Views: 26298 A guide to jungle routes
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Hello again. (Skip intro if you're just interested in jungle routes). This blog was originally supposed to be part of the jungle tips and tricks but I would have needed to change the format completly so I decided to create a completly new blog.
Jungle routes are really important to not fall behind in levels or gold, especially early on. The first clear can set you really far behind or really far ahead in some cases. Planning your first clear ahead is a good way to be 1 step ahead of the enemy jungler which will turn into free ganks or jungle camp advantages.
I have talked about jungle efficiency and this is basically what this blog is all about. Knowing what your champion is capable of and what you're supposed to do is a big part of choosing a jungle route. Only after that you should be thinking about more advanced routing like planning which lane or objective you want to pressure. Choosing the right jungle route is all about efficiency. You want to lose as much time as possible between actions.
Here are the 2 most common mistakes that junglers do. One example of bad efficieny and one example of choosing a bad jungle route. I'll use images so you won't get bored halfway through but please do read text explanation so you understand the image. Mirror the images to red side as these are from blue side point of view.
Bad jungle efficiency, example 1
This is a very simple but big mistake. Let's imagine a situation where you have recalled and decide to clear top side jungle. At wolves you see top laner out of position so you go top lane and kill the enemy top laner. Now you decide to continue jungling and spend 1 minute walking from top lane back to raptor camp. If you thought there's nothing wrong here, you thought wrong. Spending 1 minute between jungle camps is bad efficiency. The correct way is to recall from top lane, spend the gold you have gotten and walk from base to your next jungle camp. This saves you time and you're stronger with recently purchased items.
Bad jungle route planning, example 2
There's so many things wrong with this picture. Let's assume you're starting from krugs, take red buff, kill wolves and blue buff before heading back to raptors just to notice you don't have enough hp to do anything after raptors so you recall. What this does is you spend unnecessary time walking between camps and you have nowhere to continue jungling after recalling. If you go to Gromp, wolves won't be there and if you go to krugs, raptors won't be there. The correct way would have been to clear entire bottom side of jungle before heading to top side jungle to avoid unnecessary walking back and forth. Also, if you need to recall after blue buff, you have entire bottom side of jungle to go back to.
Did I mention that was just a preparation before getting to the real point of this blog? Let's have a look at the jungle routes now. Note: I noticed I had forgotten to mention scuttle crab in pictures. Scuttle crab is always worth it early on to regain hp, gain gold and vision. Later on they are harder to kill so they're more valueable early on.
Note: When taking a jungle camp alone, killing small raptors first and little krug first saves you more hp than focusing the big minions first. This is a different story if you're able to quickly kill big krug/big raptor with smite for example. Later on this doesn't matter as you will have items.
The balanced route
This is overall the most balanced route for anyone who isn't sure about jungle routes or just wants to play it safe. This route gives you level 3 with double buffs and options to gank mid/top or continue taking gromp before recalling. Pretty simple route. Any champion can pull this off.
Early gank route / weak first clear
Junglers that benefit from this route: Junglers that can't really farm jungle camps quickly and don't benefit too much from level 3 in the jungle or when ganking a lane. This route is also good when you absolutely want to get a laner ahead with a fast gank so the lane will carry in the late game (like Irelia vs Riven). Champions like Tahm Kench, Rammus, Shaco, Nautilus can take this route.
Pros and cons: You get fast level 3 that should allow you to gank a lane first as many junglers take a camp between buffs. Many laners are not expecting early ganks so this is a great way of pressuring a lane which you want your laner to win in order to carry the game. On the other side this is a inefficient source of exp as if you fail the gank, the enemy jungler will be 1-2 camps ahead of you. Even more if you have to recall before continuing jungling.
Full clear
SITUATIONAL OPTION: Take raptors after krugs so you will have smite up for red buff. This costs you time but saves you hp. This is also great if you think or see enemy jungler coming to counter-jungle your buff.
Junglers that benefit from this route: Any jungler that is unable to gank because of lanes shoving or bad abilities to before 6 so you just want to farm until level 6. Sometimes you just can't gank lanes because lanes are shoving or you just don't have CC to gank. Besides that, junglers that have fast clear or strong later levels (+6 levels or late game carry potential) benefit from this jungle route. Example junglers are Shyvana, Rek'Sai, Zac, Jax, Amumu, Warwick, Gragas. Obviously you can gank lanes with Rek'Sai, Zac and Gragas for example but if there are no lanes to be ganked, no need to forcibly gank a lane and waste time.
