When to Gank and When to Farm — The Jungle Decision Tree

Before every potential gank, run through this checklist:

1. Is the enemy pushed past the river? If no, don't gank. You can't gank someone under their tower.
2. Does your laner have CC or burst to follow up? If no, don't gank. You can't solo-kill a full-HP enemy at even levels.
3. Is the enemy jungler on this side of the map? If yes, be careful — it might be a 2v2. Are you stronger?
4. Are your camps up? If yes, consider farming instead. Camps are guaranteed gold. Ganks are not.
5. Is there an objective spawning soon? If yes, ganking the lane near the objective creates a numbers advantage for the fight.

If you answered yes to at least 3 of these, gank. If not, farm.

Counter-ganking — showing up to a lane when the enemy jungler ganks — is more reliable than initiating ganks yourself.

To counter-gank effectively, you need to track the enemy jungler. If you know they're pathing top, path top yourself. Wait in a bush. When they engage on your laner, you engage on them. Now it's a 2v2, but you have the element of surprise.

Counter-ganks work because the enemy jungler has already committed their abilities to the gank. They have no cooldowns left for you. Your laner is low, but the enemy jungler is even lower because they took tower shots or minion aggro.