So, I've decided to try to jungle, but I have absolutely no experience with it. Now I know there were some strategies posted here, but that was before the big jungle change, and I would appreciate if I could get some updated tactics. I'm jungling with Warwick at the moment, but I also have other junglers (Nocturne, Olaf, Shaco, Fiora).

Basically if someone could help me with a rundown on some things related to jungling.

• How do I know where to start and where to go next?
• When do I pick up the buffs?
• When do I gank?
• When do I use Smite? Do I even need Smite?
• When do I first go back, and what items do I purchase? What about starting items?
• When do I go back the second time? Third time? Fourth time? Etc.
• What kind of runes do I need? What about Summoner spells? Masteries?

From what I experienced regarding the new jungle, you're either a pro or you will fail.

I'm not sure what gave you the impression that the new jungle is so punishing. Before they changed it, it was a lot less forgiving and allowed for fewer styles of play. This guide probably covers the subject far better than I can, but I'll still address your questions as best I can.

1. With the help of mid and the adjacent lane you should be able to clear Wolves or Wraiths when they spawn at 1:40. You should clear that and make your way to the nearby buff before it spawns at 1:55.
2. The choice of which to start with depends primarily on which character you are playing. Champions that don't use mana, or have strong ganking abilities at lvl 2 will often start with Red buff. (see, Shyvana, Nocturne, Shaco, Shen, etc) Champions that rely on having mana to clear the jungle will need to start at blue. (see Amumu, Fiddlesticks, Skarner, Warwick, etc) Both camps will respawn 5 minutes after the final minion is killed, and you should be taking them or donating them (blue to your AP mid if they use mana, red to your AD carry) whenever they are available.
3. This might be one of the most difficult subtleties of jungling to master. Gank when you have red buff to slow them. Gank when you reach level 2/4/6 and get your first rank in a skill with crowd control. (Nocturne level 2 fear, Rammus level 4 taunt, Warwick level 6 ult, etc) Gank when the enemy has pushed the lane up to your own tower. Gank from the lane bushes in top and bottom when the lane is pushed up to the enemy tower. Gank when you have cleared out most of your jungle and don't have enough gold to go buy anything (but do have enough HP/mana to do something useful).
4. Some characters are capable of jungling without smite, but you should take it regardless. If you pay attention it allows you to secure or steal important objectives (dragons and buffs earlier, baron later). This will require you to check the tooltip to see how much damage your smite will do, and left clicking on the target in question to watch its HP in the top left corner of your screen. Use smite to secure the kill the moment it drops below the amount of damage your smite will deal.
5. Item builds depends entirely on what character you are playing. Look up a guide for a specific character on lolpro. (Take notes on a scrap of paper if you can't remember or don't have a second monitor). The most basic route is to clear Wolves, Blue buff, cross mid, clear Wraiths, Red buff, twin golems, return to clear wraiths a second time (giving you level 4), then return to shop. You will have about 500g, enough to get a small item + sight ward. Then find a lane to gank with your red buff.
6. Later in the game, you'll go back for the same reasons that any other lane would: low on HP/mana or you have gold to spend (lots or just enough to finish Wiggles, GP/5 or something else important).
7. Like items, runes are fairly dependent on the champion being played. Armor seals are the law, because everything in the jungle will be doing physical damage to you. Your marks will probably be armor pen, spell pen, or attack speed. Again, it's best to refer to a champion specific guide for runes and masteries. Summoner spells are 75% Flash+Smite. A few might replace flash with ghost, exhaust, or something else. (Shyvana often takes Exhaust+Smite because she can use her ult to escape over walls, and exhaust helps make up for her lack of CC, making those ganks succeed more often.)

There are an incredible amount of subtle things you will need to master in order to become a great jungler, but the most important is to get comfortable clearing the jungle and executing ganks. From there you can start worrying about timing objectives (5 for buffs, 6 for dragon, 7 for baron), counter-jungling, etc.

Good luck out there!

