League of Legends Jungling can be a tedious thing to do. It’s undoubtedly the most challenging role, right on par with Supporting. Hell, I’d even say that the Jungle is way more challenging than Support ever could be. With how much you have to manage around the map, seeing a good Jungle player is admirable.
They don’t have to manage their own part – no, they also have to counter-Jungle. Counter-Jungling, when done effectively, can be the deciding factor that wins you the game. However, it’s tough to perform well and does take a ton of experience.
This list compiles the 7 best counter-Jungling Champions in League of Legends. This list is the right place for those who wish to perform well without too much effort. I recommend reading all through, but since I will pay more attention to the details, it might be a long one.
So, strap on, and let’s go!
Also read: Best 1v2 Champions
7. Lee Sin
Lee is among the biggest counter-Junglers in League of Legends, if not the biggest. In the latest patches, he’s become even more powerful and now stands among the top-tier Junglers in Season 12. I’ve seen so many games recently where Lee Sin is the dominant force, which is likely to stay.
The theme with this list is that Lee Sin is a mobile and fast Champion with tight combos and abilities. They may be simple, and they are, but there’s much differentiating between a good and amateur Lee Sin player. We’ve all seen the compilation videos and know just how well his kit is when adequately used in combinations.
Lee Sin’s Q and R (somewhat) are skill shots and have insane potential and use. There are so many combos that these two spells alone can perform, and I haven’t even mentioned his W and E. His W is a point-and-click dash, similar to Jax’s Q, meaning that he can jump to Wards, minions, Champions – you name it. The only difference is that he can only do so to friendlies.
His E smashes the ground for massive damage and slows enemies on its recast. You can clearly see that Lee has a lot of gap closing and gap creating potential. If he happens to be on your tail, you’re dead meat as there is no escaping. However, all of this is true if you’re an excellent Lee player.
I’ve played Lee a lot over the years and never understood or fully grasped what he has to offer. He’s a Champion that, similarly to Riven, is either crap or the bomb depending on who is sitting behind the screen. If you spend enough time and effort trying to master this extraordinary monk, you’ll have on your hands one of the best Junglers in the history of League. And that is an understatement.
I highly recommend you try him out, and this description on the list will make him seem simple enough for you. He has a lot to offer that is not apparent during the first few games, so make sure you go into all the details while playing him.
6. Kha’Zix
Kha’Zix is a superb Assassin Champion and our first on the list that is much better at invading enemies than clearing camps. Kha will use his insane passive that isolates enemies and buffs his damage against them. Isolation applies only to enemies that aren’t close to any allies, and a Jungler in the middle of the neutral camps is nowhere near any allied force.
That gives Kha literally double the damage against them. This isolation also applies to single target neutrals like the Buffs, which in turn gives Kha the ability to clear Buffs with blazing speed.
He can then use the power of these buffs to hunt down the unsuspecting enemy Jungler. Of course, whenever you play against Kha’Zix, you must be suspecting. However, catching people off guard with this powerful bug-alien thing is just a thing you do.
Kha’Zix can one-shot people without any effort. During the earlier stages of the game, he won’t have that much damage. It won’t take long, especially if he manages to get kills through ganks and invasions, for him to become an unstoppable force on the Rift.
I recommend Kha’Zix to those who love to play Assassins but wish to transfer that love into the Jungle.
5. Olaf
Olaf has recently resurged as a popular pick in the Jungle. He was pretty prominent many years ago, both on the Top Lane and in the Jungle, and has gone incognito for some time. Recent patches and gameplay changes have brought him back into the fray, and that is a welcome sight, in my opinion.
Olaf’s entire kit revolves around damage and speed, both against single targets and multiple.
His Q has literally zero cooldowns as long as Olaf picks it up after casting. He can continuously do this in the Jungle as there is no distance to travel between him and the ax.
The W is an insane attack speed and lifesteal Buff that will keep Olaf at full HP. The attack speed bonus makes clearing camps a breeze.
The E is something else entirely. It is a point-and-click true damage spell that Olaf can use on a single target. Its cooldown decreases with each auto-attack which will also keep it consistently available. It even has no mana cost but instead costs HP. The HP cost is insubstantial and will heal up by itself, if not from Olaf’s W.
You can see there are many things he can use to clear the camps quickly and efficiently. His kit prevents him from being harmed by anything, neutrals especially. I love Olaf and have mained him way back in 2013-14 when I first played the game. He is a fantastic Champion, and I can’t be happier that he’s made a sort of a comeback.
I recommend him to everyone, especially lower elo players, due to his simplicity of the gameplay.
