The Jungler is probably the MOST challenging
role to play in Mobile Legends. Apart from being responsible for securing important
objectives, the Jungler has to manage farming, protect his Jungle from invaders, AND still
find time to support his team with ganks. So in this video, I will be revealing to you clear
and easy strategies that even someone new to the role can apply, including what you should be doing
at different stages of the game, so that you can become an effective and game-winning Jungler!
So what exactly is a Jungler in Mobile Legends? Well, a Jungler is basically the player in a team
with the Retribution (Retri) Battle Spell. When a player has the Retribution spell, he is restricted
to only farming the Jungle during the first 5 minutes of the game. This is due to the fact that
he will receive reduced Gold and Experience when he farms lane minions during the first 5 minutes.
This makes the Jungler unique, as he is rarely present in the lanes compared to the
4 other roles. To compensate for this, the Jungler is awarded bonuses when farming
the Jungle during the first 5 minutes of the game. This is why it is important for you
to understand the bonuses you have when you equip Retribution. Having the Retribution
spell provides you with 4 Passive effects. The first effect grants you 60% extra
rewards when you kill Jungle Monsters, which basically means you gain bonus Gold
and Experience compared to other heroes without Retribution when farming Jungle Monsters.
The second effect reduces the damage you take from Basic Monsters by 40%. Basic Monsters are simply
any Jungle Monster that is not the Turtle or Lord. The third effect is only active for the first 2
minutes of the game, and will further reduce the damage taken from Jungle Monsters on your own side
of the map by an additional 15%. This means you will have a 55% damage reduction from Monsters
in your own Jungle during the first 2 minutes. In exchange for these bonus effects on Jungle
Monsters, during the first 5 minutes of the game, the Jungler will only receive 50% of rewards from
minions in lane, if no other teammates are nearby. If teammates are nearby, the Jungler will not
receive any minion rewards in lanes. Basically, this means that you should avoid being in lanes
and killing enemy minions. The only time you should be doing this is if you’re passing by and
want to help your teammate clear their minion wave faster, or if your ally was just killed,
and the waves are already pushing the turret. These 4 effects are granted regardless of
the number of Retribution Stacks you have. Now wait, what are Retribution Stacks?
Basically, all Junglers will start the game with 0 Retribution stacks and will
be at Stage 1 of Retribution. Each time you slay a Jungle Monster, you will gain 1
Retribution Stack. Each Retribution Stack does not give additional bonuses by themselves,
but will award bonuses when you unlock the next stage by getting the necessary amount of Stacks.
Stage 2 of Retribution unlocks at 5 Retribution Stacks. At Stage 2, your Retribution
Spell damage will be increased by 50%. Furthermore, you will also unlock the Retribution
Blessing that you have chosen when you bought your Jungling Boots at the start of the game.
The chosen Blessing has different effects when cast on an enemy hero.
The options are: Ice Retribution: which slows the target hero, and
also speeds yourself up when cast for 4 seconds. Flame Retribution: which reduces a target
hero’s Physical Attack and Magic Power, while increasing your own for 4 seconds.
And Bloody Retribution: which deals burning damage to the target hero for 4 seconds.
For beginners, I will generally just recommend Ice Retribution, since it’s the easiest to gain the
maximum benefit from its effect. It is useful for escaping, and also for chasing enemies down. Flame
Retribution is mostly useful to heroes who rely on bursting the enemy, as it can increase their
damage by stealing the enemy’s damage stats for a short time window. Bloody Retribution’s damage
scales with your own extra HP stats, so it’s most optimized for Tank Junglers who have plenty of
HP items to increase the damage of this spell. At 15 Retribution Stacks, you will
achieve Stage 3 of Retribution, which simply gives you a bonus of 10 Physical
Attack and Magic Power, and also 100 additional HP. Although the numbers are pretty small, which
means it isn’t too important to remember this, it’s still something extra and nice to have.
It is important to know that you should have the Jungling Boots as part of your items throughout
the game. If you do not have, or sell the Boots, you will lose the 50% damage increase to your
Retribution Spell, which puts you at a great disadvantage when trying to secure objectives. You
will also lose the Blessing effect, such as Ice Retribution, if you do not have Jungling Boots.
