Jungler: Karthus

Jungle Karthus? What madness is this!? You might be confused by the topic, but believe me when I say that jungle Karthus is real, effective, and arguably the strongest Ability Power-based jungler in the game (apologies Akali, but tis true).

Jungle Karthus:

• Quints: Spell Vamp
• Marks: Attack Damage or Magic Penetration
• Seals: Armor
• Glyphs: Flat Ability Power or Magic Penetration
• Masteries: 21/0/9 or 21/7/2 or 9/0/21

The mechanics behind jungle Karthus are actually very simple. Lay Waste is an extremely Mana-efficient and spammable nuke, giving Karthus potent clearing power, and only suffers the AoE Spell Vamp penalty if it hits multiple targets. With Defile providing mana returns on kills, Karthus can sustain both his mana and his health (through Spell Vamp) while jungling. His combination of speed and sustain makes him an extremely fast and effective jungler, even without Blue buff.

His ganking is also extremely dangerous both before and after level 6. His Wall of Pain is an extremely long range and long duration crowd control, reaching 1000 range and lasting 5 seconds. With only one rank the slow is a potent 40%, making any opponent hit an easy target for Lay Waste. So long as your aim is true Karthus brings more than enough damage to a gank to take down all but the tankiest, most slippery champions by himself.

Once he has Requiem, Karthus can "gank" without even leaving the jungle, although it serves just as well as a follow up to an actual gank. The constant, global pressure applied by the threat of red orbital laser death is not to be underestimated. If undisturbed or distracted Karthus can hit level 6 less than a minute after a typical solo lane, sometimes in parity. The result is a jungler who can quickly take control of the game.

Karthus also is extremely good at taking Dragon. His huge single target damage when spamming Lay Waste on a stationary target means Dragon falls quickly, not even requiring the presence of anything other than a support should there be sufficient mana. Later in the game he poses a similar threat to Baron, meaning that as a jungler he has surprisingly few weak areas despite being so unorthodox.

It's important to embrace lane taxation and selfishness as jungle Karthus, for it benefits your team significantly for you to gain farm. Hold lanes whenever possible, do not shy away from grabbing a few creeps following a successful gank, and figure out in advance who will have priority on Blue buff. So long as you do not handicap your team you'll be able to carry them in mid-game fights.

In terms of item build I generally focus on getting a quick Spirit Strone, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes. The former item helps your clearing significantly, and the latter makes your ganks and Requiem significantly scarier. From there, building a Tear of the Goddess and finishing Spirit of the Spectral Wraith should be your priorities. Follow those items with Haunting Guise, Seeker's Armguard, and whatever else suits the game at hand. Unless your team is truly struggling, you'll have a commanding presence in team fights.

Jungle Karthus is often overlooked in today's meta, but despite not being a dive-oriented tanky bruiser he is an extremely secure and viable jungler. Just be ready for when people call you a troll (they don't know any better).

Jungler: Nasus

With Nasus' Siphoning Strike now granting double the stacks when killing large jungle creeps, Nasus is now a powerful jungler (especially if you have Crit runes).

What makes Nasus so strong is that his damage is largely independent of his itemization. So long as you properly last-hit with Siphoning Strike as you jungle you'll be able to hit like a truck. This allows Nasus to build tank items early without being ineffective during ganks, skirmishes, and fights over  objectives.

You do want those early tank items to sport Cooldown Reduction. This enhances both Nasus' offense by allowing for more Siphoning Strikes, and his defense by increasing his Wither uptime. Nasus with Cooldown Reduction is far, far scarier than Nasus without. For this reason my first items are typically Glacial Shroud and Kindlegem, which I later upgrade into Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage.

The next priority for Nasus is to become unkiteable. The best way to do this is to build Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Swiftness Boots. Between Tenacity, reduced slow effectiveness, and Wither spam, running away from Nasus is extremely difficult. Nasus lacks gap closers, so it's easy to get kited if you aren't prepared.

It's only after completing all of those items that I begin to consider offense. Against an Armor-stacking team Last Whisper is extremely effective, and also cheap. Nasus' doesn't stack Black Cleaver fast enough for it to be a worthwhile investment, and you should already be capped or near-capped on Cooldown Reduction anyway. Infinity Edge is currently an excellent option against Armor-light teams, though when and if Siphoning Strike's interaction with Crit is removed that will change. Most games you won't reach this point, or if you do there won't be much of the game left.

