The 5 Best junglers to use in Season 11 soloqueue

Season 10 is no more, welcome Season 11! This preseason has seen an absolutely incredible amount of changes to the item system and it has completely revamped pretty much every single build that we used to rely on. Unfortunately, it also means that Ranked has seen a soft reset – in this article, we will give you some advice on how to regain those sweet ladder points!

We will take a look at five of the champions in the Jungle most likely to help you climb the ladder. Mastering two of these champions will generally be the best way to go – by spreading yourself too thin and trying to master multiple champions, you won’t be able to utilize them to their utmost potential. Furthermore, there are many other junglers who didn’t make the list that are still great for climbing (Lillia, Olaf and Pantheon come to mind). However, the champions below are either straight up stronger, easier to learn or have a smoother and more consistent powercurve.

1. Graves

No surprises here! Shotgun-man was one of the strongest junglers during Worlds and he remains one of the big threats in soloqueue. While he isn’t as strong as he used to be following recent nerfs, the consistency of the pick and the power of Galeforce will always land him high on any list. He has no terrible matchups, he scales very smoothly throughout the entire game (from strong dueling early to high burst late-game) and farms quickly with a healthy clear. However, he doesn’t bring any CC to the table and, as such, has limited use outside of Smokescreen when falling behind. Most common build is Galeforce into Collector, although Shieldbow remains an option.

2. Taliyah

Following extremely strong buffs to her Jungle clear in preseason, Taliyah has come back with a vengeance after being a subpar jungler for the longest time. Already getting nerfed in 11.1, she remains the strongest AP jungler currently in the game. She pairs really well with AD laners with a strong CC setup, allowing her to hit her Seismic Shove: picks like Renekton and Pantheon synergize incredibly well. Her global presence with her ultimate adds to her oppressiveness. She does however have a steep learning curve and isn’t the greatest early duelist.

3. Hecarim

While not as popular in competitive play, Hecarim remains a great soloqueue jungler if you’re looking to rank up quickly. While his pre-6 is a little bit weaker than someone like Graves, he still has the ability to punish overextending lanes. However, once he hits his 6 and can farm or snowball towards his Sunderer or Triforce he becomes a menace. Strong dueling, rapid map movement and an ultimate that is made to get double kills on botlane, he is arguably the most snowbally champion on the list. Although not nearly as effective from behind, he also is able to build more offtank with Divine Sunderer into things like Deadman’s Plate if that is what his team requires.

4. Kha’Zix

The only assassin on the list, Kha’zix still provides great scaling, absurd dueling potential and diversity in his builds at the price of a weaker early game. Reliant on a couple of points in his Q and access to the evolutions that his ult provides, he is generally a low impact jungler in the early game. However, in mid and late (or god forbid early if you find a kill or two) he either brings absurd assassination potential or great sustained skirmishing depending on the build you go for. The more consistent build would be going Conqueror, Goredrinker and an early R evolve but if you’re feeling hot, Dark Harvest or Electrocute with Duskblade remains strong as well.

5. Sejuani

While she is possibly the weakest pick of the whole bunch, I am a strong believer in picking champions to help your team – and sometimes, you need to bite the bullet and pick the tank jungler. Her early game isn’t great by itself, but combine it with picks like Irelia, Camille or Katarina and suddenly you have a deceptively strong 2v2. Naturally, from there on out Sejuani scales into a consistent frontliner with great teamfighting as well as reliable engage tools – provided you can hit your skillshot. I would consider her the most situational of these 5 picks as well, as she has a couple of atrocious matchups such as Olaf and Trundle and her lack of early game power can be a problem in solo queue.

In conclusion, there are plenty of ways to climb right now in the Jungle! It’s a jungle meta, so there is a lot of power in your hands. Good luck and make the most of the 2021 season! Which jungler are you taking to the Rift? Join the discussion on Social Media or our Discord! 

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Image credit: Riot Games