Also read: Best Champions When Mastered
4. Kindred
Kindred as an individual Champion (meaning her overall kit, etc.) isn’t exactly difficult. However, what is her Jungling, which can get as tedious as you can imagine.
Despite being a powerful fighter with insane DPS and a lot of survivability and mobility, she’ll go through a gauntlet to achieve her peak strength. This is because of her passive – Mark of the Kindred – which targets Kindred can kill to empower her abilities and increase her range.
However, the problem is that the enemies marked can most likely survive for long enough for the mark to break, and the marked Jungle camps can easily be countered as they show up for everyone on the minimap.
Getting Kindred to her max potential is a mix of luck and coordination. You’ll have to procure help from your allies to safely and successfully pick up those marks on Laners and camps alike.
If you manage to do so, you’ll find yourself incredibly strong and with a fantastic Champion on your hands. She’s the snowballing queen if everything aligns as it should, but you should wager for yourself on whether or not it pays off to try.
3. Kayn
Kayn was, for the majority of Season 11, the best Jungler to play. He has fallen off a little bit throughout Season 12. However, despite this occurrence, he still remains a massively influential Champion for performing most of the Jungle mechanics, invasions included.
What makes him extra good at invading is his kit, which is highly mobile and allows Kayn a way for a quick in-and-out scenario with the Buffs and Camps he wishes to steal.
He can walk through terrain with increased movement speed using his E, arriving at the Buff silently and hastily. He can decimate the neutrals in seconds using his fast and strong spells in seconds. This applies to both single-target Buffs and larger camps alike.
Kayn, using all of the above, can maintain a consistent presence around the map. He won’t be a danger only for the enemy Laners, no – he’ll haunt their Jungler like there’s no tomorrow. F
ighting is incentivized with Kayn due to his passive, which spawns stacks from attacking Champions. This gives Kayn extra reason to go for invasions and to seek out duels, as the more he fights, the quicker he will reach one of his two forms.
Kayn is not that difficult to play, and I’d recommend him to just about anyone. He’s also super fun, and I still believe he holds true to that “most powerful Jungler” description.
2. Rengar
Kha’s eternal nemesis is our next entry on the list. He can’t jump over walls like the previous four. If you don’t include his passive, I mean that requires a target to work. Rengar has extra movement speed around the bushes and can pounce from them with a great range. Everything about him revolves around attack speed, movement speed, etc.
He can clear any camp or Buff in mere seconds, and hunting down prey is literally part of his whole character. He’s a Champion that emphasizes waiting for your enemy to put themselves into a poor position and then pouncing on them when the opportunity arises. Playing Rengar feels like you’ve just picked up a gun and went hunting with your old man. A truly blissful experience.
Rengar, after getting his Ultimate, becomes the true hunting machine he was designed to be. Whether in invasions or for ganks, Rengar will become an omnipresent force that will strike fear deep into his enemies’ bones.
I recommend Rengar to everyone. I’ve played him for the first time way back in 2013. and have loved him ever since.
Also read: Fastest Jungle Clear Champions
1. Graves
Graves definitely has the most damage early on out of any Champion on this list. His farming in the Jungle embodies the “power-farming” mechanic as good as anyone could ever dream of doing. IT takes no effort or time for Graves to rack up a hundred neutral farm. He can then use this damage to steal even the enemy’s camps since his own will be long dead.
Using his E, as is a repeating occurrence on this list, Graves can dash through terrain and cross a great distance in a concise amount of time. He can obliterate entire camps and parts of the Jungle quickly and emerge unscathed. His passive gives him knockback on all attacks, which keeps him safe from any neutral attacks at all times.
He is resilient, robust, and menacing. Every player that sees Graves in the enemy team will immediately be on edge from a potential encounter with him. Of course, Graves is a bit easier to kill than some of the rest as he is more of a marksman. But, as the game reaches the later stages, that becomes the opposite.
Graves is definitely a Champion that is among the hardest to kill in the entire game. This, however, is only true in the late game. Early on, it isn’t that challenging but still makes you beware of him at all times.
I recommend Graves to anyone.
Conclusion
League of Legends is a game filled to the brim with all kinds of Champions that perform differently. The ones above are ideally suited for the counter-Jungling, with their quirks. No two Champions were designed equally by Riot, and all need separate treatment. Lumping them together into any list does them a disservice, so I advise giving them all a try before making your judgment.
I hope you’ve found this list informative and fun to read, and I wish you all the best on the Summoner’s Rift!
Check out this piece on best runes junglers in LoL.