The most critical skill required to jungle Nasus is last-hitting with Siphoning Strike. Failing to judge its damage properly is fatal. The better you do early, the better you'll do later, so focus heavily on making that first clear smooth and effective, it'll carry through to later clears.

As the game goes on, realize that Nasus is a monster when it comes to objectives and towers. With his monster 14-20% Life Steal and auto-resetting Siphoning Strike Nasus can easily solo Dragon; just drop a pink ward, wait for a nearby lane to recall, and go. Towers provide little obstacle as well, falling quickly if left unguarded.

In team fights either spam Wither on the enemy ranged AD carry, or use it as a peeling tool for your carry. Nasus is just as happy to take chunks out of a bruiser's health as he is chasing squishies. So long as you keep spamming Wither  and smacking people around you'll have a ton of presence.

Jungle Nasus is strong enough to use just about any rune/mastery setup you can think of. All you need to do is pick what fits your playstyle, and scatter your enemies like the sands of the desert.

Jungler: Rengar

Rengar is now available. While I suspect he's better suited to top lane, he's a very capable jungler.

Rengar's passive makes him extremely effective at ganking side lanes or ambushing opponents in the jungle. The prevalence of brush in these places essentially gives him free, infinite gap closers on any targets that stray near to brush. Normally brush is a safe-haven for champions escaping a gank or through the jungle, but not against Rengar.

Rengar's overall kit is ideal for gank-heavy jungling. His auto-attack reset/nuke/attack speed buff gives him the damage needed to deal with buff camps and champions. His primary clearing tool is also a defensive steroid and sustain source, giving him built-in tankiness. That tankiness allows him to build damage/utility items early on without being a liability in team fights. He also has a ranged slow/root and, after level 6, the ability to bypass wards. Rengar's exclusive snowball item, filled with utility delicious for jungling, is just icing on the cake.

What Rengar doesn't have is strong initiation. While he can suddenly appear and potentially slow/root someone, his lack of followup CC is crippling unless you're catching an opponent who's way out of position. If Rengar is jungling, you'll be looking for your initiation elsewhere unless he's very fed.

Still, he looks to be an extremely fun jungler, and Shaco-level in his potential to abuse thoughtless or careless opponents.

The rune page suggested in the spotlight is fine, but you'll want to skill QWE R>W>Q/E rather than maxing Q first. The defense and clearing power of W is simply superior to the meager returns from ranking up Q.

Jungler: Katarina

The most interesting aspect of jungle Katarina is how quickly she went from the darling of Saintvicious' imagination to the garbage heap. She is the best, most recent example of what happens when players get caught up in an idea without thoroughly testing it.

It's too soon to definitively call Katarina a terrible jungler, but she currently suffers from several debilitating problems. She is fragile to the point where she can't start boots without an extremely specific rune page, and even then she won't be in a position to gank after her first clear. Even Mundo and Shyvana, well known for often starting Cloth Armor, can start boots. Katarina also has no clear build, as AP items are expensive and largely out of the question for a jungler. Finally, she is reliant on her lanes to provide crowd control for ganks and team fights. Without solutions to these issues jungle Katarina is simply bad.

All of this would have been known by Saintvicious and the community if they had simply tried to jungle Katarina on the PBE. Yet, without having done so, many players were forecasting her coming preeminence. The combination of spammable movement speed boosts and a gap closers is certainly unique, but ganking is only one facet of jungling. Failing to cautiously consider the implications of Katarina's lack of sustain and verify her potential through tests lead to Saintvicious' disappointment and dramatic reversal.

It's a shame jungle Katarina hasn't worked out as her playstyle would have been fairly fun and unique. However, she serves as a useful example and reminder that theory and experience must be tempered by each other.

Jungler: Diana

Having had the opportunity to jungle Diana I can declare, with the confidence and certainty of experience, that there is absolutely no reason to jungle Akali unless Diana is banned. As junglers, and arguably as champions, Diana is in every way superior to Akali.

Diana's superiority is not rooted in the ease of her jungling, but that is a notable attribute nonetheless. Starting with W at level 1 and maxing Q first, Diana clears quickly while taking little meaningful damage. After her first clear she practically auto-pilots through the jungle. She becomes so fast she could easily be played Udyr/Shyvana style, but that would be a waste of her considerable talents.

What makes Diana so much better than Akali is superior damage. Diana, without items, does more damage with her passive and W than Akali does with her passive and E (which is often unusable in teamfights and chases). On top of that Diana's Q and R are roughly equivalent in damage to Akali's. Diana simply does more damage with fewer items.

