Season 5 Top 10 Solo Queue Junglers.. Updated for Patch 5.4.

Patch 5.4 Tier List

Hey guys! So I skipped 5.3 and didn't make a tier list then because there weren't **too many** major changes and I didn't feel like I had to revamp the tier list much. 5.4 is now out though and so I'll be making a new tier list. The main change to this tier list is that I'm not going to be going super in-depth and writing major essays. Instead, I'm going to make a shorter section for each champion and I'll have a picture TL:DR attached. I've noticed that most people prefer that these type of posts are a little bit shorter and have more pictures. TL:DR at the bottom! Runes and masteries are also included in this post. Keep in mind that these vary.

10. Hecarim (New)

The pony is golden boys. 

Hecarim is powerful due to his decent sustain in the jungle (his W was buffed at rank 1 and heals for a large amount), his clearspeed (Q spam!), and his relatively powerful ganks pre-6 and post-6. Hecarim snowballs very hard and becomes a monster to deal with, especially with damage items such as Trinity Force and Youmuu's Ghostblade. The key issue is that, while he is an effective jungler, he's better utilized top lane due to having better access to the farm for expensive items like Trinity Force and his sustain in lane is effective as well. Also, the changes in 5.4 where swapping a jungle item isn't free anymore hurts him a lot. He's playable in the jungle but superior in top lane.

Pros : Decent sustain. Clearspeed. Powerful pre-6 and post-6 ganks. Snowballs hard.

Cons : Snowball/farm reliant. Stronger as a laner than a jungler.

Example rune page : Movement quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example mastery page : 

9. Rengar (Moved down from #8)

Stab kitty is still here! Struggling to stay in the top 10 but still here!

Rengar is incredibly powerful due to his high damage output (high base damage) and his versatility. In addition, his pre-6 ganks aren't the most effective but can still be pulled off effectively in top lane and bottom lane due to the bushes. His invades are incredibly powerful (e.g. level 2 invade) and he can skirmish very effectively with most junglers early game. His post-6 ganks are almost guaranteed kills if pulled off correctly due to being able to stealth in and chain your bola strikes. His versatility allows him to be built as a tank initiator or a full damage assassin and he plays well in both roles. 

That being said, his main cons are that his early clears are atrocious. The 5.4 changes hurt him significantly due to not being able to start Rangers for easy early clears and then swap to another smite. He gets early low in the early jungle so if you're not invading, you're susceptible to invades by other champions. In addition, while his ganks pre-6 can be pulled off, he's still pretty ultimate reliant. Rengar also is snowball reliant and is relatively weak if he doesn't get ahead early game. He's pretty high risk, high reward.

Pros : High damage. Versatile (can be tank/bruiser/assassin). Pre-6 ganks aren't the worst. Post-6 ganks are potent. Invades are incredibly powerful. Can skirmish with most junglers.

Cons : Gets INCREDIBLY low in the jungle if not invading. Susceptible to invades. Ultimate reliant. Snowball reliant.

Example runes :  AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

8. Pantheon (Moved down from #3)

Spartan's man dropped down a lot. Awkward. 

I'll be honest. I still feel like Pantheon is a top tier pick. But a bunch of nerfs that hit different jungle items here and there, as well as an AD nerf to the warrior enchantment kind of made me feel like he's not as good as he used to be. That being said, he's still a top tier pick but, after experimenting with it through dozens of games, I'm just not feeling it anymore.

Pantheon's main strengths is his ability to sustain in the jungle with his passive which blocks monster auto attacks as well as his early damage. Pantheon has incredibly high damage at low levels, allowing him to effectively invade, level 2 gank, and pre-6 gank. His post-6 gank is referred to by many as a guaranteed double kill in bottom lane. He snowballs incredibly hard and can 100 to 0 targets with ease with just some armor penetration. His initiation is also incredibly powerful and his objective control is great with his guaranteed crit at low % health. The main issues with Pantheon is that he falls off late game, especially with poor itemization. You need armor penetration to effectively play him but need to also build slightly tanky so you can survive long enough to deal damage. You also need to correctly use to ultimate (e.g. positioning) or you'll fail due to the long delay before you land. Another issue is that Pantheon goes IN but has no real escapes so you have to fully commit to fights.