Furthermore, having Jungling Boots grants you a passive that deals extra True Damage to
Jungle Monsters, which helps you to clear Jungle Monsters much faster. This is why
Junglers must always have Boots as part of their items all throughout the game.
You should also know that Retribution has a 35 seconds cooldown. So it is crucial
that you optimize how you use it. I will cover Retribution usage in more detail
later on in the guide, so stay tuned. So why is it important to have a Jungler in the
team? Well essentially, having a Jungler in a team will help to maximize resource efficiency
in the team. What exactly do I mean by that? In Mobile Legends, the map is split into 3 lanes.
A team can gain resources by farming lane minions. However, the amount of resources given to each
lane are fixed, and there are 5 players in each team to split these resources to. If all 5
players are in the lanes, the lane resources will have to be divided amongst all 5 of them.
This would be efficient if there were no other resources to gain elsewhere. But, in between
the 3 lanes exists the Jungle area. These areas contain Jungle Monsters which are neutral
resources that can be slain by any player on either team for EXP and Gold. If a player on the
team can focus on farming these areas instead, lane resources can then be split to 4 players,
which increases their share of EXP and Gold. Normally, there will also be a Roamer, which
allows the split to be among 3 players. As explained earlier, a Jungler with Retribution
will have bonuses when farming in the Jungle, which helps him farm these Monsters
efficiently. This makes it very resource efficient to have a Jungler in any team.
Not having a Jungler in a team, basically handicaps that team in terms of resource gain,
especially during the early and mid game. Now that we know the importance of having
a Jungler in the team, let’s highlight what a Jungler is supposed to do.
While there is a large variety of heroes that can play the Jungler role, the main
responsibilities of any Jungler remain the same. Number 1, the Jungler is in charge of securing
major neutral objectives, which are the Turtle and Lord. The Retribution spell has instant
and high burst damage to Jungle Monsters, including the Turtle and Lord, which
is why the Jungler is crucial when it comes to securing these objectives. Getting the
Turtle or Lord are important to winning games, as they provide rewards to your entire team when
secured. This is especially true for the Lord, as it will spawn stronger minions in
all lanes which gives your team stronger pushing power to help take down enemy Turrets.
Number 2, the Jungler is in charge of farming his own Jungle, and if possible deny the
enemy’s Jungle. As Jungle Monsters are all neutral resources, meaning it is available to
both allies and enemies to farm, the Jungler is in a race against the opposing Jungler to grab as
much off the map as possible throughout the game, especially during the early to mid phases
Ensuring your own Jungle Monsters are cleared, means that the enemies will not have access
to those resources. The effect is doubled if you steal away their Monsters,
as not only are you gaining farm, but are also denying it away from the enemy.
Number 3, the Jungler is in charge of rotating to the lanes to assist his team with ganks. Since the
Jungler is not restricted to farming lane minions, he is able to move around the map while clearing
his Jungle. This gives the Jungler access to all 3 lanes, which provides opportunities for ganking.
Ganking enemies will help to increase pressure on the enemies, giving the advantage to the allies
that you helped in that lane, or at least relieves some pressure on them if they were losing.
Actually most players would already know these 3 things, but it’s balancing all
3 tasks and doing the right thing at the right time that makes Jungling the most
difficult role to play. Don’t worry though, I will try to give you as much information I
can throughout this guide to help you with this. Now there are primarily 2 categories of Junglers
that sit on opposite ends in terms of what they can do. The first are the Damage Junglers.
Damage Junglers are usually Heroes whose damage scales well with resources.
