Does Riot want older junglers to still be able to jungle?
I am speaking mostly for champions that were originally meant for the jungle but now have started being played elsewhere due them becoming better laners or due to their viability in the jungle becoming poor. The main one I'm thinking of is
who was initially meant for the jungle and now finds himself more at home in the top lane or as a support in bot lane. When I started playing the game in season two Nautilus quickly became my favorite champion due to both his design and gameplay. He was the main reason why I started learning the jungle due to it being the only viable place to play him at the time. I loved being able to gank lanes and contribute to fights by disrupting carries and tanking damage.
Unfortunately, after changes in late season 5,
obtained much more consistent power in his E due to the lower cooldown at the price of losing damage in his shield DoT. It made him better in the jungle but it also caused him to become much more powerful as a support and top laner due to the damage it provided. He became too powerful and thus he received nerfs to his E base damage and recently his mana sustain. As a jungler he has become a shell of his former self after the changes that have happened resulting in him being one of the most under performing junglers in league at the moment with low play rate of 0.3% and a pathetic win rate of 44%. I know that winrates cannot be the only way to judge a champion's success but in this case his clear is terribly slow and is what leads him to perform so poorly in this meta as a jungler.
There is almost no reason to pick
over other tank junglers at this point and for me it raises the question if riot wants him to still be played in the jungle? If they do still want him to be viable in his original role then they can give him buffs to encourage him to max his W shield first rather than his E, but without affecting his Top or Support capabilities if they decide to do so. Nautilus's biggest issue in clearing the jungle early is that he loses a lot of damage when his shield pops which often happens before he is able to get even half of its potential damage on a jungle camp. I think one of the best ways to alleviate this problem is by giving his shield bonus damage against non-epic monsters, let its damage persist only for non-epic monster after it breaks, or maybe have the shield have damage reduction against monsters so it takes more time for it to break at early ranks.
If riot does not want him to be played as a jungler then that is fine too but I am wondering what they have in store for champions like
who still have people who want to hold onto their older play styles despite their niche changing.
TL;DR: Does riot still consider champions like
who have become more viable in other roles despite being initially designed for the jungle and should/could they support those play styles with specific buffs to jungling power?