Coach Blaker's Ultimate Jungle Guide! [12.4]

What you're going to learn:

• How jungle works

• Pathing/Clear routes

• How to gank

• Which smite to take (red or blue)

• And much more!

A little bit about me:

My name is Avery "Coach Blaker" Lofton. I've been coaching professionally for going on 9 years, it is my full time job, and I love it! It's easily one of the most fulfilling thing I've ever done! It's awesome to know you're helping people who struggle to improve, who struggle to identify their problems, tell me after our sessions "Hey coach, I've reached ___ rank now!". Sorry for my ramblings, I got caught up in the moment. Off to the guide shall we?!

Basic Jungle Knowledge:

So, what exactly IS jungling?

Jungling in league of legends, and well, any game for that matter, is the the act of killing neutral monsters and roaming around the map. While other roles are confined to their lanes, the jungler has the ability to be anywhere at any time. The camps and the area junglers tend to roam are located in the between the lanes!

(see image below, everything circled in yellow is what junglers will mostly be farming)

(source for summoners rift image/portraits of champions Wickd.gg)

The neutral camps go as follows:

(source league of legends wiki)

Side note, buffs grant...well...buffs!:

• Red Buff: health regeneration, slow per auto attack, true damage tick per auto attack
• Blue buff: mana/stamina regeneration and 10 ability haste

Is jungle a hard role?

Well, I'm glad you asked! Jungle on the surface seems like a very simple and complex role at the same time. To some, jungle is "farming and ganking" which is the basic understanding. To others, jungle is this "complicated" role that takes loads of game knowledge to do properly. I say I draw the line in between. An entry level jungler can have success with the basics, but a really well season jungler can take over games!

What is the job of a jungler?

A jungler's job is really to just make sure everything on the map is going alright and to make sure to setup a win condition for your team. It's your job to make sure that tough matchups have easier times, it's your job to make sure everyone is safe from the other jungler, it's your job to call and successfully smite and secure dragons, barons, and rift heralds. Now you might see why some find the role a bit complex and overwhelming. You not only have to look out for your role, but also to watch over everyone else's!

What does jungle pathing mean, and why is it important?

Jungle pathing is a term used to dictate how you get from point A to point B while traversing through the jungle. The more efficient you are at it, the better the rewards, and the harder junglers can carry!! The reason it's important is because it dictates the entire flow of not only YOUR early game, but your team's as well!

Rewards Of Good Pathing:

• Higher levels
• More gold to buy more items
• More impact with ganks
• Always seeming to be in the right place at the right time
• Ability to counter jungle and steal camps

The list goes on and on! It's so important!

Drawbacks Of Bad Pathing:

• Losing out on gold and exp
• Camps can become stolen by your team or worse, the enemy team!
• Will end up being late to objectives and gank opportunities
• Overall just make the whole game a poor experience for everyone

Remember, your role is the MOST impactful, if you do not perform well the game can go into a downward spiral real quick!

A good jungler can demolish a game, and really set their team up for victory! Even if you don't play a hard carry jungler, it doesn't matter. It's all about the decisions you make, and the flow of the game!

What is Smite?

Smite is a summoner spell that junglers take. The spell is required to buy Emberknife or  Hailblade, jungle items that help junglers with clearing as well as give them additional experience for killing camps. Once you smite a camp 5 times, the orginal summoner spell upgrades into either Challenging Smite (red smite) or Chilling Smite (blue smite)

Smite

• Deals 450 true damage to the target medium / large monster, enemy minion, or pet.





Challenging Smite

• Deals 900 true damage to the target medium / large monster, modified to 500 (+ 10% of target's maximum health) against enemy minions or pets.



• Challenging Smite can be cast on enemy champions to mark them for 4 seconds,  reducing the target's damage dealt to you by 20%, and empowering your basic attacks and abilities against them to apply a burn that deals them 48 − 125 (based on level)  true damage over 2.5 seconds.

Chilling Smite



• Deals 900  true damage to the target medium / large monster, modified to 500 (+ 10% of target's maximum health) against enemy minions or pets.



• Chilling Smite can be cast on enemy champions, dealing 20 − 156 (based on level)  true damage and  slowing the target by 20% for 2 seconds, while also granting you 20% bonus movement speed for the same duration.

How do I know which Smite to take?

• If your champion is a duelist, someone who likes to fight a lot of 1v1's or is a real heavy scrapper, take Challenging Smite (red smite)



• If your champion would benefit more from having bonus movement speed to catch up to the target, use Chilling Smite (blue smite)



• If you have a hard time landing skill shots or just want to make sure you do land them, use Chilling Smite (blue smite), the slow allows for greater accuracy



• Both smites CAN be useful to some champions depending on the matchup, but the main rule of thumb is what is listed above

Basic Clear Routes Every Jungler Must Know!

Jungle routes shown in video:

• 3 camp clear
• 5 camp clear
• 6 camp clear
• Mirrored clear
• Reverse clear

Advanced Jungle Knowledge:

How do I figure out what side to path to?

There are two ways you can figure out what side to path to!

Jungle Matchups

Jungle matchups are based on you and the enemy jungler you're going against:

Examples:

• They are stronger than me and will look for me? I need to path away and avoid them.
• They are weaker than me? I need to path the same way so I can fight them.
• They are very heavy gankers? I path with them so I can counter gank.
• They are very heavy farmers? I need path with them to make sure my camps are safe.

Lane Matchups

Lane matchups also help decide what side you should path to:

Examples:

• Enemy laner is a VERY snowball heavy champ and usually gets fed? I path to them.
• My laner is VERY strong and is self-sufficient? I path away from them.
• My laner is VERY weak early, provides nothing, will scale? I path away from them.



