Posted by Stonewall on Monday April 23, 2012.

Remember that this is largely opinion and it is not based on the best jungle PICKS since that is highly objective and subject to opinion. This list is taking into account the potential of characters to jungle on their own regards to make measuring their capabilities easier.

God Tier – Lee Sin, Udyr, Skarner, Trundle, Nocturne, Dr. Mundo
Tier 1 – Jarvan IV, Maokai, Alistar, Riven, Shaco, Shyvana, Nautilus, Cho’Gath, Malphite, Amumu, Olaf
Tier 2 – Gangplank, Rammus, Master Yi, Warwick, Hecarim,  Sejuani, Jax, Volibear, Xin Zhao, Wukong,Shen, Nunu, Tryndamere, Renekton, Fiddlesticks
Tier 3 – Gragas, Rumble, Twitch, Fiora, Singed, Kayle, Pantheon, Twisted Fate, Janna, Kennen, Blitzcrank,Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Karthus, Cassiopeia, Lulu, Ziggs, Fizz, Leona, Caitlyn, Corki, Heimerdinger, Brand, Eve
Tier 4 – Veigar, Yorick, Poppy, Karma, Nasus, Irelia, Malzahar, Sivir, Galio, Akali
Tier 5 -Viktor, Mordekaiser, Graves, Orianna, Garen, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog’Maw, Ashe, Sona

For tiers G to 2 – the placement is more important towards indicating “who is better” but less so for tier 3. In tier 3, just think of it in brackets as the champions here are more flawed and harder to argue. You can say that the higher tier 3 champions are better than the lower tier 3 though. For Tier 4 and 5 it’s pretty much wishy washy.

Some people seem to be getting confused with the ranking. It should be obvious by seeing who gets the S scores that S means higher than A.

S scoring is just some video game thing used to say things like “Oh man you are amazing” etc etc. It’s most commonly used in arcade type games.

The things that changed this time around

Riven – A weaker Lee Sin for sure but that’s not a bad thing to be considered. She is still dependent on not being stepped on early since she does want to mirror the farm she’d be losing from the lane. She is not restrained by any resource cost, she’s very mobile and has built in steroids that allow her to alter her build in several ways. She may have average speed but her versatility in pathing and ganking order makes up for that. You could argue that she can be a better pick than Lee Sin at times due to having hard CC and the fact that she scales far better into late game than Lee Sin she’s just less resistant to harassment and slightly less versatile.

Shaco – He’s still very strong and a general terror of the lanes but he’s incredibly predictable and will quickly fall apart if harassed. I may even lower him some more. He is banned often due to simply being annoying and requiring work to deal with him but if players decide to actually do what is necessary against Shaco – well it might as well be a 4v5.

Cho’Gath – Now that pathing, sustain and versatility is having its importance raised Cho Gath is looking more attractive. He’s one of the gods of jungle versatility as he can enhance pretty much any aspect through alteration of masteries and runes. He’s already amongst one of the fastest junglers in the game if altered that way and can duel some junglers as well. His sustain is also beyond godlike as he has both sustain and burst damage and a means to heal both health and mana.

Olaf – Pretty much the same reasons as before. He’s fast and versatile and can be dangerous if not handled properly. However he still has issues with mana due to Q spam unless he goes the whole CDR E spam build (which hurts his health).

Fiora – She’s just bad. She’s lowering in favor of others.

Volibear – Ignoring the fact that he tends to be unable to do things later on – his early game is quite powerful and his ganks tend to work out better than expected. Maxing out Q second along with grabbing CDR allows you to spam the hell out of it and juggle people around. His passive can be timed to cheese some health gain. He’s also versatile in pathing and builds. However his biggest weakness is he’s slower than average and he isn’t sustained. He actually will slow down even more as the game goes on unless he builds into damage (which isn’t always the most effective build) so he’s basically on a timer.

Rammus – I alluded to this on the last iteration. He’s just been gimped, slowed down and made even less versatile. He’s a shadow of his former bouncy self.

Gragas – Jungle Gragas is a trade off of a lot of things. Either you build him bruiser and get good speed, damage and clearing but then your utility tapers off as bruiser tends to do less than AP. You AP and you suffer from dueling prowess and wonky ganks. However the best build that has shown results (as seen in non NA metas) has been support/Aura Gragas. He’s pretty average in the jungle except his beastly level 6 ganks. The thing though is if you build him aura/support you will be able to ease his transition while providing utility for your team and making the trade offs in the jungle less crippling. His ultimate is game changing and he’s naturally fat and difficult to kill. His Q also works as an anti carry mechanic. So support Gragas makes his jungle weaknesses less apparent and a more attractive choice.

Twitch – He’s both overrated and underrated by people. People act as if he’s the second coming of a god jungler while at the same time underestimate the fact that he can very much destroy you. Twitch is an amazing ganker and has ways only available to him to dupe certain ward locations and get into evil gank positions. However that is all he really has as he will die to pretty much any jungler, will not be able to maintain the pace and will fall apart if controlled. He’s a really brutal ganker if allowed to otherwise he’s really bad.

Shen – He’s ungodly and painfully slow. That is his biggest and most freakish downfall. However think of him likewarwick– super sustained, incredible amounts of versatility and hard to derail. Add to him the fact that he can actually gank pre 6 and he has the infinite jungling niche. As slow as he is his versatility gives him strength over other junglers and his level 6 gives him complete map control while allowing him to continue jungling and in a way acts as artificial speed. Pathing is worth more now so he’s gained some love.

Warwick– Same reasons as Shen except his non 6 ganks are terrible and instead jungles faster thanShen.Warwickgains a lead over Shen because of that speed which allows him to utilize his versatility a bit better.Warwick’s level 6 ganks are still amongst the best as they’re hard to avoid and pretty much can guarantee a person dies.

Hecarim – He’s really average. His damage is on the low end, his sustain is good, his speed is average, his ganks are good but lack damage so assistance is very much required, his invasion consists of thievery and rarely dueling, his pathing is great but his builds pretty much streamlined towards damage. He’s the definition of average with the niche of movement speed and awesome animations.

Shyvana – She’s overrated for sure. She’s not bad but now that Mundo is out she’s looking worse. She needs a team built around her so she can do anything. She can be kited, she can be dueled and crushed (even I exaggerated on how strong of a duelist she is), she has no health sustain and she can’t gank without getting help as she has no CC. Mundo, in my opinion, has replaced her and people aren’t looking at her more carefully. She does well in this manaless, speed and path versatile “jungle meta” sure but it’s because she’s enabled. She’s good but not Godly Good.

Jarvan IV – He is very much beloved inKorea(top lane and jungle) and he’s been underrated for awhile now. Players cannot deny that Jarvan packs so much utility and is capable of so much. In terms of the jungle he can gank anyone and apply incredible pressure when ganking – multiple CC and 2 gap closers – as well as being able to stand up to plenty of the strong junglers and retreat if things go bad. He can a plethora of builds from tanky dps, full tank, full dps, aura support tank, you name it. He can take multiple paths as well as early gank routes and he never slows down. His starting speed may be average but he maintains that pace. Jarvan is the counter pick to certain popular junglers such as Mundo and Shyvana as well. Jarvan combines incredible versatility with incredible ganking prowess and a wonderful and brilliant combination of utility as well as being incredibly manly.