The LoL jungle tier list for patch 26.21 still has the same surprise at the top: Wukong and Cho’Gath jungle, not the Lee Sins and Viegos you see in every other game. Wukong won 52.19% at Emerald+ across the whole of patch 26.20 and Cho’Gath 51.42% on a similar pick rate, with Lillia and Warwick joining them in our S tier. The numbers come from op.gg’s Emerald+ Ranked Solo/Duo data for patch 26.20, last checked October 2026. Patch 26.21 went live on 21 October and has no usable sample yet, so we adjusted for its changes by hand, and Wukong got nerfed in it. Riot publishes no official win rates, so everything below is third-party match sampling, dated and hedged.
This is the patch version, rebuilt every time the patch changes. For the evergreen picks that climb whatever the patch notes say, read our best junglers to climb guide. Here you get the full S-to-D table with a first-clear time for every jungler, why each S-tier pick is there, which junglers you can blind pick, how the best pick changes from Gold to Diamond+, and who moved since 26.19.
Patch 26.21 context: what changed for junglers
Two patches have shipped since our last rebuild: 26.20, the Worlds patch, on 7 October, and 26.21 on 21 October. Riot’s official patch 26.20 notes had a short list for junglers:
- Lillia (buff): R sleep now lasts 2.5/2.75/3 seconds instead of a flat 2.5, her second buff in a row.
- Kindred (buff): W monster damage 150% to 165%, E slow 1 to 1.5 seconds, and E can no longer target small monsters.
- Diana (buff): W shield ratio 11% to 14% bonus health, aimed at bruiser builds.
- Hextech Rocketbelt (nerf): ability haste 20 to 10, with more active damage in return. AP junglers who rush it feel this.
The patch 26.21 notes are much heavier on the jungle, and none of it is in our numbers yet:
- Lee Sin (nerf): W cooldown 7 to 8 seconds, R kick damage 175/400/625 down to 150/350/550.
- Wukong (nerf): passive armor per stack 6-10 down to 4.5-10, with extra base health regen to keep lane Wukong whole.
- Rammus (nerf): W bonus armor and magic resist ratios capped at 50% instead of 60%.
- Nidalee (nerf): Pounce damage and Primal Surge attack speed both cut.
- Qiyana (nerf): Q damage down 10 at every rank, a partial revert of her 26.17 buff.
- Xin Zhao (buff): Q ratio 40% to 45% bonus AD, and E scales better with attack speed.
- Nunu & Willump (buff): R maximum damage up to 750/1100/1450.
- Taliyah (buff): E damage and ratio up, with 225% damage to monsters.
How we built the list: op.gg’s jungle champion stats, using the Emerald+ sample for the whole of patch 26.20, compared against the full 26.19 sample, then our own judgment on top. The clear-time column comes from LoL Recommender’s jungle clear times, which the site labels patch 26.21 and last updated on 20 October 2026. It is the median time for the jungler to hit level 4 in ranked solo queue games where they did not fight, die or gank first, with at least 12 games per champion, and it falls back to the last 30 days for champions without enough games on the current patch. We have not found another public source that times first clears this way, so it is the benchmark we use.
LoL jungle tier list: the patch 26.21 master table
Win rate and pick rate are op.gg Emerald+ jungle data for patch 26.20, last checked October 2026. First clear is the LoL Recommender median time to level 4. The average jungler wins about 50%, so anything above 51.5% is pulling real weight and anything under 48.5% is losing you games.
