Best Beginner LoL Champions to Learn the Jungle Role With

Jungling in League of Legends is one of the hardest roles to play. Each of the lanes found in the game can be learned with no prior experience ever playing League of Legends. 

Jungle, on the other hand, requires players to have already played the game for some time, before branching out into this role. And while there are some champions that are the best ones to play, for a beginner, simplicity is key.

Amumu

As far as champions and their mechanics go, Amumu’s kit is as simple as they come. His Q, with the recent rework giving him two casts of the ability, is a hard crowd control ability that also serves as a gap closer making it very easy to perform ganks even in the mid lane, the shortest lane in the game. Not to mention the other lanes, where you can either run down your opponents or have a support champion to help you out in setting up a gank.

Due to Amumu’s early-game tankiness and base damage stats, clearing jungle camps is very easy. And, as far as the late-game goes, his team-fighting potential is unmatched.

Engaging the enemy team with his Q ability, and stunning most of the enemy team with his Ultimate ability is extremely easy. Following it up with another Q to lock down the enemy carry, and the game is as good as done.

Adding to that is the fact that all of Amumu’s abilities deal magic damage, and you’ve got yourself a juggernaut in the jungle.

Master Yi

Unlike Amumu, that enables his allies to do the carrying for him, Master Yi is the carry champion of his team. His infamous lethality build, with his Alpha Strike and Duskblade of Drakharr allowing him to be unseen for most of the fights makes him the most oppressive champion in low elo.

In high elo, however, the story is a bit different.

Still, using his Alpha Strike correctly to avoid enemy damage, and W to survive potential counter ganks is Master Yi’s bread and asser, and these simple mechanics along with his insane scaling, allow him to be played in high elo as well.

Where Master Yi differs from other jungle carry champions, such as Lee Sin, is in his ganking. That is, the lack thereof. Master Yi is a power farming champion, going from one jungle camp to the next instead of looking for ganks or contesting objectives such as drake and scuttle crab, so unless your team knows not to lose too much early, it will be hard to get to late game, where Master Yi’s damage truly shines.

Vi

Though she may be one of the stars of Arcane, Vi is an older champion, with a kit suited to beginner players. Her early game clear is a healthy one, with her base damage and shield passive being more than enough to take on the early jungle camps.

Where Vi shines as a jungle champion, though, is her capability of early game ganks, with the top lane being her preferred champion farming ground, as her Q is enough to stun them, with her W ability breaking their armor and giving her and her ally an opportunity to kill the enemy top laner, even if they are the best tank in the game, with their early game damage.

During the late game, Vi is one of the most annoying champions for ADCs, as her Ultimate ability is a point and click knock-up that can’t be avoided, that positions Vi in a perfect spot to one-shot any squishy with the damage, or at least take them out of the fight.

Nunu & Willump

When it comes to early game presence, there is no better jungle champion for beginners than Nunu & Willump. This jungle champion is the bane of every enemy lane bully, with no drawbacks shared by his colleague perma ganking jungler, Shaco.

Nunu’s Q ability offers him an extremely healthy jungle clear, while his W gives him movement speed and Crowd Control needed for a level 2 gank to an unsuspecting mid laner, which is not meant to kill, just burn some summoner abilities.

In the same vein, when contesting neutral objectives such as Baron Nashor, Drakes, and scuttle crab, Nunu & Willump have, for all intents and purposes, double the Smite Summoner Spell, with his Q ability dealing true damage to minions.

There are two possible build paths this jungle champion can take, those being the tank path and full ability power which focuses on the damage. The former makes Nunu & Willump one of the tankiest champions in the game, coupled with his healing and is the best for new players, while the latter is recommended for more experienced players.

Warwick

In the current League of Legends meta, healing is king. And there is no better champion to prove this point than Arcane’s greatest mystery, Warwick. Barring champions such as Xin Zhao and others whose mechanics can get complicated for new players, Warwick is the best early game duelist in League of Legends, due to the simplicity of his kit and his innate healing.

Due to this, there will rarely be an enemy jungler that can establish dominance over Warwick.Additinally, his Q ability allows Warwick to easily gank enemies, and coupled with his E fear them into running towards his allies. Where Warwick truly shines for new players though, is his W ability, Blood Hunt.

Sensing nearby enemy champions with low health points sends Warwick into a frenzy, giving him bonus movement speed, and revealing the location of said enemy champions. For new players, this ability will let them have a target to hunt down, and not let them move around aimlessly. If you’re ever auto-filled, Warwick can transition to a top lane champion as well.

Zac

Filling pretty much the same role as nunu & Willump, Zac is the juggernaut of the jungle role. However, where Nunu & Willump establishes his dominance via repeated ganking with their straightforward engage, Zac engages from out of the fog of war.

For champions that rely on their movement abilities to avoid ganks, Zac’s engage counters them with his surprise ganks. Along with the damage he deals, and Area of Effect stuns, it’s enough to give your laners an advantage.

His Ultimate ability is perfect for disrupting enemy abilities, as it displaces all enemy champions hit, while also dealing enough damage to have squishy champions such as ADCs have to reposition. All in all, Zac is the perfect supporting jungle champion.

And there you have it, the best champions for those new League of Legends players that plan to try their luck in the jungle. As you may notice, the shared theme between all of these champions is simplicity, evidenced by the fact that most of them can also be found in Wild Rift as well, as jungling is more than outplaying your opponents.

The main draw of the role lies in your decision-making and being in the right place at the right time.

Still, it doesn’t mean that the champions that are harder to play are better ones. On the contrary, there is more room for error with more mechanically intense champions, and consistency is key when climbing in League of Legends ranked.