Pros : Great sustain in jungle. High early game damage. Can invade. Level 2 ganks and pre-6 ganks are very effective. Post 6 gank is amazing. Ultimate is great for initiation. Snowballs hard. Neutral objective control is great due to guaranteed crit.

Cons : No escapes. Falls off hard if not itemized correctly. Need to get used to effectively positioning ult.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

7. Jarvan IV (Down from #1) 

The prince has fallen from grace.

To explain why he's dropped down, Jarvan took a decent sized hit to his E which removed the passive armor portion of the spell. To compensate, Jarvan received +3 base armor. His first clear should remain unchanged but the it's still around 400g worth of stats lost. While it doesn't sound like the biggest of deals, it hurts his mid game tankiness where Jarvan would be innately tanky despite not having any actual tank items. In addition, Riot fixed a bug where players would occasionally get knocked up when walking into Jarvan post E -> Q. While it wasn't a prominent bug, this makes Jarvan slightly weaker (though no one's complaining because IT WAS A BUG). 

All that aside, Jarvan is still incredibly powerful. His first clear is a little sketchy and he gets pretty low but his early ganks make up for that. His pre-6 ganks are incredibly powerful and something as simple as his E->Q is enough to force a laner's flash. His post-6 ganks are just the same and will lock someone in the Cataclysm. The pressure he can apply with his kit is absurd. His damage is also incredibly high, even when built tanky, due to the fact that his passive does 10% of a target's current health on his first auto attack. His neutral objective control is great because of his passive and because of his ability to get in and out (E->Q). His utility is amazing because his E still provides attack speed, he can disrupt and peel with his E->Q and his R. His initiation is incredibly powerful. 

The main issues with Jarvan is that his E->Q is his main method of getting in. If he uses it to initiate, he has no means to get out other than burning a summoner. His ultimate can also be troll-y and screw over your teammates, hence the term "I'm Jarvan! I'm helping!" He gets low in his early clears and is susceptible to invades.

Pros : Potent pre-6/post 6 ganks. Great neutral objective control. Great initiator. Decent damage, even if tank. Great disruption in teamfights.

Cons : No method of escaping after E->Q. Ultimate can screw over teammates. Susceptible to early invades.

Example runes : Atkspd quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

6. Fiddlesticks (Down from #2)

Another champion who's dropped down in the standings. Fiddlesticks is still an incredibly powerful pick but, after experimenting, I've found a few other champions that carry more effectively. That being said, he did receive a nerf that hurt him a little bit. His Drain tether range was nerfed by 50, from 700 to 650. It's not a MASSIVE nerf but it's still a nerf.

Fiddlesticks main strengths is that he remains incredibly healthy in his clears due to his drain, his ability to skirmish with enemy junglers with rank 2 drain, and his devastating teamfight with his CC/Ultimate. Fiddlesticks has very little trouble in the season 5 jungle because he heals through all the damage with his drain. His pre-6 ganks aren't the greatest but are able to be pulled off with fear, though I personally don't rank up fear first. His post-6 ganks are incredibly terrifying and are more effective than Pantheon's level 6 bottom lane ganks. His ultimate can singlehandedly wipe out players, even at rank 1. His neutral objective control is decent because he can secure an early dragon since he can drain through all the damage, however, he has no ability to combo with his smite so neutral objectives can be stolen. His ultimate will devastate an entire enemy team if used effectively and he only needs one item to carry (Zhonya's Hourglass). His initiating power stems from his ultimate as well since it can be used over walls. He can effectively CC targets and win teamfights, even without his ultimate due to his fear and silence. Fiddlesticks main issues is that he's semi-reliant on blue buff. Denying his first one can really screw over his early clear. Fiddlesticks is also an incredibly squishy target and can be picked off very easily. Vision control is also super critical with Fiddlesticks since his ultimate is best used as a "Surprise Party!" Since his ultimate is a channeled spell, it can be interrupted so it's critical you're always in fog of war.

