This guide is mainly meant for people who are below 30 level and want to start jungling. It will be mostly regarding which champions should you use and which jungle routes, runes setups, masteries, and item builds are most viable for them. The guide will be divided into the parts for specific summoner’s levels.

Unfortunately jungling before level 20 is very hard, considering how much damage monsters do at early levels. If you really want to start jungling that early (which isn’t bad by any means) you have to pick specific champions which have very high sustain. For example, you won’t be able to perform with Jarvan IV, because you will die on first clear.

Champions and their jungle routes

The go to champions are: Warwick, Xin Zhao, and Rek Sai. Warwick’s Q and passive are one of the best sustain abilities which junglers could have in the game. The best route is to start on the bottom of the map and do as much camps as you can before backing. Warwick is highly dependent on ultimate while ganking, so your preferred play style is to farm till 6th level, gank using your most powerful ability and then clear jungle untill it’s up again. Xin Zhao is more of an early game jungler. His sustain is focused on his W’s passive. He can gank pre 6 with ease, because of 2 crowd control abilities. The 3rd option is Rek Sai. Her sustain is based on burrowing after every camp while travelling to next one. In my opinion she is the most interesting pick of these three and I would recommend her the most. Your preferred start on Xin/Rek Sai would be bottom side camp (Krugs/Gromp) than buff and next buff. If you want to have more pressure from the start, pick Xin/Rek Sai, if you want to scale better pick Warwick.

Runes and Masteries

You shouldn’t buy any runes until the 3rd tier will be available, for masteries I would go 9 in defense first and then attack speed/attack damage.

Item Builds

For Warwick and Xin Zhao I prefer rushing Devourer enchant with blue/red smite. After that build Blade of the Ruined King. If you are playing Rek Sai you should get red/blue smite with Cinderhulk and get Black Cleaver as soon as possible. Next thing you should focus on are boots, if they have much CC/AP get Mercury’s Treads, if most of their champions are AD/auto attack reliant you should buy Ninja Tabi . Next you should think about tanky items. Consider the main threat of the enemies and buy accordingly to it. Every game is different so there is no best possible item build. You have to adapt to what enemies are building.

Tips and Tricks

Xin Zhao’s Q lowers all other ability cooldowns by 1 second, so when you are clearing the jungle be sure you use W and E first. Also remember that your R (knockback) doesn’t affect target which your passive is on (the last one you attacked or used E on) . The next thing about the Xin Zhao’s ultimate is that it deals % damage of actual health, so it’s most useful used early in the fight.

As Rek Sai remember to be burrowed while moving. Also build up tunnels which will you allow to travel as fast as possible. If you are fighting tank remember to stack 100 Fury before using E to deal true damage, it’s not that important against squishy targets. It’s better to un burrow manually (suing W) then by right-clicking. Sometimes doing so, you will be able to knock up enemies faster.

What is the change on 20th Level that is so important that there is whole own part about it? The 3rd Tier runes are available. Without them many champions have problems with 1st clear. That’s why before this moment you had to use very specific champions.

Champions and their jungle routes

Basically after buying runes you can try any champion. The routes are dependent on what the strengths of the hero are, but most of the time you will go Krugs/Gromp -> Buff -> Buff or Krugs/Gromp -> Buff -> Wolves/Raptors. If you are playing devourer/farm junglers you should do full clear, killing scuttle crabs in the meantime.

Runes and Masteries

I would recommend these runes setups :

AD->3x Quint of AD, 9x Seal of Armor, 9x Mark of AD, 6x Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, 3x Glyph of MR -> Wukong, Lee Sin, Kha'Zix,Pantheon, Rammus, Rengar, Olaf.

AS->3x Quint of AS, 9x Seal of Armor, 9x Mark of AD, 6x Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, 3x Glyph of MR -> Nocturne, Xin Zhao, Jarvan, Shyvana, Udyr, Warwick, Vi, Kayle, Master Yi, Rek'Sai.

AP->3x Quint of AP, 9x Seal of Armor, 9x Mark of AS, 6x Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, 3x Glyph of MR -> Nunu, Amumu, Fiddlesticks, Maokai, Zac, Nidalee, Evelynn, Elise, Gragas.

These are basic setups, there are better options for specific champions, but overall these are the most universal ones.

As for masteries and more specific runes, I would check pro players op.ggs (ie. Azingy's)

Item Builds

Basically on most of the champions you rush jungle item with enchantment. If you aren’t sure which one do you want to build check some guides specific for the champions. Next you build one damage item or go straight into tank items.

Tips and Tricks

Try to smite Crimson Raptor for Razor Sharp. With this buff you are assured when do you step on ward and when you are safe. Try to get it before ganking so you will be sure your time won’t be wasted by standing in the warded bush for too long.

If you are using purple smite and you are ganking, you can smite minions to kill them, so they won’t do damage to you/your allies. While you are fighting in jungle you can always use it on monsters and heal for small amount which may result in the outcome of the fight.

Change your trinket to red on the first back and remember to upgrade it as soon as you get 9th level. This item is very gold efficient and it is even more important if in the enemy team is champion with stealth. You can use Oracle’s Lens to see him.

Buy Wards. The fastest you get habit of buying them the better for you. Always have pink (Vision Ward) on the map and on every back buy at least 1 Sight Ward.

Using F-keys (F2 etc.) to see what your allies are doing is very important. If you want to get back to your champion just click spacebar.

While you use TAB to see scoreboard you can change the order of the champions. You can have enemy jungler in the same line as yourself. It also affects F-keys.

Remember the spawn timers: Camps 1 min 40 sec , Buffs 5 mins , Dragons 6 mins, Barons, 7 mins (1st spawn at 20:00)

Scuttle Crabs spawn every 3 minutes after being killed. They grant vision for 1 minute 15 seconds.

Conclusion

These tips should help you to get into jungling. If you have any question just write in comments or PM me. Also remember that it’s worth to watch pro players/tournaments to see how the best guys do everything.

All images are taken from lol wikia.

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!