The jungle role is the home of assassin champions that hide in the shadows and suddenly burst enemies out of nowhere. Lethality junglers sure are power house champions that can 1v1 any opponent they face in any game and they are the ones who also have the best mobility spells in the game for roaming and ganking lanes.
Some assassin junglers even have the ability to jump through walls making it possible for them to invade the jungle camps of their opponent.
Lethality is a stat that allows a champion to ignore a flat amount of armor of a target, meaning if an opponent has 100 armor and your champion has 50 lethality, you can cut through that 50 armor and deal bonus damage on them.
Just note that Lethality is not the same as armor penetration is some way because armor penetration cuts armor down by a percentage. Now that you know what lethality is, let us now head to our list of the top 7 best lethality junglers that you can play in season 12.
Also read: Best Junglers in Diamond
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Who Are The Best Lethality Junglers in League of Legends?
1. Kha’Zix
The king of lethality jungle build is none other than Kha’Zix himself. For many years, players have been debating on who is the best assassin AD jungler in the game, rengar or Kha’Zx and after years and years of gameplay, players finally see the Kha’Zix is the best, and for good reason. He has better skirmishing abilities and he can even jump through walls.
Kha’Zix’s value also doesn’t fall in the late game because he can adjust his build depending on the occasion. He also has his ultimate’s passive that lets him pick skill upgrades to help him deal with whatever team comp the enemy has.
How To Play
Kha’Zix is an all-rounder champion but be careful pre-level 6 as you don’t have your skill upgrade yet. Once you upgrade your Q, your jungle clear speed will be twice faster and an upgraded Q can even match the damage of your mid game smite.
Once you hit level 6, immediately look for a lane to gank, focus on the lanes that have squishy champions because this will be your main source of Gold. It’s very easy to bursts squishy champions down with Kha’Zix but it’s hard to keep them still so make sure that you have a dewarding item and catch your enemies by surprise and burst them down within the second that you appear beside them.
Another heads up is to only use your E when the enemy flashes away, you can use it to engage however if you know that the enemy’s flash is down.
What Smite To Take?
Hailblade is the best smite you can take on Kha’Zix because you lack the ability to slow enemies down or lock them down with a Hard CC. Kha’Zix has insane damage but he really lacks crowd control abilities to help him chase enemies or disengage from a team fight and break free from a chase.
2. Shadow Assassin Kayn
Kayn has one of the fastest jungle camps clears because all of his basic abilities deal incredible AOE damage and he also has the E that lets him heal for a small amount.
His Shadow Assassin Form is also the fastest roaming assassin jungle in the game because he can walk through walls and doing that also increases his movement speed. He is a very unpredictable jungler because he can come from all sides thanks to his E.
How To Play
It is best to start your jungle pathing with the raptors because it’s the jungle camp that Kayn can quickly clear thanks to his Q. But remember to only do this if you have vision support from your allies on both of your buffs, if you don’t or if the enemy jungle has invade potential, stick to your double buff jungle start.
Always gank the lane with ranged champions so you can rush the formation of your shadow assassin. Only pick Shadow Assassin Kayn however if the enemies are mostly squishies, after all, you are picking a lethality champion if and only if the opposing team comp is comprised of squishy champions.
What Smite To Take?
Emberknife leads to challenging smite which lets you cast it on enemy champions every time you skirmish with one. Challenging smite marks enemies and it reduces the damage they deal to you by 20%, this is great because Kayn is a squishy champion when he picks his shadow assassin form.
He doesn’t do well on extended fights and relies on bursts from his lethality stats. This smite is just a countermeasure if their enemy jungle is an assassin as well.
Also read: Best Junglers in Platinum
3. Shaco
The king of one-shots on squishy ADC champions, shaco is one of the best lethality junglers out there for many reasons. For one, he is a champion that doesn’t really need to be leashed thanks to his W Jack in the Box, this skill allows him to plant multiple boxes that can help him cut down any jungle camp at level one.
This gives his team so much early game flexibility on scouting and even early game picks. His Q also allows him to gank lanes easily given that he has dewarding items.
How To Play
Shaco has multiple playstyles and can also be played as an AP caster, but his lethality assassin jungle build is the deadliest of them all. Not to mention, lethality build on Shaco is really easy to use, all you have to do is go invisible with your Q and walk up to an unsuspecting enemy.
