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Jungling 101 Archive (NOT TO BE PUBLIC)

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So - What is this guide?

Here's all of the stuff that was removed (or greatly changed) in my Jungling 101 guide, or with the big jungle change or not, view it here.

Feels a shame to have them drop off the face of the earth and I secretly hope Riot changes the jungle back, in all honesty.

Jungling Routes

Most junglers you see will start at Blue Buff, kill it, and work your way round through Wolves, Banshee's, etc. This isn't always the best way.

Some junglers, however, start at double golem, which still gives you level two, but not the buff, obviously. If your jungler isn't cooldown/mana dependant, or doesn't have any (E.G. / (with the first having no mana and the latter being extremely mana independent)) you will most likely want to start here. Sometimes, very strong junglers like don't need mana until they reach the Blue Golem, and can just continue from there.

For the most part, this varies for each jungler. You won't see a do the famous "Reginald Shaco red route", for example.

The mobs in the jungle have fixed spawn times listed above, this may help you know when your buff will spawn, if you need some sort of hint, say in chat when next one will be up. If you killed Dragon at 27:12, say in chat "Dragon up 33:12", for example.

SOME ROUTES WITH SCREENSHOTS! -

Remember, these routes are only really basic ones to start the game with, do NOT follow them strictly after this, you will want to gank whatever you can and just kill whatever you're near to be completely honest. In fact, it might be better to never follow them strictly, and gank at level 2, for example. Lots can happen in jungling, like a very powerful counter jungle, but you will learn to adapt, that's something I, for the most part, can't teach you. Remember, after you get to the stage where you've finished one of these routes, and you have your "ganking ability" (E.G. 's ) you should prioritise ganking over jungling if a lane is in trouble, as long as you check the three golden rules for ganking (see the ganking section), you should gank! Remember, I'm not listing every single jungle route ever, just the three main ones!

The Wolves/Wraiths/Sustainable Route

Can be used by a lot of junglers, usually ones that have a poor start though usually. This route might work on a strong jungler without any runes/masteries. Usually a much more sustained route for those that can manage the Golems to Golem route or Blue Golem route but finish with low health and are forced to go b. This route is notable for it's extremely high sustainability.
Noteable junglers that use/can use this route -
, , , , , (if you can't do Golem at your level or really want to try Phoenix jungling with partial runes),

It's worth noting that usually, it's optimal for some junglers to do it Wolves > Wraiths > Golems, using on the Wraith the same as usual, but it's too much for some to handle, and may require more runes! If you can handle the wolf start, by all means, do it!

As the name suggests, this route starts at Wraiths. Smite the big one and kill the others manually.

Kill the wolves, focus the big one first, nothing special to do here.

Now we run to the two golems and kill them, DO NOT USE SMITE (unless you really have to, but 200 HP doesn't normally mean you have to)!

Now, we go back to base, that's a lot of damage we've took! Stand next to your turret just to be safe! Pick up some more items, usually you'll want and 2x Health pots if you started with a like most who start here do.

Now we kill blue buff/red buff! Most junglers will want blue buff, but some might want red buff instead (like , but for the purposes of education I just did blue.

Now, we kill wolves, assuming we did blue, and advance to level 4! This is THE level for starting to gank for most junglers so I'd recommend checking lanes to see if any of them are gankable before continuing your jungle.

If you opted not to gank, you can move onto Red Buff, since it's a lot more gankable, I'd recommend standing in the brush as you kill it in case anyone wants to sneak up and try and take it!

Here, you can gank whilst "double buffed" (having blue and red buff at the same time), continue your jungle, or go base if you are too low or have enough for your or something.

The Golems To Golem/Superior Route

Recommended for strong junglers only.
Noteable junglers that use/can use this route -
, , , post jungle nerf, some (however, I'd recommend the Wraith route for myself - but both do definitely work), (Only the start two, but in the enemy's jungle, then he moves onto your jungle's wolves then golem!), , , , , , , (even though I'd personally recommend the Wraith Route, this route can still be taken with , as shown here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qsoGEQSY2A, kudos to Sleelan for making this video for the guide!)

