Some champions in League of Legends are just much stronger than others. For junglers, there are multiple considerations when weighing up which is better.
The most important thing to look at, and the most obvious, is whether the champion would be good at ganking and either securing kills or aiding their teammates in doing so. Behind the scenes, though, is where things get complicated.
Clear speed, invasion pressure, and macro mobility are all factors that need to be evaluated for keeping up with the enemy jungler. The best jungle champions are the ones that can do it all.
This list of top-tier champions can change depending on several things. Sometimes, the meta shifts for no apparent reason other than players’ tastes, but usually, there’s some kind of balance update, small or large, that’s behind the sudden change. It can be difficult to keep up with the flavor-of-the-month champs, so let us do it for you.
Here are our top junglers for League’s Patch 13.22.
Jarvan IV
Pros
- Great gank potential
- One of the strongest early-game champions
- Snowballs heavily
- Great for teamfights
Cons
- Falls off in the late game
- Sub-par jungle clear
- Engage can be telegraphed at times
Jarvan IV continues to be one of the best junglers in the meta, having received an indirect buff with the Spear of Shojin changes. Despite the nerf to its passive in Patch 13.18, it didn’t stop him from being a great carry pick for solo queue, boasting positive win rates with one of the highest pick rates at Platinum Elo and above, according to U.GG.
Item build
Jarvan IV’s best-performing rune is still Conqueror, which grants him adaptive force and some extra healing at max stacks. For a heavy skirmishing champion like him, it’s the best rune you could get.
Given that the primary rune tree is Precision, the minor runes are all about empowering his strengths and fighting ability. Therefore, go for Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and Last Stand. If the enemy has little to no crowd controls, consider getting Legend: Alacrity for the increased attack speed. Whenever you’re going for a full attack damage build, you should swap Last Stand for Coup de Grace for a consistent damage output.
The secondary tree is still Inspiration, with Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight as the main choices. Magical Footwear is a great rune that saves you 300 gold while getting a better version of tier-one boots. Cosmic Insight, on the other hand, lowers the recharge time for Smite and Flash, as well as the cooldown on items.
Speaking of items, Jarvan has a slightly tweaked build following the recent fighter item changes. While his Mythic item is still Goredrinker, his second core item is no longer Death Dance. Instead, players are now building Spear of Shojin, given the extra ability haste the item grants. It spikes in the mid-game harder than Black Cleaver since the armor penetration gains value later in the game. Following Spear of Shojin, high Elo players are building Frozen Heart for the aura effect that reduces enemies’ attack speed. Round off with Black Cleaver, Guardian Angel, and Spirit Visage or Maw of Malmortius for the magic resistances.
Ability priority
As Jarvan IV, there’s only one viable ability maxing order: R>Q>E>W. However, you always want to start with E, Demacian Standard, for the increased attack speed to you and the allies that will be leashing your jungle camp. Dragon Strike is Jarvan IV’s main source of damage, so always max it first. The extra shield on J4’s W doesn’t scale with the ability’s level, so there is no need to max it until later.
Game plan
Jarvan IV’s main strength lies in his early-game ganking ability, so it’s important to take advantage of that time window to impact the map as much as possible.
What makes Jarvan IV particularly strong compared to other junglers is his ability to gank at level two, with a high potential of getting kills or at least forcing an enemy’s flash. On top of that, his E-Q combo can allow him to dash through walls, dodge warded areas, and go for surprising flanks on the enemy laners. Overall, Jarvan IV has multiple options to go for, and he can win most of the skirmishes thanks to his kit and rune setups.
Once Jarvan IV reaches level six, ganks are even easier to pull off since his Cataclysm is essentially an additional dash on top of his combo. Later into the game, you have two main goals. You either try to one-shot a squishy carry with your combo, or you trap as many opponents as possible in your ultimate so that your teammates can follow up with their abilities and damage.
Graves
Pros
- Great late-game carry potential
- Strong and healthy jungle clear
- Heavily counters the AD meta junglers
Cons
- Doesn’t have exceptional ganks on
- Struggles heavily from behind
Whenever carry champions become meta in the jungle, Graves is always going to be there to join the show. And this patch is no exception. The Outlaw is rising back to popularity, with strong pick rates, according to U.GG, and positive win rates at most Elos as well. Now that the game is shifting towards the mid- and late-game fights once again, Graves is one of the best carry choices that work in solo queue. If you want to climb the ladder, make sure to consider Graves among your picks for the patch.
