Should You Play Jungle?

Disclaimer I am still learning how to jungle so this guide is a work in progress but I think I know enough to give advice on how to play the role.   

Credit to Getsukeii on Deviantart

Should You Play Jungle? 

  If you want to play Jungler in SMITE, you need to know how each lane works, how to get in,get a kill and get out, when jungle camps are up, how to rotate around the jungle quickly, and how to be aware of the map and everything going on in it.


  If you answered yes, keep reading. If you don’t know what position you want to play or if you want to try Jungle anyway keep reading. If not try another Role Guide or keep reading for fun, I would.

What is a Jungler ?

  In the jungle you usually see assassins and a few exceptions here and there like Bellona, Xing Tien, Amaterasu etc. When you are the jungler you want to make sure all of your teammates have their buffs, your back camps are down, gank any enemies that are out of position, and take away the enemy team's jungle if you can/if you feel safe.


What do Jungler's Build?
  
  Jungler's Build very differently depending on the god that you're playing. For this guide I'm going to go over a build for Thor since he is a very good jungler for beginners and he's a free god so everyone can try him out. This build makes Thor a bruiser who can take a hit, hit hard, and hit through protections.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image

  If you are going to be in the jungle, you need to have Bumba's Mask AKA the jungler item. It gives you +10 MP5 which is always nice but it's passive makes your basics do 10 True Damage (ignores defenses etc.), your abilities do +10% damage to jungle camps, when you kill a jungle creep you get +10% of the camp's maximum health and if you share the camp with an ally you still receive the gold like if you cleared it by yourself.

AKA if you play jungle, you get it. Then you need to buy Warrior's Tabi to hit harder and move around the map faster. Then you get Jotunn's wrath to get much needed mana, cooldowns, pen and power. After that you should get Mail of Renewal to max cooldowns, get some physical protection, and it's passive gives you 15% of you max health and mana over 5s after every kill or assist on an enemy god or objective.    

  Then build Brawler's Beat Stick to increase your power and pen even more and its passive reduces enemy healing and regen by 40% for 8s when you hit them with a basic attack. Even if the enemy team doesn't have a healer this is still a good item because of the power and pen. Buying Hide of the Urchin next gives more protections and lets you stay in fights longer to make use of your power and pen since it gives both physical and magical protection, health and mana and its passive that gives you +2 protections per god assist/kill (up to 10).

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image

  For the final item of this build, sell Bumba's Mask, and replace it with Titan's Bane to give you you even more power and pen plus an additional 33% penetration to what you already have. This bruiser build allows you to stay in a fight, use abilities often, hit hard, hit through protection and to just hurt the enemy team in the face.



What Do as the Jungler?

Credit to SMITE Academy for the Basic Map at smiteacademy.wordpress.com 

Early:

  
  To start buy Bumba's Mask, Rank Boots, 2 health and 2 mana potions. Then go get your speed buff with your solo laner, then clear the mana buff for your solo laner. After rotate to mid xp camps and clear them with your mid laner.Take the right camps first and then the left. Ping your map to let your mid laner to know when you are headed to the camps. After that you want to head to the your back camps both left and right. Then help out wherever you are needed.


Mid Game: 

If you catch an enemy low on health or mana and they are below the line it is usually a safe gank.

  Once you get to level five you want to make sure your team always has their respective buffs. Power/Red to Mid Laner, Purple/Attack Speed to ADC, Speed/Yellow to Jungler...that's you, and Mana/Blue to Solo Laner. If an enemy is low, and/or pushed up call  "Gank _____ Lane" (VG 1 for left,2 for mid and 3 for right) to tell your team to go in for the kill. When going for a gank don't let the enemy see you before you go for the kill, use the element of surprise. If you have an ult where you go into the sky like Thor or Thanatos, ult from in the jungle to get the best chance of killing them. In general you want to use your ult to either initiate or finish a kill. Throughout the match if you see one of you lanes getting pushed/a teammate need to back, try to help relieve some of the pressure by helping them clear the lane or backing off the enemy in that lane. Once they back off/your teammate gets back, head back into the jungle.


Late Game:  

  Late Game you want pick off enemies that get low,or stray from their team. Keep in mind it will be easier to kill mages, assassins and hunters because guardians and warriors build tanky and are harder to kill. If your build has pen you should be able to take towers and objectives quickly with your team and possibly take it by yourself. Only take a tower by yourself if you know where the enemy team is, have a lot of health and mana, and have minions.


Warding:

Blue Diamonds are Aggressive Wards
 Green Diamonds are Defensive

  As a jungler you want to ward often but until you get used to the role and know how to farm effectively, I would recommend warding only when the enemy team is out rotating your team or you are ahead and and if you have the core of your build done.  You don't want to ward when you new to jungling because it's very complicated and easy to get behind in farm especially if you ward every other like most people recommend. 

Tips:

• Know when to disengage. AKA you are low on mana/health and the enemy team isn't. RUN AWAY 
• NEVER Stand Still, EVER!! 
• Know you gods combos. 
• Pay attention to where the enemy team's jungler is. 
• Never dive Tower unless it's an insta-kill or you have support from your team. 
• Know that if you are low it's better to back than try to save your team and give the team another kill.
• Counter jungle if you can but be careful(taking the enemy teams buff).