What is fun and not fun about Jungling

Disclaimer: I am not saying there is nothing fun about Jungling. There are quite some rewarding aspects of Jungling such as successfully ganking your opponent, killing the enemy jungler, or securing Dragon or Baron with a really clutch Smite, and those are some of the stuff I love about Jungling.

However, there have been changes that have been discouraging me from Jungling lately, and I would like to give my opinion on what I like and do not like about this new Jungle.

Let's just get over with the negatives about Jungling.

First off, I don't feel powerful in the Season 5 Jungle anymore because the camps beat the crap out of me so badly. Many of my favorite Junglers cannot make some play happen after clearing my third camp because I have about 300 or less health left. Unless I clear the Rift Scuttler, which takes about 10 seconds I could have used to help out my laners, I have to recall, and I actually feel slightly humiliated that I didn't have enough sustain to make some plays happen. I want to feel powerful and ready to surprise my enemies by coming out of the bush with at least a reasonable amount of health left to feel safe about ganking. Instead, most of the time, I will have to recall and buy my Tier-2 Jungle Item because the Red Brambleback was mean to me.

Another thing that displeases me is the experience I can get. I used to be able to stay at roughly only half a level behind the Mid and Top laners and feel like I have done at least a decent job in the early game. However, I am having games where I can secure 3+ kills for my team but still only get level 6 by the 8:00 mark or later. Farming the Jungle takes time as well, and the experience rewards are not sufficient for me to stay on par with my solo laning teammates. I am playing catch-up constantly with experience, and I would like more experience rewards for Jungling such as +20 Experience per large monster kill or something. I don't think it's fun to play catch-up all the time, especially when I have contributed to my team quite a bit with ganks and objectives.

Lastly, the most recent nerf to the Tier-2 Jungle Item really hit some champions hard. Some of the Junglers I enjoy playing are struggling to get to that fourth camp for the Tier-2 Jungle Item due to sustain issues. Additionally, the reason for increasing the price isn't something that justifies the nerf. Sure, if a Jungler manages to get a kill around 1:00, which is somewhat tough, without giving the kill to a teammate, which is very likely, then that Jungler may snowball quite hard. However, this event happens extremely rarely. Personally, I have never even done this, and many people have claimed the amount of times this has occurred can be counted on one hand. I would say that there was a better alternative to this change, but that is a story for another day.

Now that I have gone over the stuff I did not enjoy, here are some things I really liked.

Smite buffs are actually very useful, and because of that, I love to race to the chickens and get that smite bonus for clearing wards. These bonuses actually grant some neat opportunity for flashy plays or for granting team utility. I can Smite the enemy wolves and not have to worry too much about warding that side of the Jungle anymore. The Krugs and Gromps are the nicest ones because they are kind enough to give me their power for clearing the jungle without dying. And the Chickens, though they hurt more than Red buff, offer the best Smite bonus for ganking, securing Dragon, and staying out of sight. The increased strategy that these bonuses promote is very healthy for the Jungle.

The Dragon change was a really good change, in my opinion. Now, I do not have to argue to my teammates whether Dragon is worth more than a pathetic Outer Turret. The permanent buffs now define the power of taking Dragon more than before. Back in Season 4, Dragon was just worth a bit of gold, which some teams would just ignore for a turret. But now, Dragon feels so important. It feels like a truly important objective now, and it just feels intense trying to secure the Dragon from the enemy team.

Lastly, the Jungle Item diversity adds more variety to the Jungle. Now, every Jungler has a solid item path to pursue, whether it be tanks going for Juggernaut and Stalker's Blade, Farmers going for Devourer and Ranger's Trailblazer, Mages going for Magus, and Bruisers getting the Warrior enchantment. What makes it even better is that the Tier-2 Jungle items are now swappable amongst each other. For example, Gankers can get Stalker's Blade after getting Ranger's Trailblazer to clear the Jungle. What this does is allow some struggling Junglers to get through the early game and no longer have to worry about whatever weakness they have in the Jungle.

Let me know your opinions on the Jungle, and let's discuss how the Jungle could be more fun for all of us.