Finally getting good with a jungler

My long struggle at getting competent with a jungler is finally paying off. I can play Amumu now and be reasonably sure that I won't suck hard. Played a game last night where I had computer problems and didn't actually get into game until minute 3 or so. Despite that, I was able to farm myself up and by level 14ish, I was adding to team fights quite comfortably. I like Amumu a lot because he naturally wants to build the really powerful items (Sunfire Cape, Abyssal Scepter, the Spirit Stone upgrade with Lifelink). I can go tanky and then its just a question of choosing the right champ to dive in on.

I'd offer four pieces of advice for someone playing these types of champions (tanky initiators)

1) Don't always initiate with your "initiate". Those stunning gap closers (like Bandage Toss) are really good for chasing down or countering a flash and you often want to use them that way. Sometimes you can just walk out at an angle and save the closer for AFTER the flash. That can be really scary and effective.

2) Choose your targets carefully. You almost always want to jump on the ADC or APC if you can. Generally you're tanky enough that they can't instantly clobber you and those targets are squishy that your burst plus a little bit from any teammate is sufficient to kill them. The thing that's important to work on is your map awareness. I find myself sometimes focusing so much on getting that good initiate that I don't realize my teammates had backed off because they took too much poke.

3) Balancing when to farm and when to gank. This is, I think, the most difficult skill to learn as a jungler. Every jungle champion is different which compounds the problem. You need to know your champions well enough to be able to sense when is a good time to gank. You also want to make sure that your laners know how to control their creep line. When you're on your way, let them know and they can generally move the line up or down a little bit if they know what they're doing. That can be a few critical inches that makes a gank successful.

4) If you can get a target to blow their flash, that's pseudo successful. If they're low enough, sure, go ahead and try to kill them. But if they're healthy or get back under tower, it's really best to back off and just come back in the next five minutes to try again. That often will be the time you kill them. Remember also to take advantage of forcing them back to push the lane quickly to cost them creeps. After a laner backs is not the time to last hit. It's the time to push.