League of Legends: How to Survive the Jungle

The four quadrants of the League of Legends map that occupy the space in between lanes is the Jungle. In the Jungle, you have neutral monsters like wolves and wraiths, along with the Ancient Golem and Lizard Elder that each grant unique buffs. The Jungle is divided in half by the River. The two strongest neutral beasts, Dragon and Baron Nashor, live in the River.

The main purpose of Jungling is resource allocation. By killing all of the neutral monsters in the jungle efficiently, the Jungler will gain more experience and gold for the team. Additionally, having a player in the jungle opens the opportunity for another player on the team to independently farm gold and experience in a lane. A Jungler’s ability to freely roam the map allows them to aid any lane through means of warding and ganking. The Jungler takes on a lot of responsibility for plays made in the game. With all of that liability, you are sure to need a few pointers.

10 Tips for Surviving the Jungle

1.) Stay mini-map aware! Paying attention to your enemies’ whereabouts will allow you to make smarter decisions.

2.) Creep camps won’t respawn until all monsters at the camp are killed. Keep this in mind when farming your camps and when you are counter jungling.

3.) Communicate with your team! Make sure your teammates tell you what summoners spells are available in lanes and where the enemy may potentially place wards.

4.) If you’re not feeling a gank, or if your HP is low, it’s probably not going to work out in your favor. Trust your instincts.

5.) Always carry wards! Seriously. Don’t be that guy who doesn’t ward.

6.) Learn how and when to tower dive. It’s frightening at first, but practice makes perfect.

7.) Smite Stealing: Using smite to take an enemy champion’s objective. Always keep track of your Smite’s damage at your current level. Try to save smite to land the last hit on a buff or an objective such as Baron or Dragon. This will secure the objective and it is less likely to be stolen by the enemy jungler.

8.) Don’t always gank to kill, because you can also gank to defend. Forcing an enemy champion to blow flash is still a successful gank. Just make sure to return to the lane before his flash is off cooldown again. Remember, flash is generally a five-minute cooldown.

9.) It is always wise to switch out the warding totem to a sweeping lens. Generally, Junglers will start with the warding totem for the early game vision. Upon 1-3 “backs,” or times you have gone back to base, it is a good idea to switch to the sweeping lens. Providing vision to your team is just as beneficial as blocking the enemy’s vision. Sweep areas where you are certain the enemy placed a ward, or if your teammate tells you there is a ward there. This will result in more successful plays.

10.) Keep track of monster respawn times. (Times can be found at the bottom) Time is money. You want to maximize the amount of gold and experience you can get from the Jungle. Also, if you aren’t keeping track of the monster respawn times, you might just get counter jungled. Do not be surprised if the enemy jungler is lurking in your side of the map and warding it!

Monster Respawn Times

How to Choose a Jungler

Choosing a jungler that fits your play style might not be easy. It takes a lot of time experimenting and simply playing the game to find the right jungler for you. Here are a few criteria that make a strong jungler and can aid you in your decision making process

Early Game Presence

Early game presence is the ability to make use of those early double buffs. A jungler with a strong early game presence usually has high damage output before level 6, strong ganks or great dueling potential.

Champions with strong early game presence include: Lee Sin, Shaco, Elise, Jarvan IV and Xin Zhao.

Objective Control

Objective control is very important because it can open up opportunities that champions without much objective control will not have. If a champion lacks objective control, he will not be able to contest objectives so long as the enemy jungler is around. The only way he can have the opportunity of claiming an objective is if he is certain that the enemy jungler is unaware or dead. Champions with good objective control are generally able to smite steal from champions that lack it.

Champions with good objective control are: Lee Sin, Elise, Nunu, Cho’gath, Fiddlesticks, Kha’zix

Clear Time

Clear time is as it sounds: It is the ability to clear the jungle or kill creeps quickly. By killing creeps quickly, a jungler is able to level up faster and provide ganks during the time creeps respawn in the jungle.

Champions with quick clear time are: Shyvana, Udyr, Vi, Nocturne, Kayle, Master Yi

Team Fight Potential

Team fight potential is a popular trait that players often look for in a Jungler. The ability to crowd control or to initiate fights usually makes for a champion that can excel in team fights. In addition, champions that can isolate enemy targets, or simply do massive amounts of area damage also have excellent team fight potential.

Champions that have excellent team fight potential include: Fiddlesticks, Vi, Karthus, Shyvana, Amumu

Late Game Presence

Late game presence usually revolves around a champion being able to quickly catch an enemy target and turning the potential 5v5 to an instant 4v5 to secure the win. In addition, a champion with a superb late game presence is a priority target to the enemy team. This is a champion the enemy wants to get rid of or avoid because that champion could make a game-winning play. This champion will constantly put pressure on the enemy team, whether it is the threat of destroying one of their carries or constantly pressuring their turrets.

Champions with superb late game presence are: Kayle, Shaco, Jax, Shyvana, Elise, Master Yi, Xin Zhao, Nocturne

Starting Jungle Path

This is a great path for beginners. Until you’re ready to experiment, level up by repeating these five steps in the image.

Take these tips and try to utilize them in-game. As always, GLHF <3

Improve your game with these League of Legends Beginner’s tips.