In the Jungle
The jungle plays a critical part in a Summoner's Rift game. The jungle serves as a means of escape, ambush, and pursuit. It also
provides gold, experience, and buffs. Junglers dwell here and are one of the most influential roles in a match. With this in mind, it is important to
learn how to minimize these benefits as much as possible for the enemy team.
Before I delve into possible counter-jungling strategies, we must understand
what a jungler brings to the team, and why a jungler is a threat.
Having a Jungler
Pros:
- More overall experience and gold for the team
- Looming threat of a gank at any time
- Can roam between lanes as he jungles
- Can reinforce any lane as necessary
- Can gank any lane when the opportunity presents itself
- Can attempt dragon more secretively than people leaving lane to get it
- Can potentially control the enemy jungle as well as their buffs
- No competition for last-hits in jungle
Cons:
- Requires two strong solo laners
- Often leaves one lane against two laners, unless enemy team also has a jungler
- Can be ganked in the jungle if the opposing team actively tries to stop the jungler
- Not everyone can jungle efficiently
- Can fall behind easily if jungling is countered
- Extra solo lane’s tower can be pushed more easily
- Jungler’s income is generally lower than lane
Conclusion:
Having a jungler provides a large benefit for the team. Theoretically, if
two teams had the same composition and skill level, but one team had a jungler
while the other one didn’t, the team with the jungler should win. Jungling
provides such a large benefit in overall gold, experience, and ganking threat
that it is usually a bad idea not to have a jungler. Having a jungler often
prevents people from pushing your towers, due to fear of a gank, and overall
increases your early game versatility due to the level and jungle buff
advantage.
What makes a good jungler?
A good jungler is someone who can clear the jungle with relatively good speed and without always being in threat of dying. A good jungler also takes control of lizard and golem buffs, especially
the enemy’s. A good jungler also keeps an eye out for gank opportunities, and
capitalizes on them whenever possible. If a good jungler is ever in danger,
they have already planned an escape route and avoid getting ganked by keeping close tabs on all opposing laners. A good jungler also quickly
adapts to any given situation, reinforcing troubled lanes, or changing their
routine as necessary to accommodate for possible starvation or enemy gank
attempts. In summary, a good jungler takes full advantage of the benefits of
having a jungler, providing their team with more experience and gold, while
also posing a large gank threat for the enemy team.
Stopping Junglers
Hunting the Hunter
Since having a jungler provides an experience and gold benefit to the team,
along with gank threats, it is important to learn methods to counter teams with
junglers. The most obvious method is to gank the jungler. Not only will this
ruin their routine, but it will set them back in levels, gold, and buffs if
they had any. Ganking the jungler also creates a major psychological effect. They will become more paranoid whenever someone is no
longer visible on the minimap, and may abandon the jungle to join one of their
teammates in a lane, in fear of getting ganked again.
One way to spot a ganking moment on a jungler is to place wards near a
neutral camp. Particularly good places to place a ward are at Golem, Lizard, and Dragon. These five neutral camps provide the most benefit to a
team. Early control of the lizard buff can lead to dominance of a lane, or even
kills. Golem buff allows champions to harass their opponents more aggressively
with skills, push a tower, or farm better. Dragon gives a team-wide experience
and gold boost, which provides a significant advantage over the opposing team.
Due to the importance of these buffs and Dragon, it is more than likely that a
jungler will visit them eventually. With a ward placed at one of these critical
camps (of which take the jungler longer to clear, and require more health), you
can pursue the jungler when they engage the neutral camp, and gank them while
they attempt to clear it. At the very least, the jungler will abandon the camp
after having invested some health into fighting the neutrals, slowing their
jungling down and often preventing them from going after the same neutral camp
for awhile. A successful gank can quickly snowball against the jungler, and
serves to psychologically affect the jungler even if the gank attempts fail.
This is the ideal solution to countering a jungler, but can also be difficult
against a careful jungler, and can set you up for counter-ganks if they have a
strong and responsive team.
Create a Famine
Neutral camps only begin their respawn timers when every neutral at a
particular camp is killed. Since every camp has multiple neutrals (apart from
Dragon and Baron) you can starve a jungler by clearing all but one of the small neutrals from
the neutral camps. While it may be easier for the enemy jungler to kill a
single neutral, the lack of neutrals will starve the jungler, putting them
behind on both gold and experience. Additionally, most of the experience and gold comes from the large neutrals at each camp. As a result, the jungler slowly falls behind in farm, which makes it difficult for them to keep up with everyone else.
If the jungler goes into a lane, it eliminates the advantages of having a
jungler. If the jungler ventures into your jungle, they are much more prone
to ganks and have a significantly lower chance of escape or counter-ganks.
Since the your jungle is on the opposite side of their team, it becomes
increasingly difficult for backup to cross over and help prevent ganks. Being
in your jungle also makes it difficult to cross mid-lane, since the towers will shoot their jungler once or twice, and reveal where they are going.
Counter-Jungle
If the enemy team has a jungler, then the best way to match the advantages
is to have one of your own. Not only does this provide you with the benefits of
jungling too, but it also allows for the chance of your jungler stopping the
opposing jungler. Your jungler can either gank or starve the opposing jungler
without the attempts being obvious. If laners went to starve or gank the
jungle, it would be easy to see them missing from their lane, but if a jungler
were to do it then there would be no sign of these attempts unless there are
wards, Clairvoyance, or other forms of reconnaissance.
Counter-picking the enemy jungler is more effective
in Draft Mode. If you see a particular jungler selected on the enemy team, you
can select a counter-jungler that can deal with them, such as Shaco or
Twitch. Similarly, a team can adjust their summoner spells in order to try and
stop a jungler by taking Clairvoyance, or Smite to steal Lizard, Golem, Dragon, and Baron.
Proceed with Caution
While countering a jungler is excellent, one must be careful not to let it
backfire. Attempting to counter a jungler can put you at huge risk. If the
enemy team is well organized and responsive, an attempted gank on a jungler
could quickly lead to a counter-gank. Similarly, attempting to starve the enemy
jungler in their own jungle can get you ganked by their team, or by the jungler
themself. If you ever venture into the enemy jungle, always keep a careful eye
on the minimap, as well as the status of the enemy champions in lane. If the
champions are low on health, they will most likely not help their jungler, or
if they do, you may be able to counter-counter-gank them. If the enemy
champions in lane are at full health, then you need to be extra careful if you
plan to attempt ganking a jungler.
No comments:
Post a Comment