? Scared of playing ranked matches because you’re not sure the ins and outs of jungling? Do you want your chance of becoming the next top jungler? Well, here’s the guide for you!
The Brief Basics
If you’re reading this guide, you should be aware of the basics of jungling. However, if they’ve slipped your mind or you just need a refresher, here are the basics in brief.
- Jungle Buffs spawn every two minutes from when the creep carrying the buff is killed.
- There are four buffs – Speed Buff, Red Buff, Blue Buff, and Purple Buff.
- There are back harpies and mid harpies which should be taken for experience and gold.
- Your jungle route should start at speed buff, proceed to the first back harpies, then to blue buff, and then towards the middle lane where you can take many options. This should only be different when playing with different strategies such as invading or playing gods such as Bakasura.
The Advanced Parts
So, you’ve got the basics down and want to improve. So where do we start? Knowing your gods! Many gods can be played in the jungle as it is one of the more diverse roles within the game. This doesn’t mean there aren’t standard picks though. In general, all assassins, as well as a selection of warriors such as Odin, Mages such as Ao Kuang and He Bo, and Guardians such as Athena and Cabrakan, should be in your god pool. Your decision making into what you should pick in a particular game should stem off what your team drafts, the enemy team drafts, top current meta picks, and lastly what you can carry a game with. For example:
- Awilix is a great counter to jumping gods. However, you may want to draft Awilix when your team has a lot of knock-ups instead of the enemy team having a lot of jumps – and vice versa.
- Bastet is a solid counter to Janus due to her jump and tick damage being a counter to his portals and high mobility.
- You may just be an insane Thanatos player.
Either way, what you pick as a jungler will decide the pace of the game and may ultimately decide the outcome of the game.
Current top jungle picks – Mercury, Ne Zha, Serqet, Susano, Ao Kuang, He Bo
Building
Currently, apart from a few characters who have specific builds, there is a baseline for most assassin builds. This baseline doesn’t stop you counter building the enemy team but should be used as a rough outline if you do not know what else to build.
Pen – Assassin's Blessing -> Warrior's Blessing -> A choice of Jotun's Wrath, The Crusher and Brawlers Beatstick (dependent on the enemy team) -> Optional Item -> Optional Item -> Optional Item -> Titan's Bane
The Jotun's slot within this build is not compulsory but is a good idea. There are many items that can be used in the optional item slots:
- Defense Items
- Masamune
- Heartseeker
- Bloodforge
- Stone Cutting Sword – Auto attack characters only
- Fatalis
- Critical Chance Items for Crit gods such as Serqet and Mercury (Note: Crit Chance gods can successfully use a standard penetration build or a build consisting of a lot of defense items)
And any other item that works well against the enemy team.
Farming
The second part is farming. Farming is important as an ahead jungler is a good jungler. Being correctly farmed means that you can kill the enemy faster and therefore snowball the game for a better chance at a win. Effective farm means that all camps are being taken as soon as they can be. Red buff should be shared with either the mid player or the ADC for effective farm share. Two man farm share is what you should be looking for when taking any farm, however, if needed, three people can be used if your team is ahead or if the buff needs securing from the enemy. Similarly, the blue buff should be taken with your solo laner, Speed buff should be taken alone or with another player, and harpies should be taken by anyone. You should leave purple buff for the duo lane unless they need help securing it.
Ganking
You have your god down and your ability to farm so what’s next? Ganking. Ganking is used to get other lanes ahead (or less behind) or to get yourself further ahead. An efficient gank allows you to sneak up on the enemy or enemies without being seen or allowing the enemy time to react to your gank. This is often helped by the active Blink which allows you to teleport a short distance. Deciding on who to gank can be a difficult task when all of your team is behind so your thought process should be when deciding to gank:
- Who will my gank help the most?
- Will my gank potentially put my own team behind?
- How risky is my gank? Can it go wrong? What are the consequences of it going wrong?
- Is this the most efficient use of my time?
- Where is the enemy jungler?
- Am I in a good position to gank?
There are a few other questions you should ask yourself, but these are the main ones. Ganking should take place when the conditions are right. Nevertheless, a well-timed gank (such as a level 3 gank onto duo lane with an early game jungler) which could be unexpected from the enemy team can also be a great use of your time instead of taking farm. Jungling is all about opportunity cost – will this action be the best use of my time? What do I lose from doing this action?
Late Game
You’ve made it to the late game! Congratulations! What do you do now? 1 on 1 fighting and picking off squishy low health targets such as the ADC, mid laner, or potentially the enemy jungler, depending on who is the biggest threat to your team at the time. This should be done quickly and with the lowest risk possible (except for the occasions where you suicide into the enemy team in an attempt to take out the most valuable target on the enemy team). Junglers should also look to split push when attempting to siege to split the enemy team.
Final Notes
A lot of the jungling role is also about your own mechanics and knowing the gods you are playing inside out, and these can only be improved with playing the game and playing against better players. With a combination of these tips and playing the game, you should be on your way to becoming a better jungler in no time!
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