Jungling: Practice

I was playing a normal game with a friend when the following exchange occurred:

Random Jungler: First time jungling Irelia, I should be fine*.
Montegomery: Wouldn't it be better to do a run-through in a custom game first?
Random Jungler: Why would I practice in a custom game when I can practice in normals?

I didn't answer then because engaging in debates over the merits of practice in the middle of a game is ill-advised. To answer succinctly now, practice in a custom game takes five minutes and can save you hours of pain and suffering.

For reasons I can only speculate, the LoL community is generally averse to any practice done outside of live games. The concept of creating a custom game in order to practice a specific skill in a controlled environment is anathema. Many players prefer to spend fifteen minutes waiting to surrender rather than have the opportunity for more practice. While you can learn via this method, it's grossly inefficient and prone to reinforcing bad habits.

Almost every sport and performance art makes use of drills, and with good reason. Drills are short, simple, and repeatable; they make it easy to pick out a mistake and quickly correct it. A proper drill is the fastest way to train a specific skill. It's nearly impossible to do something complicated if you haven't first honed fundamental, prerequisite skills.

Practice is neither glamorous nor exciting, but jumping straight into the deep end is a lesson in drowning, not in swimming. A few minutes of practice will save yourself many an ignominious performance.

*For reference the jungle Irelia started Cloth Armor, farmed slower than a Warwick, tried to build Trinity Force without first building Wriggle's or gp10s, died on most of her ganks, and was generally an embarrassment to junglers everywhere.

Practice: The Hard Way

I've been asked a number of times, often critically, why I practice jungle routes without a leash. To many players such practice seems pointless, as you'll almost always get a leash. The problem is the word "almost", you will play games where no one leashes or some other hardship occurs. Being prepared for these adverse circumstances is essential to jungling.

Consider the first oRb vs TSM game at yesterday's Curse Invitational Tournament. oRb's crazy five-man push mid reversed the advantage TSM had gained from a jungle invasion. However, that advantage was quickly lost because Warwick, possibly the safest and easiest jungler in the game, failed to properly jungle immediately afterward. oRb's early game faltered almost entirely because their jungler did not properly gauge their ability to jungle after taking significant damage in a skirmish.

You can't practice every conceivable adverse scenario, but you don't have to. With a few simple practice exercises you can develop knowledge that applies universally.

SETUP:

• Create a custom game without bots.
• Pick a jungle champion to practice.
• Restrict yourself with one of the following conditions, going as far as your health will take you before recalling:
1. Instead of starting at Blue, start Red and clear twice without taking Blue.
2. Simulate a Smite-stolen buff by using Smite a little prematurely, backing off, and then jungling as though the buff were gone.
3. Take two tower hits shortly before minions spawn, and then attempt to jungle normally.
• Do not use Cloth Armor as your starting item.

These three exercises focus on two critical points, the jungler's resource-dependence and their durability. Exercise #1 focuses on the former, imitating an uncounterable invasion at Blue, while Exercise #3 focuses on the latter. Exercise #2 is a mix of both, and is easily the hardest of the three. By practicing these exercises you can develop a strong sense of what a jungler can or cannot do in abnormal circumstances.

Do not be discouraged if your chosen jungler can not clear in these circumstances. The goal is not to clear the jungle, but to obtain the ability to judge whether you can clear a few camps or should immediately recall. Dying or nearly dying to creeps is a natural part of this process, and nothing to be ashamed of.


This practice is not a daily routine, but something you can do when you have fifteen or twenty minutes available. You'll want to execute multiple runs in order to get the best sense of a jungler's capabilities. The more you practice this, the easier it becomes to understand new junglers and setups.

Thought: New Junglers

Whenever new champions are released, or old ones revamped, the perennial question is, "Are they a good jungler?" It's not an easy question to answer for any number of qualities makes a jungler good. As I'll be releasing a few new jungle videos over the next few days I thought this would be an excellent time to discuss how I evaluate junglers.

The primary test for any jungler is their ability to clear the jungle safely and securely. A jungler's mobility, ganks, and utility hardly matter if they can't take on the jungle itself. While you can always run Cloth Armor and 5 Potions and be essentially guaranteed a safe clear, I prefer to test using boots and sustain items. If a jungler can clear with out the "crutch" of Cloth Armor, they have a high chance of being strong and effective.

Once a jungler's basic competency is verified, the more time-consuming task of developing a build begins. It can take many, many runs to zero in on an optimal build due to number of independent variables. Runes, masteries, skill order, route, and execution all play a significant part, and minor changes to any of them can give significant returns. The effort doesn't always pay off, but it's gratifying to find a setup that takes an otherwise "okay" jungler and makes them strong.

Only after finding an "optimal" build do I begin testing the jungler in games, assuming they seemed viable. Keeping everything in context during this phase is important, as it's easy to draw bad conclusions from games where you were outright amazing or horrible. It's also easy to overestimate a jungler by forgetting the intrinsic benefit of being new and unfamiliar. This stage is the most fun, especially if the jungler turns out to be strong.

Those are the basics of evaluating a jungler. I'll go into more depth tomorrow as I discuss my setup and build choices for Hecarim.

Thought: Life Without Leashing

Leashing has not always been a part of League of Legends. Long ago jungle creeps would not change targets after reaching their leash range, but would simply reset. In addition, the range for shared exp from jungle creep kills was once three times what it is now. It is only because these mechanics changed that leashing became possible.

Today it is easy to take leashing for granted, and many players now find it pointless to practice jungling without a leash. As receiving a leash is almost certain, practicing without one can seem counterproductive. Don't fall into this mental trap, it will cause you to lose games.

For the same reason that one should practice blue-dependent junglers without blue buff, one should practice junglers without leashing. If you aren't prepared to jungle in adversity you aren't truly prepared to jungle. It may not happen frequently, but there will be games where you will not get a leash. Competitive players need to be ready not only for normal and ideal scenarios, but also for the worst-case.

Though it may seem odd, past a certain point leashes actually become less likely as your Elo increases. This is because level 1 team fights and invasions become much more common. It is often awkward for anyone to leash for you following an invasion, as doing so will cost them farm and put them at a disadvantage. Being prepared to jungle effectively without a leash and at varying health levels is the mark of a veteran jungler.

Practicing with a leash is not a bad idea, but shunning leashless practice is a mistake. There's a lot to learn from adversity that can't easily be found elsewhere.

Practice: Last-Hitting

Last-hitting is the most basic and important skill a player can have in League of Legends. Thankfully it's also one of the easiest to practice. Here's one exercise you can use.

SETUP:

• Create a custom game without bots.
• Pick a champion to practice.
• Grab your starting item and take the mid lane.
• Last hit for 9 creep waves (the final wave will be a cannon minion wave arriving around 6 minutes).
• Compare your score to the maximum possible (57).

The goal is to improve your ability to last hit, and like any practice method the more you put into it the more you get out of it. Auto-attacking and using skills to quickly clear the wave undermines the exercise. You may improve your score through shortcuts, but the score is a tool and not the goal.

Last-hitting without an opponent to harass you may seem pointless, but it is actually very important. If you can't last-hit without an opponent, how are you ever going to last-hit with one? By practicing mechanics in a controlled environment you commit them to instinct and muscle memory. What you practice will manifest itself when you play in a real game.

Practice just a little bit every day, it only takes a few minutes. If you stick with it you'll soon notice the difference it makes.