When Jungling Is Bad

There seems to be a whole set of players who fall into the category of "habitual junglers" - you've probably seen them from time to time, the guys who insta-pick a hero like Nature's Prophet or Legion Commander and call it - you can mentally see them queuing up the Hand of Midas before the other team has even picked.

Now, these players will sometimes win the game convincingly for you, or sometimes cause you to lose it before it's hardly begun. Why? They're a habitual jungler, they've probably started playing this way because they can't handle having to actually lane against someone, and believe that jungling means they can avoid the early game entirely. They have one playstyle for all game situations - jungle.

If they're left alone and the rest of your team does a decent job of holding their ground, you'll probably win. The jungler will announce their supremacy and "commend me". Any game they lose, it's their team's fault - they didn't hold their towers long enough, got ganked and picked off, didn't sentry/ward their own jungle enough, lost 4v5 team fights at vital stages. Maybe they weren't setup to do these things to start with, or the opposition applied some kind of sneaky 'thinking' or durty 'teamwork' to their play.

There are a few big problems with AFK jungling:

1) It assumes the opposition will make no efforts at all to stop you
2) It assumes that your lanes/other players can hold 4v5 until you're ready to fight
3) It makes certain picks on your team extremely problematic
4) It assumes your hero wouldn't be better used somewhere else

Mistake 1 - Nobody will bother me

While this can be true in lower level pubs especially, as you move up, opposition players will increasingly look to gank passive junglers. They know that even a failed gank will probably set back your farm/timetable massively and make you less of a threat for a long time. You're also an easy kill - many common junglers have no escape, and will frequently be running round on low health.

Look out for dangerous offlaners like Bounty Hunter, Clinkz and Clockwerk - they love nothing more than to supplement their farm/xp with a cheap kill. Similarly mids like Queen of Pain or Pudge can come out of nowhere to take you to pieces. Roaming supports like Venomancer, Vengeful Spirit and Earthshaker very much enjoy raiding the enemy jungler for easy pickings.

In fact, players don't even need to gank you to slow you down - well placed wards or even illusions from a rune can block spawn camps and substantially reduce your farming speed. There's no such thing as guaranteed uncontested farm.

Mistake 2 - Your team will do just fine without you

I'd like to say this is a misconception, but to be frank, I don't think most "habitual junglers" even think much about how the rest of their team will get on in their lanes. They seem to think that "OMG we lost our lanes" is always somebody else's fault, rather than anything to do with the fact they opted out and left them undermanned.

Similarly, always going Hand of Midas can be a massive miscalculation. Yes, the item can give you a great leg up in levelling speed and some extra farm, given enough time. If not given enough time, it's an outright liability - 2000 gold wasted at a vital time in the game. Look at the game situation, look at the enemy heroes - are they going to give you time to make proper use of it? Will delaying the game actually benefit them?

There really aren't many things more depressing in DOTA than looking at your team's inventories and seeing 2-3 carry Hand of Midas and not much else, while your team is desperately trying to hold rax.

Also, if you're going to jungle your team's pull camp and take even that precious bit of farm off your lone support player, at least have the decency to pull the lane with it first and clear off before the neutrals respawn. And dear god, don't then start moaning about the lack of a fast Flying Courier or Observer Wards where you want them.

Mistake 3 - Inappropriate Allies

If your team has a hard carry, another jungler carry should immediately be ruled out. Why? Because if the opposition puts a decent dual or tri-lane against them, your team is screwed. You're probably screwed too. Why? Your carry will likely get outlaned, minimal farm, and be ineffective. While they're not ****ping on your hard carry, they can take a nice wander through the jungle and **** on you too. Make sure you run a trilane.

Having a single support hero is also difficult when the enemy runs one or more invisible heroes. They're already a threat to you in the jungle, but even worse, your support is going to struggle mightily to supply Animal Courier, Flying Courier, Observer Wards and Sentry Wards on their own, let alone grabbing some Boots of Speed and a Bracer to make them less of a sitting duck.

Bear in mind, with the changes to the lane balance, running a dual offlane is not necessarily a terrible idea anymore, especially in pub games. If you've already got a stronger offlaner, then you should consider running another one alongside them. Why? Because you might be able to severely cramp their carry. A good offlaner is even better with backup. Consider a jungler if the enemy look to be running a pretty deadly trilane where you might not be able to help.

Mistake 4 - You couldn't be used better somewhere else

Every jungling hero can, shock horror, also be used in lane. There isn't a single hero that is "jungle only". Lanes offer increased farm and experience, at the price of putting you against one or more enemy heroes to compete with.

Some junglers are extremely strong in lane - the likes of Batrider and Dark Seer are frankly wasted in the jungle. They're horrible for most opponents to lane against, reducing their farm and possibly setting up for ganks. Sure, there are freak picks and combinations of events that can make things turn out this way, but it doesn't mean you do it deliberately!

Nature's Prophet is a very useful offlaner and early ganker, he doesn't have to be played as an AFK jungler. It's a sad day when I yearn to see a Dagon on Nature's Prophet rather than a Hand of Midas. It's a similar item in many ways - you use it to click on specific units and gain lots of gold and XP - EVEN BETTER, it also takes gold and farming time away from the opposition!

Legion Commander is another example - a powerful laning hero who's difficult to lock down and bully. There's no reason whatsoever she needs to vegetate in the jungle for 15-20 minutes at the start of every game.

---

So, in summary, look before you pickup a jungler. Check that your allies have sufficient lane control to have a chance of at least holding their own - preferably winning - their lanes. Make sure your team has enough support heroes, especially against invisible heroes.

Before you buy that Hand of Midas - check how your team's doing - are you being outpushed or outganked in lane? Has your team got an advantage you might be able to capitalise on? Make sure you know some effective alternative builds for your hero so that you can adapt to the game situation in hand. Don't just follow the cookie-cutter religiously every game or you can expect to lose a lot more of them.

And the next time you lose a game where you picked a jungler - think over the points above. Did you make the right pick? Were your lanes setup well enough to be effective? The answer might well be yes, and your team did genuinely screw up badly, but also consider that YOU might be the one at fault and be prepared to change things up in future.