Jungling Mindset and Decision-Making with Sheiden
Struggling to improve in the jungle? Learn with DIG Sheiden on improving your mindset and decision-making.
Jungling in League of Legends is a crossover between being on the edge of tilting off the face of the earth and juggling the constant changes that Riot Games tends to throw into the Jungle to spice things up. Seemingly minor changes adjusting how Junglers gain XP can change the viability of champions and how Junglers play the game. Entire Jungle items have changed drastically throughout the years, Ezreal has randomly shown up as a Jungler and had a World's skin nearly seven years ago. Perhaps you might recall the times where you as a Jungler are wanted by every laner to impact the map, but doing so would make you fall behind on camps or be physically impossible. Perhaps you shove in a lane, but your laner is upset that you reset the lane state.
Let’s just say there’s many, many grievances that a Jungler has to deal with, and with Jade “Sheiden” Libut, we’re going to give some solid advice on improving yourself as a Jungler and ways to avoid tilting and making the right decisions. Hopefully.
What Do We Do in the Current Metagame?
We asked Sheiden whether it is better to play comfort picks or pick a meta Champion. Here’s what he has to say.
Sheiden: “I think it doesn't really matter what Champ you play right now. Every game is kind of the same, you have to farm or you'll be screwed because XP matters too much. I think in this meta you really need to focus on farming well, fighting well, and grouping. I don't really think Champions matter right now, they have the same plan, there's no like spam gank champs only, everyone has to farm.”
Of course, there are nuances (we’re not responsible for if someone decides to roll into the Jungle with Soraka), but Sheiden’s point is that the Jungler role is incredibly centered around their access to XP. This has always been mostly the case throughout the history of Summoner’s Rift, but even more so in this metagame, where the ability to kind of mindlessly throw ganks until they work will set you too far behind your opponent. Instead, you should be playing around, full clearing your own Jungle, and punishing your opponent on their camps.
We’re not saying play Shaco or Nunu (although by all means, if that’s your comfort pick) and invade all game to take every XP from the enemy Jungler, but that taking individual camps and objectives can arguably be more valuable than potentially getting a kill. The most consistent thing about skilled Junglers is that they’re well aware of how fast they can clear relative to their opponent and knowing what the other player is likely doing. Use this information effectively, and you’ll be able to track what your opponent hasn’t cleared (a free opportunity to take their camps), what your gank and objective options are, and more importantly always consistently be on the curve of experience. If you think about it, a camp not taken on the map for simply hovering around a lane is a camp that isn’t respawning and losing access to XP, especially in the later stages of the game where your laners are starting to steal your Jungle camps. You really do not want to fall behind here.
So, in simpler terms. Farm well. You’ll have the level advantage, the item advantage, have way more breathing room because you have way more items and levels.
What Should Junglers Be Thinking About from the Start?
Sheiden: “Just think about where you're going to get priority. In solo queue, that's all you need to think about, it's very different in competitive, because you need to defend something, but in solo queue don't defend, just get priority. I mean in solo queue, you never know what's going to happen, you just have to assume what's supposed to happen. Most of the time it's just actually like what's supposed to happen is going to happen.”
Priority is basically how in control you are to do something on the map. For laners, it tends to be if you’ve shoved your opponent into the tower, and they are forced to pick between losing experience and doing something else on the map. For Junglers, it’s very much the same ballpark, but it is whether you can say take an objective or gank a lane while the enemy Jungler is still farming a camp or in an awkward position on the map.
Generally, this comes down to recognizing patterns and adapting to the correct decisions. You might think, what is the correct decision? Oftentimes, most of us don’t really know when we’re jungling. But as you play League more, you recognize things without really thinking about them. You’ll see that the time is 4:00 and the enemy Jungler is most likely in this spot, and you know you can steal a camp before they get there because your champion full cleared already. You’ll know when they most likely are ganking by the time they finish their camp or their typical Jungle pathing. You create priority for yourself by not only optimally pathing, but by understanding what your opponent cannot do.
Sheiden emphasizes adapting to situations and assuming what will happen is what most likely will happen, because oftentimes many Junglers will play optimally rather than be tricky. They tend to follow the same Jungle paths because it happens to be the fastest. They’ll sneak Dragon at certain times because it happens to be the most convenient for them. This also applies to laners, where knowing how a lane is likely to end up (especially understanding where your opponent typically will ward or push in) gives you that edge to adjust your own pathing. You break autopiloting as a Jungler by adapting your play to what you recognize as opportunities, making it seem like you always have priority because you’ve pathed towards it.
