Hey, I’m brucelsprouts (bedmas #sqrt on NA league). This season I started taking ranked seriously and climbed from Emerald to Diamond using mainly Diana and Volibear.

https://op.gg/lol/summoners/NA/bedmas-sqrt

Even though my Diana stats look better, Volibear was what really carried my climb. He’s just more reliable and dominant in the current meta tankier, stronger in fights, and perfect for the chaotic low-elo games where every match turns into a brawl.

If you prefer Diana, don’t worry the jungle macro and playstyle in this guide work for her too. Below are a few of my best games showing how easily I’ve been climbing (I’d be higher if I had the will to play more ranked… and fewer inting teammates).

These runes are the most consistent and effective for Volibear and other skirmisher junglers like Viego, bruiser Diana, Jarvan, and Xin Zhao.

Take Lethal Tempo it’s great compensation for Volibear’s lower attack speed when building AD, and it scales better into late game. You can take Press the Attack if you’re going more AP-oriented, but even then, Lethal just feels smoother and stronger overall.

As for summoners, Flash and Smite are the only real options. They just make sense what else are you gonna take?

Cosmic Drive offers barely any extra damage or clear speed compared to Black Cleaver. Cleaver not only helps your teammates through armor shred, but also provides similar movement speed, ability haste, health, and offensive stats.

Because it gives AD, it scales with Volibear’s Q, W, and R, which are much more impactful than his E or passive. Overall, this build gives you more tankiness and brawling power, making it perfect for lower-elo, fight-heavy games.

Iceborn Gauntlet and Spirit Visage also add solid tankiness, sustain, and defensive stats — helping you survive longer while still dealing good damage.

So overall, it’s just better to go Black Cleaver over Cosmic Drive, and then follow one of the other build paths depending on the game:

Trinity Force Path: When the enemy team is mostly squishy.

Cosmic Drive Path: Only if your team really needs AP damage.

Here are two great videos that helped shape this build and playstyle:

Volibear itemization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5u0BasUQ8

General itemization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a78nhNb1_M

FULL CLEAR TOP TO BOT AND DO IT FAST.

Your mindset should be simple you’re the main character. Your teammates are side characters (or minions), and your job is to control the flow of the game.

There’s a lot to jungling, but to summarize the important parts: play for yourself and always take the guaranteed play. This follows Agurin’s ideology, which I highly recommend checking out on his channel, along with Coach Kirei’s videos — both are incredibly informative if you want to understand high-level jungle concepts.

So what does “the guaranteed play” mean?
It means you prioritize your camps and save time because time is the most important resource in jungle. Whoever is up in farm and keeps their jungle clear holds tempo, giving them more gold, XP, and map presence.

Clearing your camps gives immediate, guaranteed gold, while failed ganks waste time, delay your next camp respawn, and risk losing them to invades. Always prioritize camps over risky, coinflip plays like objectives without lane priority or low-probability ganks.

When it comes to objectives, they’re important but only if you have the time and priority to take them. Ideally, look for dragons or Herald right after a full clear or when you have prio from mid and the corresponding side lane. If you don’t have prio, it’s fine just cross-map instead. Trade objectives or invade the opposite side for camps. That’s how you play smart around strong side vs. weak side.

And don’t be afraid to ping. Spamming pings is one of the best ways to “mind control” your low-elo teammates into following you. If you want help on an objective, spam ping it in their face — it works more often than you’d think.

Lastly, always try to identify your one winning lane early. Play around that lane, gank when possible, and avoid losing lanes unless you’re 100% sure you can secure a kill on your own with your camps already cleared.

Play efficiently, keep your tempo, and remember you set the pace of the game, not your teammates.

As a jungler, one of the most important skills to learn is tracking the enemy jungler. It’s not as complicated as it sounds — just pay attention to where they started and what camps they’ve likely cleared.

If they started top the same time you did, by the time you finish your first full clear, you can assume they’re finishing theirs too. On your next clear, the only side of your jungle that’s back up will be your top side, which means the enemy’s top side should also be respawning. So if you’re on top side, chances are the enemy jungler is there too.

This is the basic idea of tracking — just think about what camps are up, what lanes are open to ganks, and where you would go if you were them. You don’t need to know their exact location; that’s unrealistic and not worth overthinking in low elo. Just having a rough idea of where they might be is enough since low elo junglers often make bad plays anyway. Usually, they’ll go to the side where their camps are up or where they see an opportunity to fight.

