What jungle item for tanks, Rangers useless now?
So the 25% CDR on smite from Rangers trailblazer has been removed, supposedly because it was meant as a catchup item and instead was used to extend leads.
First, I call bull. Rangers trailblazer was never intended as a catch up item, it was intended for farm centered junglers who didn't gank enough to make use of the champion smites and also didn't have enough safety to counter jungle effectively - most notably your tank junglers.
This change removed half of the effectiveness of this item for tanks though. Most tank junglers clear through AOE damage - they don't need an aoe smite because their AOE damage will clear the small monsters faster than they can clear the large monster anyways once you finish your first clear. They also don't really need the aoe stun once you get in to the game a bit as the camps don't damage them much.
The item served 2 purposes:
- faster smites, meaning more jungle buffs and faster clears. Meaning faster gold income and advantages ganking via the free oracles, toad armour, etc...
- 15% missing health and mana Regen; this is still useful but is nothing special.
Think of it this way, I can now get a champion smite instead of Rangers trailblazer, and my only loss is 15% of missing health/mana. My gain is a more likely successful gank, snowballing myself and my laner. Even if I only pull off 1 ASSIST that I wouldn't have gotten without a champion smite, the extra gold will be worth more than enough health and mana potions to make up for the lost Regen from Rangers trailblazer.
From what I'm seeing, diversity has been removed. The only way to jungle now is with a champion smite, and the only reason to have a champion smite is to gank more. Despite all this talk of diversity, tankier junglers are less viable than ever (excluding those who can use poachers).
So on that note, chilling smite or challenging smite on tank junglers? And are there any exceptions who would still use trailblazer?
, augments to get
, and arguments to get
. I'm not convinced that
is worth it yet.