[Jungle] How to practice/get better at ganking - Page 2

Udyr:
My go to champion. I run 4/26/0 (grabbing the ghost CD reduction and 3% CDR in offense) with smite/ghost. This was the build on the toprated guide on solomid. It eschews more points in the offense tree to grab the extra tenacity and slow reduction from the defense tree that you would otherwise lose. I feel like when I do get into position for a gank early, damage from me isn't the limiting factor on weather or not it was effective so I'm happy with the masteries. I run MS quints, AS reds, Flat Armor Yellows, and MR/Lvl blues. I use these runes because udyr's damage and utility scale better with AS (pocs your phoenix and allows you better lifesteal in turtle) than AD, and I take the Movespeed quints for better initiation (once again, you don't really need to build AD on udyr).

I play phoenix max style, prioritizing Phoenix>Turtle>Bear>Tiger. I play this way because the faster clear times associated with phoenix jungling and since the change phoenix has similar burst damage anyway. I max turtle over bear for the beefier shield (I generally dont sit around in turtle stance to lifesteal till later in the game when we're teamfighting) that keeps my HP high in the jungle (switching between Phoenix and Turtle when necissary to keep the passive stacked and for the on demand shield).

For Item builds I start machete 5 pot into a fast spirit stone and boots if possible. My first buys after this are generally Boots of swiftness for the persistent movespeed in catching up to someone (I'm already gaining tenacity from ancient golum, so I don't need merc treads as much unless I really need the MR) and a kindlegem. My core is going to be aegis, Ancient golum, and locket. I build these for team utility (and every high rated jungler guide for almost any champion runs these same 3 items, so who am I to argue?) provided by locket and aegis as well as the tenacity from ancient golum as well as a good chunk of tankieness. From here I probably will chose between Frozen Heart, Randuins, Thornmail, Warmog's, and spirit visage depending on who the big threats are on the enemy team, and either another defensive item to round out the build or one offensive item (Almost always Wit's End for the increased attack speed/MR which helps get the phoenix on hit to proc more often while making me more tanky).

For route/Playsyle, I will start blue with a decent leash and almost always I will check if either midlane or the support is already missing a ward. If they are not, I will run past the enemy wraiths (going golum side) and take his red. From here I generally decide based on their early game and the champion they're playing if I'm going to focus my ganks on mid or top (for example, If there is a twisted fate or kassadin mid and, say, a Garen top, I want the mid fed more than the top, so I will probably center my play around mid lane unless it's clear that top is a far superior player or the player in mid is bad). I generally work in 1 minute cycles based around Wraith camp. I will clear wraiths and either do golums or wolves then look for a gank/invade in the 20-30 secs before wraith's re spawn although I rarely commit unless the laner is pushing my tower or I know he doesn't have a ward top and mid if they're being aggressive. My first gank bot is usually done after I buy level 2 boots. I head straight to bottom lane with ghost and gank through the lane, then try to take dragon. It works out well enough where I can use my ghost to gank bot and put pressure on objectives (Blue/Red buff and dragon) every time ghost is up. Other than that, I rarely gank bot unless I know they don't have a ward or they're way overextended.

For playstyle, I generally just want to focus on initiating the fight first. Udyr is really suceptable to getting kited and his only gap closer is bear stance, so it can be hard to do sometimes unless we have someone else to start the fight for us. When the teamfight starts, what I'm doing depends on the situation. I either A) Go after their carry and lock them down or force everyoene to go all out on me or B) use bear stance to peel for my carry. I will chose the latter if my carry is stronger, and do the former if their carry is stronger (or I'm rediculously far ahead and I don't think they can stop me).




Nunu

I play nunu somewhat similar to udyr. I build 9/21/0 with MS quints, AS reds, Armor Yellows, Scaling MR blues with smite/flash. I take the extra points in offense to get the MPen which is more essential to nunu's kit than it is for udyr. I still focus heavily on counterjungle and objective control. I run the same routes as udyr, and the same ganking patterns (although since I run flash, I find it harder to gank bottom lane, but I will nonetheless try to gank through lane with blood boil at around the same times as udyr).

I build very similarly (I will replace the wit's end for offensive items with either rylais or twin shadows (if I'm stomping, and I'll sell that later for a rylais). The only big difference in playsyles for the two champions are that I'm almost exclusively going to peel and play a support role during teamfights with nunu. Also, I spam laugh on nunu more because Nunu bot Laugh is OP.


The rest of my champion pool (in order) would probably be..

Nasus : 9/21/0 MS/AS/Armor/Scaling MR with smite/ghost: almost identical to Udyr and Nunu; Only difference being I will usually build Gauntlet and focus on chasing down their carries in teamfights).

Xin Zhao: 9/21/0 ArP quints, AS/Armor/Scaling MR with smite/flash. One of the only champions I will sometimes build 2 offensive items on (usually BotrK, maybe building Black Cleaver). Similar to Udyr, I chose between peeling or pressuring carries. Same gank/clear patterns.

Shaco 21/9/0 Smite/Ignite MS quints, AD red, AS Yellows/AS blues with smite/ignite. I only play this very rarely usually when I'm frustrated that my team threw a game the previous game. I go total all-in on aggression. I start blue, head straight to red over baron/dragon pit with q and start setting up boxes for a FB in the jungle, then look for an opportunity to gank either lane by their red. I focus almost all my attention on ganking and keeping buff timers. I clear much less when I play shaco and will sit in brushes top or bottom waiting for kills and am usually trying to gank mid every minute or two while killing their mid/jungler at buffs or just taking them every time they're up. I sometimes lvl 6 dragon solo cheese when noone looks gankable when I hit 6. For builds I focus on the core of Hexdrinker (unless they have next to no Magic damage) and A cutlass for good ganking power with the slow and the shield. From here I will always get a BotrK (since your clone gets the passive, incredibly good for dueling), and will either decide that the game is even or we're ahead, at which point I'll build Static Shiv and Hydra and split push all day, or their carry is doing well enough that I have to build PD and IE and focus on assasinating him in teamfights (usually with GA).