Analysis: Jungle Heroes

Overview

 

This post will have 2 sections:

• Jungle Hero Tiers
• General Jungling Tips

 

Jungle Hero Tiers

Not all junglers are equally good at it. You'll notice many top tier junglers have summons. The next best thing is something to clear camps quickly (usually AoE) that can be sustained (rather than a single nuke).

 

Top Tier

 

Basically this tier is reserved for heroes with numerous minions to help them jungle quickly and without much risk. By micro-ing your summons, you can keep them alive longer and take essentially no damage on your actual hero.

• Enchantress
• Stacking Neutrals and then using Wildkin's (AKA "Wild Wing") Tornado to clear it will expedite your jungling substantially
• Chen
• Stacking Neutrals and then using Wildkin's (AKA "Wild Wing") Tornado to clear it will expedite your jungling substantially
• Enigma
• Nature's Prophet

 

Very Good

 

These heroes work fairly well in the jungle, but may not be as fast or may have increased risk compared to the Top Tier.

• Dark Seer
• Ion Shell makes for fast jungling, but he can be vulnerable because he needs to maintain close proximity to the Neutrals
• Smoke of Deceit can help his jungling - Neutrals won't be able to see him and he can still cast/use Ion Shell. 
• Making Stacks and using Smoke can further expedite his jungling
• Batrider
• Does decently well by stacking Sticky Napalm and using Firefly
• Stacking Neutral camps is essential for fast jungling with Batrider
• Axe
• He's faster than many heroes, but far more vulnerable than Dark Seer and Batrider
• Getting Tranquil Boots is absolutely necessary to jungle on Axe (need the constant source of healing)
• Stacking Neutrals is also essential. The more units attacking Axe results in more changes to trigger Counter-Helix

 

Can Jungle (But Slow and/or Vulnerably / Would Be Better Elsewhere)

 

This is a subset of heroes that have the capacity to jungle, but would be very susceptible to ganks, or they are very slow junglers because of the rate at which they clear Neutral camps. There are tricks to help them be more viable in the jungle, but they will NEVER be as fast as any of the tiers above them.

• Lifestealer
• Feast makes Lifestealer a Viable jungler
• He is incredibly vulnerable because he'll be taking hits from creeps
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time
• Stacking a Big Neutral Camp can help so that he can ult it when he hits level 6
• Ursa
• Fury Swipes makes Ursa a viable jungler (combined later with Vladamir's Offering)
•  NOTE: Get Morbid Mask LAST - it is a Unique Attack Modifier (UAM) and will be overridden by Fury Swipes. Vlads only works because it's an Aura, not a UAM
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time
• Doom
• Devour makes him a viable jungler
• Stacking Neutrals and then using Wildkin's (AKA "Wild Wing") Tornado to clear it is necessary in farming the jungle fast enough.
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time
• Lone Druid
• Spirit Bear helps Lone Druid jungle
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time
• Skeleton King
• Vampiric Aura allows SK to jungle
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time
• Lycan
• Summon Wolves allows Lycan to jungle
• Utilizing "Choke Point Jungling" helps him be more Viable in the jungle
• This entails using Tangos/Quelling Blade to make a cut in the treeline so you only have to face 1 unit at a time

 

Can Jungle, But Questionable....

 

• Storm Spirit
•  He can by stacking camps, then using Smoke of Deceit and Static Remnant to clear them
• Luna
• She can by using a Quelling Blade / Tangos to cut down trees and attack Neutrals from the high ground. Doing this properly will kite them so that they will de-aggro before they are in range to attack you
• There are plenty of other examples of heroes like this if you search youtube. But there's really no reason to jungle them unless you randomed and can't fit them into a lane.

 

General Jungling Tips

You'll notice that good junglers all have summons. With them, it's usually about doing a bit of micro:

• If a summon is low on HP, move them back a bit (alternatively, attack-move them to a friendly unit to lose aggro instantly - it tricks the game)
• Use a clarity potion to regen mana while clearing a camp
• Start on smaller camps and build up
• Gank the lane when you see an opening (you want to keep the enemy on their toes and get kills)

With the other junglers, you have to do one of these:

• Be patient
• Heroes like Doom, Lifestealer, Skeleton King, Lone Druid are all just very very slow junglers and won't be useful for a long ass time
• Make sure to have wards or just be careful. Many of these heroes are very gankable (i.e. they tank creep damage) while jungling
• Picking up lots of HP Regen and a Stout Shield is helpful
• Early Tranquil Boots are great for the regen
• Get Creative
• With Batrider, you want to stack camps of creeps, then stack Napalm charges on them and kill them with auto attacks, Firefly, or Flamebreak
• Sometimes you can use Quelling Blade to chop down a tree and use "Chokepoint" jungling (make it so only 1 creep can hit you at a time)
• If you have range, use the high ground to attack from (for the miss chance against ranged creeps - good for any ranged jungler really)

Ursa & Lycan usually rush Vlad's so they Rosh early. Note that on Ursa, he has a Unique Attack Modifier (fury swipes), so getting Morbid Mask (lifesteal) won't work until you have Vlads finished (then it becomes an aura and works).

For many heroes, getting Ring of Basilius is great because it gives mana regen and gives your summons an armor aura.

Pulling/Stacking:

• Stack time is 55 for most creeps. Some ranged creeps you need to pull at 53 or 54.
• Ancients stack at 52
• You can pull at 15-17 (useful for many junglers and controlling the lane)
• Stacking before pulling wipes out an entire friendly creep wave, therefore your opponent gets none of the experience
• Only pull if the creep wave is pushed out and you need to bring it close to the tower
• be careful of enemies that might come to attempt to steal your pull creeps

For Axe:

Usually just try to stack camps (the more units hitting him, the more chances he has to spin).