The start to a jungler’s game in League of Legends is important to how you can play the early game and how you are able to impact your team. This guide will go over multiple starting jungle paths and explain who can use these paths and why.
Jungling is a very intimidating role to newer players since there are many factors that go into jungling. Pathing is something that is one of the most confusing concepts to players since it changes every game due to the champions in the game and how the game is playing out. This guide will be going over the starting jungle paths junglers can do in League of Legends, how it can impact the game, and what champions are best at doing these paths.
Original Image taken from League of Legends Wiki
Description: This starting path is the most straightforward since you clear through your whole jungle. The 2 examples of this clear would be: Red Buff → Krugs → Raptors → Wolves → Blue Buff → Gromp, or Blue Buff → Gromp → Wolves → Raptors → Red Buff → Krugs. This path will get you level 4 by the end of the clear and is fairly safe since you are staying in your jungle and avoiding the other jungler.
Smite: You typically want to Smite either Krugs if you start Red Buff or Gromp if you start Gromp if you start Blue Buff. By using Smite at these times, your second charge of Smite should be up for either the next buff or Scuttle Crab if it is still up after you finish the clear.
Risk: A risk of this clear is the enemy jungler may have already ganked by the time you finished your full clear and you have less early pressure on the lanes. Another downside of this clear is you may not get a Scuttle Crab depending if the enemy jungler goes to it immediately on spawn.
Champions: Some junglers that would do this clear are Karthus, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, and Lillia. These are all champions that can either clear the jungle quickly or are trying to scale up in the safety of the jungle.
Some junglers can do different paths that are better suited for their kits and how they clear the jungle. In this section we will cover some interesting alternatives, along with the different Champions who can clear this path.
Description: This clear is like the previous clear, however you skip the final camp to get to Scuttle Crab. Securing Scuttle Crab can be crucial in some games since it gives your team control of part of the river, and it denies the enemy jungler from another camp.
Smite: You are also still using Smite on either Krugs or Gromp depending on which side you started, however you want to save your second charge of Smite for the Scuttle Crab since you need to be able to secure it for level 4
Risk: This clear is riskier compared to the full clear since there is a chance you would need to fight the other jungle and the lanes could come to the river and further the fight. Another risk of this clear is if you are unable to get the Scuttle Crab, then you may be late to the other Scuttle Crab which would put you 2 camps behind the other jungler. If you are doing this clear you want to be playing a champion that can skirmish and clear the jungle fairly quickly since you need to be able to get to the Scuttle Crab before it spawns.
Champions: Champions that can do this well are Olaf, Volibear, Kha’Zix, and Udyr. Most notably Udyr and Volibear have crowd control to remove the shield from Scuttle Crab which makes it much easier to clear. As for Olaf and Kha’Zix, they can Smite the Scuttle Crab to break the shield, but there is a risk of it getting stolen by the enemy jungler.
Description: This clear is one of the fastest ways to reach level 3 since you are taking the minimum number of camps possible. This clear also allows you to gank very quickly since it will give you level 3 and place you near either top or bot lane.
Smite: You want to use Smite on the last camp you are taking so you are healthy to gank a lane after finishing the path.
Risk: Some downsides to this clear are the camps you do not clear are going to be a lower level compared to the enemy’s camps and you are vulnerable to being counter-jungled since most of your camps are still up by the time you finish this clear. However, if you can get a successful gank off, then by the time you finish it will be soon to Scuttle Crab spawning and you can secure it.
Champions: Junglers that want an early snowball or are not good at clearing will do this clear. Some examples of these junglers are Elise, Lee Sin, Kindred, or Gragas. Kindred is particularly good at this, since it can allow her to get an early mark on her passive from the gank and you have a 50% chance of getting another mark on the Scuttle Crab.
Description: This clear is similar to the previous clear since it is another way to quickly reach level 3, however you are clearing camps with some smaller monsters. An example of this path would be Red Buff → Raptors → Wolves → Blue Buff. This path is more suited for champions with constant area of effect damage to quickly kill the camp.
Smite: You can either use Smite on your second camp or save it for the final camp depending on your health after taking the first buff. Particularly if Raptors are your second camp, then you can clear most of it quickly if you use Smite on it.
Risk: A potential downside of this clear is it takes an extra camp to get level 3 which means if you get invaded by the enemy jungler on your last camp, you may die or need to give up your buff.
Champions: Some champions that can do this clear are Amumu, Nunu & Willump, and Gragas. Nunu & Willump are exceptionally good at this clear since they can almost one-shot the raptors with their W – Biggest Snowball Ever! and Q – Consume.
Description: This path is another way to get level 3 quickly, but it is more focused on a single side of the map. The two paths that you could do are Red Buff → Krugs → Raptors or Blue Buff → Gromp → Wolves. This clear can be stronger when you are trying to snowball a specific lane, or you are trying to avoid the other side of the jungle.
Smite: You would use Smite on either the Krugs or Gromp since those camps take the longest out of the three camps you would be taking.
Risk: The downside of this clear is you ignore one side of your jungle, so you can be easily invaded and you may fall behind if you are unable to successfully execute the gank. You can try to plan around this invade by warding the side you are not starting or trying to see where the enemy jungler starts so you can see if they are able to invade.
Champions: You want to do this clear with champions that have strong ganking tools at level 3 such as Gragas, Rek’Sai, and Sejuani. Sejuani can be particularly good at this clear since if she has Red Buff and ganks a lane with a melee champion she can quickly stack her E – Permafrost. You typically want to gank for strong early game laners when doing this clear such as Renekton, LeBlanc, or Nautilus.
Description: This clear was extremely popular in Season 8 where junglers such as Camille and Xin Zhao would clear Red Buff and immediately gank. The clear can still work on champions such as Xin Zhao and Jarvan IV since upon reaching level 2 they will have access to their primary ganking abilities. While you could do Blue Buff into a gank, having Red Buff can make your gank more successful since you have slow and burn from Red Buff compared to mana regeneration and cooldown reduction from Blue Buff.
Smite: You do not need to Smite Red Buff, but if you want to be full health for your gank or get to the lane as soon as possible you can Smite the Red Buff.
Risk: This clear is a riskier version of the 2 Buffs and Gromp, and 2 Buffs, Wolves, and Raptors paths since you are relying more on getting a successful gank to quickly snowball and leaving an entire side of your jungle open to being invaded.
Champions: You want to be playing a champion that has strong crowd control and a gap closer at level 2 such as Gragas, Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV, and Poppy, While there are other champions that could have access to these ganking tools such as Zac and Vi, after the gank their clear becomes much slower compared to when they would take their standard abilities.
There are 2 champions that break some rules when it comes to starting jungle paths, Shaco and Ivern. Shaco relies on setting up his W – Jack in the Box to clear camps for him and can even have his W almost take the camps by themselves while he does another camp. Ivern has unconventional pathing since he uses his Passive – Friend of the Forest to mark camps and he releases them after a period passes. These are the 2 most notable junglers that have nonstandard clears and they do not follow the other starting paths the same as other junglers.
After reading this guide you should have a better understanding of starting jungle paths and what differentiates them from each other. Pathing is crucial to playing jungle and all the different paths can impact the game in different ways. Now it is time for you to use these jungle paths and dominate the Rift! Best of luck out there!
