A serious, opinionated (long, sorry) break down on why I believe Riot is getting the jungle wrong.

The jungle itself was in a pretty good place. Jungle diversity? Actually pretty alright compared to popular belief. Lee wasn't even a top 5 jungler in some peoples lists. You had Nidalee, Rek'sai, Rengar, Vi, Jarvan all before you even considered junglers like Lee, Nunu, Fiddlesticks Nocturne, etc etc.

Riot, you seem to think any problem in the jungle 'role' is because of the jungle mechanics itself. You think it's because camps are too easy, too hard, offer too much, too little, you think it's the jungle itemization that's an issue. Except in the case of Feral Flare/Devourers, that has just almost never been the case.

Jungle diversity has never been because of jungle mechanics. If anything, you contradict yourself. Jungle monsters leashing 10 times gave great diversity to the jungle. People loved playing Twitch or Kayle, even jungle Karma has been done before. You killed a whole sub-class of junglers with this change.

The pre-season was rough and shaky, but you ended up with a pretty great jungle by the end of it. When you finally got the jungle mechanics right, something that didn't need to be changed, you change it arbitrarily. Have you even played the jungle? It was quite enjoyable.

You have had great, successful experiments in the jungle. Rangers, Skirmishers, Stalkers...they're all great items with their own uses. Who cares if people choose a better one early and a better one later? It was choice. And now you're contradicting yourself again. You're taking away our choice. People aren't going to switch their rangers in to a stalkers for 255 gold if they buy rangers early. Even Kobe said as much on twitter. Do you even consult experts on these changes? You have numerous pro players and experts at your disposal who express completely negative responses, and you go through with them anyway. Why? Do you really think that you just know better all the time?

You failed with poachers. It's been months, it's wasted effort. Remove it. Zz'rots? It failed. Remove it. (It really isn't a good item but I guess that's not what this thread is about). We DID have choice in the jungle, we had the option to go for rangers for better early clears before deciding on skirmishers or Stalkers. That was choice. You say you want that. Why do your actions say otherwise?

Lastly, going back to how I said jungle mechanics and itemization has never been the problem with the jungle. The issue with jungle diversity is almost always one thing. CHAMPION INTERACTION WITH THE JUNGLE. Look at strong junglers, they can clear, they can gank. They all deal damage. What does this mean? Well let's compare it to TOP LANE. Why top lane? Because in top lane, tanks, mages, fighter, carries, they're all equally balanced and playable there outside of champion balance.

This is because in lane, minion waves determine your experience. Minion waves and csing determine your gold income (ignoring kills). You can't "slowly" clear a minion wave and fall behind. It hits your turret and you catch up in the experience. (unless a team zones you off it which is it's own unique strategy)

In the jungle, it's jungle monsters. Champions who don't deal damage to jungle monsters fall behind very quickly. They can't gank as fast or as well because they're lower leveled. They're getting less experience from the jungle because they're clearing it slower, because they're clearing it slower they're taking more damage, because they're taking more damage they can't gank as efficiently.

The simple truth is, you don't treat tanks and fighters equally when it comes to jungle interaction. They have different roles in the PvP portion of the game, but they don't get to their job because they're flat out inferior (not different) at the PvE portion of the jungle.

What tank junglers need, are direct buffs to their jungle interaction. They need bonus damage to monsters. They need to clear as efficiently as a fighter, so they don't fall behind just because they're a tank.

• I know this is really long and I'm sorry, but I didn't know how to get my thoughts out any shorter. I really hope I get some attention here because I TRULY believe what I'm saying here. This is my first post here, that's how much I believe in this idea.