How to Jungle in League of Legends

Jungle has always been known to be the role with the biggest impact in League of Legends. However, playing on this position is not as simple as it might seem. My name is Musialinio [Challenger Player and LOL Coach]    and today I will try to introduce you to the basics of the jungle game in which I have been playing since season 3.

Every game starts with a big decision — what champion do I pick? This may sound redundant, but there’s potentially more importance placed on the jungler you pick than any other role because it signals how much impact you’ll have on the entire map and when.

In season s10 on soloQ I recommend aggressive champions, to have an impact on the game from the beginning, so you can take important objectives like Drakes/Heralds, but the most important is to choose something similar to our playstyle to have fun while winning.

• Best Early Junglers (Aggressive): Elise / Lee Sin / Rek’Sai / Nidalee / Nocturne
• Best Tanky Junglers:   Jarvan IV / Volibear / Zac / Trundle
• Best Scaling Junglers: Graves / Trundle / Fiddlesticks / Ekko /  Gragas / Red Kayn

Those are the best Junglers in Patch 10.14

I personally recommend Elise / Rek Sai / Nocturne / Nidalee or much easier junglers like Pantheon or Xin Zhao.

Good item build is the first step to winning. At the beginning of the game you can choose:

• Hunter’s Machete – Increases damage from basic attacks against monsters. Recommended for AD junglers, who use a lot of Auto Attacks.
• Hunter’s Talisman – Increases your mana regeneration while you’re in the jungle and damage from skills. Recommended for AP junglers and champions who have mana and clear problems).
• Skirmisher’s Sabre – In short red smite. Dedicated to junglers who looking for 1 vs 1 fights.
• Stalker’s Blade – In short blue smite. Dedicated to junglers who want to have a bonus slow and be more mobile.

Predicting the route of an enemy jungler is one of the most important things for you and your team. Information about where enemy jungler starts will allow us to predict which way he will go and which lane is exposed to the first gank. (You just need to start from the opposite side you want to gank)

• At the start of the game check which of the enemy lane was helping jungler
• Think about where enemy jungler is and what he will do next
• Ping it!! Sorry… I mean SPAM Pings!

Thinking about enemy jungler is one of the most important things in the game. Your job is to keep pinging your team where he is or where he might be! You have to doing it whole game!

Start by taking on one of the red or blue monsters early in the game.

The choice of the first camp depends mainly on which lane you want to gank first. For example, if you see that the enemy Top Laner plays a champion without escape, you will start from the bottom. Thanks to this, after hitting the 3rd level, you’ll be in a position to have a great gank on this guy.

Tips and Tricks: 👇

• Ask your Bot lane / Top lane for help.
• Don’t use smite for the first camp (use it for 2rd, because when you have lvl 2 smite healing and doing more dmg).

There are many techniques for the first jungle route. It depends mainly on what we want to do and which champion we play. Generally, the most important thing is to hit level 3 as soon as possible and gank one of the lanes.

Below are some basic examples of Jungle routes:

• Red buff  → Wolves → Blue  → Gromp → Crab/Gank =  Fast gank route ► (For Early Junglers who struggle with Raptors)
• Red buff →  Raptors→ Wolves → Blue → Gromp → Crab → Gank  = Almost Full clear ► (For Junglers who are fine with taking Raptors)
• Blue buff  → Gromp  → Red buff  → Gank / Crab =  Fast gank route ► (For everyone who want to gank asap)
• Blue buff  →  Gromp  → Wolves  →  Red buff →  Crab → Raptors → Gank/Krugs=  Late gank route ► (When you don’t see an opportunity for gank)

If you want to learn more about specific jungle routes and overall get better as a Jungler, check out my Coaching  👉 Solo Coaching 👈

When you already hit level 3, it’s time for the gank! There is one rule in soloQ, the jungler who ganks more wins the game. Focus on frequent ganking opponents, but remember to find a balance and not forget about an important farm.

Few Tips and Tricks for ganking: 👇

• Good time for a gank is when the enemy doesn’t expect you!
• Try to wait for the fight between laners and then go in.
• After a successful gank you need to push minions with your teammates on the tower, thanks to this the enemy will lose some minions and your teammates will have the great recall to the base.
• After ganking remeber to hide in the jungle, and take 1/2 camps before the next gank (so enemy don’t know where you are)… RULE “gank > hide > gank > hide”
• NEVER force your ganks! Forcing is overall bad in League of Legends.

People don’t realize how important pinging is. All them time think about what enemy jungler is doing or where he might be.

In addition to ganking and killing, the role of the jungler is also to warn your lanes of potential danger. Anticipate the enemy’s moves and ping your team’s threat. Even if you have a premonition where the enemy junlger may be, it often turns out to be true.

• If you have a premonition, spam red pings to your teammates (if someone trash talks to you just mute him).

Another form of help is also warding. In addition to buying control wards, remember to use trinkets that will help your teammates be safe. Vision in League of Legends is a total basis!

Examples of useful wards: 👇

• Wards around mid the lane.
• Wards in the bushes near the lane.
• Deep wards in the enemy jungle.
• Control wards at the river.

Remember about buying Control Wards! In the early game, you should be buying 1 control ward per base and 2 in mid/late game!

How to play jungle to carry soloQ? Try to take every single Drake and Herald!

In the current Jungle meta taking Dragons is really important! The sooner we start taking them the better. The main goal is to kill 4 dragons to get Dragon Soul that will give us a very strong buff.

Tips and Tricks about taking Drakes: 👇

• Try to be always ready minimum 20-30 sec before the drake will spawn. Thanks to that you will be able to prepare vision and catch opponents that are late. Just hide in the bush and let them face-check you 🙂
• Remember to buy control ward and use it in the middle of the pit.
• Look at the lane PRIO! Sometimes we are not able to contest drake. We need to simply leave it and try to take next one.
• You can use red plant to jump at the Drake and try to sneak it.

Click here if you want to learn more and climb rank as a Jungler 👉 League of Legends Coaching

Here are examples of my Jungle Coaching: