NAAFIRI JUNGLE OP BUILD

Naafiri’s rework in Patch 15.6 shifted her identity from a bursty assassin to a powerful skirmish-heavy bruiser. With improved scaling, better survivability, and increased packmate utility, she’s now a strong jungle pick capable of extended fights and impactful ganks. This guide will walk you through the best bruiser build, jungle pathing tips, and how to play her to her full potential.

Why Play Naafiri as a Bruiser?

The rework has made Naafiri more suited for extended trades and skirmishes. Instead of relying on burst windows like traditional assassins, bruiser Naafiri thrives in messy fights, staying alive longer and dealing consistent DPS with her packmates and abilities.

Key Strengths:

• High sustain with healing from Q and W Untargetability
• Great mobility and chase potential
• Strong mid-game skirmishing power
• Objective control with fast jungle clears (and objective RUSH)

Bruiser Build (Optimal for Jungle)

Core Items

• Eclipse: Synergizes incredibly well with your Q. Both your Q and the pack's damage apply the passive, maximizing burst potential.
• Black Cleaver: Applies its passive quickly, boosting your overall damage output significantly.
• Death’s Dance: Converts burst damage into bleed, helping you survive longer in extended fights and trades.
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Cheap and efficient; lowers cooldowns on both abilities and summoner spells, letting you play more aggressively.

Optimal 4th & 5th Items

• Edge of Night: Grants a spell shield, allowing you to ult in safely without getting interrupted. Great for engaging and setting up your R.
• Guardian Angel: Excellent for late game. Lets you dive in, deal full damage, and not worry about dying immediately—perfect for leading engages.

Situational Items

• Sterak’s Gage: Provides bonus health and a clutch shield. Especially useful when facing teams with lots of crowd control.
• Spear of Shojin: Gives you a lot of dmg and CD, it's normally good as 3rd or 4th item if the enemy don't have a way to lock you down
• Maw of Malmortius: Strong anti-AP option. Great against teams with 2–3 magic damage threats or high burst ultimates.
• Plated Steelcaps / Mercury’s Treads: Go Steelcaps vs heavy AD auto-attackers. Pick Mercs if the enemy has a lot of CC—usually paired with Sterak's if there's not much AP threat.

Runes Setup

Primary – Precision

• Conqueror – Best for extended trades and skirmishes
• Triumph – Sustain in fights after takedowns
• Legend: Alacrity – Bonus attack speed for smoother clears and DPS
• Coup de Grace – Extra damage to finish off low-health targets

Secondary – Domination

• Sudden Impact – Bonus lethality after dash (synergizes with E and R)
• Treasure Hunter – Boosts early snowball potential with gold from takedowns 

Stat Shards

• Attack speed / Adaptive Force / Scaling HP 

Skill Order

Q > E > W

• Max Q (Darkin Daggers) first – Primary damage source and poke
• Max E (Eviscerate) second – Mobility and AoE burst
• Max W (Call of the Pack) last – Teamfight utility and bonus damage

Jungle Path & Playstyle Tips

Early Game

• Path towards your strong side or the most volatile lane
• Look for early skirmishes with your strong dueling power and packmate damage lvl 4 you are one of the strongest champs in the game.
• Use Q for healing and poke — don’t waste W too early, save it to re-engage or finish off
• Play for voids, She can rush them and is a great spot to create skirmishes too
• Your autos, combined with your Pack, deal a ton of damage—make sure to weave in basic attacks whenever it’s safe to do so!

Mid Game

• With Eclipse and Black Cleaver, you're ready to dominate mid-game fights
• Look for 2v2 and 3v3 skirmishes around objectives or river let them start objectives and use the choke points to force the enemies in bad spots
• Invade buff on their respawn timers to get free picks.

Late Game

• Adapt your role depending on your comp: peel and follow up if you have a strong engager, or look for flanks if you’re in a position to delete key enemy threats.
• In teamfights, if your team excels at following up, play as a frontline diver — dive into the backline to pressure or eliminate carries while soaking up damage and drawing attention.
• Outside of teamfights, shadowing is key. Look to pressure side lanes and create 2v1 or 2v2 opportunities. If there’s no major objective on the map and the enemy isn’t responding, collapsing in the side lane is one of the best ways to open up towers, secure future objectives, or even push for the win.
  

Conclusion

Naafiri’s bruiser rework has carved out a new niche for her in the jungle meta. With great skirmish potential, consistent damage, and utility through packmates, she’s now a solid pick for players who enjoy aggressive, brawling playstyles with durability and chase potential.

Get in the jungle, rally your pack, and show the Rift the power of the Darkin hounds.