Pros : Clears. CC. Exceptional teamfight. Good ultimate = win teamfight. Strong initiator. Good neutral objective control.

Cons : Can get picked off easily. Ultimate is interruptable. Mana hungry. Reliant on first blue buff. Requires effective vision control.

Example runes : AP quints. Magic pen marks. Armor seals. Scaling CDR glyphs.

Example masteries :

5. Rek'Sai (Up from #7)

Rek'Sai hasn't herself received any buffs that warrant moving her up. However, as people have become more and more experienced with her, there's more and more reason that she's actually a really powerful pick.

Rek'Sai's early clear is great and she has no trouble sustaining due to her burrow passive. In addition, Rek'Sai also can't get invaded very effectively since you can see tremors of enemy players when burrowed. Her clear is powerful as well due to her ability to knock up monsters to allow for short disruption to reduce damage taken. Since her ultimate is utility based rather than a combat ultimate, her pre-6/post-6 ganks are the same and are incredibly powerful with her able to use her tunnels to effectively gank. Her main method of ganking involves getting underneath the enemy and knocking them up by unburrowing. Outside of that, her tunnels are also useful for getting in and out of the enemy jungle to place vision. You can also leave your tunnels by every lane and, when a lane is getting ganked, use your ultimate to quickly get there to countergank, no matter where you are on the map. Her E true damage allows her to deal a large amount of damage to players but can also be used for neutral objectives to help secure them/combo with smite. She does a decent amount of damage while building tanky and does an absurd amount of damage if built with just one damage item (e.g. Trinity Force). Her teamfights are powerful and she provides decent initiation/disruption with her unburrow knockup. She can also determine whether or not you're about to get death bushed by using her burrow to look for enemy tremors. Her main issues is that she's not THAT tanky without items like pre-nerf Jarvan. Her burrow can be interrupted. She can be kited very easily since she has no slow in her kit. Also, you might troll yourself and get yourself killed if you don't pay attention to tremors when burrowed.

Pros : Great clear. Invades are unlikely to be successful. Great early ganks. Great mobility, especially for placing deep wards in the enemy jungle. Effective at counterganking, especially post 6. Great neutral objective control. Decent damage. Can prevent vision cheese. Good teamfight initiation/disruption.

Cons : Not innately tanky. Burrow can be interrupted. Kited easily due to no slow. You're blind when burrowed. Pay attention to tremors.

Example runes :  Atkspd quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries :

4. Lee Sin (Up from #5)

The Blind Monk's moving up. Why? Everyone else is getting nerfed.

I don't really like putting Lee Sin in a top 10 list just because I feel like to be a top tier jungler, he requires you to be relatively skilled at the champion and his mechanics. I decided to anyways since he's a relatively powerful pick right now.

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 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. Aside from that, his early clear is great due to his sustain with his W. His pre-6 ganks are incredibly strong since landing his Q results in a dash and his second cast of Q is an execute (more dmg the lower health you are). His E slows as well to help with that. Post-6, he can displace you effectively with his ultimate. Neutral objective control is amazing since his Q is an execute and there are very few champions that can outsmite him. His vision control is superb since a core part of his kit is building a sightstone for mobility. 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.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

3. Fizz (New)

Patch 5.2 made AD on-hit Fizz a thing but he was only brought into the jungle recently. The changes to his W makes him do an absurd amount of damage with just two items in the jungle (Devourer/BORK). Afterwards, you build full tank and focus on auto attacking.

