When should the jungler buy the oracles instead of the support? What are the advantages and disadvantages in terms of gold distribution between the two and the allowed aggression with the added penalty on dying?
League-of-legends – When should the jungler buy the oracles instead of the support
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Yes, it's worth it to pick another jungler. It does not necessarily have to be a counter-pick though, which probably needs some explanation:
- The advantages you gave for having a jungler hold for your team as well.
- What you labelled as 'more effective' does not really require a jungler at all (coordinate your team to kill the enemy jungler [wards!] or steal a buff)
- Your downsides are too situation dependent:
- If behind enemy lines, you better know what you're doing. You have to be sure that your champ can live up to the enemy jungler and you have to make double sure that all other enemies are on their lanes. While it is a downside, it's one for which the risk can be dealt with.
- If their jungler is higher level than you, then either you have to improve your jungling, or you got killed/hindered before. Shouldn't happen for the first creep round, unless someone messed up their early game (see below)
- same as 1. Do not get killed in the enemy jungle. The enemy jungler shouldn't be able to kill you (or you shouldn't enter his lair!) and if you get ganked it's your fault for losing track of your enemies. If you suspect only a single enemy missing that might come for you, you better be on your way back to your jungle.
Anyways, double jungle teams are quite a common thing, because neither team wants to ignore the advantages gained by having a jungler. However, it also means that your team should know how to deal with that situation. Here's a few tips for general two-junglers-play:
- Prepare for more ganks on both sides. For both junglers it's usually safer to gank, than to visit the other side's forest.
- Make your jungle starting save. Not getting harassed while you get your first buff is extremely important. The team should realize this and protect you. Place your mates into the forest access points near the river to watch out for early ganks. Only let them leave, once the buff is save.
- Of course, you can turn this around too and try to gank the enemy jungler with your team. Not just a single counter-picked champ, but 2+ champs.
As you can see, two junglers are possible, do make sense, and generally lead to very fast and intensive gameplay. Beware on random groups though, as a two-jungler game demands a lot more from all players and failure is easy to achieve in that setting.
So your basic question seems to be: Surge or Promote? This is a rather strange question as those two summoner spells fit very differently into the current Meta-game. In fact, I don't believe there is ever a hero I could imagine having to choose between those particular spells as they serve very different roles. So instead, let's assume that you want to know when these two spells are appropriate (and not make a choice between them).
Surge
Surge is a rather recent introduction into LoL and is still having its place in the meta-game examined. While it does act as a much needed steroid for a number of champions missing one (eg. Twisted Fate or Teemo), it suffers on champions who require a lot of farm (i.e. most carries). In comparison to spells like Ignite and Exhaust, Surge (while scaling better) just doesn't guarantee kills the same way through early/mid-game. Now, it's true that Dominion has a shortened early/mid-game, but it's just as true that it has a shortened late game (where this spell really shines). As a result Surge is frequently not the best choice for champions (even carries).
When to get it? When you're the main DPS and you don't have a built-in steroid
When to avoid? When you're a carry who needs kills to make it to late game
Promote
Promote is another spell which hasn't yet found a good place in the overall meta. However, having been around longer, there are more obvious cases where people use it (i.e. in Dominion going bottom against a Champ who has trouble clearing lanes early on, like Tryndamere or Yorick). Given Promote's role in taking down towers, it's no real surprise you see it more often in Dominion than Summoner's Rift. Usually, you want Promote to push your creep wave into a tower allowing for a better engagement at a node. This frequently means you find Promote on Champions who have trouble clearing lanes or who are good initiators. A Champion that requires more farm or is main DPS (i.e. a carry) is a less likely place to find promote as it doesn't fit their role well.
When to get it? When your team lacks a lot of lane clearing ability (or against a team which lacks it)
When to avoid? When you're filling a more important role (i.e. Carry)
Garrison
I'm surprised you're reading a lot of information that Garrison is a poor choice; it is quite a good spell. The problem with Garrison is that it really only shines is defending nodes in Dominion. Very frequently people don't do this (usually because it's less exciting). However, there are a large number of places where your team can really benefit from Garrison (solo bot, or even defending top). Garrison can break a channel (from further range), stop a wave push, or even heal a node, all very useful things in Dominion. Even if it only forces the other team to break off an engagement then it is directly translating into victory points (something few other spells do).
When to get it? When you're running a 3 Node defensive strategy or against a team with a lot of floaters (e.g. Rammus)
When to avoid? When you're filling a more important role (i.e. Carry) or you're going for a more aggressive strategy (i.e. running floaters)
Flash vs Ghost
Both of these are excellent spells (and there are even times when you might get both), but in Summoner's Rift, at least, the current meta-game has stabilized on Flash being invaluable. This is largely due to two factors:
- Flash lets you get out of (or into) range of abilities and champions
- Flash lets you "jump" over the twisting terrain in SR
However, in Dominion both of these reasons are less effective. The terrain in the Crystal Scar has fewer features you can "jump" with Flash, the faster game play means champion deaths are less impactful (thus saving, less important). While still a great spell, Flash is nowhere as dominant in the Crystal Scar as it is in Summoner's Rift. Instead, two other features dominate The Crystal Scar which make Ghost a frequently more picked spell:
- Non-linear attack routes
- Contested towers
Having multiple paths to engage (and less vision) often means you are forced to move to positions very quickly. This is the reason champions like Rammus are so frequently banned. What's more, it's frequently a strategy to rush to the top tower at the opening of the game to assert the defender's advantage. In a rush strategy (fairly common) it is necessary that most of the top defenders have Ghost to out pace the other team. As a result Ghost may not enjoy the same dominance that Flash has in SR, but is still a powerful spell (and a frequent choice).
When to get it? Both Flash and Ghost can be great spells on any Champion
When to avoid? Only when you have something which is much higher priority or more synergistic with your strategy (like Zombie Karthas was).
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Best Answer
Often, supports, due to their nature as 0cs champions, run out of gold to purchase both wards, oracles, and the items necessary to survive. If a team's support is weak either from lack of gold or being denied experience, then it can be extremely dangerous for the support to go anywhere on the map where enemy wards might be. This can be rectified by giving the support an escort, but even so, the support will typically be weak, and runs the risk of getting stunned, snared, or even one-shotted by champions with strong burst damage.
During the early game, oracles is actually much more potent on a jungler than on the support because the support will typically be confined to bot lane protecting the carry, with an occasional trip to clear and ward dragon. The jungler, on the other hand, by nature of the role, will be wandering the map and covering significantly more ground. Junglers are also, as a rule, tankier than supports. While Alistar, taric, and nunu all have the potential to get fairly tanky, they will still typically be easier to kill than almost any jungler.
During the mid and late game, it is often better to have the oracles on the support simply because if the enemy chooses to use their burst on the support during a team fight, then the rest of the team can typically take advantage of the enemy's poor target selection. Killing the jungler, however, has far greater consequences for team fights, since it makes it nearly impossible to contest baron or dragon without smite.