The jungle mobs deals so much damage. My jungler hecarim died at golems, he made it through blue and red but he died before doing a full clear.
Is increasing jungling difficulty supposed to limit jungler champion pool? But the item changes, IMO, imply having junglers that have more varied roles.
Since hecarim is my preferred jungler I hope this isn't bad news.
I think it's just a change in meta. I never did a full clear as hecarim anyways (blue, wolves, red, gank if open, wraiths, wolves, gank if open, wight with smite, base. My point is though, that base step just comes earlier. It's only 350g to get the upgrade to smite, I'll probably choose to base with enough for the item and maybe 2-3 health pots. Might not even do red before basing, so I have a fresh red buff to use after that.
Also could be that the jungle requires a new path on certain junglers (I believe I should start gromp now) and possibly a new leash (leash more than 1 camp, probably the extra leashes by the support only).
Both at the same time. They have made champions that can't handle the jungle's new damage be pushed out, while champions that can handle it ARE ALL VIABLE NOW. Nunu is now really good, Warwick is now GREAT, Fiddlesticks is now decent, Shaco can now be a real counter jungler, and Master Yi can finally so quick that he can gank and farm at the same time.
Definitely restrict
Riot is definitely trying to make more junglers viable. Or at least more types of junglers. Jungle tanks did not do so well in S4, and "farm" jungles could work sometimes in solo queue but were not really a viable option in competitive play.
They deliberately made it harder to clear, or at least to clear and not be low on health your first time through. This is somewhat of a nerf to squishy high-damage junglers early on. Previously they could usually clear the whole jungle, hit level 3 with both buffs and high health, and then gank. You may need to choose between clearing your whole jungle (or most of it) and recalling or trying for a gank at level 2.
