The Jungler's Handbook

Hello. You might know me from my other guide, the Insane Jungler's Guide to Jungling. This, however, is not that.

This is intended to be a general guide on what a jungler does and does not do. So far, as of 10/18/13, there have been no guides like this yet. This is like tIJ'sGtJ's smarter younger brother whom you should consult before dating his sister.

Whether you jungle as often as possible or simply do it as a whim, I promise that this guide will be useful.

This guide will be extremely text-dense. This is not a flashy guide, this is all about information. If anyone can direct me to any useful images of the jungle, like maps, camps, and such, I would be grateful.

If you still have any questions about jungling after reading this, give this guide a downvote and put down what wasn't answered. If you don;t have your answer, this guide is a failure.

A Bit of Clarification

What a Jungler Does

• He defends or attacks lanes when the need arises, most often when a teammate recalls.
  
  
• He ganks the enemy, exerting pressure and restricting their actions.
  
  
• He clears buff camps to give them to his teammates, helping them.
  
  
• He helps his mid gain gold and XP by sharing and guarding the mid furies, helping them gain a level and gold advantage.
  
  
• He protects his teammates whenever the need arises, either by warding, attacking, or even dying, making sure they don't die.
  
  
• He controls the jungle, either by controlling the actual camps, or directly fighting the enemy jungler, making the enemy less able to do these things.

What to Expect from a Jungler

Arachne

Artemis

Routes and Their Importance

Starting Actions

Build Guidelines

Firstly, unless you don't use mana, always get Bumba's Mask. The mana and health sustain is simply way too strong, and not getting it sacrifices too much gold and experience.

Gods who don't need Bumba's Mask: Thanatos. Short list, right?

Next is Hand of the Gods. Despite having a major nerf, this item is the best for speeding up early clear times, as well as securing the mid furies.

Lastly is a potion of physical might, or Potion of Magical Might for magical junglers. Yes, it's risky, but this item is simply way too good for you to pick anything else.

As much as it pains me to admit it, there's not a lot of flexiblity in the starting items for junglers. As cynical as it sounds, we're stuck with this system and we have to make the most of it.

Why Awareness is Important

Ne Zha

Why Ward?

Ways of Warding

Defensive Warding shield of regrowth - Safest way to ward - Best for protection purposes Defensive warding is the practice of warding, leaning toward your side of the map. This applies to the mid furies and all lanes. You can see ganks coming from a mile away, make it harder for enemy invasions, and is simply less risky.

Offensive Warding - Best for pushing/counter-jungling - Sentry wards often catch enemy wards This is the warding you should do when pushing a tower, stealing buff camps, and for wasting the enemy's time. If you want to play in a very aggressive, taking-the-first-move manner, then this is the warding you would use.

Eye Of Providence

Importance of the Mid Furies

Mid camps are tricky yet are of utmost importance, and they will be the most common kind of camp you will fight for. However, you can also apply the rules for contesting mid camps to normal jungle camps.

Honestly, your best bet is to hit the camps with a moderately damaging ability, use Hand of the Gods to instantly clear them, and run away. Fighting in the mid camps relies on so many variables you can't control that you're better off in most cases to not risk a confrontation.

And here is what happens most of the time: You get to a mid camp, attack it, HoG it, leave. Or if you're driven away or are slightly late, you get to the other one, HoG it, leave. No confrontation, nothing, because a draw is way safer than a potential double kill.

That's my advice. Contesting mid camps? Don't.

But if you absolutely have to, try to limit the enemy's options. If you manage to successfully attack or drive off the enemy mid or jungler or support, you got yourself one mid camp and potentially two.

For example, at the 2:00 mark, the mid camps are set to respawn in about 15 seconds, so you attack the enemy mid. You can't kill him, but you make him recall as well as pushing the wave, maybe forcing the enemy jungler to go to the other mid camp, perhaps wasting his time, and potentially slowing him down so you can get over there and steal it.

Remember, there are two sets of mid camps, and two sets of three players to remember, the jungler, the mid, and the support. A preemptive strike on any of them will help you and your allies secure the mid camps...maybe.

Ugh.

Not many junglers can do this, and when it does happen, it's pretty rare.

Basically, a tower is vulnerable and you are called to attack or defend it. This is fairly simple, if difficult, but you must play to your strengths.

Don't expect Mercury to save a tower, but he sure as hell can take one down.

Athena is a bit better at clearing, and decent at attacking if she gets Polynomicon.

It's usually better to prevent this kind of situation from happening in the first place. Generally speaking, if someone is losing a tower, go and help that lane. Simple as that.