@psoplayer: @valrog: You covered a TON of great information! Along with lolpro, I'd say at least take a glance at http://www.reignofgaming.net/. There are tier lists at the top that give you a good idea of who the FAVORABLE junglers are (note: it does NOT mean they're the best, just who is popular, fun, or incredibly helpful to a team).

I'd say a few very basic tips: You may want to practice in a custom match to get the hang of it, especially how long it takes you to clear camps, and when you feel comfortable ganking, or going to base. If you think you can handle a "real" match, try a Co-Op vs AI. Just remember, bots don't jungle, so your top lane will be 2v1. Players obviously respond better to gank opportunities so it may give you a better feel than the custom match.

I'd hate to say, but Warwick may not be the most friendly jungle to start with; he's fairly dependent on blue buff to keep his mana up for his spells, and he has very poor ganks before 6. If you find him fun though, go right ahead! I don't know much about Shaco, since he's banned 95% of Draft games, but he can be very rewarding since nobody ever buys pink wards/oracles elixirs to see through his stealth. I'd probably suggest Nunu or Olaf to start; they both deal True damage to monsters/minions making clearing VERY quick, and both have good CC to get the ganks in. My personal favorite is Mundo, since he has 0 dependency on mana, and I can give blue buff to the mid so they regen mana faster.

The one thing I would say, for pretty much EVERY jungler, is to build tanky. The one exception I can think of is Fiddlesticks, since he's a mage, but most junglers are melee. This means you're going to be in front of a fight, and you won't do much damage if you get killed in 3 seconds because you picked up damage first. Your top, mid, and bot lanes should all be getting damage: you're jungling so they can snowball and do even more damage later.

And yeah, I'd say pick up Smite on every single jungler. Once you get good/better, you'll be using it to pick up and steal buffs from the enemies, and the dragon and baron monsters later on. Good luck!

@psoplayer: @Ulain: Wow, thanks a lot guys. Really helpful information there. Much appreciated.

You can find plenty of great jungling guides for your champion of choice over at http://www.solomid.net/

A great resource in general. I also recommend matching some tournaments and streams over at www.twitch.tv to get a feel for the rythm.

One of the worlds greatest junglers has his stream over at http://sv.twitch.tv/tsm_theoddone. check it!

I love TSM and everything, but be cautious of what guides you use on there; some of them are SEVERELY outdated, like using the old mastery trees, old champ mechanics, etc. I really do recommend lolpro or mobafire, but if you can find an up-to-date guide on solomid, go for it.

I personally don't like theoddone, although I've only seen their tourny matches, and he doesn't strike me as that good of a jungler. He's excellent for all of their teamfights as Maokai (does he even play anything else?) but the team is easily carried by Regi and Chaox.

Just my 2 cents

I think this page should tell you just about everything you need to know to become an expert Jungler.

@Scrawnto said:

I think this page should tell you just about everything you need to know to become an expert Jungler.

+1

Since everyone already covered everything ever, I will give you this one simple tip for ganking.

Always assume the river brush next to the lane is warded, always.

If you are feeling confident enough in a gank try to come in behind them, you can even go through their tower if minions are pushing it or you feel you are tanky enough.

The easiest way to do this if the lane is pushed out is to actually come in from your side of the lane and hide in one of the brushes on top or bottom lane. These are rarely warded, especially on top, and will give you the perfect opportunity to jump on them if they overextend.

And never sit in lane too long waiting for the perfect gank. If they continue to hang back it is most likely because they have seen you or are expecting a gank. Every second you stay in lane is a second you aren't spending farming the jungle or pressuring another lane. You need to know when to give up.

And NEVER EVER EVER initiate unless you are 99% sure you can get a kill or at least send them back to base. If you get your team to follow you into a gank and the situation takes a turn for the worse you have not just set yourself back but that entire lane back.

Jungling is about straddling a line between extreme aggression and passive farming. It is probably the hardest role to learn itially, although once you get the swing of it it is actually much easier than laning. You don't have to worry about last hitting, or harassing, or not pushing the lane. All you need to do is farm neutrals and fuck up the enemy resources.

