These new jungle changes will hurt variety

TLDR: Smite's range nerf hurts tier 2+ junglers more because tier 1 junglers have too much mobility

In the upcoming patch, jungle is getting nerfed in two ways. According to Riot, all the jungle's changes are aimed to increase variety and balance the jungle in a way that it can compete with the other lanes. Well, this change goes fully against those two goals. In this thread, I will only deal with variety reduction because of smite's range reduction. This means I won't be considering variety lost due to the increased price of changing smite enchantments.

Variety Currently, there are 5 champions who are tier 1 in the jungle: . Apparently, the smite range was done because Riot didn't want these tier 1 junglers to land their skillshot easily.

A skillshot should require skill to hit! - Riot

The problem is that by nerfing the smite range not only you are hitting these champions, but you are also hitting all tier 2+ champions, and it affects them even more. You know why these 5 champions are the kings of the jungle? Because they have TONS of mobility coupled by tankiness (or sustain in case of Nidalee). This excess of mobility gives them way more options to deal with the smite nerf than tier 2+ junglers.

Example:

is alone in your jungle (asume this is blue's jungle). He is a sneaky bastard, and he is trying to steal your red. Neither you or him have flash; moreover, consider Valkyrie has 800 range. You run to him, and he finally sees you when he is just out of old smite's range (that means he is 800 units away).

** Using a tier 1 jungler**.

: You E+Q to him. Whether you hit or miss, he will valkyrie away. No problem, you use R on him, and he is all yours. : You Q to him. Whether you hit or miss, he will valkyrie away. No problem, you use R on him, and he is all yours. : You Q (human). If it lands, you (cougar) W to him and he will valkyrie away. Since you are Nidalee, your W has like 4 seconds CD (due to CDR) and you catch up with him really fast. Even if it doesn't land, you will catch up with him after a few W's. Use if he is getting away. : You tunnel towards him. He valkyries away. After 2 seconds of chase, because of your increased MS thanks to burrow, you get into range to use . After he is slowed, you unborrow underneath, and kill him.

As you can see, none of them need chilling smite's long range to catch up with their prey. That's just a luxury. They all can cut the distance fairly easily, and some of them do not need chilling smite at all.

** With a tier 2+ jungler**,

: You R to him and he valkyries away. You then turn on your W and use chilling smite. Then, you kill him. : You Q to him and he valkyries away. Since Valkyrie has longer range than 's Q, he escapes. In case you manage to smite him before he valkyries, you are then able to catch up with him and kill him. : You E to him. If it is unevolved, you gotta land your W or you won't get into range for smiting and he escapes. If it is, you barely get into range (Kha's evolved E has 900 range vs. Valkyrie's 800). If you get to smite him, you can then use W and kill him after. If you manage to land W while leaping, you can catch up with Corki. (Kha'Zix does NOT need chilling smite's long range as long as his E is evolved). : You use your W and run to him. He valkyries away. You then use your pillar and beg to be able to catch with him. Most likely you won't, but having smite's longer range does help a lot. : You Q towards Corki. He /l and shits fire away. You won't ever catch up to him even if smite had 1000 range.

Most of these champions need smite's long range to catch up, and they do not have alternative ways to get to their prey. Overview

Tier 1 junglers have extremely high mobility. They do not need chilling smite's long range; they have another options for getting into range ("This is called outplay potenntial! " - Riot)

The other champions are more binary. Without smite's long range, it is fairly easy to escape them.

I beg Riot to reconsider this nerf and instead find other ways to balance higher tier junglers.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any comments and critics.