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How to jungle LoL: Champion tips from pro Caedrel
From Xin Zhao to his iconic Urgot pick, here's how you can learn how to jungle like Excel Esports' Caedrel.
We've all had those games in League of Legends Solo Queue where your enemy team's jungler camps your lane, kills you repeatedly while you watch your own jungler clear Krugs without a care in the world.
Having a good jungler can be the difference between winning and losing a game and if you're a jungle main, here's how you can improve and play like a LEC pro.
Excel Esports' Caedrel finished the split with a 72.5% kill participation rate and was one of the standout players for his side. He's chosen two champions to help you get started, and he's also revealed exactly how to make that Urgot pick work.
How to Jungle lol like Pro Caedrel
Lee Sin
Lee Sin
© Riot Games
You want to get to level three as fast as you can with Lee Sin and the easiest way is to start on Red Buff, clear the golems on that side, and then take Scuttle Crab.
When you’re level three Lee Sin with Red Buff you can just kill everyone, so at this point you should gank a lane, or gank every lane if you’re feeling spicy. Even if you don’t get any kills it’s fine, you just want to fight early because that’s what your champion does so it’s pointless to do a full clear.
Do your last three camps after that – you can do it quite quickly so don’t worry about it. At this point you should recall and get blue smite unless you’re against Rek’Sai or Xin Zhao – then you should go for red smite to make it easier 1v1.
Keep in the back of your mind that the camps respawn every 2 minutes 30 seconds. Your golems will always respawn at 4 minutes 40 seconds if you’ve done your path right so you know when you have to go back to clear them the second time around. You can look for a gank somewhere around it depending on if they’re at top side or bot side.
Items: The three core items that you absolutely have to build are Warrior, Black Cleaver, and Guardian Angel. The rest is more situational, so if you’re feeling spicy go for Youmuu's Ghostblade, and Duskblade of Draktharr if you think you can one shot people. For a more tanky build, go for Sterak’s Gage or Adaptive Helm.
Runes: Domination - Electrocute, and in your second tree go Precision - Leathal Tempo for attack speed.
Xin Zhao
Caedrel says Xin Zhao is one of the easiest champions to pick up
© Riot
He’s very similar to Lee Sin, but he’s a level two champion instead of three. When you do red and turn level two you just want to fight everyone.
Go and gank instantly – even if you want to gank top mid and bot one after the other, you can do it. You can 1v1 any champion in the game when you’re level two Xin Zhao with a red buff – there’s not a champion in the game that will beat you in that situation.
You want to bring the aggression of the first minion wave. Even if bot lane is warded it doesn’t matter because they will get to push, and while they’re doing that, go mid lane and do the exact same thing and repeat again top.
If the enemy jungler gets to level three, it gets more complicated, but if you gank every lane and finish your clear, you have so much more pressure on them. Remember you want to prioritise fighting all the time.
Items: The core items for Xin Zhao are Warrior, Red Smite, Sterak’s Gage and Guardian Angel. If you’re really really fed like you’re 10/0 then you can go Trinity Force but it’s not that good an item. Xin Zhao tends to fall off later on so it’s preferable to go more tanky.
Runes: Domination – Hail of Blades, and in the second tree go Precision - Lethal Tempo.
Urgot
Urgot's been a prime pick so far
© Riot Games
Well, Urgot actually works now after his buff and everyone has been picking and playing him in jungle.
He’s the absolute opposite of Lee Sin and Xin Zhao. You have to clear your camps and you want to pray to God you don’t get invaded.
You want to start red on this one, too, but try and full clear as fast as you possibly can. Taking a Scuttle Crab is also fine – it just depends on if you have lane priority or not. If the enemy jungler is going to fight you for it then you will need backup from other lanes.
Urgot is somewhat similar to Kha’zix in that you’re strong when you hit level six, and that’s when you can start killing everyone. I personally think the scalings aren’t that good on Urgot so some of the builds have been pretty bad.
Items: Start with Hunter’s Machete go Skirmisher’s Sabre but don’t upgrade it yet. Get Black Cleaver straight away and upgrade the red smite after the Cleaver to a Cinderhulk and buy Righteous Glory. After that, build some tanky items like Guardian Angel, Adaptive Helm or Warmog’s Armor.
Runes: Precision – Conqueror, Resolve in the second with Bone Plating. Alternatively you can take Inspiration second with Boots and Cosmic insight – both are fine. Unsealed Spellbook is also pretty good in competitive play.
