@Riot Why do I think nerfing jungle exp is a bad idea, and some counterproposals

Dear Riot, the problem with jungle having much higher impact than solo laners in solo queue does not stem from lack of level difference - would that be the case, we would observe the same disparity in competitive LoL, and we really don't.

While as a laner I appreciate this nerf, I do believe it's a wrong one. It generally nerfs all junglers, instead of tackling the problem.

The reason why jungler have such a high impact in solo queue is skill disparity - a jungler can provide a lot of assistance if he sees a skill difference in one of lanes. If in turn a laner sees skill disparity in the jungle, they can't do much to slow the enemy jungler down. Massive skill disparities don't occur as much in competitive, since relative impact of junglers is not observed to be as high there.

The scuttle patch makes me think that you in Riot do realize that's the issue - scuttle changes were clearly aimed at giving laners chance to slow junglers down, but the solution was so unsatisfactory that the patch got pretty much reverted.

I don't believe that nerfing jungle XP is the right approach, since all this does is making junglers have less stats then laners - I don't like statchecky gameplay, and I believe you don't either.

Here are some other solutions, with - I believe - better gameplay outcome, and less irritating for the junglers.

\1. Nerf tooth & nail bonuses, and weaker camps approriately - one I believe is the best option by far

In the old days of league you could punish enemy jungler by stealing their camps. In modern league, that's rearely a viable strategy (at least in early/early mid game), because Tooth and Nail ensures that laners have much harder time dealing with camps, while also recieving less reward - so the only person that can punish a jungler is the other jungler. Nerfing (I believe removing would be too drastic) T&N would give laners a chance to slow down enemy jungler.

\2. Nerf challanging smite - also a good option, but favours dueling/splitpushing type laners

Challanging smite is a very strong dueling tool, reducing damage by 20% and dealing up to 378 damage makes it equally good, or superior to other combat spells. Combined with low cooldown (and low ability to track that cooldown, since it's usually used outside of vision) it ensures that junglers have an option to be extremely potent duelists. If a jungler is able to outduel a solo laner, their ability to be "1" in 4+1 or 3+1+1 setups is greatly reduced. I believe that red smite, much more so then stats from level, is responsible for the fact that it's too often the case.

\3. Increase MMR penalty for duos if one of players queues for jungle - this really just should be done regardless

Duo potential of a jungler is much higher then any other lane, since it gives wide possibility of cooperation with your duo buddy without giving up ability to influence the map (like duo bot does). If you google a "duo boosting strategy", it will almost always assume one of you jungles, with exception of some cheese kill lanes on bot, that don't really work as well. It really doesn't need explaination, every single one of us players used this duo jungle advantage, either to help a friend or to get some help.

As we established, laners have little opportunities to slow down a jungler who has advantage (in this case, from queuing with a buddy), as well as making up for a jungler that got their MMR raised due to playing duo and now queue'd solo. Increasing MMR penalty reduces both effects and makes solo Q more fair for everyone.

Thanks for any attention