I am Hazardis, a Grandmaster level player from the Latin America North server who is a Skarner jungle OTP. Since it became a strong pick in the middle of season 13, Rell jungle has been a fun pick for me to try out and given my liking for tank junglers, I've found fun and success playing her so far and with this I will attempt to give you guidelines on how to pull her off in your own games.

Pros

+ Fast and easy jungle clear + Feels rewarding to play well + Works well both when ahead and when behind + Complete and modernized kit + Great at picking enemies off + Fares well into most junglers

The gameplay update Rell received this year has catapulted her in popularity thanks to how many problems with her core gameplay have been fixed and how much smoother she feels to play now, and she also got a little bump from Riot to become a viable jungler which only means she has been a strong tank jungler for the past weeks which is easy and fun to pick up. Her versatility and consistent value on almost any comp ensures that she's rarely going to be the wrong champion to pick in your games.

Cons

- Unimpressive early game - Weak at holding lanes - Too reliant on landing skillshots - Limited mobility - Little build diversity

Rell might feel strong in the jungle, but there's good reason why she isn't being played in the solo lanes. Her reliance on teammates to successfully execute winning plays can feel like a ballast more often than not, and given that she's a tank with little to no damage ratios on abilities, her options for itemization are limited which might feel boring for a lot of players.

Aftershock is the most efficient choice of keystone for Rell as it sinergizes the best with a tank playstyle, is relatively strong in this meta, and also opens up the resolve rune tree which is the best a tank champion can consistently take. Shield Bash will always be procced off of your Ferromancy - Crash Down / Mount Up and other shield sources such as Gargoyle Stoneplate, Overgrowth will increase the value of all the tank items in your build, Unflinching will give you much needed tenacity as well as reduce the move speed debuff from being unmounted, Transcendence is an organic way of securing ability haste when you're building items that don't give much of it, and Waterwalking is a surprisingly great rune to have when you're the jungler as it massively helps your tempo if you're traveling across the map.

For other viable rune setups, check the details on the relevant tabs at the top of the guide.

Please read the notes on the Ability Order section at the beginning of the guide for more detailed and situational information on the order you should level up your skills.

As jungler you should always prioritize the highest damaging ability that you use the most, which in Rell's case is Shattering Strike. Each point will make your clears faster and also help in any skirmishes or duels you might get involved in the jungle early on. Leveling Full Tilt second further solidifies this idea and also boosts the move speed you and the nearest ally get from it, as well as reduce its cooldown.

Flash helps you angle all of your engages better, escape from bad ones or when you're low on health, put yourself in the way between a teammate and an important skillshot... it's just too versatile and useful to consider not running it in all of your games.

As for which jungle pet to take, Gustwalker Hatchling is the absolute best choice as any dive champion is in need of as much speed as possible, and it makes setting up ambushes in bushes way easier.

First back purchase options

Grabbing Bami's Cinder after your first clear will be the ideal purchase on most games as it helps a lot with your clear speed, while also providing with a very respectable amount of HP for the early game and a component of Sunfire Aegis which you will finish later on in the game. It delays your mythic spike by a bit, but the tradeoff is always worth it.

If you have 300 gold to spare after your first purchases for whatever reason, taking Boots is fine as the 25 speed have quite some value in the first minutes of the game, and it will help you complete your next sequence and move towards ganks or counterganks more fluidly.

Boots options

Plated Steelcaps are ideal on games where your jungle matchup is AD or there are 2 or mote auto attack-reliant champions. Even if the only auto attacker is the enemy ADC, the strength of the role in the current meta warrants that itemizing agains him will rarely be the wrong choice anyway.

Take Ionian Boots of Lucidity instead if you either feel like playing a more supportive playstyle for your team or want your ability rotations available more often during your clears.

Mercury's Treads are particularly useful against AP junglers or team compositions, even more so if you're behind in the game, and particularly if they have AoE crowd control and want the tenacity to keep going during fights and avoid lockdowns.

First item options

Evenshroud is a heavily underrated mythic at the moment thanks to its low cost compared to the standard tank mythics while also providing the same resistances and ability haste. Its passive damage amplification is very easy to proc with all of your CC, and getting your tank mythic out of the way for as low as 2300 gold is too strong to pass up on.

After picking up a Bami's Cinder as advised, you can focus on building Heartsteel as it will keep adding to the aura of damage from that item, and you want to have it finished as early as possible to start gaining stacks soon into the game. It is absolutely the best scaling mythic choice, but it leaves you with less resistances to work with during teamfights.

It is also an option to rush Sunfire Aegis with the first 2700 gold that you get in the game, to help increase your damage output and not fall behind in the late early game to the enemy jungler when he has his first item finished. You can leave it for second purchase if you prefer getting the mythic first, both paths are convenient.

Second item options

Radiant Virtue is a safer option compared to Heartsteel due to its flat resistances, lower cost and the vast amount of utility it offers to you and your team with its active.

Jak'Sho, The Protean remains a strong tank mythic despite the changes earlier in the season, and although it isn't good as a first purchase due to its higher cost compared to Evenshroud, it is worth taking in games when you are the lone frontliner of your team and the enemy doesn't have a considerable amount of true damage.

Third item options

Demonic Embrace is one of your best offensive choices and especially if you pair it with Heartsteel, as it's easy to proc in the middle of the fight and Rell's AP ratios will benefit from it. Consider it on games where you're ahead.

Abyssal Mask has received a couple of buffs during this season which have brought it back to life on champions like Skarner. It becomes a good option for third purchase if your team has a decent source of magic damage and you want to enforce your disruptive playstile with this together with Black Cleaver, but early magic resistance is a higher priority; otherwise you can leave it as your fourth item.

