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What is working for me? 4 Aug 2017

First things. I have a good computer that can easily run league. I have a speedy internet connection that stable most of the time. I'm close enough to the servers in Chicago to tend to hover around 21 ping. I have a decent desk chair that lets me keep my mouse and keyboard in a reasonably comfortable position.

I've been playing since late in Season 2. I own all the champions so I can trade people in champion select in needs be. I can play a lot of the those champions with some facility.

I've watched a lot of videos and read a lot of posts/articles on how to play league and I've gotten some coaching and I've done a little bit of coaching. I watch streams or youtube videos of high level players that explain what they are thinking, such as Edge and SoloRenektonOnly.

I keep a running list of my games here in my ranked post, generally with some comments on how things went and possibly how I could have done things better. I also try to blog about …

Any time you walk back into your own jungle on low health, after a gank for instance, you need to be cognizant of the fact that you are vulnerable, especially if you blew you mobility spells such as Flash or Ghost.

So the answer to the question of "Can I take just one more camp before backing?"

Needs to include the following survey:

Is their jungler dead?
If their jungler is not dead, where did you last see them?
Were they healthy?

Where are their other laners?

Where are my laners?

So if your answers come up as

No.
Same side of the map as me or I don't know.
Yes.

I don't know.

Not close enough or in good enough shape or position to help me should I run into trouble.

Then you have the answer to the question of "Can I take just one more camp before backing?"

No.

Brought to you by the experience of dying when failing to walk through that sort of decision tree and killing the enemy jungler when they fail to go through it.

And to be clear it isn't always the enemy jungler tha…

PSA: After the 20 minute mark both teams get the Homeguard bonus when coming off of their fountain.

Homeguard

So, if you think to yourself can we push for just one more turret or the inhibitor after the turret or are we overstaying? You are probably overstaying. Definitely do not chance this if you don't have the minions in the lanes pushing toward the enemy side of the map. Get the easy objective and get out!

I will sometimes call this out in chat and I've noticed when I do that my teams will play a little more carefully around respawn times.

Remember if you screw this up you will have 5 angry, fully healed, and having just purchased champions in your face much quicker than you might anticipate if you don't take the homeguard bonus into account. It is a recipe for getting wiped and losing a whole lot on the map especially if your minions are not pushing toward the enemy's side of the map.

When you think of tanks in the jungle, you probably think of Zac,

Gank or Invade?

On your first clear whether or not you should take Scuttle Crab on the side of the map you are on depends on if your lanes have priority or not and/or how you feel about your chances if you meet the enemy jungler in the river.

Win rates on most junglers are in the 50% range. There are some with higher - Zac, Nunu & Willump,

Tweaked and reposted from my ranked update thread.

I received coaching from Bot Only a Diamond 1/sometime Master ranked NA player.

We did an active game review and a couple of VOD reviews of games I had played. We used Skype to share my screen though I found that I had to change my in-game video display setting to Borderless from Full Screen as it kept dropping me out of League, which resulted in an early death when I had a game drop and their jungler or Mid laner spotted me out.

Other than that and some idiot teammates I ended up ahead in farm and XP compared to my counterpart in the enemy jungle. Part of that came from clearing lanes after ganks to help my laners get out of lane sooner so they could back and heal up. More priority on farming, especially in the Mid game (I think I farm a lot, but I don't especially in the Mid game when teams seem to want to ARAM and you feel you have to be there in case your team gets engaged on or when laners are whining about needing help becau…

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One of the more informative high ELO junglers I've run across, Edge, is back with another video on decision making around jungling. He hits a number of topics in a game where he had a non-optimal start with a Top laner that was behind from the get go. He plays the game well for the most part but illustrates a key decision point that likely cost them the game.

3 Camp Clear Same Side of Jungle + Back:

Can be useful if you are a jungler that commonly gets invaded or if for some reason you don't get a leash so you will be so low when you go to the opposite side of your jungle that if they do invade you there you are practically guaranteed to have to use a summoner to get away and/or die.

Uses Rengar as an example. Rengars will commonly clear their Red side jungle starting with Raptors > Red > Krugs > Back. This lets them come back to their Blue side jungle with a Long Sword and full health, which vastly increases their dualing potential.

Efficient clear…

Learned the hard way that while you can grab invisible or camouflaged units with a Blitzcrank Q, Rocket Grab, it will only make them shimmer when it hits them. By the time they are sitting in your lap they will be invisible or camouflaged again and therefore untargetable by

Time for my yearly Aatrox trials. Quick impressions.

Accessing Hellbent is super important. Starting out that is accessed through the third proc of Blood Price.

Runes:

9 Attack Speed Marks
9 Armor Seals
5 sMR or MR + 4 Attack Speed Glyphs
3 Attack Speed Quints

Masteries:

I've been running 18-0-12 with Fervor of Battle the keystone of choice. You could alternatively run 18-12-0. And some people seem to like Grasp of the Undying so 12-0-18 is another possibility though the later seems to be more lanecentric.

Skill Order

They fixed the healing on his W Blood Thirst at a value that scales with the amount of points you put into it + 6.5% of your missing health, so there is less reason to max this first.

For ganking that means that you should probably level E,

Early game, choose one after a double kill in Bot lane assuming you have enough champion power and health and mana to get it quickly.

Choosing to do both is a lot more risky because it gives their jungle, Mid, and potentially their Bot lane time to show up (+ a possible Teleport from their Top laner). And their Bot lane will have topped up on sustain and bought items assuming they had enough gold which means they will be at an item advantage over your Bot lane.

If it something juicy like an Infernal or Mountain Drake then opt for the Drake. If it is something less interesting like a Cloud or Ocean Drake then knock off the tower first.

If you opt to take Drake make sure your Mid and your Bot lane shove their waves in their respective lanes so that their opposing laners have to choose whether to deal with the minions at their tower/in their lane or going to contest the drake. The minions also provide you with some vision in that lane as long as the are alive.

As jungler with Smite…