Hello everyone, welcome to this guide.

First of all let me start by saying that English isn't my mother language as I come from Switzerland, so bear with any mistake I make, please :P

I'm a 1900 (peaked at 1990 yesterday) elo player, and has always been one of my favourite champions. I started playing League of Legends when came out so I didn't know release , he has always been kinda underplayed to me.

I like to play him toplane but I believe he's also a super strong jungler that is, for some weird reasons, very rarely used.



He's very versatile and can be played with and against any champion (that's a big deal). People tend to think that champions with dashes counter him, this isn't true. has a very strong skill-set and can force escapes without his (so you can save it for when their escape is down, forcing ).

His skillset has a very strong with almost any AP, his buff is really good for anyone especially bruisers and AD carries, his helps anyone that deals physical damage, and his has great synergy with any AoE spell.

I've been playing for almost one year now and I never got bored of him. I've tried out as many builds as I could and I finally found the one that fits me the best (especially for jungling, since Plazmuh's guide teaches you everything you need to know about toplane ).

Here are my results.

Profile :




Detailed stats :




Updated season 3 stats (24th February 2013) :




Quick pros/cons list before we go on :

Pros

- Has 3 cc's in his kit, one being a hard cc and one being pretty much unique (arguably shared with and ).
- Has good damage throughout the game.
- Has auras / debuffs.
- Has two strong initiation moves.
- Can be played with and against anyone.
- Very strong ganks.
- Isn't very path reliant, you can start red as Jarvan.
- Clears pretty fast after you get a few ranks in .
- Has a strong burst damage.
- Can scout bushes.
- Very versatile item build wise. Can use anything that isn't AP. Can be viably built or .
- Snowballs pretty well.
- Strong early and late-game.

Cons

- Isn't naturally tanky (I mean early game).
- Can have mana issues with improper use of his .
- Lacks DPS.
- Not the best duelist.
- His early clearing is pretty slow.
- His base stats, especially his MS (315) and AD (51), suck.
- His midgame is meh if you're behind.

I think he's strong all around and in solo queue he's one of the best 3 junglers in my opinion with and . His initiation makes him potentially makes him even stronger than Lee.

He has one big advantage on Skarner, the fact that his ganks are already insane pre six, while Skarner's typically get godlike when he hits six, but can usually be escaped beforehand.



isn't the best duelist, nor the fastest jungler, or the highest DPS bruiser. However, he's one of the champions that, if played well, has the most synergy with other champions.

is an amazing teammate for practically any champion in the game. You're ? If he gets a good , your will destroy the enemy team. You're ? You get free attack speed and armor from his for your , as well as some armor reduction on every target hit by for your physical damage from + autos. You're ? A good will let you devastate the enemy team with your , and you also get AS from .

The only champion I can think of that even comes close is 's ridiculous synergy with literally any champion that can gets himself inside the enemy team. His utility makes him insanely strong IMO and I think when people will realize that we'll see him everywhere.

Update : Current Season 3 stats



Random lolking stats

I realized this guide is very long and takes a long time to read especially if you're going to read it in one go, I figured out I could put up a few songs you can listen to while you read it to make it less boring.

Justice - Civilization (@ IEM Katowice)



Ellie Goulding - Lights



Daft Punk - Face to Face



Muse - Uprising

This is a new chapter I thought of since I'm changing quite a few things, I thought it could be interesting to have a chapter early in the guide that explains why I changed X to Y so you can easily see my reasons for those changes instead of having to look for a particular chapter in which I might give an explanation.



Removed

As you can see, I changed my build. I do not build anymore, for several reasons. First, it is very expensive and almost only an offensive item which is not optimal for a bruiser build.

Also, I feel like my 25 ARP from runes and masteries (+ 8%), 10 armor pen and the shred from gives me enough damage to still be a threat to squishies damage wise until the 30 min mark, which is awesome considering I am only investing 1337 gold for that.

Added , ,

is an item I used to hate, but it's actually quite good. HP, armor, and a passive that helps with one of 's weaknesses, his low sustained damage. Very strong item against AD based teams in general, I get it very often right after .

is a very strong item that is built almost every game in tournament, and for a good reason. For barely 2k gold, you get a good chunk of health, CDR (which helps your longass CD), some armor, and a shield for you and every allied champion around you.

Honestly, the shield isn't all that impressive on 1 target, but if you manage to pop it on say you and 3 teammates, you can soak up A LOT of damage. It also has a nice synergy with (say your support is getting it) and can wreck AoE damage teams.

is probably the most surprising items out of these 4. I get it when I feel like I have to do more than just initiate, and that I am already tanky enough for that.

is honestly a better item than // when you are looking for a late game item that provides you that little damage boost you need to get your job done.

If more damage is needed or your team needs to kill someone such as if you want to be able to win a fight, this item is your best bet as long as you have and either or .

is a less bruiser and more full tank version of . You lose damage and it's a little bit more expensive, but the passive and active are very strong (the active works extraordinary well with ), and is one of the few items in the game that is able to shut down AS reliant late-game monsters champions such as , , and .



This change might seem a bit surprising, but actually I do not lose that much from not getting that many points in Defense.

I am trading 3 armor, 2 damage taken from champions, 15% cc reduction that stacks multiplicatively with Tenacity, 3 damage from champion's auto's, 4% total health and 3% flat damage reduction for + 2% damage, + 3 AD, + 5 ARP, + 4 dmg per auto on monsters and creeps and a 5% damage buff to targets below 50% HP.

While I miss the flat damage reduction, everything else isn't that strong anyway. I chose to go from 9/21 to 21/9 because I like to play very aggressively, and those 5 ARP + Executioner are extremely strong early game. Level 3 ganks are deadlier than ever.



A friend of mine has been telling me about homeguards a lot, and I finally gave this a shot recently. I must say those boots are awesome. 475 g for instant full health/mana on recall + big MS boost when leaving the game is awesome for a jungler.

I play more as a ganking jungler rather than a farming one, suits me because that's how he should be played, and homeguards let him be a real terror and carry solo queue.

I'll try to upload one of the games in which I went early homeguards, the game seemed lost but was completely turned around due to my insane presence. We still lost that in the end due to bad lategame plays, but homeguards can change a game. The best way to carry solo queue / unorganized games as a jungler is to show A LOT of presence, and homeguards let you do that.



After watching Stonewall's latest video in which he says he's currently maxing Q on Jarvan, I thought I'd give it a shot and I like the results so far. Basically instead of getting maxed by level 9 and maxed by level 12 (13 if you take one rank in early), you'd get Q maxed by lvl 9, and E by lvl 12/13.

I do not know if it is better but I feel like my ganks are even more deadly. As someone that likes to play very aggressively, I might start maxing Q all the time. There are downsides to it (less AS/AR, Q costs more than E), but there are also advantages, for example the early very powerful armor shred and simply the amazing damage from maxed Q ASAP.



This item was really very rarely built but people recently found out about it being very strong on several champions such as , and of course, . J4 might not have as much spammable AoE damage as Kayle/Hecarim, but he has at least as much AoE damage as Vi.

Jarvan also has strong bonus AD ratios on and , not to mention getting some AD naturally synergizes well with armor penetration (runes, masteries, Q armor shred). Looking forward to give it a shot.



Well I've gotten blown up several times because of high magic damage, be it aoe (//) or single target (/).

Obviously is a strong counter to heavy AoE magic damage, but champions such as Ryze or Akali will often turn on you when they can't hit anyone else. If the enemy team has that kind of champion, I highly recommend Aegis/Bulwar.



This will probably require me to rewrite quite a few chapters but honestly, maxing Q first is retarded, it gives J4 as much damage as Xin Zhao. You might lose some armor and attack speed but the armor reduction and insane base Q damage when maxed is worth the trade.



[quote]

Jarvan has been bringing too much utility to his team, so we've removed the armor component of Demacian Standard's aura.

Golden Aegis:
Shield amount per nearby enemy champion increased to 20/30/40/50/60 from 20/25/30/35/40.
Mana cost reduced to 45/50/55/60/65 from 65.

Demacian Standard: active no longer grants bonus armor.
Armor per level increased to 3.6 from 3 [As Undocumented change].

[/quote]

I kinda saw it coming when pro's started to use him, and it does hurt his jungle, the first clear in particular was made quite a bit weaker since you lost 10 free armor from the flag that really helped.

Due to this change, I have decided to change my masteries (21/9 still, just different defense masteries).

I think this chang also made maxing second a much better idea than it was before, but I would only do that as toplane if I was against an AP.

The increased AS/AR is still a lot better when maxing second as jungler, in my opinion.



I've tested it a few games and honestly I like it. The shield used to cost way too much mana and be incredibly weak, but since its buffs honestly I like this spell quite a lot more.

Tier 1

Fury 4/4 : 4% AS increases your jungle clearspeed quite a bit.

Butcher 2/2 : Combined with Fury and , those 2 points are very interesting.

Sorcery 1/4 : This point was put here because I needed one point to advance and it was the best place to put it imo. 1% CDR doesnt really do a whole lot, but it's still something.

Tier 2

Deadliness 4/4 : Well, this is obvious. It leads to the arpen mastery, and it's pretty good on its own.

Tier 3

Weapon Expertise 1/1 : 8% arpen is almost a must on any physical damage dealer.

Havoc 3/3 : 2% flat damage increase is actually very interesting. It also increases your clearing speed, even if not by much.

Tier 4

Brute Force 2/2 : + 3 AD doesn't seem like much, but it is very easy to feel the difference, especially since you run so much armor pen from runes and masteries. Auto's deal more damage and thus it also increases your clear speed.

Tier 5

Sunder 3/3 : 5 armor pen is insane. scales best off ARP out of any stat, this mastery was the thing that made me try 21/9 and I am glad I did.

Tier 6

Executioner 1/1 : + 5% damage to low hp targets is really strong, especially early. If you can combo someone with double buff at lvl 3, they will have to flash or die. This mastery is also very strong when you get to countergank someone. Jarvan is naturally one of the best if not the single best counterganker in the game, but this mastery makes his ability to do it ridiculous.



Tier 1

Durability 4/4 : Very standard mastery, scaling HP is very strong. Free tankiness never hurts.

Tough Skin 2/2 : Significantly reduces the damage you take from jungle creeps, no reason to not take it.

Tier 2

Hardiness 1/3: 2 armor helps in the jungle. I chose Bladed Armor and Veteran's Scars over more points in it because I feel like those two masteries are worth more than 3 AR.

Bladed Armor 1/1: This mastery actually deals quite a bit of damage to jungle creeps, it is indirect sustain.

Tier 3

Veteran's Scars 1/1 : +30 HP is much better than + 1.5 armor. If there's one thing I hate it is dieing from an ignite and this mastery saved my ass from that several times.

I've been testing runes a lot and here are my results.

Clear speed wise, 6.8 AD & 12 ARP are the best (3:38), but 15 AD (3:40) and 19 ARP (3:39) aren't far off.

As for the route, I've tried Wolves > Blue (Smite, lvl 2) > Wraithes > Red, which is the fastest but highly dangerous (doing red with up and lvl 3 is much safer), Wolves > Blue (Smite, lvl 2) > Wraithes > Golems (lvl 3) > Red (Smite), which is just as fast as the last but much more dangerous (golems hit hard), **Wolves > Blue (Smite, lvl 2) > Wraithes > Wolves (lvl 3) > Red (Smite).**

I would advise doing the last route**(or vice-versa if you start red) unless you get a smiteless first buff in which case rushing your 2nd buff and start ganking is the best option.

I would recommend running 19 arp runes because scales incredibly well with ARP. only scales with ARP, further reduces enemy armor, and deals good physical damage.

Both and have pretty good AD ratios, but try playing with 19 ARP and then with 15 AD (runes), you'll see that 19 ARP hits MUCH harder.

I'm really bad at maths so I couldn't explain why, but Armor Pen is the way to go.

25 ARP was quite a bit slower than 15 AD / 6.8 ad 15 ARP in season 2, but that is no longer the case, going full ARP (which is now 19) doesn't even slow you down (which was the reason why I did not run 25 ARP all the time in season 2), no reason to not get it.



: 3:30 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:36 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:21 (AS reds, HP regen quints, 9 21 0)
: 3:36(AD reds, AD quints - most popular lee setup -, 9 21 0)
: 3:35 (6 AS reds, 3 ARP reds, 3 ARP quints, 9 21 0)
: 3:35 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:41 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:20 (AD reds, ARP quints, 9 21 0 - most popular olaf setup)
: 3:35 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:26 (AS reds, MS quints, 0 21 9)
: 3:43 (6 AS reds, 3 ARP red, 3 ARP quints, 9 21 0)

Reminder : Remember to use your flag so that it hits every creep in the jungle. deals unimpressive damage at low ranks but when you start getting ranks in it, it does significant damage.

@ wolves :



@ wraithes :

+






is necessary when jungling, some people think they can skip it on some champions such as , but they're wrong. If you don't have smite, you will never ever get a single baron / dragon unless the enemy jungler is dead. Take it.

is simply not capable of jungling without Smite. Some champions can survive the jungle without it but still have to take it because it allows them to start boots or simply clear faster, but Jarvan cannot jungle without this spell.



I used to run exhaust every game but Flash is pretty damn good and your ganks don't suffer too much from not having Exhaust. Flash is a really safe summoner and a more personal, defensive one than Exhaust.

Running actually allows you to survive much better, because in teamfights even if you didn't build any damage at all, you should be so disruptive that the enemy team will be forced to blow some cooldowns on you. Flashing out of your ult will often save you.

The only downside to is that you don't have the peeling power of .



is also decent because already has an escape through his combo, personal preference here but I'd rather run than .

I personally do not really like Ghost on almost any champion except champions with high synergy with that spell (I.E. ), and I don't believe can make a good use of because he's meant to burst someone down and/or apply crowd control to one or several champions.

Ghost is better on champions that have a good DPS but tend to be kited, is not one of those.

Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing 6/8/10% of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.





The Solomid description isn't up to date. Martial Cadence damage has been changed to Physical damage, it benefits from ARP and actually it is the only stat it scales with.

This passive is often overlooked but it's actually quite strong, it speeds up Jarvan's clearing speed, adds quite a bit of burst damage when ganking. It's more easily noticed top lane but it helps you throughout the game.

has low DPS but his burst damage is very strong and often underestimated.

You will notice on buffs mainly, for example on your first AA on the very first buff (@ 1:55), your AA will deal something like 175 damage instead of 59 (yes has low base AD).

You can maximize the effectiveness of this passive by auto attacking every creep once when jungling - particularly effective with red buff -, it isn't needed but it does make your clear slightly faster.

Not really important, but as shown in the picture, it changes your auto attack animation.



Jarvan IV extends his lance, dealing 70/115/160/205/250 (+110% of attack damage) physical damage and lowering the Armor of all enemies in its path by 10/14/18/22/26% for 3 seconds.

If it contacts his standard it will pull Jarvan IV to its location, knocking up enemies in his path.

Cooldown 10/9/8/7/6 seconds

Cost 45/50/55/60/65 mana

Range 500





As you can see, enemies hit by your will have a red circle around them, meaning their armor is decreased.

It's mainly used in combination with for the knockup-dash effect, and deals quite a lot of damage, especially when maxed. Remember it also reduce your target's armor which means every AD in your team will deal increased damage to targets hit by .

As you can see, it scales pretty well with bonus AD, I'd max it first if it wasn't for its manacost which gets kinda high and the fact that speeds up your jungle while costing less mana and not having to be spammed nearly as much.

You can also use it in combination with your to travel faster between jungle camps. Due to 's lower cooldown, you will be able to use it during your cooldown, it has pretty decent damage early game especially if you position yourself so that you can hit every single wraithes/wolves with it.



Jarvan IV forges a 50/90/130/170/210 (+20/25/30/35/40 health for each nearby enemy champion) health shield for 5 seconds, which slows surrounding enemies by 15/20/25/30/35% for 2 seconds.
Cooldown 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

Cost 75 mana





This is one of the weakest shield in the game except in teamfights when you're right inside the enemy team. Do not use this shield when jungling, it is incredibly weak when no champions are around you.

Lately I don't level it anymore even as jungler because I feel like this spell only provides a weak slow and often forces you to recall after this very gank since it takes so much mana. I will explain in a chapter below why I don't level W at all early game.

