Jungle Fights You Should Not Take in Gold

Most fights Gold junglers lose were lost before anyone pressed a button. No ult. No flash. Half HP, two teammates in base, nothing on the map worth having. And you walk in anyway.

We went through 270 reviews of Gold junglers and logged every mistake the coach called out, 3,644 of them in total. Forcing a fight you had no business taking showed up in 57% of those reviews. Coaches flagged it 288 times, and in 29 reviews it was the main lesson of the whole game.

And it's not just an early game thing. It showed up about as often in the mid game as it did early, and only dropped off late. So this isn't something you grow out of after the first few minutes. It follows you around.

No ult, no flash, no fight

This is the one that frustrates me the most, because it's the easiest to check. Your ult is a number on your screen. Look at it.

Plenty of junglers are ult dependent. On Viego the ult is how you reset and win the fight. Without it you're a guy with a sword.

One of our coaches, watching a student do it again.

"You really don't wanna fight as Viego when your ult's down, and here you're fighting with your ult's down."

Same story on Evelynn. With ult she one shots her target and gets out. Without it she just dies. The fix our coaches gave was dead simple. Go do wolves and gromp, and fight when the ult comes back up.

And when you're behind on top of that, the gap gets even bigger. Another coach, to a student who was 0 and 4.

"You should be W-ing away, not W-ing in. Again, you're 0-4 with no flash. How on earth are you confidently W-ing in?"

W away. Play the smite and the Herald, then leave. When ult and flash are down you're allowed to be more scared. That's not cowardice, that's reading your own cooldowns.

Count the bodies

Three is more than two. I shouldn't have to write that down, but here we are.

"It's just three enemies, two teammates. It's losing fight. That's it. Simple. We're never E'ing it. Why would we ever want to play a 3v2? Ever."

That student ran in to save a teammate, which was fine. Then the chaser stopped chasing, his job was done, and he stayed anyway. Save the teammate, then base or go to your camp. That's the whole play.

The other version is fighting while someone is literally in base.

"No point to fight. Why are you fighting here? Irelia is in base."

If a teammate is shopping, you stall. Do raptors and red until he's back on the map, then fight as five. Same goes for tower fights where your support and mid are still walking over. Wait for them to be closer before you engage. And if your Jhin is pinging caution because he's basing, respect the ping. An even game doesn't need forcing.

Your HP bar is part of the fight

I see this all the time. Somebody clears a ward, loses most of his health, and then starts a fight at a third of his bar like it's fine.

"You lost your entire HP bar and then you don't recall. Hit B."

Recall, or find a fruit or a camp and heal before the fight. And when you're trading HP for nothing, tanking minions and swinging at a target you won't kill, click away. The gap between 200 and 400 HP is the gap between soloing dragon and getting nothing.

Power spikes work the same way. Until your champion actually has what it needs, you play slow. On Kayn that means form and first item before you start forcing. On Gwen it means level 6 or Nashor's, and until then you take your top side instead. Forcing before your item, burning flash and then not leaving when the play falls apart is how you end up late to everything. Flash is gone, play's done. Leave, base, buy, and be on your camps on time.

You already won, so leave

This one is counterintuitive, so it gets room.

A lot of forced fights start after you've won. You hit Elise first, she's lower, you're feeling good, so you keep going. With no E and no Q, against someone with a potion.

"you already sucker punched him, staying in the fight, all it does is increase the chances of it being a 1-1, or a 1-2, where he punches you twice"

The advantage is already in your pocket. Take it, recall and go to your next camps. Staying only gives the enemy chances to trade back.

Same thing with picks and objectives. You one shot their Urgot? E away, walk off, clear your top camps and catch the wave. A 1 for 0 is a win. You secured the dragon in a fight on their terms? Kill it and instantly leave. Don't opt into the 3v5 afterwards. And if your team is already ahead and their Baron is gone, do raptors and red and only fight if they siege you. Forcing sieges at that point is just looking for a way to throw.

What are we fighting for

Another coach asked a student this in the middle of a random scrap.

"but what are we fighting for here? are we starting dragon? are we ganking bot? are we ganking mid? is there a scuttle crab?"

Dragon, a gank, a crab. If you can't name it, you shouldn't be fighting. When you're playing for dragon, stay in the river and play for the scuttle instead of diving up into their side. And Herald is honestly the worst objective in the game to die over trying to steal. Do raptors and wolves and stabilise.

When you're behind and they're grouped as five, give the dragon. Go take their raptors, their red, their krugs, your own top camps. Farm to a second and third item, then fight for soul. It feels bad to hand them a dragon. Getting aced and handing them the dragon anyway feels worse.

Level 1 invades

I go back and forth on how harsh to be here, because invading feels proactive. But the coaches were pretty clear.

"You want stability, invading level 1 is the opposite of stability, I know it's Shaco"

That was Amumu into Shaco, and Shaco players expect the invade. Amumu wants to hit 6 and get Liandry's with no deaths. Same for Morgana, who can't win early skirmishes. Only invade on strong early game junglers. On anything else, full clear and don't get invaded yourself.

And don't let your team talk you into it. Your support roaming and teammates pinging doesn't make an invade good. Full clear, recall, then look for your play.

Sometimes you let them die

Nobody likes hearing this one.

"sometimes you have to just let teammates die, because here, I think if just one person dies, it's not the biggest deal. But trying to save them, now you and Lulu die"

One death is not the end of the world. Three is. If saving him isn't realistic, don't. Worry about living and clearing your camps. Same goes when your whole team is dead and four of them are hitting your tower. You're not holding a 4v1. Give the tower, back up, get full HP and wait for your team to respawn.

Plans that need the enemy to misplay

"Any plan you make, or decision you make, should be off the basis of, you are in control of the scenario. Not they are."

Chunk him and hope he chases you into your team is a coin flip, not a plan. Half the time he doesn't chase and you're double crabbed and late. Make decisions where you control the outcome.

Patience wins more fights than mechanics

A lot of these deaths come from rushing. The enemy has one narrow path out and you dive anyway. Poke with W, wait a few seconds, then combo. Your support is coming, so wait for her to show up and then fight.

And in a big teamfight, sometimes doing nothing is the play.

"The only way this goes badly is if you die and get reset, so you need to just wiggle, I'm not saying leave, I'm not saying run in, just jiggle"

That death cost five kills, Herald and a tower. Not leaving, not running in, just staying alive until they commit. Think about their spells before you go, especially a big ult sitting there waiting for you to walk into it.

Before you walk in

• Is your ult up? Is your flash up?
• How many of them, how many of you, and is anyone in base?
• Is your HP good, or do you need to hit B first?
• Have you hit your form, your level 6 or your first item?
• What are you actually fighting for?

If the answers are bad, walk away and hit a camp. It's boring. It is what it is. Boring is how you stop dying for free.

How we counted

270 reviews of Gold junglers, every one a real ranked game reviewed by a Jungle Kingdom coach, and most of them come from one of our coaches. We recorded each mistake the coach pointed out, sorted them into types, and counted how many reviews each type appeared in. These 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.