Wave Management Awareness

It’s also important to look at your lanes and think about what their wave state will be by the time you finish clearing a side. You can use that info to plan ganks more efficiently by kiting your last camp toward that lane.

For example: on your second full clear (as red side), if you’re about to clear Krugs but you notice the enemy top laner is about to crash a big wave, there’s a good chance they’ll get greedy. In that case, kite your Krugs toward tri-bush and look for a gank instead of just pathing straight Krugs → Raptors.

For more on this kind of planning, check the First Clear section above.

Vertical Jungling

Sometimes, you’ll be forced to play vertically — meaning you clear your quarter of the map and the enemy’s corresponding quarter. This usually happens if you get invaded early or the enemy jungler has stronger prio on one side.

When this happens, don’t panic — just play to the opposite side of the map. You’re still farming gold and XP while denying theirs. As long as you’re clearing somebody’s camps, you’re staying in the game.

Invading and Vision Setup

Invading is one of the strongest ways to punish bad junglers — especially as Volibear, since you can win most 1v1s if you play it right. There’s a lot to it, but the general idea is simple:

Invade when the enemy is across the map.
Example: If they gank bot while their top camps are still up, go take those camps as long as you have some lane prio (top or mid).

Ping your invade. Make sure teammates know you’re doing it so they can move if needed.

Use Oracle Lens. It helps you know if you’re being watched and avoid walking into traps.

Another situation: if the enemy jungler barely survives a teamfight and goes back to clearing on low HP, that’s a free punish. Walk into their jungle, kill them, and take their camps. Low elo players often overstay for a few extra camps after fights — abuse that greed.

Flexibility and Camp Desync

League is a flexible game — every situation is different. Don’t be afraid to skip or desync your camps if the trade-off is worth it. A big play or objective is always better than mindlessly keeping your jungle perfect.

Also, don’t feel pressured to help losing fights that look doomed. Sometimes the best play is not helping. Saving your time and tempo is often worth more than trying to save a teammate who’s already dead. Remember: you’re the win condition, not your teammates. Play for yourself — you’re the one climbing, not them.

Objective Awareness & Timers

Learn general spawn timers like:

Scuttle: 3:30

First Dragon: 5:00

Grubs / Atakhan: depends on patch but keep them in the back of your head.

You should always be thinking about these timers subconsciously. Ideally, finish your full clear before an objective so you’re strong and ready to contest. Try to recall about a minute before it spawns, spend gold, and make sure you have your ult and sums ready. Don’t waste cooldowns right before a big fight — those CDs could decide the next objective.

Playing from Behind

If you’re behind, your goal shifts to stabilizing. Only go for ganks that are 100% guaranteed, and make sure the enemy jungler can’t interfere. Most of the time, you’ll have to give up objectives and just focus on full clearing.

There’s no such thing as being “behind” as a jungler in isolation — it’s more about being behind as a team. If your team can’t fight, you can’t force. But personally, as Volibear, you’re still dangerous. You can stat-check almost anyone if you play it well.

In general, junglers will always be a bit weaker early than laners since they don’t get lane XP or minion gold, but your strength comes from impact and tempo, not early dueling (unless you’re Voli, of course).

Role Awareness in Teamfights

Lastly, know your role in teamfights.
Volibear can do it all — engage, frontline, peel, or dive. Watch your support and see what they’re doing:

If your Leona or Rell is diving in, you can peel for your carries.

If they’re playing defensive, you can look for the engage yourself.

Play around what your team isn’t doing. Adapt to fill the gap and keep fights balanced.

Always full clear top to bot — consistency is key. Even if a level 3 gank could get a kill, it’s usually not worth it. Early ganks desync your camps, which ruins your tempo later. When your camps come back up unevenly, you’ll end up standing around waiting for respawns instead of farming efficiently. Keep your jungle in sync — that’s what separates good junglers from coinflippers.

Early Vision Setup

Before the game starts, always set up early vision. Most games — if not every game — I’ll sit in the mid-lane or top-lane river bush until around 1:10, then place my ward.

On blue side, ward the enemy red-side Raptors or the entrance leading to them.

On red side, ward your own Raptor entrance to spot any early invades.

Even if you plan on starting Raptors yourself, that ward is still valuable — it gives you info on whether the enemy is planning a cheese invade or early gank.

After dropping the ward, recall immediately and swap to Oracle Lens. Getting Oracle early is extremely important — it helps deny vision for Scuttle fights, protects your laners from early ganks, and lets you invade safely.

First Back Timing & Buys

After your first full clear or first recall, you should always try to spend your gold efficiently. Don’t sit on large amounts of gold — that kills your tempo.