What Do Junglers Struggle with the Most?
Sheiden: “I think just fighting well, not knowing when to skip camps to gank or do something, not farming enough, and just getting beat because you try to do too many things and you lose something. Those four things are the biggest problems that happen a lot in solo queue. They try to do something when they can’t and just set themselves behind.”
We’re mostly repeating ourselves here, but I think this nugget of wisdom is quite valid. Sheiden is one of the best solo queue Junglers, hitting Rank 1 and 2 on the ladder in the past, being well regarded by many players. But we’ll go to the most important of the four. Doing things when you can’t.
Now, this is also one of those things that simply come from the previous explanation of pattern recognition. Good Junglers, or more accurately, good players simply know what they’re capable of and what the limits of their Champions are. Small things like Bel’Veth being an absurdly strong early invader due to her Q, or Shaco is lining up his boxes to clear camps fast. Small things that you can take advantage of, or knowlege that lets you play differently. A lot of the time, players will force a limit test, where they try to do something that is high risk, high reward, and requires some serious outplay to pull off. This often happens when you’re desperate or you’re on autopilot and simply don’t care enough.
We’re basically telling you to stop yourself for a second and break out of that autopilot mentality. Think before you make the decision, even if only for a second because that’s often how much time you’ll be given. Is your play the only thing you can do, and if not, what could you do with that time instead? Perhaps we might say simply to powerfarm and full clear and leave your top lane to the wolves. Sometimes that is the right play, even if your top laner might be breaking down from the pressure of Ghost Ignite Darius running them down.
Sheiden’s Number 1 Tip
Sheiden: “I think in solo queue, it's just games where like, in my opinion, you need to be full muted, ignore everyone, I think that increases your rank by a lot. You need to. Sometimes you just lose without being able to do anything, so you just have to take the loss, there's situations where you can't do anything. Number number one tip, play mute all, and play well for yourself.”
Full mute and send it, and you’ll surely break Emerald 1 to Diamond 4.
But more seriously, a good way to handle playing League and improving is focusing on yourself. There are times where communication with your team is stressful and pointless, and that may be a situation where you don’t need to be chatting with them outside of pings. In solo queue especially, the game isn’t incredibly reliant on verbal or typed communication, you’re often playing the game simply with pings.
There are also situations where games are entirely out of your control. Perhaps you have a top lane AP Shaco and your opponent did not fall for the funny box triangle trick, and he proceeds to do nothing. Maybe the enemy mid laner happens to be the pro player Knight and your mid laner is a mid-diamond Zed OTP who hasn’t played for months. Perhaps your bottom lane is playing Draven and their support took their kill. All of these are more often than not, out of your control. Your focus should be on what you could have done, but without stressing over it.
If you lose a game, go next. If you’re climbing the ladder, you’ll go through many games where things will be chaotic. Sometimes even your opponent surprises you with their pathing and you end up getting invaded early and losing your camps. Oftentimes that’s a situation where many Junglers will be very upset, and that’s probably where you’ll want to full mute as Sheiden suggests.
Sheiden also mentions that you can’t control the actions of other players. Don’t bother trying to tell them what they should be doing, especially if something has already happened. Your goal is your own improvement, and especially since you’re not in a professional competitive environment where you play with the same players every game, it is not something that will help you improve.
Conclusion
While certain things may not have made it into our discussion, we’d like to end it on a positive note. Another nugget of wisdom about playing in high level solo queue.
Sheiden: “Yeah, I think there's pro players or some players that have like patterns, I think some players just don't care and always push and don't respect ganks and don't ward. I think a lot of players have that in solo queue and playing a lot of solo queue you'll know who will do that, and you'll see.”
Perhaps with this knowledge, you’ll be able to reach the peaks of the solo queue ladder, and experience the same as many high elo players like Sheiden. But you can also take it into your own play, where there may be thousands of players you’ll run into, but oftentimes many of them make similar mistakes or do the same things. Even pro players can autopilot or follow routines that you can punish. All it takes is adapting to the situation, and playing thoughtfully.
If you would like to follow Sheiden, check out his socials at:
