Hey everyone and welcome.
Today we have something really special for you.
We'll be going over the top 5 things the rank 1 korean jungler does to win, that you don't.
And who's this godlike jungler we'll be learning from?
SKT T1 Cuzz.
If you don't know who Cuzz is, then you're missing out, he's pretty much held the Rank
1 spot on the Korean server the whole year.
He's an absolute solo queue beast and people have definitely taken note of this, as he
recently was picked up by the legendary pro team SKT T1, yes, that's Faker's team, replacing
Clid, who's a fantastic korean jungler in his own right.
Now, last week we went over the top 5 things the rank 1 north american jungler, Santorin,
does to win games.
Santorin's champion pool was filled with aggressive champions like Lee Sin, Elise, and Olaf.
A lot of the lessons learned in that video was aimed towards summoners that use this
aggro playstyle.
Many of you asked us to make a similar guide, but for farming jungler.
For this reason, we saw a great opportunity.
You see, Cuzz has been playing a lot of farming junglers as of late, most notably Karthus
and Nocturne.
So if you want to copy Cuzz's rank 1 farming playstyle that you're about to learn, then
don't worry, we've devised a champion pool recommendation based on difficulty.
For beginners we recommend Master Yi, Nocturne, Kayn, and Jax.
For Intermediate players we recommend Graves and Shyvana.
For expert players, this means you're pushing towards Master tier, we recommend Karthus.
All of these champions can do 100% of what you're about to learn, so if you want to hop
straight into a game after watching this guide, we got you covered.
Alright, so starting with the first thing the Rank 1 Korean jungler does to win, and
that's use the ward trick in a very specific way.
Now, all of you should be familiar with the ward trick, it's when you place down a trinket
ward around the 40 second mark, recall, and swap to a sweeping lens.
This way you get down early vision and have a sweeping lens for your first gank.
We noticed the last time we mentioned this some of you were confused as to whether this
ward trick was still possible or if it got patched out.
Don't worry, it still completely works.
Now, Cuzz uses this in a very unique way.
In this game he's playing Karthus against Nidalee.
He actually places his starting ward on his Red buff, then recalls, swaps to a sweeping
lens, and starts at his Blue.
In this game he's playing Nocturne against Lee Sin.
Same idea, he places his ward on his Red Buff, recalls, swaps to a sweeping lens, and heads
to his Blue.
Another game with Cuzz playing Nocturne against Qiyana.
Places his starting ward on his Red, recalls, swaps to sweeping lens, heads to his Blue.
Okay, so what's going on here?
Well, it's actually really smart.
As a farming jungler, clearing your camps is obviously very important.
This ward is going to inform Cuzz if the enemy jungler invades his second buff and steals
it.
Now, you're probably thinking, okay, so what if it does spot the enemy jungler steal my
buff?
What am I supposed to do?
Well, let's see what Cuzz does, and hop into a replay of him playing Karthus against Lee
Sin.
He's starting at his Blue and spots the enemy late invade to steal his Red Buff.
So what does he do?
After clearing his Blue he heads straight to the enemy's Red side jungle to steal the
camps there.
When two junglers invade each other's second buff, it's called Vertical Jungling, since
they are clearing camps from top to bottom instead of left to right.
So as long as you know the enemy jungler is invading your second buff, you're perfectly
fine, as you can invade their jungle, enter into Vertical Jungling and make sure you don't
miss out on any camps.
Moving on to the second thing Cuzz does, and that's a specific opening route he uses on
farming junglers.
He'll always full clear his entire jungle.
In this game he's playing Nocturne against Lee Sin.
He starts at his Blue and does his Gromp next, into Wolves, Raptors, Red, and Krugs.
So why does he do this every game on farming junglers?
Well, first, it's because if you're playing a farming jungler, by definition you're playing
a jungler that can clear camps fast.
In this case, he's playing Nocturne, and finishes full clearing his jungle by 3 minutes and
20 seconds.
That's not too bad, Nocturne is fast at clearing, but that's a relatively average speed.
For example, take a look at another game of him playing Karthus, one of the junglers with
the fastest clear speeds in the game.
In this case, he finishes full clearing his jungle at around the 3 minute mark, 20 seconds
faster than Nocturne.
So the goal here, is to leverage your fast clear speed to gain an advantage over other
junglers who can't keep up with you.
Now, the second reason we full clear our jungle is because it will let you hit level 4 on
your last camp.
Having a level advantage on your opponent is absolutely massive in the early game.
Each level is worth around 420 gold in combat stats, and with neither jungler having had
time to recall at this point in the game to purchase items, the base stat advantage from
a level is huge.
And we can see the power of hitting level 4 in this replay of Cuzz playing Nocturne.
He full clears his jungle, hitting level 4 on his Krugs.
The enemy top laner, Pantheon, looks to collapse on him.
Keep in mind, this is a solo laner, who has access to the highest exp rates in the game,
and is actually down a level on Nocturne.
