In League of Legends, a jungler's key role is to be able to apply or relieve pressure. This is done through various means, namely warding (to relieve pressure), invading (to apply or relieve pressure), and neutral objective control (to apply pressure). This is also done through ganking or counterganking to apply pressure directly to a lane and the enemy jungler. In this article, we'll be looking at specific questions that you'll want to ask yourself as a jungler before you go in for a gank.

1. What summoner spells are available for both sides?

When looking to gank, this is a major question that you'll need to ask. Ask your teammates if the enemy laner has burnt their escape summoners. If so, the lane is more susceptible to a gank that can lead to a kill. Even if the enemy laner hasn't burnt any summoner spells, take into account what spells they DO have. If they're running Ghost, it's a bit easier to gank them than if they were running Flash. Some champion's also tend to completely forego escape summoners and run something like Ignite + Teleport or Exhaust + Teleport. These laners are also fairly easy to gank (though these pairs of summoner spells are normally used on champion's that have their own methods of escape).

You'll also want to take into account your own teammates summoner spells. If your teammate has ignite, you have more kill pressure in the lane and need to take that into account when you're ganking. If your teammate's flash is still available, you can have them flash initiate on a target to have your gank have a higher likelihood at succeeding.

2. What methods of crowd control do you have between your laner and yourself?

This is critical. If you're a champion who provides very little crowd control and this applies to your laner as well, it's generally a waste of time to try to force a gank in that lane unless the enemy laner is overextended. However, if your laner is a Maokai or an Annie (to give two examples of crowd control champions), you'll have a better chance at pulling off the gank even if the enemy laner isn't overextended at all.

3. Is the enemy laner overextended?

Simple question but something that a lot of junglers overlook. If the enemy laner is sitting underneath your tier 1 turret, it's much easier to pull off a gank than if they're sitting underneath their own turret with you waiting in a bush for them to overextend. Generally, you'll want to wait for an opportunity like that to even bother attempting to gank a lane rather than waiting around.

4. Is there a ward?

Ask your laner if there's a ward before you look to gank a lane. If they say that they don't know if the enemy laner has warded, it's incredibly risky to just attempt to go for a gank because you may be walking through vision. This can potentially lead to a countergank which could become disasterous for you. However, if you do know where the wards are or if you've cleared the vision (e.g. via pink ward, sweeper trinket, or oracles buff from raptors), then it's more safe to go for a gank somewhere. Generally though, if you've JUST spent an area, the laners nearest to you will most likely try to play a bit more safe so you'll have applied pressure by forcing them to play back.

5. Is it possible that you'll be counterganked? If it were suddenly a 2v2, can you win the 2v2?

When ganking, there's a possibility that you may be counterganked whether it be through sheer misfortune or due to the enemy jungler seeing you through a ward. This is something that you'll need to take into account when attempting to go for a gank. There are a few things that you can do to ensure that you won't be counterganked, however.

First, you can figure out where the enemy jungler started. If the bottom lane comes late to their lane and the top lane is there when the minions meet, that generally means that the enemy jungler started bottom lane. With that information, you can then deduce that the enemy jungler will most likely be top side around 3:00-4:00 because they'll have cleared out their bottom side jungle by then. So, if they're an early game champion that plans on ganking, they'll look to gank either top lane or mid lane. If they start top side, they'll be botside around 3:00-4:00 and may look to gank mid or bottom lane. Second, you can place wards to see what jungle camps he's at or have recently cleared to figure out where he is and then plan your ganks accordingly to make sure you don't meet.

There are times that you'll actually want to force a 2v2 with the enemy jungler and the enemy laner. Normally, this is because you can come out on top due to how strong your two champions are in comparison to theirs (e.g. AP Kog'Maw + Lee Sin vs Syndra + Rek'Sai). In that matchup, Syndra + Rek'Sai should decimate the enemy duo. If you do successfully countergank the enemy jungler, this sets behind the enemy jungler significantly.

6. Is it worth ganking or should you keep farming?

Quite often, your time is better spent going for farm and gaining a lead on the enemy jungler through farm and experience. If the gank isn't a guaranteed success (e.g. if they have flash/you don't have cc/they're not overextended), you should just focus on farming instead. Don't waste a lot of time (e.g. 20-30 seconds) trying to force a gank. You can look for a gank and, if it doesn't pan out quickly, just go back into your jungle and farm instead.

Thanks for reading!

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