Reign of Gaming

Remember that this is largely opinion and it is not based on the best jungle PICKS. This list is taking into account the potential of characters to jungle on their own regards to make measuring their capabilities easier.

Tier Awesome - Saintstone

Tier 1 – Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Maokai, Nunu, Nocturne, Skarner, Udyr, Shyvana, Trundle, Nautilus, Jarvan IV, Alistar, Cho`Gath, Amumu, Shen, Malphite, Hecarim, Olaf

Tier 2 – Rengar, Diana, Riven, Sejuani, Kha`Zix, Jax, Warwick, Darius, Volibear, Rammus, Shaco, Gangplank, Xin Zhao, Tryndamere, Fiddlesticks, Master Yi, Zyra, Jayce, Kayle, Gragas, Wukong

Tier 3 –Evelynn, Singed, Garen, Twitch, Galio, Fizz, Pantheon, Renekton, Rumble, Karthus, Syndra, Fiora, Twisted Fate, Janna, Blitzcrank, Kennen, Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Cassiopeia, Lulu, Ziggs, Leona, Heimerdinger, Brand, Yorick, Mordekaiser

Tier 4 – Nasus, Katarina, Caitlyn, Corki, Veigar, Poppy, Karma, Irelia, Malzahar, Draven, Sivir, Akali, Nidalee

Tier 5 – Viktor, Graves, Varus, Orianna, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog Maw, Ashe, Sona

For tiers 1 and 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.

Tier 1 is based more on general all around high quality junglers. Tier 2 is based on junglers with great aspects and a few flaws but being able to fill a niche that gives them some validity. Tier 3 is taking what Tier 2 is based around and basically pushing the importance on niche a lot more. The other two tiers are just throwaways.

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. The Lane and Jungle scores give a rough look into what level of laners/junglers they can deal with. A high lane score means they high success at ganking powerful laners and a low score means they have little chance of ganking powerful laners. Amplifiers are how well they get buffed up by variables such as buffs, leashes and summoner spells.

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.

What changed this time around-

Trundle and Nautilus - This is something to look forward to in the upcoming tournaments. This isn't a competitive list of course but this seems to a trend currently being followed with great success. Fast clearing champions who can purchase an oracles early seems to be all the rage and Trundle and Nautilus aren't fast clearers. To add to that these two can get easily killed in counter ganks early. While Trundle can take a plunge and purchase an early oracles and boots of mobility - the boots are wasted and Trundle needs some power or else his speed starts suffering rather noticeably. This pretty much means his budget is being strained beyond what he can handle without haven't gotten a gank or two. Nautilus just gets outpaced by the speed junglers and, with ward advantage, they can control Nautilus's movements.

Volibear and Rammus - They're moved on the whole transition thing being better than those replaced. Tank junglers just have that economic advantage over the rest since tank items tend to be more cost efficient.

Cho Gath - Well I need not repeat myself about how sustained, fast and awesome he is with such great transition so I won't. He is a great ward carrier and counters some laners pretty damn viciously - like Katarina - during team fights. He gets crushed by some jungle match ups quite disgustingly still but just don't pick him vs those match ups (Lee Sin for instance). His incredible lee way with builds is what's giving him the edge and certain teams looking at him towards building teams.

Rengar - It would be a lot easier if you watch his video in order to get an explanation for this one. He's kind of a whirlwind of a jungler right now. I do not believe he will be considered tier 1 in this list at least until his changes are settled. His ganking is powerful - in fact more powerful than Nocturne - but his first clear is pitiful and he's very vulnerable. He ramps up though and he starts decimating camps. I know I trashed him before but that was because he was infested with bugs and inconsistencies. He was given some quality of life buffs and that brought him up. His E used to bug out, his leap was stupid, his ultimate speed buff was not noticeable, his W cast timer screwed your chasing up and all of these in conjunction was just a disaster --- but they fixed that now.

Lee Sin - It's mostly due to Dr. Mundo falling out of grace. See the thing about Dr. Mundo is that he's pretty easy to kill early thanks to his negative sustain and he's not exactly tanky. If he takes cloth armor in order to make up for his negative start then he's easier to hunt down or run away from - hell it makes him easier to kill if he's caught. Dr. Mundo starting with a cloth armor makes his invasion weaker as he'll run the risk of being caught and killed. Dr. Mundo also goes in and takes exhaust which further cuts his escape options.

I also hope people don't forget that this list isn't a competitive jungle tier list and not a way to dictate who is always the best pick. With that said Lee Sin is perhaps the perfect jungler. He does have a weaker late game than most but he works somewhat akin to a Malphite later. Lee Sin is perhaps the only assassin that works in the jungle and this is largely attributed to the fact that he can go support/bruiser if he isn't fed out of his mind. He doesn't even need to have built himself to do either beforehand. He can change according to the game in a pinch. He's an actual fighter with gold efficiency.

Kha`Zix - Well he was pretty disappointing. He's alright. He's more of an invader/duelist than ganker till level 6. I mean he can gank pre 6 and deal a crapload of damage on unarmored enemies but they're average ganks. His jungle speed is average but his objective/buff murdering power is pretty extreme - be basically chunks those things. This gives him some invasion power and dragon control no doubt. He's got basically no sustain both mana and health wise. His W does pretty much no damage so you don't really want to rank it thus the heal is awful (rank 1 is awful) and he burns through his mana really quickly for his first clear. Also his ganking is variable according to how you evolve him. Each of them affect his ganking in different ways - I personally prefer the bigger leap as it helps his invasion quite some.

He's an assassin and needs gold in order to keep up his damage. He has basically no utility and can't afford to go tanky. Sure you CAN build him like a bruiser bust most other bruisers are bringing in some crowd control or awesome damage without items. Kha`Zix needs murder power and thus shifts the burden of a tank onto another teammate and may even then just be screwed for gold because that's what the jungle does to you.

Saintstone - that mustache makes him the best jungler

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