First, start at golems, smite the first golem, standard stuff pretty much.

Then, just kill the Wraiths, focus the big one first ALWAYS.

Next up is the wolves, again, focus the big one first!

And for the Grand Finale, the blue golem!

After this, you can either b or gank, or in most junglers' cases, just continue your jungle! This only works for some of the stronger junglers though, a can continue his jungle with ease, whereas a might struggle. FYI, in this screenshot I actually did gank bot (hence the extreme start of the recall spell being cast you see, not halfway through!), I just showed myself going b because it's more exciting than me walking to a gank - and usually top will need ganking pretty urgently at this point, but he was coping a lot better that bot.

The Blue Golem/Aggressive Route

The Blue Golem Route -

Last but by no means least, the most well known route, the Blue Buff Route! This route is only recommended for those with an extremely powerful early jungle (like with ), those who are very mana dependent, and those who want to get ganks off asap if they have decent sustainability. This build is the most easy to counter jungle from and isn't even that good if you can take the Golems to Golem Route. This is the most well known one, but the one I'd wager you'd be more rune/mastery dependent for.

Notable junglers that use/can use this route -
, , , , , (skip out Banshee's and stack three s before you do red), , , , . A lot can do this route that aren't listed here, but it's usually not optimal that way.

Start at wolves, ONLY KILL THE BIG WOLF then move onto Blue Buff. This is done for faster jungle times without effecting your jungle that much (if at all). Don't use a pot here, if anything, use it a few seconds before you initiate Blue Buff. I should note that a lot of junglers shouldn't start here, for example or , but in 's case, just pre- an area near the wolves. I'd only recommend doing this if you're very survivable, like .

Nothing special to do here, kill Blue Buff, it's important to note that you kill the small lizards LAST!

Now, we finish off the wolves we started earlier.

Simple enough, kill Wraiths, focus the big Wraith first!

Kill Red Buff, by now will be off cooldown too!

Last but not least, we kill the double golems, this grants us level 4 as well as well as being pretty easy to kill at level 3.

Now, we can either gank, b, or continue jungling a little bit, remember, gank if ANY LANE is struggling, at 4, pretty much every jungler has their "gank ability", as you see in this image, I have my as . Remember that you will be "double buffed" (having both jungle buffs at the same time) at this point, so you are even more scary when you gank!

Which Route Should I Take?

I felt this needed a new chapter because it would take up a very large portion of the Jungling Routes chapter if I were to put it there!

Now, I'd like to briefly whisk over the reasoning behind sending junglers on certain routes. I've listed some of them there anyway, but I don't want to tell you everything, it's better if you understand the reasoning behind it, which promotes complete understanding of jungling itself! Jungling is all about adapting. Whether it's adapting to an overextended enemy or a successful counter jungle, you'll need to know how to adapt to counter jungling, so I'll list here which routes give you a good recovery from what sort of counter jungling.

You should NEVER be in that mind set of "Oh, Amumu? I start at blue!", a good jungler never has a fixed route, since a good jungler adapts, and is malleable to the current situation. A jungler that ALWAYS starts in one place won't know the first thing to do when they get hit by a good counter jungle.

Sustainable Route -
This route is often taken by junglers who need to get to level 6 as soon as possible, or would optimally like to get there fast. This route is THE fastest way to reach level 6 on most junglers. It can also help to alleviate problems that junglers with bad early starts face, such as .

This route is also not too intensive on your health, if you take the standard Aggressive route, you might suffer low health when you reach the red buff, however, on this route, the only time you ever reach low health is the end of the two golems, and it's really not that sort of level where a is going to use a single and kill you. It's escapable.

This route is great for recovery too, if your opponent's jungle is heavily warded or they've already taken the creeps you'd like, doing most of this route is always pretty good. I, however, prefer to take their wraiths, do their golems, then go round to my wolves, which gives the same XP as this route whilst answering to their counter jungling!

