"Art of Ganking"

P1

     Hey guys! So I decided to make a two part blog post about the specific paths of ganking for each lane, how to effectively gank, farming, the best methods of ganking, and champion specific ganks. From what I've noticed, the main issues that lower elo players have when jungling are knowing when to gank and how to farm effectively so they're not underleveled early/mid game. Keep in mind that the ganks in this post are most useful when utilized in the early/mid game. This is going to be a fairly long post so I'll be sure to add a TL:DR after each section. 

For the purposes of this post, I'll be using light green to designate the jungler and red for the enemy laner.

Top

     There are a lot of methods to ganking top. We'll discuss each path in-depth.

River Gank

     In this image, the jungler walks through the river bush to catch an overextended enemy laner. The X at the red side turret represents the laner if they were the blue side top laner. The X at the blue side turret represents the laner if they were the red side top laner. This gank is fairly easy to pull off, especially if the enemy laner has no vision and has your top laner pushed under their turret. The main issue with this gank is that any top laner worth their salt will keep that river bush warded or will ward deeper into the river. 

Lane Gank

     In this gank, the jungler just runs into the lane. Normally, the jungler will wait at their turret until your top laner forces a fight or gets engaged on by the enemy laner. Once that happens, the jungler immediately jumps in to participate. This gank is really dependent on the enemy laner forcing an engage and is best used for very aggressive laners.

Bush Gank

    This gank involves the jungler getting in position for a gank in one of the three bushes in the top lane. You basically want to wait until the enemy laner overextends and allows you to jump on them. This gank is best utilized to help shut down an enemy laner shortly after your laner forced them to pop summoners/killed them. The only problem with this gank is that, sometimes, the enemy laner will be REALLY patient, especially if they're losing. It can turn out to be a huge waste of time if the enemy laner doesn't push up or if your laner pushes the wave to their turret instead. However, it's also useful to set up for a turret dive if your laner is someone who can harass them. 

Flank Gank

     This gank functions differently depending on which side you're ganking. If you're ganking the red side top laner and they're close to their turret, you want to walk through their tribush to get behind them for the gank. For maximum efficiency and to guarantee you don't get spotted by a ward, you want to walk through the red top side jungle. If they're pushed up that far though, it's unlikely that they have any river wards.

    To gank the blue side top laner, you want to go through the blue side tribush and gank them under their turret. It's a little sketchy and more effective if the enemy has low health. You'll take at least one turret shot doing this gank though some champions are more effective at this gank due to wall jumps.

Turret Dive Gank

     This gank is most effective if the enemy is at low health or if your top laner is someone who can tank multiple tower shots (e.g. Renekton/Mundo). For the most part, you want to make sure your laner pushes the enemy laner under their turret. After, you want to get into position as the jungler. It's best if you're unseen while the enemy laner is pushing the wave. For blue side, the best method of diving is to get into the top bushes or get behind them in the tribush. For red side, the best method is through the tribush for the flank or directly into the turret. Either that or through the top bush. The key rule is to just make sure you're unseen so the enemy jungler has no time to retaliate.

Mid

     Mid is the shortest lane but also the most aggressive lane so there are many gank opportunities here. Snowballing mid is really critical since mid laners help make plays with you as the jungler. Also, opening up mid lane allows the mid laner to roam very effectively. 

River Gank

     This is a standard river gank for mid lane where you try to catch the mid laner when they're overextended, has no vision, or is getting aggressive on your mid laner. It's pretty easy to pull off but the river area is frequently warded. Normally, the river bushes are warded and there's normally at least one pink ward in the river area.

Lane Gank

     Similar to the top lane gank, you want to wait at your turret until your laner forces a fight onto the enemy laner or the enemy laner gets aggressive. Then you run into the lane for the gank. Since this lane is the shortest lane, it requires the enemy mid laner to be fairly overextended to have any success with the gank though.

Flank Gank

     This gank works pretty well if the enemy laner is close to their turret but still a little pushed up. This gank is most useful for when the river is warded. If you hug the walls in the river, any ward placed in the river (marked with the light blue) won't see you so you can sneak behind the laner. The paths marked aren't the only paths you can take but they're, imho, the safest paths. You can, for instance, walk through the top red side jungle as the blue side jungler but it can be dangerous, especially if it's warded. The enemy laners may flank you. So, unless you know it's not warded or know where the enemy jungler is, it's best to just utilize the river.

Turret Dive Gank

     This clusterfuck of arrows is the different paths you can take to dive an unfortunate mid laner. As per the top lane turret dive gank, it's best to try to utilize the path where you won't get seen by the enemy laner until it's too late. This is to ensure that the enemy jungler won't countergank and kill you. Also, again, it's best to use this dive if the enemy is low health and/or has no summoners. 

Bottom 

     Bottom is probably the most rewarding lane to gank but also the most dangerous if the ganks aren't performed correctly. Bottom has a lot of methods to gank it as well. It's very critical to gank bottom lane as well since it gets your team dragon control.

River Gank

     In this image, the jungler walks through the river to catch an overextended bottom lane. This gank is very effective if there's no vision but, since a standard support build involves sightstone, it's very rare that this bush isn't warded. However, if you do manage to catch them out, it's a very potent gank. 

Bush Gank

     This is probably one of the best ganks for bottom lane. The reason the bush gank is so effective is because the support is consistently going to be trying to ward the bushes. If you can sneak into a bush before the ward is placed or after the ward expires, you just have to wait in the bush until the support eventually goes for a ward. Once she gets in range, you immediately engage. 

Lane Gank

     The lane gank is still pretty effective in the bottom lane. Similar to the other two lanes, you have your bottom lane force an engage or get engaged on while you're waiting at your turret. Once the fight begins, you get into the fight and pull the gank off. As a general rule, always go for the one who has no summoners so you can secure a kill, unless, of course the ADC is doing an absurd amount of damage, in which case you focus him.

Flank Gank

     This flank gank, imho, works better if you're the red side jungler, unless you're playing a wall jump champion like Fiddlesticks/Rek'Sai/Shaco etc, in which case the gank is incredibly potent for the blue side jungler as well. To pull it off effectively, you just sit in the tribush after making sure there's no wards in it (sweeper/pink ward), wait there until the bottom lane extends a little bit, and go in for a gank. For a blue side jungler if they're not a wall jump champion, you'll go through their jungle and gank them from behind. You'll take at least one turret shot and it can be incredibly dangerous if the bottom lane isn't already low. For the most part, it's not worth the risk if you're not a wall jump champion.

Turret Dive Gank

     This turret dive is most effective if you can convince your mid laner to come along for a 4 man dive. However, this gank can still work as a 3 man as long as you know the enemy jungler isn't nearby and the enemy bottom lane is low on health/has no summoners. Similar to other turret dive ganks, it's best to make sure you're not walking through wards when going for this gank. Utilize your sweeper/pinks effectively.

     Alright guys, that's all I have for part 1. This was just discussing different methods of ganking for every lane. I'll be posting a part 2 in a few days where I'll be discussing how to effectively gank and farm as well as the most effective methods of ganking, especially in low elo. If you have any questions or comments, post on my FB page, comment here, or tweet me at @Lilnovalas. Thanks for reading guys and I hope this proves useful!