Why The New Jungle Broke My Heart, AKA, I Miss Being A Werewolf

I've been maining Warwick since the end of season 2, back when people still thought he was trash. He was the first jungler I bought, because his sustain made him the easiest to learn the role with, especially since this was before I hit level 30, and I was lacking the proper runes and masteries. And through the many changes to League of Legends that I've experienced in the following seasons, Warwick has remained my main pick for jungle, and one of my favorite characters to play. From the standard bruiser builds to the hilarious if unpractical AP assassin builds (don't worry, only in normals), I've played every version of the woofboy you can imagine, and I learned the extremes of his capabilities, from how ridiculous his life steal can get to how ludicrous his damage levels can reach, from the full cdr rush's unbelievably repeatable ganks, to the full movement speed rush's unimaginably fast across the map rush down kills on the wounded, and no matter what extremes I coaxed out of his kit with a little love and a lot of itemization reworks, he was never deemed broken or OP. When I did well with him, people were surprised at how scary the Warwick could be, not aggravated at his unbalanced nature.

So when this preseason hit, and all of a sudden my favorite pick for one of my two primary positions (jungle and support) was banned in 90% of the games I played, my heart just broke. Yes, I had great fun with Skirmishers Sabre enchanted with Devourer , and I reveled in my oldest and favorite pick's new dominance in jungle. While many junglers struggled to stay alive through one clear of jungle, with its newly increased difficulty, and the reduced number of health potions at start, I could still do it with full life, and mana pots instead of health pots as my old buddy Warwick. While most people were grabbing Ranger's Trailblazer and leaving their own jungle less then ever, I was going Skirmisher's Sabre and venturing into enemy jungle in search of conflict more than ever before. But the thing is, none of that was because Warwick was suddenly broken. He still had all the same drawbacks as before, no cc and limited gank potential til six, and all the same advantages as he'd always sported, great clear speed and sustain in jungle with devastating ganks at level six. The only difference was now people were having trouble clearing well with the established top dogs of jungle, and suddenly, his ability to clear quickly without loss of life was unmatched, and rare. The old school sustain junglers of yore were back in rotation like I'd never seen before, Fiddlestick's made a triumphant return, I saw more Nunu's than I would have ever expected, and any champ with strong sustain clear was accepted without complaint in jungle. Trundles, and Volibears, and Shens, once banished from acceptable play, could be found roaming the new wilds of this more dangerous jungle.

And in this new jungle, that demanded sustain and speed of clear first and foremost from those that wandered it's depths, Warwick was king. Now, as one of the few junglers that didn't require Ranger's Trailblazer for their clear's strength to hit the acceptable mark, which was still slower and more punishing, even with the Trailblazer, than was previously considered to be tolerable for a champion who's primary position was in the jungle, Warwick was one of the only junglers experimenting with the other machete upgrades. It didn't take long for the Skirmishers with Devourer to be recognized as the strongest combo, and people were shocked senseless at the damage Warwick could do with a smite ult combo once he had that combo built.

Me? I wasn't the least bit surprised, Hell, I'd played Warwick builds with more pop than that. DFG and Nashors combo hit harder than that, But what was dropping jaws all across the country was the speed of this particular combo. Didn't matter that it required Smite for its full power, which, with it's CD increased to 1 minute, meant you couldn't use it for clear speed if you wanted to have it up for ganks. Didn't matter that Warwick still couldn't carry a team of feeders to victory the way a Fizz or a Kat or a Fiora or a Zed could from lane. Didn't matter that it wasn't even a week before people figured out how to do the same combo with Yi, and how to use the Stalker's Blade with Kha, or how Pantheon didn't need levels or items to clear so effortlessly that he could even 1v1 dragon at level 2, or that all three of them could carry harder from jungle than Warwick, who still worked better as a bruiser than a flat out carry.

No, people saw the first bright and shiny new power player of the Pre-Season in Warwick, and they screamed bloody murder, demanding the nerf hammer's swing, riding the hate train all the way to ban city in almost every game of ranked, and jumping on the "I suddenly main jungle now, exclusively with Warwick" bandwagon, so in the rare game where he was actually playable, he wasn't playable by me, because first pick was autolocking that shit. And the nerf hammer swung, with all the speed and power of Mjolnir itself, hitting every aspect of the combo that had fan's wailing like infantile banshees. Bam, Devourer Nerf, Bam, Skirmisher Nerf, Bam, Warwick Nerf, Bam, Warwick Nerf, Bam, Warwick Nerf.

And thats how the new Jungle broke my heart, by shoving my favorite champion into the spotlight, for just long enough to ensure nerfs strong enough that everyone else would quit playing him, while the few, like myself, who had mained him for many seasons now, would be left with a bitter taste in their mouth, and a weaker werewolf than he was when considered low tier, only weeks ago, in seasons past. And I miss being a Werewolf, so much that I can't wait for the nerfs to hit, because I'll take the hits to clear capability and ult CD, and I'll only mind the nerfs to his jungle items when I'm buying them on someone else, and I'll bear in silence the jeers and the catcalls cast by my teammates when I select him, and I'll weather the enemy team's hate and constant focus when I'm playing him, because I'll be playing him. And I can bear it all, I can bear all the bullshit crashing down on me, if I can just be a werewolf again.