Among the 5 roles, jungle (or jungler) is a quite interesting one: there is no explicit opponent as the 3 lanes, the monsters are heterogeneous while minions are quite homogeneous, the monsters give buffs (different buffs for different monsters), the gold for monster kills is calculated differently from that of minions, etc. So the first thing to talk about jungle (or jungler), in my view, is to shed some light on the nature of the role: on Sommoner's Rift, what jungle really is?!
From my point of view, jungle is also a lane: an unconventional, "dynamic lane" where the lanner (jungler) dynamically travels through to catch the monsters. On the contrary and relatively, the 3 conventional lanes can be seen as "static lanes" where the lanners (top, mid, bot lanners) just statically wait for the minions to move to them. The conventional lanners also move, of course, but not that dynamically as junglers, especially at the eary phase of games. The rivers can also be seen as special lanes where there are special monsters (epic monsters of Dragon and Baron, and Rift Scuttlers).
Of course, all the lanes are connected (by paths, walls, terrains, pits, etc.), cuz "We are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hope that never end... Have you ever heard a wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or ask the grinning bob cat why he grins?..."[1][3] XD
Tank or Fighter or Assassin, AD or AP for jungler?
First of all, it's the highest chance for a team to win a game when they have from 1.5 (1 true tank and 1 semi-tank) to 2 true tanks (skim this post of mine for the reasons why: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!). Since ADC and mid lanner almost don't go tanks; the possible tanks are top lanner, supporter, and jungler.
It's kinda difficult for supporter to be a true tank, if going tank it should be best for supporter to be a semi-tank. It, so, has some room for top lanner and jungler to go heavy tank or semi-tank or full damage (assassin): if top goes heavy tank and support goes semi-tank, for example, jungler may go full damage assassin.
On the same page, it's the best for team to win if team have a balance between AD and AP (physical and magic damage), so going AD or AP jungler should depend on the team's components. How to pick the best jungler for a particular game, so, must depend on the team's components. Unfortunately (or fortunately?!), this must be decided in the prior phase of games: Bans and Picks (skim this post of mine for more details of this topic: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!)
From my point of view, jungle is also a lane: an unconventional, "dynamic lane" where the lanner (jungler) dynamically travels through to catch the monsters. On the contrary and relatively, the 3 conventional lanes can be seen as "static lanes" where the lanners (top, mid, bot lanners) just statically wait for the minions to move to them. The conventional lanners also move, of course, but not that dynamically as junglers, especially at the eary phase of games. The rivers can also be seen as special lanes where there are special monsters (epic monsters of Dragon and Baron, and Rift Scuttlers).
Of course, all the lanes are connected (by paths, walls, terrains, pits, etc.), cuz "We are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hope that never end... Have you ever heard a wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or ask the grinning bob cat why he grins?..."[1][3] XD
Tank or Fighter or Assassin, AD or AP for jungler?
First of all, it's the highest chance for a team to win a game when they have from 1.5 (1 true tank and 1 semi-tank) to 2 true tanks (skim this post of mine for the reasons why: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!). Since ADC and mid lanner almost don't go tanks; the possible tanks are top lanner, supporter, and jungler.
It's kinda difficult for supporter to be a true tank, if going tank it should be best for supporter to be a semi-tank. It, so, has some room for top lanner and jungler to go heavy tank or semi-tank or full damage (assassin): if top goes heavy tank and support goes semi-tank, for example, jungler may go full damage assassin.
On the same page, it's the best for team to win if team have a balance between AD and AP (physical and magic damage), so going AD or AP jungler should depend on the team's components. How to pick the best jungler for a particular game, so, must depend on the team's components. Unfortunately (or fortunately?!), this must be decided in the prior phase of games: Bans and Picks (skim this post of mine for more details of this topic: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!)
What camp is the best for jungler to start?
