Posted by Stonewall on 8/24/12.

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

Tier 1

 Dr. Mundo, Lee Sin, Nocturne, Maokai, Nunu, Trundle, Nautilus, Skarner, Udyr, Jarvan IV, Alistar,Riven, Shyvana, Olaf, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Shen, Malphite

Tier 2

 Hecarim, Diana, Jax, Warwick, Darius, Shaco, Gangplank, Xin Zhao, Sejuani, Tryndamere, Volibear,Rammus, Master Yi, Fiddlesticks, Zyra, Jayce, Kayle, Gragas, Wukong

Tier 3

Evelynn, Singed, Garen, Rengar, Twitch, Galio, Fizz, Pantheon, Renekton, Rumble, Fiora, Twisted Fate, Janna, Blitzcrank, Kennen, Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Karthus, Cassiopeia,

Lulu, Ziggs, Leona,Heimerdinger, Brand, Yorick, Mordekaiser

Tier 4

Nasus, Katarina, Caitlyn, Corki, Veigar, Poppy, Karma, Irelia, Malzahar, Draaaaaaven, Sivir, Akali,Nidalee

Tier 5

Viktor, Graves, Varus, Orianna, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog Maw, Ashe, Sona

For tiers 1 and 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.

Tier 1 is based more on general all around high quality junglers. Tier 2 is based on junglers with great aspects and a few flaws but being able to fill a niche that gives them some validity. Tier 3 is taking what Tier 2 is based around and basically pushing the importance on niche a lot more. The other two tiers are just throwaways.

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.

What changed this time around-

Maokai - Raised to reflect his superior ganking over Trundle and had his scores fixed up. I barely realized that I had not updated his ganking score or his invasion score.

Nunu - He is just a living nightmare to junglers again. He alone brought back old school control jungling with his recent buffs and he’s just terrorizing junglers again. I’m trying to find counters to him but there are few and some may not even fit the team comp you’re trying to build. His sheer “fits in almost any team” power makes it so you can’t predict his team and thus pick the best Nunu-immune jungler that still fits your team. He simply walks all over certain jungle match ups and forces you to make certain team decisions you may not be prepared to do.

Shyvana - I face a lot of Shyvana and honestly she feels a lot more consistent as a jungler than Olaf does.Olaf needs to build momentum and keep it while Shyvana can just farm all day with her manaless form.

Jayce – Bugs helped out his ganking a lot – and I do mean a lot. Some of his stuff was clunky as all hell and would cause misfires or “lag” between the abilities.

Darius - I’m starting to think of him as a Shaco without stealth. I give the edge to Darius on this one because at least he can build some gold items without suffering and take a tank or damage build while Shaco can only go straight out damage. They’re both straight up snowball junglers.

Garen - This one is just funny. That E change was huge for jungling and made him way faster. He’s a farming machine. He still can’t gank worth a damn and a lot of duelists can make him regret stepping into their jungle and he’s just asking to be ganked. However I’m just very much amused at how this change made him an actual workable jungler.

Gragas - Promoted to tier 2 after his resurgence in lane and seeing a multitude of builds work on him that can easily be transported into the jungle such as gold stacking into AP items. This in effect brings some life to jungle AP Gragas though still not the most smooth transition. He will still be more inclined to be a supportive type.

Katarina - She’s just so bad. Pretty much a really weak version of jungle Garen for mediocre ganking.

Master Yi - It’s just hard to justify him so I’m making him the mid way point for tier 2. He’s a high risk low reward jungler and he definitely needs a remake of some kind. The thing keeping him up is his hyper snowballing and carry potential. He’s also a great split pusher if that’s one way you can force the hand of your opponents in your favor.

Cho Gath – That Q buff actually made a world of difference. It’s just a lot more consistent now and it’s easier to “clip” people with it. Jungle Cho Gath is one of the fastest junglers in the game and he’s pretty fierce in duels vs certain characters. He’s also a character I would say is Nunu resistant (not Immune) as he’s also an old school control jungler. That being said he still has the issue of needing a lot of farm and “dying” being something he doesn’t want to do. It’s just quite awesome how that Q change made quite a difference.

Hecarim - He’s close to finally moving in tier 1. I learned to use the bastard finally and have been having a blast. The change to his E was a godsend as it made it more usable and responsive. I still think it should stop you from attacking unless you specifically click on something when you use it – so many misfires. That being said he snowballs incredibly scary and becomes an unkillable centaur of death. His early levels are still atrocious and his dueling lack luster but his skirmishes are amazing given you have the right teammates. One thing I really love with Hecarim is just how powerful his direct ganks are. A direct gank is just straight down the lane where they can see you coming. The power of Hecarim is that he’ll be coming at you with such amazing speed you’ll have move immediately and if he has his ultimate you’ll have to burn your escapes as well. Hecarim is all about that violence – you have to have teammates who are on the ball here. You’ll come charging down a lane and you’ll have to go in even if the conditions change and they’ll have to respond with you on the gank perfectly. It’s almost art.

Rengar – What an utter disappointing mess he is. I knew he wasn’t going to be a great jungler but on live he’s an even bigger mess. He’s slow, he lacks ganking potential and has to use ferocity in order to actually make it good and even then the range on his snare is so bad it’s just…man this guy is so bad. His leap is clunky and looks stupid too. Something about him tells me he was rushed. His ultimate is also pretty underwhelming. There isn’t much more to say than he’s sub par. He’s a weaker Wukong!

BTW I should add that often times I hold off from jumping a champion to a higher tier because while I can test a champion out and see that perhaps they may be X tier material I might just be getting success with them because of the element of unknowns. What I mean by that is Hecarimis being kept at tier 2 at the moment because I honestly don’t see anyone else play him and I wonder if my opponents are losing because they don’t know what Hecarim is capable of or he’s legitimately that strong. The same goes for Diana. She’s been banned too often thus I can’t see her as my opponent. To add to that I’d like to face a few of these junglers so I can throw my knowledge at them and see if I can stop them – aka see what works against them.