Finally took up Jungling just recently. Still don't like it, but currently going with Nunu, Nasus and Rengar. Always end up with more assists than kills, but haven't lost a lot of games.
So, meh.

 

Well, jungler is not really meant to hoard all the kills, so you're probably doing something right

 

I personally don't like Rengar in the jungle. He doesn't add a whole lot to a team, when you could have Sej, Mao, etc. to supplement or make a strong front-line in team fights.

And Peteks has it right, the jungler shouldn't have all the kills because you can't do much with them except build tanky. Unless you're playing a carry jungler like Xin or J4. But ideally, a snowballing Akali, TF, or Kat is a lot more dangerous than a snowballing Nunu (ba dum, tish).

 

A jungler with kills doesn't have to build tanky at all, and they probably shouldn't build straight tank either. The only reason junglers all build tanky is because it's the cheapest build and they get hardly any gold from farming the jungle. If I get some kills from the jungle then fuck that half-built Aegis, I'm treating myself to a Brutalizer.

If you get ahead - and this goes for every lane - you need to do what you can to stay ahead. And in most situations that means damage. People are terrified of an Akali who gets fed and has Gunblade and Deathcap at 15 mins. A Shen who gets fed and rushes Warmog's and Visage... not so much.

 

That's a decent point, but I feel like I should point out that unless you've communicated with your support that you expect them to build the aegis/bulwark, you really need to finish that asap. It's a huge boost in teamfights.

 

I never said you can't build damage on a jungler. I even said that if you're playing a carry jungler, then by all means, put that money into a brutalizer or haunting guise. The problem is, CC junglers gank better, they aren't exactly meant to get a lot of damage. I would much rather have a CC jungler than a carry jungler who just fails late game because they weren't able to get kills when ganking/counter-jungling.

Nothing wrong with carry junglers, I just personally prefer CC junglers.

There is nothing wrong with getting kills, just generally a better idea for your laner to get the kills. As for Shen, he gets banned so much, not much of an argument there. Besides, Static Shiv and Sunfire cape make for some pretty decent damage output, or if you start/are snowballing, BoRK isn't a bad choice for Shen either. So, he can deal damage, not as much as Darius, Rumble, or Renekton, but he can.

 

Anyone try Sej after the update? Haven't got a chance yet and I'm scared the nerfs hit her too hard

 

Uhh... Wut?

They weren't nerfs, they were buffs. Sure, her W got hit a little, but her Q is much stronger with a built-in knock-up and percentage health damage. Her ult has better target registration and even if it misses, it will explode at the end of it's range and slow enemy champions.

Her passive got changed to giving her armor when she hits targets which helps mitigate damage taken in the jungle. Her old passive is now combined with her E which hasn't changed(in effect) other than getting the added passive.

She is much stronger than she ever was, and has always been one of my favorite junglers. Sunfire and Liandry's are almost core on her, giving her nice chunks of health as well as armor, AP, and DoTs.

All in all, try her out, you'll more than likely love playing her with the new changes. As for skins, the new one isn't half bad and the traditional looks great of course. The other skins got some tweaks as well making them actually worth consideration.

 

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/patch-38-notes-0

 

:facepalm

Sorry, Kaemrynn, but you deserved that. Although I know you missed the recent notes due to your traveling, I'm sure.

 

Touche, I hadn't realized the new patch notes had been released since I haven't logged in at all.

I apologize then. As such, I redact my remarks, and allow others to comment until I have a chance to play her with the new changes.

 

She's fine. Not as crazy as she was before, but still very strong.

 

I will never forgive Riot for nerfing Ashe's Boobs in her rework.

They made her positively elfin from the Buxom Wench she was.

Trynda/Ashe OTP.

;-;

 

Bringing this thread back.

A year later and I'm still not confident in my jungling, but I've added some to the roster and actually played them in yolo queue.

Elise is my most recent pickup and I'm looking forward to rappelling down onto people and doing Batman impressions in all chat. Great utility and decent damage, op as fuck mobility and sustain out the ass with spider W. She's got a fairly high skill cap with timing her abilities, but I can at least reliably land cocoons. She's also versatile enough to take for a solo lane.

I also took up Shaco again after watching a video of an EU Diamond I Shaco player "winning the game in 8 minutes." S3 jungle makes me a little sad I missed out on the heyday of perfectly timed boxes, but securing double buffs is a snap and I've picked up a fair amount of first bloods. Again though, there's a high skill cap with positioning boxes and clones as well as the millions of mind games involved, and he's really fucking squishy. Splitpushing with hydra/shiv is fun though.

