Much like top lane, the jungle role has traditionally been home to melee champions. Tanks, fighters, and bruisers have particularly made exceptional junglers, not only because of their camp-clearing efficiency but also their utility. A jungle champion is usually considered top tier if he can deal decent damage to champions, quickly clear the camps, and has some sort of crowd control. And this rule applies to both melee and ranged champions. So who are the top 5 best ranged jungler in season 12 of League of Legends?
Well, right now, we have a lot of diversity in playstyles when it comes to the jungle role. One of the most recent additions to the meta was Morgana, who’s a mage. Riot Games increased her damage against monsters and minions, so she has all aspects of a top-tier jungler. But let’s find more picks like her!
Also read: Best Off-Meta Junglers
1. Nidalee
If you’re wondering who is the absolute best ranged jungler in LoL, the answer is Nidalee. Nidalee is a self-sufficient champion, able to do all kinds of things on Summoner’s Rift. She’s fast, mobile, and can easily escape her enemies or chase them down. But she also has a fantastic damage output, both through her humanoid form and her cougar form.
So what really makes Nidalee great in today’s meta is not only the amount of damage she does but also the variety of her tool kit. Starting off, she can spam 5 damaging abilities instead of 3 (all except hear E – Primal Surge).
That is already an advantage to many other jungle champions because she can always clear camps faster than them. We know that camp-clearing speed is one of the best indicators of how good one jungler is. Why? Because the faster the champion can clear his jungle, the more time he can spend helping out his lanes and securing objectives.
Naturally, Nidalee excels at this point. But keep in mind that she isn’t the strongest dueling champion later on in the game. She has an explosive early game, but her defensive powers go down in the late game!
Nidalee is considered a difficult-to-play champion. Being able to aim the spear is usually the factor that determines how well someone is at playing Nidalee. This is because Nida’s Q is what allows her to connect to the target with her cougar form, so she can do even more damage. It’s one thing to aim stationary targets, i.e., jungle camps, but it’s quite another story to hit champions.
So make sure you put a bit of practice into Nidalee’s playstyle before you enter a ranked game!
Also read: Best Veigar Skins
2. Elise
Elise is simply the queen of ranged junglers in League of Legends. Her place has been established since the early seasons. And honestly, she’s never been a bad pick!
Typically, Elise excels in a burst meta, such as season 12. And much like Nidalee, she is exceptionally good at clearing the jungle camps in a short amount of time. One of the vital elements to Elise’s power in the early game is the spiders. Not only do these spiders deal damage, but they also tank the monsters for Elise.
All of this early game aggression can be transferred to ganking too. Elise is one of the best junglers that can set up ganks by themselves. How does she do that? Well, her humanoid form gives her access to E – Cocoon. This spell stuns the target for several seconds, allowing her to jump down on him and deal damage.
Elise is a very flexible champion too. No matter the situation, the player can choose an appropriate approach. Sometimes it’s tricky to attack from melee range, so you can sit back and poke with W. But sometimes, you need to bring down the enemy ADC, so you can quickly assassinate him in spider form.
The build that most players run on Elise in season 12 is full of ability power. Things like Night Harvester, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Void Staff are just parts of her core build. So if you want a powerful AP ranged jungler, then definitely go for Elise!
3. Kindred
Kindred may not be an AP champion, but she is one of the hardest-hitting champions in the entire League of Legends. She has been a top-tier jungler throughout season 12, so it’s a perfect time to start playing her!
One advantage that Kindred has over all the AP ranged jungle champions is the fact that she also deals true damage. The recommended mythic item for Kindred is Kraken Slayer, which applies true damage effect on every 3rd basic attack. This effect synergizes well with Kindred’s kit, especially the bonus attack speed from her Q.
But this champion also has an interesting mechanic that can create other advantages for her. The passive, Mark of the Kindred, is a unique type of ability, allowing Kindred to collect marks from various jungle camps or champions. Not only do these marks enhance Kindred’s ability, but they also extend her auto-attack range permanently.
This may not sound like much, but Kindred can reach an insane range in the late game. That’s extremely useful for chasing enemies, especially around objectives.
As Kindred, you also get another fantastic ability – Lamb’s Respite. This is your AoE immunity that also affects your enemies as well as your allies. But you can do so many tricks to outplay enemies in your ultimate, so the ability almost always works in your favor.
As for items, you generally want to build a lot of attack speed and critical strike. So things like The Collector and Rapid Firecannon are recommended purchases, as we as Infinity Edge.
Also read: Best Supports for Aphelios
4. Morgana
As we mentioned above, Morgana recently surged back to the jungle role. Before the buffs, her W – Tormented Shadow used to deal okay damage to monsters and minions, but it wasn’t anything special. However, Riot empowered this effect, and now Morgana jungle is simply outstanding!
What gives Morgana a lot of power in the jungle role is her passive – Soul Siphon. This ability heals Morgana for a significant amount every time she deals damage. It’s helpful in fights as well, but it’s what keeps Morgana’s HP healthy as she clears the jungle camp.
Soul Siphon synergizes well with Morgana’s W. The cooldown of Tormented Shadow goes down by 1 second each time the ability deals damage to a jungle monster. Realistically, you can put up to 2 Tormented Shadows at the same time in the jungle. This doubles the amount of damage you do and doubles your self-healing too.
But the biggest reason why Morgana works so well in the jungle role is her crowd control. Her Q – Dark Binding is the most notorious CC ability in the game, which also makes it the ideal ganking tool. Hitting someone with Dark Binding usually means death for them since no one can really survive a 3-seconds root effect.
Besides that, Morgana’s damage in season 12 is astonishing. With the addition of items such as Liandry’s Anguish and Demonic Presence, Morgana can now melt even tanks. On average, she has enough damage to kill any champion in one single Q. This requires her to use her W and R, but anyone who’s played Morgana knows that this is not a problem!
So, Morgana is one of the best ranged junglers in season 12 of Lol, and we recommend you to try her out!
5. Karthus
And finally, we have Karthus! Karthus isn’t a new jungle pick, but he is one of the most useful ones to have in your team. Why? Simply because he can assist you in fights no matter where he is!
Karthus’s R – Requiem is one of the most broken abilities in League of Legends. It deals tons of damage to all enemy champions, and the damage can only be avoided by tools such as Zhonya’s Hourglass.
In the past, Karthus’s playstyle was very different. Players usually built him like an off-tank so he can endure as many shots and slowly drain enemies from melee range (thanks to the AoE damage from his E). However, the best way to play Karthus in season 12 is to funnel all the power into your ultimate. And a key role here plays the Dark Harvest rune too.
You see, Karthus’s DPS is very low at the start of the game. But your goal here is to get as many Dark Harvest souls as possible early on. This also means that you should sometimes sacrifice jungle camps over ganks. And the more Dark Harvest souls you have, the harder Requiem will hit.
However, the season 12 items can help out too. Liandry’s Anguish is your recommended mythic because it also applies damage-over-time to monsters as well as champions. Demonic Embrace can further improve this, but Morellonimicon and Rabadon’s Deathcap are also valuable purchases. If you’re doing good, it’s totally possible to win games by simply pressing your R and slaying 3 opponents at a time. That’s why level advantage is also important as Karthus jungle!
Those are the top 5 best ranged top laners in LoL season 12!