Come late game though, this spell synergizes well with right after you initiate a teamfight by hitting your combo on a carry - preferably, rather easy to do -, + 's active them will give your team a huge advantage as pretty much everyone will be hard slowed.



Passive: Grants Jarvan a bonus 10/13/16/19/22% attack speed and 10/13/16/19/22 armor.
Active: Jarvan IV throws a Demacian flag to a nearby area, dealing 60/105/150/195/240 magic damage to enemies in the area and granting his passive benefits to nearby allies and again to himself for 8 seconds.

Cooldown 13 seconds

Cost 60 mana







It's mainly used in combination with for your knockup-dash combo, but on its own it definitely helps you out in the jungle, as it gives passive armor and attack speed. Drop it so that the short AoE will damage as many creeps as possible (this will increase your jungle speed especially on wolves & wraithes).

Note that it deals decent damage and can be used to pick up kills on low HP targets.

When you drop your flag, everyone including you is given the ar/as bonus, basically you get twice the passive bonus. Bonus armor helps your team quite a lot, bonus AS synergizes well with any AD champion.

and can also use your as a target for their and abilities.

Note that also gives vision, allowing you to give them a way of wall jumping. gives full vision of the area for its duration, allowing you to safely check bushes (very helpful at level one, similar to ).

can be used on your flag as well.

You can also use your flag as a temporary ward or to check bushes if you think the enemy jungler/mid/team might be camping there.



Jarvan IV heroically leaps at an enemy champion, dealing 200/325/450 (+150 of attack damage) physical damage and creating an arena of impassable terrain around them for 3.5 seconds.

Activate again to collapse the wall.

Cooldown 120/105/90 seconds

Cost 100/125/150 mana

Range 600





This spell can deal quite a lot of damage despite being used mainly for its utility, it is really good at finishing low hp targets.

Cataclysm is a very unique ultimate that creates a ring around your target, traping you and your target inside it. While the spell has to be targeted and will only deal damage to the champion your targeted, it can of course trap other enemies or allies inside the ring.

has great synergy with AP champions in general since they tend to have AoE damage (, , -- combo, , .. etc), it is 's second initiation move (- combo being the first).

It is a very nice spell for ganking but also shines in teamfights, however as it can trap your teammates inside it, it can also backfire.

When thinking about using , always be as aware of the situation as possible. You don't want to trap your AD or AP carry with you as it will most likely mean death for them, or force them to flash out / use their escape which is something you want to avoid as having your flash / escape move or both ready if possible as carry is very important.

You also want to make sure your team will be able to follow your initiation ( combo goes very far, if you chain your spells most of the time your team will have difficulties following you).

When using on enemies such as , make sure he's already used his . You don't want him to Valkyrie out of your arena, making it useless. At least force him to out. Also make sure champions that will typically want to kill this target will be able to follow them, your arena can make allied champions such as or useless if you trap them outside.

Last but not least, can be used defensively on an enemy bruiser who's trying to kill your teammate, but it is harder because you need to know pretty well how big the arena is to make sure you won't trap your carry inside the arena with the enemy bruiser.

Making good use of Cataclysm is the difference between a good and a bad Jarvan, the only other thing that can be used to make a difference between those two is how good is he at hitting his combo and at how many people he catches with it.

DO NOT USE YOUR ULTIMATE IF HAS HIS READY, AT LEAST FORCE HIS WITH YOUR COMBO AND THEN . YOUR FOR HIS IS A GOOD TRADE, YOUR ULT FOR HIS IS NOT.

Alright, I significantly modified my skill order, here's the new one : >>>

Skilling at level 1 is still mandatory. The 10 armor you get from it is MASSIVE at level one and makes you significantly tankier against jungle monsters. Actually I'm pretty sure you would die on your first buff if you were going for a smiteless and took .

Maxing first is now clearly the best option. Its damage is simply crazy when leveled up first, and the fact that lost its armor aura makes it significantly less effective even if you're planning to build full tank.



used to be a very awkward skill that would only be decent in lategame teamfights, but they reduced its manacost quite a bit, and buffed the increased shield per enemy champion hit, which makes it A LOT stronger in early-mid game skirmishes.

The second reason is the fact that was nerfed rather hard. It effectively lost 50% of its armor as far as himself is concerned, and completely lost its armor aura. This nerf made this spell both a lot weaker for you and for your team.

Not to mention many AP champions () are quite popular at the moment, and gives you flat health (shield), while only slightly increase your armor, maxing second will keep you alive a lot better than .

This is a standard starter for junglers. Some junglers don't benefit that much from it, for example is about as fast if you start or , but really needs the machete for a decent first clear.



These two items should be your first back goals. are very important because you want to be able to gank and have some map presence, and has became my choice ever since the last patch.



are my favourite boots on most junglers. These boots are perfect in solo queue where you can often pick up many kills just by mindlessly spamming ganks.

is exceptionally powerful with these boots because they let him outrun the enemy just enough that he can usually get his off even when coming from his own team's turret.

I wouldn't get those boots on a few junglers ( for instance, she benefits from mpen way so much that not getting would be a waste), but even now that are somewhat popular I still think they're underrated.



has to be my favourite item on . CDR, AD, and most importantly, ARP. loves armor pen because already reduces the amount of armor your target has, and flat penetration is most effective against low defenses target.

In other words, & - in addition to your 19 arpen runes and 5 armor pen from masteries - lets your damage scale very nicely on squishy targets.

is an amazing item as of right now. It gives free tenacity, hp and cdr for a very low cost. It is also the only that gives 500 HP, which is as much as . I think it's kinda OP that it gives so much HP, but I hope Riot won't nerf it.. for once that we can get a nice item that builds out of Machete.

Tenacity also lets you build without having to sit in the enemy team's crowd control for hours.



Honestly I don't really like having to build because it is mostly an aura item and doesn't make you as tanky as you could get if you were building selfish items such as instead, but the aura is AN ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE against AP teams.

Why is that ? Well, 99% of the time, AP champions deal a lot of AoE damage that will decimate your team if you don't build it, and I don't like having to rely on my support to build it, for a few reasons.

1) I'll have to ask them to build it and they may not agree.
2) They will take more time than me to get it even if I build 2-3 items before that.
3) They might not buy wards to get it ASAP which may cost us the game.



This item is really powerful against teams with a lot of AD, I typically find myself building it when the enemy team has only 1 AP champion. The active is also extremely powerful on because it synergizes with his .

combo is usually strong enough to force people to burn at least one of their escapes which means they're usually not getting out of .



I know this item looks weird but honestly, it is the best defense in the game. And you've played before, you have had those times where you are required to dive in with your and because the enemy team is grouped up which will make them vulnerable to your teammates, but your is on cd.

Those situations usually mean certain death for you, regardless of how tanky you are, because the enemy team will focus fire on you and kill you. Your team may win the teamfight afterwards but I honestly believe that it is a lot better if you can live as well, and the only item that will let you live is .

I am convinced that is one of the best items for .





is probably one of the most common items on junglers in competitive play, but it's not in this guide. Mainly because I don't feel quite as tanky when I build it compared to when I build , and because it is more of a very first item, and since I build first, it's not as good as it is on LCS junglers.

Keep in mind this guide is a solo queue guide, competitive play is completely different.



is also one of those items that works perfectly fine on but isn't in this guide as of right now. Thing is, I like A LOT MORE since they buffed , as it grants as much health as a , 10% CDR, and tenacity which lets you build and still get Tenacity.



I used to build it but since its nerf I am pretty sure it's not worth its cost anymore. Especially when is such a powerful item. I also feel like is ten times stronger and still relatively cheap.



It is a very situational item that can fit your build. It is viable once you have completed as long as the enemy team doesn't have too much %hp damage.

So I realized a long time ago that this item on its own was easily the most controversial point about build, and I completely underestand why people react that way.

To be honest, it kinda forces you to snowball because there's just no way you'll be as tanky as another jungler that just went typical full tank LCS locket-aegis build.

I used to build my junglers full tank but I noticed that many times especially when your lanes are somehow behind, they will need damage from the jungler, during ganks, and most likely during teamfights as well.

I tried many damage items that could work as jungler, I even tried to build at some point, but quickly noticed it was just far too expensive for a jungler (this item was actually pretty damn good on in season 2 if you were laning him).

However, I noticed that I could somehow get a nice mix of tankiness and damage on champions such as by getting one damage item - - and building tanky afterwards, and wondered if I could do the same for . Building one damage item rather than just straight-up full tank like almost every other jungler would force me to snowball, to abuse my damage output advantage in early ganks / skirmishes, but I was fine with that.

I tried many different damage items, but in the end I noticed several things :

- As jungler you'll only really have one chance at building an offensive item unless you're jungling . This means that the item alone has to make a difference.
- The item has to be rather cheap. You can't afford as jungler unless you're stomping hard every game.
- It needs to be able to be built fast. You're going to need the completed item quickly.



Once I asked myself that question, it became obvious that was the right choice. It's cheap, synergizes well with the champion.. and the most surprising is that this item alone with my runes and masteries lets J4's damage scale very well into the midgame and even the start of late-game.

1. has two strong AD scaling, one of his ultimate, and one on his Q. He might be able to get two Q's off maximum per gank, and one ult. Two-three Q's and one ult off per teamfight.

On the other hand, his passive, scales off nothing but enemy current health and armor penetration. Armor Penetration benefits 3 of his skills, Attack Damage only 2.

2. Flat armor penetration is a very powerful stat when used right. It typically fits champions that deal a lot of physical damage through abilities and have some kind of armor penetration on their own, and scales better into the mid-late game than flat Attack Damage.

Flat Armor Penetration is also strongest against low armor targets. The more you get, the more damage you'll deal to squishy targets. This is why and my runes/masteries synergizes with .

3. I completely understand if you disagree with . I would still recommend that you give it a shot before you say it's a bad item on a jungler or anything like that. It might not fit your playstyle but it can work very well.

Bad games happen even to the best junglers. I'm a big fan of Diamondprox, I've seen him have bad games, and it's always tough as jungler as it usually means the enemy jungler will win skirmishes, your buffs might be invaded, your towers will start to fall (too) early, etc.

When you're behind, I'd advise you to skip and try to focus on counterganking, especially if one of your lanes is ahead, you can expect the enemy jungler to gank that lane. You might not win straight 2v2's/3v3's but the enemy jungler might get cocky and try to towerdive your teammate(s), at which point your presence will be needed and probably gamechanging.

If your lanes are losing as well, you might as well go all-out, buy and go for a fast . This is a risky play, it has a good chance of backfiring, but if everyone is losing, this is probably your only chance of winning.

Magic resistance is typically painful to build for Jarvan IV, which makes him quite a bit weaker against magic damage heavy comps in my opinion.

is a very strong item because of its HUGE CDR, but you're also paying for the passive which doesn't do anything for you, not optimal.

is a strong pickup lategame but doesn't give that much MR either. It's strong when you have a lot of health and typically some damage as well (GA is useless if the enemy team ignores you).

is the best MR item in the game for bruisers/tanks atm. Very expensive but it's your only choice and building HP to counter magic damage just doesn't work anymore since the introduction of .

is pretty good in lane but it's very expensive for a jungler. Not to mention the item isn't that great past the early-midgame because its upgrade () is INCREDIBLY expensive and is mainly a damage item. The shield becomes slightly stronger but you're mainly paying for additional AD (flat on the item, passive) when you upgrade Hexdrinker.

I'd advice Runic Bulwark 90% of the time and GA if you need even more MR.

After re-reading my guide I thought something was lacking and I realized that a small chapter about Jarvan's EQ combo could be beneficial for some people.

relies on hitting his combo and much like most skillshots, the best way to hit your combo most of the time is to lead your target, if he's fleeing, aim your flag behind him, etc.

Your will only pull you to your flag and knockup people in your path if it contacts to a flag you previously dropped, will connect to your even if it is slightly out of range of your Q.

Hitting your combo will probably take a few games before you feel comfortable, it is really key to playing the champion, much like 's combo.

As of the "pre-Syndra patch", has been changed, if you smartcast it out of its range, it will drop your flag at max range (before that change, wouldn't drop his flag, but would instead walk up to range and then cast it only), allowing you to get combos much more easily IMO, a great QoL buff.

It is worth mentioning that is immune to crowd controls during the travel when he pulls himself to his flag, if you get stunned right after pressing q you'll be stunned during the travel time but will still get dragged towards your flag.

You can also pull yourself to your flag while rooted by champions such as

The only CC that will screw your combo is in case you get hit by a knock-up while is pulling himself towards his flag. I.E. 's , 's , etc.

Here are a few pictures of spots where you should consider dropping your flag at level one.





Probably the most common spot in case the enemy team try to invade, they will go from there, because you're and they expect you to start blue





Some teams try to invade by going through this bush, you can scout it but try to scout it from max range as you can get caught at level one since you dont have your combo yet.





In case they want to invade your red, less likely though because they'll expect to start blue.





If you scouted river before and you're sure they're not invading, you can scout this spot, as it gives you the early information "yea he's starting red".

Most manaless junglers (etc) will usually start red but they can start blue as well.





Like above only scout there if you scouted river bush and you're sure they're not invading, usually enemy mid will stand there and this gives you the information "yea he's starting blue".

This chapter probably won't be interesting if you're already a veteran jungler, but I believe it can be helpful for newer junglers so I'll include it.

can have a difficult time jungling early game if you take the "wrong" path, but he is also flexible because you can perfectly start red and do fine, you're not screwed too much in case you can't get at least 1 blue buff early game (I.E. they took yours and warded theirs, and your team refuses to help you out).

Usually I start from the buff that is the furthest from toplane. For example if I'm blue side, I'll start wraithes > red. Why ? First because if my botlane helps me out I'll be able to keep my and go straight to my blue. Second, because you wanna gank top early and the best way to do it is by going this route.

If I can get my first buff smiteless : small camp #1 > buff #1 > buff #2 () > gank top.

If I'm forced to smite my first buff : small camp #1 > buff #1 () > small camp #2 > small camp #1 > buff #2 () > gank top.

Let's say I'm purple side. If I'm forced to smite my blue, I'll go wolves > blue () > wraithes > wolves > red ().



That's simple. First is I don't want to lose too much health doing buff #2, if I go back to wolves I'll have back up for buff #2.

Second, because I'll be level 3 for buff #2 and will kill it faster / take less damage. The only downside to this is that it is slightly easier for the enemy jungler to steal your buff #2.

To prevent that, I usually drop my flag around my buff #2 before doing small camp #2 or in the bush near buff #2 after doing them, making sure the enemy jungler isn't camping there waiting for me to start it.

At level one, always level . You can scout bushes with it, also it deals some damage to wolves/wraithes (even if your team is invading, take it, will deal decent damage in case you catch someone).

Remember to drop your flag such as it hits as many jungle creeps as possible, while this might not be insane damage during the early jungling, the damage gets pretty good when is ranked up. Also when you drop it, the passive bonus armor and attack speed is doubled.

I can't really tell you how to jungle at this point because jungling is pretty personal as far as i'm concerned (meaning there's nothing that tells you what to do at what time and something that works well in game X might completely fail in game Y), but what I do 99% of the time is that I start at the buff which is the furthest from toplane, and ask bot to damage it so that I can keep smite.

Sometimes they don't damage it enough and I'm forced to smite, but if they do it I can get my 2nd buff and gank/countergank top at this point with double buff and be level three.

Typically if I'm blue side and the enemy jungler is , I'm practically sure he'll start red and gank top lvl 2, so I tell my top to watch out, tell him I'm gonna red>blue fast lvl 3 and gank at this point, if he didn't stupidly die, will either be lvl 2 with redbuff still camping there (if they try to trade we'll destroy them because I'm level three, he's two), or he will have left and killing the enemy top will be easy.

ATM ganking top early game is incredibly important, for several reasons. Solotop champions are usually somewhat squishy early game but will build much tankier than botlane and midlane champions, so ganking them early will be easier. Also 99% of the time they won't have early wards, unlike bot, so they're even more vulnerable to early ganks.

Toplane snowballs very hard, and if your top is ahead, he will dominate his lane hard almost regardless of his lane matchup (some hard counterpicks might still be able to dominate someone despite being killed early, for example will handle regardless of how ahead is).