Superior Route -
This route, in my opinion, is the jack of all trades route. It's really adaptable and malleable. It's easier to pull off than the Aggressive route and a lot less intensive health wise, but it can pay off, if you do it. This route has a decent answer to counter jungling and a great way to sneak in a steal of some of the opponent's stuff. Otherwise, you'll be relatively safe all of the way round - however, you might end up with slightly lower clear times - but against a good jungler, that might pay off.

This route is good on champions that can get sneaky ganks in almost anywhere in their route, as you might have noticed in my screenshots, I got a kill after I did Wraiths and before I moved onto wolves. If you go the Aggressive route, you NEED to do some intensive jungling/counter jungling or gank hard, or you essentially waste your mana and cooldowns that have been increased.

This route is hard to pin down as far as counter jungling goes, the jungling times are sub-standard, and (for example) if an opponent goes to steal your blue at the usual 7:20-ish time, and hasn't tried to keep you on a leash previously, you'll be the one in the lead, since they've just wasted a LOT of time by checking your buff.

Aggressive Route -
Not too much to say about this route, which is why I left it until last. It's fairly easy to understand why it's called the Aggressive Route, you have a LOT of mana to throw about, and get your buffs really early compared to other routes, and hit level 4 earlier than any other route, though level 6 will be taken by the Sustainable Route.

This route is taken by many junglers with early mana problems (such as ) who struggle with other routes (but they aren't impossible). You can pull off some early and powerful ganks with your double buff, which other routes might.

Unfortunately, every route has it's down sides. This one has it's very bad answer to counter jungling. Some junglers, for example, , have a MUCH smoother and faster jungle with blue buff. If you're taking it early on, and get caught doing so, you could easily find your self in a sticky situation. This route is extremely easy to predict, too, since almost every jungler in the game can do this route, and most solo queue junglers will just assume this is THE route to do, so almost every good counter jungler keeps a mental clock of when they're done and when to take their buffs.

Viable Junglers - With a Rough Tier List

So, not everybody knows viable junglers, and there are some pretty strange but effective ones (E.G. ) that actually work surprisingly well. Here's a list of ones that work kind of well. I've sorted them into a sort of tier list, now this is NOT a 100% best tier list ever list, but this will show you ROUGHLY how good a jungler is. I don't claim to know the ins and outs of every single jungler ever and I don't pretend to play for a top team like CLG/OGB or whatever. This is in MY OPINION.
This list ONLY reflects their jungling prowess, and nothing more.

To find out more about my thoughts about the current jungle champions, how they're affected by buffs and nerfs, new champions, and more, check out my blog on this site! -
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/blog/xenasis

THE CHAMPIONS INSIDE THE TIERS THEMSELVES ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!
THIS TIER LIST IS ONLY FOR THEIR ABILITY TO JUNGLE, NOTHING ELSE LIKE LATE GAME!

Last update of tier list (for reference) - 24/11/11 (UK Date format, by the way)

The God Tier (Tier 1)-

These junglers excel at pretty much everything, or are so good at something it's hard to ignore. These should be your top choices for a jungler and are usually a good starting point for new players.

Demigod Tier (Tier 2)-

These junglers are just not quite hitting the mark when it comes to the best of the best, but there are some fearsome junglers in here that are really amazing. These are essentially either really good at something but lacking elsewhere (like ), or "jack of all trades - but master of none", like , for a quick example.

Average Tier (Tier 3)-

These junglers really aren't that shabby at all. Don't come under the delusion that these are bad, they're just not as good as others really.

Kind of Meh Tier (Tier 4)-

This tier is self explanatory, these are OK, just not optimal at ALL. They can do the odd thing pretty well (E.G. with his pretty good ganks) but they lack in too many areas for me to consider them as good as the previous tiers. This is a good tier to look if you're looking for a fun choice - though obviously it won't be the best.

Last Resort Tier (Tier 5)-

These can jungle. It's just not really very optimal AT ALL. Using one of these will be better than having no jungler, but it's better for some other champion to jungle than one of these to jungle.

