The best jungle champions in League of Legends

Some champions in League of Legends are just much stronger than others.

For junglers, there are multiple considerations when weighing which champions are 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 a number of 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 on the flavor-of-the-month champs, so let us do it for you.

Here are our top five junglers for League’s Patch 12.11.

Volibear

Pros

• Tanky
• Great impact in teamfights
• Powerful ganks

Cons

• Easy to shut down
• Tough to return to game once behind

Volibear has once again risen in popularity in season 12 of League. And it’s by no means an accident. The Relentless Storm still provides great backup in teamfights and can serve as a frontline that only a few can pierce through. With his kit, players are able to gank enemies effectively, stay sustainable in the jungle, and provide an impressive amount of damage, while being incredibly tanky at the same time.

Item build

With Volibear, you will have plenty of occasions to close the gap between you and your opponents. With his passive, which increases attack speed, Volibear should aim to auto attack opponents as much as possible. Thus, Press the Attack is one of the best options to pick on the Relentless Storm since it will go along with your passive perfectly. In the end, you are going to build tanky items (in most cases), so Last Stand, Triumph, and Legend: Tenacity will come in handy.

In the jungle, oftentimes Waterwalking and Nimbus Cloak come as the best fillings if Sorcery isn’t your first rune tree. Regarding Volibear, it’s no different.

Ability priority

Volibear’s skill priority is R>W>Q>E. Frenzied Maul will give you better jungle clear so that you will be in a position to help your lanes more often. Afterward, you can choose between boosting the damage to your thundercloud and shield gained from Sky Splitter or the speed and damage you get while using Thundering Smash. Since you’re a jungler, the latter should be your priority.

Game plan

Volibear is a strong tank that can simultaneously shred through carries. For the first half of the match, you should aim to help your lanes as much as possible while keeping healthy farm and level. It’s the teamfights where Volibear shines the most.

With your ultimate, you can zone the enemy backline. If everything goes smoothly, you’ll be a pain in the neck to the opponents’ carries, helping your team come out on top in skirmishes. If it goes a little sideways, you should still be able to buy enough time for the rest of your team to swoop in for the win. In either case, it should be a win-win scenario, unless you’re behind and can’t make an impact.

Wukong

Pros

• Powerful crowd control ultimate
• High damage for a jungler
• Many diversified build paths

Cons

• Quite squishy
• Not the greatest jungle clear

While Wukong is often picked in the top lane, he’s also recently become a great pick in the jungle. The Monkey King has a skill set that allows him to provide efficient ganks and make a difference in teamfights.

Item build

Wukong’s kit allows him to deal a ton of damage while also being able to survive and change the outcome of teamfights with his crowd control. To increase the amount of damage the champion deals, it’s best to choose Conqueror, which will grant him adaptive damage every time he lands a skill or an auto attack on an enemy. 

From the Precision tree, it’s also valuable to go for Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and Last Stand. These three runes will enhance Wukong’s damage even more while granting him some much-needed Tenacity and health regeneration. 

When playing Wukong in the jungle, players should pick Magical Footwear to avoid spending gold on boots. By ganking, you will also ideally decrease the amount of time you need to wait for your free boots. Cosmic Insight, on the other hand, gives players lower cooldowns on summoner spells and items, which will come in handy in most games. 

Ability priority

While playing Wukong in the jungle, there is no better way to maximize his abilities than R>Q>E>W. The Crushing Blow (Q) is his main source of damage and by having a low cooldown, it will help you clear jungle camps and finish off enemies more efficiently. Next, you should put your points in Nimbus Strike (E) for the same reasons.

Game plan

Wukong stands out from other junglers thanks to his high damage and ganking capabilities before level six. While it’s not exceptional, Nimbus Strike gives players the ability to close the gap with opponents. If enemies are overextending in lane, don’t hesitate to punish them.

The real fun begins with Wukong when you have your ultimate. At level six and beyond, it’s hard to escape ganks without wasting flash. It will also give you the ability to dictate early skirmishes around neutral objects. 

The main trick on Wukong is perfecting Cyclone (R). With the champion being able to use it twice, it can be pivotal in teamfights, especially if your squad has some wombo combo potential. Try to land it on as many enemies as you can so that your team can follow through with your engage.

