🔥 Gwen Jungle Build Guide: Runes, Items, Combos, Matchups, Abilities & More - Patch 25.08

🚀 Gwen is one of the best carry junglers in the entire game. She is a farm-heavy scaling champ that has some of the best dueling and sidelaning. When ahead on Gwen, you are able to single-handedly carry games like no other champ can. Gwen has one of the most satisfying kits in the game, and is one of the most popular junglers to play. She is super underrated because of her slow early game, but we’ll get into that later.

Gwen's Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

✅ Very Fun: Gwen has a very strong and fun kit for those who like auto attacking, dealing insane damage, and #GwenIsImmume

✅ Immense 1v9 Potential: Gwen scales HARD with her items and can 1v9 games, even the doomed ones, after 3 items.

✅ Gwen is Immune: Insanely busted ability if used correctly. Run people down, negate backlines, get big resistances, immune everything outside. Can absolutely 1v9 fights.

✅ Strong Teamfighter: Gwen can zone people and shred through frontlines during Hallowed Mist, run down people for free, and do insane AoE dmg with her Snip Snip! and Needlework.

✅ Great Objective/Tower shredder: Gwen is solid at taking objectives and can look to get a lot of gold on sidelane with how quick she shreds towers.

✅ Cute Scissor Girl: Solid skins, S-tier dance, design, fanart. Just Ws all around.

Weaknesses

❌ Low gank potential pre-6: Gwen has no CC for ganks pre-6 and can pretty much only flank people with Ghost

❌ Vulnerable outside of W: Not having W makes it a lot harder to walk up in teamfights and it takes a lot of Gwen experience/discipline to know how to use/space W properly.

❌ Weak early/prone to invades: Gwen is pretty weak before her first items and needs to priortize farming to level 6 and can have less impact compared to stronger early game junglers. She's also prone to invades and it's very bad to have camps stolen.

❌ Reliant on Ult for teamfights: Having ult for the AoE damage and slow is so important and its hard to take fights if you're missing ult and they have theirs.

❌ Very resource-reliant: If your team is getting stomped and you lose map control, being unable to farm makes the game significantly harder as Gwen.

❌ Countered by Dive assassins: People who can dive on top of you and one shot you are hard to counterplay unless you have a lot of AP for Hallowed Mist resistances.

Playstyle Overview

Gwen is not as conventional as traditional junglers as she has no ganking tools pre-6 besides Ghost and is prone to invades, it is essential that you have a clean early game in order to scale as Gwen. She is also very resource-hungry so you need to be farming well, taking good fights, and avoid dying unneccessarily in order to maximize your gold income. If you can master this, Gwen will scale like a monster and can hard carry games.

I need to stress that it is very important that you are farming your camps and getting to lvl 6 asap instead of trying to do non-guaranteed ganks or listening to your teammates begging for ganks as it will mess with being back in time for your respawning camps, especially if you started raptors, if you waste time on a gank that doesn't result in a kill. Even worse, good junglers will look to take your camps to deny you gold and XP which is Gwen's worst nightmare. Gwen has no CC pre-6 and can only really gank early if laners are really low/overextended and/or your laners have guaranteed setup (ex. engage support with flash). If you're the kind of person who is easily influenced by others or feels bad about not ganking early, I highly recommend /muteall.

Once you hit 6, you can start looking for ganks as you become much stronger with your Ult and can start running people down easier as your Ult slows and is decently long range + Ghost if you need to. While your ult is down, look to path and farm efficiently towards winning lanes/free objectives as it is much harder to win fights if you are missing your ult while the enemy still has theirs in most cases. Keep farming well, don't die pointlessly, and take winning fights/objectives and you should be able to close out games easily as Gwen. You power spike hard once you get Nashor's Tooth and 2nd item, especially Rabadon's Deathcap.

Gwen Jungle Tips

☑️ Try to get a good ward in the jungle before the game starts, depending where it is placed, it can tell you where the enemy jungle started and predict where they are pathing. I will show them in my clear video below.

☑️ Try to save Needlework and Ghost unless you're fully guaranteed a kill/committed to a good fight, it makes or breaks teamfights.

