Beginner's Predecessor Jungle Guide

This comprehensive jungling guide for Predecessor will help every jungle beginner improve their skills and turn their frustrations into triumphs. Whether you're a newcomer or looking to refine your strategies, the Predecessor jungle guide covers everything you need to know to dominate the jungle in your ranked games.

Predecessor Jungle Guide Role Overview

Jungling is one of the most challenging roles to master in Predecessor due to its high responsibilities and complex gameplay mechanics. As a jungler, you need to farm efficiently, set up and capitalize on ganks, make crucial game decisions, and assist lanes with buffs. Let’s break down each aspect of the Predecessor jungle guide to help you succeed and lead your team to victory.

Key Responsibilities

1. Efficient Farming: Your primary goal is to farm quickly and efficiently. This maximizes the time you can spend setting up ganks for your team and minimizes the downtime between jungle camp clears.
2. Setting Up Ganks: Timing your ganks well can make or break the game. A successful gank can turn the tide of a lane, giving your team a significant advantage.
3. Securing Objectives: Capitalizing on successful ganks to secure objectives like Fangtooth and Prime is crucial. Objectives provide substantial benefits to your team.
4. Shot Calling: As the jungler, you often need to call the shots on when and where to fight. Your map awareness and game sense are vital in making these decisions.
5. Lane Assistance: Helping your lanes secure their respective buffs and providing vision control are also part of your duties.

Jungle Starting Routes and Pathing

Your Predecessor starting jungle route sets the tone for the game. A well-executed route can give you a significant advantage, while a poor start can set you back. Here’s the recommended jungle pathing for everyone:

1. Ward the Blue Camp: At the one-minute mark, place a ward on your blue camp. This helps detect any early invades.
2. Swap for a Sentry Ward: Return to the fountain and exchange your normal ward for a Sentry Ward.
3. Clear the Red Camp and Five Camp: Start with the red camp, then move to the five camp, alternatively some champions will want to start at the blue camp instead, and then do the regular five camp path.
4. Sentry Ward Placement: Place the Sentry Ward on the staircase leading to the Jungle River. This allows you to deward enemy placements.
5. Early Gank or Invade: If the enemy doesn’t have a ward, go for an early level 2 gank. If they do, invade their blue camp instead.

Early Objectives and Fangtooth Strategy

After your initial jungle clear, you should start setting up for the first Fangtooth, which spawns at the 5-minute mark. In this Predecessor jungle guide we are showcasing two approaches:

1. Risky Solo Approach: Back to your red side, grab the red buff, and immediately head to Fangtooth to solo it. This is viable with heroes like Chimera or Rampage and only if there are no wards and all enemies are visible.
2. Safer Team Approach: Secure a kill in the dual lane and then take Fangtooth with your teammates. The more allies you have, the faster and safer the objective can be taken.

Hunt Item

The Hunt item is an essential tool for junglers. It allows you to deal 500 true damage to minions or jungle bosses every 90 seconds. Upon killing 40 jungle minions, it evolves into Wild Hunt, increasing the damage to 1,000. The Hunt item has several passives:

• Deals bonus DOT damage to jungle minions.
• Restores mana on every basic attack.
• Heals you for % of the damage dealt to minions.
• Reduces gold gains from lane minions, discouraging lane farming.

Always ensure you have at least one Hunt stack available before engaging major objectives like Fangtooth.

Countering Your Opponent

Counter-jungling involves outplaying your opponent by invading their jungle and stealing their camps. This denies them farm while increasing your own. Here are some tips:

• Map Awareness: Constantly check the mini-map. If you see the enemy jungler ganking on the opposite side, invade their jungle.
• Track Cooldowns: Check the cooldown timers on enemy camps. If you see a recent timer, the enemy jungler was just there.
• Trade Objectives: If the enemy is taking Fangtooth, go for Mini Prime or vice versa. This ensures you're always gaining something, even if you can't contest directly.

Lane Positioning and Vision

Understanding lane positioning and vision control is critical. Your laners should not overextend without proper ward coverage, and you should focus on ganking when enemies are pushed up. Key points include:

• Ideal Ganking Spots: Gank when enemies are pushed up to the middle jungle fog wall.
• Vision Control: Use Sentry Wards to maintain vision and deward enemy placements. This gives you control over key areas of the map.
• Communication: Work with your laners to set up ganks. They should help by not pushing too aggressively and keeping an eye on enemy wards.

Late Game Objectives

Around the 25 to 30-minute mark, the game shifts towards major objectives and team fights. Key tips for this phase:

• Stay Grouped: Always move with your team to avoid being caught out.
• Objective Timers: Keep track of spawn times for Primal Fangtooth and other major objectives.
• Baiting and Positioning: Engage in strategic positioning battles around objectives. The team that can bait the enemy into a bad engagement usually wins.

Map Shortcuts

Use heroes with abilities that allow them to traverse terrain quickly, such as Khaimera, Feng Mao, and Gideon. Your blink ability can also help, but use it wisely due to its long cooldown.

• Shortcuts: Use cutouts in walls or structures to move quickly.
• Escape Routes: Keep track of potential escape routes for you and your enemies.
• Trade-Offs: Consider whether using your blink is worth it in a given situation.

Viable Junglers in latest Predecessor meta

Different heroes excel in the jungle due to their unique abilities and playstyles. Here's a detailed look at most of the viable junglers:

1. Countess: A late-game damage dealer with teleport utility but weak early game. She requires team support to secure objectives.
2. Rampage: A strong all-around jungler with great sustain, crowd control, and mobility. He is effective throughout the game.
3. Steel: Lacks damage but offers significant crowd control and utility, making him a solid situational pick.
4. Kwang: Has good gank potential with a long-range tether but needs team assistance to secure kills and objectives.
5. Grux: Strong early game presence with a hard-hitting, crowd-control-heavy kit. Effective throughout the game.
6. Crunch: High skill ceiling with strong single-target damage and lock-down abilities. Requires practice to master.
7. Greystone: Good clear and survivability but lacks offensive crowd control. His leap is situational and risky to use offensively.
8. Feng Mao: High damage and gank potential with a high skill ceiling. Better suited to experienced players.
9. Shinbi: Mobile with good jungle camp clear and scaling into the late game. Requires strategic building to maximize effectiveness.
10. Khaimera: Dominant early game with strong ganking and objective control. Falls off if the enemy builds anti-heal.
11. Zerus: Great mid to late game ganker with high damage. Effective with the right build.
12. Serath: Versatile with a high skill ceiling. Excellent at invading and escaping due to her double jump and invisibility.
13. Riktor: Strong ganking potential with his hook but lacks damage and mobility. Relies on teammates for effectiveness.
14. Sevarog: Tanky with great team fight presence but slow to come online. Effective in extended engagements.

Conclusion

I hope this Predecesor jungling guide helps you become a better player and learn to enjoy the jungle role as much as I do. Practice these strategies, understand the strengths and weaknesses of different heroes, and stay aware of the game’s dynamics. Remember, high winrate in the jungle comes from a combination of map awareness, efficient farming, strategic ganking, and effective objective control.