Knight's Vow received some very necessary buffs recently which have bumped it up to be one of the best tank legendary items in the game at the moment. It pairs flawlessly with a low cost build, plus a decent amount of stats for its low cost and the ability to passively peel for your carry just by existing has brought me success in many games this patch.

Thornmail is the obvious choice when you're looking to counter champions that heal a lot as well as becoming tankier. Although the nerfs to Grievous Wounds have decreased its performance, I have found that it can proc a lot of passive damage on its own and the anti-healing can prevent some instances of rampant sustain from the enemy team, so the item should by no means be neglected.

Spirit Visage has provided me with better and more consistent results than Force of Nature and it becomes an optimal purchase if there is an enchanter on your team or you have another source of consistent healing and shielding such as an enchanter support or Ocean Soul.

Fourth item options

With how strong ADC and other crit users such as Gangplank have become in this meta, you should always consider purchasing Randuin's Omen as your armor item in the mid to late game as it might just be what saves you in a teamfight. Besides, the AoE slow around you can prove helpful to disrupt the enemies you've engaged on even further.

Gargoyle Stoneplate is the best late game item for a tank, and while it does not provide any bonus health, you can make really good use of it as the beefy shield helps to survive long enough to do your job in teamfights, as well as the increased resistances from being focused by several enemies at once.

Sub-optimal but viable items

Rell can benefit from Zhonya's Hourglass after hard engaging on the enemy and being locked with their front or back lines, as buying an extra couple of seconds for your team can make or break entire fights, at the cost of spending 3000 gold on an item whose stats are unimpressive otherwise.

If your team's carry is far ahead enough, you could pick up a Zeke's Convergence and help boost his damage output even further. Though bear in mind that only the binded ally will benefit from it, and it's better to buy it together with Knight's Vow rather than in place of it.

HOW TO GANK: Learning the blind vision spots is of utmost importance when it comes to approaching a lane quickly. Stick to the walls or other terrain if you're approaching from the river, and pop your Oracle Lens as you're approaching the bush; if you spot a ward, don't waste time clearing it and just keep going before the enemy has too much time to react. Always make sure to ping your laners (responsibly) 5-7 seconds before you go in.

WHEN TO GANK: Rell has a very decent strength pre-level 6 so a level 3 or 4 gank is never off the cards, and you should consider pulling at least one before backing for the first time in most of your games. Approach your enemy for a stun with Shattering Strike, which will guarantee you landing Ferromancy - Crash Down / Mount Up which will either result in a kill, or will at least burn their Flash successfully.

WHOM TO GANK: I advice you to not waste any time ganking any laner that seems to be losing their lane considerably early on (for example, if they have died before 4 minutes, or by the 10 minutes mark has at least 3 deaths); that's all the proof you need that they don't know how to lane properly and that they're not worth trusting with any resources. You're better off focusing on lanes near live objectives who are also even or not losing by too much, and especially in volatile matchups (melee vs melee, etc).

JUNGLE TRACKING: In this season, tracking the enemy jungler properly is more important than ever due to how much priority objectives have at all stages of the game. A good rule of thumb to follow the enemy jungler in the first minutes of the game is: if he started on the same side of the map as you for the first clear, he will remain on the same side as you for most of the first 10 minutes of the game, assuming that A) you have focused properly on farming, and B) he doesn't seem to be camping any of the side lanes or hovering around mid for too long.

The best camp to begin your route from at the moment is the blue buff as it allows you to path towards both for the first gank which is ideal in the current meta. The best order to clear from this point is Blue Sentinel -> Gromp -> Murk Wolf -> Raptors -> Red Brambleback -> Krugs -> Rift Scuttler as displayed on the image below:



The alternative route is to begin on your red side quadrant for the sake of pathing towards top, and to possibly contest the first scuttler to the enemy jungler. The order of your clear will be Red Brambleback -> Krugs -> Raptors -> Murk Wolf -> Blue Sentinel -> Gromp -> Rift Scuttler instead:



Outside of that, your other choices are three camp clears into a level 3 gank either on the side you started on, or on the same side. If it's the first case, follow the regular order for the first three camps as you normally would then skip the second half and head directly to the desired lane; if it's on the same side instead, adjust the route a bit by either leaving Krugs or Gromp for last so you level up to 3 at a closer distance to the nearest lane.

If the Drake is alive or the next one is coming up, move to the bot side to establish vision and zone control around the pit and nearby bushes. Use your Oracle Lens and Control Wards to scout for enemy vision, and try to prepare a surprise ambush from a bush if possible. If the Rift Herald is alive, play around top side on your next camp sequence.

If you are at a disavantage and your team lost all of the Tier 1 towers, go into your own jungle more carefully from there on. Regardless of how risky it gets to go into the jungle, it is really important that you do your best to keep your CS numbers as high as possible to prevent being outscaled and phased out from the game too early on.

If your team has lost two or all tier 2 towers, be cautious of staying behind and helping control the vision line for your team to avoid picks from the enemy. Inversely, if your team has taken down the enemy's tier 2 towers you have several opportunities to look for picks in the side lanes or in the jungle bushes that will help secure nearby objectives or structures, or even the game at this point.

Outside of that, Rell has decent agency during tower sieges as she can help discourage enemy dives and fend them off if they happen, and also catch overextended squishies to turn around the situation.

In late game teamfights, your tanky nature means that you should frontline and focus on peeling your carries or locking down the enemy's. Try to get on top of the enemy carries as you are decently tanky by now and can be quite disruptive, buying time for your own carries to do their job.