https://youtu.be/D5aNwirS7MM

By abrownbag

A big thanks to abrownbag for the information in the video above. Be sure to watch the video for the full detail of the guide.

How to Jungle

Disclaimer: If you're looking at jungling as a way for you to run around, clear the camps, get the most kills, and be OP. Then you're doing it wrong. And if you're currently doing that in the game then your team doesn't need you. Please stop jungling.

Now, let's go over the two scenarios that explain why that's not your primary focus as your teams jungler. First of all, let's talk about all the camps in the jungle.

The yellow dots on this map are small camps and they will give you EXP and gold. The numbered camps are the buffs. On this map, you can see where the Blue Buff and the Red Buff are located.

The Blue Buff aka the Sage Buff will give you faster Mana regen and ability cooldowns. The Red Buff aka the Might Buff will give you more damage and slow enemies when you attack them.

Then above the Blue Buff, you've got the Dark Slayer which will give your whole team gold and EXP. It will also give you faster Mana and Health Regen.

Above that is what we call the "Health Dragon" and that is a dragon that will help increase your healths recovery time. You get gold and XP just like at every camp but your health recovery goes up by a lot.

And right below 4 on the map is the abyssal dragon camp. And what that does is gives your whole team gold and experience and then whoever kills that gets a big boost of experience points.

Now, the yellow camps along the river. There's at the bottom by the Abyssal Dragon and one up by the Dark Slayer and these camps give you gold and exp but when you clear them they will travel the jungle and show you any enemies that are in their radius.

All the other yellow camps just give you gold and XP. The last thing you have to worry about as a jungler is if the jungle is actually switching sides.

The terms True Red and True Blue refer to what side of the map you spawn on. To know this is by knowing which Dragon you are by when you spawn.

If you can point that out by knowing that there is only one big dragon camp to your right when you first enter. Then that means you are a True Blue.

Now that you know the camps and what they do let's look at a scenario. You start True Blue then go straight to Might buff.

You clear that for the buff, clear a few camps, get the blue buff, clear another camp. When you clear all the camps you notice up top that an enemy has pushed down too far.

You go and gank to help your teammate kill that enemy.  The enemy team gets the Abyssal Dragon And you're thinking hey that's awesome, I cleared all the camps a fast as possible and I'm one level ahead of all the enemies and I got a kill for the top.

This is wrong. Everything you just did is actually consider doing very poorly as a jungler.

Yes, you're ahead of the team and got a kill. But unfortunately, the team that just killed the Abyssal Dragon are now a level ahead of you and they're entire team got gold and experience.

So even though you're doing good and you got a kill your team is actually down. This is the main difference between a bad jungler and a good jungler.

A bad jungler is focused on themselves, getting kills and looking good on the team. That doesn't really translate to the team.

Because a good jungler will focus on one thing and one thing only. If you're a good jungler there is only one thing you should ever be asking yourself.

Is the current decision I'm making benefit the entire team?

If you just follow that one guide I guarantee with practice you will be an amazing jungler. Contrary to popular belief, Arena of Valor has no set in stone route that will make you a good jungler.

And just getting kills so you look good does not help your team out. The Jungler is really the thankless captain of the team.

Your job as the Jungler is to make up for all your team's mistakes, get your team ahead, and ultimately help your team win the game. But how do you achieve this as a Jungler?

One good thing is to prioritize the Abyssal Dragon. It's the best way to get your team Gold and experience and also get ahead in the game.

Arena of Valor is fast place so the route you take is not as important as it is in other MOBA's. You're not gonna get punished for going straight from buff to buff or clearing the entire first or second camp.

What you want to be focused on is map awareness. Always be using your mini-map to see where everyone is and where you can help you.

A good thing to do is go straight for the first buff, then the second buff, then go for Abyssal Dragon. No matter what you're doing as a Jungler that assures you can take the dragon at level 3 or 4 with the help of a teammate and start snowballing the team to victory.

Now, you definitely have to pay attention to what your team is doing because it won't always be that perfect. As soon as you're in 3 on the map you need to check.

Is the team taking the red buff? A lot of time your teams ADC will want that red buff to get ahead in the bottom lane, and that's fine.

In that case, you'll go from 3, grab the small camps and maybe a few in 2, then go for the dragon. And this is the kind of thinking that you need to have when being the Jungler.

Being a Jungler is a situational job. If the enemy team is being aggressive and pushing on the bottom tower then you need to not prioritize the red buff and go help out to keep from losing your tower.

What you really need to prioritize is always be helping your team. Your jungle items stack so you don't really get awarded for jungle items until later in the game.

So the early game you can really focus on helping your team and prioritizing them and that dragon. The difference between Gold and Platinum players is that those teams are taking Abyssal Dragon as soon as it spawns every time it spawns.

In games, there are teams that converge on the dragon and keep taking it. The Abyssal Dragon is really the crux of a lot of matches to where if you trade kills fighting the dragon but still kill the dragon then you'll most likely win.

But the overall point as a Jungler is focusing on helping your team and making up for your team's mistakes. Maybe mid lane gets killed twice in the early game and they're already pushing the tower.

You won't be able to be in the jungle clearing the camps. You'll need to be taking a buff and help keep that tower alive.

When the enemy team takes a tower they get an XP and gold boost and you never want that. Just because you are a higher level and can take the enemy team because of being in the jungle doesn't mean your team can.

See the Jungle in Arena of Valor is so strong especially compared to other jungles in MOBA's. And a lot of people take this as a way to make themselves stronger than everyone else.

But ultimately this is going to cost you the match in late game because the enemy team will all be around even level where you'll be ahead of your team causing an imbalance. If you take the thankless job and make up for everyone's mistakes by cleaning up all the messes they make.

Then yes, you'll lose out on some kills and levels. But as the game progress, your team will be in a better position to win.

So now that you know the route doesn't really matter the next thing is knowing where to start. You should always start the opposite side of Abyssal Dragon.

So for True Blue, you're going to be starting up near the top camp so you can clear it. Then go down to Abyssal Dragon to make sure the enemy team isn't going for it.

You want to go for it before it even spawns. Go around getting buffs clearing camps and making sure your team gets the dragon.

There is no real truly wrong or right order as long as you follow that. Some characters in Valor will clear camps faster than others.

Some characters can clear all the camps in several sections and the dragon will still not be spawned. Other characters can maybe only take both buffs and a small camp and have to be there before the dragon spawns.

But if you can get to Abyssal Dragon to help out your team then that's it. There is no fancy route you have to go because the game is to fast to worry about that.

And what you should be doing is taking Jungling items and the jungling talent. Talents and Armor are important if you're going to Jungle.

The Punish talent is the Jungling talent and it is the best thing in the game. If you don't take Punish then don't even try to jungle.

So there you go. Make sure you choose the Punish talent, this will do damage to nearby minions and monsters and once you get to a certain point this talent because of Frostbite and it does damage to enemy players as well.

And if you're going to Jungle then you want to take jungle items with you. Loki's Curse, Leviathan, and Soul Reaver for this build, Soul Reaver which has attack speed and life steal which is good on Tel'Annas.

But what you really want to pay attention to is "Grants Frostbite Talent". And what that means is you'll be able to use the Punish talent on your enemy team.

So it's all about taking that Punish talent and the best Jungling equipment you can take. A really easy way is just to click pro builds and find one that has a jungling item in it and use that as your build.

So make sure that if you're going to jungle be sure you're going to use the Punish Talent and Jungling items.