5.2 Jungle Tier List
Hey guys! So it's been awhile since I last made a tier list. I believe the last one was for patch 4.21. So it's about time I create a tier list for the latest patch. Most of the champions on the list haven't changed but, rather, have moved up and down in strengths/weaknesses due to a variety of reasons. Once again, I'll be discussing pros and cons of each champion. In addition, if a champion is NOT on this list, the champion isn't necessarily weak. This list is composed of the 10 jungle champions I personally believe are the top 10 picks for solo queue.10. Wukong (Moved down from #9)
Teamfighting is the meta and Wukong is a key example of a teamfighting jungler. This is due to the amount of disruption Wukong brings to a teamfight with his ultimate as well as the sheer amount of damage.
Wukong's early game is a little rough. His early clear isn't the greatest and he gets a little low while clearing. Using your clone to tank monster hits is the best bet but it's not the most effective. His pre-6 ganks are viable but not the best unless the enemy laner is overextended. They're generally not very effective unless you have red buff though. Wukong's mid and late game is incredibly powerful. He can flash ultimate to get an insane teamfight going with his ultimate and the sheer disruption. Mix in a black cleaver and he shreds the enemy team's armor for your carry(s). Wukong's clear speed after he gets an item is also pretty decent due to his E hitting 3 targets at once and increasing attack speed.
The key problem I have with Wukong is that I feel he takes a little bit to get going plus he's pretty ultimate reliant to make an impact. Yes, he can effectively gank pre 6. Yes, he still does damage without his ultimate. However, other junglers do more without their ultimates vs Wukong. In addition, Wukong has no special objective control other than his Q being a 150 ranged auto reset. His mana costs are also difficult to deal with making Ranger's a decent pick up on him. Stalker's is still viable though. That being said, his teamfighting is exceptional and he's innately tanky. So he's still a great champion.
Pros ; Okay pre-6 ganks with red buff. Decent clear speed and can tank monsters with clone. Exceptional teamfighting and not very item reliant for disruption and high damage w/ ult. Innately tanky.
Cons : Takes awhile to get going. Ultimate reliant. No special objective control. High mana costs. Susceptible to early invades.
9. Kha'Zix (Moved down from #8)
Bug's still here. Bug not squished.
Kha'Zix is still a powerful jungle pick though not as strong as he used to be. His early game is still relatively powerful and he still has effective pre-6 ganks, though the isolation nerf from way back when still hurts him. His kit is more powerful post-6 and the most common evolution path is now Q -> E -> R/W. Common builds are generally Hydra + Last Whisper or Hexdrinker + Last Whisper (Warrior Enchantment for both). His early clears are still pretty rough and I find that building Ranger's is the best call to help his mana and to keep him healthy in the jungle. Kha'Zix is still susceptible to early invades due to how unhealthy he is in his early clears.
His real power comes from his snowballing and his level 11 power spike when he evolves E. E allows resets making Kha'Zix have more presence in teamfights. Unfortunately, since Kha'Zix is item dependent and snowball dependent, he's not too useful if he doesn't secure many kills. If he DOES though, he is a monster in teamfights, assassinating and continually achieving resets.
Kha'Zix has amazing objective control with his absurd scaling isolated Q damage and is sort of versatile in his evolution path since R evolution is useful when being bursted down with W being useful if you're aiming for a more poke-centric composition.
Pros : Effective pre-6 ganks. Snowballs hard. Post-6 ganks are powerful. Sort of versatile. Can assassinate isolated targets quickly. Amazing objective control.
Cons : Item dependent. Snowballs, aka, can be shut down. Susceptible to early invades. Ranger's is veryuseful on him.
8. Rengar (Moved down from #6)
My favorite champion. Stab kitty is incredibly powerful but he's still a little tedious to play through the early game.
Rengar is a champion that has incredibly high base damages so he doesn't even need very many AD items to be able to assassinate the enemy AD carry. That being said, he can one-shot the enemy AD carry if fed enough. Due to the nature of his ultimate (stealth), he's most effective at ganking post 6 but can do great counterganks in top and bottom lane pre 6, specifically with 5 ferocity for maximum burst/CC when counter ganking.
Rengar's early game is critical. He needs to snowball so early ganks are important. The issue is that Rengar has a very rough first clear, requiring you to back after 3 camps and making you incredibly susceptible to early invades. However, he also can early invade if he takes one camp (e.g. red buff). In this case, you 5 ferocity and attempt to get an early first blood on the enemy jungler. Rengar's ability to gank through lanes (e.g. top and bot) with his bush passive makes him have a relatively powerful pre 6.
