Who to Jungle?

Hey I thought I would talk about which junglers are better than others (situational). I have scoured the internet for different opinions on this and I seem to like this one the best:

Tier 1 – Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath

Tier 2 – Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax, Gangplank, Darius, Master Yi, Sejuani, Volibear, Rammus, Fiddlesticks, Xin Zhao, Wukong, Nunu, Tryndamere

Tier 3 – Kayle, Gragas, Twitch, Galio, Fizz, Renekton, Pantheon, Rumble, Fiora, Singed, Twisted Fate, Janna, Blitzcrank, Kennen, Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Karthus, Cassiopeia, Lulu, Ziggs, Leona, Heimerdinger, Brand, Yorick, Eve, Mordekaiser

Tier 4 – Caitlyn, Corki, Veigar, Poppy, Karma, Nasus, Irelia, Malzahar, Draven, Sivir, Akali

Tier 5 – Viktor, Graves, Varus, Orianna, Garen, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog Maw, Ashe, Sona

I stole this Tier List off if reignofgaming.net. I agree with this list for the most part but I want to break it down a little further. I want to break down which junglers in the first (and part of the second) tiers are better than others, and who you are going to want in certain circumstances. Keep in mind that I am only going to discuss jungling champions that are (in my opinion) viable in ranked play. 

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

Basically you are going to want to base your jungle choice on the champions on your team versus the champions on their team. For example, if you have a that has a ton of damage output but not much CC, then you are going to want to pick someone like Amumu, Malphite, Jarvan IV, or Cho'Gath. The reverse is also possible, where your team could have a lot of CC but not a lot of damage output.

Another thing to look at in your team comp is what champions synergize better together than others. If you have an Urgot on your team, think about picking up Nocturne. Urgot can ultimate to swap positions with and enemy champion in the bottom lane and Nocturne can ultimate into the lane for the gank. These two champions synergize extremely well together. (Sona support works well here too for the adding CC during ganks). This is not to say that this is the only situation to pick Nocturne. Any team composition that has a lot of single target CC will work well with a Nocturne.

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

Lets knock a few more easy quick ones of the list. 

Rammus is not the jungler he used to be. Sure he can sustain in the jungle all day and farm but what good does that do your team? I have noticed that halfway through this season, in ranked play specifically, people decided that warding was a good thing (go figure...). Rammus cannot sneak up on people like he used to be able to do. Though a lot of people are counting him out completely, I don't want to just yet. I think Skarner is the new Rammus, so I would always play Skarner over Rammus, but Rammus could do the same type of things. Both champions use CC to gank their opponents and getting up close. In team fights, Rammus is going to roll into an enemy, CC them and start the fight on that enemy, in team fights, Skarner is going to flash, Shuryla, etc. into an enemy champion and drag them backwards. Both champions require speed to initiate on one target. The difference here is that Skarner drags them back into safety (for him) where as Rammus is forward, alone with the team running to catch up. Rammus has his uses, but Skarner has the same uses, but better.

Both of these champions are great for single target take downs and so if you have a sniper team, these champions might help you snag those kills. 

Warwick is also a jungle sniper because his ultimate is useful for focusing one enemy champion down and turning the fight into a 5v4 quickly.

I don't like Shaco at all. Sure he is a great ganker early on. Sure he does medium-high damage during ganks. Sure he is annoying as hell and reduces your team's aggression in half. But Shaco is still squishy, he still is vulnerable when he is alone, and he is always able to be seen by the orange puff of smoke or by good ward coverage. He also hits a brick wall late game and cannot do that amount of damage, CC, support that any other jungle would be able to do in a team fight. A good team can shut down Shaco early and make him useless for late game.

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

I think that Shyvana and Dr. Mundo are pretty much the same person, at least early game. Both of them have an aoe that does damage, good at chasing champions down, fast movement speed, and decent counter jungling. I recommend these picks if the enemy has a slow/weak jungler, i.e. mumu, nautilus, maokai. The three junglers I just named all start blue buff in the jungle (almost always) and clear that side slow and walk slowing to their red side of the jungle. This gives a large window open to counter jungle and take the red side before you clear your side. 

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

I have been playing a lot of Trundle recently. He has his own catagory of jungler. If Anivia was also a jungler, she would be in the same catagory. I called it the Splitter-Catagory. Obviously the reason is that he has an ability that can 'split' then enemy team. Do not underestimate how powerful this kind of champion can be. The biggest thing you have to make sure you do when you have one of these champions on your team is to make sure you fight on terrain where you can split the team in half, this primarily includes chokes. Engage the enemy team, pillar of filth in the middle of their team, take out half of the enemies and then afterwards take objectives (i.e. baron, dragon, towers, etc.) or take out the remainder of their team.


The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

The Gankers:

Maokai, Nautilus, Alistar, Jax, Xin Zhao, Riven, Shen, Hecarim. Thes champions all excel at quick devastating ganks. Maokai roots the enemy down and keeps them there while your team deals the damage, Nautilus can pull, stun, and slow. Alistar can headbutt and pop up, Jax can jump to the target and stun them, and xin can jump to the target and pop them up. Riven can dash-stun, and Shen can dash-taunt. Shen is also the ultimate counter-ganker. Hecarim can charge with high movement speed and knock back enemies. These guys are all the heavy gankers. They can close the distance between themselves at the target and do a lot of damage/CC for team mates to take the kills.


However Nautilus, Maokai, and Alistar all also belong in the CC group (along with Cho'Gath and Amumu). This group is for champions who do a lot of crowd control, i.e. stuns, slows, snares, etc. This is particular important in team fights. You know these guys and what they can do, but basically they hold the enemy team in place to take them out.


The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.


I don't really know how to categorize the rest of these champions.


Lee Sin and Udyr. Your probably wondering why Lee Sin isn't in the Gankers catagory seeing as he can dash. Well I think him and Udyr need their own catagory of...


The Mobiles:


Lee sin can dash all around a battlefield and slow or knockback some (or all) of the enemies while doing a decent amount of damage. Udyr moves very quickly and is very tanky. He does AOE magic damage and can stun a lot of champions by focusing them one at a time with bear stance. These guys stop the kiting and move around the field of battle with speed and damage. I think these two junglers are extremely powerful and are in the top five junglers group. 


These two junglers are also very flexible so they can be used in many different situations and with different team compositions. 


This basically sums up my analysis of the Junglers for right now. Feel free to comment with questions or commments and I will try to answer your questions.


Enjoy,


Jacksonecac