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I'm new to jungling and was watching a few streams and saw that some junglers (Lee Sin is the one that comes to mind right now) would go boots first and then 2-3 Dorans Blade. Why do they do this? I didn't know if it was just a preference or something that I didn't understand because I'm new to jungling.

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  • This is very out of date, and I have not seen anybody using this strategy in season 3. A new item was added this season specifically for junglers, and its proven very effective. May 25, 2013 at 7:55

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Jungle used to be my main. Basically, everything depends on what your intensions are. Doran blade as the very first jungling item is viable only with a few junglers, since with doran blade you dont have such a jungle sustain and when farming longer you get to low on your hp. Doran blade increases your early level damage output significantly, so I choose doran blade when I want to gank very early.

Example - my jungle pantheon: I run pantheon with doran blade, 9-21-0 masteries and flat ad marks and quints. On level one I take spear and clear out wovles and blue. My spear on lvl one has 105 dmg thanks to the setup. After blue I am level 2, I take the leap stun and I go for either to mid/side lane or I choose to counter-gank. I usually risk and take exhaust/smite as my summoner spells. With this setup I have scored first blood in 90% of all cases.

Taking doran blade later on in jungle means that your farm / ganks werent too successful, but again you want to increase your early game damage output.

Lee sin: I start with armor/pots item combination. I have cleared jungle, tried ganking bot lane, but I havent been successful. I tp back and probably buy boots. I clear jungle, maybe I get one successful gank. My progress seems quite slow. I would probably finish my lantern and then buy fast doran blade or two just to increase my damage/sustain/hp at the moment.

Three very important jungling things

  • you have to estimate the game progress well to decide which items to buy
  • doran blade gives your bruiser jungler 3 stats you actually want: lifesteal, damage, health
  • if you do not start with boots (which is quite common), get boots as soon as possible, that will highly increase your jungle presence (in a sense of ganks)
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  • surprised no one corrected you since the word is gank, never heard it called "gang" before.
    – Paralytic
    Jan 10, 2013 at 15:58
  • Honestly, I have never been sure which one to use.
    – Santhos
    Jan 14, 2013 at 9:54
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Dorans blade is a very strong and cheap early game item for any ad. They get it for the same reason that an ad top or ad ranged carry would get it. It's most useful on ad bruiser junglers who need to have items to output damage (like lee sin).

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  • o ok i just assumed that it would take more time to get your build going if you start with dorans since as a jungle id get a lot less farm then your ad bot and solo top ..but thank you : )
    – lonewolf03
    Apr 2, 2012 at 4:49
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It really depends on what you want to do. Buying dorans will slow you down in terms of your late game build. However, dorans give you a lot of early game power for amazingly cheap cost. All the stats of dorans help you beat an opponent, especially in a gank situation where Lee Sin excels for early game ganks. You now would have 20-30 extra damage from 2-3 dorans, which can be the difference of landing a kill or letting someone escape with a sliver of health. You also have 200-300 more health to tank 2-3 more turret shots if you tower dive. The sustain is nothing to sneeze at especially with the nerf to wriggles sustain. Before Lee Sin jungles always took wriggles, now with Wriggles nerf, the bonus health in exchange for the armor wriggles give, may be a good alternative build.

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While jungling fighting monsters early in the game drains your health a lot. So to maintain health in case someone ambushes you, Summoners prefer to keep a few Doran's Blade as it give life steal (For those who don't know, life steal gives health on each basic attack) Plus it is very cheap and a lot of money is not made out of jungling early in game

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    This was true in Season 2, however Doran's Blade no longer gives true lifesteal (it gives +5hp/attack now). It's much more common to see a jungler start with a Hunter's Machete now.
    – Ryre
    Jan 16, 2013 at 18:45

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