Hey everyone. Mowzer here. I am a diamond jungle main on KR and NA. I spend the majority of my time playing on the KR server. Diversity comes from people thinking outside the box and trying new things. This tier list is purely my opinion and is not being stated as fact.
The list below has the champions listed from 1st to 10th. I feel that 1st is the strongest and 10th is the weakest, of those listed. This does not mean that any of these champions are weak or not viable. I would like to point out that there are far more than 10 viable/good champions. There are, in fact, over 20 junglers I feel are good.
| ATTENTION | This is my opinion and lists only the top 10 champions. This is NOT a complete tier list of every champion that can jungle. My complete “climbing” tier list will be posted at a later date.
_____________________________________________________________________
*5 ? 1: 5th last time, now 1st on my list. **New: not on the previous list.
Rek’sai is top of the food chain. The nerfs to Gragas moved him down a peg and solidified her position as number one this patch. She does well built with warrior or cinderhulk. She provides a lot of pressure all game and can easily secure an XP lead with her tunnels and ultimate.
She does well all game, but her early presence is scary. Her vision makes it easy for her to spot incoming ganks and detect stealthed targets on the prowl. Recalling underground allows for you to regain a bit of health and see those coming to stop you. It’s saved me a number of times. Remember, you can’t sense stationary targets. Tunnels allow for easy clearing and ganking routes. It helps to speed up your transition around the map and this allows for greater XP gains. Add in a global ult that is on a low cooldown and it’s not hard to split push, clear camps, secure objectives, and gank. Doing this allows Rek’sai to stay on par with lane XP or even pull ahead. I prefer cinderhulk with an offensive item or two. Warrior is better when your team needs more damage and you’re doing well yourself. Her CC can be hard to land at times, so make sure you maintain the proper distance to knock the target up.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): cinderhulk/warrior. Pros – high damage to tank ratio, high mobility / Cons – being kited, iffy CC
Gragas got his jolly self nerfed a bit this patch. I don’t think it was enough to knock him out of the top five though. His Q and regen took a hit, but the rest of his kit and passive remain intact. He is still my number one pick atm and I am maintaining a 74% win rate with him. This is a 9% win-rate drop for me since last patch. I did feel the nerfs some and he doesn’t stick nearly as well as he did before.
He is a plump, sighted Lee Sin. He does well all game, but his early game power and damage output is rather high. He doesn’t suffer from the weak game that most tank junglers struggle with. The health shred on his W helps keep him in the game against tanky teams. He can manipulate his targets with R. This ability can split the enemy team, disengage a fight, or engage one. Be careful, this skillshot can demolish a teamfight too. Sending a target to safety or a hostile target into your carries isn’t the best idea. You don’t need to build much damage on him. His overall damage output is rather strong. Avoid using him when playing with unstable or high ping. It’s easy to miss your Q, E, and R with high ping. He’s a blast to play on the 8 ping I get on the KR server.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): cinderhulk. Pros – great engage/disengage, high base damage / Cons – skillshot dependent, outscaled by other tanks late game
I’ve been predicting the rise of Eve for months now. She’s finally starting to get some more traction in Solo Q. I see her picked or banned here constantly on the KR server. Her overall kit does amazingly well against uncoordinated teams. Sight wards aren’t the greatest against her passive and they need to be placed around camps.
She isn’t the best comeback jungler, but she isn’t picked to stall out the game. She is picked to take advantage of her passive and rather high base damage. She has great mobility and is able to sneak into areas with ease. Vision wards placed at strategic places help to counter her, but learning those locations and clearing them aren’t very difficult. She does well to snowball the game and push to an early lead. She can be built a more AP build with runeglaive or a tankier build with warrior. I’ve seen success and failures with both builds. It all just depends on your team composition. Take advantage of the lack of vision of the enemy team and camp the targets you feel will secure the victory.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): runeglaive/warrior. Pros – invisible to sight wards, snowballs easily / Cons – lack of CC, item dependent
Nidalee has been all over the place on various tier lists. I place her rather high and that is because of the chaos of Solo Q. Many games aren’t about player skill vs. player skill and instead are about team moral and breaking the opponent’s mentality. This is where a highly mobile, poking jungler gets the leg up. Nidalee does well at transitioning around the map, sniping, and taking down her targets.
