A group of my friends and I signed up for League of Legends after beta. Throughout the majority of the games we queued for, picking smite and going in the jungle was practically considered a privilege. Sometimes we'd even argue over who got to jungle over the next few games. Even in solo queue and blind pick, there was always a player eager to take the role.
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| Clear speed is somewhat important. |
However, for the last few months encountering someone who wants to jungle just seems unbelievably rare. By rare I mean none-existent. It's not too bad to get into a match with two champions in the side lanes- but when the enemy team only has a single champion at top you have to absolutely crush them and/or sabotage the jungle. Otherwise, your entire team will probably fall behind the longer you leave it.
Ideally in champion selection I like to wait to be one of the last picks, so I can choose a champion that will best bring together our setup. It's frequent for people to lock in what they want to play regardless of how it affects your chances of winning. So I pick a champion that will compliment the team. Unless it's support. I only support if I am positive I have a reliable carry to assist.
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| Covering lanes is optimal to keep the enemy at bay whilst your team buy items. |
For the last couple of months I have slowly smothered the jungle to death with almost every character that can attempt it. I hate jungling. While you have to pay more attention and try to watch all of the lanes, it bores me to sit farming and being commanded to gank every lane at the same time. Not all champions can clear the minions that quickly, so wasting your time on a couple of doomed ganks will set your experience and gold back as much as dying.
When the entire enemy team bum rushes the opposing red or blue, they can absolutely shut you down from the beginning. Jungling can be way more stressful and risky than laning. There are always moments when your team need to react fast to support you; for example when you're attempting dragon or encounter an enemy player whilst scouting around.
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| Ganking is the most prominent feature of the Jungler. |
Ultimately playing with a jungler is a necessary sacrifice unless your team composition is built specifically to work without one. But there is a possibility of it backfiring if you can't keep your clearing speed up, or don't have a proactive enough approach to it.
The one thing I've learnt from playing jungle, is you always have to make things happen. If you see a lane to gank you have to do it well, if not you should be attempting to steal the enemy jungle or something else damaging to the enemy team. If you sit and farm your own jungle for the first 20 minutes, you might come out with a fair amount of farm but you could have accomplished so much more.
