Top 5 Best Late Game Junglers in Season 12

As a versatile role, the jungle position offers a lot of different playstyles in League of Legends. You can take fighters, tanks, mages, marksmen, and even enchanter types of champions in the jungle and still make them viable. Some of them are particularly good at clearing camps, some deal incredible AoE damage and some are exceptional at ganking. But, who are the top 5 best junglers for the late game in League of Legends?

Well, with so many different choices available, it’s hard to pin down only the top 5. Remember that all the picks on this list are incredible (perhaps the very best) in the late game. However, there are many, many more! 

In any way, here are the top 5 best late game junglers in League of Legends and why they’re so!

1. Kha’Zix

Kha’Zix is easily one of the best junglers (or champions) to solo carry games with in LoL. He’s got a particular playstyle that takes advantage of the mistakes his opponents make. So the more chaotic Kha’s enemies are, the stronger he can get in a single match.

For example, Kha’s damage is increased when his enemies can’t see him. So if he stays in a bush or the fog of war, his next attack deals bonus damage. 

Well, players in solo queue are typically not careful enough about their positioning, especially in the lower elos. So Kha’Zix can always deal massive amounts of damage by exploiting their routes around the map and potentially one-shot them. 

Kha’Zix’s damage is never low, but it gets exceptionally high in the late game. The reason for this is that most Kha players take Dark Harvest as their keystone. Kha can easily farm souls by taking them with his W, so enhancing his one shot in the late game is never a problem for him.

The game that Kha usually plays with his opponents in the late game is the game of cat and mouse. He moves in stealth around Summoner’s Rift and finds one victim after the other. He has a slow effect, a jump that helps him escape, and invisibility to hide himself during a fight.

But besides all of that, Kha is also one of the most exciting junglers in LoL. You get to evolve 3 of his abilities per game, so you have to make a conscious choice which 3 you’re going to upgrade each time you play him.

So, Kha’Zix is a blast to play, plus he is a monster in the late game!

Also read: Best Ranged Junglers

2. Master Yi

Master Yi is one of the oldest yet one of the most powerful champions in League of Legends today too. Many players get so frustrated when they play against Yi, and they’re not always wrong. 

Yi has one particular strength that beats almost anything else in the game. And that’s his good old right-click basic attack! We all know that nothing can stop an auto-attack (except for stuns) from dealing game, so we often think that nothing can stop Master Yi from carrying in LoL, which is not precisely the case.

But every champion has auto attacks! So what makes Master Yi’s auto-attacks so deadly, particularly in the late game?

Well, Master Yi enhances his basic attacks with his E, Wuju Style. Once activated, this ability makes it, so Yi deals bonus true damage with his basic attacks. Combine this effect with the ton of attack speed and critical strike he gets from his items, and you’ll realize why Yi may truly be broken!

The fact that Yi deals so much true damage makes it so no matter what you’re playing against him, he’s still going to shred you into pieces. No amount of armor can fight against true damage in LoL, so you can’t really counter him either.

Now, Master Yi wouldn’t be too much of a problem if his stats didn’t grow to tremendous heights in the late game too. But he’s so powerful after the 20th or 30th minute that he can often 1v5 entire teams. 

His Q, which is both a damaging spell and a defensive cooldown, helps him achieve that. And all he needs is to focus on farming, at least to level 9-10. After that, it’s all fun and slaughter for him!

3. Karthus

When players first started to play Karthus as a jungler, no one suspected that he would become one of the best choices, especially in the late game. The meta around that time was a bit tankier, and the games lasted for longer. But even though now that’s not the case, Karthus is still a monster in the late game!

Like Kha’Zix, a big portion of Karthus’ power comes from taking advantage of the Dark Harvest rune. Karthus has a spammable Q that allows him to quickly gather a soul stack without losing too much time in a single lane. His ultimate is also effective in this regard.

But unlike Kha’Zix, Karthus is a mage that focuses on team fighting and not on “solo-picking” champions. In fact, Karthus is so great because he can fight alongside his teammates and help them at almost any time, no matter his current position.

In other words, Karthus’ R, Requiem is one of the best abilities in the game. It damages all opponents on the map, except the ones that are dead. This allows Karthus to comfortably farm his jungle and only help them with his ultimate. Requiem is great both for assisting with damage and for securing kills for him and his allies.

Karthus’ entire ability kit is designed around scaling for the late game. All of his abilities have incredible numbers and percentages, so the more items you pick up, the more damage you’re going to unleash.

And that’s certainly true for his ultimate. Requiem is to do one-shots in the late game. To 5 champions. With 1 button!

Also read: Best Off-Meta Junglers

4. Shyvana

Back in the day, Shyvana was known as one of the best bruisers in the game. And over the years, her playstyle changed dramatically. Now she’s a dragon-mage that one-shots her opponents in the late game!

Alright, the thing that makes Shyvana such a great champion in the late game is her E, Flame Breath. In her humanoid form, Shyvana doesn’t do too much with this ability. However, Shyvana’s E deals 220 magic damage in her dragon form, plus 100% of her ability power!

And not only that, once Shyvana hits someone with Final Breath, she also scorches the ground around it, dealing a massive amount of damage every second. So even if the initial hit doesn’t kill you, the DoT will. We’ve all seen the one-shots that Shyv can do in a game, and there’s not much we can do about it!

Now, Shyvana’s damage in the early game isn’t weak either. She’s got a great wave clearing and a massive damage boost to dragons. This allows her to solo most objectives around the map and to safely scale to late game.

Once there, Shyvana can either fight alone or join her team. The latter is a bit better since it increases her chances of victory. But Shyvana is nonetheless one of the best junglers in LoL, which also means that she can solo carry too. 

5. Kayn

And Kayn is our 5th best late game jungler in League of Legends. This champion is simply obnoxious when it comes to carrying games by himself. He can either become an assassin or a tank, but his damage is incredible no matter which form he chooses!

For many players, Kayn is also one of the safest junglers to play. The reason for this is that Kayn has excellent mobility on top of the fact that he can move inside terrain. This also allows him to create unique ganking opportunities around Summoner’s Rift.

As an assassin, Kayn’s damage in the late game can rarely be matched. If executed correctly, his combo can slay an enemy in 0.50 seconds, which is totally broken. 

And as a tank, Kayn’s healing is so high that you can’t really kill him by yourself. You usually need an army of allies to stop him from healing so much and put him down. 

Kayn doesn’t have a particular ability that allows him to scale into the late game or is the source of his power. Instead, all of his abilities are great in most situations. He’s designed in a way to be versatile and effective in all matches. 

But the biggest strength that Kayn has as a champion is perhaps his versatility. Being viable as an assassin and as a tank in the late game is something that we can’t say for too many champions in the game. 

Kayn is a great champion to main for climbing, especially in high elo. You can use him in many different ways and outplay your opponents not only with mechanics but with playstyles too.

Those are the top 5 best late game junglers in League of Legends!