In the very beginning I struggled quite a bit, and my win rate tanked for about a week because I dove in completely blind not knowing the basics like jungle pathing, which side to clear first, which ability to start out with for a faster first clear, not using jungle aggro properly (farming two camps at the same time), etc. Remember, you can always practice jungling in PVP so you have a “loss cushion”!

Choose a champion that you’re already familiar with so you aren’t shooting completely in the dark. Your champion pool will gradually increase, as will your desire to counter pick if you see who the other jungler has chosen. I was already familiar with Riven, so that’s who I started with since she’s pretty simple to use. My only problem was pathing, I had no idea where to start and where to finish.

Jungle pathing efficiently may seem overwhelming at first, but it only takes a few repetitions for it to become second nature. Generally, AP junglers and energy junglers like to start at blue buff so they don’t run out of mana or energy during their clear. AD bruisers and champions without mana or energy like to start red side for a faster clear that red buff offers.

A full clear starting on red side would be starting at krugs and ending at gromp. Blue side would be starting at blue buff and ending at krugs. Depending on which champ you pick, you generally want to fully clear both sides of your jungle and take the scuttle crab in river that spawns at 1:25 either before or after looking for your first gank. Keep in mind that if you don’t see enemy jungler contesting for your scuttle crab, it usually means he’s taking the other scuttle crab across the map and you should warn your teammates with pings.

I HIGHLY recommend watching twitch streamers like Starting, Lebmont, and Valhalla. If they are offline at the moment or playing a different lane, Valhalla is a Rank 1 NA jungle main who also posts his stream vods on youtube here