With the recent item rework in the 2021 League of Legends preseason, many jungle players found themselves pathless, considering there are no longer jungle items to build toward. Your Smite automatically gets upgraded from the starting jungle item, so you can build whatever you want—just like any other laner—without having to invest gold into a specialized jungle item.
This list includes jungle builds for various archetypes that should aid you in deciding what items to rush so you can dominate your games and finish at the top of the ladder of season 11 of League.
Here are some of the best 2021 season jungle builds.
AD assassin
Runes
Domination primary and Precision secondary are core for most AD assassin champions. The first one gives you access to Electrocute, a powerful keystone that creates a lot of kill opportunities early on. Eyeball Collection will give you additional AD for every takedown, while Ravenous Hunter will give you some much-needed Omnivamp. The secondary tree is taken for Triumph to help you survive those early-game risky plays. The second rune can be either Coup de Grace for additional execute damage or Legend: Alacrity to farm easier in the jungle.
Items
AD assassins are really strong right now due to how easy they can access Lethality. The stat is very powerful early on when opposing champions don’t have armor, allowing you to do almost True Damage to them. The best Lethality item to rush is Prowler’s Claw as a Mythic item. It will give you an additional dash to catch those pesky mobile champions, plus debuffing them to take increased damage from you.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity: These should be your core boots every game due to how strong the ability and Summoner Spell Haste is. It can be rushed before going for your Mythic item.
Prowler’s Claw: This Mythic gives you amazing stats in attack damage, Lethality, and ability haste on top of a dash, which applies a damaging debuff. During the next three seconds, you can unleash devastating amounts of damage on opposing champions.
Youmuu’s Ghostblade: This is a great Lethality item to help you move around the map faster. You can get from one objective to another in less time, shaving off crucial seconds over the course of the entire game.
Edge of Night: This is a decent defensive item with a nice spell shield effect. It allows you to engage on enemies with a small shield to block their first spell. If there are no significant spells to block on the opposing team, however, feel free to get another defensive item such as Hexdrinker.
Serpent’s Fang: This item is a must have in the current meta, where everyone has a lot of shields. It’s a pretty powerful item to counter these tactics, while also giving you decent stats.
Guardian Angel: This is a great defensive item to increase your lifespan and give you some additional AD as well. It’s rushable as a third item.
AP champion
Runes
Domination primary and Sorcery secondary are a staple for AP-oriented junglers. The first one gives you additional burst on top of ability power and movement speed, while the second one increases your power in the river, which is crucial to secure early game crabs. Celerity also scales quite well throughout the entire game, increasing your movement speed the more you have of the stat.
Items
AP champions such as Elise, Morgana, Rumble, and Diana are currently dominating the meta. While three out of these four picks might have been locked as troll picks in the past, they are currently very impactful after recent buffs. They have great itemization options, which allows them to farm the jungle and turn up strong during team fights.
Sorcerer’s Shoes: These are a solid choice of boots to increase your overall damage. You can rush it as a first item if you’re going for a gank-heavy playstyle. It will increase your overall burst damage, while also making you faster around the map. You can forego them and go for Ionian Boots of Lucidity if the enemy is stacking magic resistance.
Night Harvester: This item is perfect for most AP champions since it doesn’t have a long cooldown and it can be activated against every enemy champion. It allows you to deal a nice amount of burst damage on top of your kit every 40 seconds. The Mythic bonus is great as well, increasing your ability haste for each Legendary item. If you want to go for a playstyle to melt tanks, Liandry’s Anguish is a great alternative.
Lich Bane: The jungle meta is oriented toward a lot of AP assassin champions, so getting this item to increase your burst damage is a great choice. The combination of Night Harvester with Lich Bane will allow you to burst down most enemies during a gank. If you’re playing a champion with sustained damage, Nashor’s Tooth is a great alternative instead.
Zhonya’s Hourglass: With so much damage in the game, a defensive item is great to have as an AP jungler. Zhonya’s became cheaper, so you don’t have to tax your laners to purchase it any longer. The stats granted by it are decent, making it a worthy investment.
