Remember that this is largely opinion and it is not based on the best jungle PICKS since that is highly objective and subject to opinion. This list is taking into account the potential of characters to jungle on their own regards to make measuring their capabilities easier.
God Tier – Lee Sin, Udyr, Skarner, Dr. Mundo, Nocturne, Trundle
Tier 1 – Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Alistar, Riven, Shaco, Shyvana, Cho'Gath, Malphite, Amumu, Olaf
Tier 2 – Hecarim, Gangplank, Volibear, Rammus, Master Yi, Warwick, Shen, Sejuani, Jax, Xin Zhao, Wukong, Nunu, Tryndamere, Renekton, Fiddlesticks
Tier 3 – Gragas, Rumble, Twitch, Fiora, Singed, Kayle, Pantheon, Twisted Fate, Janna, Kennen, Blitzcrank, Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Karthus, Cassiopeia, Lulu, Ziggs, Fizz, Leona, Caitlyn, Corki, Heimerdinger, Brand, Eve
Tier 4 – Veigar, Yorick, Poppy, Karma, Nasus, Irelia, Malzahar, Sivir, Galio, Akali
Tier 5 – Viktor, Mordekaiser, Graves, Varus, Orianna, Garen, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog'Maw, Ashe, Sona
For tiers G to 2 - the placement is more important towards indicating "who is better" but less so for tier 3. In tier 3, just think of it in brackets as the champions here are more flawed and harder to argue. You can say that the higher tier 3 champions are better than the lower tier 3 though. For Tier 4 and 5 it's pretty much wishy washy.
Some people seem to be getting confused with the ranking. It should be obvious by seeing who gets the S scores that S means higher than A.
S scoring is just some video game thing used to say things like “Oh man you are amazing” etc etc. It’s most commonly used in arcade type games.
The things that changed this time around
Dr. Mundo – Yeah he went up higher. He’s frankly overpowered at the moment. Yes his ganking is not the best (pretty average) but it’s the overall package and efficiency. He has too much buff control (his cleaver is really strong) and he has one of the most broken transitions for any jungler in the game which may make him rise even more. Few junglers can build completely 100% durability and still smash your face in. Dr. Mundo can build nothing but durability (and cheap durability too) and still dish out insane amount of damage. This is why he’s one of the godliest junglers atm. He’s very cost effective, fast, flexible and he’s a tank.
Nautilus – Think of him as a slower and harder to use Maokai. They may switch places soon but I’m going to be fair with Maokai since I haven’t really used Maokai much as of late so I can’t just jump the gun here. Maokai is effective faster than Nautilus is and can be more efficient but Nautilus becomes a demon as the game goes on. I may have said before that Maokai was better than Nautilus but I’ve been practicing Nautilus more and he’s just a monster. As for why I rank him higher than characters like Shyvana? Well Nautilus can actually gank (incredibly well) and transitions easier. Some characters might have speed over him but he transitions so damn easily that he doesn’t’ care. He becomes really threatening very quickly into the game and becomes far more useful and even more powerful than some junglers that would beat him at the start. His starting jungle is pretty average but he quickly transitions into one of the strongest in the game.
Shen – He was bumped up to reflect his similarities with Warwick. Other junglers like Jax can gank better and dish out more damage sure but Shen’s ultimate gives him a lot of power and makes him stand out more as a jungler.
Hecarim – This one is curious indeed. He is average but slightly better than average after more testing. He’s basically Malphite with sustain over burst and no debuffs. His ganking is akin to that of Rammus and is very strong especially once level 6 is obtained. I can just think of him as another Malphite. They’re both flexible with builds and paths and are pretty okay with mana usage. They both don’t lose much health when jungling. Hecarim has the better ganking pre 6 (at 6 it’s pretty much the same) but Malphite has the better transition and damage.
Volibear – I figured out he was underrated and I was wrong on many levels about his potential. So where to start? I will not deny that he probably shouldn’t be picked because there are characters like Nautilus who end up destroying everyone better than he could but that doesn’t mean Volibear isn’t a strong jungler. Holy hell is his ganking brutal. It will force their escapes and probably still lead to them getting a huge beating and probably dead. His Q is amazing especially when you build cooldown reduction on him AND max it out second (lowering the cooldown). His mini Garen ult also provides an incredible amount of early damage to finish off gank targets during a chase. Better yet is his sustain and flexibility. While he may be slower than other junglers you can take whatever runes you want and make him faster or you can build him super tank to up his sustain and efficiency. He can jungle with any item, take any path and is ungodly when amplified with buffs. His passive is also incredibly effective. You won’t always notice it but it will keep you jungling indefinitely.
Varus – I don’t need to say anything.

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Posted 5/26/2012 5:24:16 AMYour spreadsheet has left out Nidalee!
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Posted 5/25/2012 11:43:45 AMFizz is placed way to low.
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Posted 5/22/2012 6:07:41 PMI must say, you can't put veigar berfore nasus in the jungle. i think nasus is a underated jungler and player have to re-test him. he is one of the few jungle that can solo dragon at 6 (7:00 before blue pawn) whit only a regrowth pendant. he is not the fastest, not the greatest ganker, BUT his kit make him stable and very strong in team fight ACCORDING TO THE ACTUAL TANKY META.