Typically Assassins are favored in this role due to their high mobility, such
as Ling, Hayabusa, Nolan, and Fanny. However, you can also play non-Assassin Heroes as Damage
Junglers, such as Granger, Lunox and Dyrroth. Damage Junglers are highly valued for their strong
damage output, which gives them great snowball potential. However, as they are not so durable,
they can be prone to early game invades by enemies who are aware of this. They also tend to find it
more difficult in the later phases of a game when teams start to group up more, as Damage Junglers
are squishy and can be bursted quite easily. Usually, Assassins are picked more often as
Damage Junglers due to their high mobility. They can usually rotate quicker compared
to most other heroes. This allows them to split-push very effectively, present a solo-kill
threat, and also steal objectives when necessary. The second category of Junglers are the
Utility Junglers. They are typically Tank or Fighter heroes that provide plenty of utility
to their team, as their name suggests. Examples of Utility Junglers are Akai, Fredrinn, Barats,
and Grock. These types of Junglers are valued for their ability to provide support for their
team, and also for their control over the neutral objective area during contests. However, because
they usually don’t have high damage scaling, they are more reliant on their team
when it comes to dealing damage. Despite the fact that I have laid out 2 clear
categories, there are heroes that lie in between these 2 types. A great example is Martis, who
usually starts off as a Damage Jungler during the early to mid phases of the game, but can
transition into a damage-utility hybrid by the end of the game by going with a defensive build.
Guinevere is another example, who has great early game scaling and can be classed as a Damage
Jungler, but can also run a defensive build and make use of her excellent crowd control
abilities to become a damage-utility hybrid. There’s not really a best type of Jungler, as
all of them are really effective in what they do. So the best one will be the Hero that fits
in with the team composition. The most important thing to understand is what your role in the
team really is, and who your team’s carry is. For example, picking up a Tank Jungler like Akai
or Barats means that you’re not the team’s carry, and your role is to provide support so
that resources can be allocated to your team’s damage dealers. However, if you pick up an
Assassin like Ling or Nolan, you are the team’s carry and you will need to focus on getting
as much resources so you can carry the team. Therefore, picking up the right type of
Jungler for the right type of situation is crucial. If your team already has
a Freya EXP and Beatrix Gold Lane, picking up a hero like Nolan isn’t as effective
as something like a Fredrinn or Akai who can help the damage dealers frontline and peel.
I would recommend to beginners that you should start by mastering 1 Hero first and make sure
you understand that Hero deeply. You should try to understand your Heroes’ strengths and
weaknesses very well, such as their counters, their power spikes, and their best item
combinations. Once you have mastered one Hero, you can move on to more Heroes and expand your
Hero pool. I would recommend at least mastering 2 Heroes for each type of Jungler, so that
you are able to adjust and react to any draft. As you expand your Hero pool, you should keep up
to date with the meta and learn which Heroes are stronger. While most Heroes will work in lower
ranks, certain Heroes have more weaknesses or are easily countered, and will eventually face
difficulties in higher ranks when enemies are more knowledgeable in the game and know how
to counter. Using a Hero that is harder to counter and stronger will usually give you
better results if your aim is to gain ranks. I will be trying to cover what’s meta
in Mobile Legends as often as I can, so make sure to Subscribe to my Channel if
you want to pick up the strongest Heroes. Now we have the fundamental concepts out of the
way, let’s start with how we play the Early game. The early game phase begins right from
the start of the Draft until around the 5 minutes mark of the game. The draft is highly
important as this is the point where we can already start planning what we’re going to do,
especially in the first 2 minutes of the game. We can use the little map here at the bottom right
of the screen to check out what the positions of things are for that particular game. What we
want to note is the position of the EXP and Gold Lanes. Remember, the first Turtle will
always spawn on the side of the EXP Lane. This is because we want to have an idea of
which lane we’d like to path to and gank first. The first ganking lane is what every
Jungler should think of before a game starts. This will affect how you will rotate in the
Jungle for the first 2 minutes of the game. The average Jungler will default to just ganking
Gold Lane, because that’s what they’ve seen most other Junglers do. But I’d like you to think
more deeply about this. The choice of which lane to path to can be a very complex choice as many
factors play into what makes the “right” decision. Now these are some of the fundamental
questions that I ask myself while making that decision when I’m playing Jungle.
The first question is whether to gank Gold or EXP lane first. Whichever lane
you gank first will help to give your ally more lane control over the opposing laner.
Gold Laners are typically heroes that are weak early, but have high damage scaling with farm. So
the main advantage of helping your Gold Laner gain lane control, is to help them scale faster,
while slowing the enemy’s Gold Laner down. It can be very scary if a Gold Laner gets fed
early, as that can be an unstoppable snowball in the hands of a solid Gold Lane player.