Rabadon’s Deathcap: If you’re getting a lot of gold, you can invest in the most expensive AP item to increase your damage by a lot. On certain champions, like Evelynn or Ekko, you can rush it after your Mythic item to make your initial burst even deadlier.
Void Staff: With a lot of tanks in the game, you need this staff to be able to damage them. If your mid laner isn’t doing that well, your team will mostly rely on you from the jungle to carry, so it’s important to be able to deal with all threats. It can be acquired even earlier if the enemy is stacking a lot of magic resistance.
Tank
Runes
Resolve tree is the primary option for most tanks to become unstoppable. You want to get Aftershock to become an unkillable machine due to its effect for the first couple of seconds during a gank or teamfight. Other notable useful runes are Conditioning alongside Overgrowth to make you stronger the longer the game goes on.
The secondary tree is Inspiration for the free Boots of Speed alongside some Item Haste and Summoner Spell Haste. But against a heavy crowd-control-oriented team, going for Precision for Legend: Tenacity and Triumph works wonders as well.
Items
While tanks have dropped out of the meta and are not as picked as other archetypes, they can still manage to find success with the proper build. Turbo Chemtank is the most busted Mythic item so should always be purchased. It allows you to charge through the frontline of the opposing team and reach the backline easily. Some tanks are able to melt down squishies with no issues.
Mercury’s Treads: This is a great boot choice to increase your tenacity and magic resist. Against AD champions, aim to get Plated Steelcaps instead.
Turbo Chemtank: This is one of the most powerful items in the game right now. It gives you a huge movement speed boost and allows you to quickly reach the opposing carries.
Dead Man’s Plate: Powerful anti-AD item, which synergizes really well with the Turbo Chemtank. On top of getting traditional stats of health and armor, you’ll be getting movement speed, which will make you even faster during your Mythic item’s active.
Thornmail: With so many healing effects in the game, it’s important to have some healing reduction—and this item is the best option for that. While it used to be situational in the past, it is mandatory nowadays unless your team already has healing reduction effects.
Spirit Visage: A great defensive magic-resist item, which also increases healing and shields on you by 25 percent. The item can be picked up after your Mythic item against heavy AP-oriented compositions.
Force of Nature: Another great defensive item against AP champions, which gives you stacking movement speed and magic resist.
AD bruiser
Runes
Going for the Precision tree and Inspiration secondary is a great choice for Bruiser junglers, who have remained quite strong throughout the season. If you need additional tankiness, you can go for Resolve instead.
Items
While the meta is infested with either AD Assassins or AP junglers, you can still find success with bruisers. You have a wide array of choices for items. One of the most highly-sought Mythic items is Goredrinker, which gives you an active similar to Darius Q, allowing for a lot of outplays.
Mercury’s Treads: These are great boots to rush due to the tenacity they give you alongside magic resistance. Due to the fact that you’ll be aiming to get offensive stats, having the additional magic resist to prevent enemy AP champions from blowing you up is crucial. If you don’t need magic resistance, you can go for Ionian Boots of Lucidity or Plated Steelcaps.
Goredrinker: This is essentially Darius Q as a Mythic item. The combination of health, attack damage, ability haste, and the active effect makes this an efficient first item pickup, giving you a wide array of possibilities to outplay enemies.
Ravenous Hydra: The reworked Ravenous Hydra no longer has an active effect, but it still remains a great item to get due to its passive cleave. The stats granted by it will make you a deadly machine.
Black Cleaver: This is a core item against armor-stacking champions. It grants you a lot of ability haste, health, attack damage, and a new great passive to do a lot of damage.
Death’s Dance: Slightly reworked during the itemization overhaul, Death’s Dance no longer grants you magic resistance. While not as overpowered as in the past, it still remains a decent item to acquire.
Guardian Angel: Overall, Guardian Angel is a great item. It allows you to overextend and come back to life after dying, ready for round two.