Also, the new jungle is way more friendly than the old one. Junglers can't carry as hard anymore due to smaller camps, but surviving the creeps themselves is barely even a concern anymore. This is why you see Junglers with little to no survivability at all being played now, it really is a lot easier.

@valrog said:

So, I've decided to try to jungle, but I have absolutely no experience with it. Now I know there were some strategies posted here, but that was before the big jungle change, and I would appreciate if I could get some updated tactics. I'm jungling with Warwick at the moment, but I also have other junglers (Nocturne, Olaf, Shaco, Fiora).

Basically if someone could help me with a rundown on some things related to jungling.

• How do I know where to start and where to go next?
• When do I pick up the buffs?
• When do I gank?
• When do I use Smite? Do I even need Smite?
• When do I first go back, and what items do I purchase? What about starting items?
• When do I go back the second time? Third time? Fourth time? Etc.
• What kind of runes do I need? What about Summoner spells? Masteries?

From what I experienced regarding the new jungle, you're either a pro or you will fail.

1. Think about what you're character is. If you're character uses Mana or is AP; it's best to start wolves, with the leashers autoattacking the small ones, then immediately going to blue bluff. If you use no mana, and in some cases, have no real need for blue, go ahead and do the same process you'd do with the other side, but with wraiths and red buff. Leave golems alone unless you're high on health. Here is a good point to gank, but that will come later. After clearing your own jungle, it's a good idea to counter-jungle as well. Take their buffs and their wolves and wraiths and such, but remember to leave at one minion alive to make sure their jungle doesn't respawn, making their jungle useless now, forcing them to either gank or go into your jungle.

2. Get buffs when they come up. Always. It's best to give blue or red to your mid lane, depends on whether their ad or ap, by starting to attack it and bringing it's health down, and then letting them take the last few hits. Getting buffs allows you not only to do better in the jungle, but also lets you gank a lot better due to reduced cooldown and mana regen from blue buff, but also because of red's afterburn effect. If you can, try to steal their buffs as well, denying them to their team, as well as eventually out creep scoring their jungler.

3. Knowing when to gank is like going through a flowchart in your head. It's a good idea to gank after you get your first buff or when your lane is pushed back more than halfway and you know that you and your teammates are competent enough to take down then enemy. It's also a good idea to gank when the laner is low on health and needs to go back to base; in this case, you can cover their lane and gain more cs as well as possibly get a kill. It's also a good idea to gank when you know you can tower dive and when the enemy is also low on health. Also, always remember that lanes with low ally champion health or low tower health, almost always take priority over ones with higher health.

4. Utilizing smite is an extremely easy thing to understand, but knowing whether or not you need smite is a harder idea to comprehend. Whether or not you have smite is mainly champion based. Someone like Shaco, who can literally take down blue buff with two turrets placed right next to it, definitely doesn't need smite because of how fast he clears jungle. Whereas, someone like Lee Sin, who doesn't output a lot of damage at level 1, needs smite or else someone can simply run in and steal your buff. It's all about speed of jungling. For instance, the normal strategy is whittling down the blue buff until it's at low health then popping off smite so it gets you to another group of neutral mobs faster. Or, you can steal their blue by waiting in a bush and watching them whittle it down then popping smite. Remember that smite works on any mob, even Baron, so speed becomes very easy to maintain with smite.

5. It's usually best to go back when you're low on mana/HP or when you have enough money to buy a finished item, for example Bloodthirster or Wriggle's. It's also a good idea to go back after a successful gank to avoid being counter-ganked. On what items you should buy, this again really depends on the champion. Try checking guides on solomid or mobafire for your needs, however, most builds for an AD or tanky jungler usually call for Wriggles, not only because of it's nice stat bonuses but because it's active gives you a nice ward you can put anywhere you want, such as their buffs to know when you can steal it from them, your buff to know when they're stealing from you, someone's lane to know when they're about to get ganked so you can counter gank, or at baron or dragon to know when they're getting those two monsters. As for starting items they're usually Boots/3 Health Pots for me so I can run faster for easier ganks and the pots so I can stay in jungle longer. Something like Cloth Armor/5 Pots is helpful as well because cloth armor builds into wriggles and both the armor bonus from cloth and the 2 extra health pots allow for more sexy jungle action.

