In my previous article, “In the Jungle”, I addressed the benefits of
jungling, and possible counter-jungling strategies. While it is important to
learn how to deal with junglers, it is also important to realize the potentials
of the jungle outside of jungling.
The Fastest Path
The jungle, while it may be a little bit windy, often yields the quickest
path between lanes apart from the river and at the outer wall of the bases.
Similarly, it can serve as the fastest way to get to Dragon or Baron, as well
as to the middle of lanes and the river. It is
very important to keep this all in mind, as every split second makes a
difference in a match. If some of your teammates are engage in battle, and
your swift reinforcement can tip the scales in your favor, you must react fast
and get to the scene as quick as possible. The time it takes you to reach the
battle can mean the difference between victory and defeat, so it is always
critical to know the quickest way to reach your destination (while also
considering safety).
Now let us suppose a battle did occur, but your help wasn’t needed, or you
were too far to make it there on time. Your team has won the battle, and the
enemy champions are on the run. An enemy champion managed to gain enough
distance from your team to survive, but he is running down the river. The
jungle is often the quickest way to intercept your enemies, as they often yield
the shortest path to your destination. Similarly, this is also the case for
your enemies, as the jungle often provides the shortest path to their safety.
You can use this to your advantage to predict where someone will run, and plan
your interception with that in mind. However, your enemies likely realize all
of this as well, so it is best to exercise caution when necessary.
Run Away!
One obvious use of the jungle is to run for your life. If you are being
chased and you have a chance of escaping, the jungle is probably your best bet
for survival. Since the jungle holds split paths, as opposed to running
straight down a lane, it is much easier to lose your pursuers around corners
and through brush patches. Since you cannot see around corners without some
external form of vision, rounding a corner and heading off in a different
direction can often allow you to escape, assuming you had enough distance to
begin with. This makes it difficult for the opposing team to predict your
escape route, and provides you with more alternative routes should one get cut
off.
The jungle also tends to have several patches of brush, which serve well
for outmaneuvering your enemies. You can find a few tips about the brush in my post, “ Master
the Brush”. Learning where the brush patches are on the map can make the
difference between life and death, as does learning how to use the brush to
evade your enemies.
Another excellent way to use the jungle to escape is in conjunction with
the summoner spell Flash, or skills such as Arcane Shift, Rocket Jump,
Valkyrie, and Rift Walk. Nearly every wall of the jungle is thin enough to
hop over, allowing to pass through solid wall to escape a bad situation. This
either forces your enemies to try to catch up to you by cutting off your
possible escape routes, or by using their own Flash or mobility ability. This hopping over walls can easily save you from
death, as it creates a large distance between you and your pursuers, as well as
puts you in their fog of war so it becomes difficult for them to predict your path or land spells on you.
The jungle also has some less obvious tools of escape, which are the
neutral camps. One potential use of neutral camps are for skills such as
Shunpo, Shadow Dance, Leap Strike, and Audacious Charge, which require a
target. Gaining sight of a neutral camp as you’re running away from your
enemies can net you some extra distance, which can save you from being in the
range of enemy skills or attacks. Another use for neutrals, but even more
situational, is to use them as a type of shield. One example would be if
Blitzcrank were chasing you, and his Rocket Grab is about to finish cooling
down, you could attack the neutral camp as you pass by it so the neutrals chase
you. This provides cover from being snatched by Rocket Grab. This tactic works
against the majority of skill shots, such as Mystic Shot, Dark Binding, and
Bandage Toss.
Ambush!
Okay, enough about running. The very design of the jungle, which can help
you escape, can also be used to kill. The many turns of the jungle prevents
full vision of what awaits you. What you may think to be an escape route may in
fact be an interception point. However, this can be used to your advantage as
well. In each jungle lie a few forks, a couple of which have brush patches.
These often make for great ambush points for the unwary and careless. When
you’re in the jungle, the brush isn’t even necessary to ambush someone since
you can simply wait around a corner, and as soon as they peak around into
vision, you can ambush them before they react.
While you can wait around to ambush someone in the jungle, you can also
actively ambush as well. Since the walls in the jungle can be hopped over with
skills or Flash, you can ambush your enemies through the wall. For example, if
there is an enemy champion with low health hiding near their inner tower, and
you’re a Fiddle who has most of his health, you can Crow Storm over the wall
and into the champion, killing the champion then escaping before the tower
kills you. Another example is if someone is over-extending, and is near a
jungle, you and your team can initiate on them from through the wall with Amumu
and Bandage Toss, catching them by surprise, while stunning them and possibly
rooting them to the spot if necessary. You can also actively ambush enemies who
are inside the jungle when they’re clearing neutrals or passing
through.