Kha’Zix

Pros

• Able to one-vs-one most junglers post level six
• Can one-shot carries
• Carry potential

Cons

• Squishy
• If caught in CC, easy to eliminate
• Tough to utilize his full potential in the late game

Since Kha’Zix debuted in League in 2012, he’s hardly been changed. To this day, the champion remains one of the best assassins in the game who can carry your entire team on his shoulders if he falls into the hands of a skilled player. On the other hand, players know how to shut him down early.

Item build

The Domination tree is pivotal when it comes to Kha’Zix. With your passive ability enabling you to deal increased damage to isolated enemies, you want to look for ganks and solo kills on the enemy jungler as much as possible. Dark Harvest is an amazing tool to snowball assassins like the Voidreaver. The other choices in the tree complement and work with each other perfectly. The goal stays the same: find the opposing squishies and kill them all.

As your other option in terms of runes, pick Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight. With many risky plays, an additional cooldown of summoner spells will be greatly welcomed. As for the former skill, you don’t want to waste your money on boots. Spend it on other items that increase your attack damage.

Ability priority

For Kha’Zix, the ability priority is plain and simple: R>Q>W>E. His Taste Their Fear is his main damage source, especially on isolated targets in the jungle, mid, or top lane. To become even deadlier, players should be maximizing W next. Those who have played Kha’Zix know that the champ also has an evolution mechanic. There, you should pick your E over your W first. It will enhance the distance you can travel by jumping, which is naturally important in regard to many junglers.

Game plan

Be as aggressive as you can. Kha’Zix can out-damage almost anyone in the jungle. Thanks to his damage, you should look to the mid and top lane, gank isolated targets, and start the snowball. If ganks somehow don’t work out, players always can switch their attention to counter-jungling. As mentioned, the Voidreaver can defeat almost any jungler in most cases, and even if you don’t, you have two great escape mechanisms (E and R).

Kha’Zix’s power spike is in the mid game. Once players complete two items (Duskblade of Draktharr and Youmuu’s Ghostblade in most cases), the champion will have enough damage to eliminate any enemy that isn’t a tank in a matter of seconds. Thus, look for even more picks, especially in skirmishes. Naturally, in teamfights, your main priority should be finding the opposing carry. The same rule goes for the majority of the late game.

Rivals will oftentimes try to counter you by grouping so that you won’t have the isolation mechanic at your disposal. In situations like this, wait or try to split them up with the help of your allies.

Rek’Sai

Pros

• Tanky
• Great sustain due to passive
• Respectable damage

Cons

• Not that easy ganks
• Doesn’t have a lot of crowd control

Rek’Sai is definitely one of the League of Legends champions that has gained a lot after the durability update. Her survivability and resistances have always been impressive, but now they are even better, allowing her to survive for quite some time in teamfights. She also has a great jungle clear and can roam fairly easily, making her one of the best junglers to pick in the current meta. 

Item build

As Rek’Sai, players will be mostly focusing on dealing single-target damage, especially with her ultimate, Furious Bite, and basic attacks enhanced by her Queen’s Wrath. To enhance that, it’s best to pick Conqueror. This is a perfect rune for champions, built around fighting and eliminating enemies one by one, and with Rek’Sai’s survivability, you should be doing that a lot. 

Down the line, we have a couple of standard runes for an AD-based bruiser junglers. Triumph will allow you to restore some health with every kill, making you even tougher to eliminate. Legend: Alacrity is crucial to increasing Rek’Sai’s attack speed, which because of her kit, is pivotal. Coup de Grace, on the other hand, will aid you in finishing enemies low on health, which goes in pair perfectly with her ultimate. 

As for the second tree, it’s worthwhile taking Cosmic Insight and Magical Footwear. With Rek’Sai’s passive, you won’t be needing additional sustain, like on other junglers, so it’s better to lower the cooldowns of your Summoner’s Spells, and it’s also helpful to save some gold on your shoes. 