☑️ Properly using Gwen's W is something that takes a lot of games to master, sometimes it is good to use it early so that you can run down people for free, sometimes its good to hold it to hold off their backline while you Snip Snip! their frontline.

☑️ Play with your winning laners (gank for them/hover around them while they are pushing to protect them from ganks, unless it's 2v5 xd) Ganking for them before objectives usually means a free objective.

☑️ Once you get to the mid-game (after first-item usually), it is ideal if you can clear your camps before taking fights/objectives but if a fight/gank is happening and you can win it, I'd definitely skip camps to hover as kills later in the game can translate to towers/objectives. Losing map control as Gwen sucks as that means you lose access to farming camps = less gold income.

✔️AA + E +AA + Q + AA: Start with an AA, then E and AA again, then Q and AA to finish.

✔️AA + E + W + AA + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: Begin with an AA, then E, W, AA quickly. Then hit two more AA's, Q and AA to finish.

✔️R + E + AA + AA + R + AA + AA + R + Q + AA: Start with your R and instantly E to get on your target. AA, AA, R, AA, AA, R and finally Q and AA to finish.

✔️W + E + FLASH: Use your W, then E & Flash.

✔️R + E + AA + R + AA + R + FLASH: Start with your R, then E and AA, then RR and AA and finally RR Flash to finish.

✔️AA + E + AA + AA + AA + Q + FLASH + AA: Start with an AA E AA, then AA, AA and Q, Flash & AA.

✔️R + AA + E +AA + R + Q + AA + W + R + FLASH: Start with your R and then AA E AA for the reset. Then R, Q and AA. then W, R, Flash quickly to finish.

There are 3 clears that I do consistently which all have different pros and cons to them. Formulating a game plan at champ select and deciding what clear to do is essential to do.

1. Raptors Start Full Clear

💡 Raptors -> Krugs -> Red Smite -> Wolves -> Gromp -> Blue -> Crab (Smite if needed) -> Raptors -> Krugs -> Back = ~1250g (Blasting Wand, Dark Seal).

✔️ Quickest way to lvl 6.

✔️ Best if lanes have no setup or volatility (they won't fight enough to get low) and you won't be invaded. Best handshake clear.

❌ Need to be back at raptors when they respawn or they might get stolen. Leaves little time for ganks.

❌ A bit unhealthy and no Dark Seal for early fights. Prone to invades.

2. DSeal 3 Camp Back

💡 Raptors -> Red -> Krugs Smite, back for DSeal + Sweeper -> Wolves -> Gromp -> Blue -> Crab (Smite if needed) -> Raptors -> Krugs -> Back = ~1250g (Blasting Wand, Dark Seal)

✔️ Great for dealing with invades/fighting at crab.

✔️ Able to contest blue quadrant/crab with full HP and Dark Seal

❌ Less optimal than normal full clear since 2nd spawn krugs will be delayed

❌ Need to be back at raptors when they respawn or they might get stolen. Leaves little time for ganks.

❌ Still hard to fight some champs (ex. Bel'veth, Kha'zix, Rengar)

3. Blue Buff Blue Side

💡 Blue ( Smite) -> Gromp -> Wolves -> Raptors -> Krugs -> Red -> Crab ( Smite if needed) -> Back = ~850g (Blasting Wand)

✔️ Great for pathing towards bot lane (blue side only).

✔️ Recommended if botlane is only lane with engage, good in lower elos where bot lane and dragons are good to play for.

❌ Not the fastest way to hit lvl 6.

❌ Prone to invade on red quadrant, look to drop a ward while clearing raptors.

I'm not saying you can't gank pre-6 as Gwen.

It's actually very good to get kills on a scaling champ as it just makes their scaling faster, good jungling is about adapting to the map and making the best, high-chance successful play.

Farming is just a consistent and guaranteed way to get gold and XP and getting to lvl 6 as Gwen makes you a lot stronger and can take more 1v1s/ganks.

Ganks are hard to force as Gwen as you have no CC and are pretty much just walking up to people with Ghost.

Conditions for good ganks:

✔️ Kill is at least 90% guaranteed, we don't want to play for summoner spells (only high end players can use that advantage usually)

✔️ Wave state is good, enemy laner is pushed up/frozen on.