His post 6, if mixed in with early mobility boots, almost always results in successful ganks as well since an enemy has very little time to react to the exclamation point that will appear over their head. One main problem with Rengar is that he needs to snowball which can be an issue if a lot of your early ganks don't work. Another issue is that he needs to active communicate with his team on his engages since an empowered bola is a 1.75s window of action if you catch a target. His pick potential is powerful and he can solo kill a lot of targets depending on his item build. He's a very high risk, high reward champion. In addition to all that,he has strong objective control due to his large burst damage, allowing him to empowered Q an objective + smite for a massive amount of damage.
He has a variety of methods of which he can be played making him a very versatile pick. The most common build right now is going two damage items (e.g. Warrior + Youmuus) and going full tank after then being used as a pick bot or an initiator. He can also be used as a full damage assassin and kill the enemy squishy targets.
Rengar's main problem is how critical his early game is. If he's shut down early, he can't snowball effectively. Rengar is also reliant on the jungler to have more jungle awareness vs most other champions. His pre 6 is incredibly reliant on counter ganks which requires having the awareness of knowing where the enemy jungler is to get the counter gank off. In addition, he's also pretty item dependent.
Pros : High damage and scaling. Versatile. Can be built as a tank, bruiser or assassin. Early/mid game is strong. Counter ganks are terrifying. Guaranteed kill on ultimate if can land bola. Easy level 2 invade. Pick potential is god-like. Strong objective control.
Cons : Horrible jungle sustain. Ranger's almost required. Can be susceptible to invades if not invading. High skill cap and dependent on ferocity management. Snowballs hard but is a kitten if early/mid isn't played effectively.
Rengar is a champion that has incredibly high base damages so he doesn't even need very many AD items to be able to assassinate the enemy AD carry. That being said, he can one-shot the enemy AD carry if fed enough. Due to the nature of his ultimate (stealth), he's most effective at ganking post 6 but can do great counterganks in top and bottom lane pre 6, specifically with 5 ferocity for maximum burst/CC when counter ganking.
Rengar's early game is critical. He needs to snowball so early ganks are important. The issue is that Rengar has a very rough first clear, requiring you to back after 3 camps and making you incredibly susceptible to early invades. However, he also can early invade if he takes one camp (e.g. red buff). In this case, you 5 ferocity and attempt to get an early first blood on the enemy jungler. Rengar's ability to gank through lanes (e.g. top and bot) with his bush passive makes him have a relatively powerful pre 6.
His post 6, if mixed in with early mobility boots, almost always results in successful ganks as well since an enemy has very little time to react to the exclamation point that will appear over their head. One main problem with Rengar is that he needs to snowball which can be an issue if a lot of your early ganks don't work. Another issue is that he needs to active communicate with his team on his engages since an empowered bola is a 1.75s window of action if you catch a target. His pick potential is powerful and he can solo kill a lot of targets depending on his item build. He's a very high risk, high reward champion. In addition to all that,he has strong objective control due to his large burst damage, allowing him to empowered Q an objective + smite for a massive amount of damage.
He has a variety of methods of which he can be played making him a very versatile pick. The most common build right now is going two damage items (e.g. Warrior + Youmuus) and going full tank after then being used as a pick bot or an initiator. He can also be used as a full damage assassin and kill the enemy squishy targets.
Rengar's main problem is how critical his early game is. If he's shut down early, he can't snowball effectively. Rengar is also reliant on the jungler to have more jungle awareness vs most other champions. His pre 6 is incredibly reliant on counter ganks which requires having the awareness of knowing where the enemy jungler is to get the counter gank off. In addition, he's also pretty item dependent.
Pros : High damage and scaling. Versatile. Can be built as a tank, bruiser or assassin. Early/mid game is strong. Counter ganks are terrifying. Guaranteed kill on ultimate if can land bola. Easy level 2 invade. Pick potential is god-like. Strong objective control.
Cons : Horrible jungle sustain. Ranger's almost required. Can be susceptible to invades if not invading. High skill cap and dependent on ferocity management. Snowballs hard but is a kitten if early/mid isn't played effectively.
7. Rek'Sai (Used to be one of the top junglers. Dropped down)
The Void Burrower is back.