It's this level advantage that allows Nocturne to win fights, and actually force the enemy
Pantheon to flash away.
Great, so it seems simple enough, just full clear your jungle, but this moves into the
third thing Cuzz does to win games, and that's the 3 main follow ups to his opening route.
The first thing Cuzz does after full clearing is look to secure at least one of those super
valuable Scuttles, and here's exactly how he's able to do it.
You begin, by identifying where the enemy jungler is starting.
In this game, he's playing Karthus against Nidalee.
As he's doing his Blue, he watches his side lane to see where the enemy jungler is starting.
The enemy top shows in lane early, while the bot lane is missing, indicating they're leashing
Nidalee at her Red Buff.
Great, so we now know Nidalee is starting at her Red.
This has some downsides though as it means we're starting on the same side of the map
as the enemy jungler.
When this happens, it means we'll both be pathing to the same side of the map together,
which means the enemy jungler will be able to contest the top side Scuttle.
As a farming jungler, we generally want to avoid these early fights as it's when we're
at our weakest.
So after Cuzz full clears his jungle, he recalls, and immediately heads to the bottom side Scuttle.
This way, while the enemy jungler takes the top side Scuttle, he'll take the bot side
one.
He applies this same technique in this game of Cuzz on Nocturne against Qiyana.
As he does his Blue, he checks the side lanes.
The enemy top shows early, while bot is missing, indicating the enemy Qiyana is starting at
her Red buff.
Again, this means that they're starting on the same side of the map and Nocturne can
expect to be contested at the top side Scuttle.
However, while he's clearing his jungle, he spots Qiyana ganking bot lane.
This means she did Red, Krugs, Raptors, into a gank bot.
This leaves the top side Scuttle free for him to take, so instead of recalling, he heads
straight for it.
And from here you have a great follow up, since you know the enemy jungler can't be
on this side of the map, he looks to gank the top lane without any risk of being counter
ganked by the enemy jungler.
This nets him a free kill on top lane since Ryze was low on health and overextended.
So that's the first step, securing at least one Scuttle for yourself.
The next step is what you do after this and I just want to highlight two main strategies
that Cuzz likes to use.
So he's playing Nocturne against Lee Sin and starts at his Blue.
He spots the enemy Pantheon show top early, indicating Lee Sin is starting at his Red.
This means they're starting on the same side of the map, and Lee Sin can contest the top
side Scuttle.
Cuzz executes his standard full clear, hitting level 4, allowing him to defend the invade
by Pantheon.
He then recalls, since he knows Lee Sin is on this side of the map.
This allows him to secure the bottom side Scuttle.
And here is where we see one of his main strategies, and that's to immediately sneak the Dragon
as it spawns
This is fantastic as with a farming jungler, you're spending a lot of your early game,
well, farming.
And this can make it difficult not to fall behind as the enemy jungler looks to snowball
off early ganks.
By getting this early Dragon, he's helping to give his team an advantage without actually
having to gank.
At the same time, he sets himself up for an early Dragon Soul win condition, while also
denying it from the enemy.
Just make sure you pick up a control ward and sweeping Lens so you're certain the enemy
isn't spotting you take it.
Also, keep in mind that part of the reason why he's choosing to go for this early Dragon
is due to the fact that he has lane priority in his bot lane.
If we go back to when he first kills the Scuttle, when we look bot, we can see our bot has the
enemy bot pushed in.
This lane priority means they can rotate and collapse first if the enemy jungler tries
to contest, or in this case, the Braum helps take the Dragon.
What if you don't have lane priority though?
Well, this goes into his second strategy.
Here he's playing Karthus jungle.
He starts at his Blue, spots the enemy top show early, while bot is missing, so he knows
the enemy Nidalee jungle is starting at her Red, on the same side of the map as him.
He full clears his jungle, hits level 4, recalls, and heads to the bottom side Scuttle.
Now, due to Karthus' super fast clear speed, the Dragon hasn't spawned yet, but keep in
mind when we look bot lane, that he doesn't exactly have lane priority, the waves are
about even.
So he looks to execute a gank on them.
And this shows us insight into a highly effective gameplan.
You start by identifying where the enemy jungler is starting.
If he's starting on the same side as you, then you full clear, and recall to take the
Scuttle that they can't contest.
After this, you can look to take the Dragon as it spawns if you have lane priority bot
lane.
If you don't have lane priority, then it means the enemy is pushed up enough to be ganked.
At the same time, if you full clear, and the enemy isn't pathing to the nearby Scuttle,
then you can safely go for it.
After which, you can look for a gank on the nearby side lane.
Overall, this gives you 3 distinct methods of gaining an early advantage after your full
clear.
Great, so your early pathing should now be rock solid, but there's still a lot of the
game left.
This moves into the fourth thing Cuzz does, and it's a specific way he balances ganking
and farming.
He starts with a simple foundation.
He makes sure to full clear his jungle first, and then look to gank after.
For example, in this game of him playing Karthus.