✔️ Enemy laner low enough / Your laner has good setup/kill potential if you come.

✔️ Note summoner spells, harder to kill if they have all summoners and can get away.

Ganking tips:

✅ Get behind them as much as possible to cut off escape.

✅ E over walls to create good flanks (baron pit, dragon pit, etc).

✅ Use E to cover distance/dodge CC.

✅ Use W to block CC/focus fire so you can run people down.

✅ Don't ping your teammates till you're in position for them to go in.

✅ Don't pop Ghost/ult till it's certain you can get a kill. Using ult in early game is always worth if you can get a kill.

✅ If you're able to auto someone and they're trying to juke your R, just hold your R and force them into a bad position where it's easy to hit them. You have like 10 seconds to recast each part of R.

I like to think of Gwen as a melee hypercarry ADC in how you want to play teamfights.

Teamfighting tips:

✔️ Use W to block CC/focus fire while you hit their frontline or badly positioned carry. Back off towards your team when it’s down unless you can kill the rest of the other team easily.

✔️ If the enemy team will start with unavoidable CC on you (Vi ult, Qiyana ult, etc), use your W before the hard CC goes off so you will be protected from backline threats for the duration of the CC.

✔️ Having Ult is very important for teamfights, don’t waste it before objectives unless your team commits to a good fight or picks off someone. Ghost is good as well for moving around in fights/chasing people down.

✔️ Hit the person you can easily hit/who your good teammates are targeting.

✔️ Red pet helps a lot with slowing the first target you hit so you can stick on them easily.

⚠️ Lillia: My permaban up until now. Faster clears than Gwen and is hard to lock down due to her speed and ability to kite you. Her R will sleep you if you don't W her cast before it goes off.

⚠️ Master Yi: Dark Seal back. He can invade you pretty easily as you have no hard CC for his W. Yi can just stat check you when he gets BoTRK, he can easily dodge your abilities with a good Q, try to force out his Q before you use your Q or R3. I haven't played against Yi in a while but he was still almost able to kill me even when I was an item up.

⚠️ Bel'Veth: Extremely hard matchup who will look to invade you early if they're good. You will still lose even if you do the Dark Seal back, ping your laners for help. Look to fight her later in the game after you get items. Use your E to dodge her knockup if she dashes towards you, burst her early with your Q and R to force out her E when you duel her. Try to prevent her from getting 2nd grubs and Herald as she will gain her form from that + her grubbies.

⚠️ Kha'Zix: Dark Seal back. Kha’zix can invade you at level 3 and can easily kill you due to Q isolation. Avoid fighting him alone early. Save your W for when he leaps on you and uses his Q.

⚠️Nidalee: Dark Seal back. Nidalee can bully/invade you pretty hard if she has stronger laners or has a good early game. You can beat her later by dodging her Q + sticking on her but avoid fighting her early, you hard outscale.

⚠️ Ivern: Ivern is very annoying as he gank your laners while his camps are growing or easily invade you and insta-killing a camp with smite. Hitting him while he's channeling a camp will stop him from taking them. He doesn't need resources and has annoying peel with his root + Daisy. You can easily kill him if you get past them though.

⚠️ Nocturne: Nocturne is a pretty strong duelist early on with his fear + Q, avoid fighting him 1v1 early unless he wastes his spells. Dodge his Q and W before his fear goes off. You can use your F keys to see which teammate he ults on based on the puddles he leaves.

⚠️ Rek'Sai: Rek'sai is a strong duelist so avoid fighting her early, her clear speed is abysmal so the only way she gets ahead is with a lot of ganks. Get vision on her camps and warn your laners with pings. You can get to 6 faster and look to fight her then. Use W for when she burrows on to you and knocks up.

⚠️ Rengar: Dark seal back. Rengar can look to invade level 3, get a ward at your buff or river bush and do your outer camps first. You can fight him once you get Nashor's, save W for when he jumps on you with R. Go Zhonyas 2nd if he's extremely fed to use on his R. Try to track him and countergank if viable.

⚠️Shaco: Dark Seal back. Try to get your team to invade and kill Shaco's boxes if your team is better level 1 so it makes his clear slower. He can level 2/level 3 invade or gank so getting deep vision is important. If he gets fed, he can one shot you with Q + backstabs.

