King of the Jungle: A Guide to Jungling as Odin

Subzero here, bringing another jungling guide - this time, about how to jungle as the mighty ALLFATHER!

Odin is a very underestimated bruiser who is uniquely suited to the jungle. Everything from the passive Hp5 from Gungnir's Might to the Ring of SpearsRing of Honor to his leap are all well-suited for jungling, ganking, and whatnot.

As usual, this is not a guide on how to jungle, it is a guide to how to jungle as Odin. Look here if you want to learn how to jungle.

Why jungle Odin? Why the MIGHTY ALLFATHER, when you can jungle as Thor or Fenrir or even his bastard child Loki?

Strengths

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Potent Duelist: You have two massive self buffs, a leap, and you focus primarily on basic attacks for damage. Not to mention you have a leap. You are an incredibly strong duelist that is often underestimated.

High Defenses: Not only do you have the high innate defenses of a tank, but you also passively gain defense from Gungnir's Might, as well as a small amount of Hp5. You are a beefcastle.

The Ganks: You have the strongest ganks ever. Of all time. No other jungler besides the hated frost giant can doom your enemies like Ring of Spears. You gain power for killing, speed for chasing, and defenses so you can just ignore their pathetic attempts at peeling you from your prey.

birds of wisdom

High Map Awareness: birds of wisdom makes invading and taking jungle camps safer, as well as giving your greater control of the jungle. Combined with your dueling prowess, you are an amazing counterjungler.

Flexible Build: Like all bruisers, Odin has a great deal of flexibility in his build, and with Odin's focus on basic attacks, he is even more flexible than most bruisers.

Weaknesses

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Mana Hungry: Odin literally drinks mana by the bathtub. You have a small mana pool and high mana costs, which translate to very common mana problems in the jungle, even with Bumba's Mask.

"Meh" Clear Speeds: Odin's clear speeds aren't the slowest in the universe, but they're also nothing worth writing home about. This translates to less time for ganking and whatnot.

Ultimate-Dependent: Like Guan Yu, you are heavily dependent on your ultimate for nearly everything. It is the cornerstone of your dueling potential and ganking, and without it, you are very vulnerable.

Even the mighty ALLFATHER must start from humble beginnings. Your first jungle camp will be an epic odyssey, a battle to last the ages! And you must start with not the mighty spear Gungnir, but this:

Lunge: This deals 140 damage at rank 1. Even with a power potion and your base power, Gungnir's Might won't match this ability for sheer level one damage. This is primarily used to bypass obstacles like walls, to initiate a gank, or to simply escape. Get a point into it at level 1, but max this last.

However, this will not do for the rest of your journey. You will need something with more impact, a game changer, something that will SMITE your enemies.

Gungnir's Might: This is your primary clear skill, and a fantastic one at that. While this ability may not have high base damage, it has fantastic scalings, and provides some slight sustain and a LOT of protections. Use this to slow down ganking targets to get into melee range, and to lock down others. Max this as soon as possible.

You might have noticed that the power items are number two. Why?

Defenses are less important in the early levels, not only because of your unmatched early defenses, but because the jungle itself provides a layer of insulation from being attacked. You are nearly always the attacker, not the attackee.

Therefore, it is best to get some power. The above power items fall under three categories:

Lifesteal Grants Sustain Strengthens Dueling

Power Faster Clear Strengthens Ganking

Utility Unique and Individually-Described Benefits

Lifesteal

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Lifesteal in general is handy for counterjungling, as it improves your sustain and gives you better dueling ability. It also synergizes amazingly well with critical hits.

devourer's gloves

Devourer's Gloves: An excellent hybrid choice for both lifesteal and power. The stacks are a pain to get in the jungle, but this still is an amazing all-purpose lifesteal item.

Asi: Attack speed and penetration synergizes well with the power buff from Ring of Spears, and the cheap price is pure bonus. But the passive lifesteal is why you get this item. This makes you an extremely strong duelist, and you can easily turn fights around with this and a quick Odin's Shout.

Bloodforge: A lifesteal and power item that works by basic attacks? The only thing holding this item back is its price. I'd only considering this over Devourer's Gloves if you are buying lifesteal late game.