If you snowballed your top ahead of the enemy's, the enemy jungler will have to gank your top later, you'll either be able to countergank (if warded well enough - that's part of your job) or gank bot/mid instead and get an objective such as a tower, or a dragon.

Most people underestimate the importance of wards. Here are common spots where you can ward as jungler, those spots can be crucial.





This ward is very important, gives you vision of the enemy jungler when he's doing wraithes and you know when he's heading top/mid so you can countergank or even gank him while he's camping bushes, this also gives you vision of the enemy mid if he tries to go top .

In a perfect world your mid would ward this but most mids don't, I'd rather ward it myself to increase our win chances than having the enemy team get successful ganks due to lack of vision.





Usually your top will ward this but if he doesn't / his ward died, ward it for him.





This gives you information when enemy top is trying to gank mid or enemy mid is trying to gank top, you can also spot the enemy jungler if he tries to gank top/mid this way. This ward is also useful in case the enemy team wants to invade your blue as they may chose this path.





This ward is also crucial, you'll most of the time see the enemy mid if he tries to go bot this way, you'll also be able to spot the enemy jungler if he tries to gank mid from there.

This ward is also very useful while doing dragon, most of the time someone will try to contest it even if their team can't because they're too far, this can often be a free kill.





Warding the enemy blue is something that is sadly rarely done in solo queue, however if you do this and smite it / contest it / fight there because you know you're stronger, you will pressure the enemy team.

Beware if they see you and your mid (always ping him their blue and tell him "let's contest it") around their blue buff though, their botlane will most likely come to help, so tell yours to be ready to come.

If you get caught 2v4 you'll most likely die, if you can fight 4v4 and win you will have a big advantage as this will also mean you can get a dragon off of this.





This is the most important defensive ward as this will allow you to know when the enemy mid / jungle tries to gank bot (or top, depending on which side you are) from tri-bush.

This can also prevent 4v2 towerdives botlane, if you see both their jungler and their mid going bot, follow them (if you can go the way around red-golems is the best so you won't get caught off-guard), then your bot can bait a dive and you can often turn around and fight.

This ward is also very important against strong invaders like , if you and your mid catch them off-guard they'll most likely blow a summoner or die.


PS : Many people in low elo (and even at my elo) buy very little to no wards at all, and claim "it's the support's job", that's wrong. As a jungler, warding is very important. Also since you are the most prone to roaming, you can ward practically anywhere.

While this doesn't really have anything to do with specifically, I believe this is a very important chapter about jungling. I see many people successfully gank early game as jungler but more often than not they don't abuse the fact that they will most of the time be stronger than the enemy team due to that early lead.

For example if you just killed the enemy mid/botlane and time is around 6 min, what you should do is recall if you don't have a ward, if you have one, ward the enemy blue and invade it (if their jungler started there, it will respawn around 7:10-7:15, if they did not, between 8:30 and 10:00 depending on when they got it).

They most likely won't be able to fight, if you steal it (easy if warded), their AP won't have it which can be a big big disadvantage especially for some champions that heavily rely on that blue buff ( come to mind), etc.

You'll also very often force summoners/kill someone, increasing your advantage, and giving you an opportunity to get dragon. Not only will this give you a significant gold advantage, it will also demoralize the enemy team.

Also something that people tend to forget is that towers are very important, global xp + 150 gold is pretty strong. If possible, I recommend taking mid tower first, after a successful gank if possible. Mid tower down = cuts a lot of vision for the enemy team, makes it safer for you to walk through their jungle, more dangerous for them, etc etc.

As said above, ganking top early game is very important. Toplane is easily ganked due to how big the lane is, and there is no support warding it unlike botlane.

Bruisers, most common toplaners, are also most vulnerable early on, before they get tanky and/or damage items. They also very easily snowball out of control, that's why you should do your best to have your toplane snowball ahead of the enemy's.

A good early gank/countergank will help your toplane much more than later ganks, if your toplaner is being snowballed it will usually take more than one gank to get him back in his lane. Not to mention ganking toplane gets harder and harder because people get tankier / deal more damage, they get wards, etc.

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Control + F can help you find the champion you're looking for. Enter the name of the champion you're looking for in that box and you'll find him / her.

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- Very easily ganked, especially early game.
- Ganking him when he reaches 6 can sometimes be dangerous, his hits like a truck if you can't kill him fast enough (aka before he stacks his .
- Dealing with him 1v1 is pretty hard, do your toplaner a favor and gank him at least once early game.



- Ganking for him is pretty easy, his is a very nice ganking tool (he can either initiate with that or follow up after your combo.
- His is a decent slow that definitely help when ganking for him.
- His has a short range meaning he can execute his target even if he's not in melee, but do your best to not trap him outside the ring. In lane or in teamfights it can really be bad if he's unable to reach his target because of you.
- 's biggest weakness is that he's very easily ganked, junglers know that and people tend to ask for ganks. Try to feel enemy ganks coming (usually junglers lvl 3 gank top with double buff), countergank and you'll often get a double kill. Darius has such strong damage that unexpected counterganks will most of the time work very well.
- When counterganking for him, try to wait for the enemy jungle/top to get in Darius' melee range, as it will allow you to get a knockup on two people, making sure you at least force their summoners.







- Isn't really a bruiser, she will usually build more like .
- can go through your , be careful about that.
- Try to not gank her while coming from behind her, as she will you and get away.
- Think twice before you try to towerdive her post six, her ult provides her complete immunity, actually lasts quite some time, and deals damage to every target in range (most likely you and your toplaner), try to not give her a free double kill.



- I hate ganking top for her, she doesn't really do anything but deal damage. Her burst damage is pretty good, though.
- The only thing she brings to allied ganks is the ability to towerdive more easily as makes it easy for her to tank the turret if she's smart enough to do it which is more than unlikely.
- While Fiora lacks CC, she has some decent burst damage. Make sure her E attack speed steroid isn't on cooldown when you gank for her.






- His is useless against you, knockups can't be purged. Just don't waste your before he .
- His gives him high MS, make sure he won't simply walk away from your gank.
- Not 100% related but his ult can be very annoying, even though the slow is the big part of it, as the damage is weak and not reliable. Try to keep in mind that like every other global ult it can turn close fights around.



- His will help you get your combo off. It also gives a nice AD boost which synergizes pretty well with your AS buff.
- He has two soft CCs, both his and his are MS slows. If he can get in melee range during your combo, he will usually secure kills or force summoners.
- He can help your ganks with even if he's on the other side of the map. Do not count on its damage too much, though. The damage is very unreliable and is rather weak.
- Try to think ahead as always. Gangplank is strong 1-3 but after that he's rather squishy and doesn't do that much damage anymore, 2v2's can easily be catastrophic at this point.







- Strong early game, falls off pretty hard if not fed.
- Somewhat hard to gank due to huge MS boost on , it also purges slow.
- Has no way to get out of .
- Will usually try to turn around and fight, #1.
- He's VERY tanky with his shield on. You'll most likely need your to kill him or hope to force a summoner, he's one of the few champs I expect to be able to survive an EQ combo with decent follow up from my teammate without having to flash early game.



- Much like he's one of those champions you don't really want to see on your team as they don't bring much to the table apart from damage, 's only utility is his silence which can prevent .
- Try to not trap him outside your as he relies heavily on being in melee range during to deal maximum damage.
- Garen deals good damage and is innately tanky (moreso when you're fighting besides him due to your flag's steroid and arpen from Q), counterganks should be particularly effective. His silence and retarded early game E damage + execute should work very well with your own kit.






- She's somewhat weak early game, her can sometimes mess up your ganks though. Most champions will have a lot of trouble dealing with as the game progresses if they're not ahead of her.
- Try not to come from behind her, she'll just you and get away.
- She is pretty hard to towerdive due to her ability to juke on creeps with and her , do not feed her a double kill.
- I'm just repeating myself but try to keep her down, one or two early ganks can't hurt. Most toplaners aren't such a big deal but if Irelia gets farmed or worse, fed, she can really be a problem.



- She brings a lot to your ganks, in addition to her monstrous damage output she also has a stun/slow ().
- If possible try to have her bait her opponent in a 1v1 fight, her will then stun if used properly and usually this will result in a kill. In case she's behind, remind her of your , she can safely bait.
- Her weakest point is her early game, most champions will bully her around because they know how strong she gets and will try to get an advantage before she reaches level 6/9. Ganking her lane early should be easy as people will have to play aggresive vs her.
- A snowballed is one of the scariest bruisers in the game, also work very well together when it comes to killing enemy carries, as both of them have assassin-ish skillset.
- Irelia is best at supporting ganks if she can successfully bait her opponent and stun him when he reaches melee range. Her stun followed by your EQ should let her deal significant damage.







- Post nerf he isnt really that popular.
- He'll E you away but he can only do it to one target, you + your toplaner should be in melee range if you hit your . And even then if he's really problematic, gank him post six. , wait for him to E you away, and him.
- His (hammer form) is basically like 's, it can knock you out of your - I'm pretty sure it doesn't knock you back as far as , but you get the point.
- Depending on your champion, can be very hard to beat and snowballs pretty well, he doesn't scale into an hypercarry, but he scales pretty decently (better than most bruisers), don't let him get out of control.
- If you show up too early while trying to gank from behind, he can dash on you with his melee Q, knock you away with his melee E, and run away.
- Actually if you can catch him just after he switches stance, he can be incredibly easy to kill, as he needs both his melee and ranged Es and Qs to successfully escape most well executed ganks.



- His hammer slows and his cannon gives a nice boost, ganking his lane shouldn't be too hard.
- His hammer can knock someone out of your , beware. I'd recommend saving your ult until he uses it unless you think he wants to keep it as a finisher.
- Even though he only has one spell that goes through , his hammer , he can still damage people from outside the ring in cannon form. His has like 6 sec cd though, if he just swapped to hammer, try to not lock him outside the ring !
- Jayce isn't the best champions for skirmishes, he deals some good damage but usually not quite enough to kill people and most importantly he's a rather squishy bruiser that has trouble surviving focus fire even early game. Don't always assume you can win 2v2's against the enemy jungler & toplaner.







- He is more vulnerable early game, however both his and his allow him to escape ganks or turn around and fight better than most champions.
- Try to give your laner an advantage pre six, is an insane duelist, especially post six. A good will always time his harass to proc his damage which can lead to bad situations.
- His ultimate grants him a good MR and AR bonus, he will try to turn around and fight often if he thinks he can kill one of you.
- He is rather hard to gank, much like , successfully ganking him will often require him to get overly aggressive (your teammate needs to bait to jump on him). Once again, like , you can always use to force his after he Q's away from you.



- His gives a nice CC if he can proc the stun, if either of you can hit his CC, the other should be able to hit his, thus making ganks easy.
- He deals a lot of sustained damage, he should benefit from your skillset very well ( also likes AS from ).
- Try to not lock him out of your , he can still on either you, his opponent, or your , but if his jump is on cd he won't be able to enter the arena. His cds are pretty long early game.
- Jax is strong in skirmishes if he can get auto-attacks off. CC heavy jungle/top combination can make him very weak in 2v2's.







- Doesn't have a big escape move, however she has a targetted slow, an MS buff, as well as an ultimate which can help her survive towerdive especially well or turn around and fight.
- Isn't really a bruiser, will build more like a regular AD carry - meaning you can still kill her pretty easily even if you didn't gank her early on. Her damage is deceptively high though.
- has to be one of the best champions when it comes to ganking . If you don't miss your EQ, she will have to flash, and she has no way out of . You can easily abuse her.



- Her has a nice 35 % MS slow from level one, ganking for her is relatively easy.
- Her can be used on you to speed you up so that you can get off your combo more easily
- is one of the best tools in the game for towerdives. Consider towerdives more than usual !
- transitions into an AP carry (she used to be played AD, but AP Kayle is now fotm due to Rapidstar playing her in OGN Winter), if she starts snowballing she gets really scary. and have a pretty good synergy thanks to 's armor shred and 's AS buff.
- She can also to protect you when you engage with / .







- Has a very strong early game, somewhat falls off late game damage wise, he turns into a supportive kind of champion. He'll usually either protect his carries or help his bruiser buddy take down yours. In case he's top and his jungler is a pure tank, he'll build more damage-heavy and will be a threat but will seriously lack tankiness.
- He is more vulnerable at level one because he will most likely take .
- Is very hard to gank due to - watch where your creeps are before starting your gank, if you don't and his creeps arrive at the same moment you go in, your gank just failed.
- His makes him even harder to gank, it also can knock you out of your own .
- He can either to some enemy champion/creep outside the , to an allied creep/champion/ward to get out, or kick you out of it. Know that before you him.



- helps allied ganks nicely, he can to you or your and then slow them down with , he can position himself to someone away from their escape route while they're 'd in the air, etc.
- If you can help him snowball his lane, do it. is a champion that needs to snowball ahead as much as possible as he doesn't naturally scale well into late game unlike etc.
- have one of the best synergy between two bruisers, is the perfect teammate for , you can initiate well, he can't but he can easily follow up with his , he also has great burst damage, your cc's give him time to position himself for a good , etc.
- shouldn't have too much trouble get in or out of your due to his insane mobility. You don't really have to worry about him when ulting.







- Strong early game champion that somewhat falls off if not fed, he does bring a pretty good CC wich his though.
- Try to not gank him from behind as he'll just double and walk away. The second dash can only be activated if his first dash hits something - be hit a creep or a champion, doesn't matter.
- Don't towerdive him unless you're 100% sure both you and your teammate will be fine. Much like , preventing him from snowballing is enough, you don't need to give him unnecessary kills because you got cocky and wanted to dive him.



- is also one of those champions that need to snowball his lane as much as possible. He is a strong laner but if he loses his lane he might end up being practically useless. Don't abandon him, especially if he gets camped, a simple countergank can make wonders.
- His makes ganking for him easy as long as he knows more or less how to manage his fury. He also has great damage, as long as you can hit your combo you'll usually be able to force summoners.
- Keep track of his , remember that he can only use the second dash if his first dash hits something (enemy creep/champion/jungle creep). Try to not lock him out of your , he can proves himself very useful even late game where his 's armor shred and 's stun is often underestimated.
- Renekton is stupidly strong in skirmishes, his ult makes him almost unkillable, his abilities deal good damage, he has a stun, a spell that heals him up, and his ult deals a lot of AoE sustained damage. If you have a Renekton on your team, you should win 2v2's almost every single time.






- Try to gank him pre six. He's much easier to gank before he gets his . If you need to gank him post six, get (unless your top is ), also work but he can still juke you.
- He WILL try to juke you by getting in a brush and dashing to a creep or to you (), beware.
- If he knows he's not escaping (good pre six gank or gank with ), he will most likely try to turn around and fight, his burst is insane. definitely helps.



- While he has a hard crowd control and a soft CC (on the same spell though - ), don't expect him to CC your target, especially since you already bring CC.
- Try to wait for him to reach 3 or 4 ferocity before engaging your gank. That way he'll be able to get a double burst with ease.
- If you can get a good initiate in teamfights and therefore force CD's on you, killing at least one of the enemy carries will be super easy for him.
- Try to get him to snowball ! He's ridiculous when snowballed.






- Kinda resembles , strong early and mid game but needs to snowball ahead to truely be useful.
- Ganking her is tricky. Most Rivens will spam Q to get back to safety, wait for her 3 charges to be on cd before you try to her or she'll most likely juke your combo.
- Her E goes through (just like her Q), just do not use your ultimate if one of her 4 dashes is still ready and you're good to go.
- Beware in case she turns around and fight, is your best friend.



- Much like she needs to make plays during the early game to truely shine. She doesn't fall off as bad as those two guys damage wise but she isn't the best late game bruiser.
- Ganking for her should be easy, her stuns and deals a strong amount of damage, she benefits pretty well from your 's armor shred.
- Either have her bait the enemy into a losing 1v1 fight or initiate the gank. You'll have more success this way, she doesn't initiate ganks all that well.
- Try to not lock her out of your . She is one of the most mobile champions out there, but in case and are on cd, she can't get in your arena unless she es in, which is something you want to avoid as much as possible.






- He is VERY vulnerable to early ganks. His MS buff () is good but isn't really an escape. He'll most likely use it to try to juke your .
- Try to not get hit by his double .
- Don't towerdive him post six. deals a stupid amount of base damage, I'm a terrible and I turned towerdives into doublekills many times..



