Hey everyone and welcome.
Today we have something really exciting for you.
You'll be learning the brand new OP meta routes in the jungle.
After painstakingly going through hundreds of different replays of pro players in every
single region, we've identified the most popular and effective routes these challenger players
are using to destroy solo queue.
Before we jump into it, we first need to establish what's changed in the jungle that's caused
these new jungle paths to emerge.
There are two changes to the jungle camps that every jungler needs to be aware of in
order to understand the new routes.
First, is how the small jungle camps now respawn 30 seconds faster, from 2 minutes and 30 seconds
down to 2:00 minutes.
Because of this, Riot reduced the gold and experience all of these small camps give.
However, while doing this, they also adjusted the value of both of the jungle quadrants.
For those unaware, last season the Red side jungle was significantly more valuable than
the blue side jungle.
If you were to clear your Krugs and Raptors it would earn you 362 experience and 237 gold.
Compare this to your blue side jungle, where if you were to clear your Gromp and Wolves,
you would earn 230 experience and 170 gold.
This made the Red side jungle more profitable as it was worth an extra 132 experience and
67 gold.
Now, this has changed, as Riot nerfed the amount of gold and experience Krugs give,
while buffing the gold and experience Gromp gives.
What this means, is that your Red side jungle is now only worth 25 experience and 20 gold
more than your Blue side jungle.
This has caused the Red side jungle to be significantly less profitable than it used
to be compared to your Blue side jungle and now they're much closer to being even in value.
The second thing you need to be aware of is how you can now hit level 3 off of 3 camps
in both jungle quadrants.
Before, the only way to hit level 3 off of 3 camps, was to incorporate your Krugs into
your opening route since they gave so much experience.
An example of this would be taking Red, Krugs, and Raptors, this would cause you to hit level
3.
Now, you can still hit level 3 using Krugs just like before, but they've buffed the Gromp
enough that you can also hit level 3 on that side of the map.
An example of this would be taking your Blue, Gromp, and Wolves.
This would cause to hit level 3, which wasn't possible before.
As you can imagine, this has also helped in making your Blue side jungle more valuable
of a starting location compared to before.
So what do all these changes mean?
Well, before, starting at your Red and taking your Krugs and Raptors were so much more profitable
than your blue side jungle, that it became the dominant route that nearly every jungler
took.
Now, starting at your Blue is just as viable as starting at your Red, this means junglers
can be more much more flexible with their starting locations and the routes that they
choose afterwards.
Alright, enough theory, let's show you exactly what we mean by this with the new meta routes.
We'll be dividing these routes into two categories: routes where you're starting at your Blue
and routes where you're starting at your Red.
We'll begin with when you start at your Blue, as this is where things have changed the most.
Let's hop into a replay of Korean pro player Peanut showing off the new route.
You start at your Blue, then take your Gromp, then your Wolves, then your Red, you then
look to gank before the nearby Scuttle spawns and afterwards you take the Scuttle.
So let's breakdown the logic behind this route.
After taking your Blue you have to take your Gromp.
This is because the Gromp is worth so much more gold and experience now.
Additionally, it's what will unlock your ability to hit level 3 off of 3 camps instead of the
usual 4.
Next, you take your Wolves.
The idea behind taking your Wolves here is that you're full clearing one entire Quadrant
of your jungle.
This means that 2 minutes from now, both your Gromp and Wolves will have respawned and will
be a higher level and give more experience.
This is very efficient, since when you come back to this side of the map later on to clear
your Gromp, you can quickly take your Wolves after, both giving you a big boost in experience.
After this we take our Red, this way our champion will have double buffs and the Red Buff is
extremely valuable in early ganks and fights since it applies a slow on your auto-attacks
and a burn for more damage.
At this point we look to gank since we're waiting for the nearby Scuttle to spawn and
by ganking a lane close to this Scuttle it can help secure lane priority.
With this lane priority, your teammates can move to help secure the Scuttle if the enemy
jungler tries to contest it.
After the gank, you then take the nearby Scuttle.
