[PSA JUNGLING ETIQUETTE] (self.DotA2) by FortyeniN The absurdly loud horn rapes your ear and reminds you that your game is ready. You wait patiently as you see the Dota2 logo fill the screen and then the pick screen pops up. Being the considerate team player that you are you wait for the first wave of picks to go out on both sides. One of your team mates picks Furion and you think to yourself oh goody a jungler, I best pick a solo hero then. Typing politely into team chat you enquire if your team mate will jungle and he confirms your sentiment. Calling shotgun on solo you buy your items and walk over to your lane as the creeps spawn only to find that your 'jungler' is still there. Maybe there is a mistake, you ask why he is in the lane to which point your 'jungler' says to you "I lane till 3"
NO OTHER SENTENCE MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL WITH RAGE AND MY SOUL BURN WITH HATRED.
So its time to educate those who are new or who perhaps don't quite know or understand the etiquette of the jungler.
First of all you must realize that not every game is optimal for a jungler and you should look at your team picks as a measuring stick. Under these circumstances you should strongly consider not picking a jungler:
- Team already has a jungling hero (Enigma/Chen/Enchantress/Axe/Furion/Lycan). These are heroes that are optimally played in the jungle and are usually mediocre in lane.
- Team does not have a good solo hero. For the most part there aren't that many heroes who can solo effectively against two people, granted that matter is also dependent on the skill of the player. If you see a mid hero an obvious combo lane (say SK/Venge) and a hard carry you should not be picking a jungler because it will screw over your lanes.
Assuming that your team does meet the criteria for a jungling hero (for the most part you should be fine) then go ahead and pick him but for the love of GabeN and all his employees make sure you know how to play a jungling hero.
- DO NOT SAY YOU'LL LANE UNTIL 3 AND THEN JUNGLE.
This is for several reasons. Firstly you completely remove the benefit of jungling (25% increase in team exp from having two solo heroes) and secondly because you will royally screw over and piss off your lane mate who will be the same level as the two other heroes in the lane. Because of this your lane mate is now much more vulnerable to gank attempts (god forbid if he's up against a combo lane) and is therefore shut down by your mere presence as you'll be leaching exp away.
- REMEMBER TO GANK BECAUSE JUNGLERS ARE FOR THE MOST PART GANKERS.
The only exception to this rule is Lycan who is not expected to gank because he is simply unable to until he hits six. You are a ganker first and a jungler second, the jungle is simply a means of providing gold and exp to give you that initial burst. When you jungle most pub players won't acknowledge you or even notice you and so you can use this to your advantage. Setting up a kill for your lane mate and for yourself will shut them down and further spiral the gold/exp advantage your team has from you jungling.
- STACK AND PULL THE MEDIUM CAMP FOR YOUR LANE MATE UNLESS IT IS WARDED.
Whenever you are able stack the medium camp and pull it because this will benefit your lane in several ways. Firstly you pull creep equilibrium back toward your tower (giving you more room to gank the opponents as they'll be pushed up further). Secondly you are benefiting from more gold and exp for no cost since the creeps will be tanking for you and this will further the gold/exp advantage you have. And finally you are denying the enemy an entire wave of creeps/exp (roughly 250 gold/280 exp until more creeps are added to the wave).
- YOU WILL ALWAYS GET MORE GOLD/EXP FROM A LANE THAN FROM A JUNGLE.
Assuming optimal conditions of course. This is for players who pick very strong laners (N'aix being the classic example) and then jungle farm the entire game. Do not jungle expecting farm unless your lanes are already full of heroes who are higher farm priority than you. Jungling is meant to give your team a strategic gold/exp advantage and to allow you to gank, translating to a vastly stronger midgame.
This is absolutely rampant in pub games and the easiest way to counter this is with wards and a little aggression. Don't place wards to block camps (other than the pullable camp), place them for vision. Most jungling heroes won't have much regen or hp while jungling since they'll either be relying on minions or themselves to tank the damage. Because of this they are extremely easy to gank provided you have vision. Don't let that N'aix afk farm without consequence. Get the hell over there and gank his ass, either you'll kill him or you'll make him think twice about being safe.
So the next time you decide to pick a jungler, remember these rules and stick to them. You'll win a lot more games and you'll make your team a lot happier by doing so.
EDIT: Completely forgot to mention this. When pulling, besides making sure it is stacked, autodeny any creep that is below 50% since this way you can completely wipe out the wave. Once you have the hang of stacking (x:52ish) and pulling (X:15ish) look into double pulling which is when you draw any surviving creeps into another neutral camp (easier on Radiant because if you cut through one of the trees in the medium camp you have access to the other medium camp although on the Dire side you can pull creeps into the hard camp at around X:22ish).
EDIT EDIT: Also forgot to add Dark Seer and Syllabear to the list of viable jungling heroes (thanks to Absolome for pointing this out).