Power

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Do you like killing stuff? Do you not have any problems with dueling? Then get this stat for even more face wrecking.

Qin's Sais: This item is the single most damaging item on the list, but it forces you to rely primarily on basic attacks. This is especially strong with Odin's Shout, and grants the possibility of ganking without Ring of Spears.

Transcendence: The best option for pure power, even if it is a bit pricey. This also has the handy side effect of solving your mana concerns. With max stacks at level 20, with no other mana items, this item alone will give 91.55 power.

The Executioner: This item is an excellent counter to the all-too common Breastplate of Valor, as well as a general penetration item equally useful at all stages of the game.

Titan's Bane: Penetration that stays useful all game, and it also synergizes well if you attack first with abilities, which you do. I'd get this late-game, where its effect is more useful.

Utility

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The below items are highly dependent on your needs.

Frostbound Hammer: The classic Odin item. When you just need some more CC than your Gungnir's Might, or when you could use some help locking enemies down, Frostbound Hammer is always a reliable item.

Hastened Fatalis: This item is just so ridiculously good with Odin. It grants some mobility to your tired old ***, the attack speed works well with the strongest power buff in the game, it allows you to chase for days, and works well with Qin's Sais. If you have a bunch of slippery enemies, get this item.

Jotunn's Wrath: Cooldown, penetration, power. Not much else to say. Get this if you have to gank all the time and could use Ring of Spears more often.

This is where the fun begins.

The RING OF HONOR: Your entire ganking potential revolves around this ultimate. Basically, you trap an enemy, and they become your chew toy for four seconds, while you gain defenses and CC immunity. This is surprisingly versatile, and can be used to block jungle corridors, or even an emergency peeling ability. Heck, even for escapes.

Ganking as Odin is quite simple. You get close to your target, activate Ring of Spears at an opportune moment, use Gungnir's Might to slow them down, and then proceed to beat the living **** out of them. Lunge is used to either initiate or chase. Alternatively, the laner could initiate, guaranteeing their presence inside the Ring of Honor.

This is very simple, yet incredibly effective. The problems begin to arise when you need to gank anyone with a leap or Combat Blink, or when you are ganking a lane who clashes with your kit.

With the leap, you have two options: wait for them to use it, or force them to use it. Gungnir's Might is an excellent way to do so, as the slow traps your enemy in a highly disadvantageous position which most will use their escape to avoid.

Unfortunately, for Combat Blink, the best you can do is force your enemies to trigger it. Fortunately, Combat Blink has a very high cooldown.

The latter problem is complex. Some lanes simply lack any abilities that can go over Ring of Spears. Other lanes, like the duo lane, require positioning and distance that Ring of Spears won't allow. There isn't a simple answer to this problem, but you should just be careful about who you include inside your ring and who you should leave outside.

Odin counterjungling has three components: Controlling mid camps, stealing enemy jungle camps, and dueling the enemy jungler.

midas boots

Mid Harpies: Odin fares the worst in this, but he's still pretty good. The fact that you can see any enemies trying to steal them before you do is a huge plus, and the chunk of damage from Gungnir's Might can often snag at least one of the harpies. Your leap is also very handy for giving a nice surprise to anyone trying to take them under your nose.

Stealing Enemy Camps: You see an enemy? Leap through a wall, Gungnir's Might when needed. Alternatively, you can just walk into the enemy jungler, use Hand of the Gods to quickly secure a camp, and run away. If the enemy jungler gets near, you can either choose to run or fight, and for the former you have a leap, and for the latter, you're freaking Odin.

BATTLE!: Empower thyself, and smash the enemy in the face. Take up arms against your Nemesis, and do honorable combat in the ring of honor! Teach the enemy jungler his place. Alternatively, you can wage a tactical retreat by trapping your enemies inside the Ring of Spears before Lunge-ing away.

These three components are also bolstered if you build defenses against the enemy jungler. In any case, right around where you max out Gungnir's Might, you might want to start building defenses, because you want to be as tanky as possible when teamfights begin to start.

Universal Defenses

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Hide of the Urchin: This item is so efficient, it can literally be your only defensive item and you'll still do well. This is an item you buy purely for the stats.