Rek'Sai, while nerfed two patches in a row, is still an incredibly strong champion due to her triple auto attack and her true damage on her E as well as her innate sustain and tankiness. Her early game is incredibly powerful due to her knockup mechanic as well as the high damage on her Q. Her normal ganks involve using her burrow to tunnel behind/underneath a laner and knock them up for disruption while using the triple Q as well as the E to deal true damage if you have the fury for it. Her damage overall was nerfed but she still has the mobility in the E, the true damage on the E, and the disruption of the W. Her mid game/late game is powerful due to the fact that she can be used as an initiator with her E + W combo to knock people up. The only problem is she needs to be built a little tanky. Her ultimate is incredibly effective because it can be used to transverse the entire map. It's incredibly useful to keep tunnels around lanes that you expect to be ganked so you can immediately ult for counter ganks.
The true damage on Rek'Sai's E also provides bonus damage for an execute on smiting objectives, making her decent at taking neutral objectives. She also has great sustain in the jungle due to her burrow mechanic healing her when she's underground. In Rek'Sai's early clear, she generally stays pretty healthy and has very effective clearspeed later. She also has incredible mobility with her E and can get in or out of sticky situations. She also gains vision of a radius around her when burrowed which is VERY useful for scouting.
The key problems with Rek'Sai is that her damage was nerfed significantly so she needs a few damage items to be more relevant. I'd get at least one or two damage items and build as a bruiser or she won't be TOO effective. While having the appearance of being tanky, she's pretty squishy without tank items and can be bursted down easily. She's also kited pretty easily and crowd control is the bane of her existence. Also, burrow can troll you if you're not paying attention. You might run into the enemy team.
Pros : Powerful early game ganks. Great clears. Good disruption in teamfights. Mobile. Effective at taking neutral objectives.
Cons : Not as tanky as you'd think she'd be. Burrow can be interrupted. Needs items. Kited pretty easily. Crowd control is OP. If you're not paying attention, you might run into the enemy team while burrowed.
6. Nidalee (New)
The cougar is a new one on the list. She received a massive jungle specific buff in patch 5.2 which allows her to apply her Hunted debuff onto jungle monsters and neutral objectives. This champion is a new favorite.
Nidalee's ability to now apply the hunted debuff to targets is incredible. This allows her to more quickly kill jungle creeps due to the fact that her cougar Q deals 33% more damage to hunted targets. In addition, applying the hunted debuff to a monster/neutral objective roots the target in place allowing for easy kiting of camps. Her early clear is a little rough but bearable. Once 3, look for overextended targets and aim to walk into them, apply the red buff slow, and line up a spear. If you land the spear, pounce in on them and use your E and Q. Remember that her Q is an execute so it deals more damage the lower health the target has. With a little AP, Nidalee's clearspeed is absurdly fast. Her hunted debuff almost allows you to clear an entire camp with just a quick combo.
Nidalee's neutral objective control is incredibly powerful as well. With her spear (apply hunted debuff) + Cougar Q (Execute) + Smite, she can outsmite nearly any champion. Her early game ganks are superb as long as you can apply your hunted debuff (generally landing spears). Her mid/late game is strong as well due to the fact you want to build her full AP, meaning you poke with your spears. Her poke/siege becomes monstrous later in the game. Nidalee also snowballs incredibly hard, with the ability to one-shot an ADC if you land a spear + pounce onto them and Q, especially with Lichbane. Her mobility and roam potential is absurd due to her passive movement speed bonus while moving through brushes + pounce.
The key issues Nidalee suffers from is that she's mana hungry. Blue buff is super important on her to spam spears. She's also relatively unsafe in her initial clear, being susceptible to early invades. Building AP also means she's going to be relatively squishy so she can be bursted down quickly if caught out of position. She's pretty reliant on landing spears as well so if you can't land a skill shot, this isn't the best champion pick for you.
Pros : Great clearspeed. Excellent early game ganks (if you can land spears). Neutral objective control. Powerful poke mid/late. Incredible at assassinating (Spear + Pounce + Q). Mobility.
Cons : Mana hungry. Susceptible to early invades. Squishy. Reliant on skillshots.
5. Lee Sin (New)
Lee Sin. The most popular jungler in the game. I also REALLY dislike this champion. Besides all that, he's actually a pretty powerful pick after some experimentation.
Lee Sin is renown for his great early game prowess. His ability to snowball lanes AND shut down the enemy jungler is almost unrivaled. Lee Sin's Q is not only a damaging ability but also a gap closer. In addition, the second cast of his Q is an execute, meaning it does more damage the lower health a target is. His W allows him to jump to an allied target/minion/ward and his second cast provides lifesteal/spell vamp. His E deals damage, reveals targets, and slows on the second cast. His ultimate is high damage execute/displacement. This kit put together creates an incredibly powerful, yet also incredibly difficult champion.
