Views: 1646 Weekly Diamond Jungle Musings - When to Take the Buffs
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Hey guys, Lasty back again with another Jungle blog. Today we are going to look at the all powerful Red and Blue buffs. When should you be selfish with them, and when should you dish them out to your teammates. The answers may surprise you, let me know what y'all think in the comments section!
BLUE Buff: Blue buff gives energy/mana regen and cooldown reduction to the person that kills it. Blue buffs after the first one are generally donated to your mid lane so that they can sustain their mana in lane etc. Lets get the obvious ones out of the way so we can focus on some times to take blue that might not be so clear.
#1 Your mid laner doesn't use mana ex: Zed, Katarina, or Kennen. In this situation feel free to take all the blues. If you chose a champion like Zac or Lee Sin you may want to give the blues to your top/adc/support if one of them is doing well.
#2 Some people if they counter-jungle the enemies first blue will then donate their blue to the mid laner. This isn't actually optimal. If you can take your first blue as well as theirs you should be REALLY ahead of their jungler which will make them think twice about counter-ganking and counter-jungling you all game. Most mids don't really benefit that much from the first blue buff anyway. That being said if you are doing some sort of lane swap it might be viable to give your top laner the first blue IF he's going to be using his abilities to farm vs a duo lane, examples include Jayce and Malphite.
#3 I don't give blue buff to my mid if they are feeding. If my mid is 0/3 or 1/4 odds are I'm going to take blue for myself even if I'm playing a manaless jungler. The reason for this is I have to assume they'll die with blue buff and feed it to the enemy team. I can't take that chance, I'd rather just try to get big and carry. The exception to this rule is if the mid is a champion that can't function w/out blue such as Anivia.
#4 I'll take the 2nd blue if I'm behind but NOT feeding. If I'm 0/3 I'll give all my buffs to my lanes and just pray they carry me. If I'm doing alright but I'm just behind the enemy jungler because they got a lot of lane farm or whatever I'll ask my mid for the 2nd blue to catch up. Being behind the enemy jungler makes their Smite more powerful, it makes their ganks better than yours, and they can invade your jungle at will. Its very dangerous to fall behind in the jungle so taking an extra buff can put you back on even footing.
#5 When I counter-jungle I generally bring my mid lane with me. I ask them to push their lane and then I invade the enemy jungle w/ them as backup. If I am doing the enemy blue I'll always Smite it and take it even as a manaless jungler. I can't take the chance that the enemy jungler is lurking around waiting to smite his buff while my mid is waiting for that last spell to come off of CD. Once I secure the enemy blue I'll let mid push another wave and then I'll get our blue for them.
RED Buff: Red buff gives your aa's true damage and a slowing effect. Generally after the first couple of red buffs they are donated over to the ADC. The reason for this is two-fold. First AD carries build a lot of AS so the true damage proc is generally most effective on them. Secondly AD carries get focused in fights and they are forced to rely on positioning and kiting to stay alive. Red buff gives them added kite potential because it slows enemy champions. How many reds do I take and when do I deprive an ADC from getting red buff?
#1 I generally like to take the first three red buffs for myself. It makes your ganks stronger and the XP and gold are substantial. The exception to this rule is if my ADC is absolutely on a rampage. I'll give them the 3rd red so they can continue dominating the game.
#2 Even if my ADC isn't doing well I'll still give them red buff unless I'm playing someone I've built some substantial AS on like Kayle jungle. AD carries still need red even if they aren't doing well. The enemy is still going to go after them and they need red to kite effectively. Another exception to this rule is if my ADC is Ezreal, they aren't doing well, AND they've built Iceborn Gauntlet. In that situation I'll take red or put it on m top/mid depending on who they're playing.
#3 If I counter-jungle an early red even if its the first one sometimes I'll give an early red to my ADC because they can make such good use of it in lane. I remember a funny time there was some confusion on blue side. I went to do red while bot lane was finishing golems. They were supposed to come up and give me a smiteless, but instead they went to lane and I started pinging red furiously. The ADC (Tristana) waddled over slowly and at that point I was taking so much damage I just decided to smite the buff. Unfortunately I missed smite and red was left w/ like 10 health. Tristana's AA was already in transit and snagged the red. I was furious (mostly at myself) but Trist basically said, 'that sucks sorry, but now I get FB'. True to her word she walked to lane and got FB about 30 seconds later. Red is SOOOO good on AD Carries I can't think of many opportunities when you should take it.
I hope you guys found this helpful. Let me know what you think!
BLUE Buff: Blue buff gives energy/mana regen and cooldown reduction to the person that kills it. Blue buffs after the first one are generally donated to your mid lane so that they can sustain their mana in lane etc. Lets get the obvious ones out of the way so we can focus on some times to take blue that might not be so clear.
