There are many guides written by high ranked players telling you how to improve your game. If you tried to follow League of Legends jungle guides, like me, then you might feel they aren’t really helpful. That’s because playing in bronze and silver is very different than gold or higher. Low ranked players don’t think or act like high ranked players. High level gameplay tricks and tips wouldn’t work in lower levels. You can try to solo carry, but let’s be honest. If you can solo carry, then you are most likely not in silver or bronze.

I am a jungle main and I climbed from bronze to gold in a season. Like in most MOBA games, League of Legends jungle is a very versatile position. You have different champions to suit your play style and the team composition. For example, you can play aggressive and pick a carry jungler like Master Yi, or play a support jungler like Sejuani. I am not saying you need to play jungle, all I am saying I chose jungle because it is a flexible position. I summarized my journey into 4 points, I hope it helps you with your climb too.

1. Master and Play your 2 best champions

I have seen so many games where people would choose counter or OP champions even though they don’t know how to play them. If you do it too, stop it. At low levels in current Meta, you don’t have to think about counter or team compostion. You are not a laner, you don’t have to worry too much about getting countered. Sure, maybe a faster jungler would invade you, but then just keep farming and ganking. And wouldn’t you rather have a team who knows how to play their champion?

You shouldn’t sacrifice your best champions because of the team or the other team. Just pick 2 champions you want to play and train with them. I say 2 and not 1 or 3, because with only 1 champion, that champion can get banned. It is difficult to master 3 champions, so I suggest master 2 champions so you would have a backup if your main gets banned.

2. Know when to farm and when to gank

Different champions have different qualities. You will learn about this while mastering your 2 champions. But in general, you must know what your champion is capable of. I have seen too many junglers that gank too early with no result. There are 2 types of league of legends jungle champions, farm to get items or mainly ganks.

If your champion doesn’t have gap closers or crowd control, then farm until you are level 6 or can get your first core item. For example, Evelynn gets her stealth after level 6. Her only crowd control is her W and that takes 2 seconds to charge. So don’t gank before 6 because her base damage isn’t high and her W is very easy to avoid.

In the beginning, try to gank all lanes to help them get ahead. However, if one lane is failing even after your ganks, then focus your ganks on other lanes instead. Know when to be with your team. If your team is pushing together, be with them. Farm when the situations allow it. Don’t afk farm when they are taking your nexus turrets. As well as, don’t be greedy and try to farm without vision or trying to steal their blue on your way back.

3. Control objectives and ward

No matter what, you need to control the objectives. Controlling objectives doesn’t only mean taking the objectives. You also need to know when the other team is taking the objectives, so you can stop or ambush them. One way to do this is to ward and take the scuttle carb. Another way is to help you laners to push out their lanes so that you can take objectives in peace. Remember, taking the first objective is a determining factor to whether your team will be in control of the objectives.

For example, if you took the dragon at level 4, then it makes it harder for the other team to take the second dragon. This is because the other team has to deal with the buff from first dragon. So they will be focused on maintaining their lane or ganking lanes to get even. Also the enemy team wouldn’t have the timer.

Ward is your best friend. If you know where the enemy jungler is, then you can predict where they will go next. So that your laners could avoid being ganked and you could counter gank. Buy control wards to destroy their vision, so that you can catch them by surprise. League of Legends jungle isn’t that big, so you could easily control the whole jungle with wards. Wards wins games.

4. Support your team’s carry

Let’s say you played a carry jungler and it isn’t going great. Instead of pushing on trying to get kills, you need to shift your focus and protect the person carrying your team. There were many games where I went negative with a carry jungle champion and still won the game. All I did was protect our carry. I knew that I was too behind to do anything. So instead of letting my pride get in the way, I simply played around our carry. Don’t try to be the hero when you no longer can. Winning the game is more important than your KDA.

Of course you might think that your carries are useless, but at the end of the day they are your damage dealers. So play as a team and don’t try to 1v5 because the chances of winning is higher when you play as a team. I have had countless games where we were getting stomped. But we stuck together and the enemy team started to get overconfident. One by one they tried to kill us for a better KDA, but ur whole team was always there and their wasn’t. We kill one of them so it become 4v5 and we then start a team fight which we would win.

Lastly, I want to say that League of Legends jungle is in an unique position to turn the tides. If you want your jungle play to matter, then follow the points. I leave you with my best and most useful tip, mute everyone.