Magi's Blessing

Magi's Blessing: Only consider getting this item if you already have another defensive item, as this by itself isn't enough defense to help you. But this item is good at what it does, protecting you against all forms of CC and blocking the dangerous ones.

Physical Defenses

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Focused Voidblade

Focused Voidblade: A good hybrid between defense and power. This is a good stand in for a power item if you need defenses early, and the penetration is also very helpful. This is basically a substitute item for power, defense, or penetration.

Ankh of the Bear

Ankh of the Bear: Odin has enough natural defenses that this item is a worthy substitute for focused void blade, even without another physical protection item. By itself, at max level, this will only offer 24.3 physical power, but it is also fairly cheap and has more protections and health than focused void blade.

witch stone

Witch Stone: This item has everything you want in a defensive item, especially against enemy autoattackers: protections, attack speed, a lot of mobility and a very helpful passive. You could even consider this another hybrid power-protection item.

Breastplate of Valor: Cooldown reduction, mana, and a frankly overpowered amount of physical protections. Need I say more?

mystical mark

Mystical Mark: When trapped in the Ring of Honor, enemies cannot escape this item's mighty aura. This item is also amazing for pressing your early-mid game advantage, because the damage this item gives is ridiculous. Just don't forget that this item is near-worthless against enemies with magical protections.

Magical Defenses

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idol of concentration

Idol of Concentration: A lot of people underestimate this item, but it counters so many gods, and not just magical ones. A lot of gods use hard CC to setup attacks, so this item is nearly universally useful. The CDR is also nice.

Runic Shield: Pure magical protections with a hint of power. This is an item you get purely for the stats. It's less of a hybrid item than focused voidblade, so treat it like a pure magical protection item, and the power is just a small bonus.

shield of regrowth

Shield of Regrowth: Odin is the only god whom I consider this item to be worth taking. Its decent for sustain, but it also offers some repeated healing in fights, which is pretty useful. If you are going really tanky, this item works really well with Stone of Gaia.

Gem of Gaia: It solves your mana problems and offers a truckload of defenses and some decent sustain. Not bad.

Stone of Gaia: This item's passive is merely 'meh' on Odin, but it works decently well. This is an item you get early for the stats and sustain, but it REALLY falls off late game.

Odin's role in teamfights is to deal damage and to lock down enemies with his CC. But Odin usually suffers from being a walking ult bot late game. The problem is, bruisers are supposed to use their CC and deal damage, but Odin lacks any significant CC and his damage isn't very impressive, nor does he have the utility of Tyr or Hercules or other bruisers, except for his team buff, Odin's Shout.

Fortunately, we can solve this problem with two friends: Malice and Deathbringer.

There really isn't a need to explain these items. They give a ****load of damage on your basic attacks, and for late game Odin, basic attacks are all he has. You have to make the most of it, and by God, Odin is a terrifying basic attacker. To illustrate my point, I can honestly compare him to Mercury in terms of damage.

You can initiate, but it's tied into your ultimate, and it's fairly intuitive. Leaping and trapping 3-4 people in the Ring of Honor can pretty much automatically win a teamfight, especially with a god like Eset or Vulcan on your team.

Lockdown is also simple. You just run forward, slow them. What makes Odin good at it is that he can do this to a large amount of people in a 20-foot radius around himself. I guess you can use Gungnir's Might to peel, with its fairly short cooldown, but in most cases, you want to jump on the most helpless target, slow them to oblivion, and whack them to death.

Dealing damage is also part of this. Its the reason why you'd buy crits. You just leap, slow, and kill the enemy in 3-4 basic attacks, and no, I am not kidding, Odin can do that thanks to the ridiculous amount of passive power he has, plus his attack speed buff. The Ring of Honor makes little difference, the only change is that your enemies will have nowhere to run.

I was in a bit of a slump after trying on my Anhur jungle guide, but this guide has revitalized my inner jungling fire! I will always be grateful to jungle Odin for being so ridiculously fun to play. I hope that with the help of this guide, you can earn a name for yourself as Odin jungle.

-Subzero008

2/8/14: Guide published!