⚠️ Udyr: Dark Seal back. He can look to invade as he's stronger than Gwen early. He can shred you with Liandries if he gets ahead. Don't waste your ult until he commits to a fight/is locked down as he can easily run away from you.

⚠️Viego: Viego has a quick clear and is a team fight menace if he can get resets, he can stat check you if he gets ahead. Try to maintain distance so dodging his stun is easier with W/E and be careful about his ult burst.

⚠️Kayn: This matchup is only hard if he gets ahead and gets a lot of lethality to one shot you and your team. Kayns like to cheese by stealing your raptors/blue side so placing wards and having your team watch jungle entrances will be good (he can Q over baron pit). He can look to do his/your raptors -> your blue + gromp and cheese gank bot/mid so warding blue is important. Use E/W to dodge his W.

⚠️Hecarim: if he gets himself/his lanes ahead through ganks, he put you behind by taking your camps and CCing you with his R for teamfights. Try spacing his Q with your Ghost/E, use your R to slow him and save your W for when he commits on you with E. You outscale him, just don't fall super behind on power.

⚠️Diana: Diana usually full clears but she's a pretty strong duelist as well, use your W to block her Q to stop her from getting attack speed. You outscale but she can auto you to death if she's fed.

⚠️ Ekko: I don't see Ekko much anymore but he's only hard if he snowballs and can one shot you with his AP burst. You outscale him, you can space your W to avoid getting stunned by his and use E to dodge his Q.

⚠️ Evelynn: She fullclears like you but can look to cheese gank if a laner is low, try to get vision on her camps to see where she is. She's only hard if she gets fed and can one shot you late game. Use your W to block her Q to avoid getting charmed and try to burst her before she walks in and charms with her E.

⚠️ Elise: Dark Seal back. She can invade level 3 or look to cheese gank/tower dive. Use your W to dodge her stun. You outscale hard, just try to be there for her dives and plays if you can, if you can’t then play opposite side of the map for resources.

⚠️ Fiddlesticks: Full clears but can be extremely deadly in fights with his ult if you don't get vision on him beforehand. Keep him outside of your W so he can't fear you with point and click Q fear and his E silence. Get wards over walls where he can ult for objectives. You can easily run him down after 1st item.

⚠️Karthus: Karthus full clears extremely fast and can look to gank before scuttle spawns. Very annoying if he gets ahead and ganks from anywhere with his R. He can burst you with his Qs but you can also dodge with your E/Ghost/W and run him down.

⚠️ Lee Sin: Dark Seal back. Lee can invade level 3 and is hard to fight early. Use your W/E to dodge his Q. Try to use your W before he insecs you for teamfights. He can also be annoying and peel for his team by kicking you away. You hard outscale.

⚠️Poppy: Dark Seal back. Poppy can invade you and can kill if you're low enough by stunning you into a wall. Her W will stop your E from dashing. You outscale hard, try to space your W to prevent her R from knocking you away in teamfights.

⚠️Talon: Dark Seal back. He can invade you but if you dodge his W with W/E, it's hard for him to kill you. He can one shot you if he gets fed but otherwise you can run him down easily.

⚠️ Xin Zhao: Dark Seal back. He can look to invade/early gank so getting wards will be important. Save your W for when he dashes on you and you can duel him pretty easily.

⚠️ Jax: Dark seal back. Very rare pick but he can look to invade level 3. Pretty hard to duel as he can stat check you if he's ahead but you can kill him if you're ahead. Save your E to dash away from his stun if he jumps on you. Your Q will go RIGHT THROUGH THE COUNTERSTRIKE so you can outplay with E + Q combo. Counterstrike will block your autos but you will still get Q stacks.

⚠️ Briar: Dark Seal back. Briar can invade your so I would hold my level 3 skill for W in case she invades. W will make it so she can't fixate you with her W if she's outside of the circle but otherwise W for when she jumps on you with her stun. You can also buffer your Q before she stuns you. You will outscale her hard as long as you survive early.

⚠️Jarvan IV: Dark Seal back. He can invade but you kind of counter his kit as you just dodge his flag and drag with E. You can also jump out of his ult with E.