- He can initiate ganks but that's only if he can hit his . I recommend waiting for him to hit level 5 before ganking if possible, but as he'll most likely be abused early game, gank his lane early with redbuff.
- If you can get him to snowball, he becomes a nightmare for pretty much the whole game even though he kinda falls off late game if you ask me.
- works VERY well in teamfights especially if you can hit multiple people with your , allowing him to get full .
- A good that traps multiple champion will let him get a full which will most likely result in multiple kills.






- Not so popular anymore, still pretty strong though.
- Try to gank him before six. He has no reliable escape without his .
- Is somewhat countered by because basically force him to run , while wants to run to combo it with his .
- Ganking him is pretty standard, is one of the few champions that can easily gank him post six.
- briefly reveals fog of war upon arrival, if he throws an axe in the bush you're sitting in, he knows you're there.
- In case things go wrong and your teammate is killed, don't try to win auto attack trades unless you're way higher in health than him, his and make him deceptively strong if that kind of things happen.

TL;DR : DEMACIA COUNTERS BROMACIA



- You should initiate ganks, he will have an easy time throwing 's and keep your target slowed if you can hit your combo.
- Your burst and his is very brutal, ganking for him shouldn't be too hard.
- His makes towerdiving easy.
- You need to be absolutely sure he will be inside your when you ult someone in teamfights, he has no way in or out. He is a strong anti carry but if you lock someone in while he's outside the arena he won't be able to help.







- His early game is pretty weak but he quickly gets out of control and pretty hard to gank as he gets easily tanky due to his and .
- His and can sometimes mess up your ganks, always try to think how he'll try to use this spell to escape before he actually uses them, being surprised can make bad things happen.



- It is a shame he's not played more, he is one of the easiest toplaners to gank for. His and are insane tools when it comes to helping allied ganks.
- Most people will play very aggressive early game against him because he becomes pretty hard to handle once he gets . Toplane should be easily ganked early game because people will have to overextend to abuse his early game.
- Avoid locking him in your . leaves a dot that deals damage, is ranged and will usually be used before or after your ult. He doesn't have to stand inside the ring to be useful.







- Banned 90% of the time, his sustain/poke is pretty good, but what makes so annoying is , because it ruins ganks, makes carries super hard to kill, and allow him to stupidly split push all day long.
- His goes through , don't ult before he dashes away.
- If he gets caught in a really bad situation and sees he most likely won't escape even with both and , he will try to escape your gank by using , make sure to keep a CC to stop him from teleporting. You can also try to burst him down but that is much less reliable.



- You should be the one initiating ganks most of the time. Either way, your combo and his + your burst damage and his sustained damage should be more than enough to take down the enemy toplane.
- In teamfights he usually is more of a supportive kind of champion, you don't really have to care about him when using your demacia. He can you when you engage through combo and easily get in position to land a perfect .
- I'm sorry I don't have more to share about this guy, he's banned so much that I actually very rarely play with him.







- Usually you'll see her as jungler but she can be a decent solotop pick, especially since she's such a strong duelist, pushes/farms well/quickly through , is practically impossible to gank post six due to , and deals a nice mix of physical and magic damage, so building defenses against her is harder.
- Try to her before she s, she's gonna kite you unless you have (and even then hitting your combo still is harder).
- Her also goes through , don't ult before she does. Know that she can't ult if her fury bar isn't 100% (red), if it's orange-ish it means it's still "recharging" and she can't ult.



- She sadly doesn't bring any CC, however your combo will allow her to get her burst damage off (AA).
- Her early game damage is insane, very early ganks will usually work well - I.E. when she's around lvl 2 or 3.
- Your initiation will allow her to position herself for her to knock enemy champs away from their escape.
- Try to not lock her out of your arena. She needs to be in melee to deal damage and she actually deals a lot of AoE damage in teamfights in Dragon Form ().







- Super annoying champion, however he falls off pretty hard after the laning phase as he doesn't really bring much in a teamfight (he split pushes pretty well though, much like ).
- He is pretty hard to deal with for most solotops, try to gank him early and your top will usually snowball off of that. Also if loses his lane he's really not going to be useful.
- Try to gank him at level two if possible before he gets his , if you can't / don't want to, gank him pre six. His make him pretty hard to gank as he basically has tons of free wards, and usually your top won't tell you where shrooms are.
- Even if he does get caught, his can allow him to turn around and fight while kiting you to death, don't get baited into this. He is very underestimated but his laning phase is pretty strong, just don't let him get your inhibitor and you'll be fine.
- Can't get out of unless hees out.



- If you have to gank for him it means things are definitely not going well. He's meant to win his lane, because even if he does he actually doesn't bring much in teamfights, he mainly revolves around denying the enemy top.
- He doesn't really do anything but deal damage. His only utility in a gank would be if he can bait his opponent into walking on one of his .







- Again he's more of a jungler, but sometimes he's sent top, is actually a pretty strong solotop, his damage is insane especially at level one.
- He's not very hard to gank but not incredibly easy either, his gives him decent mobility which can be used to juke your combo, his makes him deceptively tanky.
- He can't get out of , also if you can force his he's suddenly much less of a threat as his only gapcloser is now unavailable.



- Initiate ganks. Your combo will allow him to get a stun off and get some damage going.
- He has great early game damage (level 1 tiger is one of the hardest hitting champion in the whole game), very early ganks will be very brutal.
- can very easily fuck him up big time if you're not careful. Much like , he has no way in or out of your , don't screw up your own teammate !






- When you have to gank Vlad it's usually not a good sign because if Vlad is doing well in lane, he'll be a big problem for your team mid and late game.
- He will most likely pool your combo, but he is pretty much helpless against your . I've had Vlad's pool out of it recently but it's kind of rare.
- If you can gank him while he's level 1 (he most likely took ), you can really put him severely behind, he's very very squishy early game.
- Think twice before towerdiving him. A good towerdive can work but a poorly executed one will most likely result in one or two kills for him and he might not even die. Don't give him free kills, he scales very well naturally, you don't need to feed him.



- He's kinda annoying to gank for because he has only a weak slow that only works in melee range () that costs a lot of health and due to his early game squishiness, he can easily be bursted down even 1v2 (depending on the champion he's laning agaisnt, OFC).
- He's probably going to be abused early, try to gank his lane if you see the enemy toplaner overextend. Having redbuff when ganking his lane is important because he doesn't do anything but damage.
- If you can afford that, try waiting for his level 6 before ganking his lane, his ult is his best spell when it comes to helping allied ganks due to the amplified damage received ()
- Much like most AP champions, if you get a good combo or on multiple targets, he'll destroy the enemy team on his own due to his insane AoE damage ().






- His early game is pretty weak but is one of those annoying solotops that keeps sustaining himself 24/7. He is pretty vulnerable early on as he has no escape and is still relatively squishy, and his lategame is pretty strong so don't let him rule his lane if possible.
- Can't get out of unless he can someone outside the ring.
- Don't gank top with too low HP because his will reveal you (50% hp).
- Ward top well when he's 6+, if he's been killed thanks to your ganks he'll call for ganks once he's six.



- He really doesn't do much before level six. His makes him very easy to gank for, but before he hits six your ganks will usually fail.
- It is worth mentioning however that is a champion that will very often try to win the sustain lane, an early gank will at least force several pots from the enemy toplane and pressure them big time.
- In teamfights, + will be able to cc someone for a very long time. Don't overlap your CC's and you'll at least force several big cooldowns from the enemy team.







- Not very common ATM but still pretty decent champion IMO.
- Ganking him can be tricky because of his - can't gank him from behind, must make sure he can't use it on a creep outside - + his
- His post six damage is pretty high, much like make sure neither you nor your teammate die during your gank, in case you get counterganked will make a big difference.
- A good trick when ganking Wukong is to ping on him. The target icon disappears if he clones, and stays on him if he doesn't. So you can't get tricked.



- Before six he doesn't really do much but deal damage. However, your burst and his AA burst will hurt super hard and will usually force summoners or net free kills.
- Post six, his makes him easy to gank for, it deals a shit ton of damage and knocks enemy champions up in the air.
- In teamfights, he will be able to follow your initiation easily thanks to his , also if you can force escapes and then trap enemy carries inside your , he'll usually get a full which hits extremely hard.







- This champion is one of the best laners in the game because he's kinda safe due to his ranged harass + high sustain.
- He snowballs pretty well IMO, people say he sucks late game but I don't agree at all, his is one of the best ults in the game, and his damage with only a is pretty crazy.
- He is pretty vulnerable early game, as he's forced to build mana and therefore can't build tanky right off the bat. Not to mention he has no escapes whatsoever, shut him down early if you can.
- If he gets seriously ahead of your laner beware, he can turn around and fight under certain circumstances. He's pretty tanky due to his , his sustain and damage is easily underestimated.
- He's not very mobile ( gives a decent MS boost, but most max it last, so the MS bonus is pretty bad during the laning phase), and while his slow can be annoying, he's still pretty easy to gank.
- Can't get out of .



- Once again you'll usually be the one initiating ganks. To unleash his full potential he needs to reach melee range (his hardest hitting spell, , requires him to auto attack). He will usually help your ganks nicely as he will most likely after your combo.
- Due to his "very annoying to lane against" nature, you should expect the enemy toplane to ask for ganks. Counterganks will at least save him and sometimes you'll even be able to fight. Do not overestimate his damage in all-in fights, though.
- He is meant to poke people down, usually if you 2v2 against something such as + x jungler, things can very easily go wrong.
- Try to get him inside your arena, he doesn't really need to be in melee range 24/7, but he deals way more damage if he can catch someone in melee. He can still from afar though so in case he's stuck outside it's not that bad either.

Honestly I dislike ganking mid, because people very rarely overextend, most mids would rather farm their wraithes/wolves or gank rather than do their best to control the lane or poke the enemy mid down.

In case your mid has a somewhat weak very early game (, melees mainly), you can expect the enemy mid to play anormally aggressive against them early game as those champions get stronger and stronger as they level up.

If your AP is one of those, you can abuse their weakness and gank the enemy mid when he tries to abuse their weak first levels early game, you can easily force a flash as people will usually try to poke them down even under their turret. has great insane game damage and AP's very rarely run any armor at all, they take a lot of damage when ganked early ( for example has 11 base armor, if you can she will take A LOT of damage).

Something that can help your mid snowball, is if you feel like you and your mid > the enemy mid and the enemy jungler, is to invade their blue around 7:10 (if the enemy jungler started there) with a ward, you can easily get a kill on either their jungler or their AP. A good AP carry will win mid game teamfights and will usually help his team out due to the roaming potential mid lane offers.

A successful gank midlane can lead to an early tower, a dragon, or a 4 men gank bot / 3 men gank top.







- Easily ganked before six.
- Pretty hard to gank post six as her gives her three way out of + ways to dodge your combo.
- Is a very strong roamer, ward well against her as she is one of the two APs that can really turn a game around.
- Don't chase her when she ults, just come back before its up again maybe you can force her flash with your .
- Don't let her snowball out of control, somewhat falls off lategame much like most APs if not fed, if fed she turns into a killing machine, be very careful when ganking her.
- goes off even if you get charmed, as long as you casted Q before getting hit by .



- Just like most AP's, you should be the one initiating the gank. If you hit your , she'll usually hit her for what should be a very easy kill.
- Her allows easy towerdives, especially since both of you are extremely mobile and have good burst. Don't get too cocky, but towerdiving shouldn't be a problem.
- In teamfights, she'll usually make good use of your , she's amazing at assassinating carries.
- Try to not lock her in your when her is down. She can get in and out of your ult with almost unmatched ease with her ult, but you can screw her big time if you're not being careful.







- Pretty hard to gank due to her , if anything she's very vulnerable at level one because she will most likely take , if you have to gank her, getting or will help you out.
- Gets pretty hard to gank post six as she'll try to juke both your and combo with her .
- Don't her before she's used every ult charge + her shroud if possible.
- Her great burst damage, especially if she gets ahead, makes her able to turn ganks around and instagib someone. She can be a threat to you because you'll most likely be underleveled as you're a jungler. can be extremely useful if she tries to do that.



- There isn't much to say about this. Akali has great burst but her only CC is actually a weak slow from . Much like most APs, her burst damage skyrockets when she hits six ().
- Most champions will try to abuse the fact that she's melee and doesn't have any gapcloser / sustain nor ability to farm from distance, they will very often play super aggressive early game. If you can gank them at that point they'll usually be free kills.
- As long as she doesn't waste every single charge of her , you don't have to worry about her too much when using your ult. Keep in mind she'll get a charge back for every assist or kill she gets.
- If you can hit your on one of their carries, is one of the few champions that will constantly be able to reliably kill them almost instantly (since she has no skillshots whatsoever and unless her build is terrible, her burst damage is insane).







- Easily ganked at any stage of the game, her can be hard to take down early game especially if close to her tower, don't forget about it when trying to towerdive her, if you click on her you can see whether or not her passive is ready. If it is, the egg icon is blue, if it is not, the icon is grey.
- Her isn't a big problem, your combo goes through the wall, so does your .
- will drag himself towards his flag if you casted even if stunned by . Basically he'll be stunned during the travel time.



- will allow her to get her combo off. is a bit weak pre six because she relies on hitting to deal some real damage, an early gank can lead to unexpected burst damage.
- A good is very easy to gank for if you have some damage or CC, you have both.
- The only thing really special about her is that you have to be very careful about your blue buff. If you started blue, it will be up around 7:15. If you started red and went for blue right after, it will be up around 7:35-7:40. If you're worried about getting counterjungled - common when your AP is , ward your blue beforehand.







- Very squishy champion, low mobility, easily ganked.
- She has a pretty short range on spells, she will die most of the time if your teammate baited her properly (beware her burst damage is pretty amazing, can prevent her from killing your buddy).
- As long as not superfed she's not such a problem late game, she falls off pretty hard. She does bring good damage and conditional AoE CC during mid game teamfights though, don't underestimate her too much.



- Her damage at six is insane, if you can gank her lane at this point you'll get a kill 90% of the time.
- Watch for her passive stacks when you're about to gank. As a reminder, her 4th spell stuns her target(s) for 1.75 sec.
- is easily ganked but if you manage to get a good countergank off, you can often feed her a double kill.
- Make sure you don't trap her in your . Her spells have fairly short range, she sometimes has to commit to deal maximum damage.
- Your initiation should allow her to get an easy AoE stun as well as some impressive aoe damage on the enemy team.







- Pretty squishy, very low mobility. Can't get out of by anyway.
- will most of the time try to turn around and fight when you gank him, beware his burst damage, it is crazy.
- If he 's you when you run at him, do your best to dodge his , or combo him before he lands it. Otherwise your gank will be ruined.



- Typical. Hit your , stuff dies.
- Much like , counterganks can be very brutal with .
- In teamfights he usually won't be around you, but your can be painful for him. However, your initiation will be really good for him as, if you can hit multiple targets, he will deal some ridiculous AoE burst damage.







- Very often banned, very mobile especially post six, great burst damage, surprisingly tanky.
- Much like she won't really be a threat pre lvl 6 as she has no gapcloser before . Don't let her snowball out of control though, she is very hard to stop if fed.
- Post six she'll most likely try to juke you with her , which cd is refund if her target was hit by her beforehand. Beware.
- Don't unless you know 100% is on CD.



- Just like any melee, she will be abused pre six.
- Her makes her quite easy to gank for.
- Keep in mind that her resets her cooldown, try to keep track of whether or not her ult is ready in teamfights or when ganking, it is important when you're about to .
- You need to quickly analyze if she wants to be inside or outside of your , this might take some practice.






- Insanely mobile, great burst damage, however he's pretty squishy and falls off late game and in teamfights in general (as he relies on his quite a lot, which can be blocked easily).
- Much like and , he has the ability to ignore unit collision which sometimes allow these champions to literally walk through .
- Be very careful about ulting him anyway, both his and his can be used to get out of the ring.
- Try to not let him snowball out of control, I've been saying this a lot but actually AP Assassins such as Fizz, Ahri or Akali can easily get out of control and become very hard to stop. Besides fed AD Carries, I believe that fed AP carries and especially fed AP assassins are the biggest threat in solo queue.