| Tier | Champion | Win rate | Pick rate | First clear | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | Wukong | 52.19% | 7.74% | 3:01 | Best win rate among popular junglers, nerfed on 26.21 but with room to spare |
| S | Cho’Gath | 51.42% | 6.22% | 2:57 | Untouched for three patches and still winning |
| S | Lillia | 51.26% | 5.20% | 3:02 | Buffed twice, pick rate up again, the most common counter in the role |
| S | Warwick | 51.34% | 3.09% | 3:11 | Slow clear, huge first gank, forgiving |
| A | Rammus | 53.08% | 2.18% | 3:16 | Highest win rate in the role, nerfed on 26.21 |
| A | Rek’Sai | 51.69% | 1.44% | not measured | Strong but niche, 52.38% in Master+ |
| A | Sejuani | 51.54% | 2.33% | 3:02 | Tank clear, great with melee lanes |
| A | Zac | 51.17% | 2.76% | 3:09 | Above 51% from Gold to Emerald |
| A | Shyvana | 51.10% | 4.08% | 2:59 | Farm-and-scale, 53.03% in Gold |
| A | Fiddlesticks | 51.08% | 2.14% | 3:15 | Teamfight ult that ends games |
| A | Bel’Veth | 51.02% | 2.47% | 3:02 | Up half a point, 53% in Silver and Gold |
| A | Briar | 50.90% | 4.26% | 3:08 | Low-elo monster, fades with rank |
| A | Evelynn | 50.86% | 2.37% | 2:58 | Punishes low-vision games |
| A | Nidalee | 50.85% | 3.00% | 3:25 | 51.97% in Diamond+, nerfed on 26.21 |
| A | Elise | 50.79% | 3.35% | 3:07 | Kept her 26.19 gains |
| B | Ivern | 51.59% | 1.14% | not measured | Specialists only |
| B | Udyr | 50.93% | 1.90% | 2:57 | One of the fastest clears in the game |
| B | Shaco | 50.68% | 4.29% | 3:25 | 52.16% in Master+, 49.40% in Silver |
| B | Talon | 50.53% | 5.88% | 3:08 | Popular, even, needs early kills |
| B | Master Yi | 50.33% | 6.32% | 3:04 | Down half a point, banned in 15.85% of games |
| B | Nunu & Willump | 50.27% | 1.88% | 3:05 | Objective control, R buffed on 26.21 |
| B | Ekko | 50.25% | 4.52% | 3:09 | Stable, slipping a bit |
| B | Amumu | 50.25% | 1.93% | 3:05 | 52.67% in Gold, 48.74% in Diamond+ |
| B | Kindred | 49.84% | 2.85% | 3:27 | Buffed on 26.20, 51.90% in Master+ |
| B | Kayn | 49.80% | 7.81% | 3:04 | Fine below Emerald, average after |
| C | Jarvan IV | 49.55% | 6.08% | 3:00 | Good early, falls off |
| C | Diana | 49.54% | 3.62% | 3:00 | Buffed on 26.20, up almost a point, still under 50% |
| C | Kha’Zix | 49.47% | 7.03% | 3:02 | Recovered once the 26.19 tourists left |
| C | Sylas | 49.35% | 6.56% | 3:18 | Down almost a point, banned in 17.92% of games |
| C | Graves | 49.30% | 8.30% | 2:57 | Fast clear, under 50% in every bracket from Gold up |
| C | Lee Sin | 49.22% | 13.17% | 3:05 | Most picked jungler by far, and nerfed on 26.21 |
| C | Naafiri | 49.19% | 2.76% | 3:08 | Snowballs or disappears |
| C | Xin Zhao | 49.19% | 2.10% | 3:09 | Buffed on 26.21, worth a look |
| C | Hecarim | 49.19% | 5.33% | 3:03 | Improves with rank, 50.32% in Master+ |
| C | Viego | 48.98% | 8.35% | 3:03 | Very popular, losing record |
| C | Qiyana | 48.78% | 7.35% | 3:06 | 45.49% in Gold, nerfed on 26.21 |
| C | Nocturne | 48.75% | 3.82% | 3:04 | Never recovered from the 26.19 ult nerf |
| D | Karthus | 48.65% | 1.42% | 2:57 | Fast clear, nobody to protect him |
| D | Vi | 48.54% | 4.10% | 3:09 | Still down after the 26.19 nerf |
| D | Rengar | 47.93% | 3.76% | 3:02 | 46.83% in Emerald |
| D | Zed | 47.57% | 2.73% | 2:56 | Banned in 23.84% of games, loses when picked |
We disagree with op.gg’s own ranking in two places. op.gg still has Lee Sin as its number five jungler, mostly on pick and ban volume. We have him in C because 13.17% of Emerald+ junglers are playing a champion that wins 49.22%, and Riot nerfed his W and R on 26.21. He is popular because he is fun and has a high ceiling, and the average Lee Sin player is paying for that in LP. Rammus goes the other way. His 53.08% is the highest win rate in the role, but he is a counter-pick into AD-heavy teams and his W just got weaker, so he sits in A.
The S-tier junglers, one by one
All four S-tier junglers are durable, clear without drama and still do their job from behind. There is still no assassin among them.
Wukong
Wukong is the best jungler in the game right now, with an asterisk. He won 52.19% at Emerald+ on 26.20, sits second only to Rammus in both Gold and Emerald, and is the best popular jungler in Diamond+ at 51.68%. His clear is fast for a fighter (3:01 median to level 4), his ult wins teamfights on its own, and his clone makes him slippery in skirmishes. The asterisk is 26.21: Riot cut his early passive armor from 6 to 4.5 per stack because of how strong he is in the jungle, which makes level 1-3 skirmishes worse. We expect him to lose a point and stay S. The matchup to watch out for is Lillia, who beats him in 52.2% of games over 5,361 Emerald+ games, with Zac (51.6% over 2,362) behind her. Players who hate teamfighting should skip him, because a Wukong who splits instead of looking for a five-man ult is wasting the pick.