6. Going back is all about either buying stuff or healing without the use of pots. It's also a nice escape move.

7. Currently I have an AP and AD rune page and I don't really expect to need any more, but multiple guides give good examples of nice runes. Here's mine.

AD:

9 Flat Attack Damage Reds

9 Flat Armor Yellows

9 Flat Magic Resist Blues

I don't have quints at the moment for anything

AP:

I'm at a loss here. I don't really jungling AP's.

For masteries, the general rule is a 9/21/0 build.

Jungling is easy. It's takes some easy skills and a good load of practice. Go into some co-op bot games and jungle a bit and get the hang of it. Once you start doing it a bunch you'll find that you don't really need to be a pro to do it, just competent to the point where you can wipe your own butt. Also, buy wards.

since you are not very skilled at jungling , starting at wolves is going to be difficult , specially when your team do not cooperate ( and seriously sometimes your team forget to leash (help you at blue) LOL!)

• How do I know where to start and where to go next?

start at the blue rune ( if your champion uses mana) or the red rune ( if your champion uses energy or fury)

• When do I pick up the buffs?

as soon as the monster with the blue/red rune appears (pick only one monster), at the beginning of the game.

• When do I gank?

it depends , many players do it at lvl 4 , others at level 6 with ulti and runes (it's not recommendable cause it's so hard to do it unless you are a very fast jungler) and other ones at level 3 if you can get the blue or red ,even better both runes , faster than the enemy jungler .(with shaco that's easy)

hint : if you don't know how to play with certain champion as a jungler , create a custom game and test it against the bots. it's easier.

and one important thing , before you gank ,ask your team mates if the lane is warded , otherwise you will get screwed . sometimes i don't do it cause i'm sure there is no ward.

• When do I use Smite? Do I even need Smite?

you always need it to jungle faster .

• When do I first go back, and what items do I purchase? What about starting items?

Cloth Armor + 5 red potions, and if you are ONLY Warwick or Shaco , boots + 3 red potions . Warwick uses Q to heal himself and Shaco puts a lot of boxes (go quickly of course ) around the monster with the blue or red rune.

• When do I go back the second time? Third time? Fourth time? Etc.

you should go back the second time when :

you have the blue and red runes to recover your health completely and come back to gank

after ganking at level 4 to recover your health completely .

hint : don't spend too much time on jungling , gank as soon as you get at least lvl 3 + one rune, and ganking a strong tank , e.g Malphite,Volibear,Jarvan,etc is so damn hard . they must be weaken at least a little bit to gank successfully unless your runes and the runes of the top lane of your team have a good damage.

• What kind of runes do I need? What about Summoner spells? Masteries?

it depends :

armor penetration runes , attack damage runes combined with armor runes and magic resistance runes (the combination is optional) if you are picking killer ,fighter and tank champions ,e.g Shaco, Warwick, Malphite, Xin Zhao,shen ,Tryndamere,Darius ,Rengar,etc.

overall ,these kinds of champions are effective to jungle and gank.

hint : never buy AP items for these champions if you are going to jungle. although they have magic attack , as a jungler you don't need that kind of attack.

now let's see the other kinds of champions :

magic penetration runes , ability power runes combined with armor runes and magic resistance runes (this combination again is optional) if you play with mage champions , e.g Diana ,Nunu,Rumble ,etc.

(mage champions are so difficult to play as junglers . if you can master them , you can kick ass ,though.)

Stonewall008 on YouTube has some great videos of him jungling. He kind of speeds past a lot because for people who are comfortable jungling, it isn't really the interesting aspect. But he talks a lot about strategy and when/how to act in a certain situation. I'd say give them a look at least.