- Ganking for him gets easy once he hits six, your will let him hit his .
- He's a strong towerdiver, consider that option if his ult is up.
- Try to get him to snowball. is one of the most snowbally champions in the game, he snowballs superhard and feeding him a single kill can lead to him being unstoppable.
- In teamfights, he'll typically want to get inside your . But since he's and has a way in and out of fights (/), you don't have to worry too much about him. If he wants to get in, he'll get in, if he wants to get out, he'll get out.






- Since his nerf, he's not as popular has used to be, but he can still carry pretty well especially if the game doesn't last too long.
- is a melee champion that can farm very well with once he's like lvl 5, but before that he'll have to last hit with his melee auto attacks, he's vulnerable to early game ganks.
- can be a pain if he has blue buff, he's severely weakened if you can take it away from him.
- If you prevent him from snowballing, you can pretty much ruin his game as he relies on snowballing his midgame which is very strong. For example he's amazing in skirmishes due to his burst and his tankiness.



- Just like any other melee he'll be abused early game. He's actually quite easy to gank for as soon as he's level three. Sometimes level two, depending on which spell he takes. If you see him with the buff, wait for his lvl 3. His helps a lot when ganking.
- Post six, his lane is extremely easy to gank.
- snowballs very well but isn't the strongest lategame AP. Try to get him to snowball as he can often help other lanes after that.
- In teamfights, combo and will let him good 's and 's off with ease. Gragas is very powerful in teamfights but aiming his spells makes him somewhat unreliable, you can help that.
- Wait for his level 3 at least before ganking his lane. You can gank his lane when he's level two if you KNOW he took his at lvl 2, but most will take upon reaching lvl 2.






- ganks with ease, he has no escape and is pretty damn squishy, also can be used offensively to prevent him from approaching your team.
- If you initiate a teamfight by ing him, you'll most likely die, but hopefully so will he. He's a big threat late game, don't underestimate him.
- Much like most champions without escape moves, he will more often than not try to turn around and fight when you gank him, especially if he gets caught out of position and knows he won't escape.
- Be very careful about that because you'll be in melee so he'll probably focus you, you will take a lot of damage from his +, remember to quickly GTFO after he "dies" () while dodging his 's as much as possible.



- He isn't the easiest AP to gank for. His certainly helps but it's not as powerful as most AP's CC or burst damage.
- He's quite vulnerable to AP assassins such as that can even sometimes towerdive him 1v1. Beware of that and try to show up at the right time.
- Counterganking can be super effective even if he dies.
- In teamfights, your combo + will help him get his wall off and some damage rolling. Try to not lock him in your ult because he wants to be in people's faces.




soon






- Very easily ganked, usually pushes his lane pretty hard. He is hard to handle 1v1 especially without (which usually won't be built as first item).
- He has no escape whatsoever so he's likely to try to turn around and fight, usually before using he'll under his target, if you see him do that, him right away especially if you or your teammate can't stop it.



- Try to gank his lane post six, he doesn't really cope well with ganks before that.
- There isn't much more to say about him, I'm sorry.. he's not played much and not really special from a point of view.
- In teamfights, your and his have a funny synergy if you can get several champions trapped in.
- Your initiation will let him get a on multiple targets.





- Much like , he is very vulnerable to ganks as he has no escape and pushes his lane. Ward your wraithes and his if you can, he'll often try to farm them and if you catch him out of position he's dead.
- Just like Malzahar he won't be able to escape ganks if caught out of position, he is likely to turn around and fight. #1
- He is pretty hard to beat 1v1 for most champions - he does have counters such as , and , but most mages will struggle in duels against him due to his + his spellvamp from .



- Try to gank his lane post six. The only thing he brings to the table is damage, and his full damage potential is unleashed when he hits six.
- If the enemy jungler is any good, he'll look for ganks on his lane. is extremely easy to gank.
- Counterganks will work extremely well, is actually quite strong in skirmishes due to his burst damage, spell vamp and passive shield.
- In teamfights there isn't much synergy between you two. If you can combo the enemy AD though, he will usually instagib him and get him as ghost.







- Very safe laner in general, she will blackshield your combo - she will be damaged, but not knocked up.
- However she does not have any escape other than that, she can't get through without using her .
- In teamfights if you can ult her away from your team you'll usually ruin her day. Forcing her in a gank thanks to your will be especially powerful against because she needs her to really be a threat.
- Remember that she's helpless against your , when ganking her try to initiate by using your , and save the combo for when her is down !



- Typically you'll want to initiate ganks in this as well. If you hit your , she should hit her for an easy kill.
- Make sure there is a way she can land a when you gank her lane. AKA don't initiate a gank when the only way she can land a is walking around an enormous creep wave.
- In teamfights she can be somewhat annoyed by your , do it before or after . Your initiation will usually let her get a off, though. And it'll help her get in position to .







- Not really easy to gank but not really hard either, forcing her will be easy once you get your because she can't get through the ring by any other way.
- She will usually build squishier than most AP carries and will make use of her range to deal damage while staying safe in teamfights, a good will devastate her.
- Her ball can be used to scout bushes. Also when you gank her she'll most likely herself, if possible try to EQ her at this point because if you go through you'll be slowed and she'll be hasted and might escape your gank due to that.



- When you gank for her, she'll shield you and let you , and after. I recommend ganking her lane post six for maximum kill potential.
- & have great synergy in teamfights, your initiation or will let her get easy combo off for some impressive damage.
- Watch for her when you're looking to . She shouldn't be too close to you, but if you trap her inside you can get her killed very easily.
- snowballs really well and transitions into a very strong lategame AP carry. Ganking her lane is easy and she carries games well, abuse that.







- Not very mobile, pretty easily ganked.
- Just like any other CC in the game that isn't a knockup, combo can somewhat nullify the effect of his if you manage to pull yourself to your flag when you're about to get rooted or while you're rooted.
- is very powerful against , he can't get through it. Be it in teamfights - him while he's far from your team will make him unable to deal AoE damage to your team + take a squishy down with his combo - or when ganking him, your is an amazing tool against him.



- Very strong synergy between these two. and your combo will make ganking easy.
- is meant to win his lane and snowball off of that, do your best to help him do that.
- If you manage to, he becomes a monster and he will be unkillable and deal insane damage in skirmishes.
- Just like , be very careful about your timers (7:15, typically). He really needs blue buff.
- In teamfights, your will let him get an easy on multiple targets, and will force people to stay close to him which is exactly what he wants.








- No escape, great burst, super underplayed.
- He can't really juke your spells nor escape your ring due to his low mobility, however his slow/stun zone can be pretty damn annoying.
- Most of the time, going through his zone isn't such a problem as Jarvan because unlike most junglers, you can dash to him and cc him while being stunned - which will happen if you walk through his W.
- His burst damage is very surprising and can easily instagib you, especially since you will be behind in levels.



- combo into his makes ganking his lane very easy.
- His burst damage post six is underrated. If you can gank his lane at this point it will be an almost guaranteed kill.
- Your and his work very well together and will be deadly in teamfights if you can trap multiple targets, especially since he should be able to get full off as well.

A lot of junglers underestimate the importance of ganking bottom lane. Your ad carry will most of the time be your main source of sustained damage and your team will heavily rely on him late game. If he snowballs ahead you can very easily win the game early "ff, enemy is 10/1..".

While I probably shouldn't say that, snowballing your AD if you see / know / suspect him to be bad can really help. If he's fed, even if he's not such a great AD, he'll usually deal too much damage for the enemy team to handle.

Also both supports and ADs usually are pretty squishy champions during the majority of the game, so ganking them isn't super hard. The only hard thing about ganking bot is that it is often warded more than other lanes. You need to ask your support where wards are before ganking, so you know what path you can take. You're purple side and dragon is warded ? Gank them from their jungle, either from their tri bush or their golem-bush (dive), etc.

Lane ganks are incredibly effective botlane, a lot of supports do not ward lane bushes well enough, especially if your support is something rather passive (), as people will usually ward bushes against aggressive supports ().

Getting an will make ganking bot very easy. A successful gank botlane will usually lead to a free dragon. Try to gank bot when you're around lvl 6, so you can do dragon without too much trouble in case your gank works out well.










- A very frequently banned champion, if he's picked he'll usually jungle, but he's sometimes played as support. He's very disruptive and is one of the few supports alongside and that are great at both playing aggressive and passive depending on the situation.





- Try to bait his , he commits when he wants to be aggressive so try to take advantage of that. He's very good at protecting his carry and honestly ganking his lane will be hard if your teammates can't bait him.
- He is pretty squishy before six, his makes him incredibly tanky, but he can be killed easily if it is on CD / he hasn't reached 6 yet.
- His can knock you out of your .
- Try to not trap him inside your during fights if there are allies inside the arena, will most likely hit everyone inside the ring.
- His can be used to go through your if he can target someone or a creep outside the arena.
- His makes him ignore unit collision, this might occasionally allow him to walk through your ...



- His combo has great synergy with your own combo, as long as you do not overlap your CC's, ganks are guaranteed kills.
- His allows easy towerdives.
- makes his combo super easy to hit, this even makes as a CC on its own (if knocks someone into a wall, as long as the wall is too thick for the champion to be knocked to the other side, the champion will be stunned for the duration he should have spent flying).






- He is pretty hard to gank on his own as his makes him super fast, his makes him naturally tanky as long as he's not out of mana, and his is a super annoying CC that can be used defensively.
- He usually plays very aggressive and if he lands a or walks up to someone and , his ad will usually go in 'balls deep' and be vulnerable at that point.
- He is potentially the most dangerous aggressive support, if you can give your lane an advantage, do it. Laning against him is pretty annoying, if he lands a single pull, it can lead to an instagib.
- Can't get out of .





- If he lands a , most of the time your target will die.
- Ganking for him is very easy, he is pretty tanky thanks to which makes towerdiving easy, his "combo" is very nice for initiating ganks.
- If you can snowball him and his AD ahead, they will usually dominate their lane hard. most of the time rules his lane, but if he's ahead he becomes a nightmare.






- Honestly she's the best supports when it comes to playing defensive, ganking her lane is pretty hard. are two very powerful tools that will allow her and her AD to escape ganks.
- While it may seem insignificant, remember that gives her whole team a nice MS boost which can make a big difference when being ganked.
- Her makes her pretty fast, her AD will usually be an easier target than her, even though she is a very squishy champion that will usually die if she gets caught.
- Can't get out of unless she is allowed to walk through the arena with her ignore unit collision from .
- will knock you out of your .




- While she is a pretty weak laner as she can't really harass people nor cc them long enough to allow her ad to safely burst them down and has no sustain, she has a nice skillset as both her and are soft crowd controls that will help your ganks.
- Her is awesome regardless of what lane you're playing, easily one of the most underrated passives in the game.
- Your can allow her to position herself so that will knock them away from their escape, usually will get a kill as those two champions have a very nice synergy.







- lanes are usually very aggressive and can therefore easily be baited for you to gank. Most AD carries will also use their escape moves as gapclosers when playing with a , that means your ganks should be terribly successful as long as you weren't seen by wards.
- She doesn't have many tools to protect her carry, and are her only defensive tools and one requires to be in melee, the other is for some reason rarely used defensively by most s.
- If you asked your teammates to bait their opponents in a fight, be ready to use your right off the bat on Leona's AD. Her amplifies greatly burst damage (which is why you'll often find her with or ).




- has very strong CC, coupled with yours, specifically your combo, she should be able to land her with ease. As long as you're able to hit your combo or she's able to hit hers, your ganks should be ridiculously strong.
- Usually I think I should be the one initiating ganks as 's combo has a fairly higher range than Leona's and is also easier to land because your targets shouldn't see it coming.
- Once you two reach 6, ganks should basically never fail. Your combos have great synergies and so do your ultimates. If you can get them stuck in your arena, her will hit 100% unless she's blind, also if you force them to flash out, she should be able to hit her ult due to its insane range.
- Leona has one big default as a support in my opinion, it is that she doesn't bring too much when it comes down to protecting her AD. Try to make use of that initiating power you have to intiate fights and take as many hits as possible, because protecting your AD will be hard since none of your kits really specialize in that. It is very rare that your top/mid will try to protect your AD too, don't expect them to do it.






- She can be surprisingly annoying to gank. Her slow is easy to hit when being chased, her polymorph spell can be super annoying if used at the right time, and her ultimate is an amazing life-saver.
- Don't get cocky and towerdive, always take her ult into account. She makes towerdiving really hard if executed properly, even though towerdives like a boss.
- Not much I can offer about this champion, sorry. She's rarely played despite the fact that I find her quite strong.



- Her main utility in allied ganks is her slow which is quite powerful. If she can hit her slow, you will usually be able to hit your combo, resulting in summoners forced for the enemy botlane or certain death.
- The only other thing I can think about that is specific to is that her makes towerdiving easy. Remember, it knocks-up champions around you and gives you bonus health.
- Try to abuse her ult in teamfights. If you can initiate well, she'll ult you if she's any good. Her ult makes you extremely disruptive. She has nice synergy with any champion that can initiate fights well, is one of them - imo he has one of the best initiates alongside .






- is quite vulnerable to crowd controls so your ganks should work well against him. He doesn't have anything to stop your combo or to really peel you off his ad, the only thing that can sometimes be annoying about him is if you wait too long before using your combo, his will make it much harder for you to hit your combo the longer you wait.
- His ultimate can be super annoying when ganking. Sometimes it's better to just kill him instead of chasing his AD through and risk dieing to it + his ad.
- He's not picked very often in solo queue, at least I don't meet him too often so I can't give you more advices. I apologize about that.



- His copes well with ganks. His slow + your cc's should usually result in successful ganks.
- His and your have a funny but effective synergy, as he can get full ults off on enemies trapped inside the ring.
- Generally speaking, protects his carries very well with his two AS/MS slow () as well as his own AS/MS buff (), you shouldn't have to worry about your AD too much in teamfights. The only thing Nunu lacks is a crowd control that would break suppressions for example, but in this case your AD should build .
- In case your team is losing teamfights despite not being particularly behind, watch closely what your Nunu is doing. I've lost quite a few games before I realized that but many support Nunus seem to think that their ultimate's only purpose is to deal damage and they try to get full ults off on the enemy team, leaving their AD completely alone. If your Nunu is one of these guys, you will have to do his job (aka keep your carry alive) or you'll most likely lose.
- Oh and yes I've had support Nunu's trying to get full ults off on the enemy team despite being premade with their AD. I might appear to be trolling here but I'm not. Not many people play support well but Nunus tend to really misunderstand their role.






- She usually plays quite aggressive in lane and is already vulnerable to getting caught off-guard by something like a Taric Dazzle or a Leona combo. She will most of the time be a much easier target than her AD in your ganks.
- Her E gives a MS boost to her and her teammates but it's kinda weak especially early game (most Sonas don't even take it until like level 8 IIRC), don't worry too much about that.
- The biggest danger about ganking her lane is probably getting counterganked once she's 6+. Her ult + her jungler's damage/cc + her ad's dmg can result in both you and your botlane's death very quickly. is particularly nasty at level 6, those are very common solo queue picks so you might very well run into this.



- Her passive can give a pretty strong (40%) slow IIRC if she even skilled E, but I wouldn't count on that.
- When ganking her lane pre six, don't count on her to use her passive as a slow, gank the lane as if they had no cc. Sona hits extremely hard early game, even harder than quite a few ADs.
- Post six her lane is stupidly easy to gank. You can even dive, her ult + your combo will buy you enough time to kill almost anyone.






- Soraka copes really badly with ganks, she has troubles protecting her AD when getting ganked, and doesn't really do anything to help allied ganks. You can also abuse the fact that her best defense is her W heal + armor buff. If she heals herself, swap to their AD, and vice versa, if possible of course.
- The only annoying thing Soraka can do when you gank her is silencing you right as you drop your flag. If you combo faster than she can silence, your gank should be successful.
- Much like Lulu it's easy to get cocky and towerdive against her, however her ult + w especially when combined will practically bring her or her AD to full life unless they're ignited, care about that. Remember it is global, she might use it when you're trying to towerdive another lane.



