The 9 Most Common Mistakes Gold Junglers Make (From 270 Coach Reviews)

Gold junglers don't lose to mechanics. They lose because they walk into the Herald fight with 2,000 gold unspent, flash to kill an Ezreal worth 300 gold, and then go clear wolves while Baron sits there free.

That's not a hunch. We pulled 270 coach reviews of Gold junglers and wrote down every single thing the coach flagged. 3,644 mistakes. Then we grouped them by type and counted how many reviews each one showed up in. The nine below are what came out, and I'd bet you do at least three of them every game.

1. Walking around with an item in your pocket

57% of reviews, split evenly across the early and mid game.

You finish a play, you've got 1,600 gold, and instead of pressing B you walk toward the mid laner to see if there's one more thing to do. There isn't. You're just a champion with components fighting someone who already bought the item.

One of our coaches, to a student carrying 2,500 gold before the first dragon.

"you have 2.5k gold, you should never have this much gold early game ever, you're just really overstaying."

The rule from these reviews is simple. Over 1,000 gold, you're looking to base. Dragon spawning in 30 seconds and you're holding 1,800, you base now, not after krugs. Won a fight with nothing big on the map, clean up fast, base, come back with full HP. The one exception is being 200 gold off a full item with raptors, red and a wave right next to you. Then stay, finish them, and buy it in one trip. Everything else is you forfeiting item power for a crab.

2. Fights you had no business taking

57%, and this one was the main lesson of the review more often than anything else on the list, tied with two others.

Down flash, down ult, half an item behind, and you walk into a 2v2 anyway because it looked winnable. Winnable isn't the bar.

"This whole play is a complete coin flip. If you win and lose that fight, it's not in your control."

Here's the check before you click on someone. Is there a single sign you're stronger? Items, levels, numbers, summoners. If not, you don't fight, you start your base. Another coach said it to a student who ran at a 2 and 0 Graves with a full item while down flash.

"There's not a single indication, again, you only want to invade or fight when you're stronger, there's not a single indication that shows you're stronger here."

And when the fight is already lost, stop going back in. If your team just lost a fight and dragon is 45 seconds out, give it and trade top side instead of flipping it and handing over a shutdown. Honestly, the only thing you control in those moments is not dying.

3. Getting a kill and then farming

56% of reviews, and unlike almost everything else here it gets worse late. More of these happened in the late game than at any other point, which is exactly when a wasted pick costs you the Baron.

You kill the enemy mid. Herald is up. You go do wolves. Or you win a 4v1 and your whole team chases the last guy through three bushes while Baron sits there untouched.

"That's why this game feels so stuck, because you'll get two or three kills, and then you wouldn't ask yourself, does this translate anything?"

Ask that question every time someone dies. Does this translate into anything? Their jungler just died, pull dragon. Their mid is dead and Herald is up, pull Herald, not wolves, because the camps are worth 300 gold and the objective wins the game. You killed both bot laners, take plates and the tower before you leave. And if Baron needs a tank, ping one teammate to stand in front and do the damage yourself.

4. Ult and flash discipline

56%, though the coach made it the main lesson in only 10 reviews. It's a pattern, not the headline.

Flash to kill an Ezreal for 300 gold. Ult a Shaco who's already stunned. Flash and ult on a jungler with no flash who would've died to auto, Q and W, so now he starts grubs and you can't fight him.

"does using your flash to get 300 gold on Ezreal save your life, gain you an objective, save your teammates?"

Three reasons to flash. Stay alive, secure an objective, save a teammate. That's it.

The other side is holding ult until you're at 100 HP and it does nothing. Our coaches flagged that as often as the waste. If you're going to fight, press ult at the start, because an early kill snowballs the rest of the fight. One coach to a Trundle who ulted while dying.

"You should be ulting this guy immediately. You're holding your ult way too long."

5. Slow clears

59%, the most common of the nine, and almost all of it early.