Fizz's early clears isn't the worst and he can get through his camps without much of a struggle. His pre-6 ganks are fairly effective and he can put out a decent amount of damage when using his active W. He does need his red buff to keep them slowed so he can consistently auto attack. Post-6, with his ultimate, he can not only amplify his damage but also slow them with the shark to do more damage. His early game damage is absurd and he doesn't fall off at any point in the game. His mid/late game damage is amazing as well. His teamfight involves either being the initiation (using your ultimate and getting in their face once you're tanky enough), providing disruption, or just diving into their backline to kill them all with auto attacks. His neutral objective control is decent because he does % health damage and also builds Blade of the Ruined King. Fizz's main issues is that he can be kited pre-6 relatively easily. He's also a little susceptible to level 2 invades when he has no E to escape. He's also more reliant on landing his ultimate since it amplifies his damage. His E is also his main escape so wasting it can be fatal.

Pros : Absurd damage. Decent clears. Effective pre-6 ganks and great post-6 ganks. Doesn't fall off. Can initiate, disrupt, or just dive backline. Neutral objective control is strong due to % health damage. 

Cons : Can be kited pre-6. Susceptible to level 2 cheese. Sort of ultimate reliant since it amplifies damage. E is main escape so wasting can kill you.

Example runes : Atkspd quints. Atkspd marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

2. Nidalee (Up from #6)

While Nidalee did receive a nerf in the form of a bug fix in 5.3, she's still an incredibly powerful pick in 5.4. 

Nidalee's early clear is a little rough but she can get through it without too much of a struggle. Her general clearspeed is incredibly fast, especially once she gets some AP. Her early ganks are incredibly powerful and she can decimate people at level 3 as long as she manages to apply her Hunted debuff. Generally, you'll land your Q which will empower your pounce (W) and allow you to jump on a target. Your cougar form Q is an execute so you'll do more dmg the lower the target's health. Her damage is absurd early, even without much AP. Her neutral objective control is also incredibly powerful between using her spear to apply the hunted debuff and then pouncing in and then using Q. Nidalee is one of the best at securing those neutral objectives and it's very easy to steal neutral objectives with her without having much risk to yourself since you can jump back out after jumping into the dragon/baron pit. Nidalee's mid to late game is also incredibly powerful since she's great at sieging with her poke. She snowballs INCREDIBLY hard and can one-shot most carries with just one or two AP items as well as long as you land a spear on them. Her roaming potential and ability to maintain vision is exceptional due to her passive movement speed bonus while running through bushes. Her main issues are that, in teamfights, when she goes in, she kind of has a little bit of trouble getting back out, especially if she doesn't kill her target. She REALLY needs a Zhonya's for those sort of situations. She's also pretty mana reliant and it's probably a good idea to take blue buffs or build some type of mana item (e.g. Ranger's Trailblazer for the smite regen or Rod of Ages). You're also fairly squishy depending on your build so you need to be careful with positioning. Targets that lock you down are your worst nightmares (e.g. Annie/Lissandra/Vi). She's also very skill-shot reliant.

Pros : Clears. Absurd damage at all points in the game. Can assassinate carries with ease if you land your spears. Neutral objective control is uncanny. Sieging is incredibly powerful, especially with blue buff. Snowballs HARD. Roaming is superb and she can apply pressure everywhere. Vision control. 

Cons : Goes in but can be in trouble if target doesn't die. Blue buff reliant. Squishy depending on build. Lockdown is your worst nightmare.

Example runes : AP quints. AD marks. Armor seals. AP glyphs.

Example masteries : 

1. Vi (Up from #4)

Everyone else got nerfed. Vi didn't. She's still here. 

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 but the lockdown can effectively just remove one person out of a fight, especially when mixed in with a Lissandra. 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.

Example runes : AD quints. AD marks. Armor seals. MR glyphs. CDR glyphs.

Example masteries : 

TL:DR :

Thanks for reading guys!