- Err. Honestly I hate ganking for Soraka, the only useful thing she can do is silence to prevent someone from using their escape or their flash, but that's about it.
- The only thing worth mentioning is that you can communicate with her and tell her that you'll dive x lane, meaning she can potentially save her ult for that. That's about it..
- Almost forgot about it, but her W armor buff combined with your flag armor buff makes you pretty tanky against AD damage as well as able to towerdive pretty well. Don't get too confident though, as Soraka doesn't bring any CC and most AD's don't have crowd control.






- Try to not focus him too much, the only time where he's really vulnerable is very early game (1-4), he quickly gets really tanky due to his W. If you have a lot of magic damage (typically a lane), though, you can try to kill him even after that window.
- His stun can be annoying but your combo still goes off even if you get stunned as you press EQ. He can't really do much to protect his AD against you.
- Much like Leona, Taric lanes are usually aggressive and can easily be baited into ganks. Just like Leona lanes, Taric lanes are often burst-oriented, will come in handy.



- His stun should allow you to get your combo off. From this point your ganks work quite well.
- Taric helps towerdiving nicely due to his W armor buff and his heal which is more powerful if used only on himself. He should be the one tanking the tower though, so it's kinda up to him. Don't be afraid to call a dive and ask him to tank the tower, but only him can decide whether to do it or not.
- Taric's ult is nice when getting objectives like Dragon, think about it after a successful gank botlane.
- One of his weaknesses is that he doesn't protect his ad too well. In case your AD has trouble surviving (honestly if built properly he shouldn't, but still), try talking calmly about that with your team, you can potentially keep your combo to peel someone off your AD as well.




Most AD carries are similar to each other, this part might not be as helpful as the support part. Still, I think there are tricks, things to look for, things to know etc when ganking their lanes.






- Ashe doesn't have any escape. Your combo and will be tough to deal with for her.
- Consider ganking bot quickly after you hit six, if you can afford it. Feeding your ADC and getting dragons off of those easy ganks won't hurt your team.
-Watch out for counterganks. Ashe isn't the most dangerous ADC because she doesn't really have burst damage nor a strong steroid that would give her a strong DPS, but her ult and her permaslow allows easy ganks and strong counterganks as well, especially for someone like or who usually suffer from being kited.



- Ashe has a weak laning phase due to her weak ability to trade. Opponents will often abuse that and overextend. Ganking bot shouldn't be too hard especially with .
- Ganking her lane should be super easy post six. Your CC + hers + her support's (typically, Ashe is played with or ) will make your ganks extremely deadly.
- Try to gank whenever her ult is ready. Remember that you can get a free dragon off of a gank bot !






- If you can force her E simply by catching up to her through MS (typically , u'd be surprised how many people don't aa you just to break the non-combat ms bonus), by all means keep your EQ to catch up to her after that. 90% of the time you'll force flash that way.
- Care about traps. It's dumb but much like , they can ruin your ganks. Try to have your support walk in brushes before that or simply avoid brushes. Remember that it reveals the target so do not enter the bush after your support just ate one.
- In case you're ganking to save someone's ass, remember that her ult is channeled (and it does a lot of damage despite being rather easily nullified), you can cancel her channel by hitting your EQ.



- Caitlyn doesn't really bring anything to allied ganks. If she's good she might leave a trap behind a target you just EQ'd, but don't count on that too much.
- Cait is rather weak mid and late game compared to most other AD carries. Try to get her to win her lane by all means. Get her to snowball if you can, it's really important.






- Corki is pretty hard to gank due to his Valkyrie spell which is actually probably the best non-Ezreal AD carry escape. Try to force Valkyrie without using your EQ if you can, if you can't, EQ him, he'll valkyrie after, and ult him at this point. He'll most likely flash out, just come back with your next ult and he's dead.
- Care when ganking him, he usually plays with aggressive supports and he has some devastating damage during the laning phase especially. can be a great tool to make sure he doesnt kill anyone when you gank him (Try to not overlap exhausts with your support, tho !).
- His and can be used to check brushes, a good Corki can be extremely hard to gank simply due to that.
- Watch for his mana bar. He is quite mana hungry and his Valkyrie costs exactly 100 mana, if you can catch him with less than 100 mana you know he's quite in a bad spot.



- Despite the fact that he doesn't bring any CC, his super strong burst damage and decent sustained damage makes him easy to gank for.
- Your armor shred from Q has an interesting synergy with his E armor shred, ganks will be really brutal especially when he gets his sheen.
- Again, watch his manabar. Corki is really mana hungry and while most champions are useless when out of mana, he can really run out of mana very quickly.






- Since he doesn't have a blink, he's easily ganked. The only thing you have to watch for is his W MS buff which can make landing your EQ combo significantly harder.
- I'm not hundred percent sure about this since I rarely fight him, but I think his E messes up your combo.
- Much like Corki, his burst damage is surprising especially post six, Exhaust will come in handy once more.
- Draven is really strong in lane but somewhat needs to snowball his lane in order to be as strong as other carries. He will sometimes play too aggressive and you can capitalize on that if you're at the right time at the right moment.



- If he's running a proper aggressive support as he should, ganking his lane won't be a problem.
- Try to get him fed, his damage skyrockets if he can snowball his lane.
- Ganking his lane gets especially interesting post six. His burst damage when he has full combo available is nearly unmatched.
- The only thing that might be a problem when you're ganking for him is your ult potentially making it impossible for him to catch his axe.






- As of right now (pre-elise patch), he's quite a contested pick because of his early and mid game dominance, his mobility, damage and utility, etc.
- Ezreal will often run an aggressive support meaning he should be more easily ganked than if he was running a defensive one ().
- His escape is very similar to Corki's, but it is instant cast and teleports ezreal to the location, while Corki/Graves dash to the location. Meaning you can't stop Ez's E.
- Care about getting counterganked and simply be careful when ganking, his burst damage can easily kill someone that isn't being careful.
- Try to prevent him from completely steamrolling your AD. He's quite overpowered right now mainly due to his AS debuff that will be removed next patch.
- Try to not wait too much before ulting after forcing his E (that's mainly for teamfights). His Q reduces the cd on every spell he has, including his E, if he hits it. So his E cd can be deceptively short (10 sec base cd at rank 5 IIRC). It is maxed last ATM, though.



- His AS debuff can also buff your AS if you get hit by it. It isn't such a big deal but you will still deal a lot more damage if it hits you, especially if he maxed it first.
- Ganking his lane will become easier post six, his ult hits like a truck.
- Always watch for the green circle over his portrait, it's important that his ult is ready when you gank if you want to maximize your chances of getting a successful gank.






- Don't ult before you force his E.
- Care about his burst, especially at level 6. He can easily blow you up if you're not full hp or even if something goes wrong. Try to not feed him (double) buff(s) and kill(s). is especially nasty.
- While his AAs reduce his E cd, its cooldown is still pretty long so in teamfights after he uses his E he will usually be fucked up if you ult. He'll have to flash or die.
- A well timed smokescreen can really fuck you up.



- Try to gank his lane after he gets his ult, his QR combo is crazy strong.
- Your ult and his Smokescreen have a strong synergy. People caught inside your ult basically lose vision of anything outside the arena. In teamfights, it can be devastating, even if it means that you will most likely die (as you'll probably be one of the few if not the only target available for everyone caught in the ring).
- If the enemy team has a strong anti-carry such as or (which Graves tend to have trouble with), you can really help him out by using your on them, even if, in theory, it is your support's job.






- She's quite tricky to gank due to her shield. The best way to deal with it is to have your lane bait a losing trade, and get her to shield something like , , etc.
- If she shields your combo, she won't get knocked up. However, if she shields your ult, she won't get damaged but still trapped inside the ring.
- If your ult bugs out, it can occasionally let her walk through the arena if she activates her ult which IIRC gives her the ability to ignore unit collision.



- Ganking for her shouldn't be too hard, her ult helps catching up to your targets.
- People caught with your EQ and ult will be easy targets for her boomerang (which hurts).
- Her ult allows easy towerdives, think about it.






- Her rocket jump can often be baited by your teammates, it is Tristana's primarily source of damage early game. If you can get her to use it, she'll usually die.
- She becomes a late game monster but is seriously lacking mid game. You can even ignore her mid game granted she's not fed up her ass.
- Her ult is actually super annoying and while it is for some weird reasons very rarely used, it will knock you out of your ultimate.



- Her W also slows, it can help your ganks significantly.
- Your EQ combo give her time to position herself and ult people away from their escapes.
- Try to not bait her into a losing fight (getting counterganked, mainly). Tristana has to commit hard to deal damage early game.






- He's extremely vulnerable to ganks. His only tools that can sometimes save him are his E slow and his ult.
- Care about his burst damage, it's actually not bad, depending on what he's maxing out first.
- You can still EQ while rooted by his ult, you'll ruin it if you do so because his ult takes time to spread. Not to mention if he gets hit by your EQ he'll have to flash out 100% granted your team isn't sleeping.



- He's actually helpful in ganks. His E is a decent slow, and his ult is great.
- Try to get him to snowball. Varus is lackluster ATM, but he snowballs decently well.
- If your support has troubles keeping him alive, give him a hand. Varus is exceptionally hard to keep alive because he has literally nothing to really protect himself. No MS buff, no dash-blink, nothing. Not to mention his two spells that can be used defensively are much better off used as offensive aoe crowd control on the enemy team.






- She's quite hard to gank due to her Q and knockback. Most ADs are able to destroy her in lane but if she starts snowballing then it's really looking bad for your team.
- Her ult gives her an annoying escape, pinks/oracles can help.
- She can knock you out of your ult with her E.
- Her Q goes through your ult, don't ult before she uses it.

- Try to always get an oracles when teamfighting against Vayne. It is crucial that she dies in teamfights especially as the game goes on.



- Most champions will try to abuse her weak early game and will have to play more aggressive than usual, they should be slightly easier to gank (even if Vayne is so fragile that it is possible for her to die in a 3v2 situation if you're not being extremely careful).
- Your EQ combo will give her time to position herself so that she can E someone into a wall and secure the kill, ganking bot shouldn't be too hard.
- Tell her she can't stun people by them in the wall of your . She will only knock them out and save them.

While these ganks work very well, tell your teammates to at least wait for your CDs (I usually tell them "let me engage") before they engage, I've had many people react to my combo too fast while I wanted to wait for the cd to come back up.




This one is basic, but it will allow you to go through enemy wards unless they warded the bush specifically - most people don't, they ward river instead.



Allows you to go through tribush without going through the enemy jungle (wraithes might be warded).



Using your combo from there allows you to gank mid well. Especially post six because you'll be able to your target and most likely force their (don't do this if they have their escape spells ready).



In case they didn't ward that bush specifically.



This one either allows you to escape bad fights (or if you get caught), or to go to the enemy jungle while by-passing their potential ward at wraithes. Also, if you're escaping, most people won't try to flash behind you because that kind of flash can easily fail.



Another wall you can bypass, chases and escapes very well. Not many champion can go through this wall.



In case their botlane didn't ward tri-bush, you can gank from there.

This chapter will be about counterganking which is something incredibly important that many people seem to underestimate. I see many junglers (when I can't get the role), either in my team or in the enemy's, completely ignore this important part of being a good jungler.



Counterganking is simply being at the right place at the right time and turn around an enemy gank only by being there.

It sounds very simple yet it can be pretty hard to execute correctly. There are several things to take into account when counterganking.



Usually people will ask for ganks because they're behind. So if you fight 2v2 instead of the expected 2v1, chances are you will get kills. There will be a more detailed chapter about this (see Jungle matchups) further in the guide, but you see where I'm coming from.



Talk to him. Ping him that you're there. If he baits well enough you'll usually get at least one kill.



Typically when either you or your teammate are stronger than your opponents. is a mix between a CC jungler (..) and a damage jungler (, etc..).

CC junglers gank very well but are very vulnerable to couterganks, they will usually commit hard to a fight and if you baited their initiate, they will usually have to burn and / or die.

Damage junglers are harder to countergank because they usually have more damage than once your burst is down. However they lack CC, are usually squishier and aren't that scary if you have . They snowball harder because their damage can get out of control easily, but they also suck more than CC junglers if they are gold-starved (they're also rarely build with GP10s).

is more of a jungler that doesn't really belong into either of those, he can be built differently and depending on his runes/masteries/items he will be more of a damage jungler or a cc jungler. Early game he's both at the same time and that's one of the things that make him so strong. There aren't many junglers like him, the only one I find similar is 6 + .



The easiest way is by warding well. Even if your team has lackluster ward coverage, you can ward for them and turn ganks around, leading to an early lead.

The other way is by simply using your knowledge + stuff you can see from in game. For example say the enemy jungler is . He's blue side. You know his lvl 2 ganks are scary. You could for example start red and basically be in the same area as him once your buff is done, and gank him with the help of your teammate (talk before that !), or wait for him to gank and countergank him.

Your damage will be superior as has much more damage than , also red buff deals a lot more damage than blue buff. he'll most likely have to blow his if he wants to have a chance of surviving.

Important note : I don't see many people do this, but always ping where the enemy jungler started. Their mid usually will come from the side they leashed from so you can usually tell where they started. You can use this to your advantage, also your teammates will usually make a good use of this.

I will talk more about this in the counterjungle section but this little trick is very simple and useful yet very rarely abused (people tend to simply assume "oh he's , he started blue, I don't need to worry right now..").

Difficulty : 3/10

mainly relies on ganking, he's a great ganker even though since his last nerfs he's nowhere nearly as strong as he used to be. His damage has been nerfed pretty hard, his base MS and his range has also been hit. Even his clearing speed (his passive, IIRC ?) has been nerfed.

has to get his mobility boots + 2 gp10s quickly, otherwise he's screwed (if anyone remembers Azubu Frost vs SK where Arenae only got his HoG around min 20, that's what I mean). Also due to his nature - CC jungler -, he's very vulnerable to being counterganked.

Typically, s usually start blue and lvl 2 gank, bot/top or mid. They especially like to gank mid for some reason ( players are usually very predictable, they rarely do something unexpected). There are quite a few things you can opt to do :

- Start red, be in the same area as him once your buff is done. Try to countergank him.
- Start red and hunt him down. You're much stronger in a duel especially with red buff. If you can force his Flash, his ganks are suddenly not nearly as scary as they should be.
- Start blue ask your team to give a good leash so you can save smite, take his red and either continue counterjungling or try to find him.

If tries to do his red buff instead of lvl 2 ganking, he will take a lot of damage and you can actually force him to + recall, putting him severely behind. My last advice about would be to ward well enough to predict his 6+ towerdives (). If you can be at the right place at the right time you can easily mess his dive up and get yourself two kills/assists (or even three if he's ganking bot).

Difficulty : has been nerfed heavily and is very gimmicky as jungler now, he has troubles even killing his red. If someone picks jungle Alistar, he's going to level 2 gank, 100%. Countergank him at this point, kill him, and he's basically screwed. He still gets 3/10 because he can become unstoppable if he gets ahead. He'll just towerdive the heck out of your team and never die.


Difficulty : 8/10

is really popular in solo queue for a good reason, he's pretty easy to play, and his ult is basically easy-mode ganks, as he can't miss his ganks with his ult. Also it is pretty hard to countergank him post six because his ult makes him really scary in 2v2 and especially 3v3 situations.

has several weaknesses, two of the most known being his first blue buff dependance and being a relatively weak duelist or even champion as a whole early game (meaning pre six).

You can choose to invade his blue at lvl 1 (late invades work best) if you have a decent level 1 ( is average, is trash), or to counterjungle him at his red. If you choose to counterjungle him at his red, care, if he saved he can actually do it pretty fast. Try your best to shut him down early (typically he's also very vulnerable to being counterganked before he gets his ).

Something that can be game-changing against specifically is to ward his blue around 6 min so it'll be warded for when it respawns. Under normal circumstances, will still be level 5 when it respawns and you should be able to 2v2 him + his mid and come out ahead. Always tell your closest sidelane that you're going to contest their blue, it is crucial.

Honestly I somewhat dislike playing champions such as against because I feel like Amumu is way too strong in teamfights even if literally destroyed him early game - happens so often its ridiculous -, but doesn't quite have that issue, because is super strong in teamfights, and is also one of the only champions if not the only champion that is able to counter 's because you can while rooted. That means you can get really strong counter initiates against him.