Graves item build
Graves always goes for Fleet Flootwork as his keystone rune since it’s his main source of sustain and grants a small movement speed boost to chase or kite enemies during the skirmishes. By building several items, he can heal even more than 200 health points with one proc.
Given that the primary rune tree is Precision, the minor runes are all about improving his fighting potential: Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, and Coup de Grace are the best combination. Considering his lethality build is the preferred one currently, Coup de Grace is better than Last Stand.
For the secondary tree, instead, go for Inspiration with Magical Footwear and Future’s Market. The former is a standard rune for most junglers since it saves 300 gold to purchase the boots, while Future’s Market is getting more popular due to the earlier item spikes it can grant. In particular, it gives Graves the ability to get Serrated Dirk on the first recall, a vital component for his skirmishing in the first minutes of the game.
Moving onto his build, Graves players are now going for the lethality-based build, with Youmuu’s Ghostblade, The Collector, and Black Cleaver as the first core items. After that, you want to get Lord Dominik’s Regard and Guardian Angel for the maximum damage output.
If you ended more sustain or resistances, you can consider getting Bloodthirster or Maw of Malmortius by swapping either Black Cleaver or Lord Dominik’s Regard.
Ability priority
Graves’ most common maxing order is R>Q>E>W. However, you want to go for E at level one to stack the armor as soon as possible, further reducing the damage taken from the jungle camps. After that, though, max in the correct order.
Game plan
When playing Graves in the jungle, your goal is to collect resources for yourself and snowball the game as much as you can. Focus on power farming the monster camps and clear them as soon as they spawn while looking for chances to pick up easy kills with ganks if possible. You can also consider invading the enemy jungler, but make sure to stack the E passive so you don’t get shut down immediately.
It’s worth getting minion farm, too, especially if the gold cannot be picked up by your allies. You can always do that while they are recalling to base, roaming on the map, or dead. Overall, you want to funnel everything you can and get as many items as possible with Graves. By accelerating your own economy, you can reach the power spikes faster and get into a position to take over the game.
If you’re able to do that, then Graves will become almost unstoppable: he can burst down most targets with his quick combos, and he won’t die due to the mobility coming from Fleet Footwork and his E. Ideally, you want to look for flanks to take down the squishy targets, but if you can’t find the right angle to kill them, you can also chunk the front line with the armor penetration.
Shaco
Pros
- One of the best carry junglers of the meta
- Can make the game a nightmare for the enemy team
- The most slippery jungler, great for invades
Cons
- Much tougher to master compared to other meta junglers
- Can struggle later on without a big lead
Shaco has always been one of those picks for one-trick-pony players, but recently, more and more junglers have started playing him, finding incredible success, especially at the higher ends of the ranked ladder. According to U.GG, Shaco is registering an impressive 52.6 percent win rate at Master Elo and above, with a good pick rate of around three percent.
Considering most players will hover on other meta picks, Shaco comes up as a great counter that can completely mess up the enemy’s early-game tempo and jungle clear.
Shaco item build
Each Shaco player has its own rune setup, depending on whether he plans to build AP or AD. Out of the two, though, the AD version is more popular: it’s more consistent, and it’s easier to pull off effectively.
Most Shaco mains run Hail of Blades as the keystone rune, followed by Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, and Treasure Hunter. The setup has the clear goal of adding more snowball potential: the better you play early on, the stronger Shaco gets. By pairing it up with Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace from the Precision tree, the champion will become a great mid-game menace, shotting people with a few auto attacks.
When it comes to the item build, the core purchases are Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Prowler’s Claw. The combination of these two lethality items will shred through most targets’ armor in the skirmishes, and Hail of Blades will make up for the lack of attack speed in the combos. Round off the build with The Collector, Lord Dominik’s Regard, and one between Edge of Night and Guardian Angel.
Ability priority
On Shaco, the maxing order is R>E>Q>W. That said, the maxing order for the first few levels is quite different: you want to start with W and use the boxes to quickly clear the first camp, get Q at level two, and then E at level three. Some players also like to add an extra point into W to improve the early jungle clear. Otherwise, max E to maximize the damage on ganks.
