Predecessor Builds > Iggy & Scorch > Cringy and Scorch!
Ok, don't leave yet. I promise this CAN work. That does not mean that it WILL work, however.
Three pre-requisites to this working are:
1. You understand Iggy well enough to understand how to rotate with him efficiently when you play mid. You are not a front line jungler you are the ambush king.
2. You understand jungle extremely well. You cannot be at the point in your jungling career that you don't know when to be where, lack map awareness, or struggle to know when to prioritize farming/objectives vs ganking/counter ganking. This is an advanced jungle strategy and the basics need to be second nature.
3. Team compositions. This will simply not work against or with every match up. If you're team is belica support and aurora offlane then you should probably go with a tankier jungler that can get in the enemies face and make space. If it does make sense (or as much sense as it can make to choose Iggy jungle) then communicate with your team pre match about your intentions. If they know that you know how cringe picking Iggy jungle is, then they will be less likely to rage quit and more likely to think creatively and perform well.
With all of that out of the way let's talk about the build and the strategy!
Let's get the obvious out of the way. You must start Q for this to work. The strategy for early camp/buff clears is the make or break for this to work. You must stagger you turret placements. Start blue side, hit an auto then place a turret down away from blue buff. You want the aggro at first. After one segment of your health get's eaten, then you lead the monster into the turret. This will give the turret aggro. While he's quickly dispatching your turret, place another one putting yourself between him and the turret. Take aggro for a second, lead him into the turret and then smite your way into a Terra level starting camp clear. Seriously, I play Terra and my remaining health after first camp is equal to Iggy when I play it like this. Which is bonkers. Repeat this process for all early camps until you're able to shred through them like a good Iggy should. Beyond the strategy of clearing camps, the early game has to be split into to two really pivotal resets. One reset for Alchemical rod, and one reset for Nether shard. Order does matter, but I couldn't tell you which one is most important first. Nether Shard increases your ability damage against monsters by 8%, Alchemical Rod is a stacking Item that builds up your mana and increases your magic power by a ton at 400 stacks. I go Alchemical first, because by the time I get Nether I already have 100 stacks on Alchemical, but you do you. After you build these Tier 2's you need to break every instinct in your body(which you probably started with little considering you chose Iggy and made it this far in my rambling) and immediately start building Wraith Leggings. The movement speed is absolutely necessary as well as the power spike and assassin damage. Then that's basically it, build wise. These are what makes Iggy work (kinda) in jungle. It's the passive from the two tier two item's and the movement speed increase from wraith leggings. The rest of the build can be altered, but it does all work well together. It will make the Khai's and carrys question their existence on this meaningless rock when you shred through them with molten flame and oil.
Most importantly is strategy. You need to treat your ganks like mid rotations. The enemy cannot ignore your lane presence and as long as you are good at positioning (which is really the hidden 4th pre req for this to work) They will just get frustrated if they try to attack you directly. Create ambushes, siege towers, shred objectives, and absolutely rip camps apart and you will have a great time with this cringiest of cringe jungle picks.
Now comes the very important disclaimer. This strategy is a ton of fun, and I have absolutely had a blast and won several games with it. That being said, there is a super hard counter to this strategy. If the enemy puts pressure on your jungle early then you will be at the mercy of your teams ability to rotate and help you out. If I were to play against an Iggy, I would red, 5 camp, then sprint to his blue to gank him while he's helpless and low level/ low hp on those first few camps. I would make jungle invades apart of nearly every pathing throughout that game. An Iggy with the ability to set up an attack is dangerous. An Iggy caught with their pant's down is a fish in a barrel. So disclaimer is this, don't do this in ranked mode. Only do this if you're trying to have fun and frustrate the enemy. Cause win or lose, you will still have a blast roasting people alive with Iggy jungle!