"from 10.03 to 10.50, for 45 seconds, you did nothing, you actually did a figure eight"

None of this feels like a mistake while you're doing it. You walk into a bush after crab instead of basing and show up 25 seconds late to gromp. You smite a camp nobody's contesting and now you wait longer for the respawn and have no smite for the next fight. You walk across the map to do one camp. It adds up to being a level behind at first dragon with no idea why.

Take the crab, base instantly, be on gromp at spawn. If you're late to camps and have two smite charges, smite the crab now and base now. Don't smite a camp unless you're contesting it or need the speed. And if you're going to invade raptors, know what your Q does before you commit, or smite first and finish with spells.

6. Skipping your camps

Only 31% of reviews. But it was the main thing the coach wanted fixed in 29 of them, which is as high as any code on this list.

Your blue is up and you leave it to gank a full HP top laner with flash and a dash. The gank fails, your camps respawn before you're back, and the enemy jungler takes your whole bot side while you were top.

"The rule is, never gets broken. Always full clear, unless it's a guaranteed gank, that is nowhere close to guaranteed."

Guaranteed means low, pushing, or no flash. Nothing else counts. Skipping four of your camps for one of his is a loss. Skipping gromp, wolves and scuttle for a coin flip on his blue is a loss. And if you're behind early, the only plan is six camps without dying before you try anything. It feels passive. It is what it is.

7. Not looking

37% of reviews, and it starts before minions spawn.

"Because a lot of times, us as junglers, we autopilot. So you don't press tab for a while it looks like."

Hold tab the moment the game loads and read the comps, because otherwise you don't know which lane to path to. Then keep looking. When you walk between camps, pan the camera onto the enemy laner's HP for three seconds. One student missed a bot lane that was low with flash down because he never looked. Another saw the enemy teleport portal activating on his camp and kept hitting it.

Before a fight, tab, so you know who the carry is. Before Baron, spend three seconds looking around the walls. And a half second glance at a dragon fight isn't information. Watch it for 2 to 3 seconds before you decide you can't make it.

8. Letting the enemy jungler do whatever he wants

40%, almost all early, and the main lesson in only 7 reviews. Coaches mention it and move on, which honestly undersells how much free gold is sitting there.

He ganks top. His gromp is spawning. You keep following him.

"Weaker. Anytime you're weaker than the opponent, you want to trade to become stronger."

When he's on the opposite side of the map, the camps on his other side are yours. Walk straight to them. He can't take grubs and defend his blue at the same time. If you invaded him already, go back for the camp when it respawns, because that's the whole point of invading. And when you're on a crab and don't see him, assume he's on the other crab and spam ping the lane next to it. Laners never track him for you.

9. Playing scared with a lead

24% of reviews, the least common on the list. But in 26 of them it was the thing the coach spent the whole session on.

You're 7 and 0 with three items and you back out of a 2v2. You're full build at 18 and farming krugs. You spam click away from a fight and only find out you win it when you accidentally stop running.

"You are stronger than them. You have merc treads. You are 3,000 HP. You have a W shield. You have green smite shield. You're not getting one-shot."

Press tab and look at why the fight would go bad. Usually it wouldn't. Their jungler is dead and you're 5v4, force it. Everyone but Vi is dead, walk the fast aggressive way to dragon, not the safe one. Full build means you hit the tower with your team, not krugs. A lead you don't use isn't a lead.

What about mechanics?

Ability mistakes were flagged in 72% of reviews, more than anything above. Missed combos, abilities held too long, standing still in a 6v4.

But the coach made them the main lesson in only 7 reviews. He points it out, then spends the rest of the review on your recalls, your fights and your objectives. That's what's honestly keeping you in Gold. Not your hands.

How we counted

270 reviews of Gold junglers by Jungle Kingdom coaches, every one a real ranked game. Most of them come from one of our coaches. We logged each mistake the coach pointed out, sorted them into types and counted how many reviews each type appeared in. The numbers are what our coaches flagged, not a survey of every coach out there. Quotes are the coach's own words with the filler cut.