Game plan
Shaco’s game plan and execution of the game can differ a lot from game to game. Understanding what you should be doing in every single situation makes it one of the toughest champions to master. Generally speaking, Shaco excels either at invading the enemy jungler or spam-ganking lanes to pick up kills and snowball. The former can be done if you know that the enemy champion cannot outplay you, or he has a slower jungle clear compared to yours.
Ganks, instead, can be done if you have a good setup from your allies or if a lane is playing quite aggressively. Regardless, you should always be looking to position around those opportunities: check the map constantly to know what is going on in every lane.
If you’re able to get a lead, then play around your combos to quickly get behind the enemy lines and burst down the targets. Stay in the fog of war and join the fight towards the end of it. Learn how to bait enemies with the clone, and you’ll see your win rate spike up immensely.
Kayn
Pros
- Unrivaled map presence
- One-shot combos
- Has two different forms
Cons
- Weaker than other meta junglers early on
- Taking the wrong fights or ganks will delay the transformation
Assassin junglers are all over the place in the jungle meta, and Kayn is no exception. The Darkin jungler is finding strong success at the start of the new ranked split, giving players an extra option when it comes to hard-carrying.
He’s particularly strong in the lower end of the ranked ladder, where players are typically more prone to making mistakes and over-extending: he has over 51 percent win rate with a 12 percent pick rate at gold Elo, according to stat site U.GG. If you’re looking for a pick to solo win your games, Kayn is definitely a champion you should consider.
Kayn item build
Among the two forms, assassin Kayn is the stronger and more commonly used to carry games. With that in mind, let’s go over the best runes for the Shadow Reaper.
The keystone rune is First Strike, which increases Kayn’s snowball potential and accelerates his economy. By doing so, the Darkin jungler will always be ahead in gold of the enemies and reach his two item spikes faster and then spike even more from there. As long as you have a good killer instinct, you can generate up to more than one thousand gold with this rune.
For the remaining minor runes from the Inspiration tree, go for Magical Footwear, Future’s Market, and Cosmic Insight. The first two further improve Kayn’s economy by saving gold on boots while also entering debt to buy items. Cosmic Insight, instead, is just an overall strong rune for junglers since it lowers the charge timer for Smite.
In the secondary tree, choose Domination with Sudden Impact and Treasure Hunter. In particular, Treasure Hunter grants additional gold on takedowns, making Kayn’s snowball even stronger. Sudden Impact, on the other hand, gives additional magic penetration and lethality, which synergizes perfectly with Blue Kayn’s combos (remember that Kayn’s passive deals magic damage).
Build-wise, Blue Kayn has Duskblade of Draktharr as Mythic, followed by Muramana, Serylda’s Grudge, and Axiom Arc. The last item can be either Edge of Night or Guardian Angel, depending on the game state. If you need more damage to kill the enemy carries, you can also consider swapping Axiom Arc with Prowler’s Claw.
Ability priority
On Kayn, the maxing order is the same for both forms: R>Q>W>E. Ever since Riot buffed his Q, Reaping Slash, in Patch 13.3, it’s always better to max it first. Not only does it deal more damage for more passive stacks, but it also speeds up his jungle clear. After that, max W, Blade’s Reach, for additional damage output and E, Shadow Step, last since it’s the situational spell.
Game plan
Kayn’s game plan is not that difficult to understand, but executing it becomes a lot trickier. You will have to think about your strategy during champion selection and choose wisely which lanes to gank to farm the passive stacks. Always try to focus on enemies that will allow you to get closer to the transformation you’re aiming for; getting the wrong one will delay it even further (by four minutes).
Early on, your goal is to farm as many jungle camps as possible and collect essence during ganks. Don’t bother fighting too much since you won’t be getting many orbs before eight minutes. Once you get to that breaking point, then start looking for multiple skirmishes and trades on the map to close out your transformation.
When going for the Shadow Reaper transformation, it’s crucial to take advantage of the time window on his two and three-item spikes, killing squishy enemies and capturing objectives on the map. Use the E to quickly move around the jungle and look for sneaky flanks or assassinations by playing with fog of war. Regardless of what you do, always think that the primary goal is to snowball even harder and get so ahead you can one-shot most enemies.