Remember, all of your jungle camps were nerfed in gold and experience, but Scuttles stayed
the same, making them a bit more valuable than before.
This is the new standard Blue side route for nearly all junglers.
The one exception is farming junglers.
Champions like Karthus, Master Yi, and Olaf will look to full clear their jungle instead,
taking advantage of their fast clear speed and the new shorter respawn timers on the
camps.
Now, things aren't as simple as executing this one route every single game though.
Earlier, we mentioned how the new jungle is much more flexible and you're about to see
what we mean by that.
In this replay, we have a challenger EU West Rek'Sai facing the pro player Broxah on Lee
Sin.
Rek'Sai is starting at his Blue and will look to execute the route we just went over.
He does Blue, and then Gromp, remember, Gromp is mandatory since it gives so much more gold
and experience and unlocks our ability to hit level 3 faster
However, he then skips his Wolves, and moves straight to his Red.
Why is this?
Well this is how you can be flexible now with your route.
Let's go back to when Rek'Sai first started at his Blue.
As a jungler, you always want to check the side lanes to see who appears late as this
indicates they're giving a leash to the enemy jungler.
In this case, the enemy bot lane shows early, while top lane is missing, this indicates
that the enemy Lee Sin is starting at his Red.
This means that both Rek'Sai and Lee Sin are starting on the same side of the map and will
be pathing towards the bot side of the map together.
So Rek'Sai makes a new adjustment, he skips his Wolves and heads straight to his Red.
This way, he'll still hit level 3 and have double buffs, but he'll get to the bottom
side of the map before Lee Sin.
By making this adjustment, he can then gank before Lee Sin and getting the first gank
off can be extremely valuable when two early game junglers face each other and start on
the same side of the map.
That's not all though, you can even make another adjustment to this route.
In this replay we have pro player Maxlore playing Elise against Shyvanna.
He starts at his blue, looking to execute the standard route we taught you, taking Gromp,
Wolves, Red, then looking to gank.
So Maxlore does his Gromp next, since as we mentioned it's mandatory, but unlike the last
replay chooses to take his Wolves instead of skipping them, why is this?
Well, let's go back to when Elise started at her Blue and check the side lanes.
The enemy top shows early while bot is missing, this indicates the enemy Shyvanna is getting
a leash at her Red.
Just like last game, both junglers are starting on the same side of the map.
So why did Maxlore choose to take Wolves instead of skipping them to get to the top side of
the map faster?
Well, the secret is that he's against Shyvanna jungle, a jungler that is weak early and well
known to look to full clear in her opening route.
So Elise knows that there's no rush to the top side of the map since it's highly likely
the enemy Shyvanna will be full clearing her jungle.
This is why Maxlore takes his Wolves as normal, instead of skipping them.
However, then shortly after, instead of taking his Red, which would normally be the next
step in the route, Elise looks to gank mid.
So what's going on here?
Well, remember, when you take your Blue, Gromp, and Wolves, you'll hit level 3 now, whereas
you would have been level 2 before.
With level 3 unlocked, Elise now has access to all 3 of her abilities and can look to
gank.
As Elise is transition to take her Red, she checks the state of her lanes.
In doing so, she see's that Ryze is not only low on health mid, but if we look at the minion
wave, we can see how Ryze has more minions than Camille, meaning it's pushing towards
Camille.
Also, take note of how Ryze and Camille are still level 2, while Elise is level 3.
This is another advantage that this new route unlocks: hitting level 3 so fast.
So Elise flash cocoons and lands a kill on Ryze, that she otherwise would have missed
if she didn't make that adjustment in her opening route.
Before we move onto the Red side jungle routes, let's quickly recap.
The new standard route when starting at your Blue is Blue, Gromp, Wolves, into Red.
You then look to gank and then take the nearby Scuttle when it spawns.
However, this is highly flexible.
This first starts after you take your Gromp.
It's at this point you can choose to skip your Wolves and head straight to your Red.
The benefit to doing this is you can get to the other map much faster.
An example of when this can be done is if the enemy jungler started on the same side
of the map as you and you want to get the first gank off before them.
