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Spells:
Smite
Flash
Ability Order
Threads of Vibration (PASSIVE)
Skarner Passive Ability
Season 3
Season 3 is approaching and modified jungle creeps have been confirmed, they will be stronger and will put the single target damage junglers back to viable (
Warwick,
Trundle,
Fiddlesticks), also new masteries and summoner spells, so alot of changes. Obviously the guide will need a major update but unless I see the guide geting some real attention I will archive the guide when these changes go out.
It is simply not worth my time working a guide that gets no attention, I just hope that Mikuro's guide will get to the top since the top skarner guides are really bad right now.
Have fun reading.



If you think there is something wrong in this guide tell me in the comment section and wait for my answer before down voting please. I am planning to make this the #1 Skarner guide on Mobafire and I am always open to discuss with those that consider I should change anything.






Position: Jungler
Champion Type: Tank
Skarner is a tier 1 jungler, meaning that he is one of the top picks for jungling. He excels when it comes to ganking, tanking and initiating team fights while still being able to deal "tons of damage". He is one of the champions that will punish the bad positioning of enemy carries very hard (like


As I will present skarner as a jungler in this guide I really suggest that you know how to jungle well, being a good jungler can win your team the game while being a bad can lose the game for your team.


As all champions

energize









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PROS
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{{
CONS

C O N S |
sPACE |
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sPACE |
C O N S |




Runes




I use this rune build in order to get an as fast clearing speed as possible and a bit of more sustain in the jungle.
Runes



M A R K S M A R K S |
Choosing between these depends on your playstyle. If you are the one that likes to farm alot then I would suggest
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M A R K S M A R K S |
Runes



S E A L S S E A L S |
Again choosing between these two will depend on your play style. Geting flat armor seals means that you like to have a safe early game, whilst geting hp per level seals means that you like to dominate late game. The choice is totally yours.
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S E A L S S E A L S |
Runes



G L Y P H S G L Y P H S |
If you are the farmer you will love the AS but if you really want to be as hard to bring down as possible in late game then MR per level glyphs are ideal.
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G L Y P H S G L Y P H S |
Runes



Q U I N T S Q U I N T S |
For
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Q U I N T S Q U I N T S |

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Energize.A very useful passive that will let ![]() |
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Crystal slash.This is your main source damage. This skill will let you clear camps ridiculously fast and gives skarner the ability to make ganks before hitting level 6. I would say the biggest problem of skarner ganking before level 6 is getting in melee range of the enemy, after that you can just spam him and apply your perma slow. | |
TIPS & TRICKS
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Crystalline Exoskeleton.This ability gives an MS & AS boost, it will also help you jungle faster so use it to get from camp to camp and to clear camps faster. Remember that enemies cancel it by simply breaking it so be careful. | |
TIPS & TRICKS
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Fracture.This is just some sustain you get for free. If you will use this build you won't neither deal so much damage with this nor will you get too much heal from it so that's why we are maxing it last.
TIPS & TRICKS
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Impale.Skarner's signature move, this is the only skill in LoL that will let you move your enemies around manualy. Even if you won't be able to drag them for too long it is still a very good skill when it comes to ganking or getting their ad carry into the team fight. However, use this as your last resort when ganking, you may be able to kill them just with your ![]() | |
TIPS & TRICKS
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As with all ultimates I take









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Starting Items
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@
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![]() ![]() Starting with ![]() @ |
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![]() ![]() This is a situational start. You can get this in case your team is invading and you want to be able to apply your slow and stick to your target. Or in case you want to make some early ganks on somebody like ![]() |
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These are the items that

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These are hands down best boots for tanks in a finished build. The MS is enough for you to keep up with your enemies and the MR is always welcome. The big thing about this is the Tenacity, with it you can get out of very sticky skills like ![]() ![]() |
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I can't explain how important this item is for ![]() |
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Totaly needed on ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Situational Items
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These items can change depending on the enemy team composition or on how the game is evolving.


