Pros weigh in on some of the jungle changes hitting PBE
Riot·10/24/2014, 6:24:18 PM·3 votes·15,670 views
If you’ve been digging around on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) or checking out the patch notes, you might have seen the massive number of changes being considered for the 2015 season. A lot of these changes focus on the jungle, so we caught up with former TSM jungler Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider as well as Team Dignitas' Alberto "Crumbzz" Rengifo for their help breaking everything down.
Remember that these notes detail changes that are anything but finalized -- things can and most likely will change. Be sure to keep up with the PBE patch notes in the coming weeks.
The changes that are currently being tested are meant to combat this feeling of stagnation and open up a much wider range of options. Does this mean any champion -- our favorite avian hero Quinn, say -- can now take to the skies over the forest? We can only dream. More likely, we'll see a moderate expansion of the champion pool in competitive play but a significant expansion in play styles.
Said another way, Amazing described the best way to impact the game on the current patch as using “early pressure and coming back to utilize the consumption stacks of the predominant spirit items.” Both Amazing and Crumbzz noted that because of this optimal strategy, counter-jungling, for instance, has become a virtually unusable tactic in a competitive environment. These changes, then, could theoretically open up counter-jungling and other tactics as viable options.
Why the changes?
As detailed in the red post on the topic, two of the primary jungle changes are new items and Smite rewards for different neutral monster camps. The goal? Open up new viable champions, clear paths, and game strategies. But what about the pro player perspective? Amazing described how “ganking junglers have prevailed throughout the [2014] season,” making the jungle “too one-dimensional.” Crumbzz agreed that strategies have generally become “stale with a relatively low champion pool and the same supportive jungle style” for some time now.
The changes that are currently being tested are meant to combat this feeling of stagnation and open up a much wider range of options. Does this mean any champion -- our favorite avian hero Quinn, say -- can now take to the skies over the forest? We can only dream. More likely, we'll see a moderate expansion of the champion pool in competitive play but a significant expansion in play styles.
Said another way, Amazing described the best way to impact the game on the current patch as using “early pressure and coming back to utilize the consumption stacks of the predominant spirit items.” Both Amazing and Crumbzz noted that because of this optimal strategy, counter-jungling, for instance, has become a virtually unusable tactic in a competitive environment. These changes, then, could theoretically open up counter-jungling and other tactics as viable options.
Itemization
It’s not just about counter-jungling, though. Builds have also become fairly stagnant in the jungle since Feral Flare was nerfed, said Amazing. Moving forward, “ganking will further be possible due to the Stalker’s Blade [Smite usable on champions for true damage and a 50% slow], whereas farming, counter-jungling, and dueling have gained early itemization to support them” with the other Hunter’s Machete upgrades as well. Most importantly, he said, are the interactions between these newly viable styles. “Play styles can now actually counteract one another -- a dueling and invading jungler can now shut down a ganking jungler; a farming jungler can now be shut down by a counterjungler.”
