It's almost time for me to give up on Jungle Wukong
**(Before anyone asks or makes an assumption, no, I didn't just lose, I went likr 4/0/4 or something.) **
It's gone from non-meta but viable to pretty much pointless.
You feel weak for the entirety of the match. You simply don't get the experience or gold required to function anymore. Each camp is half of your health, the two potions barely keeping you afloat for half of a clear even with Lifesteal Quints.
I've done Krug/Gromp, Buff, Buff, Recall. I've done Krug/Gromp, Buff, Camp, Camp, Recall, Buff. No matter what you do, you're wide open for invasion because you're at 40% health AND recalling, and then you're wasting your buff time not being able to gank. You're playing catch-up on levels the entire time, never simply even or ahead. You're behind in items because there's no gold income. Conservation beforehand was enough extra income for Wukong to complete core items, even if they were a little behind a top laner's pace. Now you practically won't finish an item for 20+ minutes unless you end up 6/0 at 10 minutes somehow.
And then to top it off, they're nerfing Ranger's Trailblazer next patch to where it has the standard 60s smite cooldown. Recalling and picking that up to bullshit some sustain with the stun and Decoy was the only way to actually get anything done, even though you still started to fall behind on levels.
Can you still do it? Sure, but why would you bother? Poppy is just as effective at clearing and sustaining camps. That is to say, fucking terrible at it but you can still BARELY do it if you don't want to accomplish anything.
I really expected at the very least another potion by now, but I guess heavy sustain like Warwick is doing too well because the additional buttfuckery doesn't really affect them because they heal through it regardless.
Recalling after getting both buffs or recalling in the middle of your first clear just isn't acceptable if you're in a match you actually want to win, i.e. ranked. I'll give it till the end of the preseason, but I'm just about done bothering. I still enjoy him top because you have the income to actually do something, but feeling weak as fuck for the entire match if I jungle is boring. Which is sad, because I WAS a jungle main, but it's just boring now.
Edit - Just to add, maybe he's still good, he's okay-ish after the first clear. But it's just a bitch to deal with so I'm about done with it