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This will be your main tool in defending your self from the enemy magic damage dealers. I prioritize this over any MR item because ![]() |
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This should be get as your last item because you want ![]() |
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This shall be bought instead of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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I rarely get this item on ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Items Building Order
T
T
T
In this chapter I will show you the order of items you should follow and I will try to cover as many situations as possible.
Early Items
- philosopher's stone: this should be bought at your first recall; if you started with
Regrowth Pendant then it will be easy to get the money for it but if you started with
Boots then you will probably have to farm a bit more;
Boots: I like to have the money for both this and my philosopher's stone at my firt recall, this will help you with your ganks and your clearing speed;
Heart of Gold: this shall be bought before upgrading your boots, having double gp10 will put much more presure on lanes as they will know you don't have to be constant farming now;
Mobility Boots: geting these as early boots will make your ganks so strong it is not even funny, if you find yourself ganking alot then don't hesitate on buying them, they really work well; remember to sell them in late game because you will need the
Mercury's Treads tenacity and MR more at that stage;
Mercury's Treads: they do not make your ganks as strong as
Mobility Boots do but they will still help you keep up with your enemies;
Shurelya's Battlesong: this should be you first major item no matter what, the active will help your ganks by a ton and will give you nice stats for a deccent price
Aegis of the Legion: I tend to get this immediately after my
Shurelya's Battlesong because it supports your team against the enemy damage;
Frozen Heart: the first part you buy of this is the
Glacial Shroud because it gives you the armor and CDR you need; usually you build this as soon as possible;
Force of Nature: in case the enemy AP carry is fed you should rush this and you can just leave the
Glacial Shroud unfinished;
Randuin's Omen: if the enemy physical damage dealers are becoming too much of a problem and you can't stand in front of their damage it would be a good idea to leave
Negatron Cloak unfinished and start building this; in a standard case you would leave this to the last item place as
Frozen Heart gives you enough armor and you want
Heart of Gold to stay in your inventory as much as possible;
Banshee's Veil: well if they are so AP heavy and
Force of Nature was not enough then buy this after fnishing the
Frozen Heart
Example's of finished builds order
t
t
Items You Should Never Buy
Guardian Angel
You are the tank, you want to be focused, you should not be afraid of death, do you see any kind of contradicition between your role and this item?
Guinsoo's Rageblade
If you want a damage item it is best to get one that packs some survivability with it. This item is just not a top chice onSkarner.
Warmog's Armor
As I said earlier, resistances dominate over HP when it comes toSkarner because you want your W to last as long as posible. Geting this is not optimal.
Wriggle's Lantern
A bad item forSkarner, the only good stat for you is the armor but... meh. If you plan to buy it you will delay your gp10 items and you are not fully auto attack based thus meaning it is not as efficient on you as it is on say....
Master Yi.

Like everybody I was curious and I tested him, extremely fun to see how people in blind pick can't bring you down because of the shield and the heal. But you will want not to try this in serious games.

RECOMMENDED Summoner Spells
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I take Flash on every champion I play. It helps you escape from very bad situations, chase enemies, as they will usually have a flash you must be able to keep up with them. |

VIABLE Summoner Spells
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Another spell that can help you escape and chase, maybe you can also use it so you can drag opponents with your ![]() ![]() |
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A fine spell, a well placed exhaust can shut down their ad carry, but I think that the support on your team should pick up this rather than you. |

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As a jungler probably the thing you will hate the most is when you come to a lane and wait in the brush but the enemy laners just stay near their turret not leting you to gank them and wasting time. Laners are aware that they are always in danger of being ganked and the way they will prevent this will be buying sight ward and



WHO SHOULD TAKE ORACLE'S ?
- The support can take oracle's in order to have control over the bot lane but this will make his life more precious and probably he won't sacrifice himself to save the ad carry anymore.
- I consider that the jungler must be the one getting the early
Oracle's Elixir because he is the one that will roam through the whole map and he will be able not only to eliminate enemy vision from bot lane but on all lanes and even jungle.
- However when team fights start occuring and the support will start roaming with the team he should be the one to buy
Oracle's Elixir as you will need the money for your build.
- you are doing well and have advantage over the enemy jungler
- you are sure that you are not in danger of dying any soon
- the enemy team's vision over the map is giving your team trouble
- a lane where the enemy laner dominates is always warded
- taking an early dragon so the enemy team will not even know you are doing it
- you want to counter jungle hard and the enemy has warded it's jungle
- the enemy team has champions that use stealth (
Twitch,
Talon,
Akali etc.)
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Now about early



The trick with Oracle’s is to get your monies worth, it is a calculated risk you have to make if you are contemplating buying one early game.


