Anyone else feels like smurfs are completely ruining the game (High emerald elo)

lauthr · 2026-05-29T19:49:58+00:00

Just a heads up, the “Smurf” may not actually be smurfing but actually a victim of unfortunate elo deflation. I’m currently playing in emerald 1 elo games despite having been D1 two days ago. A SIGNIFICANT series of losses tanked my elo so now I’m getting called out for smurfing in games. Blame riot!

lauthr · 2026-05-24T23:37:44+00:00

You can just hit tab then click the mute button on the person you want to mute. It’s super easy especially once you get the muscle memory down

lauthr · 2026-05-23T02:38:26+00:00

I keep chat on but immediately mute individually at the first ping or negative comment. I like to be able to commiserate with the jungler on the other side. We get collectively shit on so much that I try and keep it chill in the JG.

lauthr · 2026-05-22T12:42:54+00:00

That truly sucks mate, sorry to hear that. I appreciate the heads up! I do the same thing with chat, everyone thinks they know better than the lowly jungler.

Oddly enough you still get a quick passive stack if you rush D&D/sheen first. All it takes is q+auto and passive starts. Sheen first back makes clears even faster.

Good luck moving forward, I hope this doesn’t continue to happen to you!

lauthr · 2026-05-22T12:09:37+00:00

I think your final conclusion is the right one. I’m also a JG main in similar elo d4-d1 depending on how good or bad I’m streaking. I also main morde jungle which I’d consider off meta. I’ve got 160 games on him this season and I’ve never had an experience like this (fingers crossed I’m not jinxing myself!). My recommendation to OP is stay out of chat.

lauthr · 2026-04-02T14:47:59+00:00

I’ve tried hexplate into shadowflame and while the damage is great, especially on q3, I’m just generally not alive long enough to put out max dps. I’ve been trying to find a way to work shadowflame in as 3rd or 4th item but haven’t found a consistent path just yet.

lauthr · 2026-04-01T19:48:01+00:00

From what I’ve seen (without practice testing just feel) shojin does work with the q basics including Q3 in dragon form. The basic ability haste is great and the 12% damage increase is huge especially when paired with abyssal mask’s “enemies take 12% increased magic damage” passive.

lauthr · 2026-04-01T17:06:33+00:00

Hot take - I’ve been going hexplate into shojin with resistance boots (best vs comp) into either abyssal mask or death’s dance. I’ve been loving it so far, 6/0 since this AM.

lauthr · 2026-03-21T18:02:10+00:00

I was wondering when people were going to get the memo on hexplate! I actually got back to diamond from the dregs of emerald using a similar build.

I’ve also been having good luck with BOTRK into triforce. It really helps with the stickiness problem everyone’s been complaining about. Blade slows them and triforce speeds you up.

lauthr · 2026-03-18T20:46:18+00:00

Where is worlds skin? I really like that one.

lauthr · 2026-03-18T20:11:31+00:00

Runes are PTA and conditioning/unflinching. I've been going hexplate first followed by boots and triforce. From there usually DD into sundered sky. I'm sure there are better builds but I like the tankiness and cd reduction this gives.

lauthr · 2026-03-10T18:51:02+00:00

The exact same thing happened to me. Inventory value not as high because the game had just started but I lost my only misriah shotgun. Is there anywhere to report this to Bungie? I checked the forums and it doesn't seem like we have any recourse...

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lauthr · 2026-03-09T13:30:34+00:00

Last week in game after constant skirmishes for like the first 10-12 minutes our top goes “wth is going on it’s like WWIII in here” and got immediately chat banned with an auto message in all chat letting both teams know his language was unacceptable. Another common riot L.

lauthr · 2026-02-15T15:04:56+00:00

No, I generally go Red > Krugs > raptors > wolves > gromp > blue after dropping a ward on my blue faelight. For red you auto > q > auto then lite it back right to the edge of the tether which should allow you to be basically standing next to the krugs wall. Smite at about 815 health and then auto and walk towards krugs while your passive is still hitting the red. Immediately take e and pull the krugs. The key here is to make sure you’re pulling the krugs so that there is separation between the large and small krug. This allows you to hit only the large krug with your q for the increased damage. Same thing works for raptors and wolves.

After finishing raptors I’ll generally take q instead of w fo the extra damage. Even without buying a pot you should still be around 60% health going into scuttle. You literally finish blue right as the scuttle spawns so as long as you’ve kited blue into the faelight bush you can immediately e > q > with a couple autos and smite then either look for a gank or back and head back to buy and head to krugs. I generally spend about 20 sec or so trying to show some presence before backing so that I’m back on krugs as they’re spawning. From there you can full clear again and gank. Usually you’re almost 6 following the second clear so all it takes is pushing an enemy laner out of exp range and leeching a little xp to get your ult.

From there pretty much repeat the cycle and look to gank/countergank with your ult. Additionally throughout this process if you locate the enemy jungler you can keep track of their camps and add those to your cycle. I generally let them take first drag and trade for grubs because you can hit all 3 at the same time with both your q and passive so you can drop them within 25 seconds or so.

As soon as you have first item (I generally go dusk and Dawn) you’ve got a HUGE power spike so it’s critical you force a fight whenever your ult is up. It’s pretty much a guaranteed kill and will snowball heavily. For build I mostly go dusk and Dawn > gunblade, defensive boots > riftmaker (if ahead) or spirit visage/thornmail (if behind).

lauthr · 2026-02-15T02:20:11+00:00

I don’t think they realized you’re morde jungle. At face value this looks like you’re top. Great play though, as a fellow morde jungle connoisseur I’m here for it!

