Boards›Gameplay

Ranger's Trailblazer too strong? "Diversity" in the new jungle and item dominance

coppinslinger·11/19/2014, 6:23:24 PM·2 votes·4,617 views

Hey so I've been really interested in the new jungle changes, particularly in the new items and possible combinations! However, after looking into the opinion of some big streamers like TheOddOne, Trick2g, and Nightblue (among other youtube/twitch personalities) it seems like Ranger's Trailblazer is by far the favorite pick of upper-tier jungle mains.

To me, this is rather disappointing. Riot introduced these new items to introduce new strategy and gameplay options in the jungle. However, this diversity is only achieved when jungle items are relatively equal in strength. We can compare this to support items in the bot lane. Right now, the pick rate of the each item is relatively equal and there is a large diversity of sustain, poke, and hard engage/tank supports.

Do you guys think Trailblazer is really that dominant? Does this dominance limit strategy in the jungle significantly? Or is it just another start of season fluke that will be ironed out like Warmog's, Targon's (remember when 4/5 people on team would build that?), and Black Cleaver? Or is this just going to be another failure of promoting jungle diversity by riot? The new spirit stone in Season 4 definitely introduced new junglers, but it quickly became obvious that only junglers that could abuse elder lizard effectively rose to the top (I'm looking at you Leesin and Kha'zix).

14 Comments

Vore Monster11/19/2014, 6:32:26 PM1 votes

Trailblazer offers AoE to jungle camps to allow non-AoE (Like WW) to clear faster in the lane. I think the most dominant pick this season will actually be Skirmisher's Blade (Revealing them and allowing the next 3 Auto Attacks to deal bonus true damage). Think Lee Sin and Udyr were bad enough at counter jungling? Now they deal true damage.

ProfDrDeath11/19/2014, 6:33:31 PM1 votes

NA Junglers were never really at the forefront of the jungle meta...

That being said, no, I don't think it will be too strong. It certainly has its advantages (lower Smite CD, AoE damage helps single target clears), but the other items have similarily powerful effects:

  • Poacher's Knife increases the reward for counter-jungling, and enables you to steal a lot more Smite buffs.
  • Skirmisher's is what you take if you want to counter-jungle by taking your opponent's life, instead of his toys.
  • Stalker's is helpful for not letting people get away - but I'd argue that it will be the least used of the jungle items, as you only need it if you absolutely lack CC for ganking.
ValyrianBlade11/19/2014, 6:36:50 PM1 votes

Eh I disagree.

I play hecarim as my jungler, and to me I saw trailblazer as the best option (to go with all my aoe, and because hec has mana issues). Simultaneously though, the other options were attractive too.

I mean there are 2 options which really help you counter jungle me, which is hecarim's biggest weakness. In general, junglers are playing to help their lanes rather than themselves at the highest levels, and trailBlazer does not help your lanes nearly as much as the champion-smite ones do. I wouldn't be surprised to see those options rise to supremacy on gank-heavy junglers. For now it's just too new and I think trailblazer is the easiest one to use well, the others have harder to master opportunities and will take time to find optimal usage.

Sir ArmaMalum11/19/2014, 6:36:50 PM1 votes

I think that's a legitimate worry, but I think the other options are strong enough in their own right. Trailblazer offers a very healthy clear with the stun and the slightly faster clear wit the AoE yes, but other others allow for CC for champions like Shyvana, fast clear an regen for AoE champs like Amumu and a downright amazing 1v1 spell. I'm sure one will be more popular than the others, but I'll blame that on the popular jungle champions at the time more than the items themselves.

Fury and Emperor11/19/2014, 6:46:34 PM1 votes

Same thing happened with trinkets and boot enchants.

And really, the community doesn't really care. It's just items, they don't affect gameplay.

TehNACHO11/19/2014, 8:51:59 PM1 votes

I believe it has a lot to do with these players' play styles. Trick likes his late game monsters as I'm aware.

Rainbowgasm11/19/2014, 11:31:54 PM1 votes

might just be a "Timmy" thing like Nasus and Veigar's Q, and Karthus's ult.

General Elephant4/17/2015, 6:18:39 AM1 votes

Necro'ing random old thread I found interesting