The jungle is the most complex role in League of Legends and it can be challenging to perform well consistently. Having teammates who will breathe down your neck doesn’t help either.
Luckily, it is also the role that offers the most room for improvement and allows you to 1v9 all games once mastered.
I will attempt to break down the role in the elements I used to climb all the way up to the master, which I would work on to climb even further.
The Fundamentals of Carrying as a Jungler in LoL
Winning the Champion Select
We all know that picks matter, but to what degree? Which champions should you play and when? Should you pick your main or should you go for a meta pick? Maybe you should counter-pick the enemy jungler?
All these questions have something in common, and there is no simple answer to them. In general, it is best to play 1 champion all the time until you master it. And when you master a champion you can improve your pool and slowly add more, the ideal number would be around 3-5.
When you want to master a champion, it is best to play many champions you find interesting a few times, and see what you like the most. This way you will be able to reach a level only a few can. The mastery of a champion will always trump any meta or a good patch.
Here’s my guide to finding your main in League of Legends.
When you are done mastering one champ, you can start working on a second pick. The second pick can be that is similar to your main, or completely different. The similar one you can learn fast, and the one that is completely different will make it easier for you to adapt to your team’s needs.
Once you have mastered a few champions, you can start counter-picking enemies. This will further increase your win rate and allow you to go even further than you ever could.
Read Also: Top 10 Most Fun Junglers
Winning the Loading Screen
Many players will use the loading screen as an opportunity to smoke, make some tea, or go to the toilet, while serious players will already start making leads.
You can learn a lot in the few minutes that it takes to load a game. For example, you can start formulating the jungle path and figure out which lanes you can gank.
You can also put yourself in the shoes of the enemy jungler and do the same. This will allow you to counter-gank them or avoid them.
You can check enemy summoners and runes. And if you see ignite on a Yi player, you can be pretty sure he is planning to invade your jungle.
You can go a step further and analyze your team and enemy profiles on external sites such as OP.GG. This way you will probably conclude that it is smart to camp the enemy team Ryze with a 90% win rate, or not to tilt your Yasuo who has already lost 13 games in a row.
Read Also: How to Gank as Shaco – Guide
Tracking the Enemy Jungler
Tracking the enemy jungler entails learning to think like the enemy jungler. This is the single most important thing when it comes to Jungling, and each time you level up this skill, your rank will increase significantly.
Tracking enemy jungle usually starts from the second they clear their first camp. This is the point where you need to identify which camp they started. This is usually done by noticing which enemies came to their lane late since they are the ones who helped the jungler.
Sometimes, when playing against higher-rated opponents, they will do fake leashes. The enemies will come to the lane late to make it look as if they helped their jungler, while their jungler is on the opposite side of the map.
These things are however rare, and most players will just autopilot and stick to the basics. Your average jungler will just start at whichever side their bot lane is and path their way up. The only important thing is knowing about these things, the rest will come with experience.
Once you know the enemy jungler’s location you can adapt your game plan. You can invade them if you have a stronger lvl 3, or you can path towards the same or the opposite side of them.
An additional tip is to watch your lane states. If your ally is low on health, and you know the enemy jungler is near, you should ping and be ready to counter-gank.
Read Also: League of Legends Jungle Pets – Complete Guide
Learn to Clear Optimally
Time is the most valuable resource in League of Legends, which means that every second matters. A testament to this is a statistic I pulled from LeagueofGraphs, which shows that the team that makes first blood has a 10% higher chance of winning.
Making first blood as jungler or preventing the enemy to do so will highly depend on how fast you clear.
For example, the average Mundo will take around 3:30 seconds to clear the jungle, while someone who has perfected the clear with Mundo will do it in 2:46 seconds. It is pretty obvious which one will be able to make more impact.
The easiest way to find out the best clear for your champion is to look it up on YouTube. You can simply type “Fastest Zac clear” for example, and you will find videos showcasing how to do it.
My tip would be to analyze these videos, and practice the clears until you get close to the clear times pros are doing. You should also repeat the clear before every play session. This will make your clear great and will also serve as a warm-up for your game.
Analyze Win Conditions
I have briefly touched upon win conditions in the loading screen section, but I figured this topic requires a section of its own.
Win conditions are objectives that need to be achieved in order to win a match. These objectives will change on a game-to-game basis. They will also change during the game. The win conditions can be you, your allies, or certain objectives.
For example, we can have a game with mountain soul, where your team or the enemy team is full of tanks. In this case, getting the soul can be seen as a win condition, because whichever team gets it will have a major chance of winning.
In a game where you have a Vayne, and the enemy team is full of tanks, you better make sure the Vayne gets fed, because she is most likely to carry the match. If the Vayne is going 0/3 before the 5-minute however, that is when you need to find another win condition.
As you can see, anything that you can use to your advantage can be a win condition. Sometimes you might not appear as carry, but if you are the one who is pushing the team to achieve these conditions, you are the carry.
Read Also: 7 Best AD Junglers to Solo Carry in League of Legends
Additional Tips for Carrying as a Jungler in LoL
I have covered some major things that have helped me climb more than I could have imagined, but here are some other tips that you can implement in your play to make you an even greater player.
Learn How Laners Think
A great way to improve as a jungler is to learn how the laners think, and the reason I have not included it earlier is that it is not as time efficient as other methods. It takes a lot to learn it and it does not give as much edge as some other things.
Nonetheless, it is a thing you will have to learn if you want to become the best jungler.
Knowing how laners think will allow you to plan out your game more easily, and gain more leads. You will know when your or the enemy laner will want to fight, when they are baiting for their jungler or when they want to recall.
The best way to gain this level of insight is to actually play every role. You can start by playing each role for around 20 games, and then repeat the process. It might seem like too much work, but that is what separates good from great.
Use the Mute Button
Every jungler knows what it feels like to play jungle, and the amount of toxicity a jungler receives can not be overstated. Having so much responsibility and then having someone taunt you in the chat can be so overwhelming.
This is why it is important to use the mute button. I will admit that it took me more than a few years to realize the utility of this setting.
I have recently started muting enemy players at first signs of toxicity, and it has helped me tremendously. This has allowed me to actually focus on the game, and not lose my bandwidth trying to argue with teammates.
Read Also: 7 Best AP Junglers to Dominate
Herald Tips
Herald is one of my favorite objectives to use, and it seems to be the most underrated objective when it comes to other players.
For some reason, people are just refusing to contest this objective very often. I assume it is because most people do not understand how to use it properly and why it is good.
Rift Herald is great for carry junglers that depend on gold. Kha’Zix is a great example. And when I am playing Kha, I rarely forget to get Herald.
My plan usually starts with camping the top lane to lower the plates on the tower to 2. When that is done, I can take Herald and come back to the top lane. Here I will drop it behind the tower, usually securing the first tower and another kill on the enemy laner. If the enemy team does not respond to this play, they will usually lose one more tower.
As you can see, this small play which can be done consistently can completely change the course of the game. After having done this, your chances of winning will increase significantly.
Another small tip that you need to keep in mind is that Rift Herald does true damage. This is important as the towers have armor that increases with each plate that you destroy. Meaning you should destroy the first 2-3 plates with basic attacks, and let the Herald do the hard work.
Read Also: How to Carry as a Top Laner in LoL?
Conclusion
As you have seen, Jungle is one of the hardest and most taxing lanes to play, but it is also the one that rewards you the most. There are so many things to improve upon, and the lower your rank is the easier you will find it to climb.
If you want to do yourself a favor, stick to one champ and learn to play it optimally using the methods you learned.
Read Also: Early Game Warding Strategy for Junglers by a Master Player