In my thoughts, starting bot camps is the best since we will receive support from two team mates: ADC and supporter. If we are on the upper-right side, we should begin Gromp. If we are on the lower-left side, however in my opinions, starting Red camp (Red Brambleback) is better than starting Golems (Ancient Drug) for some reasons:
In my thoughts, starting bot camps is the best since we will receive support from two team mates: ADC and supporter. If we are on the upper-right side, we should begin Gromp. If we are on the lower-left side, however in my opinions, starting Red camp (Red Brambleback) is better than starting Golems (Ancient Drug) for some reasons:
+) Red buff provides us slow-CC and damage over time on basic attacks, as well as Health Regen per 5 seconds; these are really great advantages for us at the very early phase of games.
+) No Health Potion consumed: Since Smite on Red gives us healing health, it is almost free for leashing this camp. In fact you may lose kinda much health but due to the healing from Smite, the passive of Hunter's Machete, and Red buff, your health will get full very soon.
+) From my experience, by leaving when the Red's health is around 900, ADC will not lose any minion.
There are some important notes for jungler:
+) Do what you think your team mates need: your top team mate is Nasus and you see helping him farm his Q-Siphoning Strike will ensure your team's final victory? Camp top a little bit more.
If you don't have a clear idea on where to camp, gank where you see the highest chance to succeed. To be able to realize the lanes with highest chances, you must always keep your eyes on all the lanes but should focus on the nearest lanes to your farming camps at the time.
+) Try to keep track of the other jungler for better chance of counter-ganks, for avoiding his ganked, for controlling objectives (Dragon, Baron,...), for warning team mates for danger from him, for stealing the jungle monsters, etc.
One of the first things I always do to keep track of the other jungler is to try to figure out where they begin leashing. This is not so difficult: when you leash your own first jungle camp, skim their top and bot lanners and figure out who are missing right at the time since that is where the other jungler is leashing with the help from them. Like in this one:
Right when my team mates (ADC and supporter) left at 1:50 (in-game timer), I also started to track their top and bot lanners to find out who were missing. It appeared right from the moment that Fiora (top lanner) didn't help leash while the other ADC came to lane kinda later: an obvious sigh of helping leash. So I immediately came to the conclusion that their jungler must begin bot camp (most probably, Gromp) and went steal his Red right after that. I always do the same procedure every game playing jungle to keep track of their jungler right from the very early phase of games :P
Sometimes I failed too, but as Winston S. Churchill did throw at the public: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiam"[2]. Failure has its own sense: I knew how to prevent em from stealing my jungle that way as well as how to steal their jungle in a smarter way. Also, whenever I play top and my bot (ADC and supporter) are helping leash, I always wait for them to appear in lane at the same time so the other team won't know where my jungler began. The same whenever I play ADC :P
You can check all the points and more on my YouTube channel.
One of the first things I always do to keep track of the other jungler is to try to figure out where they begin leashing. This is not so difficult: when you leash your own first jungle camp, skim their top and bot lanners and figure out who are missing right at the time since that is where the other jungler is leashing with the help from them. Like in this one:
Right when my team mates (ADC and supporter) left at 1:50 (in-game timer), I also started to track their top and bot lanners to find out who were missing. It appeared right from the moment that Fiora (top lanner) didn't help leash while the other ADC came to lane kinda later: an obvious sigh of helping leash. So I immediately came to the conclusion that their jungler must begin bot camp (most probably, Gromp) and went steal his Red right after that. I always do the same procedure every game playing jungle to keep track of their jungler right from the very early phase of games :P
Sometimes I failed too, but as Winston S. Churchill did throw at the public: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiam"[2]. Failure has its own sense: I knew how to prevent em from stealing my jungle that way as well as how to steal their jungle in a smarter way. Also, whenever I play top and my bot (ADC and supporter) are helping leash, I always wait for them to appear in lane at the same time so the other team won't know where my jungler began. The same whenever I play ADC :P
You can check all the points and more on my YouTube channel.
This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: February 25, 2016
Last update: February 25, 2016
The Silencekeeper
References:
[1][2] For more morals of the League, check the following post: Morals of the League
[3] "Colors of the wind", Vanessa Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbuzskVs6rc
[3] "Colors of the wind", Vanessa Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbuzskVs6rc
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