I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me get a little better at jungling. In general, I mean. It's not like you can put a comprehensive list of amazing jungling tactics for every jungle champ.

I'm not too bad at jungling, but I ain't exactly a pro either.

I understand leashing blue at the start, ganking when you can or are needed, covering a lane and other basic things. But there are other jungling things that I'm not exactly great at. I'm not fond of warding items most of the time, even though I should make that a habit out it. I have that problem with supporting as well, but that's another thing. I also need to learn how to invade and how to recognize a good time for it. Anything else would also help.

It sounds to me like you are already identifying some key areas you need to improve upon yourself. This is a good thing as being able to tell what you need to improve and actually following through and improving those areas will make you a better in time.

Jungling is this fine line of farming your jungle, performing successful ganks, helping a teammate win lane, keeping up with mob spawn and respawn times (i.e Dragon) and counter-jungling effectively. I would venture to say it can make or break games as jungle is an extremely important role.

1st thing I can say is you should start learning how to leash not blue, but protect your blue and leash wolves off start as they spawn quicker. Usually wraiths off start if you are doing red. You can be seconds ahead of the other jungler just by doing this simple action but it really does come down to your team-mates helping you out with those leashes. Some people even go smiteless buff off start if done right.

The thing that really helped me was watching youtubes and streams of great junglers with my chosen champs and just through practice practice practice!

I hope the following helps you and others on their path to becoming better junglers

Q - I just started jungling and I got executed, why so hard?
A - Many jungle mobs have been beefed up since Season 2. Also think about those awesome junglers or jungle-gank videos/streams you watch...looks easy right? Now think about your actual summoner level. Do you have Tier III Runes yet? Do you have a full set of masteries? Leashing/Smite/pots help but sometimes that can only do so much for your champ if you are under-leveled. Don't come out expecting to be king of the jungle if you're a new player and your summoner level isn't ready for it. Before you try jungling PVP, I suggest you practice in a created match just to get a good run of things yourself or against AI bots. Shoot for a certain level within a certain time of the game. Level 4 (ganking time!) within 3-4 minutes is nominal if not expected by your team (sub 3 minutes and you're g2g).

More on jungling

The 10 Jungle Commandments by Najin Mokuza *translated by Maknoon
1. Don't gank a lane that's completely lost
2. Don't gank a lane that doesn't buy a ward on his first back to base.
3. Don't gank a lane that pushes but doesnt ward
4. Dump the midlaner that doesn't come to help leash
5. Always be prepared for enemy jungler to come counter jungling
6. Help the lane that is already winning and help them ward their surroundings.
7. Help out mid as much as possible, show your face even if you are just passing by.
8. Before Level 6, gank top at least once.
9. Communicate with your support player on where the enemy wards are.
10. Even if you follow all these commandments,losing games are still lost.( there are games nothing can be done about. )

sources:
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflege...ntstranslated/
http://www.nerfplz.com/2013/01/najin...mandments.html

Jungle Writeup:

http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=...ic-build-guide

Jungle Vids:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0E537AB7839ED58C

Jungle Mob Timers:

http://i.imgur.com/HP2WZvA.png

source: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...2614498&page=5


What about Support?!?!?

http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=27033

The key to jungle is not give into the pressure of teammates asking for gank.

You decide when it is time to gank and where, not them.

Thanks.
I often ask to be called for ganks. I still do them on my own, but I sometimes end up appearing at bad times. But thank you for saying that. As I like to say as Skarner. "This is MY jungle!" I guess my actions should emphasize that even further.

But as you said, keep practicing.
I primarily jungle with Skarner. He was the very first I ever played, since he was on rotation when I joined, so his sentimental value gave me the drive really go out of my way to save for him.

Now let me see if I understand the commandments.

1) I kind of understood this innately, but not actively enough that my thoughts were to avoid the lane, but instead they were to help give it a quick rebound.

Now that I read this, I'm thinking my thoughts should be if the lane is taking a severe beating, I should avoid it since if the lane is getting hurt that bad, the enemies are probably too strong for me to help and I'll likely end helping the enemy more than my team.

That sound right?

2) I never thought of that. It would make sense though. But not many players seem to be fond of wards at my level. With a ward in place, we could be prepared for counter-ganks and be more likely to escape if needed. It would also allow us to judge the strength of the counter-ganker and potentially take them out with our gank target(s), while they were none the wiser to our previous knowledge of their presence.

That sound right?

3) This is somewhat self explaining, but there are times this could be disregarded, even if it's somewhat situational. If a lane of yours is pushing too far AND isn't warding/warded, they're setting themselves up for painful and deadly ganks. If you tried to gank in this situation, not only is the enemy you're going to gank more likely escape, but you could add another kill to the enemy's score when that counter-gank arrives.


That sound right?

4) This one seems a little iffy to me. I thought leashes were more than okay to only have one ally. Sure, mid is the closest to both blue and red, but they could have various reasons to not help with a leash. They could be staying in lane to keep up with the opposing laner and help stay on par with the opposing team.

On my level of play, leashes need to be asked for. And it's usually just one ally helping. Sometimes I ask for a leash and the whole team comes to me, even when I asked for a specific ally. And the ally I ask for is usually the top laner, bot I'll ask bot for help if I'm on purple team so I don't give my top laner a gold and xp lag on his opposing top laner.

So in general, I think this one is kinda... shaky.

That sound good?

It took many games for those commandments to make sense. It's not exactly a law but moreover a philosophy. Stay adaptable. Yet, realize why those 10 guidelines usually work. Even when your teammate is blaming you....junglers get a lot of blame. Grow thick skin.

5) I'm pretty sure I've been slapped right in the face by this one. I often go to the dragon or my team's blue/red for the buff when it's icon is on the map, only to find the place empty. I've come to take this as meaning that the map doesn't tell you when the jungle monsters are alive, just that they've respawned. Also, you can't be too focused on going camp to camp all the time. Because if you run into the enemy jungler in a bad spot, chances are you're going to be forced to fight.

Although I've had instances where we ended up gladly ignoring each other for various reasons, like we were both crapped out of health and mana and we didn't want to risk dying, we were too much in a hurry to help an ally in need, or we too focused on getting to buff camp. Those last two were mostly assumptions, but usually we end up starting a fight or chase.

But as I've been conditioned to learn in League, the best counter-jungle one can do is effective warding.

That sound good?