Thoughts on the Jungle

So I think we all liked the idea of a more arcade-y jungle that was coming this season, with all the different elements like smite buffs and the scuttle crab and whatnot, but we can agree that while it's all in the game, it's gated by the difficulty of the new jungle. By "difficulty" I mean the damage you take during the first clear, and how hard it is to get caught up once you're behind. If the jungle was more forgiving we would have all sorts of options, but right now a lot of champs are just being dragged around by the harsh demands of the current jungle. You want to steal some camps when the enemy jungler shows bot? Turns out their camps are empty and now you're a bit behind and jungling sucks. Want to make some sort of play that doesn't directly get you gold but puts your team ahead? Now you're a bit behind and jungling sucks. Now, that's not the end of the world, and the current jungle is still fun, but this new jungle would work a lot better if there were incentives to make risky plays instead of just safely farming and ganking. I'll list a couple changes that could make the jungle more interactive:

1. Skirmisher's Sabre: -Grants +20% movement speed toward marked targets (So you can, you know, actually kill people with this. Currently the only possible reason to build this thing is stealth detection, and even then it's not always worth. A slow is obviously better for ganks because, well, turrets are a thing).

2. Poacher's Knife: -Smiting a monster in the enemy jungle grants the bonuses regardless of whether the monster dies, and also restored 15% of missing HP/MP (Well you COULD chase me, or you could take that offering of freshly-smited Gromp while I run away really fast).

3. Dragon: -1st stack grants +5% damage to champions (rather than +6% scaling), and 200g to the champion that kills it. -Rito makes damn sure nobody can solo it at level 2 anymore. (Reward players for snagging early dragons. The current D1 is largely useless until lategame. This change ensures that the laners benefit from you taking an objective instead of ganking for them, and the gold stops you from falling behind in the jungle afterwards).

Ok here's where it gets more ambitious:

The Hunter's Machete keeps stacks of Dominance similar to the old Feral Flare but with the opposite intent: this is meant to reward junglers for interacting with each other. Some rough numbers:

Killing the large creep in the enemy jungle = 1 Stack Having both Speed Shrines active at the same time = 1 Stack Stealing an enemy buff = 2 Stacks Being on the team that kills dragon = 2 Stacks Killing the enemy jungler = 3 Stacks

Hunter's Machete (and upgrades): -Collects stacks of Dominance (max 10) -Deal 1.5% bonus damage to minions/monsters/towers/champions per stack of Dominance -Increases Smite damage by 4% per stack of Dominance (Smite tooltip reflects this) -Restores health and mana equal to 1% of damage dealt to monsters per stack of Dominance -Increases Devourer on-hit by 5% per stack of Dominance -The above bonuses don't come into effect until 3 stacks of Dominance -Purchasing the Enchantment stops the jungle items from collecting additional stacks

So there, a system for counterjunglers that can be ignored (a Yi/Shyv will probably never even notice it) while rewarding aggressive jungling. The 3 stack minimum is so that junglers who aren't actively collecting stacks won't end up with a couple of random stats later. The Enchantment clause is so that said junglers don't randomly stack up during mid/lategame and puts a vague time limit on getting the stacks (Enchantments might have to be buffed so this works properly). This can also counter snowballing of the enemy jungler; even if they kill you a couple times in your jungle, they're not going to be a huge global menace until they get all the stacks they want and finish the Enchantment.

Now, to make this work, buff the heck out of the first clear. Gank junglers should be able to terrorize the lanes levels 3-4, counterjunglers should be able to get their buffs and then start grabbing Domination stacks (or maybe even sooner), farm junglers should be able to stay for at least one clear and have enough health to defend themselves from counterjunglers. Idk how to do this specifically, probably tone down monster damage and increase the heal they give. Whatever the case, healthy junglers are fun for the game and they'll be able to better pursue the benefits of the new jungle. That might unbalance things a little but to be fair, both teams have a jungler so as long as they aren't much more influential than adcs it should be fine.

As for the jungler who spends the game chasing Dominance stacks, they end up probably a little more behind than they would otherwise (though hopefully their opponent is crying in a dumpster somewhere), but they get a couple of nice buffs to jungle clearing, smite stealing, as well as +15% damage and better Devourer scaling (to offset the fact they wait longer to buy it).

TL;DR you get stacking buffs for counterjungling during the earlygame, which give a couple of linear buffs. Thanks for reading, tell me what you think