Briar, Warwick, Rammus, Amumu and Master Yi are the best junglers to climb with in League of Legends on patch 26.19. All five win more than they lose at Emerald+ this patch, and did last patch too.
This list is for solo queue, not pro play: every pick here can win games without teammates following your pings. Most YouTube tier lists rank 40-plus champions. This one stays short, then splits the advice for low and high elo.
What Makes a Jungler Good for Climbing Solo Queue
A champion has to tick four boxes:
- Healthy clear plus early pressure. Early gank or skirmish threat, so you build a lead.
- Carries once ahead. You won't solo carry every game, but the champ must turn a lead into kills without laners following up.
- A simple kit. Focus spent on combos is focus taken off the map and the enemy jungler.
- Stable across elo and patches. A spike from one buff doesn't count. It has to carry games next patch too.
Jungle Tier List: The 5 Best Junglers to Climb This Patch
Volibear, Kha'Zix and Diana are climbing-list regulars, but all three sit under 50% at Emerald+ on OP.GG on both 26.18 and 26.19, even after Riot's 26.19 buffs to Volibear and Kha'Zix.
Class and difficulty come from Riot's official champion pages. Win rates use the same OP.GG data: Emerald+, all servers, patch 26.19, checked 23 September 2026.
Champion | Riot class | Primary damage | Riot difficulty | Emerald+ win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Briar | Fighter/Assassin | Physical | Low | 51.13% |
Warwick | Fighter/Tank | Mixed | Low | 50.24% |
Rammus | Tank | Magic | Medium | 54.15% |
Amumu | Tank/Support | Magic | Low | 51.25% |
Master Yi | Fighter/Assassin | Physical | Medium | 50.47% |
Briar: Self-Healing Carry for Games That Turn Into Brawls
Low elo games never stop fighting, and Briar gets stronger the longer a fight lasts. Her bleeds heal her, Snack Attack hits harder on low targets, and her R crosses most of the map, so she can open team fights from off-screen and execute the carry.
Her weakness is heavy CC and disengage: frenzy auto-targets the nearest enemy and walks her into five people. The habit that decides her games is canceling W with E to take control back. Early, full clear, then fight for scuttle. Her level-4 1v1 is brutal.
Warwick: Tanky Bruiser That Hunts Low-Health Laners
Warwick has the easiest early game here. Blood Hunt senses low-health enemies from far across the map, so the game points you at the next kill. E makes him tanky before its fear lands, and his passive heals harder the lower he drops.
Before 3:30, gank a lane where your laner has a stun or slow, Q into E. After six, R's leap grows with movement speed and suppresses long enough for a quick kill under tower. He struggles against kiting ranged junglers: Dignitas names Graves, Kindred and Nidalee as skirmisher counters.
Rammus: Anti-Carry Tank That Punishes AD Junglers
Rammus posts the best win rate here and has the narrowest job. His passive turns armor into damage, W hurts anyone who auto-attacks him, and E taunts them into doing exactly that. LoLalytics rates him a strong counter to Viego, Kha'Zix and Rengar.
Early, clear to level 3, then Powerball into an overextended laner from fog: Q knocks back, E taunts, and taunted targets can't Flash. Don't pick him into magic-heavy comps. Mages barely auto-attack, so W punishes nobody.
Amumu: Low-Mechanic Tank With a Game-Winning Ultimate
Amumu's kit does what it says. Two Q charges mean a missed bandage doesn't waste the gank, and R stuns everyone around him, so one good ult at dragon or Baron flips a losing objective fight. That simplicity frees your attention for macro, which keeps him viable at every rank.
Early, gank a laner with no dash and save the second Q for their Flash. Later, runes matter less than R's cooldown, so plan objectives around it. Pass on him into Kindred, Trundle or Bel'Veth, the tank-shredding invaders Dignitas warns about.
Master Yi: Farming Hypercarry for the Classic 1v9
Yi is the purest carry pick in League. Wuju Style's true damage laughs at armor stacking, Highlander makes him immune to slows, and every takedown chops his basic ability cooldowns, so one kill in a team fight snowballs into four.
Early, full clear, skip coin-flip skirmishes before six, and save Alpha Strike to dodge the one spell that stops you. Avoid point-and-click CC and early invaders: Dignitas lists Xin Zhao, Lee Sin, Rek'Sai and Elise as threats to farming junglers. And Rammus, two entries up, has been Yi's nightmare for years.
Best Junglers for Low Elo vs High Elo
In Iron to Gold, kills and chasing decide games, not dragon timers. Simple, durable kits that win messy fights climb fastest: Warwick, Briar and Amumu. For long games, farm-heavy AP Karthus works too, since his ult hits the whole enemy team from anywhere.
From Platinum to Emerald+, objective timing and tempo matter more, and counterpicking starts paying off. The one swap worth making: climb on Jarvan IV instead of Lee Sin until high Diamond. Lee Sin is a pro-play staple, but his mechanics eat the attention your map needs, and Dignitas tells climbers to avoid him until at least high Diamond. J4's E-Q knock-up gives you the same early ganks with one combo. Want your R to create picks? Nocturne is the easy ult-engage option, even after Riot lengthened Paranoia's cooldown this patch.
How to Build a Jungle Champion Pool That Climbs
Keep two or three champs:
- A main for most games.
- A backup for when the main is banned or counterpicked.
- The other damage type. Pair an AD main (Briar, Yi) with a magic-damage pick (Amumu, Rammus) to flex around an all-physical comp.
One-tricking works in low elo on a champion Riot rarely touches. It stops working when a patch hits the clear, like 26.19 cutting Poppy's Q damage cap on monsters. Then switch to the backup instead of fighting the meta. Not sure if it's the pool or the player? Book a session with a high-elo jungle coach and find out.
The Champion Is Only Half the Climb
Any pick above can carry the game, and any of them loses with the wrong habits. In VOD reviews of stuck junglers, our coaches keep seeing the same three mistakes:
- Full-clearing while a free objective dies. Your top-side camps aren't worth the dragon the enemy jg just took.
- Ganking without lane priority. Gank bot while your mid is shoved in, and their mid arrives first.
- Not tracking the enemy jungler. Lose their start and you can't ping your laners in time.
The jungle pathing guide on our blog fixes the tracking part. For the rest, get your jungle VODs reviewed by a coach who already made the climb you're chasing.
Jungle Climbing FAQ
Which LoL role is best for solo queue?
Jungle if you like making decisions, mid if you like outplaying one opponent. Jungle is the only role with no lane to hold, so you touch all three lanes and every neutral objective. That's the most chances to swing a game.
Who is the hardest jungler to play?
One of the hardest is Nidalee. Riot rates her difficulty High, and she earns it: her damage rides on landing spears, her clear depends on weaving human and cougar form, and she falls off hard when behind.
Why do jungle tier lists from different sites disagree?
Different rank filters, different math. OP.GG averages whole games and shows Rammus at 54.15% at Emerald+ on 26.19. LoLalytics filters by each player's own rank, puts the Emerald+ average at 51%, and shows Rammus at 55.94%. Compare win rates inside one site, never across sites.