As for my other go-to junglers, Maokai has great ganks but mana problems even when I keep blue for myself, and I always built wrong/skilled wrong with
Jarvan, maxing flag second instead of shield. Mundo is right out, and I haven't been near Malphite or Amumu in ages. Seems like single target clearing is en vogue with the most recent changes to camps.

As a general discussion question, what is the thought process for a jungler? When do you decide to farm the jungle and work towards the next item, how do you itemize as a jungler, when do you gank and how can you tell the laners they are truly and utterly fucked and ganking is just a waste of time?

 

I usually use Shaco, Elise, Amumu and i use to use Sej but i haven't tried her in S3.

Im curious though about the Annie Jungle, How do you build her for that?

 

It depends on how the early game goes. I try to play her as a very gank heavy, snowball jungler. Obviously her early clear is pretty bad so I only do it on purple side, where I can get botlane to give me a lot of help with blue. Stun should be up after doing the blue so if possible I'll try a level 2 gank mid or bot, people always try to kill me at red so it's not worth going straight to that. From then on I'll just gank as much as possible, only farming jungle camps to get my stun back up.

My build depends on how those early ganks go. If I do get early kills and assists then I'll get Spectral Wraith > Haunting Guise > Rylai's > Liandry's > Dcap > Zhonya's etc.

If the early ganks don't go well then I'll basically just build support, and become a stun bot late game. Get Ancient Golem/Sightstone/Locket/Bulwark.

 

Any tips on how to break away from a rather stale roster of junglers? Or at least help my mindset when it comes to picking junglers?

Currently whenever I jungle, I'm more or less guaranteed to play either Naut or Cho, with a roughly 75/25 split on them. Why? Because I've noticed the teams I get generally tend to pick champions who lack CC, and CC certainly wins fights when you're objective based - Naut is an insane ganker with his kit, can peel/stick all day long and just needs to get out of the early game relatively equal. Perhaps there's the odd Nasus game in there against farmers so I can sneak in a level 6 dragon.

Cho is fairly similar, harder to land his CC but his ult is what I go for, people still seem to forget in low Gold that 300 - 600 true damage really hurts on your bruiser/carries. Combine this with his silence and he's still a force to be reckoned with who I rarely see played at all aside from the occasional top sighting.

Now, I've nothing against Cho or Naut, I love them both dearly and enjoy every game I play them even if I get stomped, I just wish I would play something else - I'm always fearing for what the team wants as a jungler & player as opposed to going greedy. Now, you could argue I should play more carry-orientated junglers and play more selfishly - I just don't trust in myself not to throw in some way.

So why not play good early gankers such as Lee, or Xin and so on? I'm not mechanically skilled enough to play Lee well, Xin was my best jungler pre Naut but still not too confident with myself on him despite his ridiculous early damage.

Ideally I'd love to crack out Voli, Shyv, Vi, umm... Elise, Fiddle and more. I still feel very worried about certain picks (Maokai, Amumu, Sej/Fiddle) due to how easy they can be to shut down and they feel like junglers where one mistake screws you over infinitely harder than most.

Do I need to just man up, accept the consequences and play what I want to play, CC be damned? Am I doing the right thing? It's not that I don't enjoy my games, just that I wonder if it's worth me picking something riskier, despite my general poor performances on carry junglers and lack of mechanical ability due to lane inexperience.

I guess to close out I'll list a few junglers I generally refuse to/can't play for reasons (Lee and Elise as I've already said is mostly a mechanical/skill thing);

Shen - Just too slow to clear, much better suited to top.
Malph - Same as Shen
Zac - Generally banned with good reason, so still unable to play this one.
Udyr - I just build wrong, go tanky and still blow up or go misjudge when to build damage + get kited all day.
Nocturne - Perhaps it's just me, but seems too flimsy pre-6 and gets outclassed outside teamfights.
J4 - Performance anxiety? Not sure, but whenever I play J4 I tend to screw up hard with my ult/combo's and find myself constantly in the wrong place.

 

Is it true that they will transition jungle spawn to 2:05?
If so, this will severely cut down on the viable junglers, since whoever it is will probably have to solo his first camp unless mid or top are willing to lose the 3 melee minions in order to help him.