Jungling 101

[Sigfried Hunin]

Pretty much this. You can't sit around for too long, or else you fall way behind on xp and gold, which is likely to happen as a jungler any way, but sitting around waiting for them to move up or whatever just makes it worse. Not only that, the longer you sit around the longer you leave your camps in the jungle up which is wasting potential time/xp for the being up and also giving the enemy jungler a better chance to steal xp/gold from you.

Another thing to keep in mind, don't rely on kills as a jungler. Sure you might get some from ganks, but more often than not, your ganks are only going to get their summoners down. One thing you can do to help alleviate this is to build the gold per 5 items. Heart of gold and philo stone are well worth it for most junglers, and even the one that builds in to the ghostblade for characters that build it. If you get them early enough, then they will pay for themselves over the course of a 30-40 min game.

Just remember, the jungler isn't really about getting kills, it's about creating a potential of a gank for everyone on the map at most times. When ganking, your goal shouldn't necessarily be to "get the kill" as it should be to create an advantage for your teammates in that lane. Getting rid of their summoners, pushing them back to base, or killing them. All of those creates an advantage for your team in that lane, making it easier to secure kills later because of level advantage, gold advantage, and still having summoners. Of course, this advantage can go to waste if your team mates don't capitalize on it, but that's still the goal I always have as a jungler, create an advantage.

Thanks, that really helps. This and the video from TheOddOne really has helped change my perspective on what the job of the jungler should be. I'LL BE MUCH BETTER NAOW I THINKS.