@SilverGalford: I'm sorry, but a lot of this is pretty bad or at least midleading advice. Using mana or not does not determine if you should get blue buff first or not; it's a champion-by-champion basis, and also personal preference (for instance, lee sin, mundo and riven can start blue or red). If your jungle champ uses mana, safe bets are to grab blue first, but again, there is no static answer to this.

When to gank is another misleading one. Champs like Warwick have a hard time ganking til 6, but (again) someone like Mundo and Lee Sin can (and probably should) gank as soon as they hit 2, for the level advantage if the opponent is still 1. It is also dependent on the opponent; you may want to gank some of them before they hit 6, or when they're even level 3 (many top champions have an incredibly strong low-level game, making a gank very important to give your ally an advantage in gold/levels).

I personally think custom games are good for nothing more than knowing your clear times, and even that will be different in a real match. Bots won't leash for you, they won't set up ganks (hell, they probably won't even hit the fucking enemy at all). Co-op vs AI games really aren't much better because of how stupid the AI is to begin with: they will stay in lane until about 20%, making them easy pray for the person already in lane, and you will have very few opportunities to really learn how to gank properly. Personal opinion, but I also find Bot match players to be incredibly selfish and (usually) have a poor grasp of game mechanics, because it's really hard to do poorly in one, so any bad habits will not likely be punished, and games usually become a match of who can get the most kills.

and one important thing , before you gank ,ask your team mates if the lane is warded , otherwise you will get screwed . sometimes i don't do it cause i'm sure there is no ward.

This is good advice, for the jungler and everyone else. If an enemy goes back to base and returns, immediately check their inventory (press O or hold Tab) to see if they bought wards. It's also pretty obvious if they wander down the river for a second and then come back to lane.

Cloth Armor + 5 red potions, and if you are ONLY Warwick or Shaco , boots + 3 red potions . Warwick uses Q to heal himself and Shaco puts a lot of boxes (go quickly of course ) around the monster with the blue or red rune.

I'm sorry, but this is the shittiest advice you put. There are TONS of champions that can start with Boots + 3 pots (as long as you have a good leash) and even low level players can easily and quickly be explained how to do a proper leash. 50 extra Movement Speed from boots allows those early ganks that much easier. With my level 30 masteries and quints, I can reach 411 movement speed at level 1. That can pretty much guarantee a gank because you move so much fucking faster than most everyone else.

All your other advice is pretty good.

@Azteck said:

Stonewall008 on YouTube has some great videos of him jungling. He kind of speeds past a lot because for people who are comfortable jungling, it isn't really the interesting aspect. But he talks a lot about strategy and when/how to act in a certain situation. I'd say give them a look at least.

This. This is honestly all you need. The man is a jungling god. His videos are greatly detailed, have great commentary, and are very up-to-date. I mentioned it in my original post a few months ago, but he has a Tier List on reign of gaming that can give newcomers (and veterans alike) a grasp of who may be the best/funnest/easiest junglers to play.

One last note: The end of Season 2 is incredibly close, and plans for Season 3 include a rehaul of the jungle. Rumors are that it's going back to a more Season 1 feel (which can be speculated to mean less viable junglers than we have now, which is pretty much everyone at the moment). What this also means is that a lot of this advice could become outdated and/or inaccurate for viewers here. But again, that's what we have Stonewall for. Pop on over to the site and you can read some of his predictions of what could happen.

@Ulain said:

@SilverGalford: I'm sorry, but a lot of this is pretty bad or at least midleading advice. Using mana or not does not determine if you should get blue buff first or not; it's a champion-by-champion basis, and also personal preference (for instance, lee sin, mundo and riven can start blue or red). If your jungle champ uses mana, safe bets are to grab blue first, but again, there is no static answer to this.

When to gank is another misleading one. Champs like Warwick have a hard time ganking til 6, but (again) someone like Mundo and Lee Sin can (and probably should) gank as soon as they hit 2, for the level advantage if the opponent is still 1. It is also dependent on the opponent; you may want to gank some of them before they hit 6, or when they're even level 3 (many top champions have an incredibly strong low-level game, making a gank very important to give your ally an advantage in gold/levels).