Level 2 cheese
Junglers that benefit from this route: Strong level 2 junglers that are against weaker duelist junglers or junglers that have great counter-jungle/snowball potential. There are so many different decisions and variations of level 2 cheeses, bear with me. Junglers that have good lvl 2 cheese potential are Shaco, Tahm Kench, Nidalee, Nunu & Willump, Kindred.
More explanation: There are many different variations of level 2 cheese. The generic one is to go to the enemy jungle and steal enemy buff or kill enemy jungler at their buff. After that you leave a ward at the enemy jungle so you can see the enemy jungler on map to make your next decision, like you could greed for a raptor camp or just go gank mid/top after the level 2 cheese. Do remember; counter-jungling is favorable when your team has strong lanes or enemy laners are shoved to their turret. Counter-jungling when your team is being pushed back means that enemy team will get there first.
Other level 2 cheese means you simply take a camp, take your buff and go seek for a early lvl 2 gank to a lane which you want to pressure. Like said in previous blog, you want to focus a lane that has the best carry potential.
Pros and cons: Obviously this is a high risk-high reward thing. At the worst case your level 2 gank fails and you're instantly 2-3 camps behind or you try to steal a buff but end up dying and giving enemy jungler a huge lead.
Red buff clear
Junglers that benefit from this route: Generally just junglers who have decent + sustained clear and benefit a lot from red buff. Junglers such as Graves, Rek'Sai, Elise all benefit a lot from red buff so taking red buff last maximises gank potential and 1v1 potential. This is also assuming you want to pressure mid/bot lane over top lane.
Pros and cons: Maximises red buff efficiency for ganks and potential 1v1s against enemy laners or jungler. Also leaves you with a bit more hp. On the other side you lose a bit of time and you lose control of top side jungle which is kind of unfortunate as usually first ganks are focused to top lane.
Thanks for reading if you survived this far. Feel free to ask questions/suggest or request additional information. I'm also doing free coaching, if you're interested, hit me up with a pm.
Jungle routes are really important to not fall behind in levels or gold, especially early on. The first clear can set you really far behind or really far ahead in some cases. Planning your first clear ahead is a good way to be 1 step ahead of the enemy jungler which will turn into free ganks or jungle camp advantages.
I have talked about jungle efficiency and this is basically what this blog is all about. Knowing what your champion is capable of and what you're supposed to do is a big part of choosing a jungle route. Only after that you should be thinking about more advanced routing like planning which lane or objective you want to pressure. Choosing the right jungle route is all about efficiency. You want to lose as much time as possible between actions.
Here are the 2 most common mistakes that junglers do. One example of bad efficieny and one example of choosing a bad jungle route. I'll use images so you won't get bored halfway through but please do read text explanation so you understand the image. Mirror the images to red side as these are from blue side point of view.
Bad jungle efficiency, example 1
This is a very simple but big mistake. Let's imagine a situation where you have recalled and decide to clear top side jungle. At wolves you see top laner out of position so you go top lane and kill the enemy top laner. Now you decide to continue jungling and spend 1 minute walking from top lane back to raptor camp. If you thought there's nothing wrong here, you thought wrong. Spending 1 minute between jungle camps is bad efficiency. The correct way is to recall from top lane, spend the gold you have gotten and walk from base to your next jungle camp. This saves you time and you're stronger with recently purchased items.
Bad jungle route planning, example 2
There's so many things wrong with this picture. Let's assume you're starting from krugs, take red buff, kill wolves and blue buff before heading back to raptors just to notice you don't have enough hp to do anything after raptors so you recall. What this does is you spend unnecessary time walking between camps and you have nowhere to continue jungling after recalling. If you go to Gromp, wolves won't be there and if you go to krugs, raptors won't be there. The correct way would have been to clear entire bottom side of jungle before heading to top side jungle to avoid unnecessary walking back and forth. Also, if you need to recall after blue buff, you have entire bottom side of jungle to go back to.