Cho’Gath
Cho’Gath jungle is still the weird winner. Riot has not touched him since before 26.19, his pick rate eased from 6.78% to 6.22%, and his win rate still nudged up (51.34% to 51.42%). Feast gives him the best objective secure in the game with no Smite fight needed, and he scales into an unkillable front line. Lee Sin, the most popular jungler in the game, wins only 47.7% against him over 7,665 Emerald+ games. Lillia (46.7% for Cho’Gath over 4,116 games) and Gwen (47.4% over 900) are the champions that trouble him most. He is a poor fit if you like ganking before level 6, since his early ganks are average and his power comes from farming and stacking.
Lillia
Lillia got buffed twice in a row: her R sleep went from 2 to 2.5 seconds on 26.19, then to 2.5/2.75/3 seconds on 26.20. Her pick rate went from 4.08% to 5.20% and her win rate held at 51.26%, which is what a real buff looks like when lots of new players pick a champion up. She clears in 3:02, kites every melee jungler in the game and makes teamfights miserable for the enemy. She struggles against early invaders and gap-closers: Nunu & Willump holds her to 47.3% over 1,019 games, and Rengar to 47.6% over 1,596. She is also mechanically demanding, so if you are learning her in ranked, expect a few rough games first.
Warwick
Warwick shows how little clear speed decides. His 3:11 first clear is slower than most of the S and A tiers and he still won 51.34% at Emerald+ and 52.82% in Gold. His level 3 gank is lethal, his healing lets him skip recalls, and his ult is point-and-click in all but name. Last patch’s nightmare matchup, Zac, is now a coin flip (50.1% over 843 games). The junglers that beat him now are Rek’Sai and Nunu (both 46.5% for Warwick, over 374 and 490 games) and Cho’Gath (47.2% over 2,035), and any jungler who invades before he finishes clearing gives him a bad time. Skip him if you want to carry late. He peaks early and drops to 49.71% in Master+.
Clear speed: what the first-clear column tells you
Clear speed matters less than junglers think. The whole range across the 51 champions in LoL Recommender’s table is 2:50 (Zyra) to 3:27 (Kindred), a 37-second spread. Most junglers you actually see in ranked land between 2:57 and 3:09. When we lined up clear time against Emerald+ win rate for the 42 junglers with at least a 1% pick rate, the relationship was weak and pointed the wrong way again: slower clearers won slightly more, a correlation of about +0.12. That is mostly tanks. Rammus, Fiddlesticks and Warwick clear slowly and win a lot, while Graves, Zed and Karthus clear fast and lose.
A fast clear buys you options. A 2:57 Graves can reach the scuttle crab before the enemy jungler and then decide whether to fight it, gank, or reset. A 3:11 Warwick shows up late to scuttle and has to make up for it with a gank. If you want to use a fast clear properly, our jungle pathing guide covers which route to take and when, and our breakdown of jungle camp gold and XP values shows exactly what each camp is worth to you.
| Clear speed band | Examples (first clear) | Emerald+ win rate of those examples | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very fast (under 2:58) | Zyra 2:50, Zed 2:56, Graves 2:57, Udyr 2:57, Cho’Gath 2:57 | 47.57% to 51.87% | First to scuttle, first to invade |
| Fast (2:58 to 3:03) | Evelynn 2:58, Shyvana 2:59, Wukong 3:01, Lillia 3:02, Viego 3:03 | 48.98% to 52.19% | Where most of the meta lives |
| Average (3:04 to 3:10) | Master Yi 3:04, Lee Sin 3:05, Elise 3:07, Briar 3:08, Zac 3:09 | 49.22% to 51.17% | Clear speed barely matters here |
| Slow (over 3:10) | Warwick 3:11, Fiddlesticks 3:15, Rammus 3:16, Sylas 3:18 | 49.35% to 53.08% | Needs a strong gank or teamfight to make up the time |
Blind-pickable vs counter-pick only
Jungle is more forgiving to blind pick than top, since you rarely have a lane opponent, but invades and early skirmishes still decide games. Worst-matchup figures are op.gg Emerald+ data for patch 26.20 and we only cite matchups with 300 games or more.