With great practice, you can even use your boxes to plan ahead on enemy routes and catch them by surprise either when they are disengaging or simply as you want to get the jump on them while they are terrified and won’t be able to retaliate.
What Smite To Take?
Red smite or Challenging smite is the best smite you can take on Shaco because you already have an ability that slows enemies down, the passive and active effects of your E will take care of that and act as an alternative for Chilling Smite. Challenging smite will also mitigate the damage you’ll receive from bruiser champions.
4. Rengar
Rengar is Kha’Zix’s rival on who is the greatest hunter in the jungle for a very long time, for the record, when rengar was released he was the strongest jungler out there and most ADC champions feared him. He was nerfed when stopwatch was released and he can’t one-shot any champion anymore. (jaximplant.com)
How To Play
Rengar is one of the simplest champions out there, clear jungle camps until you reach level 6, build all the items that have a lethality passive, and proceed to one shot every squishy ADC every time you have your ult up. That’s the easiest way to play him but definitely not effective on high elo. Try to adjust your builds depending on the enemy team composition.
What Smite To Take?
Chilling smite works great on Rengar because he needs all the slows and crowd control effects he can get his hands on. The slow from this smite allows Rengar to easily hit the empowered E that lets him root enemies down.
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5. Nocturne
Attack speed, AoE, spell shield, mobility, and a gap closer ultimate, that is what makes Nocturne one of the best junglers out there.
As an assassin, he can easily deal with multiple enemies because of his spells, give him lethality stats and watch him burst squishy enemies down even if he is really far away. His ultimate also disorients his opponent’s entire team because it makes everybody nearsighted.
How To Play
Nocturne has incredibly high clear speed, especially on jungle camps that have 2 or more monsters. He can also use his Q to walk faster and get to jungle camps faster, his W gives him bonus attack speed so abuse that and stack it with your legend: Alacrity rune along with the bonus attack speed rune.
Nocturne can gank lanes even before level 6 thanks to his Q and E which lets him close the gap between him and an opponent.
What Smite To Take?
Chilling Smite is a great and free alternative to Stridebreaker so you can focus on building your lethality stats. Chilling smite also guarantees the channeling of your E ability to terrify your enemies.
6. Talon
Pro play has seen lots and lots of talon jungle for a simple and good reason, he can jump walls and burst champions down. As most of the assassin lethality champions out there, they can only deal targeted damage or kill one enemy at a time, Talon has two AOE abilities that are just as strong if it’s cast upon a single champion.
He also has a really strong early game power spike meaning he can invade the enemy jungler and win an early fight with them thanks to his combo and his passive.
How To Play
Clear out your buff as fast as you can and look to engage once you hit level 3, track your enemy jungler and follow them on which buff they will be picking up. Once you find them, you can easily take them on because almost nobody can beat Talon’s early game trade potential. When ganking lanes, always take the unexpected route and catch your enemies by surprise by jumping on the wall behind them.
What Smite To Take?
Challenging smite is Talon’s best smite to take simply because the burn synergizes with his passive ability that makes enemies bleed.
Also read: Xayah and Rakan Synergy – Explained
7. Graves
I’m sure everybody once saw the domination of Crit-Lethlality Graves that literally one shot champions. Well, Graves is kinda back on lethality build right now thanks to Duskblade.
Unlike the other champions on this list, Graves has a way to increase his defensive stats thanks to his E, he can keep using this while clearing jungle camps and maintain it until he visits a lane and can even perform tower dives with the armor he has accumulated while stacking his E.
How To Play
Graves is a simple champion but needs the practice to be good at, start off your jungle clearing with multiple enemies like the raptors or the wolves so that you won’t need leashes from your allies.
But if your team can provide a leash immediately start with the red buff and immediately use your E to invade your enemy’s jungle, track where they start depending on the champion they use and use it to your advantage to kill the enemy’s buff parallel to the one you just cleared.
What Smite To Take?
Chilling smite will allow Graves to dance around his enemy and keep up with them with his E as well, his main damage source comes from his basic attacks so having the enemy slowed is a great time for Graves.
Conclusion
All the champions we have mentioned here are assassin champions as they are the ones who usually build lethality items. They also scale with AD meaning their abilities will deal more damage with lethality stats.
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