New DIG Jungler, River, gives us his insights on how to be a dominant Solo-Queue Jungler. We cover picks, playstyles, mindset, and everything he thinks about when climbing the Solo-Queue ladder himself.
The official start of Season 12 is upon us! Starting on January 5th, things are going to get spicy for all us ranked grinders out there. And as a part of our efforts to get you all familiar with River, he’s stopped in with me to help cover his methods of demolishing the Solo-Queue ladder.
Without further ado, let's jump right into things with our first method:
The Preseason brought some adjustments to the Jungle, as we’ve covered before, and between these changes and the massive item overhaul that Tank Champions received, many theorized that we could be in for a rather beefy Jungle meta. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case. In fact, Bruiser Junglers are better than ever and still hold to the problems of packing as much damage as a carry with as much tankiness as, well, a Tank simply through itemization built around pieces like Sterak’s Gage or Goredrinker.
I think with the start of Season 12, and the changes they made to the Jungle, with early Crab being less important, duelist and gank heavy Junglers are really strong right now. I think these are the types of Champions you want to play when climbing since they give -you- the most ability to carry a game and do not rely on the skill of your teammates. Champions like Lee Sin or Xin Zhao come to mind. Always try and play what you feel strong with, but I do think there is a level where other Junglers begin to be less successful.
So, if you’re a tank Jungler enthusiast, don’t be fully convinced to abandon your ways. Champions like Zac, Sejuani, Jarvan, Nunu, and Rammus have excellent matchups in the current meta of dueling Junglers, and also have great success at playing towards these gank heavy playstyles that Champions like Xin play around. This is especially true within the Silver to Gold ELO brackets where games typically run long and one teamfight or pick can change the entire outcome of a game.
You might be the best Lee Sin in the business, but when the enemy team drafts highly evasive Champions and your allies draft no crowd-control to put them down, slipping in a pick like Sejuani or Amumu isn’t going to hurt your climbing efforts. Especially if you’ve got solid synergy/wombo across your team.
Naturally, Strongside vs. Weakside is a concept that evolves throughout the game, right? It’s all about who has numbers on what given side of the map. Strongside has the most numbers, while Weak Side has the least. But, when discussing Strong vs. Weak from the eyes of a Jungler you look less at the bodies that are present, and more at the tools you have at your disposal.
I think one of the biggest mistakes that Junglers can fall into is doing the same thing over and over. There is never a dedicated, ‘I clear from this side to this side’ type of thing in my head. Instead, I look towards what is available to me in terms of abilities and what Champion I am playing. If Top Lane has a lot of CC for me, then I’ll path that way and focus it to get ahead. If Bot Lane has the same, I’ll do that. I’ll put emphasis on the lanes that play towards me, and that way we establish trust throughout our game.
A simple but effective method to boosting your gank success towards your strongside is to simply communicate what you see as you are moving towards them throughout the early game. As simple as it seems, pings are the surest way to get you and your laners on the same page and giving them preemptive pings and time to react to you is going to give you more success.
At the start of every game, after you finish your lane assessment, utilize your ‘on the way’ pings to show your intended pathing, or type it in chat. Communicate to get your team in mind with you, and on your last camp before your gank or scuttle, chat or ping your intentions one last time. The duration of you clearing your final camp should be enough time to allow them to offer you feedback on if they can secure priority, are strong enough to fight, or their lack thereof can tune you in on their tunnel vision.
On the flip side of it all, you should be considering your opponent’s pathing as well. Assume that they’ll be feeding the same information to their team as mentioned above and consider if you’ve got the right pick in your hands or in your lanes to make a skirmish work out favorably. Ping the enemy Jungler’s expected start point, let your laners know if they’re a level 2 ganker or not, danger ping the angles that you believe they’ll come from, or the areas where you can’t match them. Drip information to your team throughout the early game to establish rapport.
A large mistake of Jungle play is assuming that your laners are actually paying attention to you. They’re more concerned about that cannon minion than they are concerned about your pathing, and it’s only your lack of presence that they’ll pay attention to. So, keep yourself present in their minds and keep them in your communication loop to help influence their play towards what you are able to bring to the early game.
Secure Deep Vision
This one should be an easy tip for all you Support-Jungle/Jungle-Support players out there, but securing deep vision and timers is a huge way to gain advantage of tempo in your games and can help you predict your opponent Jungler’s movements.