These are very basic guidelines to get you on the right foot with why you should be pathing in one direction. When in doubt, path based on who will most likely carry your game. Imagine each champion on your team with 20 kills, who'd be the one you think would do the best with it? Play to them, and help them get rolling.

How do I know when to gank lanes?

Types of ganks shown in the video:

• Over extended

• Abilities used
• Creative ganking
• Counter ganking
• Dives



What are objectives and why are they important?

Objectives are mainly towers, Dragon, Baron, Rift Herald, and Scuttle crab. For the sake of this section of the guide, we're going to exclude towers and focus on the neutral objectives. (Dragon, Baron, Rift Herald, Scuttle)

Dragons

There are 5 types of dragons that grant different buffs when slain:

The more you slay of the same type, the strong the buff will be

• Infernal - Gain 4 / 8 / 12 / 16% (based on stacks granted by  Infernal Drake) attack damage and  ability power.



• Mountain - Gain 6 / 12 / 18 / 24% (based on stacks granted by Mountain Drake) armor and  magic resistance.



• Ocean - Restores 2.5 / 5 / 7.5 / 10% (based on stacks granted by Ocean Drake) of missing health every 5 seconds.



• Cloud - Gain 3.5 / 7 / 10.5 / 14% (based on stacks granted by Cloud Drake) slow resist and out-of-combat  bonus movement speed.



• Hextech - Gain 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 (based on stacks granted by Hextech Drake) ability haste and  6 / 12 / 18 / 24% (based on stacks granted by Hextech Drake) bonus attack speed.



Once a team collects 4 dragons all together, that team will then get the Dragon "soul":

• Infernal Soul - Damaging basic attacks and abilities trigger an explosion around the target, dealing 80 (+22.5% bonus AD) (+13.5% AP) (+2.75% bonus health) adaptive damage to the target and nearby enemies (3 second cooldown).



• Mountain Soul - After not taking damage for 5 seconds, gain a shield for 200 (+ 18% bonus AD) (+ 13.5% AP) (+ 13.5% bonus health).



• Ocean Soul - Dealing damage to enemies heals you for 160 (+ 36% bonus AD) (+ 22.5% AP) (+ 9% bonus health) and restores 80 (+ 3.5% maximum mana) mana over 4 seconds. Damage to minions and monsters regenerates with 30% effectiveness.



• Cloud Soul - Gain  10% bonus movement speed, increased to 60% for 6 seconds after casting your ultimate ability (30 second cooldown).



• Hextech Soul - Dealing damage to an enemy with basic attacks or ability damage causes them to be struck with electricity, dealing 25 − 50 (based on level) bonus true damage and  slowing them by ( 45% / 35%) (+3% per 100 bonus AD) (+1% per 100 AP) (+0.5% per 100 bonus health) decaying over 2 seconds, while chaining the effect to up to 3 enemies near the primary target. The slow can stack from multiple sources and the decay rate is decreased against  ranged champions (8 second cooldown).



Once a team collects the Dragon soul, Elder Dragon spawns. Upon killing Elder:

• Damaging enemies causes them to burn for 75 − 225 (based on minutes) true damage over 2.25 seconds, with the first tick occurring after 0.25 seconds and the others after 1 second each.



• Damaging an enemy champion below 20% of their maximum health blasts them with Elder Immolation after 0.5 seconds, executing them, which destroys all  shields before dealing 100% of their current health as true damage.

Rift Herald - Also known as Shelly, yes it's a girl! :)

There are two types of Rift Heralds, once the Rift is slain you can then summon it! :

• Rift Herald #1 - The first Rift is easier to take and does less damage. Once you've slain the Rift Herald you can then pick up the eye, and summon it in lane. Summoning the Rift Herald will cause it to walk down a lane and function as a minion until it reaches a tower. Once it does, it'll charge into the tower dealing two plates worth of damage!



Bonus Tip: The lower the tower is, the more resistance it has. So if you want to take a tower quickly, take 3 plates off first, and then drop the rift for true damage of two plates!



• Rift Herald #2 - The second one is a bit harder to take, but when you summon THIS one, it'll usually do about half a turrets worth of damage. Think about that when dropping this one as well!



Baron Nashor

Baron is one of the other epic monsters on the rift, once slain, it will grant a team buff:

Baron Buff - The baron buff is pretty complex when it comes to the numbers, so I wont go that in depth. Pretty much the baron buff turns your minions into super minions! The champion buff will grant any ally minion nearby a movement speed boost, attack damage boost, as well as a tank stat boost (really good for sieging towers). The buff will also grant you an empowered recall for the whole team!



Scuttle

Once scuttle crab is slain, it offers a buff, but only in the location it was slain:

• Scuttle Crab Buff: When slain, the scuttle crab will go towards the middle of the river creating a shrine. During the duration of the shrine, it will grant a speed boost, as well as reveal sight in the area. (think of it as a ward with a speed boost when you pass over it)

Now let's piece it all together!

In this video, we take everything we've learned and apply it!



Still Have Questions?

I stream every day on twitch! Stop by and I can answer any questions you may have!

A Special Thank You!

Thank you all for reading this guide, I hope it helped! This is my first guide so I know it's a little rough, I just thought to try something new for once. If you guys like it, maybe I can do another role or maybe some champions? I hope you all were able to learn a thing or two about jungle, and I hope it helped lower some of your anxiety about it! U.gg/Onlyguides thank you as well for giving me an opportunity to share my knowledge with others!