Try to abuse your strong early game in comparison to his to give as many lanes of yours an advantage over their opponents. If your teammates are ahead you'll be able to successfully countergank even if post-six, if they're even or behind you don't stand a chance though.

Difficulty : Even though you can counterjungle him and countergank him very well early, he will still no matter what become this stupid press R champion everyone knows when he reaches 6. Do your best to give your lanes good advantages before he can hit 6 (which should be between 7:30 and 8:00).

has strong tools to fight him even late game since you can out of his ult which gives you a strong way to counter-initiate, but he is still a pain almost no matter what, which is why he gets such a high difficulty score.


Difficulty : 6/10

is becoming more and more popular as jungler since his recent QoL buff and also due to the fact that some teams such as CLG.EU picked him up as jungler. He's very well rounded since he has quite a good clearing speed, good sustain, strong cc and decent damage. He sort of relies on his first blue buff though, and is kinda squishy early game, you can counterjungle him at his red for example.

He is also mainly a cc jungler so he can be counterganked under most circumstances. Especially since 99% of Cho'Gath's run , should make you superior in 2v2 or 3v3 skirmishes.

Invading his 2nd blue is also a good idea because most s, from my experience, tend to use their spells quite a lot when jungling. Meaning you can engage a fight right after he uses his on blue buff, for example.

There isn't much to say about , he has insane objective control () and if he does it right you'll never outsmite him so don't even try. You can however initiate fights right after he gets dragon for example though, as he probably just used his and basically doesn't really have damage anymore.

Difficulty : His sustain was nerfed in a recent patch and since then, I've seen many Cho's drop really low on their red buff. Ganking him at his red is very effective since he can drop very low and your early game damage is strong enough to kill him.


Difficulty : 3/10

is a super fast jungler that has one big problem early game, he has negative sustain. He loses a lot of health jungling due to his spells costing health. He can be a strong invader though and typically if he starts blue, he can keep smite and get to your red and steal it real fast, as his Q deals insane damage to buffs.

He's not as popular as he used to be but he can still be a pain, but does well against him. He should beat you in a duel, but your ganks are stronger and since most run , he can easily be killed if he gets caught inside your jungle, due to your combo and .

Try to not let him snowball out of control, but honestly he's pretty easy to deal with. He can be counterganked since he "naturally" loses quite a bit of health, especially pre six. Your burst + his negative sustain can get him very low almost instantly.

There isn't much to say about , he'll be annoying late game, but he's so rarely played anymore - in solo queue I mean - that I can't really give more tips about him.

Difficulty : While Mundo clears very fast, he has several issues. First, his ganks are quite red buff reliant unless he can hit every single cleaver. Second, his first clear is very unsafe. He might be fast but if he gets caught he dies 100%. Third, I would say he's fairly squishy till he gets 1 full item (usually a ), and his ult doesn't really help him until lvl 11 (rank 2).

Mundo is often very susceptible to being counterganked because he's very rarely full hp and is actually pretty squishy early on. If you can countergank him properly, you can often kill him almost without effort. His negative sustain, your burst, and 1 spell / auto + ignite from your laner(s) are usually more than enough to kill him.


Difficulty : 4/10

is one of those champions that will either be OP or UP. Right now, he's pretty underpowered. His main weaknesses is that he can be counterjungled very easily, he's a very squishy champion. can counterjungle quite well, he's stronger in duels, and most importantly he can interrupt Fiddle's main source of damage and sustain, his drain with his combo.

gets scary once he hits six, try to recognize places where he's likely to ult gank from, and ward those. Countergank him as much as you'd like pre six, but post six he's a terror if he catches you with his . Good warding can really ruin his day.

is one of those champions that will typically always try to stay out of vision of your team and try to engage teamfights with his combo. has a great tool to prevent that, his that gives vision and with a little bit of experience, it isn't hard to guess where he's hiding.

is also one of the very few if not the only jungler that almost requires permanent blue buff. If you can ward his for 7:15 (approximatively) and get it stolen or kill him there, you can severely set him behind. Good s will know their timers very well, but when I was lower elo I played against some that for instance ganked top at 7:10 while they were purple side, leaving their blue buff unprotected.

Important : If you wanna counterjungle early game, do it either at his wraithes or at his red, and wait for him to use his drain before engaging a fight. He has terrible base stats and can very easily be killed, but don't underrestimate him, if you let him get full drains on you he'll kill you.

His early game is especially weak because his fear doesn't last very long before you max it out, and I think most max drain first when jungling.

Difficulty : Fiddlesticks isn't very dangerous until level 6, unless he gets a full drain on you, you will usually outtrade him badly. Not to mention your knockup fucks him up. The only thing you need to watch for when playing against him is to make sure that you never get baited into a Fiddle ult countergank which usually gives him a double/triple kill.

His mr reduct passive marks targets affected by it (even creeps) with a debuff that looks like the aura under your champion when you buy , knowing this can save the day.


Difficulty : 5/10

is a weird champ. He has good dps from his , but he's squishy and has no real CC apart from his , so his ganks are usually hard to pull off pre six.

If you get a good leash, you can get your 2nd buff and try to catch him in his jungle, you can kill him 1v1, he's squishy and isn't very scary early on. Keep your when he tries to flee with and you should be able to force his flash.

Post six, he's pretty good but he's still squishy and actually if you can ruin his ganks when he ults or even better force him to ult away, you can practically make him useless as he's basically unable to gank / countergank without it. He's very ult reliant, you're not. I think has a big advantage here.

Difficulty : Against Hecarim you need to take advantage of your much superior early game damage and CC. You're also more sustained than he is in the jungle. His first clear is quite painful, if you can catch him off guard it can easily be a very easy first blood, as most Hecarims run and thus can't really escape.

Post six, his ganks are actually pretty good. His ult has a long CD though, so if you can force him to ult away, you're severely weakening his ganking power. Last but not least, in teamfights both of you will look for opportunities to initiate.

I first did it for fun but it actually works incredibly well against Hecarim : initiate with while hitting as many people as possible ( afterwards ofc). At this point, Hecarim will ult your team as counter-initiate. Demacia'ing him will often get him killed and let his teammates unable to help him out. I haven't came across thousands of Hecarim, but each time I did it, it worked insanely well.


Difficulty : 6/10

Solo queue terror ! Right. . Everyone should know him by now but it seems 1800 elo people still don't know . can be quite annoying to play against as he's very slippery, is a strong duelist, has strong sustain, ganking potential and damage early game, but he can also be shut down very quickly.

I've played many games as against and as vs (admitedly less), and I had the impression that is quite a strong pick against . Don't be delusional, he'll kick your ass if you duel him during the first few levels (1-4 mainly), but from this point if he hasn't snowballed ahead you actually stand a chance in a duel (a good would probably still kill you in a duel to death, but my point is that you most likely won't die to him 1v1 anymore).

My point here is that once you get several ranks in your and e , he won't be able to kill you 1v1 because you'll simply be too tanky for him.

Most s are very predictable, for instance if they're purple side, they will most likely start red and lvl 2 gank toplane. I usually counter that by starting red myself, asking for a good leash so I can keep smite, go straight to my blue and get it, and then gank top / countergank. If he camped he's 1 lvl behind and has only one buff, I have two, if he didn't, enemy toplane is usually a free kill because ,if anything, they will expect lvl 2 ganks from . They will always assume you started blue, I have yet to see someone else ping / call where the enemy jungler started while it is a CRUCIAL information in my opinion.

Typically your job against will be counterganking him / outganking him, can quickly become almost useless if he's behind. He's still a good peeler and will typically kick you out of your ult, but he won't really do much more than that. Do your best to not let him snowball even if that means counterganking him simply to force him to retreat. You outscale him pretty badly, if you can prevent him from getting fed you can really ruin his day. You most likely won't get fed early game because of him but if you can prevent him from snowballing, you're already winning this matchup.

Difficulty : Lee Sin is only really dangerous for you from lvl 1 to lvl 6-7. You can't duel him until 9 unless you're significantly ahead, but as you get tankier through , you will usually become too tanky for him.

Lee Sin is strong but isnt a big threat to you. The only time he becomes threatening is when he starts getting assistance. I.E. he kills mid, so both him and his mid come steal your blue, dive your botlane, or do dragon. One of his weaknesses early game is that he is a very squishy champion. If you can focus him down, you'd be surprised how fast he can die.


Difficulty : 4/10

isn't quite popular in solo queue, he's regarded as a strong pick but he's more of a premade 5v5 jungler. He's easily counterjungled (he clears slightly faster than early game, but Jarvan clears faster and faster while Mao's clearing speed is stagnant or even gets worse because he doesn't have blue), and he's very vulnerable to counterganks.

tend to camp mid because he's one of the best junglers to gank mid since his CC makes it easy for his AP to hit his spells and kill his opponent. However he has one big weakness that can be abused, you can sort of flash out of his W. Granted he follows you, but most of the time that will be under tower. If you can countergank him at this point, he'll be forced to flash or die.

He sucks really bad in duels, if you can catch him alone he will often have to blow his at least. Before he gets tanky at least.

There isn't much to say about this matchup in particular, you should beat him in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, you have better objective control, and you're about as good in teamfights. In case you ever get caught out of position, remember that you can still out of his root !

Difficulty : Maokai isnt very difficult unless he snowballs ahead, or worse, he gets his lanes to snowball ahead of yours. To prevent that you must successfully guess where he's going so you can countergank.


Difficulty : BORING.. 3/10

is another one of those jungle tanks, he clears decently fast, but has one big weakness : his ganks are poor before he gets his ult. He's also easy to countergank, even though you won't kill him.

That's the main problem about , he's so innately tanky that you can't really counterjungle him, he might be able to 1v1 you and anyway even if he was losing 1v1, it would take so long to kill him that his teammates would have arrived 10 times already.

Try to abuse the fact that you're a much better ganker pre six than he is, counter initiate his engages (stay spread out so you don't get knocked up by his ult - tell your teammates to not stay too close to each other, it helps), try to snowball from that early game lead you probably will have against jungle malph.. that's about it. He's banned quite a lot and much more often played as AP mid or anti-AD-tank top than as jungler, can't really tell more about him.

I've seen jungle do nothing but jungle for 25 min and still be unkillable in teamfights, and I've had jungle malphs in my team do nothing but jungle for 25 min and be supersquishy + deal approximately 0 damage in teamfights, I really can't tell more about jungle .

Important : A bit like A when he was perma-banned, most will only play Malphite because he's open. Most of the time they don't really know how to play the champion and would have played another champion much better, but took him simply because their teammates wanted in their team rather than in their enemy's.

Difficulty : Malphite isnt very hard to play against because most of them try to get 6 asap and often don't even try to gank before that. He's also very blue reliant, if you have a decent lvl 1, consider invading. Post six, try to countergank him, but focus his teammate rather than him, because he's innately tanky and very hard to kill.


Difficulty : 6/10

is a special case, he's actually a fairly even matchup early game, he has better DPS, but less burst, tankiness and CC than you. You can usually countergank him easily especially if he has used his shield. If he shields your , he can take advantage of his better DPS to try and kill you. Otherwise, you can usually burst him down because he's actually very squishy early.

is hard to deal with because of his , but with some wards in his jungle, and common sense, you should be able to tell where he's going to ult (just think of where YOU would ult if you were him) and countergank him which can easily result in a double kill.

Once you get and some ranks in , his damage will become laughable unless he builds offensive () which is very rare. If you get on top of that, he is 100% unable to kill you.

Difficulty : Noc is annoying post six due to his ult, but with some wards in his jungle you should be able to correctly guess where he's going to ult. He's susceptible to getting counterganked because he's a very squishy champion. He's stronger than you in duels, but you're better in skirmishes, if you wish.


Difficulty : 3/10

Jungle isn't quite as popular as he used to be and is usually played as support, but he's one of those few junglers that can really dominate hard. First of all, you need to know that most of the time will try to get a good enough pull to not smite his blue and try to steal your red (as he'll most likely assume you started blue because you're and you have mana).

Either Start red or get a good leash so you can catch him in time, care though you can't outsmite him. You also most likely wont be able to chase him without red buff, depending on which spell he takes (I would take and , but some players make take instead of ).

are mandatory here. His ganks are good but he can easily be counterganked and can't really do much apart from trying to empire you from a nearby bush. Try to ward for your team, his ganks are fairly easy to escape if you have wards. And if your teammates get caught despite your wards, your boots will allow you to catch up and countergank him.

Difficulty : Nunu isn't very difficult, but he's annoying. Most Nunus will start blue and try to steal your red and will often succeed unless you and your teammates are prepared for this (I.E. wards) or you decide to start red. Nunu is very annoying but if you can get past the early game without getting your jungle stolen, you should usually win this matchup. Just remember to get quickly so you can countergank him.


Difficulty : 5/10

Shaco is a very unique matchup. If you successfully guess his intentions and counterplay it correctly, then he's got nothing. But he can be a huge pain in the ass if he starts stealing your buffs before you can reach them.

There are several things to know about Shaco. First, his cooldowns are pretty long, that means if he just used his Q to get to your jungle, you can catch him offguard and kill him. His box Cd is also pretty long early game which means he will usually use it to tank the buff he's trying to steal from you, so you don't have to fear 4 boxes waiting for you to facecheck (I still have nightmares from pre nerf AP shacos..).

The best thing to do against him is to successfully guess where he's gonna start, because 90% of Shaco's will do the same thing. They will start at buff X and will try to steal your buff Y. Most of the time, they will assume you're gonna start blue, and thus will start blue on their own, and try to go for a quick red steal before you can even make it there. The best way to counter that is simply starting red.

I usually always start bot-side (red when I'm blue side, blue when I'm purple side) so my botlane can easily give me a smiteless, but against Shaco you really want to start red to make sure this little clown wont steal it away from you. Honestly, red buff is so much more important than blue buff early game, I would care less if my blue got stolen. Blue buff certainly helps but red buff is gamebreaking.

Difficulty : Well as I said, he is relatively easy to deal with as long as you can out-think him and not get your red stolen early. Apart from that, he's honestly not very scary. He is pretty strong in duels especially if he carries ignite (don't underestimate his lvl 6 dueling capabilities) or exhaust, but counterganking him is easy and will usually result in kills for your team.

He's squishy, has to burn his escape to get a gank off, and doesn't really have huge burst nor especially high sustained damage. Don't be afraid to focus him if you're counterganking him. Shacos tend to carry ignite/exhaust which makes them even more vulnerable to being bursted down, and his escape has a pretty long CD early.



Difficulty : 4/10

isn't the most common jungle pick in solo queue but some people still play her. She's actually quite annoying because you can't outduel her, and she clears much faster than you do. Typically, players tend to steal your wraithes and even occasionally your wolves.

The only thing you have to worry about is not being couterganked early game by her and avoid her getting to take one of your buffs. Starting red is a good solution, as is getting a good enough leash on blue to keep .

She will piss you off but there isn't much you can do about it.

Difficulty : Shyvana is much like Nunu, she will try to steal one of your buffs, usually your red, or find you there and kill you (if she has exhaust). Try to get past that and your ganking abilities will make you ten times more useful than her.

There isn't much more to say about this matchup. If you can avoid getting killed / getting your buffs stolen, you will usually be much more useful than her.


Difficulty : 5/10

is most of the time banned and usually picked as a toplaner, but when counterpicked too hard he sometimes go into the jungle. is much stronger than you are in a duel early game, don't even try him. Try to gank early game because players usually try to get 6 as soon as possible so they get their allmighty global ult .

Do your best to not get counterganked by him, especially if he has redbuff. He can deal quite a lot of damage early game and is much tankier than you are.

Difficulty : Shen has strong early ganks and is pretty good in duels, but his clear is so slow that you can often abuse that so you can gank before he's done doing his own jungle. He becomes a nuisance when he reaches 6, at which point you will have to force his ult everytime its up (3 min and 20 sec cd for the first rank).


Difficulty : 6/10

He has been nerfed pretty hard, just try to not get counterganked (he's really good at that). Never try to duel him, he'll destroy you unless he's significantly behind and you have . One of 's few weakness is his first blue, if he doesn't get it he's quite screwed. He's also red buff dependant to make his ganks really scary pre six.

Post six he's just really hard to deal with, unlike his isn't countered by and people tend to never get even if you tell them to, etc.