- go to wolves and wait till they spawn, ask for help in killing them
- go to blue buff and ask for a leash and your top laner shall help you kill it, use
Smite
- go to wraiths camp, kill them by spamming Q and W
- go to wolves camp, kill them
- go to double golems camp, kill them
- go to red buff, use
Smite, kill them
- now you choose what you want to do, you can start ganking, you can counter jungle or you can recall

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As a jungler you will have to do more than just farm and gank. You must have control over you jungle thus implying the Blue and Red Buff. In this chapter I will show you what you must know about them when jungling as


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Blue Buff
Spawn Time: 1:55
Respawn Time: 5:00
Duration(without

Duration(with

\
This buff is very important for your mid laner, it will allow him to spam his skills without worrying about runing out of mana(there are exceptions like



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}
Red Buff
Spawn Time: 1:55
Respawn Time: 5:00
Duration(without

Duration(with

\
This buff will help your ganks as it has an on hit slow effect. Some jungler don't have any ganking mechanism without this (e.g.:



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The global objectives are the Dragon and Baron. These mobs are found on the river and on being killed they give gold to every member of the team that has made the killing blow.

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Dragon
Spawn Time: 2:30
Respawn Time: 6:00
Gold: 190 (+ 25 for killer)
Experience: 400 to nearby allies
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Dragon is found between mid lane and bot lane. It should ALWAYS be warded by the support on bot lane. This is when you should plan on killing it:
- enemy bot lane has recalled
- enemy jungler is too far away to get there in time
- enemy team has no vision over it
- you have won a team fight and you are healthy enough to take dragon
- your top laner came to help thus making it a 4v5 if they want a fight


In your whole team you are the one that is expected to steal dragon if the enemy team is about to kill it as you are the one that has

You must always know the respawn time of it and try to take it out as soon as it spawns, one dragon kill will not make a huge difference but stacking them can give you the advantage.
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Baron Nashor
Spawn Time: 15:00
Respawn Time: 7:00
Gold: 300 (+ 25 for killer)
Experience: 900
Buff Duration: 4:00

- the enemy team is not in the position to start a fight with you(e.g.: their ad carry is on bot lane)
- you won a team fight with more than half health(baron deals very much damage)
- enemy team has no vision on it and you can kill it fast enough


Here I will show you two ganking methods that should work when a straight forward gank won't.(paint FTW)
Round Turret Gank: river warded
"
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In case of the river being warded you will have to find another way of entering in the lane, this routes should do the trick, remember that you may take some turret shots so you better be sure that you can tank them.

"

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Ninja Gank: lane pushed
"
"
Sometimes you will find that your laners have pushed the minion wave and you don't want to risk a dive on the enemy. The ninja gank implies that the enemy doesn't know that you are in the brush and you have to wait there for an occasion to attack. This gank can not be used for mid lane. The following image implies that you are on the blue team."
"