With a focus on dueling Champions, you can really play aggressively and enter into the enemy Jungle in many matchups. Dropping wards or seeing what camps are clear when you have nothing to do is going to give you small information as to where your enemy might be. This is just one small way to help improve your Jungle tracking.
And naturally, you want to know where the opposing Jungler is like 90% of the time. Knowing what camps, they’ve cleared can let you go into that information drip we mentioned above and ping out where and when they might show up to a certain spot, but it can also give you time to make a play you might otherwise have held off on due to lack of knowledge.
Solo-ing Dragon/Rift, opting for a dive play, or in worse individual matchups for you, counter-jungling, can all be risky maneuvers if you don’t have proper vision of your opponent’s Jungle. Sneaking a ward in even on exterior camps like Raptors or over the Blue-Gromp wall can provide you just enough information to make appropriate tempo-based moves.
Every play that your opponent tries to make, you should be looking for a way to counter-punch them. Even if the counter is small, it’s better that you get something rather than nothing. If you’re Top-side, and the enemy Lee is taking a long exchange down on a Bot gank, path into his Jungle and steal his camps. Make him waste his time should he move to this side of the map later or make it clear that he’s likely going to move right into a gank since you just took his farm. Even if he got a double kill from the Bot gank, removing income from his pockets is going to slow his snowball.
And that’s ultimately what the Jungle role is. It isn’t a baby-sitting role, it’s a macro-focused, punch/counterpunch role, and information and is key to controlling the outcome of the role since it’s so early to mid-game focused.
Regardless of the game state, one must always try. When you are ahead, more than likely, it is you and another person who are doing extremely well in the game. Punishing their lane opponents harder and getting your teammate out on the map should be your biggest priority. If both you and your fed teammate can move around the map together, you’re more likely to find situations where you can get the rest of your team ahead.
This point probably goes doubly so if it is your Bot Lane that is getting ahead. The Preseason has shaken out the die-hard tank meta that dominated Solo-Queue last season, and while hook focused Champions like Blitz and Nautilus are still faring well, Leona, Alistar, and Braum are suffering against the Mage and Enchanter domination that’s currently taking place. With both Mages, Enchanters, and Marksmen scaling extremely well into the game, on top of Dragon being on their side of the map, Bot Lane is one of the most tantalizing lanes to gank and start getting ahead.
A Marksmen’s lead taken across the map means:
On the opposite side of the map, Top Lane is probably your second-best lane to gank. With Bruisers still holding strong in meta positions there, the lane’s extreme volatility and near reliance on snowball has balanced the lane to be a matchup nightmare and a very all or nothing lane. And when Champions like Irelia, Sett, or Darius start taking it all, they start running a game over regardless of what is happening elsewhere on the map.
Additionally, Rift Herald is present and can be an excellent objective to secure to take tempo over the game. Utilized greatly as a snowballing piece for an already ahead lane, a tool to open the map up (especially when used on a weakened Mid), or as a distraction to make a play on the opposite of the map, Rift Herald’s value is extremely unrecognized as a tool for Junglers to take advantage of. At its absolute worst, it’s a catch up mechanic that can get your team plate or objective bounty gold if things start to go south.
Speaking of going south…
When playing from behind, I maintain the mindset of aggression. There’s no surer way to lose than to remain passive and let your opponent make plays on you. You can never come back if you don’t try, ya know? Look to make plays around your opponent’s mistakes. If they go for an aggressive play and they drop a Flash, that’s a chance for you. If they miss an ultimate or use a big dash ability, that’s a chance. Watching for drops in judgment and playing to punish them is going to be the way to come back in losing situations.
When all your lanes are losing, as a Jungle, it can feel somewhat impossible to find a way to steady a game state. Especially given that most Champions these days can easily 2v1 when they’re at an advantage, especially solo-laners. But, patience and tempo-play, as River mentioned, are key to stabilizing games.
Always look for the next opportunity. As he mentioned, if you blow a flash on a gank, but don’t get a kill. Prioritize that as your next play opportunity, take advantage of what you’ve been given. If you get a successful pick on one side of the map, and the enemy is on the other, evaluate if you can take the biggest objective near you. And most importantly, don’t chase, a single pick or two will not turn the entire game around. It might give you tempo, but small advantages into macro focused plays are going to be what pulls you out of gold deficits against fed opponents.
So, where does all that leave us?
There you have it! I hope these tips help you climb the ladder come the start of Season 12. Huge shoutout and welcome to River, we look forward to seeing what he and the team can do come Spring Split!