He's really strong in small skirmishes and will usually destroy you even though you can sometimes win skirmishes against him pre six because your hard cc from your combo gives you and your teammate(s) a slight advantage.

has a few interesting mechanics against him, for example you can in teamfights to counterengage his , and you can trap him inside or outside (and force him to walk the long way around) your . It's not easy but it can be gamebreaking.

Difficulty : There's no way you can fight him 1v1 early game. Chances are you can win 2v2's against him before he reaches 6, but after that he'll be too tanky + his suppress will give him and his teammate an almost 2 second 2v1 situation. His ult has been nerfed though and so his flash ult combo isn't impossible to escape anymore which severely nerfed his ganking abilities.


Difficulty : 5/10

is a beast in his jungle and will probably try to steal your red. As usual, start there or have a good enough leash so that you can keep smite, your call. If he's having trouble ganking your lanes, he'll try to steal your jungle a lot. Keep it warded and you can often kill him or at least force him to with the help of your teammates, and forcing his destroys his ganking potential.

Don't try to duel him. There's almost no way you can kill him unless he's afk.

sucks in teamfights tbh, every single spell you have will be painful to deal with for him.

Difficulty : Udyr would deserve 10/10 early because his ganks are still strong with red buff, he can invade you all he wants, he both outtanks and outdamages you, but he falls off so hard because he gets kited to hell and back by every single champion in this game.

As I said earlier, if he can't get his ganks to work he'll try to invade your jungle and be a pain in the ass.


Difficulty : 7/10

Vi is amongst the best junglers in the game as of right now (14/02/2013) in my opinion. She clears fast, is fairly sustained, is pretty good at invading due to her ridiculous early game damage, and while a little fragile early, she transitions into a mid-late game powerhouse.

Vi should outduel you early unless you can engage her with your EQ while you have double buff up, she's not innately tanky (I say that a lot, I know. An example of an innately tanky champ would be or ), you can destroy her if you catch her off-guard, but so can she.

Otherwise she's much like Xin, try to countergank her early, Jarvan is honestly pretty broken when it comes to counterganking. In teamfights, don't waste your CC on her during her ult, but most Vi's tend to dive the carry with their ult, consider EQ'ing her right after she lands. It should be your support's job, but if for some reason he's not doing it (properly or at all), then you'll most likely have to do it if you want to win.

Difficulty : J4 vs Vi is much like J4 vs Xin, it is a lot about counterganking. The only difference is in teamfights, Xin's usually try to get aoe ults off while Vi's will try to dive the carry. Both are fairly vulnerable if you can EQ them at the right time. Typically, Vi should be cc'd as soon as her ult ends. She's fairly easily kitable, but if you don't peel her off your carry, she's one of the few junglers that can take him out single-handedly.


Difficulty : 7/10

Xin, Vi and J4 are the best junglers ATM in my opinion.

Xin has several advantages over you, such as built-in sustain, better kit when it comes to dueling people, and just like you he scales very well into the mid-late game, mostly because of how ridiculous his is. I would say you're slightly faster than him though. His gapcloser range is also quite a bit lower than yours. Xin also has to use his Audacious Charge offensively, much like Darius, he doesn't really have a way out if he needs to run.

Xin is generally too slow in his jungle to even consider invading you, however if he catches you off-guard, he can easily kill you 1v1. If he can get his 3rd Q auto when you EQ, it will mess-up your combo and will most likely get you killed. Be very careful about that.

Xin vs J4 is a bit of a skill matchup, but I'd still give J4 an edge because I think he's the best counterganker in the game, and typically Xin can get destroyed by that. If you can successfully guess where he's going to lvl 3 gank, wait for him to E your teammate, and then EQ both him and his teammate. Xin deals a lot of damage but is actually rather squishy without items (very similar to ).

Difficulty : Xin vs J4 is a a bit like a race. Both of you want to snowball, so you'll be looking for ganks, both champions aren't the best farmers (farmers junglers don't really work in solo queue anyway). Most of the time, the one that can get the best counterganks will win this matchup. J4 has an edge because a nicely timed EQ will usually catch Xin & his teammate, and Xin is a lot weaker if he can't get his knockup off.

In teamfights, try to initiate before he does, because honestly his initiate is about as good as yours but most importantly if he's the one engaging, chances are he will hit everyone with his , dealing massive AoE damage AND giving him up to 125 (!!) armor and magic resistance. If you're engaging he'll usually either charge your team and ult them (hitting 3 targets at best, less damage and less free ar/mr).

Xin is also extremely vulnerable to if you can catch him at the right time (when his is down). Be careful though, if he builds any kind of CDR, ERWQ will let him have his charge back up when he gets his knockup off. Xin is quite a bit more vulnerable to crowd controls than most bruisers because of that. The right time to CC him is after he activates Q but before he can get his knockup off (3rd strike).

Midgame is mainly about taking towers and securing dragons. That is why I usually gank top/mid early but focus a lot on bottom lane post lvl 6, because I know we can secure dragon if we kill the enemy botlane or force them back.

This is why I run with homeguards. Botlane is often well warded (dragon+tribush+one of the lanebushes at least), and your support usually will not tell you where wards are, the easiest and the hardest to counter (to ward against, if you prefer) are "boots of mobility ganks".

Boots of mobility ganks are simply those ganks where you come from the lane as if you were going for creeps, but have your teammate bait / initiate as you get close, and you're so fast with boots 5 that you can get to your target before they can react. Especially with Jarvan's that catches people almost every single time.

Your typical midgame build should be .

Late game is mainly about winning teamfights and baron control. Teamfights will be discussed in the next chapter, so I'll focus on baron control in this one.

Typically if you're ahead you want to get oracles running 24/7, typically you will be the one purchasing oracles unless your support gets it (he should, but maybe he won't). If he doesn't get it, get it and pressure baron. You can often win teamfights simply by baiting baron and catching someone off guard.

If you're behind you want to always have wards to keep baron warded, your best chance at winning a fight is by initiating a teamfight as the enemy team is doing baron, especially since people tend to tank it way too long.

is great for baron control and objectives in general because his gives bonus AS to everyone on his team, meaning you can kill baron faster, as well as more armor so you take less physical damage from it. Baron Nashor also deals a fair amount of magical damage, tho.

When doing baron, always be careful against "R comps" that will typically involve champions such as , one of Baron's spell applies a debuff that increases magical damage taken, it can be devastating against that kind of team.

also is one of the few champions that can almost permanently (and permanently with some CDR) get vision on an area, typically baron pit if you can't keep it warded (most likely because your team went out of wards and enemy team has oracles running), very similar to . That way you can always check baron and its hp, meaning its never safe for the enemy team to do it.

Also, it is often a better idea to choose to not contest baron 4v5 (I.E. someone got caught) rather than taking the risk of having the enemy team getting baron + 4 more kills. You need to be able to judge the situation, if they're all low and you're 4 relatively healthy, they're free kills and free baron, if they're all full hp it's probably a better idea to just let them get baron. You'd be surprised how many people / teams actually throw games when they have baron. Wasting baron buff farming, mindlessly towerdiving 5 on 5, etc.

It is worth mentioning that alongside , is the only champion that can steal nashor and get out of the pit without even having to use . someone inside the pit, baron, out.

Important : As jungler you're essential to your team, it is already not recommended for anybody to farm botlane (because it is so far from baron) beyond 20-25 mins, but as jungler it is your responsability to be here to pressure nashor. The enemy team will feel very confident doing baron if you're farming bot or if you're dead.

Important 2 : Late game is also much about making the right calls. Typically you don't want to do baron while the enemy team has 5 members alive unless someone is really out of position, it is often better to push turrets and try to get a kill by ambushing the enemy team somewhere than risking a baron. Don't be afraid to lead your team lategame, learn to make the right calls at the right time, I remember well when I was around 1400 elo (and lower) that people had troubles making the right call at this stage of the game and many games would be lost simply because of that.

Important 3 : It seemed obvious to me but actually I just remembered this was a very common cause of loss when I was lower elo, when you're about to initiate fights (that's probably going to be your job as ), always make sure that everyone has their ult, everyone has 90%+ mana and health, everyone is ready and in position, etc. I've lost so many games because I engaged a teamfight and my AD was farming wraithes while it was clear a fight was about to happen. People sometimes do dumb things but it's better to not initiate a fight despite having a good shot at doing a great engage than engaging 4v5.

Teamfights often decide which team is gonna take it home. Most of the time teamfights are won because either of the team is ahead, scales better with items, has better teamfighting capacities (I.E. R comps @ ), etc.

However, I'm gonna do my best to give you as many advices as possible when it comes to teamfighting from a point of view.

is typically meant to initiate or counter-initiate fights. His has an insane range that is often underestimated, and can offer AoE crowd-control that is unaffected by tenacity and other such CC reductions spells such as or .

You're going to look at opportunities to engage fights, if possible you'd want to hit one of their carries with your combo as well as as many other champions as possible, giving your team a great advantage. If you can initiate with your combo you'd be surprised how many carries will basically be forced to use one of their escapes.

If you can engage a teamfight by hitting your combo on the enemy , he will usually right as the knockup ends. At this point you'll take a lot of damage because you'll be quite extended, and this is when you'll most likely get cc'd a lot. Pop your at this point for maximum effectiveness.

Your team will usually have dealt a fair amount of damage to the enemy team and if the enemy team focuses you you'll most likely die, but your team will ace them. Assuming you manage to stay alive, I recommend backing off right after forcing their escapes and using your shield. Their carries will chase you 99% of the time and that's when you're supposed to . They've burned one of their escapes which means they'll usually need to out, making them extremely vulnerable because both of their escapes are down.

Deplete your arena if it's blocking you or one of your teammates, keep it up if you're blocking one of their carries inside it. Honestly I die a lot in teamfights as but that's mainly because I force the enemy team to do something about me, even if I built super tanky and typically don't do that much damage. However they're often forced to blow so many cd's on me that my team usually aces them after my death.

That's how your typical teamfights are going to occur. In case your team gets initiated on, counter initiate by all means. Initiating a fight gives your team an advantage but if you get counterengaged, your teammates won't be able to make use of that 2 sec-ish window you just gave them over the enemy team.

Important : is really good against because you can use your combo even when affected by his ult - -, giving you a good opportunity to counter-initiate and sort of counter his ultimate as well.

I've had troubles with my net recently and therefore I couldn't upload any of my clips (Sony Vegas + LoL Replay not working properly those last few months on my PC for no apparent reason definitely didn't help, though).

So I asked Stonewall on ReignofGaming if I could include some of his videos in my guide and he gave me his approval. So here we are, if you want to see some Jungle , his videos are amongst the best you can find









After watching this pro player pick, I decided to include it here, because I think he has several great points about how should be played. He also talks about (arp) runes and an early brutalizer that lets his damage scale throughout the game, allowing him to focus on tankiness afterwards.

I usually do not really like Pro Player Picks are they're very.. well, vague to say the least, but this guy looks like he's passionate and wanted to give actual tips on how to play the champion, it felt like a very well done miniguide to me.

Well, as of now I'd recommend waiting for Warring Kingdoms Jarvan IV coming out next patch.






Otherwise, all of his skins are pretty cool. I have a preference for the Dragon Slayer one.

My IGN is Lee Singah, as you can guess I used to be a big fan of , but I always felt he had that weakness that he needs his team to back him up badly, especially as the game goes on. I almost entirely stopped playing him because of that.



I finished season 2 with a maximum of 1875 elo which I gained through abusing mainly and . I was around 1400 elo during season 2 until early September 2012 at which point I decided to go for Gold because I wanted the Janna skin.

I quickly got to it (had been practicing hard during summer with two friends that now also are respectively platinum and diamond. I got to 1520 and then decided I could try to get to 1600, which I got fairly easily, and even eventually climbed to 1700. Then Riot postponed the end of season II to late october so I decided to try and get Platinum.. which I got to with relative ease.

Season 2 ended, I was platinum and my highest rating was 1875.



I went up to 1990 elo during the pre-season which is why this guide is Featured (requirement was 2000, I sent a PM to Messiah who was kind enough to agree to promote it to Featured even though I was technically missing 10 elo), but went down to 1850 before the new system, which got me to start in Plat V.

I've been playing ranked quite a bit lately and I just went 2-1 in my Bo3 that got me promoted to Plat II.



I used to think I was a really good jungler but I recently noticed that there are only two junglers I can really carry well with, and those are .

always felt weaker than to me even during S2 at which point most people thought Lee was OP and Jarvan sucked, mostly because Lee requires more coordination to gets ganks off than Jarvan, scales much worse into lategame (Jarvan actually scales really well), has no hard CC pre six, while he has as much mobility, his mobility doesn't include terrain formation which is incredibly ovepowered if you ask me.

has a hard time in the new jungle - he's more about AoE and you can feel his sustain is much, much weaker in the season 3 jungle - and his ult was nerfed badly.

is also one of my favourite but has so many issues, one of them being that everyone and their grandmothers has a slow. can still be played, but you almost have to last pick him. You do not want to play Udyr against , , , , , and I'm not even talking about too mobile champs you can't catch as such as or .

My point here is that has no innate big weakness.

- He has hard CC from lvl two on, just like .

- He has one of the most retarded early game burst especially with the runes/masteries I run.

- He can be built as a pure tank if having a bad game and still be useful because unlike , his kit has enough CC to make him impossible to ignore even if he goes straight tank.

- He's one of the few champions that will always get his ganks off as long as he hits his stuff. Sort of like escaping a pre-nerf post 6 gank which was almost impossible if he had flash and ult. is the same, except his combo is a skillshot and his ult has to be used well, while was faceroll.

This is the end, I hope you enjoyed this guide and will give Jarvan a shot. I think he's easily one of the most valuable junglers and I will never understand why he's so underplayed.

Jarvan is apparently being picked up on the pro scene as jungler, I think some people realize his potential is sick.



The only thing I can say is good job Riot. does indeed bleed epic.

31/10/2012 - Guide Released
03/11/2012 - How do I chose the right build chapter + typo's
04/11/2012 - more typo's
06/11/2012 - 10k views, writing FoN / Magic resist item chapter, might add Snowball build.
10/11/2012 - 15k views, magic resistance chapter added, writing Skarner guide
14/11/2012 - Added Vladimir, Rumble and Rengar (Toplane)
8/12/2012 - Masteries chapter updated.. 40k views :) thanks guys, sorry it's taking me a long time :/
11/12/2012 - Updated item build, rewrote Masteries chapter. 50k views, amazing :)
17/12/2012 - Changed 4 of the 9 points in Offense, I think extra AS > Extra CDR in the jungle.
24/12/2012 - Updated build, changed item build section, not done yet though. Working on other guides too.
24/12/2012 - Changed title since I plan on adding a midlane/toplane section.
25/12/2012 - Nocturne & Hecarim added in the jungle matchup chapter.
28/12/2012 - Added S3 stats as of now. Rewrote Rune section, updated masteries.
12/01/2013 - Featured ! Peaked @ 1990 elo yesterday. Updated item build.
25/01/2013 - Added two new chapters (skins/songs).
08/02/2013 - Added a new chapter that should help understanding some of my decisions, changed masteries and item build, Masteries chapter to be updated.
09/02/2013 - Masteries chapter updated, Homeguards boots enchantment added.
14/02/2013 - Updated several ganking toplane matchups, Xin Zhao, Shaco and Vi added to jungle matchups, Aegis/Bulwark added to items. I am now also maxing Q first.
22/02/2013 - PDD picks Jarvan IV video added.
04/03/2013 - Modified item build. I rewrote the "Item Build" chapter almost completely but my computer crashed before I could save, I promise I'll update it soon.. I'm just too pissed off to re-rewrite it right now.
06/03/2013 - Rewrote "Item Build", "Magic Resistance items", and "Help I'm having a bad game" (renamed this one too) chapter. 500k views, thanks everyone !
05/04/2013 - Slight update on items, I'll adjust the item build section later. 1'115'000 views, I'm not sure I can trust that number but anyways thanks a lot.
08/04/2013 - Maxing W second rather than E feels pretty strong especially against AP heavy teams. I'm still testing it but I like it a lot.
24/04/2013 - Updated the item build and skill order, will edit their chapters shortly.
06/05/2013 - Updated the item build with a new section about items I DON'T build, new "The Brutalizer" chapter, updated skill order chapter.