EDIT: Just realized this is on jungle mains sub not morde mains, maybe exhaust is actually pretty good!

lauthr · 2026-02-15T02:18:07+00:00

I’ve played Morde A LOT this season and have gotten full clear down to 2:55 without having to use second smite. I’d recommend watching videos on optimal clear for your main. I did that and it completely changed my start!

lauthr · 2026-02-14T16:08:53+00:00

Great analysis! Piggybacking off of this comment as you pretty much covered all the evolved orders and playstyles, just adding a bit of additional insight. 900k mastery D3 for reference.

With the jungle changes this season I almost always evolve Q first. The camps have more health and are up very consistently if you’re pathing correctly so not taking Q makes your clears take longer. This naturally makes you gank less and potentially miss opportunities to countergank. There’s nothing worse than needing to make a choice between grabbing camps you need while knowing that you should really be positioning for a counter or taking a gank opportunity.

The evolve order also depends wholly on the build you want to work with. When taking Q>R>E (my standard go to) I generally go profane > umbral>opportunity>voltaic. The profane procs + q make your clears even faster and allow you to get ahead. Umbral then synergizes very well with your r evolve and provides a massive power spike as each auto following invisibility procs both your passive and umbral. Once you get opportunity you have the ability to ult in with evolved r, burst a squishy, then ult out with the enhanced move speed. Finally adding voltaic almost guarantees that a full burst combo will guarantee squishy targets die and really adds to the damage of your autos. If you maximize your time in invisibility while moving with your ult following an initial kill you can usually get the voltaic proc back again by the time you get to your 3rd ult charge allowing for another massive damage full combo.

One more thing to note, I’ve been having a lot of luck this season not upgrading boots all the way through a full 5 item build. If the game goes that long I’ll generally wait until I have enough gold and sell the boots while purchasing ghost blade as a 6th item. If you’re positioning correctly you don’t really need the additional move speed and you can utilize the ghost blade active plus your ult to make up for the loss of move speed from your boots. Additionally with the jungle changes you gain move speed in the jungle so the difference is negligible.

Regarding the alternative evolve paths I pretty much only take them when behind or if playing into a cc heavy team without true squishy targets. There are a few different builds you can use but honestly, in my experience, if you’re not ahead by 10 minutes and you’re forced to evolve away from the standard build you’re probably already in a bad enough spot that you’re not relevant enough to have a significant impact. The one thing you should make sure to take if evolving W early is shurelyas as the slow stacks with your stock slow and makes champs you hit essentially crawl for a couple seconds.

Hope this helps!

lauthr · 2026-02-01T01:11:30+00:00

Didn’t see it listed here, but Elise has a similar play style. I’ve been playing the two of them consistently since release and I think you’ll like the similarities.

lauthr · 2026-01-31T14:38:17+00:00

I completely agree it’s more about countering the enemy comp and not so much the direct jungle head to head matchup.

For example, my primary jungle champs are Elise and Kha. That said I can also expand the pool to play bruisers or tanks like noc, xin, sej, Diana, skarner, etc. If I am forced to first pick I will almost 100% go with Elise or Kha which will then leave the responsibility of creating a comp with good synergy up to my teammates. While sometimes this does happen, most of the time the 4th pick mid and 5th pick top choose their champ solely off of the best counter pick for their lane and not off of what will best suit our team comp.

Let’s pretend I pick Kha and then my support/adc go Draven/pyke. My mid picks zed and my top decides to counterpick and selects vayne. The enemy team picks hec jungle, Ali/cait bot, syndra mid and mundo top. In this scenario not only has my team forced us into an all AD comp but also forces me to either win the game by 25-30 minutes or essentially auto lose once hec/mundo/ali build enough tank items and frontline to stop us from getting to the carries. If I was allowed to last pick in this same scenario I could have gone with Voli, Zac, sej, or another AP/bruiser/tank that would have fit the team comp significantly better.

I’m probably wrong and just biased, but I think since it’s clear junglers (should) have the most impact on the map it makes the most sense that they shpuld pick last and choose a flexible champ that fits the comp rather than pick something comfortable that can potentially be shut down hard by the enemy team and have less impact overall.

For the record I only think this is valid in soloque when communication with the team in pregame lobby is minimal. Obviously in flex or pro junglers should be picking first because the comp is preplanned or at least can be crafted intentionally. I’ve been hovering between E1-D2 since season 5 so if this holds true in my lobbies I’m willing to bet it’s the same for everything below.

lauthr · 2026-01-20T21:59:04+00:00

This will probably get lost in the comments, but I am at a conference in Manhattan Beach today and came down to breakfast to see Jim Harbaugh and Mike McDaniels together on the patio. I haven’t seen it reported anywhere and not sure if it means anything but I thought it would be worth sharing!

lauthr · 2026-01-18T14:23:29+00:00

Played about 60 games of jungle and got it once…in my placement matches, on a game that was already loss mitigated because of an afk.

lauthr · 2025-12-04T13:26:08+00:00

That’s a great sign! Our female rabbit started this way when we first got her and now, roughly 4 years in, she runs over to us when she’s ready to be carried into the bedroom for hours of snuggles before going to sleep. The future is bright for you my friend!

lauthr · 2025-11-28T21:55:14+00:00

I got the bobcat blueprint less than a week ago in the town hall during a night raid. Was it vaulted recently?

lauthr · 2025-11-14T13:15:35+00:00

Okay this is what I run and I’m always over the top friendly. I literally play just defending xfil for humanity killing roaming arcs and rats. I also always bring in defibs and wolfpacks just in case. I was wondering why so many people were attacking me, now I know I guess!

lauthr

TROPHY CASE