However, the EXP Lane is actually a great lane to gank first. EXP Laners tend to be
heroes that perform best in the early to mid phases. By allowing them to gain lane control,
you can free them from laning responsibilities and assist your team with other tasks, such
as invading or teamfighting for objectives. As the first Turtle always spawns at the EXP
Lane, both team’s EXP Laners play a huge part in the first Turtle contest. Successfully ganking
that lane first means that your team will gain a huge advantage over the Turtle contest,
and could start the snowball for your team. The next question to ask is which Buff is more
important? Currently, Buffs stay active for 75 seconds after you slay the Buff Monster,
which usually means only the second Buff that you take will still be active for the first Turtle
contest. For example, if you start with Orange and do Purple second, you will only have the Purple
Buff still active during the first Turtle fight. This is important, especially for mana-hungry
and energy-hungry heroes who require the Purple Buff to keep fighting. Examples of such
heroes are Ling, Fanny, Alice or Roger, who are reliant on the Purple Buff to
sustain their mana or energy hungry kits. However, if your strategy is to gank
or invade at level 2 with such heroes, you can even take the Purple Buff early
to do this to great effect. I know plenty of Fanny players that take Purple first so
they can invade the enemy Jungle at Level 2. Heroes that are not Purple Buff reliant may
find it more advantageous to keep the Orange Buff active for the first Turtle fight, as
the Orange Buff provides extra damage and slow effects to their attacks. This is very effective,
especially for melee heroes that can use the slow effect to maintain their range on enemies.
The third question I ask myself is which lane is the easiest to gank? While the Gold Lane seems
like an obvious answer for most people, since the Gold Laner is usually a squishy Marksman hero,
I’d ask you to think a little more about this. While it is true that most Gold Laners are
easier-to-kill squishy targets compared to EXP Laners, this may not always lead to a successful
gank. At least in the current meta, there has always been heavy attention placed on the Gold
Lane, which means that the enemy Roamer will most likely be there to protect his Gold Laner, and
the enemy Mid Laner also tends to rotate there. Furthermore, smart Gold Laners, especially
those who have watched my Gold Lane guide, will know how to position safely and be
expecting your gank. This makes the seemingly easy task to gank Gold Lane, not that easy at all.
On the other hand, EXP Laners are usually melee heroes, and will have to walk up to lane minions
to farm for the most part, and EXP Lane players also tend to be more aggressive in their approach.
This typically leads to them trading HP often, and having lower health by the time you rotate
to their lane. This usually allows for an easier ganking opportunity compared to the Gold Lane.
Make sure to take note of what Battle Spells both of these laners take during the loading
screen. This will also affect how easy that lane can be ganked. For example, if you’re playing
Guinevere Jungle, and the Gold Laner has Inspire, while the EXP Laner has Purify, it is likely
that you’ll find the Gold Laner easier to gank. Since Guinevere relies on her crowd control to be
successful in her gank, Purify on the EXP Laner is an easy counter to your kit, while the Gold Laner
will most likely die if you land your skills. There are a million more factors that can
affect what makes the right lane to gank first, but these are 3 factors that I believe are enough
consideration for you to pick your early path. In my opinion, it’s usually best to gank the lane
where you will have the best chance of success, whether or not it’s Gold or EXP. Snowballing
is really important in Mobile Legends, and I find it’s the best way to
increase our chances of winning. If you’re experienced enough, you should also
identify invade potential during the drafting phase. Negative invade potential means that
your team line-up is prone to being invaded, while positive invade potential means
your team has a strong invading line-up. When it comes to the early phases, the Roamers
and Mid Laners are usually the ones to help to protect, or invade the Jungle. Sometimes, the
EXP Laners may get involved, but this is less common in Solo Queue and lower ranks, where EXP
Laners tend to just stick to their lanes. So make sure to pay extra attention to the Roamer,
Mid Lane and Jungle picks during the draft. For example, suppose you’re playing Alice as
a Jungler, and your team picks Cecilion as the mid laner, and Natalia as the Roamer. Now imagine
the enemy team is playing Barats as the Jungler, Valir as the mid laner, and Tigreal as the roamer.