| Champion | Tier | Pick it | Worst common matchup (Emerald+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wukong | S | Blind safe | Lillia 47.8% (5,361 games), Zac 48.4% (2,362) |
| Cho’Gath | S | Blind safe | Lillia 46.7% (4,116 games), Gwen 47.4% (900) |
| Lillia | S | Blind, if you can handle invades | Nunu & Willump 47.3% (1,019 games), Rengar 47.6% (1,596) |
| Warwick | S | Blind safe | Rek’Sai 46.5% (374 games), Nunu & Willump 46.5% (490) |
| Rammus | A | Counter-pick only | Lillia 45.1% (1,446 games), and AP-heavy teams that ignore his armor |
| Elise | A | Counter-pick lean | Rammus 45.7% (604 games), Zac 46.3% (1,037) |
| Shyvana | A | Blind safe | Sylas 43.6% (2,820 games), Lillia 47.3% (2,446) |
| Zac | A | Blind safe | Lillia 46.0% (2,106 games), Jarvan IV 47.6% (1,756) |
| Master Yi | B | Blind in low elo, counter-pick higher | Elise 44.5% (2,229), Rammus 45.1% (3,219), Wukong 45.6% (4,796) |
| Lee Sin | C | Blind, but it costs you | Warwick 46.4% (3,722 games), Shyvana 46.7% (4,060) |
| Nocturne | C | Counter-pick only | Gwen 44.3% (341 games), Rammus 44.4% (741) |
Last patch Zac was the name that kept coming up. On the full 26.20 sample it is Lillia: she is the worst common matchup for Wukong, Cho’Gath, Rammus and Zac, and close to it for Shyvana. Since she is also S tier, the play with first pick is to take her yourself. If you have last pick and the enemy locked Wukong or Cho’Gath, Lillia is the answer.
Best jungler by rank bracket
Low elo and high elo reward very different junglers. We pulled op.gg’s patch 26.20 jungle pages for Gold (standing in for Iron to Gold), Emerald and Diamond+, counting only champions with at least 0.8% of the role’s picks in that bracket.
| Gold | Emerald | Diamond+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest win rate | Rammus 54.05% | Rammus 53.33% | Rammus 52.55% |
| Second | Wukong 53.14% | Wukong 52.54% | Nidalee 51.97% |
| Third | Shyvana 53.03% | Cho’Gath 51.98% | Gragas 51.86% |
| Best popular pick (4%+ of the role) | Wukong 53.14% | Wukong 52.54% | Wukong 51.68% |
| Worst pick | Qiyana 45.49% | Rengar 46.83% | Jayce 46.89% |
| Gets better as you climb | Nidalee 46.72% | Nidalee 49.51% | Nidalee 51.97% |
| Gets worse as you climb | Amumu 52.67% | Amumu 50.83% | Amumu 48.74% |
The pattern holds from top lane: easy, durable champions win in low elo, and mechanical ones catch up as the lobby improves. Amumu loses almost four points between Gold and Diamond+, and Nidalee gains more than five. Rammus topped all three brackets on 26.20, which is exactly why Riot nerfed him. Below Platinum, the right answer is a tank or a farm-and-fight jungler (Wukong, Shyvana, Cho’Gath, Warwick). From Diamond up, Nidalee and Rek’Sai reward players who have put the hours in, though Nidalee loses some of that on 26.21.
We see this on orders every week. Our boosters’ default jungle pool below Emerald is still short: Wukong, Warwick and Cho’Gath, because all three win without needing the other four players to cooperate. If you would rather hand the climb to someone who plays the role at Master and above every day, our League of Legends division boost covers it on your schedule.
Rising and falling vs patch 26.19
The 26.20 buffs mostly landed, and one nerf target kept climbing. Both columns are op.gg Emerald+ jungle data for the full 26.19 and 26.20 patches, last checked October 2026. The 26.19 changes themselves are in the official patch 26.19 notes.