Runeglaive is decent change for Nidalee. She doesn’t have the additional 10% CDR anymore and the overall raw power is down. On the other hand, this item does help her with sustaining her mana pool on jungle camps and adds a weaker lichbane to her kit. It is very easy for her to take use of it in melee form and in AA range in ranged form. She is a snowball jungler and has issues playing from behind, but she does provide poke and utility still. She can be an absolute monster when ahead. There are still a number of invisible spear bugs that Riot hasn’t addressed yet. This gives her an, unfair, advantage. she does best against squishier teams, because her poke and fragile nature doesn’t always stand up against the tanky champions. Her execute is still really good against all targets.
Suggested jungle enchant: runeglaive. Pros – high mobility, great damage / Cons – No CC, skillshot dependent
Nunu was moved down a bit this patch. He just doesn’t have the raw carry power that most junglers have. He can’t really carry a game by himself and he needs a strong carry, preferably an ADC, with him to shine. He does make up for this with his superb ability to secure objectives quickly and the utility he can hand out.
He’s the easiest jungler on this list to jungle with. His Q makes clearing a joke and he is a strong counter-jungler. Early dragons and barons are made simple with maxing out Q and buffing the strongest AA with W. His overall damage output early on is rather high, but it falls off really quickly. Maxing E second doesn’t help this either. The power of clearing faster and taking down dragon/baron with Q is just so much greater. He turns more into a support-tank in the mid and late game. This doesn’t mean his is bad, he just isn’t a carry jungler. He is a great pick for a team player that isn’t overly into being the big shot on the team.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): cinderhulk. Pros – great utility, easy to secure dragon and baron / Cons – low damage, ultimate canceled easily
Vi is fickle lass, but she’s always a solid pick. Her kit does well in Solo Q and her ability to lock down a target is fantastic. She has been hit with nerfs in recent patches, but they weren’t enough to keep her down. Clearing with her isn’t difficult and she scales well throughout the entire game.
She has a rather high base damage and doesn’t need damage items to chunk down tanky targets. Her W shred does well against the cinderhulk users. Q is great for gap closing and helping to lock a target down. Spamming Q in the jungle without blue can drain your mana pool, so avoid doing so when you plan on ganking. She has, typically, no mana sustain items. This means she can become rather useless in a fight without mana. R is great for locking onto a target, but it can drag you away from your own team. Make sure you pick your target wisely and don’t charge too far ahead of you team and end up stranded deep.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): warrior/cinderhulk. Pros – Solid CC, shred (armor and health) / Cons – poor disengage, mana issues
Amumu is a sad little fellow that I have moved around on my list a lot. His kit fits well in the tank meta though. His teamfight is amazing and he can put out a lot of damage without having and offensive items. He doesn’t have the sustain he had during the item era though. This means he can run OOM quickly and he depends on having mana. Unlike some junglers, his AAs are garbage.
His early game is terrible. He can lose an invade to almost every jungler out there. He makes up for this with his mid and late game though. There aren’t many junglers out there that have his amazing teamfighting power either. He can initiate easily with Q and he requires little skill to pull off. Even as pure tank he manages to dish out a load of damage. Practice landing Q, because this is key do initiating and locking down your targets. Remember, your R has a limited range and isn’t exactly instant, there is a mild delay, so it can be dodged with flash or escape abilities. Try starting at red or blue directly when against aggressive invaders like Lee Sin, Pantheon, etc. This can help keep you alive and waste the enemy jungler’s time.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): cinderhulk/runeglaive. Pros – solid team fight, health shred / Cons – mana issues, weak early game
Lee Sin is still in the same location this patch. Not much has changed for him. He is super skill dependent and he gets out scaled by almost every other jungler. I end up banning him a lot. I don’t want some insanely good player on the other team getting him and making my life hell. Also, I don’t want some novice on my team trying to pick him up because they saw some streamer go 30-0 with him. Lee Sin can pull of some amazing moves and destroy the enemy team, but having high ping and low skill proficiency with him make him a trash tier champion.
