League of LegendsNews

How to Set Up your Jungler for Successful Ganks in League of Legends

Make it easy for your Jungler to gank

If you have ever played the Jungler role in League of Legends, you will know how difficult it is to sometimes gank a lane in need. Although there are many reasons why Jungler may not be able to gank, one of the main reasons is that the laner may not be putting the Jungler in a position where they can successfully help them. In this Mobalytics guide by Picklepants, we will discuss how you, as a laner, can set your Jungler up to effectively gank your lane.

Remember to communicate

Communication is very important within League of Legends because it can allow you to snap up kills, take objectives, and help you snowball a lead. It can come in a variety of ways such as pinging or talking in game.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you should provide your Jungler with good communication. Good communication- also known as direct communication, gives the Jungler all the information that they may need to help you. For example, it’s very helpful when you provide knowledge on cooldowns for Summoner Spells and Ultimate abilities. Tracking these cooldowns and letting your Jungler know what the enemy has used, will give them more incentive to help you and keep your team in sync overall.

It can be very hard for a Jungler to gank a lane when the enemy has Summoner Spells available. When possible, you need to ping any Summoner Spell that are used and have a good understanding of the timer. Knowing when they are back up will allow you to play more aggressively and coordinate a “sit” from your Jungler.

Thanks to the UI change in game, it is now much easier to ping when the enemy has used their Ultimate and when the enemy has placed a ward. If you see that the enemy has placed a ward in a certain bush, tell your Jungler so they know not to take that route.  If the enemy has used their Ultimate, pinging it will allow your Jungler to know that it’s potentially a safer and more reliable lane to gank. Since the enemy will have less available abilities to use defensively, the Jungler will have an easier time when ganking.

Don’t push the lane (in most cases)

In the early game, it can be very difficult to gank a lane that is pushing the enemy under tower or pushing in general. For a Jungler to gank successfully, you will need the wave in a favorable position and unfortunately, having the enemy under the tower is not going to help you out. Having the wave in a better position has a range of benefits which includes: protecting against enemy ganks, giving you opportunities to make trades, and making it easier to make plays such as all-ins.

If you are pushing the wave under tower, your Jungler may be unable to gank for you. It can be quite hard to gank when the enemy is under tower as you may be unable to dive effectively due to tower aggression and tower shots. In the early game, you will not have the health or survivability to survive a dive. In the later stages of the laning phase, you will have a higher chance of diving the tower because you will have more health and more attack capability.

However, pushing can be a good way to gank especially in the Bottom lane or Top lane. This is because there are bushes that the Jungler can go in and wait for the wave to push. Ganking like this is very situational and is very hard to do without good communication, so make sure to be on the same terms with your Jungler when setting up this type of gank.

In an ideal situation, you want to have the minion wave in a favorable position which changes depending on your lane, champion and role.  For example, if you want the Jungler to gank, you need to have the wave in a position where they can gank for you, such as in the middle of the lane, near to your tower and preferably, not under yours or the enemies tower. Under your tower can be really difficult to gank because the laner will miss out on experience and CS, not to mention that you will also take a lot of free minion aggro (see the old school LCS clip below).

Avoid feeding

If you’re in an unfair matchup and are having a hard time in lane, you should avoid dying and putting yourself behind. We’ve all played in situations where it looked bleak and you felt helpless in the laning phase. This is much the norm as you will often get counter picked by the enemy laner.

It’s a common phrase to “never help a losing lane”- which can sometimes be true. If you want help in your lane, then you have to help yourself. Helping yourself in this situation (when you’re in a tough matchup) can come in a variety of ways from items to wave management. Being proactive and trying to get whatever you can to sustain and survive the laning phase is key.

For a Jungler to help you, you need to avoid dying and putting yourself behind. The enemy laner can easily snowball you, and the enemy Jungler will camp you if they know you’re vulnerable. This will make you feel terrible as well as giving the enemy an unnecessary advantage. So, you need to find a way to stop dying, stop getting outclassed and finally, be useful when an ally ganks you. If you cannot help yourself, then the Jungler will not be able to help you either.

If the enemy is quite far ahead, you’re going to be on your own as the enemy may be able to 1v2 you if a Jungler comes to your assistance. When playing your favorite champion, you should know what they are good against, what they are bad against, and when they should go even. With that said, you shouldn’t expect to lose lane if you’re countered. If you’re countered, however, you should build around the enemy and play more defensively.

Don’t completely adjust your playstyle when your Jungler is nearby

Something that annoys Junglers and makes many ganks fail, is the laner adjusting their playstyle completely which makes it obvious that they’re receiving a gank. This not only wastes the Junglers time, it also wastes your time in lane and can cause both the Jungler and laner harm. If you’re getting a gank soon, you should adjust your playstyle slightly where you can be in a position to follow up or start the trade for your Jungler.

But, you need to not make it obvious that the Jungler is nearby. If you go in too early or make a (drastic) change in playstyle, the enemy may spot this as a time where you’re receiving a gank. For example, if you are playing passively in lane and all of a sudden start playing aggressive, the enemy will cotton on to this and fall back. This can also work in your favor. If you see that the enemy has all of a sudden had a change of heart and has adjusted their playstyle, they may be baiting you into a fight or waiting for you to mis-position so their Jungler can assist them. Do not fall for the enemy’s manipulation!

To clarify, you need to do the hard work and actually set your Jungler up in order for them to gank. If you start to play aggressively before they get into a good position, you may be unable to help them any further – like using all your mana or all your cooldowns.

Other tips

There are also a range of other things that you can do to help your Jungler gank your lane that may not be very obvious. Taking advantage of these things will not only give your Jungler a ganking opportunity, but they will also make the Jungler feel better and not get annoyed with you:

  • If you’re low on health and cannot fight, just back off and do not ping your Jungler to come and gank. If you’re low on health, you will be making any gank relatively risky as you may die when the Jungler goes in.
    • Instead of requesting a gank, ask your Jungler to either hold your lane or help you push so you can R recall without risk to your tower.
  • If you’re under tower with a huge minion wave, you may be unable to request a gank. This is because you will be missing out on a huge wave of minions, gold and experience in attempts to get a kill. You will also take free harass from the minions. We’ve all been in situations where the gank lasted for a long period of time and you had to chase the enemy through the whole lane.
    • Instead of requesting a gank at this time, wait for the minions to die and hold the wave just outside of the tower. Doing this will allow your Jungler to gank and this will prevent you from missing out on gold and XP.

As a laner, it’s super important to enable your Jungler to help you. If you cannot help yourself in winning your own lane, then you need to work on your laning skills as a whole. One way of improving at the laning phase is by knowing how to set up your Jungler to gank your lane and what you can do to make your Jungler want to gank for you.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants stream.

Watch live video from PicklePantsLOL on www.twitch.tv

Thanks for reading! We hope this article helps improve the frequency and success of your lane ganks. As always, you can find Picklepants in our Discord if you have any questions, and feel free to leave us a comment or suggestion below.

1