This is a case of huge negative invade potential. Alice only unlocks her full kit at level
4, while Cecilion is a hero who only excels after he gets enough farm and stacks.
Natalia is not built to defend against invaders and works better as an invader herself.
Meanwhile, the enemy has 3 really strong early game heroes who can easily invade your Jungle.
When your team has negative invade potential, you should prepare your team to defend your
Jungle in the early game by signaling for help, and hopefully they will help
you out when the enemy invades. Otherwise, you will just have to try and do
your best to find farm elsewhere. Some games are simply a lost cause due to poor drafting
such as this, as the early game invading snowball may be too difficult to overcome.
This is hard to prevent in Solo-Q, but much easier to do when you’re playing in a squad.
On the flip side, if your team’s draft is good for invading, you should try to
use signals or inform your teammates early of your intentions so they can prepare.
Once the game starts, you immediately should start with your Jungle path. Optimal Jungle clear paths
vary from patch to patch, so I will not cover it here in detail. Instead, I have covered these
paths in another video which I have listed in the description of this video below, so check it
out if you want to know the latest optimal paths. There’s a question that I think most beginner or
even advanced Junglers have, which is “When should I use my Retribution spell?” If you’ve watched
professional games, such as the most recent M5 World Championship, some Junglers even use their
Retribution as soon as they start the first Jungle Buff, while some save it until the Buff is dying.
Well, the answer will depend on how likely you are to be invaded, and whether you are able
to secure the Buff without Retribution, even if you are invaded. You should only cast
your Retribution early if you’re very confident to secure the buff even if you’re invaded, or
you’re confident that the enemy will not invade. The advantage of casting Retribution early is to
boost your clearing speed. Since Retribution has a relatively medium-length cooldown, using
it early means you can spam it more often, thus allowing you to clear and rotate faster
for ganks. Reaching the lanes earlier than the enemy Jungler can be the difference
between a good early game, or a bad one. The disadvantage of this is that you will not
have it available to secure the Jungle Monster if you’re invaded. If you’re a beginner, it’s
usually better to just save it for securing, as losing the Buff Monster will put you at
a gigantic disadvantage that will be very difficult to overcome. Losing any of the first
2 Buff Monsters can cause the enemy to start a giant snowball which can be very difficult to come
back from, especially when you’re inexperienced, so ensuring you secure the Buffs is vital.
The next thing you need to understand is hero power spikes. Almost every hero is built
differently, so they are stronger when they hit certain spikes. Heroes such as Jawhead or Thamuz
are super strong at Level 1 and can already gank or invade at that stage, while Julian already
unlocks his full kit at Level 3 and is ready to wreak havoc at that point. Fanny and Nolan are
heroes that are able to cause chaos at Level 2, while Alice and Hanzo are really
ultimate-dependent, and so they will need Level 4 to become really effective.
Knowing when Heroes are strong helps you decide whether you should path safer
to farm towards your power spike, or abuse your early spike and go for an early
gank or invade. Similarly, you can use this to gauge how strong the enemies are, and whether
you should play more defensively, or offensively. While you’re farming in the Jungle, make it a
habit to keep watching the mini-map. There are a lot of things you can tell just by watching the
mini-map, especially when your Roamer is doing a good job providing vision. Every hero will have a
HP bar attached to their hero icon, so keeping an eye for everyone’s HP is a good way to decide the
location of a good ganking or invade opportunity. For example here, we can see on the mini-map that
Irithel is low HP at the Top Lane, and our Khufra is already in position to gank her. I didn’t
approach her earlier because I was expecting her to retreat, but since I kept watch on the mini-map
and saw that she stayed, it gave us an easy kill. A way of forming this habit is to train
yourself to look at the mini-map every time you do a basic attack. So basic attack,
mini-map, basic-attack, mini-map, basic attack, mini-map. This will improve your map awareness,
and I would argue that being aware of what’s going on around in the map is 90% of a Jungler’s
game. So make sure to do this if you’re a beginner and want to improve as a Jungler.
Since we’ve already talked about where and who to gank, I’d like to talk about HOW to
gank next. There are a couple of things you should note as you approach a lane. Firstly,
you should note where all the enemies are, and how much HP they have, especially the
enemies closest to that lane. If you’ve been watching the map constantly, you would already
have this information at the back of your mind. The less enemies are present during a
gank, and the lower their HP, the higher the chance that your gank will be successful.
