Alright, yesterday I covered buff control, today it's oracles, following the enemy jungler, and ganking.
First of all oracles, a core item on any jungler. I used to have the mentality that oracles was a support item, that it's their job to clear wards and basically control vision.
But here's a question, why would a champ confined to a lane have oracles? Why wouldn't the one roaming all over the map have oracles?
Exactly, as a jungler with oracles you can clear every ward on the map. You should pick it up right after your GP/10 items. As soon as you have oracles, the most important thing to clear is dragon. This will either A. Force their jungler to go to dragon to make sure you aren't taking it, allowing you to either invade top or gank top without worrying about a countergank. Or B. It forces bot to use another ward, which you can clear again and again.
Places to look for wards! In bot lane, check the lane bushes, tri brush, river bush, and dragon. All of these could be warded, and it is terrifying to be in bot lane without any wards. Also a nice side benefit in solo que is if the AD hasn't been paying attention, and just sees that they don't have wards they will rage at the support, and that takes any synergy they had in bot and throws it out the window. The divide and conquer method.
Also check jungle entrances, your blue buff bush (alliteration is fun!) and red buff bush, as well as theirs if you've been counterjungling. In mid check the two bushes on either side. Basically just check every bush.
In top check the river bush and the tri bush, as well as the space in between.
Now an enemy with no vision will either let your lane freefarm, or play as normal and allow you to gank easily. Also if your red is up, a good trick is to go clear top ward, leave and take your red, come back and gank. He will think you just left, and then you come back even stronger with a slow. Free kill. Free kills are very good.
Dieing with oracles. It happens, and usually you become focused a little harder if you have oracles, and more importantly are using it as much as possible. This comes down to game sense if you should buy another one or not. Things you should ask yourself are A. Are you just going to lose it again. If you are, fuck it, buy a defense item, get another oracles later once you've caught up. and B. If you're ahead. If you;re ahead, getting off ganks, stealing buffs, farming well, another 400 gold is nothing. At worst it may even you up with their jungler.
And this brings me to following the enemy jungler. I'm not saying you need to know exactly where they are 24/7. I'm saying you need to have a general idea 24/7. Warding the bush right next to wraiths allows you to know if they are top jungle, or if they're heading bot jungle. Another ward at their red buff bush lets you know if they came the other way avoiding the wraith ward, say they saw you place it there.
You will not be able to know where they are all the time, that's borderline impossible. But you will know generally where they are, if they have buffs, and their HP/mana levels letting you predict where they're going next. If you see your top is pushed and he just took his red on top side, then you know he's going to gank top, and this allows you to react either by taking dragon if you're bot, or counterganking top. It also lets you know if they are low enough that you can invade without worry of the jungler being a threat. Warding their blue is also good for this.
If you've noticed a theme there is one. WARDS ARE IMPORTANT. DESTROYING THEIR WARDS ARE IMPORTANT. Basically all you need to know.
And now we come to the most fun part of jungling. Ganking!
Ganking basics. Get behind them. Like between them and the turret. There, that's the basics. Oh and ping to let people know you're ganking. I usually ping once when I'm on my way and a second time when I'm going in.
Ganking top is pretty easy, especially if you are blue side. If you're blue side you have two ganking paths, either straight through river (spoiler alert, it's warded) or through their tri (also probably warded, but they don't have as much reaction time.
If you think a bush is warded, go in fast, don't wait around at all. If you stop and sit just a second, they can run away. They may still just run away, but at least you didn't waste time doing nothing.
Ganking mid is a little tricky because it's a short lane, but it's also not usually warded as heavily. If they're pushing hard you can just gank through the river bushes. If not you may want to walk around, almost right next to their turret. Running around like this lets you get behind them very easily, the only problem is you may take a tower hit.
Ganking bot, oh my god does this suck. The most heavily warded lane, 24/7. Seriously, fuck this lane. But if you can manage to get in without being spotted it's almost always a kill because bot is usually the squishiest lane.
For bot you can either gank through tri, river, or lane. All three are usually warded, and river is a huge no no, because if drag is warded they can prob clear a wave then retreat and you still don't have time to get there. If you are going through their tri (if you're purple side) it's prob warded, so run in fast, around the wall next to their turret.
Lane ganking is fun. Your lane needs to be pushed so minions don't see you coming in. Sneak in hugging the wall into the lane bush, stay in the first one until minions are REALLY pushed, like to their turret, then go in second one. If it's warded you're just fucked, you've wasted time. Oracles is important. Remember that.
Another thing you need to consider is who your ganking, and who your lanemate is. Say I'm ganking a morg mid and a veigar is on my team. She spellshields as soon as she sees me and just walks away. Was it worth the time? I try ganking vlad, trollpool, kennen, lightning ball. Remember to judge what you're ganking, if they can just get away you are wasting time.
That doesn't include flash, if you blow their flash that's a good gank, and opens up ganking again with them not being able to escape.
Also, look at summoner spells before the game. If someone without a built in flash doesn't take flash, punish them for it. They deserve it. They're clearly suicidal in the first place.
This is basically all you need to know about jungling without going into champ specifics. Basically you need to know everything going on, all the time, what each champ does, how your champ reacts to those champs, all the while denying them as much information as possible. It's like the cold war except someone dies in the end.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all better junglers for it. Now get out there and carry some games! (stealthily).
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