Every single champion in League of Legends is uniquely designed. The differentiated stats, abilities allow them to take on specific jobs, ganking for example. When it comes to ganking, there are champions that are able to start ganking very early but there also are champions that could not gank at all in early game. Below are 5 jungle champions who can’t really do anything except for farming before Level 6.
1. Shyvana
Shyvana is famous for her passive ability – Fury of the Dragonborn that grants her bonus Armor and Magic Resistance for each Dragon she and her allies slay; and ultimate – Dragon’s Descent which is a great ability to initiate a teamfight.
“The Half-Dragon” Shyvana can quickly clear neutral monster camps with her kit but lacks crowd control ability. With no crowd control ability and no movement ability, even with Flash equipped she could not gank and fight effectively before Level 6.
2. Malzahar
Malzahar rose to popularity after being buffed mid-season but maybe Riot thought that champion was overly abused and dropped the “nerf hammer” on him again. Malzahar then quickly disappeared from the competitive scene. But with his particularly strong ultimate – Nether Grasp (unaffected by Cleanse) we might still see Malzahar in action in ranked solo queue.
Much like Shyvana, Malzahar can farm fast in jungle with Void Swarm (W) and Malefic Visions (E) but lacks crowd control ability. Hence he is unable to cause much trouble for enemy team until he reaches Level 6. If you pick Malzahar to jungle, try to get Level 6 first before ganking or at least don’t go for a kill when you are not 100% sure about it.
3. Amumu
“Nobody is perfect”, this line seems to fit Amumu well. Amumu is very strong towards mid and late game with his kit, is good to go with an AOE lineup but at the same time he is a very bad at early game ganking.
In early game, Amumu has nothing on him to scare away enemies. His long range crowd control ability Q is easy to dodge too. So while jungling with Amumu, expect to see enemy champions come and steal your camps regularly. You have to take many things into consideration if you want to go ganking with Amumu in the early stage of a match: who are your allies, how to dodge enemy champions’ abilities …. If Amumu is picked by a teammate and you want to support him, pick a champion with good crowd control abilities to make good combos together.
4. Master Yi
Master Yi is quite common in League of Legends. He is extremely dangerous in mid and late game with his ultimate – Highlander (boosts movement and attack speed, makes Master Yi immune to slowing effects). How about early game?
Before Level 6, Master Yi can get close to his target with his Q – Alpha Strike, but he does not have anything to knock out the target after that. Without R to boost his movement speed, Master Yi can’t chase anyone if they decide to run away.
5. Rengar
The nerfs made and the change of his stacking mechanics led to him being disappeared from competitive scene. Enemy champions should be afraid of Rengar while being alone but that’s only when he already got his ultimate. In early game, Rengar can’t really gank properly.
Rengar can only get close to enemies by hiding in grass first then jump out when they are nearby. As a result, he can only go hunting near the river and in top/bot lane. He will not have full damage output without stacking maximum points with E. To turn Rengar into a harmless cat, you only need to regularly ward at crucial spots.
