Vainglory - How to Dominate the Jungle and Snowball Your Team to Victory
Note: While we’ll be talking about Vainglory using BlueStacks 4, this game is already available on the new BlueStacks 5 with much better performance, less resource consumption, and more stability. Download the latest version of our Android emulator and give it a try!
As a game belonging to the mobile MOBA genre, you’ll find that Vainglory has many elements in common with games like Arena of Valor, Mobile Legends, and even with the progenitor of the genre, Dota. However, even though the games in the same genre can have many similarities, it’s the unique elements they offer that help them to stand out among the rest. And in this regard, Vainglory does pretty good for itself, including a unique cast of heroes, a unique visual aesthetic and presentation, and some of the best gameplay mechanics in the genre on this platform.
However, even though Vainglory has its fair share of distinguishing elements to offer, the base concept is similar to that of other MOBAs: Three lanes, 5v5, several roles like tank, melee DPS, caster, and support, among others, and the importance of farming in order to gain the gold advantage, and eventually win the match. Similarly, some of the match dynamics are also similar to the ones in other MOBAs, including the importance of a jungler character in every team that can help to enable kills, disrupt enemy laning phases, and snowball their team to victory.
If you have experience with other MOBAs in the past, you’d know that jungling is not straightforward at all, and that it has many nuances in order to get the process just right in a way that it provides maximum benefits to the team. In this sense, we’ve decided to create a guide with several helpful tips and tricks for junglers in Vainglory.
If you’re thinking of tackling the jungle in this awesome MOBA, then keep these tricks in mind.
Choosing Your Jungler
First and foremost, before you even consider hopping into the jungle, you need to make sure you pick the right character for the role. Typical jungler heroes in MOBAs are those that can be quite tanky, or at the very least that can handle the enemies in the jungles without struggling too much. They can provide this either via their natural hardiness and self-healing in the case of the more defensive heroes, or with their superior burst damage in the case of glass cannon junglers.
Regardless of your decision, however, these champions must have, at the very least, some sustainability that will allow them to keep their HP up while engaging the neutral enemies in the jungle. If you’re choosing an unorthodox jungler, such as in the case of champions that don’t have any of the traits mentioned above, you could still technically make them work by purchasing items that grant extra durability, though this will come at the cost of decreased damage potential and longer times to build items. Luckily, some champions don’t really need much items as their utility comes from their skills. In these cases, it’s important to prioritize leveling instead of farming for gold.
Luckily, you can easily find a list of good junglers in Vainglory directly in the hero list, as these have their own category. Though these choices aren’t really carved in stone, since you can easily make other heroes work in the jungle with the proper know-how, try to limit yourself to the traditional junglers at first to learn the ropes.
The Farming Route
The jungle in Vainglory is split into two by the river that passes through the middle. Obviously, the half closest to your base is your jungle, while the half on the other side of the river is the enemy’s jungle. Though it’s possible to use some advanced strats to steal the enemy’s jungle early on, it’s important to stick to your half if you’re a newcomer to the role as you’ll run the risk of encountering the enemy early on. Or worse, you might find that the enemy team is lying in ambush waiting for you to steal the jungle, which leads to your early demise and gives your opponents an easy first blood.
With that being said, the jungle has many different monster encampments, some of which consist of a pair of monsters, while others have only a single enemy with a green aura. Defeating the big enemies can give you a bit of health, while the camps with the enemy pairs give better gold, though you’ll also take more damage from engaging these two foes.
Regardless, you’ll want to defeat every single enemy camp in your route in clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion. By the time you defeat the last camp in your path, the first ones should be resetting. You can maximize your farming by repeating this cycle until you’re ready to start ganking.
Don’t Stop Jungling Until You Reach Your First Objective
Remember when we mentioned how some heroes require itemization, while others are more reliant on level and skills in order to gank? Well, while your approach to jungling and ganking will vary according to the type of champion, you will still require lots of resources in both cases. In this sense, a good stopping point for jungling is when you build your first tier 2 item or, in the case of early gankers, when you learn the necessary skills to enable your first few ganks.
Keep in mind, however, that in the case of the latter, you are probably ONLY ENABLING kills for your teammates, which means that you’ll be getting assists most of the time, and not nearly enough gold as if you were farming the jungle. On the flipside, the gold that your allies gain from your successful ganks will put your team at an advantage. Just remember to slide back into the jungle between ganks to keep farming so you don’t lag behind in items and levels.
Gank Unpredictably
This one is much harder to explain since it varies wildly from hero to hero.
As soon as you select your champion and are in the loading screen, your enemies will most likely know who’s the jungler in your team (judging from your team composition), and what type of ganks to expect. For instance, some heroes are very quick and can gank directly by walking up to the lane and landing a quick stun to enable a kill. Meanwhile, other champions rely on lying in wait in bushes until someone gets close enough to pounce on them and enable a kill.
Regardless, if your enemies are experienced in the game, they’ll know what type of ganks to expect from your jungler, which is why it’s so important to shake things up and keep them guessing. If you’re an ambusher, try attacking from a bush that they won’t expect. If you’re a type of ganker that can engage with mobility skills, try approaching from a place they’re not expecting, such as from behind their turret. Even if you take a few hits from the tower before engaging, your stun might be just enough for your team to get the kill. Just try not to die while ganking or else you’ll void your efforts entirely as there will be no gold advantage resulting from this.
Remember, There’s are Shops in the Middle of the Map
In a good match, you’ll probably be running around the jungle and ganking nonstop, which means you’ll rarely return to your base. This can be a bummer if you have lots of gold since you won’t be able to spend it until you go to a shop to buy some items. Luckily, there are two secret stores in the middle of the map, one in each jungle, and that offer the same items that you can find in your base. Whenever you’re loaded with gold, swing by one of these shops to buy an upgrade or two in order to save time and continue ganking shortly after.
Jungling and ganking in Vainglory takes a lot of practice, but with these jungling tips and tricks, you’re now ready to dominate your enemies and snowball your team to victory.