Your ideal first back is:

Pickaxe — strong early spike for Volibear, helps you win 1v1s and invades.

Oracle Lens (if you didn’t already swap).

Dark Seal — great value if you can afford it. Since Voli rarely dies when played correctly, it usually pays off later.

Small tip: try to back on a good timing, usually after finishing your Krugs or Gromp, so you can path back down efficiently on respawn.

Blue Side Clear Path
Start Blue → Gromp → Wolves → Raptors → Krugs → Red.
This keeps your camps perfectly synced and gives you an efficient full clear.

Red Side Clear Path
Start Raptors → Krugs → Red → Wolves → Gromp → Blue.
Clearing your buff after its paired camp keeps your rotation aligned and prevents awkward downtime later.

After Your First Full Clear

After your first full clear, you should look for one of three options:

Bot gank – if it’s guaranteed or the lane is already fighting.

Counter-gank – reactively punish the enemy jungler’s aggression.

Scuttle fight – only if it’s safe or you have lane prio.

If there’s no Scuttle fight on your side, move to the opposite Scuttle. After that, on Red Side, recall after your Krug clear, then path back down from top to bot, looking for a bot or mid gank. On Blue Side, you can recall after Scuttle, then start clearing top to bot again.

Repeat this cycle:
Full clear → look for guaranteed play → recall → full clear again.

It’s simple, efficient, and wins games through tempo — not coinflips.

Extra Tip

Don’t hold too much gold. Sitting on a big stack of unspent gold is terrible for tempo — you’ll end up losing fights and wasting pressure. Back often, spend efficiently, and keep your tempo flowing.

Mid Game & Gameplan


LOOK FOR FEATS

The mid game is simple just keep full clearing while looking for ganks and setting up objectives about one minute before they spawn.

Always ping your laners early so they know to move. After each full clear (or just before starting the next one), look for guaranteed ganks or pressure plays before objectives appear.

When deciding to start an objective, check for lane priority and whether your team can win the fight if one breaks out. If you don’t have prio or it looks risky, don’t force it just keep farming and play for the next setup instead.

Late Game & Objective Control


FIGHT FOR ATAKHAN

The late game follows the same pattern as mid game keep full clearing, contesting objectives, and looking for picks before big fights around Baron or Dragon.

Your top priority should always be Atakhan it’s a game changing objective, often more impactful than Baron and almost on par with Elder Dragon. You have to fight for it every time it’s up.

Play around vision, look for picks before objectives, and make sure your team groups early to secure position.

Combos & Mechanics

Volibear doesn’t have flashy combos, but timing your abilities properly makes a huge difference during ganks and fights.

Q is your chase tool, not your engage — try to save it for sticking to targets.

E should be timed with your Q to land more consistently. Stun the enemy about one second after casting E to maximize uptime.

Play in and out of fights — you don’t always need to all-in.

Look for W bites, as the heal is significant and helps you sustain longer.

Longer fights generally favor you, so don’t rush — extended skirmishes are where Volibear shines.

Tips, Tricks & Common Mistakes

Don’t overplay. As a jungler, your biggest resource isn’t gold — it’s time. Efficient, optimal clears and maintaining good tempo matter more than chasing every play.

Keep your tempo. Wasting time or desyncing your camps slows your progress and limits your options. Always think one step ahead about what your next move will be.

There’s always a play available — but you don’t need to take every gank just because you see one. Focus on high-percentage plays that align with your clear and objectives.

Stay positive. Jungle is the hardest role mentally. You control the game’s pace and are often blamed for everything that goes wrong. Don’t let it tilt you.

Mute all if needed (I personally do, with pings on and chat off). It keeps your focus sharp and stops teammates from dragging down your mindset.

Remember: consistency and calm decision-making win more games than any fancy mechanics.

Keep playing and trying to win every game don’t give up early if you really want to climb. Mute all, full clear efficiently, and use your time wisely. Don’t overplay maintaining tempo is what wins games, not flashy plays.

For general League knowledge, watching these YouTubers really helped me understand the game better and taught me almost everything I know about macro, tempo, and jungle control. Keep learning, keep improving, and you’ll climb faster than you think.

THE GOAT OF JUNGLE COACHING
https://www.youtube.com/@KireiLoL
https://www.youtube.com/@Eagzv9

Useful general knowledge in league
https://www.youtube.com/@CoachRogue

Agurins full clear mental and guaranteed plays
https://www.youtube.com/@Agurinlol