Jungling requires the ability to keep up in terms of levels and gold gain while also assisting your team whenever you can. You will move a lot, which is why it is extremely important to be fast. Clear fast, move fast, gank fast.

Moving fast is especially important, not only because you will give the enemy less time to react if they spot you, but because part of jungling is putting pressure on the lanes. The goal, metaphorically speaking, is to make them scared of a vague threat to keep them from putting a hand in the cookie jar. In other words, SMITE is exactly like preschool, complete with screaming children and public urination. If they know that you are as slow as a slug, them will not fear you.

The jungler is debatably the most difficult position on the team. You have to juggle the needs of all three lanes while making the most efficient use of your time as possible. It's a high-stress job, no doubt about it.

Do not take your teammates' requests as commands. You are not a gofer, you are a jungler who has better things to do than babysit. Use your best judgement, and keep a cool head.

You will encounter raised tempers and awful teammates. However, you will not lose your temper or hamper their game. If worst comes to worst, do not mute them and help them like you would any member of your team. Nothing is worse for a team than a lack of cooperation and communication.

Communication is incredibly important. You need to make sure that your team understands what you are doing, and every second you type a message in all caps in chat in hopes of them paying attention is another second where you could be farming or ganking or whatnot.

The Purpose of Ganking

Types of Ganking

Defensive Ganking: This kind of ganking is a response to enemy action. Let's say the enemy is getting frisky on the duo lane's tower; that's your cue to get over there and kill them. Or maybe Bakasura was seen headed to solo lane, get there quickly, and you can turn the tables on him after he burned all of his abilities on your solo laner. This is the safest kind of ganking.

Offensive Ganking: This is the complete opposite of defensive ganking. You want to push but the enemy has put too much pressure on your lane. Your job is to remove that pressure by going to that lane and killing as many people as you can, freeing your team to do stuff. This is pretty risky.

Fenrir

Guan Yu

When and When Not to Gank

Dealing with Wards

What if I Can't Gank?

Untested Idea

For the side lanes, you can camp the lane. Just go there and make a half-hearted pass. Then, in a few moments, do it again. Rinse and repeat, you'll wear them down eventually. (This tactic is untested.)

Orange or Red?

Bumba's Mask

Speed sprint - Increases mobility - Increases damage slightly - Wastes less time The orange buff is best for gods who lack mobility or need more of it, like Hel or Arachne. This is also a good option for those who are fed and do not require a power boost. So for some, starting on the orange buff may be a good option.

Power - Increases damage - Good for ganking - Wastes less time If your jungler has a terrible early clear speed and needs a nudge, this is a classic and useful option. Remember, you can never go wrong with more power. Just keep in mind that clearing this camp takes longer than clearing the speed camp.

Donating Buff Camps

A Starting Note

Respawn Time

The Ways of Counter-Jungling

1. Ward. Simple as that, and doesn't need an explanation.
   
   
2. Control mid camps.
   
   
3. Taking enemy camps.

Invasion is a powerful tactic. The best thing a prospective counterjungler can do is to take an enemy's camp, preferably an important one like the power buff or mana buff. But clearly, this isn't as easy as it looks.

The enemy has three lines of defense that you must bypass:

Wards: Anyone who plays seriously will devote some gold for purchasing wards. This vision makes it extremely difficult for you to take a camp undetected, and if they see you, even the most incompetent player will come to redecorate your face.

The Jungler: The enemy jungler is your nemesis. He will be the closest to you in strength, and you will be attacking his turf. Even if you don't see him, you will essentially be trying to clear his camps faster than he can reach them.

Countering Wards

Countering Enemy Presence

Countering the Enemy Jungler

Force: In other words, simply fighting the enemy jungler and driving him off and killing him. If your jungler is a strong duelist, this is a good method. The hard part is finding him, but the mid camps are always good for that.

fog

Deception: Despite the dramatic-sounding title, this method is quite simple. If the enemy jungler is ganking left when a right buff is open, you have a free pass at it. If you have stealth, use that stealth to walk past a ward, abusing the enemy's confidence. Hell, even a leap over a jungle wall to avoid a ward would suffice. Stuff like that. Utility-based gods with unique capabilities, like Nu Wa or Loki are good at this.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this guide as much as I enjoyed writing it. Good luck on your adventures in the jungle.

-Sub

12/31/13: Contesting Camps Section Added. Also added an Invasion overview. I'm trying to slowly expand the counterjungling section, basically.

3/6/14: Christ, this guide was stale as hell. I updated this guide, rewording and reworking pretty much everything, making some info more concise, expanding others. If you are reading this, and you still have a question about jungling, this guide is a failure. If so, please downvote and put down what I missed in the comments section.