He heads out of his base to his Krugs, then does his Raptors next, into Wolves, into Gromp.
Now that his camps are on cooldown, he'll look to gank a lane.
This will be your staple pathing throughout the laning phase.
By clearing your camps, you take advantage of your fast clear speed, and allow yourself
to pull ahead in levels and gold on the enemy jungler.
At the same time, once you've full cleared them, they're now on cooldown, waiting to
respawn.
During this time, you then gank a lane, if you're successful, fantastic, you're now snowballing
even further ahead.
However, even if you're not, you don't actually lose anything, since none of your camps are
up to be killed.
Then, once your camps begin to respawn, you head back into your jungle, full clear, and
look to gank at the end of it.
Now, built upon this foundation is one main exception.
You have to be willing to peel off camps and react to winning fights or free kills.
For example, even though Nocturne has a krug camp left in his clear, he spots the enemy
Pantheon top low on health overextended top.
So he ignores the camp and heads top to pick up the free kill.
Keep in mind, these are free kills or winning fights, low risk, high reward.
Since you're giving up farm to execute a gank like this, you have to be sure it's going
to pay off.
For the most part though, in the laning phase you want to full clear your jungle, and then
look to gank after.
This is how you'll pull ahead of the enemy jungler, and even laners, in levels and gold.
Now, for our fifth and final thing Cuzz does to win games on farming junglers, and that's
his 3 rules to follow once the laning phase ends.
The first rule, is to farm while his ultimate is on cooldown.
Many farming junglers are significantly weaker once their ultimate is on cooldown.
Nocturne, Master Yi, Karthus, Shyvana, all suffer from this problem.
For example, in this game of Cuzz playing Nocturne, it's past 18 minutes in the game
and the laning phase has ended.
He uses his ult mid lane to get a pick on the enemy Syndra.
Now his ultimate is on cooldown and so Nocturne is much weaker, so he uses this time to farm
his camps.
Taking his Raptors, Red, and Krugs.
And this moves into the second rule to follow, when your ultimate is up once the laning phase
ends, you want to proactively look for a fight.
Now, even though he can farm his Gromp, he skips it as his ultimate is coming off cooldown
and he looks for a fight.
Then, once he uses his ultimate, what does he do?
he goes back to farming.
And it's these two simple rules that he follows.
When your ultimate is on cooldown, use that time to farm camps.
However, when your ultimate is up, look to group with your team and make a play and ignore
your camps.
Now, the third rule Cuzz follows, is to keep attacking Dragons.
In this game, he starts with the full clear opening, into sneaking an early Dragon.
Great, he's now secured one for his team.
Later on, the Dragon will be spawning again in a minute.
He heads to the bottom side of the map, places a control ward, uses his sweeping lens, and
looks to assert vision control.
He's in position to fight over Dragon, and see's an opportunity to do so mid.
It's by being in position that he's able to take a winning fight, into then securing a
second Dragon for his team.
Later on, the Dragon is going to spawn again.
He's in position on the bottom side of the map.
However, the enemy team is grouped as 5, while his gangplank is top.
So Cuzz smartly decides to give up this Dragon, and this is such an important lesson.
He's still in position, looking to fight over and secure Dragons, but when they're clearly
outnumbered or it's a losing fight, he'll concede it.
Again, a bit later, Dragon will be spawning soon, so he's on the bottom side of the map.
Since he's in position, he's able to take a winning fight, and convert that into taking
a third Dragon after.
Same idea later, Dragon is about to spawn, so he heads into position to be able to fight
for it.
He gets a pick mid lane, which he's then able to convert into the fourth and final Dragon,
giving his team a Dragon Soul.
Alright, we went over a ton in this guide, so let's quickly recap.
You first learned how when playing farming junglers you want to use the ward trick to
place a ward on your second buff.
This way you can spot for invades.
When they do invade, you can then enter vertical jungling, stealing their camps.
Next, you learned about the standard Cuzz opening route, where he full clears and gets
level 4.
You then look to secure at least one Scuttle.
Going for whichever one is on the opposite side of the enemy jungler.
After taking this Scuttle, you can look to gank the nearby side lane.
Otherwise, you can use the sneaky tactic of taking the Dragon on spawn.
You then learned how to balance ganking and farming.
You want to full clear first, and then look to gank after.
There's one exception though, which is to react to winning fights or free kills on the
map.
Lastly, you learned the 3 rules to follow post laning phase.
Farm when your ultimate is on cooldown and look to fight when it's not.
And always be in position to fight for Dragon when it spawns.
If you can't win the fight, then simply concede the Dragon and try again on its next spawn.
Alright, that's going to do it for this guide.
We hope you enjoyed this new content type.
Let us know in the comment section below if you'd like us to continue this series, where
we go over the top 5 things the rank 1 jungler on each server across the world does to win
games.
And if so, what region you'd like us to go over next.
If you have any questions feel free to ask as we answer every single one of them.
As always, good luck, and have fun, on summoner's rift.