Akali
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A very mobile champion that can juke you forever if the player is smart. Ganking her might be a real pain as she can turn invisible with ![]() ![]() |
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This is another hard gank. His ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Darius
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A highly over rated champion in my opinion. The idea of playing ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Fiora
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This should not be a hard gank. Her only escape tool is ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Gangplank
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This is another champion that can make you waste your ultimate. His ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Jax
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Jax has some nice tricks up his sleeve and he is not afraid to use them. He can escape from alot of ganks just by using ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Jayce
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A very flexible champion. He will usually be seen as a jungler, ad carry, top laner altough I saw him sometimes going mid and he did really well. Ganking him well be a bit hard as he can jump to you, slow you, knock you back then escape through his gate with huge MS. You will want your top laner to try and first make ![]() |
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Kayle
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Got to hate them kiters. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Kennen
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The stun king, or queen, I am not sure about his gender. He is a good choice for both mid and top lane. Your top laner may have a hard time laning against this guy as he uses energy. Also you may have a hard time to gank him because his ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Malphite
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Malphite has 2 skills that may help him escape a gank, first is his ![]() ![]() |
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Mordekaiser
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Nasus
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Olaf
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This guy will mostly be seen in the jungle, but there are times when he will decide to go top lane so you must know how to gank him. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Pantheon
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A rather easy gank. His only choices will be to stun you with ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Poppy
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This one is hard to gank. She is just so tanky. You will want to try to gank her before level 6 and give you top laner an early advantage. When ganking her before level 6 remember that her ![]() ![]() |
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Rengar
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I had the chance to meet him alot of times and he is not a very hard to gank champion. One common mistake you may make is when you see him entering in the brush you go towards his turret to intercept him, no, while in the bush he can jump to you and then he will slow or even root you in place thus giving you low chances to catch him anymore. After level 6 he really is not a problem to gank, just buy orcale's elixir to counter his ultimate, at this point he can not risk anymore getting in your melee range as he will get an ![]() |
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Rumble
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This is probably one of the most dangerous to gank champions. His aoe ult can melt down both your laner and you. He has an MS boost making him even harder to gank. I play him and I can tell you that it is somehow easy for him to turn a gank on him into a double kill. You must be careful, after he landed ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Shen
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Some people consider him a jungler but he definitely belongs to top lane IMO because of his crazy sustain and ability to set up ganks and because of the energy system of course. About ganking him, you will almost surely not be able to kill him in one gank as his ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Singed
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Ganking this guy as ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Swain
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Teemo
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I see ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Tryndamere
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Vladimir
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This dude is an ******* when it comes to ganking him. He can become untargetable with his ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Wukong
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This monkey will be a tricky gank. Remember that you must NEVER get tricked by his ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Yorick
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Whenever the enemy ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Ahri
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Before level 6 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Anivia
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When ganking ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Annie
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Brand
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Cassiopeia
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She is pretty hard to gank, she has an MS boost, a slow, and an aoe stun. Before level 6 it will be hard for you to gank her so best is not to try too hard. After level 6 remember that her stun is applied only in a cone so you may want to gank as you do with ![]() ![]() |
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Diana
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Fizz
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Galio
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Gragas
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A popular pick in high skill level play. He has a double ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Kassadin
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People categorized ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Katarina
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This is not a hard gank, really. Her ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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LeBlanc
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She is considered the counter to most mages and you will have a hard time ganking her. She likes to kill people in a matter of seconds so you may even be too late to avoid the death of your laner. Ideal against her is to have a beefy laner on your side (like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Lux
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Another champion that excels at kiting... bad news for you. Lux will usually keep distance from her targets that making it harder for you to catch her out of position. ![]() ![]() |
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Malzahar
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Xerath
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MORE TO COME SOON

(the ratings in this section have been taken from here
Counter jungling is an important aspect of the game, succesfully counter jungling can set the enemy jungler behind and give you a huge advantage. Also with proper camp timing you can also give an advantage to your mid laner(a mid laner that has blue buff has the advantage of being able to spam his skills), or stealing red buff can negate the ganking potential of some junglers.
These are some situations when counter jungling is safe:
- you know exactly where the enemy jungler is
- you are a stronger duelist than the enemy jungler and the enemy laners are under too much pressure to help their jungler
- your laners come to help you steal a buff (this obviously won't happen with small camps)
- you have warded the enemy jungle
- you don't know where the enemy jungler is
- the enemy jungler is a better duelist than you
- you are a bit behind (low on farm/level)
- the enemy laners are missing
- the enemy has very good vision over the map
- the enemy jungler is rarely coming out of his jungle and likes to farm
- the enemy jungler has one of the top clearing speeds in game
Also an important factor of counter jungling is first to know what your jungler can do, and what the enemy jungler can do. Here are the ratings of

- Speed: 7
- Sustain: 7
- Ganking: 7
- Deflecting Counter Jungling: 7
- Counter Jungling: 8
- Late Game: 10



Alistar
Speed: 6
Sustain: 5
Ganking: 10
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 4
Counter Jungling: 6
Late Game: 6



Amumu
Speed: 5
Sustain: 4
Ganking: 6
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 2
Counter Jungling: 3
Late Game: 10






Dr Mundo
Speed: 10
Sustain: 6
Ganking: 5
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 8
Counter Jungling: 10
Late Game: 7
When having Mundo as the enemy jungler you will want to concentrate more on ganking than farming as he is one of the best thieves in game. Your ganks are way better than his as all his ganking tools is his