And most likely a few I forgot. I know, you weren't expecting some of them, but they do work!

If you want to test a jungler's viability or if you can play them very well, remember to ALWAYS do it in a Custom game, creeps don't change, there's no harm in just trying, especially when it just screws over your team if you do something or don't have the right runes or something. I'd recommend always starting in a Custom if your runes don't match ones recommended or you don't have any good rune pages yet.

Tier List Changes! -
20/6/11 - moved to Demigod tier. He's not what he used to be.
20/6/11 - added. Added to the "kind of meh" tier for now due to SaintVicious' amazing jungle GP performance. On paper, he's still pretty bad for now though. However, GP Jungle buffs on the horizon!
2/7/11 - moved to Demigod Tier. I'm so glad to do that. I love that little pirate. His buffs are self explanatory really. Much faster speeds, pretty good ganks, etc.
2/7/11 - added to the last resort tier. She's the same as really. She can jungle, just why would you want to?
2/7/11 - is moving on up! His buffs have bumped him up to the Average tier!
2/7/11 - moved to the Last Resort tier. RIP Evelynn.
2/7/11 - moved down to the Average Tier. He's really not THAT great - I just rated him too highly.
13/7/11 - moved back to tier 1! Yay for buffs!
13/7/11 - moved down. As with in my last change, I rated her too highly.
13/7/11 - moved up. He proved himself at Dreamhack.
23/7/11 - moved up to God Tier. He is just REALLY good at EVERYTHING. Not sure why he wasn't there earlier to be honest.
30/7/11 - moved down. He lost a LOT, and I mean a LOT of sustainability in the jungle, as well as a little bit of speed, a shame too.
2/8/11 - Moved up! Glad I could, but he really deserves to be there. I'd place him higher than personally if it wasn't for his sustained falling off a bit, and the fact that has cloth armour fit into his build a lot easier. Great jungler, with excellent ganks and counter jungling.
18/8/11 - and added. Would do a write up, but I've been on holiday and they're pretty old anyway.
19/8/11 - is moving on up! Those buffs, however slight, meant he could gank better, do MANY more routes (which is the main reason for the huge bump up), and clear the jungle slightly faster.
21/8/11 - moved up. I underestimated him, though he still doesn't deserve tier 1, he can be counter jungled far too easy.
3/9/11 - placed at tier 5. Unfortunate, too. I had high hopes for him, but whatever. I wish he was just like , but a little more viable.
15/9/11 - added in at tier 2. Extremely powerful in the jungle. Strong ganks, decent sustainability for someone without passive lifesteal or something, and pretty good clear times. Best female jungler in the game (which unfortunately doesn't say much)! Adding a guide to the guide section thing when I see a few more come out.
15/9/11 - moved up! Not just because of the buffs, but because he was borderline tier 3 before the buffs, I was considering moving him up, and though those buffs weren't much, they were enough, easily. I'm currently working on adding guides for the newly promoted champions, including .
19/9/11 - Moved down, forgot to do that after his nerfs.
19/9/11 - Moved up. His ganks are surprisingly good. No real reasons as to why I've moved him up now rather than then other than because I just underestimated him, I guess!
20/9/11 - added. I saw her show up in a game and destroy our a while ago, and her ganks are surprisingly good - I was just holding back on adding her for some reason.
24/9/11 - moved down. Been delaying this for a while but those nerfs did hurt :(
24/9/11 - Moved up. He's so powerful in general now, which really helps jungling, especially counter jungling and ganks.
14/10/11 - moved up to tier 1! Not only do we have a female jungler, we have a female jungler that's one of the best junglers in the game. Probably one of (if not the best) gankers right now, with pretty good counter jungling and incredible mobility. Pretty OP in general though now.
22/10/11 - added. He's for fun in normal games, that's about it. Surprisingly decent though.
25/10/11 - moved up. Those mana costs and buffs in general really helped his speed and general usability - he's now one of the fastest junglers in the game and has an awesome 1v1 for counter jungling.
25/10/11 - 's moving on up! Was a little too low, that's all.
3/11/11 - added in at tier 3. She's basically a with slightly worse counter jungling and slightly better ganks.
3/11/11 - finally added! He's basically an that's worse in the jungle but roughly equal when it comes to roaming/ganking/counter jungling. He's fun, but you won't (or shouldn't) really be seeing him in tournaments soon.
16/11/11 - Dawn of the mastery change. LOTS of changes coming!
16/11/11 - moved up. Mastery change really helped him fill in the areas he was lacking, and he was almost god tier as it was.
16/11/11 - moved down. He has godlike sustain, but after the mastery changes, so does everyone else. He doesn't have THAT much more health compared to other junglers now. Still a good pick, and his sustain is still the best, but everyone else's sustain is better.
16/11/11 - moved up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's a worse version of , but with these new masteries, he's SO ridiculously fast - as is. He's still a worse version of , but not as bad.
16/11/11 - moved up. Masteries.
16/11/11 - moved up. You guessed it. Masteries.
16/11/11 - added in at tier 2 (albeit low tier 2). Surprisingly good, wasn't expecting him to be as good a jungler as he is.
16/11/11 - moved up. He was teetering on tier 3 already, and you guessed it, masteries.
16/11/11 - added at tier 3. Yay for rodents!
24/11/11 - moved down. Overestimated him, he's nothing incredible, and definitely not better than, say, .

