In lower elo, the jungle can be a complicated place, your team relies on you for lane pressure, objective control and information. It is a difficult position to play. Some players think all they have to do is focus on ganking. This makes the job easier for the enemy jungler. So I'll be examining what I believe are the most common mistakes for Junglers: jungle pathing, ganking and the effective use of smite. So if you have any problems at all with these, then buckle up for a look into the jungle.

(image courtesy of Narishm.deviantart.com)

Jungle pathing is a pretty complicated thing to learn. Some junglers can stay in Jungle longer than others due to their own innate tankyness or some form of sustain, like fiddlesticks with his drain. However others would only be able to clear a few camps before backing. Being careful is very important in the jungle because you never know when you are going to get counter-jungled. The most common and easiest way to clear the jungle seen in solo queue is starting at your bot lane, smiting the creep (frog or golems) and then going for your closest buff.

After that you go to your next buff being either your red or blue depending on where you start. In order to have vision and to attempt a successful gank it is wise to use a smite charge on the razor beaks in order to make use of its ward clearing buff. Sometimes the enemy jungler can come in to gank while you back, to prevent this you should try to get the scuttle crab both for extra gold and for the vision that it gives to your laners.

(photo and information courtesy of leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Smite)

Smiting has changed a lot in League of Legends since the start of season five. Every camp gives you buffs and there are two charges on smite making it easier to use. One common mistake junglers make is using smite incorrectly, as well as using the wrong form of smite for certain champions. There are many champions who are great at ganking, especially early, making chilling smite your best choice since it makes the enemy slower and you faster. Champions with poor jungle clear would benefit more from using the blasting smite from Rangers Trailblaser.

Challenging smite is better for dueling junglers because it basically lets them do more damage than they otherwise could. Then there’s poaching smite and it is mostly only good on champions who are good at counter jungling like Nunu. Now the next important part is knowing when to use smite. If you are going for a gank and you know ahead of time then you probably should not waste your chilling smite on something like the scuttle crab. In fact, in the mid to late game the only camps you should be using smite on are the raptors and gromp, maybe wolves too but only if you want vision on the enemy jungle.

Gromp is very good when you are playing a tank jungler, so be sure to try having it as much as possible when going into a fight. The raptor buff is very important for clearing wards and getting your team ahead in vision control. Most of the other buff is not very important at that point and are usually situational, like wolves. Another important thing to keep in mind is that as the sole champion with smite, your team depends on you when securing dragon/baron. If you lose the smite war then it sucks but don’t be discouraged, just try to remember how much damage your smite does and how much life your objective has.

However, if you lose the smite war because you smited wolves while the enemy was baiting a possible baron then that is pretty careless and might cost you baron. So remember, smite is important and shouldn't be used carelessly.

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Now for one of a jungler's most important duties, ganking. It can be pretty difficult at times. However, in the lower divisions it is fairly simple if you know what you are looking for. When you recall press tab to see your enemy’s items; that will tell you most of what you need to know. Do they have wards? You can't always trust this information because they might have used it while in fog of war but it is simple enough to keep track of this.

If your teammate tells you "Hey, so and so dropped his trinket in the river" then you know the trinket will last 30 seconds and after that he might get careless while having no vision, leading to an easy gank. Another thing, just because someone has the river warded does not mean you shouldn't gank them. At times they might be using champions without dashes/escapes and be pushing way too hard. This is called overextending. Even if they have vision, at times it might be too late, leading to at least them having to blow an important summoner spell like flash.

Always keep track of flashes when you are jungling because this means you have a five minute window to secure a kill on a vulnerable enemy. If they get careless and overextend again then make sure to show them you aren't a pushover and you will gank them when they don't respect your presence. For example; Kog’maw and Varus have become popular in the mid lane lately, however, they are both very immobile and rely on things like their range and mobility spells to get by safely. If you gank them and take a mobility spell from them then your laner could freeze the lane away from them making it harder for them to farm, as well as making it easier for you to repeat gank them because they would have to move up ahead to not lose out on said farm.

Jungling can be difficult to learn to be good at but it is also a very rewarding position to have. Securing kills and objectives for your team while getting to roam all around the map placing wards and denying vision for the opponent. It all comes with the job and it is a job that your team will love you for doing so make sure to always try and do it the best you can.

Knowing how to stay healthy leads to being able to gank/countergank at any time so make sure your pathing is the best it could be. Making sure you use/save your smite leads to objective control and overall more pressure so make sure to always keep that in mind. Also remember, ganking isn't just walking into a lane and getting a kill on a low opponent because he has no wards up.

Always look for opportunities to gank because if not then your team will lose trust in you and the enemy team will know not to be afraid of you. It can even be something as simple as showing up to lane to let your teammate get cs when he is down. Learning to jungle can be difficult because it is very diverse and always changing in a Meta that requires you to adapt, however by learning the basics you can improve well enough to move up in the ranks and learn to no longer fear the jungle.