| Champion | 26.19 win rate | 26.20 win rate | Pick rate | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diana | 48.76% | 49.54% | 2.71% to 3.62% | W shield buff, bruiser builds back |
| Rammus | 52.34% | 53.08% | 2.13% to 2.18% | No change, climbed until Riot nerfed him on 26.21 |
| Bel’Veth | 50.48% | 51.02% | 2.62% to 2.47% | No change, up half a point |
| Kindred | 49.46% | 49.84% | 2.03% to 2.85% | W and E buff, pick rate up 40% |
| Lillia | 51.32% | 51.26% | 4.08% to 5.20% | R duration buff, win rate held on a bigger pick rate |
| Kha’Zix | 49.20% | 49.47% | 7.91% to 7.03% | No change, recovering as players move on |
| Sylas | 50.14% | 49.35% | 7.55% to 6.56% | No direct change, lost a point and a seventh of his picks |
| Ekko | 50.89% | 50.25% | 4.38% to 4.52% | No direct change, slow slide |
| Master Yi | 50.79% | 50.33% | 6.47% to 6.32% | No change, down from A to B |
| Warwick | 51.69% | 51.34% | 3.12% to 3.09% | No change, still S |
Kha’Zix played out the way we said he would. After his 26.19 buff his pick rate jumped and his win rate fell, because players who do not usually play him picked him up. One patch later his pick rate is down from 7.91% to 7.03% and his win rate is climbing back. Nocturne went the other way: the extra 20 seconds on his ult from 26.19 still has him at 48.75%, and he has not recovered at all.
Where this tier list is wrong
Our numbers have three weak spots, and you should know them before you copy a pick.
First, the data is one patch behind the label. These are full-patch 26.20 numbers, a far better sample than the first week of a patch, but 26.21 nerfed Lee Sin, Wukong, Rammus, Nidalee and Qiyana and buffed Xin Zhao, Nunu and Taliyah after these games were played. We moved Lee Sin down and flagged the rest. Expect another reshuffle when 26.22 lands on 4 November.
Second, trackers run hot or cold. Lolalytics’ Emerald+ jungle list for patch 26.20 has Wukong at 53.97% and Cho’Gath at 53.42%, close to two points above op.gg, because its bracket average is 51.71% instead of 50%. Both sit at S+ there. The order mostly agrees and the decimals do not, so trust the ranking more than any single number.
Third, the clear-time samples are small. LoL Recommender’s clear times are medians of as few as 12 games, filtered to games with no early fight, and some champions fall back to a 30-day window. That is why Nidalee shows a surprisingly slow 3:25 off 21 games. Treat a gap under 5 seconds as noise. Win rate also says nothing about how hard a champion is to pilot. The community tier list in this r/Jungle_Mains thread on how hard junglers are to win with sorts the roster by execution difficulty, and on that axis Lee Sin, Nidalee and Elise sit at the hard end. Their win rates are an average across everyone who plays them, good or bad.
Junglers win games through their lanes, so it helps to know who you are ganking for. Our top lane tier list shows which top laners turn a gank into a lead and which ones just want to be left alone.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best jungler in LoL right now?
Wukong. He won 52.19% at Emerald+ on a 7.74% pick rate across patch 26.20 in our read of op.gg data, last checked October 2026, and he is the best popular jungler in Gold, Emerald and Diamond+. Riot nerfed his early armor on 26.21, so Cho’Gath (51.42% on a 6.22% pick rate) may close the gap.
What is the easiest jungler in LoL?
Warwick and Rammus are the easiest junglers that also win right now. Warwick won 52.82% in Gold on 26.20 and Rammus 54.05%, and neither needs mechanical skill to do his job. Rammus was nerfed on 26.21, so expect him to come down a little.
Which jungler has the fastest clear?
Zyra, at a 2:50 median to level 4 in LoL Recommender’s table (updated 20 October 2026), though that comes from only 16 games. Among common junglers, Graves, Udyr, Cho’Gath and Karthus all sit at 2:57. Kindred is the slowest at 3:27.
Is Lee Sin still good in patch 26.21?
No, he is playable but weak. He is the most picked jungler at 13.17% and won 49.22% at Emerald+ on 26.20, and 26.21 then added a second to his W cooldown and cut his R damage. He does better in Diamond+ (49.46%) than in Gold (47.99%), which fits a champion with a high skill ceiling.
Why is Cho’Gath played in the jungle?
His Feast secures dragons, Baron and the rest without a Smite fight, and his clear is a quick 2:57. He won 51.42% in the jungle at Emerald+ on 26.20, and Lee Sin, the most popular jungler, wins only 47.7% against him.
How often does the jungle tier list change?
Every patch, which is roughly every two weeks. Patch 26.22 is due on 4 November, so check the patch label before you trust any tier list.
So for patch 26.21: durable, simple junglers on top (Wukong, Cho’Gath, Lillia, Warwick), Lillia as the counter that keeps showing up, Diana and Kindred rising after their buffs, Lee Sin and Rammus nerfed, and clear speed less important than everyone thinks. Pick from the S tier if you are unsure, reach for Lillia when the enemy locks Wukong or Cho’Gath, and check the rank table before you copy a Diamond player’s champion pool. If you would rather someone else took the climb, our League of Legends boost handles division climbs, placements and duo queue with boosters who play jungle at Master and above.