However, if you didn't skip your wolves, and instead did Blue, Gromp, Wolves, then it's
at this point you can make another adjustment.
Check to see if there's a gank available in mid lane or on the side lane that's near your
Red Buff.
If there is, then you can delay taking your Red Buff and look to gank them instead.
The reason why you can do this now is you can hit level 3 off of Blue, Gromp, and Wolves,
which makes your ganks far more powerful since you'll have access to all 3 of your abilities.
Now, moving on to your Red side jungle.
In terms of your standard route, it's still going to be Red, Krugs, into Raptors.
It's at this point, you can make several choices.
The most standard follow up is to take your Blue into the nearby Scuttle, and then look
to gank.
However, there are two main variations to this route.
First, is when you take your Red, Krugs, and Raptors, you can look to transition gank mid
with your level 3 power spike if a gank is available.
This can then be followed up with a gank on the side lane taking the path behind the enemy's
Red buff to avoid wards.
Or just moving to secure your Blue buff.
The other variation is when you do Red, Krugs, and Raptors and the enemy jungler started
at his Red.
When this is the case, you have the option of ganking the nearby side lane.
Although this leaves your blue side jungle open to being invaded, since the enemy jungler
started on the opposite side as you, it means his own blue side jungle will still be alive.
You can then invade his blue side jungle after the gank and look to split the map in half.
All of these routes we've covered before and have detailed guides so if you want to learn
more about them check out our Jungle Course on Meta Routes.
That being said, there's one new route that has become viable on the new patch.
That's when you do Red, then head straight to your Blue, and then take your Gromp.
Since your Gromp gives so much more experience, you'll hit level 3 off of this and have double
buffs.
The main benefit to this route is that it puts you on the opposite side of the map with
level 3 significantly faster than when you do Red, Krugs, and Raptors.
For example, in this replay we can see a challenger player take Red, Blue, and then Gromp, putting
him on the top side of the map extremely fast while still being level 3 with double buffs.
He then uses this increased speed to time a dive on top lane as a wave crashes.
Look at how the enemy Vladimir is still level 1, making it impossible for Vladimir to survive
against this.
Now, the point of this route isn't to do some coordinate next level dive on the opponent,
but rather how to execute a gank on the opposite side of the map you started on much faster
than usual.
So let's quickly recap the Red side jungle routes.
Taking Red, Krugs, and Raptors is still going to be the default meta path as you'll hit
level 3 off of 3 camps while making sure that entire quadrant of your jungle will respawn
together, making for more efficient experience.
After taking your Raptors you have three choices.
First, head to your Blue as normal, then secure the nearby Scuttle.
Third, is if the enemy jungler started on the opposite side of the map.
You can gank the nearby side lane and then look to invade the enemy's blue and split
the map in half.
There's one main alternative to taking your Red, Krugs, and Raptors.
And that's to take your Red, Blue, into Gromp.
This is done if you need to get to the opposite side of the map faster while still hitting
level 3 and securing double buffs.
Great, so now you're equipped with starting routes for when you start at your Blue or
your Red, but many of you are probably wondering, how do I decide which buff to start on?
As you can see with these routes, we're most often transitioning to the opposite side that
we're starting on.
So if we're starting at our Blue, we're pathing towards our Red.
And if we start at our Red, we're pathing towards our Blue.
This means, you want to choose what buff you start at depending on which side lane you
want to gank.
For example, let's say you're on the Blue team and in top lane you have two tanks facing
each other, let's say Sion against Ornn.
Not exactly an important lane you need to influence as a jungler.
However in the bot lane you have Lucian Leona against Tristana Alistar.
This is a highly aggressive, volatile bot lane.
As such, we'd want to start at our Blue, and path towards the bot side of the map looking
to influence that volatile bot lane.
Alright, that's going to do it for this guide.
Keep in mind, this is just the start of the pre-season and there's a ton more for us to
cover that we couldn't possibly fit into just one video.
So stay tuned, as each week we'll be unraveling all the new cutting edge strategies you won't
find anywhere else.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below, and as always, good luck,
and have fun, on summoner's rift.