While playing League of Legends, you will often see people running in a straight line towards their base while fleeing in abject terror from a superior enemy. While logical, it isn't always the best means of survival, particularly while in the Jungle. A better way to stay alive is juking.
What is Juking?
The basic idea of this technique is to throw the enemy off your path, and making him unable to predict your next move, the direction you're moving in, and so on. Any hero can juke, and although some are better than others at it, it's always worth a try, a minor juke might buy you those extra couple of seconds for the the rest of your team to save you.
How to Juke
Let's begin in the Jungle. The main thing you're trying to do here is to deny the enemy line of sight. Now, keep in mind that any skillshot can still damage you if you're out of your enemy's line of sight (Volley, Flash Frost, etc), the general rule is that you can't hit what you can't see.
Observe the position of the bushes in the jungle. All of them are around some corner of impassable terrain, this very significant, as you will see. To deny line of sight, run into a bush, and to confuse and lose your enemy, instead of running along it (as most people expect), wait at the very edge (where you entered). The moment the enemy enters the bush, run in the opposite direction, around the corner if possible. This will buy you an extra One-Two seconds while they re-orient themselves. If you can escape (with a fast movement speed), then make your way to base or just recall, but if you still aren't able to get away but need to more time, dash past them back into the bush as described earlier.
You can do this two or three times in a row if it's just one person chasing you. In fact, with 400+ movement speed, you could probably do it several times because they just won't be able to click on you fast enough. On the other hand, if you DO have 400+ movement speed, you could probably get away by running normally anyway (one juke is always useful though).
As pointed out before, this wont work against heroes with damaging skillshots. This includes things like the notorious Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow , Tristana's Rocket Jump, and Kassadin's Force Pulse. Most of these have a slow tagged along, rendering juking ineffective. On the same note, do NOT attempt the technique more than once against heroes with a stun (Udyr, Alistar, Anivia). Also, do NOT attempt more than once if your chaser is Blitzcrank, Amumu, anyone else with an ability that grabs. If you have enough health left (ie. you would survive a couple attacks), you can still try it if being chased by any hero that doesn't have a slow.
Previously, the technique discussed was described during a post-teamfight scenario. This means most ultimates have been blown, half the heroes on one team are dead, and you're fleeing from one or possibly two heroes. However, this technique is extremely useful in the ganking and laning phase.
Juke Spots
Top left and Bottom right lanesSee these two bushes? Well, with a high enough movement speed (preferably 400+), you can use these two bushes to buy you some extra time. As previously described, just run into one bush, wait at the edge until your chaser comes in, then quickly move to the adjacent bush, and repeat.
Another great juke spot is this quirky little 3-sided bush. Just keep running around the corner and you'll be fine. In this area, when all else fails, it is sometimes more convenient as Shaco, or any hero with Flash, to juke, and then run towards the enemy base for a bit, then Deceive/flash through the wall, as shown in glorious pink in the picture.
Middle laneTechnically, not the middle lane itself, but off to the side, as shown in the picture. You can do this on either side of the river. Just follow the above guidelines, using these two bushes as cover instead. For the slightly more advanced, you can use the ramp as a juking point as well (detailed in yellow in the picture. When the time comes (or rather, is up), the outward pointing yellow arrows indicate some of the possible escape routes. While on that subject, the route given by the blue line is not recommended by the author for juking, since that extra tiny bit of distance between the two bushes usually results in an untimely demise.
Keys to Remember
- Always bear in mind that juking alone will not save you. Ping for help from allies immediately, or juke once and then run. If allies are unavailable and you don't stand a chance of running, then juking might allow your abilities to cool down, setting you up for possibly taking an enemy with you.
- You can also try to pull this off in the middle of a teamfight if you're a squishy (Veigar, Master Yi, Twitch, Eve) and need to back off for a bit because you're being focused. Any corner that breaks line of sight will be fine.
- All champions listed above are merely examples. Any champion with high movement speed or a temporary movement speed boost such as ghost can utilize the technique. Always make sure you know your limits as well as that of your allies. If a support or healer is coming to save you, you can probably fight normally, if it's any type of damage dealer, you might just want to keep running.
- If the enemy team drops a Clairvoyance on your general area, run, don't bother to juke, because the whole point of juking is to deny the enemy line of sight, whereas Clairvoyance solves all that in an instant.
Now that you know how, go have some happy juking!