Lee Sin's early game is aiming to snowball all of your lanes. In addition, depending on the enemy jungler, you also want to shut him down by playing aggressive in his jungle as well as counterganking. Lee's key strength is in his early game pressure. In mid game, he's effective as a damage dealer while also providing displacement with his ultimate. His late game is pretty lackluster due to the fact that the most effective Lee Sin build path is Warrior + Sightstone + Tank. His late game revolves around focusing on kicking a squishy member of the enemy team into your team to force a teamfight (an Insec). He still provides some damage but it's not that effective.
Outside of that, Lee Sin also purchases a sightstone which is core in his kit to provide extra mobility. However, it's also a sightstone which means your team should be able to acquire more vision. Lee Sin's early clears are amazing. With his W, Lee Sin very rarely dips below 60-70% health in his initial clear. His clearspeed isn't the greatest but he has no trouble staying healthy. His objective control with his Q execute is also great. It's nearly impossible to outsmite a Lee Sin unless you're Nunu or Cho'gath.
The main problem with Lee Sin is actually effectively playing him to his maximum potential. Lee Sin is quite possibly one of the most difficult champion's in the game. While his kit isn't THAT difficult to understand, perfecting his combos/knowing when to insec/applying pressure early game is something that requires a lot of practice to get down. Outside of that, Lee Sin falls off hard late game no matter what and is a utility bot. If he doesn't play the early game effectively, Lee Sin shouldn't even be placed in this top 10. Ganks are critical. Snowballing teammates is critical.
Pros : Early game strength. Neutral objective control. Snowballs lanes hard. Mobility. Vision. Clears.
Cons : Weak late game. Utility bot. Incredibly high skill cap. Reliant on early game.
4. Vi (Moved up from #5)
Vi is an incredibly simple yet powerful jungler this patch. Due to the armor penetration on the Warrior enchantment, purchasing a Triforce as your damage item makes her an INCREDIBLY powerful bruiser. Even while building full tank, expect to wipe out any squishy on their team with your combo.
Vi has decent clear speed with her Q (positioning) + W (armor shred) + E (cone) and her passive allows her to sustain by shielding her. Early game, Vi can sort of effectively gank with her Q. Landing it generally means you force a flash. Post-6, however, Vi becomes a monster with her ultimate. She can point and click to knock up whomever she wants while also displacing everyone in the way. She can effectively jump terrain with her Q and her W provides % health damage for neutral objectives.
Her key issues are that she has high mana costs and has no method of getting out after going in. Her ultimate, while a great single target lockdown, isn't AS effective as other champion's for teamfights. She's still great at teamfights because she can burst specific people down but she doesn't provide the same level of disruption as other champions.
Pros : Snowballs hard. Decent early. Great mid/late. Great clearspeed. Objective control is powerful due to % health damage. Pick potential.
Cons : Mana costs. Goes in, can't get out. Single target ultimate vs teamfight ultimates of other champs.
3. Pantheon (Moved down from #1)
Our Spartan is still here. He's also still pretty good.
Pantheon is still a monstrously powerful jungler, despite some nerfs. Pantheon's early game is still one of the strongest in the game. His early game damage output is still one of the highest in the game, he still has guaranteed crit on his Q + auto if a target has sub 15% health as long as you skill E, and he still can stun you by walking into lane and pressing W. His clear is very effective due to the functionality of his passive. He can block attacks from large monsters, essentially negating a large portion of any damage taken in the jungle. His ultimate is a near guaranteed double kill in bottom lane if he positions his ultimate correctly and ESPECIALLY if the enemy bottom lane has no flashes. His objective control is superb due to his crit chance, allowing him to do additional damage the lower health a target is. Pantheon snowballs incredibly hard. He's early game reliant but if he plays his early game effectively, Pantheon can 100 to 0 any non tank champion in a short combo. His ultimate also is an incredibly effective teamfight initiation.
Pantheon's main cons are that he can no longer solo dragon early, early game so I moved him down for that. In addition, his late game can be mediocre if he doesn't effectively snowball and correctly itemize (e.g. armor penetration). He also is a very go IN champion but has no escapes. Meaning, you go in and you kill everyone or you die trying.
Pros : Incredible early game damage which transitions into great mid game damage if built correctly. Great clear. Snowballs HARD. Great objective control. Ultimate is a powerful initiator.