Of course you can't stack his Q super fast like in lane, but anyway in lane you get counter picked most of the time. for clearing he got aoe dmg, and a strong; big camp clearing capability. his slow is one of the best anti-carry cc for now and since anyway you only put 1 lvl in Q his E will reduce resist by significant amount.
i put him in the same categorie has amumu nautilus and jax : you pick those champ to win in team fight and control objective.
i run double gp/10, tri force rush, omen/F.heart, FoN and then what ever you want. he dont need any item to be at his max potential since he have a life steal passive, an anti-carry cc, a anti-tank AoE and an HP booster + max hp killer ult.
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Posted 5/21/2012 11:24:02 PMAlso, yeah, i gotta agree with everything said about Volibear. In fact i'd say he's definitely tier 1. He doesn't excel at one thing
Not the best speed and buff control, but good sustain, pathing, a lot of flexibility with starting items, and god, his ganking is just balls insane. Arguably one of best champions for diving thanks to both his passive and Q. If you catch up to someone its pretty much a death sentence, or at the very least they burn a summoner spell.
Good in team fights as well, he is sort of like Mundo , very disruptive, too tanky to be focused, too much damage to be ignored.
I have yet to see how he performs in very long games though.
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Posted 5/21/2012 10:59:45 PMTrundle he falls off past 30 minute mark. Badly. I cant tell you how many games with Trundle i went 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, only to have my team rolled over if we fail to push for an early win. Guys like Udyr, Mundo, Lee Sin, Olaf with an early lead like this will just spiral out of control and win you game singlehandedly.
Also as far as initiation goes, he is kind of meh, "Swap dick" is excellent tool in its own niche , particularily if there are a lot of fights breaking out in jungle, but most of the time its not something you use to start fights, typically its best once fighting has already begun. You should only really use him if top will be played by powerful initiatior like Jarvan or Warwick.
Also, yeah. I don't know how everyone else builds Master Yi , but i do it Irelia-style. Trinity Force is typically my only offensive item. After that its metagolem all the way, Warmogs, Atmas, Guardian Angel. Then i just go and chop down every turret while the other team hopelessly tries to cut me down fast enough.
Only time i ever build glass-cannon Yi is when the other team doesn't have a lot of ways disable Meditate channel: then you can typical trick them into wasting a lot of their abilities and tank it with Meditate armor/mr bonus. But as new champions come out thats a rare occurance.
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Posted 5/19/2012 1:34:11 PMHow to build Nocturne
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Posted 5/19/2012 1:34:54 PMStonewall if u could add core builds to champs. Plus a proper redirection on links
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Posted 5/18/2012 3:52:16 PMHey Stonewall, could you explain something quickly, and it might be a little bit of a noob question.
I love Trundle and have been using him to try and drag myself out of elo hell and I think that he's really strong. However, you said that he doesn't really fit into the meta. Can you explain a little what you mean by this? Sorry for not really understanding, but if they current meta seems to be tanky-dps junglers, doesn't Trundle fit that really well or am I missing something here?
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Posted 5/15/2012 2:49:56 PMHmm, a little thought about Yi. As Mundo, he gets very much free damage, so why not build him tanky, at least early. This way you can abuse your damage without dying.
You could also skip wriggle's, since Yi deals enough damage without it to minions. Also, with Mallet, he can be the god of kiting.
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Posted 5/16/2012 4:30:27 AMYi can't kite for shit...what are you talking about?
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Posted 5/16/2012 11:16:37 AMMaybe he listened to your video segment about Kayle, heard "kite her ass around", and assumed that "kite" meant something different to you than it does to 99% of the gaming populace.
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Posted 5/16/2012 5:42:48 PMWell, kite is maybe the wrong word, just nobody can escape him with mallet(except with flash or hard cc). And if he is tanky, he can still do good damage, so he is a good tanky dps.
Why play him over other tanky dps?
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Posted 5/15/2012 7:26:09 AMHi Stonewall, Im still a new player to LoL and would like to thank you for your guides, work and effort you put into these jungle lists and the advice you give. As a new player iknow its helped me a lot and im sure its helped others too really appreciate it , I was just wondering if you ever do live streams? and if not would you consider doing them? im pretty sure you would get a hell of a lot of views.
Also i was just wondering if you or anyone else here on the forums could reccomend a jungler or two whos good at carrying when your in solo q and more often that not end up with retarded lanes, so far had the best results with Nocturne and Udyr.
Anyway thanks for your help and keep up the good work
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Posted 5/12/2012 5:23:57 PMhey stonewall! love the lists! question, who do you think are the strongest ACTUAL SOLO QUEUE junglers? assuming your whole team is retarded and you have to carry that shit like its hot, what champs would you use?
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Posted 5/16/2012 11:00:59 AMIf your whole team is retarded, that implies that the other team is also retarded, so I'd use Dr. Mundo in the jungle. They won't be smart enough to take advantage of his weaknesses in the mid-to-late game, and the other jungler won't be able to stop you in the early game. He's only 1350 IP and pretty faceroll style-wise, so it's a good pickup even if you don't know how to play him.