#1 Your mid laner doesn't use mana ex: Zed, Katarina, or Kennen. In this situation feel free to take all the blues. If you chose a champion like Zac or Lee Sin you may want to give the blues to your top/adc/support if one of them is doing well.
#2 Some people if they counter-jungle the enemies first blue will then donate their blue to the mid laner. This isn't actually optimal. If you can take your first blue as well as theirs you should be REALLY ahead of their jungler which will make them think twice about counter-ganking and counter-jungling you all game. Most mids don't really benefit that much from the first blue buff anyway. That being said if you are doing some sort of lane swap it might be viable to give your top laner the first blue IF he's going to be using his abilities to farm vs a duo lane, examples include Jayce and Malphite.
#3 I don't give blue buff to my mid if they are feeding. If my mid is 0/3 or 1/4 odds are I'm going to take blue for myself even if I'm playing a manaless jungler. The reason for this is I have to assume they'll die with blue buff and feed it to the enemy team. I can't take that chance, I'd rather just try to get big and carry. The exception to this rule is if the mid is a champion that can't function w/out blue such as Anivia.
#4 I'll take the 2nd blue if I'm behind but NOT feeding. If I'm 0/3 I'll give all my buffs to my lanes and just pray they carry me. If I'm doing alright but I'm just behind the enemy jungler because they got a lot of lane farm or whatever I'll ask my mid for the 2nd blue to catch up. Being behind the enemy jungler makes their Smite more powerful, it makes their ganks better than yours, and they can invade your jungle at will. Its very dangerous to fall behind in the jungle so taking an extra buff can put you back on even footing.
#5 When I counter-jungle I generally bring my mid lane with me. I ask them to push their lane and then I invade the enemy jungle w/ them as backup. If I am doing the enemy blue I'll always Smite it and take it even as a manaless jungler. I can't take the chance that the enemy jungler is lurking around waiting to smite his buff while my mid is waiting for that last spell to come off of CD. Once I secure the enemy blue I'll let mid push another wave and then I'll get our blue for them.
RED Buff: Red buff gives your aa's true damage and a slowing effect. Generally after the first couple of red buffs they are donated over to the ADC. The reason for this is two-fold. First AD carries build a lot of AS so the true damage proc is generally most effective on them. Secondly AD carries get focused in fights and they are forced to rely on positioning and kiting to stay alive. Red buff gives them added kite potential because it slows enemy champions. How many reds do I take and when do I deprive an ADC from getting red buff?
#1 I generally like to take the first three red buffs for myself. It makes your ganks stronger and the XP and gold are substantial. The exception to this rule is if my ADC is absolutely on a rampage. I'll give them the 3rd red so they can continue dominating the game.
#2 Even if my ADC isn't doing well I'll still give them red buff unless I'm playing someone I've built some substantial AS on like Kayle jungle. AD carries still need red even if they aren't doing well. The enemy is still going to go after them and they need red to kite effectively. Another exception to this rule is if my ADC is Ezreal, they aren't doing well, AND they've built Iceborn Gauntlet. In that situation I'll take red or put it on m top/mid depending on who they're playing.
#3 If I counter-jungle an early red even if its the first one sometimes I'll give an early red to my ADC because they can make such good use of it in lane. I remember a funny time there was some confusion on blue side. I went to do red while bot lane was finishing golems. They were supposed to come up and give me a smiteless, but instead they went to lane and I started pinging red furiously. The ADC (Tristana) waddled over slowly and at that point I was taking so much damage I just decided to smite the buff. Unfortunately I missed smite and red was left w/ like 10 health. Tristana's AA was already in transit and snagged the red. I was furious (mostly at myself) but Trist basically said, 'that sucks sorry, but now I get FB'. True to her word she walked to lane and got FB about 30 seconds later. Red is SOOOO good on AD Carries I can't think of many opportunities when you should take it.
I hope you guys found this helpful. Let me know what you think!
Also, it's worth mentioning that, especially later in the game, if your mid/ADC is nowhere near (at fountain or dead) and you see or you're sure you're getting counter-jungled and most likely they're trying to steal your buff before your teammate makes it, you should take the buff before it's stolen.
I don't really counterpick junglers.
I've been adamant about not playing trash junglers such as Karthus. Yes Azingy does it in Diamond 1 and has success with it, but us mortals should stick to good champions.
Dunno I'll think about everything.
When to counterpick/who to counterpick jungle?
When to counterjungle and what champs to counterjungle with and those not to use
Niche picks like Karthus Jungle or Fiddle jungle and when to use them
Just throwing out some ideas.
Can someone help me make maps etc? I doubt text would the best way to explain that.
I could try, i won't promise that they'd be photoshop quality or anything but i can do...arrows and dots and stuff to get the point across...
Something intesresting would be writting an article on baron fights or something like that, the correct positioning/preparing your team for them
Others could be Madreds vs Spirit Stone and some other champions that can pull off jungle like Velocity did with