Essentially, Diana can afford to ride her high base damage into the mid-game and primarily build defensive items. For a champion based around jumping into the thick of things and going toe to toe with the enemy team's primary damage dealers, this is an incredibly important trait. You might try the same on Akali, but to significantly less effect.

Overall Diana is a very strong jungler. Possibly the strongest that's ever been released. I'm fairly certain she'll be nerfed significantly in the near future, at which point Akali may obtain a competitive edge. For now, Diana is simply the best at what she does without contest.

Jungler: Nunu

Nunu recently received a couple of significant buffs, and as a result he is now an incredibly competitive jungler. The buffs may not immediately look like much, but in practice they are complete game changers.

The most important change is the reduction in stacks required for Nunu to get a free spell. Dropping from 7 to 5 is practically a 40% increase in the number of free spells Nunu can fire off. The effect is so large even haphazard play leaves Nunu with plenty of mana for ganks. By removing Nunu's mana issues he can now focus his item build on other attributes.

Dropping the cooldown on Consume smooths out Nunu's early jungling significantly. The rank 1 cooldown lines up extremely nicely with the time spent clearing camps; it always comes off cooldown just before arriving at the next camp. Combined with a significant damage increase at rank 1, Nunu's jungle is now much faster than before. In fact, Nunu now has the fastest level 3 gank I am aware of, reaching the lane with double-buffs no later than 3:00 game time!

Finally, Nunu's ultimate is no longer worthless if interrupted. Even if it is immediately stopped it still does a tenth of its normal damage, and the damage gradient as it progresses is much more forgiving. A half-completed Nunu ult is now much, much more dangerous.

The summation of all these changes makes Nunu an extremely strong jungle pick. His ganks, utility, and jungle control are utterly superb. Jungle Nunu is back, and with a vengeance.

Jungler: Akali (Part 2 of 2)

The revised jungle Akali video is out, which means it's time to talk about the specifics of her setups.

This is my first video with a leash. I did this specifically because I wanted to show the early gank potential of the setup. It's easy to say, "With a leash your health levels will remain high and you can transition straight into a gank" but many people need to see it to understand. It's still possible to complete the route without one, though it's obviously slower and you'll only be at half health by the end.

The setup shown in the new video was made possible by the buff to Flat AP Glyphs. Prior to this buff it was not possible to reach 19.5 AP with just one AP Quint unless you also put at least 19 points in Offense masteries. While a 21/X/X setup can work for jungle Akali, it's significantly less safe and misses out on the excellent Spell Vamp mastery in the Utility tree. The ability to choose from a wider variety of mastery setups is the most notable gain from before the patch.

I would only use this new setup, however, if I was intent on starting boots. Trading a Spell Vamp Quint for AP does not make sense when you're starting with an Amplifying Tome. The small amount of damage you gain early does not make up for the sustain and late-game usefulness of Spell Vamp.

While the new setup is novel I actually prefer the old setup. The extra sustain allows for a greater variety of item choices as it's easier to grab Sorc Boots or Sheen early instead of Hextech Revolver. You can still start boots as well if you use Ignite at level 1 in conjunction with the Offense mastery for its AD/AP boost, and Ignite will come off cooldown just in time for a level 4 gank. The old setup is simply is equal for the first clear, better thereafter, and more versatile overall.

In conclusion, jungle Akali has reached the point where there is no longer one preferred method. There are now multiple viable setups, and possibly many more I haven't discovered. While this doesn't make her any less of a black sheep, it seems less impossible that she might one day be recognized as a jungler.

Jungler: Akali (Part 1 of 2)

I've completed a new jungle Akali video, but due to technical difficulties I wasn't able to upload it last night. The video showcases a new rune setup made possible by the changes in the Hecarim patch. I'll save the discussion of said setup until tomorrow. For now I'd like to talk less about the specifics of jungle Akali and more about the jungler herself.

Jungle Akali has been viable for a long, long time, yet is rarely played even by enthusiasts such as myself. Despite becoming stronger with the recent patch changes I doubt this state of affairs will change. For all her strengths and uniqueness, jungle Akali faces a number of problems which have held her back as a competitive pick.

The most crippling of these issues is her rune setup. Jungling as Akali requires a specifically tailored rune page just for her. While this rune page can be used by a handful of other junglers they are equally happy using any number of alternative rune pages. Moreover, the Spell Vamp Quintessences and Flat Ability Power Glyphs are not common runes, meaning jungle Akali requires a hefty investment of at least 16140 IP. For someone like me who has played the game forever and thus has had plenty of time to amass IP and rune pages that isn't a problem, but for the average player these costs are extremely prohibitive.

