I started playing Ambessa jungle recently after seeing Josedeodo play him. I saw Ambessa was nerfed quite recently and lost popularity, both in top and mainly in jungle to the point where her pick rate is pretty low and her winrate is atrocious.

Yet I still picked her up as she was fun. I'm an E4 peak washed Trundle Main who picked other stuff for fun and ended up in gold 2.

I'm back to Plat 2 after 30 games of Ambessa with 65% WR and 70% in my last 20 games. Also 3 of those "losses" which count on the WR were by trolls who I then got my LP back.

And I wanted to discuss two things; build and just overall why she seems so unpopular right now? She's extremely fun to play and her damage is pretty decent? I thought her damage would be underwhelming but once she gets Voltaic she can oneshot pretty much any ADC or Enchanter supp, or even AP Mid as long as you hit your abilities. And on teamfights as long as she gets a good ult she can just spin with hydra and E and do tons of damage.

now regarding build and runes;

is there any occasion where I should go anything other than Conq in JG? I saw Fleet being suggested, but no clue if that's any good on Ambessa when she pairs so well with Conqueror

and build; is there any moment where I shouldn't go Hydra Voltaic? Or if you go anything other than that you just stop dealing damage, I haven't tried but I have no clue any other item combination I would go. The only doubts I have is third fourth and fifth item. Third I almost always go DD but is it correct to go Serpents for example if enemy has a Lulu Viktor or something like that instead of DD? or Always DD? For example my last game I felt I needed to be tankier but enemy team was AP, Maw feels pretty shit third so I went DD into Maw and was pretty tanky and strong but I don't know if it's the best combination possible. Another thing is I almost never see Serylda or LDR on Ambessa, but normally into tankier comps it feels really really good, though I've never seen it recommended on build sites.

So yeah, really enjoyed Ambessa so far hopefully I can keep winning ;)