Get the Gold and Make the Ganks – 5 Tips to Increase Efficiency as a Jungler in League of Legends

A jungler is an extremely important part of the game. A jungler’s job is to make ganks happen during the early game and help the team snowball into the mid to late game. People think that it’s boring, but they don’t know that a good jungler has the weight of the entire game on his shoulders. So, how do you become a good jungler? Jungling in League of Legends is about killing monsters, but there are a few tips that could maximize your chances of winning the game. Here are five tips about efficient jungling that will certain increase your win rate significantly.

1. Kiting

Kiting is basically a jungler’s bread and butter and it helps a jungler stay in the jungle for longer periods of time before needing to regen. In kiting, a champion auto attacks a monster and then moves back to dodge the attack and stay at a safe range from the champion. This is a pretty simple technique if you practice the execution, however, it will be ground-breaking for your success as a jungler.

The most difficult part of kiting while jungling in League of Legends would be that you need to focus while kiting. You’re trying to avoid even a little bit of damage while kiting and a slight mistake could end up in you getting thrice as much damage as you would without kiting at all. In such cases, kiting is not only counterproductive, it is highly inefficient. You’ll need to buy some hp regen every time you are to go to a lane.

If you’re really insistent on kiting, then you can pick a ranged hero like Graves. Ranged champs make it really easy to kite due to the range of their auto attacks. Here’s a video by All Thing’s Nerd explaining how to kite with the hero. So, watch the whole video, it’ll be 7 minutes well spent.

2. Killing Specific Monsters First

In every camp, there’s a big monster and there are smaller monsters. Most people just mindlessly farm the camps without paying much attention to what they’re doing. But, if you want to be efficient, farm the smaller camps first. This is because at early stages in the game, the damage from small monsters like raptors and wolves, can really stack up and take a lot of hp off of your belt. That’s why you should kill them first. If you’re wondering if this is legit, then try it in a custom game. Kill a camp by killing the big minion first and then the smaller one and vice versa. Note down the time required in both tries as well as the hp you have remaining.

However, there is an exception. If you have a champ like Lee Sin , then you’re free to farm the camp as you like. His Tempest  can clear out the camp pretty rapidly. So, farm as you like.

3. Pathing

Now, pathing is the most crucial part of jungling in League of Legends. Killing a specific monster will save you 1-1.5 seconds on each camp which isn’t too much. But, if your pathing isn’t efficient, then it will waste time in minutes. Yes, minutes. This is just something that you have to  learn overtime.

Keep practicing and keep timings in mind. It’s rigorous at first, but a few days later, you’ll have the timings memorized. Remember, the whole point of this guide is to gain an advantage over the enemy jungler. And, if you can learn the right pathing, you will definitely get more farm than the enemy jungler.

4. Using Scuttle Crabs

The Scuttle Crabs received some tweaks in the recent patches and now they’re crucial if you’re trying to get ahead of the enemy jungler. Scuttle Crabs don’t attack and don’t deal damage at all. So, they’re really beneficial to take if you’re a little low on hp and want to regen a bit before moving to a regular monster camp. Scuttle Crabs are just great for jungler and in my opinion, they make jungling in League of Legends less of a grind.

Prioritize Scuttle Crabs if you’re behind in levels as compared to the enemy jungler because they give a lot more gold and experience as compared to regular camp monsters. If you have some sort of Crowd Control, don’t be hesitant to use it on the Scuttle Crabs. Champions like Maokai , Gragas , Sejuani  and Volibear  are great in such cases.

5. Utilizing Free Food

Throughout the game, there is a jungle plant that spawns. The plant that junglers want to get is the Honey Fruit which heals you as well as gives you mana.

The honey fruit spawns on both sides of the river between 5:00 and 5:30. If they’re consumed, they will respawn against before the seven minute mark. The honey fruit is great to sustain weaker heroes in the early game. If you don’t have durability like Lee Sin’s Safeguard  or if you’re constantly using low cooldowns, honey fruits will keep you up and running. Take the plant, consume it and continue jungling or move to the lanes and set up a gank. Both are pretty viable options here.

Final Thoughts

These few tips are just the most basic stuff about jungling in League of Legends. If you’re not using these crucial tips, you will lose most of the time because you’re literally throwing away a chance to be impactful in the game. Instead, you’re just going to be a lame jungler that doesn’t even have enough levels or gold to gank a lane. So, folks, be smart, and use these tips. They’re going to help you raise your rank. Trust us on this one…