The second key factor is that of team composition; jungle Akali is hard to fit on a team. As the only AP assassin who can effectively jungle you might think she'd have a niche, but there simply isn't much demand for assassin junglers in general let alone a specialization within that category. The vast majority of junglers are bruiser/tanky types, so picking anything else defies expectations and requires your team adapt.

There are other, less critical factors, such as community awareness/preconceptions or Akali's window of effectiveness. However, these are relatively minor and many junglers have similar shortcomings without being left in obscurity.

In a vacuum jungle Akali is very strong. She clears and sustains well, can donate blue buff like all manaless junglers, has multiple routes, is a slippery duelist, and of all the junglers she even makes the best use of Smite because it acts as a self-heal once you've reached sufficient levels of Spell Vamp. She's also very fun, which is a critical component of any champion. However, we do not jungle in a vacuum, and so Akali isn't used because you can not separate her from her costs and composition troubles.

Someday Akali will be recognized as a good jungler. Until then she'll remain true to her ninja way, hidden in the shadows.

Jungler: Kayle

A few days overdue, but as I've posted a revised jungle Kayle video I should take the time to comment on jungle Kayle

Kayle is an extremely unique jungler. She is not only one of a very small list of junglers who fall back on a support role if they are aggressively counterjungled, but she is also one of the only ranged junglers. While you can jungle a number of AD carries, Kayle stands head and shoulders above them in terms of clear speed, sustain, and simple usefulness on jungle levels of farm. Similarly, she makes better use of jungle farm than most supports who can jungle. She can even become a bruiser with the right build. By being versatile and strong in both adverse and advantageous situations Kayle can fit into many team compositions.

Despite her versatility most teams are used to running tanky junglers designed either for initiation or for diving the enemy carries. Kayle, even when built like a bruiser, does neither of these things. What she can do, however, is make one of your carries impossible to kill, all while doing significant damage herself. Your team needs to keep this in mind during picks and while playing.

Kayle can be a very fun jungler. I recommend trying her out, there's little that beats watching Karthus running around invulnerable in the middle of the enemy team.

Jungler: Hecarim

Now that my jungle Hecarim video is finished it's time to discuss him as a jungler, and to illustrate the process I followed while investigating his abilities.

The first thing I noticed about Hecarim is that he's not particularly durable during his first clear. In fact, my initial attempts at jungling on him were all failures; he was unable to clear without dying or recalling. The challenge, then, was to figure out a setup which would allow him to at least finish. It became obvious after a few tests that that it was necessary to take W at level 1 and run at least 12 in Defense masteries.

The next step I took was to examine Hecarim's skillset, which seems well suited to a gank-heavy playstyle. Using that assumption as an anchor made refining skill order, runes, and masteries significantly easier. I chose to max Q first, use APen quints, and take the buff duration mastery in order to strengthen Hecarim's ganks, while incidentally also speeding up his clear.

After a few more runs and tweaks the final remaining issue was Hecarim's item build. Because he uses abilities more than auto-attacks to clear Wriggle's is somewhat awkward. Instead I decided to build Philosopher's Stone, Avarice Blade, and Brutalizer for early items. These items provide everything Hecarim is interested in, sustain, mana regen, CDR, APen, and build into items with movement speed boosts.

Everything up until this point was mostly theory. I hadn't actually played a game as Hecarim, only tested, observed, hypothesized, and tested again. After actually playing him in games with my setup I took away the following impressions.

First and foremost, Hecarim is an extremely strong ganker. His movement speed is such while E is active that there's very little time to react. As long as you don't run into a ward you are guaranteed to force summoner spells. With Q he also does a great deal of damage, which you can dish out even if an enemy is just outside of auto-attack range. His ganks only becomes stronger once he gets his ultimate.

Second, Hecarim can do well without blue. Like Skarner and Olaf he really loves to have blue, but with Philosopher's Stone I found him more than capable of dealing without. In fact, the effect was so good I've reconsidered purchasing those items on his aforementioned peers.

Finally, Hecarim is simply fun. He looks cool, sounds cool, and there are few things as fun as zooming into a lane at Mach 5 before leaping halfway across the screen, blades whirling, to crush a fleeing enemy.

Whether or not he's truly viable or a top tier jungler is difficult to say so soon after release, but at the very least I felt well rewarded for my efforts when I went 8/1/8 in my first ever game as him. That sort of success doesn't always happen with a new jungler, but when it does it's a great feeling.