Junglers Suited for Summoners Not Level 30/Runeless

I had an issue similar to this when I started LoL, I LOVED jungling, but I just didn't have the runes/masteries to support a lot of them. I'd like to give a few people some advice on where to start and which champions to start with.

A little tip I'd suggest is to buy Tier 1/3 (depending on if you're 20 or not) Armour Seals.
/. Why these runes? They are only half the price of normal runes (for example, 200 IP for the tier 3 ones rather than the 400 IP that you usually see) and work kind of well on all junglers, and for a lot of them, they're the best rune you can take. Sure, X rune might be better for Y champion, but they are extremely cheap and work on anyone at least a little well. You'd be surprised how good just a few of these runes can actually do. Believe me, if you want to jungle, there's just no reason not to invest such a tiny amount of IP for a breezy jungle, and runes that work instead of the usual MP5 runes that go in that slot for champions without mana - without you having to buy anything fancy.

A few junglers you can use runeless include -
(His sustainability is amazing even without runes!)
I'm pretty sure BOTH AND builds work. I'd recommend Phoenix any time, but ask for a pull on both!
(His Consume is AMAZING for sustainable jungling, he's also very stat independent)
(As long as you don't try anything heroic you should be good)
(With a blue buff start you'd be fine, just stack boxes and you're cool!)
This guy doesn't need ANYTHING to jungle. He's incredible when it comes to survivability! Stonewall008 demonstrated a route where he had only 8 masteries (for the XP), no runes, and JUST , no potions. He managed a route with relative ease, and he didn't buy potions.
(With Armour Runes)

For ANY of these though I'd recommend trying them in a custom game first, it's 10x less embarrassing to die at blue in a custom than elsewhere! Remember that not all of these will start at blue, but the majority will, try them out first to make sure that your route isn't too dangerous or anything. You don't need to kill blue buff first every single time for every single jungler (contrary to popular belief). It might be worth noting that you don't have to do the route that each guide suggests/recommends. It might be better/easier to do a simpler, less intensive route (such as the sustained route) and do it that way. I've not tested this myself, but I'd assume that stronger junglers (such as and ) can do this with ease. Remember, always try it out in a custom game, but remember, you don't HAVE to do the route that a guide with runes suggests!

There might be a few that work in the jungle that I don't know about, I just don't have every champion in the world unfortunately, if there is one, please leave it in a comment so I know about it and can add it to this list! I wouldn't recommend after his jungle nerf, but before that he would've worked, so if anybody recommends Fiddles to you, make sure they're taking about after his jungle nerf; as it stands now he's ridiculously rune dependent.

