How-To Guide

How to be an Olympic Jungler in
League of Legends

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, which is a computer based game made by Riot. There are over 100+ playable champions you can choose to control as you fight head to head. Statistics have shown that more than 67 million people play every month. This has caught the attention of many so that in 2016 League of Legends, or LoL, will be brought into the Olympic games.

Summoner’s Rift Map

This guide will be focusing on the 5v5 of Summoner’s Rift,the main attraction of LoL, there are 5 positions, Top, Jungle, Mid, ADC, and Support. We are only going to focus on the position of Jungle, some will argue that it’s one of the most, if not the most important role in the game. The jungler controls the map by helping lanes to kill enemy champions, and obtaining objectives used to give more experience and advantage to their team. This guide will go over the best champions to play, what runes and masteries to run depending on the type of champion played, as well as where to go in rotation of jungle camps, and how to gank properly.

 Who to pick?

As of season five patch 5.4 the three God Tier junglers, Vi, Fiddlesticks, and Sejuani, each represents a different class of jungler.

Vi is a fighter class, you build her with more damage. Vi has been a God Tier jungler for a few patches now, she can shred the armor of the enemy tank, her damage scales amazingly well, and she has one of the best initiations in the game with her ultimate ‘Assault and Battery’.

Fiddlesticks is a mage, he is magic based which is called ability power. Fiddlesticks has great sustain with his drain, which gives him health, and outstanding crowd control with his ultimate ‘Crowstorm’. Not only does his crowd control give your team opportunity attacks and plays, his kit helps to do a good bit of magic damage to help secure kills.

Sejuani is a tank, she is supposed to run in and take the damage from the enemy team that is aimed at your carries. Sejuani is made to build health and armor, on top of being a walking sponge for damage, she has great initiate and crowd control with her ultimate ‘Glacial Prison’. She has great magic damage even while you’re building her tanky, and she is good at ganking lanes early game.

What Runes and Masteries should you use?

Runes

Each jungler builds a bit differently, and needs different runes and masteries to be prepared coming into the game. For instance, Vi needs 21 points in offense, and 9 points defense for masteries, some key ones being ‘Brute Force’, ‘Warlord’, and ‘Devastating Strikes’. These masteries help her scale better into late game. Some of the better runes to go with her are 3 Attack Speed Quints, 9 Attack Damage reds, 4 Armor yellows, 5 Scaling Health yellows, 3 Magic Resist blues, and 6 Cooldown Reduction blues. (For a full build, for Vi, with items and detailed runes and masteries click here.)

Fiddlesticks is built almost complete opposite of Vi, while he does take 21 points in offense, he also takes 9 points in utility for masteries. Some of the key points will be places in ‘Executioner’, ‘Mental Force’, ‘Archmage’, and ‘Summoner’s Insight’. These key masteries are better for ability powered junglers, amplifying his ability power enough to sustain himself. The runes that coincide with these masteries are 3 Ability Power quints, 9 Magic Penetration reds, 9 Scaling CD Reduction blues, and 9 Armor yellows. (For a full build, for Fiddlesticks, with items and detailed runes and masteries click here.)

Sejuani is a tank, she is meant to be able to take a lot of damage and not die, what makes her a great jungle, besides her crowd control, is the damage she can put behind being a tank. Masteries for her are 5 points in offense, 22 points in defense, and 3 points utility, key ones being ‘Block’, ‘Veteran’s Scars’, ‘Perseverance’, and ‘Enchanted Armor’. Having these key masteries gives here better armor and health for early jungle so she’s not dying to the camps, as well as for late game for that extra health, and armor. The runes to go along with these masteries are 3 Attack Sped quints, 9 Hybrid Penetration reds of Armor and Magic, 4 Armor yellows, 5 Scaling Health yellows, 3 Scaling Magic Resist blues, and 6 Cooldown Reduction blues. (For a full build, for Sejuani, with items and detailed runes and masteries click here.)

Where do I go?

Jungle Camps

There are only two ways you can really start out jungling, unless you plan to invade the enemy jungle (which will not be covered in this guide). With the buffs the jungle gives you for smiting creatures it’s easiest to start with either Gromp, or Krugs. If you start with Gromp you go right to blue buff, next is wolves, raptors and red. If you start with Krugs you go right to red buff next, raptors, wolves, then blue. You normally need a leash, help with killing the camp, when jungling, and you will get the better leash with three people instead of one. This can mean that depending on what side you spawn in on, blue or purple, can decide where you start. Bottom lane normally has two people in it, so spawning on blue many jungles will start Krugs on the bottom half of the map, and spawning in on purple jungles normally start Gromp on the top right of the map. There is no required rotation, just some that are easier than other, and some that are preferred than others. The only real thing you need to remember is to take the summoner spell Smite before loading in.

How do I gank?

An ideal gank is when the jungler comes into a lane, Top, Mid, or Bottom, to secure a kill without taking it, rather they give it to the person in the lane, while taking the assist. All the while no deaths for your team happen.
You do not want to gank a lane when it is pushed to the enemy turret, the enemy champion can get away too easily and there is more of a potential that you or your laning teammate could die. The idea point to gank is when the enemy is pushed to your own turret, or even when the minions are in the middle of the lane. If your teammate has low health it’s a better ideal for them to back rather than to gank, but you can hold lane until your teammate comes back. If the enemy champion has lower health than your own teammate in lane you have a better chance at completing a successful gank.
Sometimes your teammates will get behind in level, a successful gank, either coming from jungle, or hiding in the bushes through lane in Top or Bottom, can bring them up to the same level and back into a good position in the game.
Ganking a lane is a very important part of the game, it can put a lane ahead of the other, or put them behind if it’s a failure.

Are you ready?

Now that you have all the odds and ends it’s up to you to go out there and put these tools and tips into action. Next time you go in the jungle to play, remember you could be the next League Olympian.

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