Rather than hop over walls, there is the special case of Blitzcrank who can
ambush his opponents by pulling them through the wall. This is a particularly
effective technique if the opposing champions cannot predict where you are, and
you catch them off-guard. Pulling someone through the jungle wall into
your team will often net you a swift kill unless they
have Flash or a blink skill and manage to survive long enough to use it.
Random Tips
Neutral Tethers
Every neutral, apart from Baron Nashor, has a “tether” that keeps them
within a certain range of their spawn point. A tether is an invisible range
detection mechanic, which forces NPCs to return to their position prior to
disruption if they are pulled beyond a certain distance. When a neutral is
pulled beyond its tether limit and it regenerates a
percentage of its health every second and walks back to its original point. It’s important to be aware of this distance, as it can be
used to your advantage when killing neutrals.
The tethers can be exploited for certain
jungling situations. For example, if you are a ranged champion and you want to
kill the wraith camp, but want to minimize the damage you receive, you can
abuse the fact that only the blue wraith is ranged. An example would be for
Ashe, if you had only a small window of time to kill a wraith before returning
to mid-lane. As Ashe, you can stand outside of the wraith’s wall and Volley
through the wall into the wraiths, causing the blue wraith to attack you while the red ones try to walk around to attack you. The red
wraiths attempt to loop around the wall, but quickly decide that they are too
lazy to take a few extra steps to attack you, making them reset from their
tether. However, the blue wraith doesn’t reset, and you can continue to kill it
undisturbed by the red wraiths. Similarly, this tactic can be used at Lizard
and Golem, since the small minions are ranged, while the Lizard and Golem are
not
While ranged champions clearly have the most benefit in exploiting neutral
tethers, melee can still use them to their advantage. One example is when you
are fighting the double mini-golem camp. When you engage the two golems, slowly
pull them out toward the edge of their tether range. At the edge of the range,
slowly try to adjust your position so the second golem has to step right
outside of its tether range to approach you, while keeping your primary target
within tether range. If done successfully, the second golem will reset and walk
back toward its original position, while your target stays. The second golem
will return though if you are still fighting the first one by the time it
returns to its position, but it does net you quite a bit of time of not
being punched by two of them simultaneously.
Maximize Your Time
In a close match, every little thing you do can make the difference between
victory and defeat. If you are ever in a lane, and you push it out too far to
safely stay at the creepline, you can maximize your time by stopping by your
jungle to clear a neutral camp or two until it's safe for you to return to
your lane. Similarly, if you are waiting for your teammates to group up nearby,
you should clear a neutral camp while you wait. Another time would be after a
strong push against the enemy team, especially if you’ve killed a couple of
them. When you back out, you should venture into the enemy’s jungle and starve them as much as possible while it is safe, in order to deny them the
experience and gold, while increasing your own. Ideally, you want to control both jungles as much as possible to increases the
experience and gold difference between your team and the enemy’s. This is
especially true for Dragon, Golem, and Lizard, as they create the largest
difference between the teams (apart from Baron). However, when trying to
maximize your time, you can’t forget about your lanes, or your team. Don’t get
distracted. It can cost your team the game.
Also keep in mind the status of the battlefield when you go into the jungle so
you don’t forfeit any turrets or get ganked while you’re in there.
Keep an Eye on the Time
Neutral camps have respawn timers, and it can be very important to keep
track of them. This primarily applies to Dragon, Baron, Golem, and Lizard.
Keeping track of these timers can allow you to quickly defend or take these
respawns by preparing yourself ahead of time. If the enemy team is keeping
track of the timers and your team is not, your team may lose out on one of
these major neutral camps, which may put your team at a disadvantage.
Respawn times:
Wraiths - 0:50
Wolves - 1:00
Golems - 1:00
Ancient Golem (Blue Buff) - 5:00
Lizard Elder (Red Buff) - 5:00
Dragon - 6:00
Baron Nashor - 7:00
Heal Up
If you’re missing health and you have life leech or spell vamp, you can venture into the jungle and grab a little
health by killing some neutrals. Every little bit of health can make a
difference in a battle. Just make sure you don’t get ganked, and actually leech enough to gain health rather than lose it.
Thief!
Just because someone tags the neutrals first doesn’t mean the person who
tagged it has to be the one to kill it. For example, if you spot an enemy
champion killing neutrals, especially key ones, and are able to steal the neutral and escape without receiving much damage, then do
it! Stealing buffs, in particular, is a useful tactic to help gain the
advantage in a game. Not only does the enemy do all the work for you, but you
make out with the experience, gold and buff in the end. On the flip
side, watch out for possible thieves as well. Be sure to have your abilities up
to burst down the last bit of health on key neutrals. Save Smite to finish
them off in order to prevent any opponents from stealing them.
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