Hecarim
Speed: 6
Sustain: 5
Ganking: 5
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 6
Counter Jungling: 5
Late Game: 4



Jax
Speed: 6
Sustain: 1
Ganking: 4
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 5
Counter Jungling: 4
Late Game: 8




Lee Sin
Speed: 8
Sustain: 10
Ganking: 8
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 10
Counter Jungling: 9
Late Game: 5



Malphite
Speed: 8
Sustain: 10
Ganking: 5
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 7
Counter Jungling: 7
Late Game: 7





Maokai
Speed: 6
Sustain: 2
Ganking: 10
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 4
Counter Jungling: 4
Late Game: 2
This guy has probably the strongest ganks in game. A thing you must know is that he lacks the DPS needed to take out big camps so you can go straight into his jungle after taking the blue buff. You can 1 v 1 him anytime but him seeing you in his jungle is not good as he will make enough time for the laners to come and aid him in killing you. Remember that his snare is a great initiator for team fights, but with good reflexes, the targeted person can flash away thus bringing him in the back of the fight and his whole team exposed.


Nautilus
Speed: 3
Sustain: 5
Ganking: 10
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 3
Counter Jungling: 1
Late Game: 9




Nocturne
Speed: 8
Sustain: 7
Ganking: 9
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 8
Counter Jungling: 7
Late Game: 8







Nunu
Speed: 3
Sustain: 6
Ganking: 5
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 4
Counter Jungling: 5
Late Game: 5






Olaf
Speed: 9
Sustain: 4
Ganking: 6
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 5
Counter Jungling: 5
Late Game: 4






Shyvana
Speed: 10
Sustain: 9
Ganking: 1
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 9
Counter Jungling: 10
Late Game: 8
Jungling against her is very similar to




Trundle
Speed: 7
Sustain: 8
Ganking: 8
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 10
Counter Jungling: 7
Late Game: 6
Sadly





Udyr
Speed: 10
Sustain: 10
Ganking: 2
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 9
Counter Jungling: 9
Late Game: 8





Warwick
Speed: 5
Sustain: 8
Ganking: 6
Deflecting Counter Jungling: 3
Counter Jungling: 2
Late Game: 9
This guy has crazy sustain in the jungle. He usualy is build as a health shreder so you shall stack some early MR but he can be built many other ways too so be sure to check his items and see what he is building. His pre level 6 are horrible, abuse this, gank as much before level 6 so he has to keep up. But, after he reaches level 6 his ganking potential greatly increases (just like you) but I consider that you will still be the better ganker as his surpress is just 0.05 seconds longer and you can displace your target and still move, while he can't. Whenever you see


Here is an image that will let you understand:

- Red Dots: Critical points that should always be warded, usually the Dragon will be warded by your bot lane but do not expect him to ward baron since he is too far away and will loose time. The baron ward can be put both by the solo laners and you.
- Yellow Dots: These wards are placed in order to protect the laners from ganks. Sometimes somebody will not want to leave his lane and will tell you that he needs a ward, these are the places you should ward.
- Green Dots: Ward these if you are getting counter jungled so you laners will know when somebody tries to steal your buffs and come to help.
- Blue Dots: These are the places you should ward if you are going for an agressive style and want to steal the enemy buffs whenever they spawn. Note that it is possible for the enemy jungler to know when these buffs spawn and he may request help from laners to kill you if he sees you trying to steal his buff so I suggest not going alone.
- notice how he is able to effectively use the fog of war so they don't see him before it's too late
- the guy in the video uses
Ghost instead of
Flash as summoner spell, it is a good choice as I said earlier but a
Flash over the wall could have closed the gap immediately
- his target is
Vayne, the ad carry, such a great initiation shall never be wasted on a bruiser/tank

If you had success with this guide I would love some screenshots of your games posted in the comment section.
I would also appreciate suggestions for the Match Ups and Ganking chapter as I may not remember all of them.
Thanks to jhijhoi's Making A Guide guide and for her awesome line separators.
Thanks to IceCreamy's How to use columns guide.
Thanks to League Wiki for their useful information.
Thanks to effinvices for the banners.
Thanks to CorruptSoul for helping me with the layout.
Thanks to the people who give me constructive reviews on this guide.
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