I personally think custom games are good for nothing more than knowing your clear times, and even that will be different in a real match. Bots won't leash for you, they won't set up ganks (hell, they probably won't even hit the fucking enemy at all). Co-op vs AI games really aren't much better because of how stupid the AI is to begin with: they will stay in lane until about 20%, making them easy pray for the person already in lane, and you will have very few opportunities to really learn how to gank properly. Personal opinion, but I also find Bot match players to be incredibly selfish and (usually) have a poor grasp of game mechanics, because it's really hard to do poorly in one, so any bad habits will not likely be punished, and games usually become a match of who can get the most kills.

and one important thing , before you gank ,ask your team mates if the lane is warded , otherwise you will get screwed . sometimes i don't do it cause i'm sure there is no ward.

This is good advice, for the jungler and everyone else. If an enemy goes back to base and returns, immediately check their inventory (press O or hold Tab) to see if they bought wards. It's also pretty obvious if they wander down the river for a second and then come back to lane.

Cloth Armor + 5 red potions, and if you are ONLY Warwick or Shaco , boots + 3 red potions . Warwick uses Q to heal himself and Shaco puts a lot of boxes (go quickly of course ) around the monster with the blue or red rune.

I'm sorry, but this is the shittiest advice you put. There are TONS of champions that can start with Boots + 3 pots (as long as you have a good leash) and even low level players can easily and quickly be explained how to do a proper leash. 50 extra Movement Speed from boots allows those early ganks that much easier. With my level 30 masteries and quints, I can reach 411 movement speed at level 1. That can pretty much guarantee a gank because you move so much fucking faster than most everyone else.

All your other advice is pretty good.

@Azteck said:

Stonewall008 on YouTube has some great videos of him jungling. He kind of speeds past a lot because for people who are comfortable jungling, it isn't really the interesting aspect. But he talks a lot about strategy and when/how to act in a certain situation. I'd say give them a look at least.

This. This is honestly all you need. The man is a jungling god. His videos are greatly detailed, have great commentary, and are very up-to-date. I mentioned it in my original post a few months ago, but he has a Tier List on reign of gaming that can give newcomers (and veterans alike) a grasp of who may be the best/funnest/easiest junglers to play.

One last note: The end of Season 2 is incredibly close, and plans for Season 3 include a rehaul of the jungle. Rumors are that it's going back to a more Season 1 feel (which can be speculated to mean less viable junglers than we have now, which is pretty much everyone at the moment). What this also means is that a lot of this advice could become outdated and/or inaccurate for viewers here. But again, that's what we have Stonewall for. Pop on over to the site and you can read some of his predictions of what could happen.

save your critics cause 3 season has arrived.

Jungling?

@SilverGalford said:

@Ulain said:

@SilverGalford: I'm sorry, but a lot of this is pretty bad or at least midleading advice. Using mana or not does not determine if you should get blue buff first or not; it's a champion-by-champion basis, and also personal preference (for instance, lee sin, mundo and riven can start blue or red). If your jungle champ uses mana, safe bets are to grab blue first, but again, there is no static answer to this.

When to gank is another misleading one. Champs like Warwick have a hard time ganking til 6, but (again) someone like Mundo and Lee Sin can (and probably should) gank as soon as they hit 2, for the level advantage if the opponent is still 1. It is also dependent on the opponent; you may want to gank some of them before they hit 6, or when they're even level 3 (many top champions have an incredibly strong low-level game, making a gank very important to give your ally an advantage in gold/levels).

I personally think custom games are good for nothing more than knowing your clear times, and even that will be different in a real match. Bots won't leash for you, they won't set up ganks (hell, they probably won't even hit the fucking enemy at all). Co-op vs AI games really aren't much better because of how stupid the AI is to begin with: they will stay in lane until about 20%, making them easy pray for the person already in lane, and you will have very few opportunities to really learn how to gank properly. Personal opinion, but I also find Bot match players to be incredibly selfish and (usually) have a poor grasp of game mechanics, because it's really hard to do poorly in one, so any bad habits will not likely be punished, and games usually become a match of who can get the most kills.

and one important thing , before you gank ,ask your team mates if the lane is warded , otherwise you will get screwed . sometimes i don't do it cause i'm sure there is no ward.