Ability priority

Rek’Sai has a simple ability priority in the jungle: R>Q>E>W. This path will allow players to maximize their damage and their potential while playing the Void Burrower. Her Queen’s Wrath and Prey Seeker (Q) serve as her main sources of damage, both when she’s burrowed and un-burrowed. Furious Bite (E) can also leave a mark on your enemies, so it’s best to put your points into that skill afterward. 

Game plan

Rek’Sai is an overall tanky champion, with her passive allowing her to replenish health every time she’s underground, given that you have some Fury under your belt. For this reason, taking the tanky/bruiser option in her build makes sense, however, with a lack of significant crowd control tools (besides her un-borrow, which is easy to miss), she doesn’t have a lot of ways to gain the attention of the enemy team. The best way to do so is to have some damage-dealing items in your inventory and focus on enemy carries, which shouldn’t be that hard with Rek’Sai’s ultimate.

A lot of her build and game plans rely on your and the opponents’ composition. If you have another tank, you may think about going for more aggressive items, especially when you claimed some kills early and are ahead of the rest. 

Still, it’s not easy to do due to her kit. Your ganks won’t be that easy outside of the mid lane, especially before level six. Although with her abilities, Rek’Sai has a perfect skill set to control neutral objectives, and that is what players should be aiming for in most of their games.

Diana

Pro

• Impressive damage
• Has one of the better gap closers in the game
• Quick jungle clear

Cons

• Squishy
• Won’t provide a lot of tankiness or crowd control tools

At the beginning of the year, Diana started to cement herself as one of the best junglers in the game. She was slammed, however, with some nerfs, which threw her out of the list for a few patches. But after the durability update and following a hotfix, she returns to it for the same reasons as before. With her damage and kit, it’s really easy to clean the jungle and even easier to kill your enemies.

Item build

Diana’s gameplay depends on unleashing every ability that you have, alongside your enchanted auto attacks with your passive on your opponents. When you have champions whose goal is to do exactly that, often the smartest move to make in terms of the rune is having Conqueror. With it, you’ll gain additional ability power when attacking enemy champions, and once fully stacks, you might even heal a little, which could come in clutch in a few teamfights. 

Like almost any jungler, to replenish your health in fights and skirmishes, follow by picking Triumph, which allows you to do exactly that. Legend: Tenacity will grant you, as the title suggests, some tenacity with every Legend stack. This is important since you will want to deal damage and not be interrupted when doing so. Still, you will be targeted either way due to your burst potential, so choosing Last Stand to deal increased damage while low on health closes the Precision list perfectly. 

Once again, like many junglers, you want to have some of your items and Summoner’s Spells’ cooldown reduced, therefore you will be picking Cosmic Insight in most cases. In some cases, it might be traded for Biscuit’s Delivery. Magical Footwear is also a great pick-up since it allows you to spare some gold on other items.

Ability priority

On Diana, you will either be going for R>Q>W>E or R>Q>E>W in terms of ability priority. The former option is usually superior to the latter. Pale Cascade (W) grants you a shield and spheres around you that will detonate on contact and deal damage. This helps against comps that may quickly take you down. If you’re against squishy squads, you might maximize Lunar Rush (E) instead, which will increase your single-target damage. Either way, you should maximize Crescent Strike (Q) first, no matter what. 

Game plan

With a massive amount of damage from the get-go, players will aim to be a very active jungler with Diana. Her abilities make it easy to clear the jungle, so often appearing in your teammates’ lanes to grab a kill or two shouldn’t be a problem. Diana is, however, pretty mana-demanding, so you will need to watch over that mana bar. But careful not to overextend because it’s tough to score a comeback once you fall behind on Diana.

This champion doesn’t have any significant crowd control tools, so it’s hard to control the fights over neutral objectives as much as junglers usually want to. This is, though, traded for her high burst. When playing Diana, you should operate somewhat like an assassin, looking for easy picks and favorable skirmishes, after which you can collect dragons and possibly the Baron.

There are also hardly any sensible tank options for Diana, so her building path in terms of items is pretty straightforward: it’s about increasing your damage and burst. Naturally, however, when you fall behind you’ll be playing more of a catch-up game, rather than dealing the cards. You can build her as a mage-tank, but it doesn’t allow her potential to be fully used.

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