Next, is how you approach the enemy for a gank. Bushes are your friend and trying to remain out of
vision of the enemy until you engage will give you the element of surprise in a gank. If the enemy
is not in a good position for you to engage yet, remaining hidden in a bush until the right
time will give you the best chance of success. When you move in for a gank, try not
to approach the enemy from the front, or from the same position as your teammate in the
lane. You should do your best to cut off their escape route so that they will have to at least go
through you before they can reach their turrets. For example here, I approached the enemies from
the side so they were not able to retreat to the safety of their Turret when I engaged
them. If I approached them from the front, they would have likely escaped.
You can also improve your chances of a gank by keeping a mental note of any escape
tools that have been used by enemies. Sometimes your teammates may say something like “mm nf” in
chat. This is short for “Marksman no Flicker”, which means the enemy Marksman just used Flicker.
This can also be replaced by “NU” or “NP” for “No Ultimate” or “No Purify” respectively.
It can also be quite obvious that an enemy has used Flicker by just watching the
mini-map, especially if that enemy does not have any natural dashes. Flicker is a
really common spell that many heroes use, and has a 120 seconds cooldown, so taking note of
whether enemies have used this is really helpful. When it’s around the 1 min 40 seconds mark,
it’s best to save your Retribution as the first Turtle will be spawning at 2 minutes.
At this point, you should already be planning whether you want to be contesting for it.
Things that you will mainly need to consider are the number of players that may participate at the
Turtle contest, the current tempo of the game, and the level gap between you and the enemy Jungler.
If you’ve been keeping your eyes on the map, you should be able to estimate how many players
will be going to contest for the Turtle. If you see that your team is not ready to
contest the objective, and you’re going in with a huge numbers disadvantage, such as a
2v4 or a 1v3, it’s better that you just let the objective go and farm elsewhere instead. You
will likely not be able to secure that objective, and will die in the process of doing so, giving
the enemy 2 advantages instead of just one. The only time you should even try to contest it
in a disadvantaged situation is if you’re using a mobile hero, such as Hayabusa, or Ling, who
are able to enter the objective area, cast their Retribution for the steal, and get out safely.
Another thing you should consider is the current tempo of the game. Tempo is basically whether
your team is ahead or behind in terms of fighting potential. For example, if your entire team is
Level 4 when they arrive for the Turtle contest, while the enemy team is still Level 3 and without
their Ultimate, you will have a good chance to completely beat the enemy down if they try and
contest for the Turtle. However, if instead your team is behind on tempo, it is probably a
good idea to retreat, or at least try to regain tempo first before contesting for objectives.
As mentioned earlier, a Jungler’s Hero Level will determine how much damage their Retribution
does. Being at the same Level means that if it comes down to a Retribution battle, it’s a
50-50 on who secures it, as both Junglers will have the same damage on their Retribution. A
Retribution battle is basically when both Junglers are available to use their Retribution on the
objective when it is at critical HP. So keep an eye on the enemy Jungler’s Level to see
if you have any advantage or disadvantage. A tip to increase your success rate on securing
objectives is to use this red line as a guide, or use the damage number shown on your
Retribution spell to gauge when to cast it. The red line basically indicates the damage
that your Retribution spell does to the objective, and will be shown on both the Turtle and
Lord, as well as the Orange and Purple Buffs. The best way to secure an objective is to pair
Retribution with your highest damage skill. For example, while playing Lancelot, you can use
Skill 2 in combination with Retribution for a sudden output of burst damage which is really
difficult for the enemy Jungler to react to. If you’re playing Barats, you can use his first Skill
to combo with Retribution for the same effect. One thing I must say though is that losing a
Turtle is not really game-changing. It gives some small buffs to you and your team, while rewarding
a bit of Gold too. But it doesn’t really do too much besides that, so it is never worth trying to
sacrifice yourself just to get a Turtle. You can easily find a trade to gain those resources back.
