Jungling on Twisted Treeline. I feel I just lost about half of my readers just from that one statement. "how can jangling on TT be worth? n00b" Well, that's what this guide is here for. I feel like not everyone understands why jungling on TT is a good idea. If you are reading this guide for builds for junglers, then you've come to the wrong place. I merely have some examples of builds to help me explain. No, they aren't optimized, just general ideas. In general, your build won't affect your jungling.

And sorry if the guide doesn't look pretty, it's my first one. :/

Well, there are quite a few reasons. For those who don't want to read this section, at least read this: Having a Jungler puts you ahead of a team without one. Simple enough? Okay, now for the real explanation.

Experience: When you have a jungler, that means both of your lanes are going solo instead of a duo lane. That may seem like a bad idea at first, more than likely having someone go 1v2 and all, but what if you were to gank them when you hit level 3? Your laner is more than likely also level 3 with the enemy duo being level 2. Sound a bit one sided? Welcome to the experience lead. Experience leads get you ahead.

Gold: When someone on your team is jungling, experience isn't the only thing being better divided, it's gold. That duo lane of theirs is fighting for farm or only one of them is taking it. Your solo lanes get ALL of the lane farm and you get ALL of the jungle creeps. With the gold being better divided, your team will have more gold than them. Having more gold gets you ahead.

Altar Control: This part is often overlooked, but let's put it into perspective. You don't have a jungler, and one of them went MIA. Are they in your jungle? Are they getting your altar? Or are they just backing? Having a jungler gives you more control of the map and you'd be able to tell if someone else was in your jungle. When you notice someone alone in your jungle, the three of you should easily be able to catch him. If he had friends, so what? The three of you jumped first and are all there for that engagement. Odds are one of them just died and you three are still ready to take on the other two. But that's all speculation as to what happens from then on. In the end, having a jungler gives you better control of your altar, or even theirs if you decide to invade their jungle after getting ahead. Controlling the altars gets you ahead.

Okay, so you've decided to jungle. Now what? Well, we need to pick a champion and his spells. First, I would like to point out that ANY CHAMPION CAN JUNGLE, some are just better suited than others. I won't be covering which junglers are best and what not as this is a guide aimed at people new to jungling on Twisted Treeline. Find out who works for you.

The first thing you need to ask is: "Does my champion of choice lack CC?" If the answer is yes, Exhaust is a very good option for you. Now you're thinking " Exhaust in jungle? n00b, you always take Smite" Well, let's put it this way: You go to gank a lane and neither you nor your laner have any CC of any kind. Unless it's late enough that you two can burst this person down from 100% to 0, they'll get away. You Exhaust them, and even a Flash might not save them.

That's not to say Smite shouldn't be taken. If you have enough built in CC, then Smite will vastly improve your clear times as well as secure Vilemaw when the time comes.

Also, it's worth pointing out that the teams I have listed up there are a team that has very good communication and a jungler against a standard solo queuing team with a duo lane. The spells are worth noting as you can see the standard team grabs the ever useful Ignite... On everyone... Compare this to the jungling team. Ignite, Exhaust, and Smite. Which team is going to have Vilemaw most of the time? Which team will come out ahead then the ignite/exhaust team has a level advantage during team fights? What's to stop the standard team all from igniting the same person? I'll leave that for you to decide.

Okay, so you've picked your jungler and your summoner spells. The game starts and you've bought your items, right? Well, maybe you haven't and that's why you're reading this. Starting items and builds vary from champ to champ. In general, your final build is what you would normally build. Getting there, however, may be a little different than what you're used to. (It's not listed, but you should generally be buying Health Potions throughout your jungling.)

Do you buy it? Depends not on your champion choice, but whether you plan on just farming the jungle for a while or if you plan on ganking relatively early. The sooner you want to gank, the less you'll want to buy this item. Yes, it'll give you faster clear times, but it won't help you kill that champion. Starting straight into Spirit Stone isn't all that bad of an idea either if you just plan on farming the jungle until you claim your altar when it spawns.

A given if you want to gank early. How can you kill someone if you can't run as fast or faster than them? Boots are just a nice item to have in general.

For the autoattack dependent champ, this will give you faster clear times and slightly more damage when ganking. However, you really only want to build this if you're rushing an item it builds into, such as Stinger.

A great item for AD based champs. More damage means, well, more damage. Faster clear times and better ganks will come your way. It builds into both The Brutalizer and Vampiric Scepter, so it's a solid investment as well. You could also start straight into Vampiric Scepter, although this isn't recommended for ganking without a lot of CC from both you and your laner.

This, however, is where I draw the line. If you feel your champion should start this in the jungle, you're much better off with Boots and a Hunter's Machete.

After that, you're items should reflect your normal build order.

The jungling path has a very common start and branches off depending on when you want to gank. For the farmer who is scared of the lanes or whatever your reason for not ganking is, the complete path would just be rotating from Wraiths to Wolves to Golems. How it actually goes is dependent entirely on you and your laners. Are your lanes pushed? Invade their jungle. Are your lanes getting pushed? Gank the lanes. Are your lanes at the mid point? Then you decide what's best of either attempting a gank or farming your own jungle. There really isn't as much to it as people think.

If jungling is a new concept to you, I suggest you find a guide to jungling on Summoner's Rift before attempting it here on Twisted Treeline as this really isn't the best crash course on jungling. Summoner's Rift is more forgiving with mistakes and such, as Twisted Treeline allows champions to snowball HARD if they get fed. In general, stick to jungling on SR until you have the basic concepts of when a lane can be ganked and how. Then you'll be ready for TT domination.

Jungling is a very useful thing you can do on Twisted Treeline, although it isn't always what people expect. Try it for yourself and decide on whether or not you think it's worth it. In general, you'll find your team being ahead for most of the game if you have a jungler.

Anyway, hope this guide helped. Sorry if it seems too short.

- Happy farming, Shinzo Ningen