Did I mention that was just a preparation before getting to the real point of this blog? Let's have a look at the jungle routes now. Note: I noticed I had forgotten to mention scuttle crab in pictures. Scuttle crab is always worth it early on to regain hp, gain gold and vision. Later on they are harder to kill so they're more valueable early on.
Note: When taking a jungle camp alone, killing small raptors first and little krug first saves you more hp than focusing the big minions first. This is a different story if you're able to quickly kill big krug/big raptor with smite for example. Later on this doesn't matter as you will have items.
The balanced route
This is overall the most balanced route for anyone who isn't sure about jungle routes or just wants to play it safe. This route gives you level 3 with double buffs and options to gank mid/top or continue taking gromp before recalling. Pretty simple route. Any champion can pull this off.
Early gank route / weak first clear
Junglers that benefit from this route: Junglers that can't really farm jungle camps quickly and don't benefit too much from level 3 in the jungle or when ganking a lane. This route is also good when you absolutely want to get a laner ahead with a fast gank so the lane will carry in the late game (like
Irelia vs Riven). Champions like Tahm Kench, Rammus, Shaco, Nautilus can take this route.Pros and cons: You get fast level 3 that should allow you to gank a lane first as many junglers take a camp between buffs. Many laners are not expecting early ganks so this is a great way of pressuring a lane which you want your laner to win in order to carry the game. On the other side this is a inefficient source of exp as if you fail the gank, the enemy jungler will be 1-2 camps ahead of you. Even more if you have to recall before continuing jungling.
Full clear
SITUATIONAL OPTION: Take raptors after krugs so you will have smite up for red buff. This costs you time but saves you hp. This is also great if you think or see enemy jungler coming to counter-jungle your buff.
Junglers that benefit from this route: Any jungler that is unable to gank because of lanes shoving or bad abilities to before 6 so you just want to farm until level 6. Sometimes you just can't gank lanes because lanes are shoving or you just don't have CC to gank. Besides that, junglers that have fast clear or strong later levels (+6 levels or late game carry potential) benefit from this jungle route. Example junglers are
Shyvana, Rek'Sai, Zac, Jax, Amumu, Warwick, Gragas. Obviously you can gank lanes with Rek'Sai, Zac and Gragas for example but if there are no lanes to be ganked, no need to forcibly gank a lane and waste time.Level 2 cheese
Junglers that benefit from this route: Strong level 2 junglers that are against weaker duelist junglers or junglers that have great counter-jungle/snowball potential. There are so many different decisions and variations of level 2 cheeses, bear with me. Junglers that have good lvl 2 cheese potential are
Shaco, Tahm Kench, Nidalee, Nunu & Willump, Kindred.More explanation: There are many different variations of level 2 cheese. The generic one is to go to the enemy jungle and steal enemy buff or kill enemy jungler at their buff. After that you leave a ward at the enemy jungle so you can see the enemy jungler on map to make your next decision, like you could greed for a raptor camp or just go gank mid/top after the level 2 cheese. Do remember; counter-jungling is favorable when your team has strong lanes or enemy laners are shoved to their turret. Counter-jungling when your team is being pushed back means that enemy team will get there first.
Other level 2 cheese means you simply take a camp, take your buff and go seek for a early lvl 2 gank to a lane which you want to pressure. Like said in previous blog, you want to focus a lane that has the best carry potential.
Pros and cons: Obviously this is a high risk-high reward thing. At the worst case your level 2 gank fails and you're instantly 2-3 camps behind or you try to steal a buff but end up dying and giving enemy jungler a huge lead.
Red buff clear
Junglers that benefit from this route: Generally just junglers who have decent + sustained clear and benefit a lot from red buff. Junglers such as
Graves, Rek'Sai, Elise all benefit a lot from red buff so taking red buff last maximises gank potential and 1v1 potential. This is also assuming you want to pressure mid/bot lane over top lane.Pros and cons: Maximises red buff efficiency for ganks and potential 1v1s against enemy laners or jungler. Also leaves you with a bit more hp. On the other side you lose a bit of time and you lose control of top side jungle which is kind of unfortunate as usually first ganks are focused to top lane.
Thanks for reading if you survived this far. Feel free to ask questions/suggest or request additional information. I'm also doing free coaching, if you're interested, hit me up with a pm.
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