What are good routes to jungle and gank at level 2-3?

Solution 1:

When should you gank?

You should Gank whenever you can create pressure without harming you nor your laners. If your laners are pushed it's harder to gank, but still doable, however you have to mind where the enemy jungler is to prevent him taking Dragon or counter ganking you.

Ganking as Amumu on Top

In my opinion, it's the easiest lane to gank before 6 and the hardest after 6. If the enemy toplaner is pushing to your turret you can easily come by the river and just jump in. Make sure the river isn't warded by smiting the Raptors (The camp near midlane). If it's your own laner that is pushed, then it's a bit harder. Depending on how pushed and which side you're playing on, you can gank by the tri bush (If you're on the Blue side), but make sure your laner has CC as you're incredibly close to the turret, or just go from your own turret without giving vision of yourself and hide in the bush. Once the minion wave starts pushing so will the enemy laner and you can engage at that point. If the lane is frozen at the middle a gank from the tribush is really good if they have no dashes, if they do, try to gank from the river instead. After 6 you don't need to use your Q into the enemy champion, if you fear you might miss, aim for a minion near him and then use your ultimate to root him in place. Be careful however, since post 6 many top laners are either too safe or incredibly dangerous (Tryndamere, Teemo, Irelia, Riven are really difficult to gank)

Ganking as Amumu on the midlane This can be very dangerous since most midlaners have a lot of escapes (especially Zed and Leblanc). This means your only choice is to wombo combo them. Don't really try to gank before 6 unless your teammate can stun him , the midlane is an easy place to run away from ganks. Like in the top lane, make sure you have either a sweeping lens or the raptor buff, and you can gank from anywhere except your own turret (unless you're sion or have TP and Homeguards). Preferably only gank when your laner managed to bait a fight, so that the enemy will not have his escapes up (most escapes are used to engage aswell). The exception to this is if it's a low mobility mage. If you see a Malzahar, Morgana, Lux and the like, by all means, dodge the snares and engage. They have no way to escape (Just beware of the damage, shield and slow respectively). Never ever dive a midlaner unless you're almost at full health. Especially not Malzahar / Lissandra / Anivia / Galio.

Ganking as Amumu on Botlane

Pre 6, unless the enemy is low, don't do it (unless your teammates have a lot of CC). You're slow. You have 1 stun. They usually will have 2 flashes an exhaust and a heal. The only thing you're doing is pushing your lane, and that isn't exactly the best thing to do. However if they are either low, out of mana or you can effectively lock them down, go ahead and try to kill one of them, maybe two if the second one is dumb enough to stay there. You can try the toplane trick here though, is your botlane pushed? Hide in the bush without the enemy noticing. Once the lane pushes back and they pass by you / facecheck the bush, that's a free stun for you, and possibly a kill if your team can follow up. After 6, just run in there by the river, throw yourself at them and press R. Finish them off with your tears and if possible leave a kill for the adc

Ganking as Pantheon

Pantheon early game has everything that amumu has except a gapcloser. He does have a short gapcloser, which is his stun, but if the enemy is out of range you're screwed. Basicly the same principle applies here, run by the open gaps and try to combo. Q -> W -> E -> Q is the best combo for a gank, provided you have enough mana. If not, Q -> W -> Basic attack and Q again (You'll want your laner to be doing damage aswell , and save a Q to prevent the enemy from surviving at 10 hp, if your laner can't finish him off) Post 6 your ganks are unbelievably easy. At this point you probabbly have boots (Extra points for Mobility Boots) and you can do the aforementioned rather easily. But you also have your ultimate. Warn your team you're engaging, and where you're landing, and make sure they engage during your cast time. If the enemy backs he's gonna be crushed by your ultimate (You shouldn't ult into someone, but rather ult where they're going to be). If he doesn't back, it's still a 2v1 situation, and he took extra damage for keeping fighting (which will mean that you can kill him even easier). As Pantheon if you do take the Chilling Smite you can also slow an enemy which is incredibly useful (even if it doesn't seem so). Just don't smite while he's stunned, that's wasting your slow on someone that can't move.

Routes Both of those junglers do need mana. As such your best start is

• Gromp (Smite) -> Blue -> Wolves -> Raptor (Smite) -> Base - > Red -> Gank Top / Gank Mid Alternatively
• Blue - > Wolves (Smite) -> Raptors - > Red (Smite) -> Gank Top/Mid

Those Are the best starts, however I wouldn't recommend the second one. The first start allows you to reach level 3 in the best possible way. You get extra damage from the gromp and the ntake a blue buff. Take wolves for the experience. Once you take the Raptors not only you have vision denial but you'll reach level 3 (which allows you for your first decent combo). You go into base and buy the upgrade along with some pots. Do the red and gank. Use the potions to make sure you gank at high health.

The Second start is worse because you can't deny vision. Smiting the Blue Buff is a huge waste, so save your smite. You take the Blue and go to wolves. You probabbly won't be able to solo the Wolves so you'll have to smite them (if not save for raptors). Go straight to the raptors and clear them (And you'll hit level 3). Take the Red Buff and Smite it (It will heal you) and you gank a lane fairly high on health. However you might not have as much health as the first method, you're susceptible to be counterjungled at the red buff (Care for Rengar, Shaco and Warwick) and you won't have access to the Smite upgrades

Note: For the jungle routes you can also take the scuttle crab after finishing your initial clear for more health (If you have Lifesteal or Spellvamp), gold and vision. However, beware that the enemy jungler may have had the same idea.

Solution 2:

I know this won't work with Pantheon/Amumu but other alternative routes might be helpful. I do this on people like Rammus/Zac. Essentially champions without a heavy need for mana.

I start Gromp. From here I will skip blue and do wolves. After this you can do red and still have more health than normal after smiting it. This lets you do a level 3 gank right away with plenty of health to spare. (With Zac, I clear so fast that I do Gromp, Wolves, Chickens, and then Red)

This route obviously doesn't work well for Pantheon/Amumu since they are both so mana hungry, but it could be applied to a wider range of junglers than I mentioned as well as long as they meet the low mana criteria.