This is good advice, for the jungler and everyone else. If an enemy goes back to base and returns, immediately check their inventory (press O or hold Tab) to see if they bought wards. It's also pretty obvious if they wander down the river for a second and then come back to lane.

Cloth Armor + 5 red potions, and if you are ONLY Warwick or Shaco , boots + 3 red potions . Warwick uses Q to heal himself and Shaco puts a lot of boxes (go quickly of course ) around the monster with the blue or red rune.

I'm sorry, but this is the shittiest advice you put. There are TONS of champions that can start with Boots + 3 pots (as long as you have a good leash) and even low level players can easily and quickly be explained how to do a proper leash. 50 extra Movement Speed from boots allows those early ganks that much easier. With my level 30 masteries and quints, I can reach 411 movement speed at level 1. That can pretty much guarantee a gank because you move so much fucking faster than most everyone else.

All your other advice is pretty good.

@Azteck said:

Stonewall008 on YouTube has some great videos of him jungling. He kind of speeds past a lot because for people who are comfortable jungling, it isn't really the interesting aspect. But he talks a lot about strategy and when/how to act in a certain situation. I'd say give them a look at least.

This. This is honestly all you need. The man is a jungling god. His videos are greatly detailed, have great commentary, and are very up-to-date. I mentioned it in my original post a few months ago, but he has a Tier List on reign of gaming that can give newcomers (and veterans alike) a grasp of who may be the best/funnest/easiest junglers to play.

One last note: The end of Season 2 is incredibly close, and plans for Season 3 include a rehaul of the jungle. Rumors are that it's going back to a more Season 1 feel (which can be speculated to mean less viable junglers than we have now, which is pretty much everyone at the moment). What this also means is that a lot of this advice could become outdated and/or inaccurate for viewers here. But again, that's what we have Stonewall for. Pop on over to the site and you can read some of his predictions of what could happen.

save your critics cause 3 season has arrived.

Honestly, it hasn't changed much at all. I've jungled a lot since S3 started and it's pretty much the same. Only some champs got hit hard, like Nautilus. The rest are completely the same, some even better because of the Hunters Machete. The downside is pretty much everyone is relegated to using the Hunters Machete now, but pretty much everyone was forced to use Cloth Armor in the past so in the end, it's the same old situation. Just roll movement speed quints and you should be good. Blue is still more important for mana heavy champs, red still hurts more than blue, taking golems on your first run is still risky. Basically, some things changed but most things just stayed the same. At least in terms of jungling. It's when mid-game and late-game hits that you should start caring about the new items.

Edit: My tip on Stonewall008 is still relevant though. He's put up a metric ton of jungle videos from S3, some voiced, some not. They're all pretty interesting if you are still getting the gist of the whole jungling thing.

Edit 2: Now that I think about it, the tips about getting leashes are now useless. Though getting some damage done from your top-laner / mid-laner is a great way to get you into the jungle quickly without being on low HP. Just pot up and go straight to wraiths (or wolves if you didn't start there)

@JasonR86 said:

Jungling?

@SilverGalford said:

save your critics cause 3 season has arrived.

First off, critiques*. Secondly, I put a disclaimer at the end saying that, if you had bothered to read my post.

But like @Azteck said, not a whole lot has changed as far as jungle starts go, although I would say almost everyone except Nunu starts Machete + 5. Nunu buys whatever the hell he wants and eats monsters all day. Many junglers can build the Spirit Stone, and the Ancient Golem one is pretty decent on a few (the Wraith and Lizard ones suck pretty badly). Otherwise you keep it as Machete for a while and just get faster and faster. And with that said, more junglers can actually go damage-y items instead of the support/tanky core of Season 2 (I hope Heart of Gold stays dead and rotting).