The Jungle role is one of the most defining parts of the entire MOBA genre. Many people will see these characters as roaming assassins, but League of Legends has tons of champions that can gank and support the team through both supportive AP spells and aggressive AD force.
The metagame has changed dramatically over the years, but there are still several underrated champions who are just as powerful as ever in the Jungle role. Whether you’re a veteran Jungler or just trying the role for the first time, you can’t go wrong with any of these options.
Updated December 13, 2021, by Harry Fresle: Jungle is maybe the most vital role in all of League of Legends, as it directly affects every single role in the game, all the while the major objectives of the game are your duty to sort out. Jungles often have to gank lanes and help their team get some form of lead that they can keep, while also making sure that the objectives around the map are yours. With many Jungles having to know the ins and outs of every character, going with an underrated Jungler can provide a much-needed edge.
This list has been updated to reflect the current rankings of characters and showcase those who are the most underrated yet viable options to fullfill the Jungle role.
10 Skarner
Skarner has slowly been growing in popularity, but many players may not realize exactly why this scorpion king is so powerful. In short, it’s because he has a deceptive amount of crowd control, as he can quite easily stun many champions and even pull them away with his ultimate.
He lacks the leaps and teleportation effects of other crowd control champions like Zac and Hecarim, but his movement speed is increased by a fast-recharging shield and some environmental crystals provide vision alongside some unique buffs. He’s got a ton of versatility, but will most importantly help your team take down any foes causing big problems.
9 Udyr
Udyr is a strong, adaptable melee character that can provide sustained damage build when going AD, while also providing huge bursts of damage when going AP. Your main abilities are all empowerments to your basic attack, greatly helping you clear your Jungle, or farm any minions.
He’s also surprisingly easy to play, thanks to his lack of a proper ultimate, as he empowers his attacks in AP fashion. It means that you don’t have to handle nearly as many abilities, and instead focus on what type of game you desire, whether it be a build about AD, AP, or going full tank.
8 Rammus
Rammus is the fundamental original Jungler, but he’s fallen greatly out of favor due to how well-known his strategy is. If you somehow haven’t encountered him, he essentially rams into opponents before taunting them, and by building heavy armor you can hit ridiculous amounts of defensive stats while preventing foes from using their abilities.
People see Rammus as a counter towards AD-heavy teams, but Rammus is alarmingly effective against a wider variety than you’d expect. Taunting and ramming AP champions can be just as important since Rammus’s taunt can last a massive amount of time and give your teammates plenty of opportunities to make up for your poor damage output.
7 Elise
Elise is a strong Jungle that can provide a fantastic amount of CC and brutal follow-up, thanks to her immense AP burst damage. Although she doesn’t have a conventional ultimate, she can transform into a spider with an entirely unique set of abilities, all providing separate uses.
As a Jungler though, Elise is fantastic at providing deep dives behind towers and dealing huge damage out of nowhere. Furthermore, she is also fantastic at fighting one on one, however, her strength undoubtedly resides in her ability to gank every lane.
6 Sejuani
Much like Wukong, Sejuani really needs a team built around her to be at her strongest. Her passive ability lets you freeze opponents hit with melee attacks, so with a party full of ranged attackers, you’ll be the only person who can usually trigger the effect.
With melee allies in each role, such as tank supports like Leona and mid lane assassins like Akali, this isn’t a concern whatsoever, and your ability to stun enemies becomes easier than most other tanks in the game. This is also coupled with a surprisingly powerful dash attack, which gives her some great mobility that tanks like her don’t usually get.
5 Olaf
Olaf is sort of the anti-Jungle, signified by an ultimate that prevents crowd control from affecting him for a short amount of time. This makes him somewhat less interesting to many players that don’t like pure damage champions, but this really undervalues how well Olaf counters most Junglers in the game.
Negating crowd control is incredibly hard to do otherwise, with items that provide the effect being fairly expensive and the Summoner Spell Cleanse being inferior to many other options like Flash and Ignite. Since so many Junglers rely on stunning opponents, Olaf can ruin a majority of the game’s strategies, making him an effective counter against some of the most popular picks in the game.
4 Zac
Although many people consider Zac to be a fairly useless Jungle, but he is in fact one of the strongest. As the Meta has historically always favored the tank-meta, Zac is one of the best secret Junglers in the game. Your E and follow-up Q make him an absolutely vital presence on any team.
While he can provide major crowd control in any situation, Zac’s passive also helps him out greatly as it gives him a free revive, similar to Anivia, enabling him to go for the extra dangerous tower dives, and ganks. He provides a fantastically safe pick that your team can play around.
3 Ekko
Despite Ekko being a viable mid-lane character, he has always found trouble having a solid place within the Meta. He isn’t a fantastic mid laner as he struggles to farm into poke, but excels in the Jungle role. He can provide strong ganks, great sustain, and immense damage.
Ekko’s W provides a fantastic shield that traps any enemies who get caught in it, while his Q and E deal major damage when pairing up with his passive. This means he will usually guarantee his laner a kill although, more often than not, he will be the one to get the last hit due to the immense damage.
2 Ivern
Although Ivern has one of the most unique kits in the entire game of League of Legends, many players end up forgetting about him. His passive means that he doesn’t have to actually fight the Jungle, but can instead charm them for a portion of his health, which he has to use smite in conjunction with.
His Q provides some strong crowd control effects, which more often than not will guarantee a kill for anyone with you. His W actively spawns bushes, while his Ultimate summons a huge rock golem that deals huge amounts of damage. Ivern is undoubtedly underrated.
1 Cho’Gath
Cho’Gath has gone from one of the most beloved champions to one of the most severely underplayed ones, and he’s the most underrated Jungle champion of the bunch right now. His ultimate is almost tailor-made for the Jungle, chomping on monsters and champions with ridiculous True Damage to increase his health and wipe out health bars.
This isn’t even mentioning how disgustingly powerful his Q ability is, creating a field of spikes that shoots enemies up for a remarkably long amount of time. This gives him some of the best damage and crowd control at once, and leads him to take on both tank and AP spellcaster item builds for an unstoppable force in both the early and late sections of the game.
