Which jungler in League of Legends is best to main?

If you’re wondering which jungler you should use to climb in League of Legends, we’ve done some statistical analysis to help answer the question!

Yesterday, we provided our inaugural list of ideal champions to main for top lane, which used trends and changes to our patch-by-patch tier list to reveal the strongest and most stable picks that you should use to climb. Now, it’s time to do the same for the jungle.

As with top lane, we’ve ranked every jungler to ever be on our tier list (even if it was just one patch), giving them an average rank. However, we also looked at how much champions varied in their ranking from Patch 8.24 to 9.10, to see whether they get particularly stronger or weaker with changes to the meta.

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Champions that have high variance, even if they are strong, would not be advisable to sink a lot of time in, because they can get much weaker if they are nerfed or if the meta changes. Instead, we’re recommending those champions who have remained around the same strength (and above average strength, obviously) throughout the last 12 patches. While this is not a guarantee that these champions will always be this strong, it’s a decent indication that they won’t fall completely out of the meta.

To that end, we also looked to see how many times those champions received direct buffs or nerfs to see if they are either at risk for big changes in the future. Champions that get a lot of adjustments cause us to be wary, especially if they have high variance. However, champs with a low amount of changes that are weak would also concern us, because that indicates that Riot has forgotten about them, perhaps until they are reworked.

To that end, we created a graph showing where each champion stands as far as its strength and volatility. We’ll provide more context as to which tier they fall into and how much they’ve been buffed or nerfed, but in very broad general terms you can see which champions are good and bad to main by looking below. Please note, this is based on data from Platinum plus, meaning that these rankings will not necessarily be as strong for players below Gold elo.

As you can see, those champions in the upper-left quadrant are those that have both a solid average rank over those 12 patches, with very little variance. These champions would be those that would be considered good to main, particularly those that are higher up and closer to the left-hand side. Champions in this quadrant include:

• Kha’Zix (S tier)
• Lee Sin (A+ tier)
• Evelynn (A tier)
• Master Yi (A tier)
• Kayn (A tier)
• Shaco (A tier)
• Nunu & Willump (A tier, high nerfs)
• Jax (A tier, high nerfs)
• Udyr (B+ tier)
• Rammus (B+ tier)
• Elise (B+ tier)
• Kindred (B+ tier)
• Rengar (B+ tier)
• Vi (B+ tier)
• Nidalee (B tier)

Moving along, in the bottom-left quadrant are those champions who are weaker than most, and tend to stay weak. These would be champions that are not advised for maining because they have been consistently weak for the 12 patches we have tracked (some, incredibly, despite receiving multiple buffs). They include:

• Warwick (C tier, buffed)
• Shyvana (C tier, buffed)
• Amumu (C tier, multiple buffs)
• Pantheon (C tier, no buffs)
• Nocturne (C tier, no buffs)
• Zac (C tier, no buffs)
• Gragas (D tier, no buffs)
• Fiddlesticks (D tier, no buffs)
• Twitch (D tier)
• Poppy (D tier)
• Olaf (D tier, no buffs)
• Ekko (D tier)
• Trundle (F tier, multiple buffs)
• Dr. Mundo (F tier)

Next, in the bottom-right quadrant, we have weaker champions with high levels of variance. These are champions who can swing wildly from strong to weak, but overall tend to have big issues. They might get multiple buffs or nerfs (Camille, Sylas) or randomly enter the meta after some buff enables them to jungle (Sylas, Urgot, Aatrox) but overall they are not consistently viable junglers.

• Taliyah (C tier, no nerfs)
• Sejuani (C tier, multiple buffs)
• Urgot (D tier, not consistently in meta)
• Volibear (D tier, buffed)
• Aatrox (D tier, not consistently in meta)
• Wukong (D tier, no nerfs)
• Skarner (D tier, buffed)
• Camille (D tier, buffed and nerfed)
• Sylas (F tier, not consistently in meta)

Finally, we have the upper-right quadrant that has high volatility and high strength champions. These champions are ones that would be fine to learn and know, as they’re usually quite strong, but when they aren’t strong they tend to be out of the meta completely. Champions that feasted at their apex but floundered at their lowest are found here.

• Jarvan IV (A+ tier)
• Karthus (A tier)
• Xin Zhao (A tier)
• Rek’Sai (B+ tier, multiple buffs and nerfs)
• Hecarim (B tier, multiple buffs and nerfs)

Any of this information interesting to you? Do you plan to main one of the best champs like Kha’Zix, Lee Sin, or Evelynn?