Jungle Guide for Beginners: Clears, Ganks and Objectives

Jungle camps and buffs

Each side of the map has the same camps. The two big ones give buffs:

• Blue Sentinel gives the blue buff, which helps with mana and ability cooldowns.
• Red Brambleback gives the red buff, which makes your attacks slow and burn enemies.
• Gromp, Murk Wolves, Raptors and Krugs are smaller camps that give gold and experience.
• Rift Scuttler walks in the river. Killing it gives vision around that part of the river for a while.

You need the Smite summoner spell to jungle. It deals big damage to monsters and is how you secure objectives against the enemy jungler. You also start with a jungle companion that fights camps with you and makes your Smite stronger as it grows.

Your first clear

Your first clear is the route you take through the camps at the start of the game. A common plan is a full clear: take all six camps on your side, then decide what to do. Some champions clear faster than others, and some prefer to gank early instead.

1. Start at a buff camp. Your laners can help you hit it for a moment, which is called a leash.
2. Clear the camps on that side, then cross to the other buff.
3. Finish the other camps and look at the lanes. Is a lane pushed up with low health?
4. Gank that lane, take the Rift Scuttler or go back to buy items.

Where you start decides where you end. Start on the bottom side and you finish near the top side, close to top lane and the early top side objectives.

How to gank

A gank is when you walk into a lane to help your laner get a kill or force the enemy to use a summoner spell. Good ganks need a target that's easy to reach:

• The enemy laner is pushed toward your turret, far from their own.
• There's no enemy ward on your path, or you can walk around it.
• Your laner has crowd control, like a stun or slow, to follow up.
• The enemy has used Flash or is low on health.

A gank that doesn't get a kill still helps if the enemy used Flash or had to recall. Walking into a lane where the enemy sits safe under their turret usually wastes your time.

Tracking the enemy jungler

Knowing where the enemy jungler is keeps your lanes safe and shows you where to go. When you see them on one side of the map, you know they can't gank the other side for a while.

• Notice which enemy laners walk to lane late at the start. They probably helped their jungler start on that side.
• Look for missing camps when you walk into their jungle.
• Ping your laners when you know where the enemy jungler is.

Dragons, Baron and other objectives

Neutral objectives give rewards to the whole team. Plan around them:

• Move to the objective early, about 45 seconds before it spawns, and place wards around it.
• Have your nearby laners push their waves first, so they can join without losing minions.
• Start the objective only when the enemy jungler is far away or your team is stronger in that area.
• Use Smite at the very end to secure it, and keep it ready if the enemy jungler might steal it.

Trading objectives is normal. If the enemy takes a dragon, you can often take a turret or a top side objective at the same time.

Common jungle mistakes

• Ganking the same losing lane again and again instead of helping lanes that can win.
• Farming camps while the enemy takes a free dragon.
• Fighting the enemy jungler in their jungle without wards or help from your lanes.
• Forgetting to buy Control Wards.

Filter the tier list by jungle to find junglers that are strong this patch, and open each champion's build to see their runes and items.

FAQ

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