Cons : Late game is mediocre if not fed/not itemized correctly. Ultimate takes proper position. Goes into a teamfight but can't get out.
I moved Pantheon down the tier list for a few reasons. One is that with the changes to how smite functions (2 charges), Jarvan has proven to be a lot more powerful. In addition, both Jarvan and Fiddlesticks can make a larger impact in mid-late game teamfights whereas Pantheon is more focused on snowballing lanes early game and teamfights mid game.
2. Fiddlesticks (Same spot)
Fiddlesticks is a terror. He's pretty terrifying. Hehe. Get it? His Q... Yeah, sorry.
The reason our scarecrow is still powerful is due to the sheer importance of mid game teamfights. Fiddlesticks has one of the most powerful 5v5 teamfight ultimates and can turn the tide of almost any fight by ulting. Not only that but he only really needs one item to be effective, Zhonya's.
Fiddlesticks' early game is pretty safe. He has no troubles at all clearing his camps early on. Fiddle remains healthy throughout his clear due to his drain. Pre-6, his ganks are a little lackluster if you don't max Q (which most people don't). He can still pull off ganks on VERY overextended targets which can snowball Fiddlesticks really hard. Post-6, his ultimate is an incredibly powerful initiation tool. Especially when used bottom lane due to the nature of his ultimate. He can almost guarantee a double kill on an overextended bottom lane. By mid game, Fiddlesticks has acquired a Zhonya's Hourglass. This means he has the ability to completely decimate teamfights by using his ultimate from fog of war AND can even do this under turrets due to the invulnerability mechanic of Zhonya's. This applies to late game as well where a well placed Fiddle ultimate will guarantee win a fight. Even without his ultimate though, Fiddle can heal through almost all damage unless ignited/has grievous wounds. His silence is also powerful and his fear lasts for up to 2.25s.
The key weaknesses of Fiddlesticks is his vulnerability. Fiddlesticks is a fairly squishy champion. If he's picked off by multiple members of the enemy team, he's most likely going to die. He's also more reliant on vision control vs most other initiating champions. The issue with Fiddle is that he's easily interruptable while channeling his ultimate and it's incredibly costly if he is interrupted. Fiddlesticks is also pretty mana hungry and likes blue buffs.
Pros : Clears. CC. Superb teamfighting. If you ultimate correctly, you win the teamfight. Powerful initiator since ult = flash. Strong objective control.
Cons : Squishy. Can get picked off. Mana hungry. Likes blue buff. Ultimate easily interruptable. Requires effective vision control.
1. Jarvan IV (Moved up from #3)
Jarvan makes an impact at all points of the game. Early game, Jarvan has incredibly powerful ganks with his E -> Q. His damage output at low levels is pretty high due to his passive which deals 10% of the enemy's current health as bonus damage AND his E which increases his attack speed. In addition to that, his E -> Q offers a knockup for additional disruption making it fairly hard to skirmish with a Jarvan. Mid game, Jarvan is a powerful initiator and has the ability to make picks with his E -> Q and his ultimate, especially on immobile champions. Late game, Jarvan can be made incredibly tanky and still deals a large amount of damage with just two damage items (e.g. black cleaver + warrior enchantment). His E->Q provides absurd disruption along with his ultimate. E -> Q along with his passive also proves useful in stealing neutral objectives like dragon and baron.
His only real weaknesses is that if he uses his E -> Q to get in, he has no method of getting out. His ultimate is also detrimental to his teammates if used incorrectly (e.g. trapping teammates into bad positions). In addition, Jarvan also is susceptible to early invades due to issues on his first initial clear. Jarvan's generally get to around sub 30% health while clearing their first set of camps. Powerful early game champions like Rengar and Pantheon can secure an early kill on him if Jarvan is caught out of position.
Pros : Very powerful at all points in the game. Strong objective control. Has great pick potential. Strong early skirmishing. Powerful initiation. Great early ganks.
Cons : No method of getting out if E -> Q used. Rough first clear. Ultimate can be trolly and screw over teammates.
The key reason Jarvan was moved up is because Pantheon was SLIGHTLY nerfed and no longer has the ability to effectively solo dragon sub 4. Jarvan also has more impact with his disruption mid and late game vs Pantheon.
Alright guys. That's all I've got for the 5.2 tier list. Keep in mind that these picks are all my opinion. I personally feel that these are the top 10 jungle picks for solo queue as of right now. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me a message on Facebook, send me a tweet at @Lilnovalas, or toss a comment here. Thanks for reading guys and I'll see you soon!
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