Top 5 Jungle Champions in League of Legends
Which are the top junglers in the current meta of League of Legends? If you don’t know who are the best Jungler Champions in competitive League of Legends, let us help you out!
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Top Junglers in the current League of Legends meta
In order to determine which are the best junglers in any given patch or season, it is extremely important to look at what the actual meta looks like. The current League of Legends season hasn’t offered many changes during the first few months and the overall meta has been quite stale. In particular, at higher elo and in competitive play, the most played champions are always the same.
For example, in the ADC role, we can always see Jinx, Aphelios and Jhin. This is because they are either one of the strongest champions (like Jinx and Aphelios) or good answers to the “power picks” of the meta (Jhin). As a result, most of the time players handshake the picks based on the pick order.
While handshakes don’t happen in SoloQ as much, players do tend to mimic what professionals play. In our list, we’re going to include champions that can be strong across all elos, but are most effective at a mid-high level of play, where strong mechanical skills can make a much greater difference.
Now that Riot won’t update the game until the end of March, players will have enough time to play these champions in order to climb the soloQ ladder. If you want to see what can your peak elo be like, picking these champions can make your job a lot easier.
Volibear
Pros
- Strong dives with ultimate
- Very powerful ganks
- Easy to play
- Can be both bruiser or tank
Cons
- His engage can be easily stopped
- Falls off heavily late
- Suffers kiting comps
The big bear has risen once again in popularity in this 12.5 patch. While no major changes were done to him, the nerfs received by other junglers in the past patches have allowed him to return as a strong pick. Volibear relies on a pretty healthy clear, thanks to his W and E shield, as well as a good presence during the early-mid game.
He can easily pull off ganks, especially with his flash up and his ultimate is extremely valuable when preparing for a dive. In addition, he can easily go the more damage-oriented route when ahead or the tankier version when falling behind.
Volibear has once again risen in popularity in season 12 of League of Legends. And it’s by no means an accident. The Relentless Storm still provides great backup in teamfights and can serve as a front line that only a few 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.
Lee Sin
Pros
- Extremely Mobile
- Satisfying when executing good plays
- Excels at early skirmishes
- Flexible
Cons
- Gets outscaled by most meta junglers
- Hard to come back into the game if behind
- Extremely hard to master
Lee Sin is the “evergreen” champion of the jungle role. It doesn’t matter what his power is compared to the rest of the jungle champion pool, but he will always have a spot somewhere. With the nerf of some of his dueling counters like Xin Zhao and Viego, Lee Sin is also rising in play rate across all regions. While he’s extremely hard to play and master, a good Lee Sin player can takeover with a well-executed early game. If he gets a few kills early on, he will snowball so hard in mid game that he can easily fight multiple times thanks to Goredrinker.
With that being said, if you’re not impacting your lanes or punishing the enemy jungler enough, you will have troubles after the 25-30 minute mark. At that point, you will have to rely on making picks with an Insec to win teamfights. To avoid that, it is mandatory to be as proactive as possible and get the most objectives as possible on the map.
Kha’Zix
Pros
- Can burst down any squishy target
- Can abuse the lack of vision control thanks to his passive
- Insane carry potential
- Insane damage upon evolution of Q
Cons
- Might not impact as much as other meta junglers early
- Easy to take down if mispositioned
- Requires good tracking of enemy jungler
Kha’Zix received quite a substantial nerf to his Isolation damage a few patches ago. While most expected Kha’Zix to disappear from the power picks for a while, he still maintains his S tier status. Despite not receiving changes to his kit since his release, Kha’Zix is still one of the most powerful assassins in the whole game, with insane carry potential.
The most important thing for Kha’Zix is to find any openings for lethal. Getting a few kills early on allows you to build lethality items that can allow you to snowball out of control. It is also vital to take advantage of the bushes and the passive since it allows you to get a lot of bonus damage on the targets.
One of the trickiest parts of Kha’Zix is that enemies will try to counter you by grouping and not granting you the isolation mechanic. In that case, use your red trinket and try to get behind the enemy lines.
Diana
Pros
- High burst
- One of the only viable AP jungle champions
- Can solo carry teamfights with ultimate
- Insane clearing speed
Cons
- Low map presence before level 6
- Needs strong mechanics to enhance her mobility
Following her buffs to the passive on jungle camps, Diana has reached a really strong state in the jungle meta once again. Her insane clearing speed scaling is what helps her transition to later stages of the game much better than other junglers. Her initial clear can allow you to kill all monster camps before the spawn of the scuttble crab, which most of the jungles cannot do.
With that being said, what makes Diana insanely strong is obviously her ultimate and the burst damage she has with her combo. Her snowball is incredibly powerful and can become an incredibly dangerous menace in the teamfights, especially around objectives, when enemies usually group up.
The only downside with Diana is that she has a much lower presence in the first stages of the game, which can harm your teammates as they might suffer repeated ganks by enemy jungler. In order to avoid that, powerfarming and stealing enemy jungle camps is a good way to stay relevant in the game. Once the first 15 minutes have passed, that’s when Diana will really start to shine and be the 1v9 machine to victory.
Hecarim
Pro
- Great ganks
- Can navigate the whole map extremely quickly
- Fast clears
- Can be both engage and disengage
- Tanky but with tons of damage
Cons
- Needs resources to carry the game
- Struggles in later stages of the game
- Engaging too early might backfire heavily
Out of all the champions in the current meta, I think Hecarim is for sure top 2, if not top 1 in the jungle. His strengths are way too strong as of right now, hiding his few weaknesses which should be capitalized on.
First of all, the change to Ghost done a few years ago has allowed him to get insane movement speed buffs in skirmishes. The fact that the duration extends upon takedown means that he can chase down multiple targets while having the passive AD bonus. Paired with the fact that he can go Phase Rush, he gets even more MS buffs but most importantly slow resistance, neutralizing most of the counterplay Hecarim has.
In addition, what’s even more insane about the Shadow of War is that he can dish out so much damage while going for a tanky build. The Turbo Chemtank allows him to get more MS towards enemies, slowing them down while also getting extra magical damage. All of that with just one item. During this spike, he can basically survive most skirmishes while closing out the Manamune, which grants bonus damage on his Q upon evolution (reaching 360 mana stacks). At two items, Hecarim becomes basically unstoppable, as he can fight multiple targets at the same time.
The other interesting thing about Heca is that you can also go Trinity Force if you want to be a full-burst mid-game machine, or Divine Sunderer, against multiple tanks on the enemy lineup. Basically, you have 3 ways to build this champion, making him extremely flexible.
Having said that, make sure to close out the game before it’s too late (around the 30th minute mark), or you might feel frustrated at the fact of losing a won game. Trust me, it happened to me so many times (I’ve been spamming Hecarim the last two seasons).