⚠️ Graves: Dark Seal back. He can invade but you can block his autos + Q with your W if you wait to skill it level 3. You can run him down for the rest of the game easily and follow him through walls with your E. He's only scary if he gets fed and lots of lethality.

⚠️ Amumu: Pretty easy matchup. He's only scary in teamfights if he can stun lock you before you can W but otherwise you can dodge his Q with your E, keep him outside your W so he can't ult you. You can kill him easily and look for counterganks as he is a potato after he jumps on to someone.

⚠️ Kindred Dark Seal back. She can invade but you can space W so she can't hit you. If she doesn't snowball, you can just pop her easily. Keep your Q stacked to burst her at the end of her R.

⚠️Maokai: Very rare pick, only really seen in pro play now. Standard tank matchup, you shred him and clear faster. He can look to cheese and steal your raptors but as long as you start it and have people watch entrances, you can avoid it.

⚠️ Skarner: Don't really see him anymore since they nerfed him but standard tank matchup. He can 1v1 you early if he stuns you into a wall. Try to dodge his ult with your W/E, it is a pretty quick cast so it's easier to space your W.

⚠️Nunu & Willump: Standard tank matchup, don't really see him anymore since tanks suck in this meta but he can only really win if he cheeses you at one of your camps level 1 or cheese ganks a ton. Get deep vision and ping your laners to be careful when he's on their side of the map. You can easily kill him and run him down. You can dodge his snowball with E or W if you're at the very edge of it before he comes in. Can also use W to block his R damage.

⚠️Sejuani: Standard tank matchup. Use W or E to avoid her R stun. Can use E to dodge her Q headbutt.

⚠️ Shyvana: She fullclears like you and you can outdamage and run her down for the most part as long as she doesn't get fed. Be careful of her E poke and her speed when W is active, she can outrun even with Ghost.

⚠️Taliyah: Easy ranged matchup. Full clears like you and you can W pretty much all of her abilities. Be careful as her ground rocks will stun you but you will still dash.

⚠️ Trundle: Rare pick. He can run you down and stat check you if he's fed but otherwise you can duel him easy after Nashor's.

⚠️ Vi: Dark Seal back. She can look to invade but you can dodge her Q with your E. You clear quick and outscale hard. Save your W for when she ults you in fights so her backline can't do anything.

⚠️ Warwick: Rare pick. Don't fight him early until you get items. E away from his E a few seconds after he uses it so you don't get fared. Look to hover laners/countergank if they're low.

⚠️ Wukong: Rare pick. Wants to farm early but is pretty slow. Kite him out with E + ghost when he jumps on your and W when he all ins with ult.

⚠️ Zac: Standard tank matchup. Wants to full clear but can also look to cheese gank, ward around walls he can leap over. Be careful of his damage if he builds AP as he can burst you but otherwise you can just shred him.

⚠️ Brand: Very easy ranged matchup. He fullclears like you so you can farm freely. You can run him down at any point of the game by spacing your W and he can't do anything. Can also use E to dodge his E + Q combo.

⚠️Morgana: Similar to Brand, dodge her Q with your E, space W so she can't do anything and just run her down.

⚠️Rammus: Standard tank matchup but he only really builds armor so you just shred him. Use W before he taunts you in teamfights so you're safe.

⚠️ Sylas: Meme pick. Just dodge his E with your W/E and it's hard for him to kill you unless he's fed and cheese ganks successfully. Abysmal clear so you can outtempo and level him easily.

⚠️Zed: Meme pick. Dodge his Qs with your E. Save W to dodge W + Q combo or all ins. Can buy Zhonyas if he's really fed to immune R.

📖 I'm quite happy with how this guide turned out — it looks great and is packed with valuable information. I’ve noticed that Gwen doesn’t have many high-quality jungle guides and general resources, so I'm here to show our girl some love!😊

I’ll be updating this guide for as long as I play League of Legends. I’ll continue adding new discoveries and adjust rune setups accordingly. I’ll also update the matchup tier list based on how the meta shifts with future patches, and include anything I might’ve missed.

Thanks for reading the whole guide — and now that you're a Gwen expert, good luck climbing the ladder!