Evelynn
Pros
- Great carry jungler, snowballs hard if ahead
- Magic damage dealer
- Can use stealth to punish enemies
Cons
- Her early-game ganks are sub-par
- Squishy
Even though she is not the best AP jungler in the meta, Evelynn is still a relevant pick. She offers an absurd amount of burst damage, good enough to also take down more durable champions. As soon as she gets the camouflage effect upon hitting level six, she can punish any overextending enemy over and over again, gaining gold and experience to snowball even harder: a fed Evelynn is a nightmare to deal with. If you’re looking for a pick to carry your solo queue games, she is the perfect pick to do so, averaging over 52 percent win rate between Platinum and Emerald, according to U.GG.
Evelynn Item build
Evelynn has a rune setup that is typical of assassins. It has Electrocute as the main keystone rune to guarantee extra damage on the burst combos, Sudden Impact for more magic penetration, and Eyeball collection for the additional permanent adaptive force. For the last rune of the Domination tree, you can decide which one to go for: Relentless Hunter is great for moving quickly around the map, but Ultimate Hunter is also a good choice to have the ultimate up sooner.
Inspiration is Evelynn’s secondary rune tree, and players typically go for Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight. By doing so, she can save 300 gold that can be invested into other item purchases while also having Summoner spells (and item effects) on a lower cooldown.
Evelynn’s build is quite unique because she loves getting Dark Seal and snowball with the extra ability power upon takedowns. Thanks to the healing effect upon going stealth, she has no problems staying healthy and making constant actions on the map.
Her Mythic item is Hextech Rocketbelt, and it’s usually followed by Rabadon’s Deathcap. If Evelynn manages to get stacks on the Dark Seal (or on Mejai’s Soulstealer), her damage will ramp up exponentially. Unless she has zero stacks, this trio of items will give enough ability power to kill any full-health target in the mid-game.
Finish off the build with a Void Staff and Banshee’s Veil for the spellshield effect and the 40 percent magic penetration. If you’re not able to stack Dark Seal anymore, switch it out later on for a Shadowflame so you get more consistent damage.
Ability priority
Evelynn has only one maxing order, and that is R>Q>E>W. Hate Spike (Q) is Evelynn’s spammable spell that is used to farm, fight, and proc the charm from Allure (W). Since W doesn’t deal any damage, max Whiplash (E) second for more consistent damage output.
Game plan
Evelynn’s playstyle is quite different from other junglers on this list. She doesn’t have great early ganks, so your main goal in the first few minutes of the game is to farm and hit level six as soon as possible. Always try to get some experience from minions if your ally is not in the lane.
Once you get to level six, that’s when you can really start getting your ganks in. Play with your stealth and look to kill any overextending target. Make sure to check the lanes consistently to know exactly the right gank timings. If you’re slightly ahead, you can also look to invade the enemy jungler and punish him when he’s farming jungle camps.
Remember that as soon as you get Dark Seal, your focus will be on getting the takedowns and stacks to greatly increase your ability power. In the late-game fights, play with your stealth, prioritize squishy targets, and burst them down with a quick W-E-Q-R combo: as long as you have enough items, they won’t survive.
Briar
Pros
- Global ultimate
- Incredible sustain
- Built-in crowd controls
Cons
- Takes time to pick her up
- Can’t be shut down easily if mispositioned
Briar is the highlight of the newest patch. After players have spent a few days to get a hang of her, she seems to be performing well above the average: nearly 51 percent at Platinum Elo and above, according to U.GG. She is a great alternative as a bruiser, carry-style jungler, and unless she gets nerfed in the upcoming patches, she should stay relevant in the meta.
Briar Item build
Briar always goes for Conqueror since it further boosts her adaptive force during the fights while also providing additional healing, which is an essential stat for her. Overall, it’s a great rune that works at all times during the game.
Given that the primary rune tree is Precision, the minor runes are Overheal, Legend: Alacrity, and Last Stand. It’s the best combination of minor runes, and you should never change them. The reason you run Overheal over Triumph is to get a shield before the start of the fights to survive for longer.
The secondary runes are Conditioning and Revitalize from the Resolve tree. The latter increases Briar’s sustain, while Conditioning makes her tankier in the mid and late game.
Build-wise, Briar builds like most AD bruisers in the game: Stridebreaker is the core item, followed by Black Cleaver and Sterak’s Gage for a good mix of tankiness and damage. Finish off with Death Dance and one item between Guardian’s Angel and Spirit Visage, depending on which resistances you need more.