Runes For Junglers

WHY DID YOU ABANDON NUNU/FIDDLESTICKS/X JUNGLER?

Well I have included the builds of those two, and that's two junglers compared to the overwhelming majority of junglers that use physical attacks! You'll just have to take my word for those, but I don't want anybody getting confused and using MPen Marks for a physical jungler!

Marks -

Greater Mark of Desolation
These are the bread and butter of physical marks. They do an amazing job - and are at least decent on everyone, but not necessarily the best you can get for every single jungler. These don't give as fast of an initial jungle as AD/AS Reds, but they help more for late game and for ganks!

These make for the fastest jungle possible in 95% of cases. The reason I haven't used them in most/any of my builds is because ArP runes work for a pretty fast jungle as well as a MUCH better late game and ganks, instead of a couple of seconds faster for the jungle. These work, there's no doubt about it, but I'd say it's down to preference.

These also work similar to AS Marks, but only usually work better when your champion has a scaling skill with AD in it, and isn't as dependent of AS! For the most part, AS marks work better for this purpose, but these aren't too bad if you have them!

Seals -

These bad boys work on pretty much any jungler ever. Some runes might be better for really particular junglers (E.G. Dodge runes for because of his passive dodge), but these work on anybody really well, might not be optimal for every jungler ever, but they're amazing!

Optimal for a few junglers (for example, ). For everyone else, they give a slightly better late game but a worse jungle and overall early game. They're sure viable if you have the cash for it, but for the most part, I'd stick with armour Runes, they're better in most circumstances, and dodge runes are 4x more expensive...

Work on some junglers, one that pops to mind is , due to the health scaling on his , however, for the most part I'd say that were better.

Glyphs -

Very slightly faster jungling. It isn't too big of a difference but for a lot of junglers it's the fastest jungle you're going to get out of blue runes, so these are worth mentioning. Usually though, other Glyphs are a better choice.

This is what the majority of people will use, however, due to their high price and the fact that they don't work well for all junglers - especially auto attack based ones or ones that don't use their abilities that much (for example, , where it's better to auto attack rather than using when it's rank 1 if the debuff is already up from it) they aren't the best 100% of the time. Always a good choice though!

Give you quite a lot of Magic Resist to make you a little more bulky as you enter a lane or help a little late game too! They aren't a bad choice at all and are extremely cheap at 200 IP each!

Same as above, but these are better in the late game! It's all really personal preference if you want the flat or the scaling, since it doesn't effect your jungle in any way, shape, or form.

These runes ARE viable. Two junglers that spring to mind that GREATLY benefit from these runes are and , maybe , too. I'd wager they worked on any jungler with a small mana pool and a bad early jungle - though I've not tested it, they might benefit too!

Quintessences -

Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Faster jungle (albeit slightly), better ganks, better late game presence, most people have these anyway. These are the bread and butter quints like the ArP marks were there!

For the same reasons listed on the marks here really, these usually result in optimum jungling times, but usually aren't quite as good as ArP runes when you stack them up when it comes to ganking/team fights.

Same reasons listed on the marks section of this chapter, they help, but usually not as good of a choice as when it comes to pure jungling speed! Can definitely be useful on everyone, just not optimum for everyone!

Golden rule = Health quints work on anyone! Usually, there will be a better choice, but if in doubt, use these! They help junglers with low survivability or ones that benefit from high health (for example, ) greatly! Pretty good choice for anybody, but usually not optimal, even on !

If you want to find out more about the sort of runes you can get or to see the values when stacked up against each other, look here! -
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiSAUE5pXNC8dF94UlVMai1zQy1Tb0hLY1FHeE5VZ1E#gid=0
It's really great for seeing which stat is max where, and how much better X rune is against Y rune!

For all else rune related, check out Searz's rune guide. It's awesome for finding out which runes are actually good, and which aren't. You can find that here -
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/rune-tips-what-secondary-and-primary-means-and-more-24255