Trading is an essential concept to Jungle gameplay. Basically, you are finding something
else of near equal value to exchange for whatever the enemy team is getting. For example, if you
are able to kill an enemy or 2 when the enemy takes the Turtle, it is a really good trade
in exchange for that. Pushing down a Turret is considered a good trade as well. You can also opt
to steal the enemy’s Buff in exchange, though that could be considered a losing trade in most cases.
However, a trade is still better than nothing. You can apply the Trading concept to anything else
in the game. If the enemy invades your Purple, you can trade it with his Purple, or a Kill on
his teammate elsewhere on the map. If the enemy is taking Turtle and you’re not able to reach it
in time, try to gank the opposite lane instead, or steal away his buff. Basically, you
want to be as far ahead on resources as possible in the game of Mobile Legends, so
you have to try to take something away from the enemy when they take something away from you.
In any case, you’re the Jungler and you have to decide for your team whether or not to contest
an objective. If you do not want to contest, signal to retreat from the objective. On the
other hand, signal your intention to contest if you want to. Whether your team listens to you
or not is another matter altogether, but at least try to communicate and hope that they listen.
While contesting for the objective, make sure to try and keep your HP as high as possible and
watch for important enemies that have skills that can stun and lock you down, such as a Kaja or
Vexana. I can assure you that at higher ranks, you will be heavily focussed during these objective
contests, especially when the objective HP is approaching critical. Enemies will be doing their
best to stop you from casting your Retribution, so try your best to play around that and keep
yourself healthy so you can secure the objective. Also, try not to rush the objective if you’re
unsure that you’re able to get it. Sometimes it’s better to delay the objective and use it as a
bait to pull the enemy in for a fight, especially if your team is ahead on tempo. Many times, it’s
better to focus on fighting the enemies first, before really going for the objective. This
can be applied to both Turtles and Lord fights. After the first Turtle contest is over, it’s
pretty much back to basics. You should first watch the map and the surroundings to try to gauge where
your enemies may be going. This is a crucial time, especially if the enemies have better tempo
and are still healthy. Since they’ve gathered at the Turtle, they may try to invade your
Jungle, so make sure you’re prepared for this. Each Turtle spawns exactly 2 minutes after
the previous Turtle has been cleared, so it’s mostly back to farming and ganking
in this brief time window. You can go back to full-clearing your Jungle and look for
ganks or invades when an opportunity arises. The mid phase usually begins around the time
the 2nd Turtle has been cleared, which is around the 5 minute mark. Mid phase gameplay
is usually when teams start gathering up more for big teamfights as 1st Tier turrets start going
down and the map starts to open up a little more. The Jungler’s gameplay approach throughout most
of the game from early to late is pretty similar. It will mostly be trying to find a balance
between farming, ganking, invading, and securing major neutral objectives. You should apply the
strategies and tips that I’ve already mentioned earlier, and use them throughout the game.
This is regardless of whatever type of Jungler you’re playing, as these are the primary
responsibilities of playing the Jungler role. However, beginning from the 5th minute
mark, Jungler’s can also start gaining maximum rewards from lane minions. So you can also start
to farm any empty lanes that your teammates are not clearing, and are far away from. This
will help to manage lane pressure and keep your turrets healthy, which will prevent pushes.
An important tip you should also note is that the 1st Lord spawn is at the 8th minute mark. This
8th minute Lord spawn, however, can be delayed if a Turtle was cleared between the 6th to 8th
minute, since there is a 2 minute respawn timer after a Turtle is cleared. For example, if any
team clears the Turtle at exactly the 7th minute, the 1st Lord will only spawn in the 9th minute,
2 minutes after the last Turtle was cleared. This timer can be used to your advantage if your
team has a massive tempo lead. By controlling and not clearing the last Turtle if it’s already close
to the 8th minute, you can allow the 1st Lord to spawn early and use it to up the tempo even more.