Ability priority
Briar’s most common maxing order is R>W>Q>E. Always max W, Blood Frenzy, to speed up her jungle clear and increase her damage during skirmishes. Since E, Chilling Scream, has a flat cooldown and doesn’t scale with levels, max it last.
Game plan
When playing as a Briar, your main goal is to gank the lanes and pick up kills to snowball the game. Get to level three as soon as possible and start making plays on the map if the opportunity is available. Look at wave states and decide which lanes you should be focusing on.
Once you unlock the ultimate, it should be even easier for you to look for picks on the map. Always try to focus down the enemy carries first and play in tight areas so you can take advantage of the knockback effect on the walls.
In the teamfights, your goal should be flanking at the right time and making sure you can get access to the backline. Play with the vision game, and don’t get caught: the enemies will be able to burst you down quite quickly.
Nocturne
Pros
- Incredible map presence thanks to his ultimate
- Strong skirmishing
- Heavily counters some of the meta junglers
Cons
- Doesn’t have exceptional gank potential without ultimate
- Requires a strong macro sense
Even though Nocturne is not one of the most popular champions at the highest Elos, he performs well in the lower end of the ranked ladder, boasting over 51 percent win rate until platinum Elo, according to U.GG.
This is because his kit is specifically designed to punish overextension and enemies’ mispositioning, which are predominantly common in the lower ranks. He can reach enemies from afar with his ultimate, and he also beats most meta junglers early on with his skirmishing power. Thanks to the spellshield on his W, he can negate the enemies’ strongest spell and get a big boost of attack speed too.
On top of that, he has two different builds he can go for: a bruiser and an assassin. Depending on the enemy team composition and game state, he goes for either, allowing flexibility in roles.
Nocturne Item build
Nocturne always goes for Lethal Tempo since it further boosts his attack speed during the fights. The more attacks he throws, the lower the cooldown of his passive is going to be and the more sustain he will get. The rune is particularly strong in the early and mid-game fights so take advantage of it whenever possible.
Given that the primary rune tree is Precision, the minor runes are all about fighting potential: Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, and Last Stand is the best combination. If you’re planning on going with the assassin build, switch Last Stand for Coup de Grace.
For the secondary tree, instead, go for Domination with Eyeball Collection and Ultimate Hunter. The latter is vital since it rewards Nocturne with lower cooldowns on his ultimate the more takedowns he picks up. Eyeball collection does a similar thing, granting extra adaptive force on takedowns. Whenever you’re playing this champion, you want to participate in kills as much as possible.
Moving onto his build, this is where things get interesting. Most players are opting for the bruiser build with Stridebreaker and Black Cleaver as the first two core items. It gives him the best damage output while also making him relatively tanky with extra health.
After those two, you want to boost the resistances by going Death Dance and Maw of Malmortius. In most scenarios, Death Dance is the better item since the passive is applied to both types of damage. If the enemies don’t have a lot of burst magic damage, swap out Maw of Malmortius for Wit’s End to have to increase DPS and stronger fighting potential. Round off the build with another defensive item: choose one between Guardian Angel, Force of Nature, or Randuin’s Omen, depending on the game state.
Ability priority
Nocturne’s most common maxing order is R>Q>E>W. However, you want to go for Q>W>E for the first three levels since W, Shroud of Darkness, grants Nocturne extra attack speed to clear faster.
If the enemies have multiple strong abilities that you can spell shield, though, it might be a great idea to max out W second to have the ability on a lower cooldown. Regardless, always max Duskbringer first.
Game plan
Nocturne’s game plan is quite straightforward: you want to reach your level six as soon as possible by farming the highest amount of jungle monsters. Once you unlock the R, Paranoia, you can start spam-ganking all lanes that are low on health and close to being taken down. Try to always punish the enemies and then use their death timers to secure objectives on the map.
If you have a favorable matchup in the jungle, you can also try to invade the enemy jungler and surprise him with ambushes: the goal is to mess up his jungle clear and possibly steal his camps. Thanks to the spell shield and the attack speed from Lethal Tempo, you shouldn’t have many issues prevailing in extended skirmishes.
Later in the game, your goal will be to either punish the mispositioned enemies or coordinate with one of your side laners to kill the enemy trying to match the side lane pressure. Given Paranoia’s range, you can get multiple long-range engages. Don’t go in too early, however: Nocturne can be easily shut down once the spell shield is on cooldown.