He has one of the best level 2 invades in the game and this can really tilt the enemy jungler. Sightstone allows him to control the map with vision control and get around more easily. Winning with Lee in Solo Q can be difficult though. There are a list of tanky champions out there that out scale him. You need to secure a solid lead early-mid game on Lee Sin to pull ahead. It is easy for you to steal dragon and baron though. Q with Smite can make life hell for an enemy jungler. He requires a lot of skill to use properly and all his downsides result in a not super high win-rate. The perfect Lee Sin player is a true nightmare to play against though.
Suggested jungle enchant(s): warrior/cinderhulk. Pros – Lots of utility, great invading / Cons – weak late game, player skill dependent
Sejuani continues to slip down the list. The nerf to her W and slowly changing meta aren’t agreeing with her. She’s still a great pick and has a superb teamfight. Her lower damage output and weak early game have set her back a lot though.
She has no sustain and this makes her a very vulnerable target early game. There are many junglers out there that can knock her off her mount and bash her teeth in early game. She makes up for this by having a stellar team fight and a great mid-late game. She can initiate amazingly well though and it is very easy for her to stick to her targets. W doesn’t put out the same damage it once did, but it still does well at shredding higher health targets. Missing R can be punishing though. The slow isn’t nearly as good as the stun. It can be devastating to miss it.
Suggested jungle enchant: cinderhulk. Pros – lots of CC, solid team fight / Cons – no sustain, weak early game
Rengar was initially listed as a contested pick this patch, but I decided to change that. 10th slot was insanely hard to pick this patch. I ended up going with him with his raw ability to carry a game in Solo Q. He has amazing dueling potential and his ability to cleanup a fight is terrific.
He does well built as a tanky jungler or as a glass cannon. His clearing is decent, but his ganks are even better. He can split push for days or execute a carry caught out. He has insane mobility with his pounce and ultimate and can easily traverse the map. It isn’t terribly difficult for him to get to his target and burst it down. Know when to build him full damage and when to get tankier. Rushing all damage when behind isn’t typically a good idea. Managing stacks can be difficult, but it is the key to optimizing his kit and damage. He is not the best at coming back from being behind.
Demotion(s):
- Gragas – The nerf to his regen and Q hurt him. He is still a fantastic pick and his kit does amazingly well in Solo Q.
- Nunu – He doesn’t have the carry potential that all the other junglers have. He depends highly on another carry to pick up the slack.
- Sejuani – The nerf to her W hurt and she is just getting outclassed by other jungleres, imo.
My personal (not listed) good pick(s) – Jarvan: He’s making a bit of a comeback. He’s pretty strong with the cinderhulk + black cleaver combo. He is no where near as good as he once was and the buff to his E didn’t change him too much.
My fun pick(s) – Yasuo: He’s not a terrific pick, but he is fun to play. He fits into knockup teams well and he can carry pretty hard. His clearing isn’t the best though and he’s terrible at coming back form being behind.
_____________________________________________________________________
Post any comments below or let me know what you think. Check out my champion cards and comic series. I hope everyone is enjoying these tier lists. Thank you for all the support, feedback, and criticism. I greatly appreciate it! My social sites are Facebook, Twitch, Youtube, and Twitter. Special thanks goes to my girlfriend for checking my work, input, and helping me with various design projects. You are amazing. Have a wonderful day and best of luck you in your games.
TL;DR – Rek’sai has donned her crown again. Runeglaive screwed over Fiddlesticks pretty hard, but it was a welcome change to some AP junglers. The nerf to Gragas was felt, but it wasn’t game breaking. Jarvan’s E buff wasn’t anything spectacular, but it is nice to get some love.