Securing the Lord, instead of the Turtle, will help your team in pushing enemy turrets,
as it will spawn Super Minions in each lane, and also summon an Ally Lord in the weakest enemy
lane. The Lord is a crucial objective to secure, as compared to the Turtle. This is due to how much
resources it can help you and your team to gain, which is why it will be difficult to find a
balanced trade when you’re unable to secure it. The approach to a Lord fight can be quite
different for the type of Jungler and hero you’re playing. In an even Lord contest, a Damage
Jungler such as Hayabusa or Granger should not be tanking Lord aggro and holding the Lord for the
most part. The Lord can and will do a huge amount of damage to the hero tanking the aggro, or any
heroes near it when it does its Swinging attack. As such, a Damage Jungler should mostly be
positioning himself close to the Lord, but not too close that you will take too much damage. This
is so you can rush out to do a Retribution secure when the Lord is critical, or be able to take part
in a teamfight when necessary. The key thing here will be to keep your HP high so you are available
to secure the objective when the time comes. A Utility Jungler on the other hand, such as
Barats or Fredrinn, will usually be on the frontline. They are typically able to tank and
hold Lord aggro for some time, but will still be unable to hold it for too long as the Lord deals
True Damage based on HP. These types of Junglers will be trying to hold Lord aggro while the
team’s damage dealers whittle down the Lord’s HP. If your team is outnumbered, a Jungler with good
mobility can try to steal the Lord. This is a high risk high reward maneuver, so retreat if
it’s clear you’re unable to steal it. If you’re playing a low mobility Hero, do not even try to
contest in a disadvantaged situation. You will likely lose the Lord, and also die from trying.
Do not worry too much if the enemy takes the Lord between the 8th to 12th minute, as it is not yet
enhanced, and will not have the Charge ability that is capable of breaking turrets. You should
still be able to defend most of such Lord pushes. After the 12th minute, Lords will be enhanced, and
will take away a huge chunk of HP from any turret it encounters, so these Lords are incredibly
difficult to defend without losing any turrets. This is why at this stage, the Jungler is
incredibly vital to the success of a team. Death timers are also really long in the late phases,
so a dead Jungler at this point is a free pass for the enemy to secure a Lord. Therefore, it is
super important not to take unnecessary risks and die needlessly at this point. The approach
to contesting late Lords does not change, so apply the same strategies as mentioned earlier.
When you’re at full items, farming becomes unnecessary, and you should only focus on taking
Buffs. Never trade your life for a Buff though, it is never worth it.
You can also allow your team’s damage dealers to take the Orange
and Purple Buffs, especially if they can utilize those buffs more effectively than you.
In the late phases, you should be with your team as much as possible, especially if you’re playing
a Hero that is not very mobile. Being alone during the late game is extremely risky, and dying as
a Jungler at this stage can be punished very heavily. This is especially if you’re playing
a Hero with low mobility. Assassins will still be able to split-push, but Utility Junglers
should mostly stick with and support the team. Perhaps the most important tip I can give you
is to have the Jungler’s Mentality. If you’ve ever watched or played football before, you’ll
know that when a goalkeeper makes an error, he can be blasted for that mistake, even if he
made 10 wonderful saves before that error. Just like a goalkeeper, the Jungler is often roasted
by his own team for making even a single error, especially for missing Retributions.
I want you to remember that objectives are not just the Jungler’s responsibility,
but also the team’s. So if you do not land the Retribution in a messy contest, it is not
entirely your blame to take. Of course, if you miss an obvious Retribution and allow the enemy
to steal it, you should go back to practicing. Because the Jungler has so many responsibilities,
it is also much easier to make errors. Teammates will roast you for not going to their lane to
gank, or blame you for them dying. My advice to you for this is stay strong and ignore them.
Every second that you spend typing retorts, is time that you could have spent watching
the map, farming, or rotating. The best way to shut them up is to play your best, farm
up, and find your way back into the game. My last tip is for beginners who want
to start playing Jungle. The best way to learn and practice is not in actual
Ranked mode, but in AI Training. I have tried Hard mode and honestly, the AI is really
solid. Use this mode to practice your heroes, get used to Jungle patterns, and keep applying
the tips I have mentioned throughout this guide. You will eventually improve if you
put in the time and effort to do it. Jungle can be really complex, but I hope
with this guide, it’s more clear on what needs to be done when you play this incredibly
difficult role. Don’t worry if you struggle in the beginning. Keep practicing and make
sure you keep your mentality strong. I wish you all the best in your quest to become a
great Jungler! As always, I’ll see you again soon!
