Jungle diversity

LeBıanc·10/18/2015, 7:44:28 PM·8 votes·911 views

The jungle is cruelly lacking diversity in terms of champion pool.

At the Worlds, 3 to 4 champions are being used. Elise Gragas RekSai LeeSin

Can we get some change (buff or nerf, or anything to make other choices more viable), because it's getting pretty boring.

9 Comments

biologist1110/18/2015, 8:46:14 PM2 votes

The problem for 1 they can't really use sated devour since the enemy team will abuse you alot if you do so there goes a whole lot of farm junglers except weridly enough ww if they wanted to try to make a pick comp.But ww isn't that strong so there goes him. Rek'sai is just going to be mostly always picked and banned when lee is not since of the global pressure of her ult and her strong early ganks. Most junglers being picked has great early ganks and pressure that are more bruisers or full tanks and clears at a decent rate. I'm guessing if we will see any jungle diversity at worlds it will be a Maokai jungle he fills alot of the characteristics of the current main jungle champs in worlds.THe way they could include more jungle diversty is most likely buffing warrior so jarvan and vi come back.

BattleBoar10/18/2015, 11:45:36 PM2 votes

The thing is you have to remember pro jungler play for their team, not them self's. All the champ you listed are great for snowballing the lanes and then going tank later on. Even game I watch and the jungler get a Frozen Heart or LotIS as well as a sightstone. That why you never see a devour user in one of the world matches. It better to have your damage dealers in a lane then in the jungle.

Romans VI XXIII10/18/2015, 8:05:56 PM1 votes

IKR, compare it to last years, and oh look all 4 of the same EXACT champions

WinBoat10/18/2015, 11:34:47 PM1 votes

It's stupid how those champions keep on getting picked every single game.

Why not pick good junglers like Riven jungle? Why not Vi? I been playing Vi and she literally destroys and can burst down a target thanks to her ult she can activate from a good distance on you to slam you which is incredibly useful.

Riven, Vi, Jax.

Fuck, even Shaco would be tolerable tho he will suck ass late game lol, even the king of noobs Master Yi would be great to see.

FFiresoul10/21/2015, 6:39:57 PM1 votes

bump. I feel the same way. Why are there only a handful of top tier competitive jungler picks in the meta? What would happen to need to change that?

What is stopping Vi, J4, Xin Zhao, etc. from being used competitively?

JRobin3111/2/2015, 8:49:11 AM1 votes

I agree that jungle diversity has been a problem for RIOT.

One thing is that item 3710 is not played in any professional games that I've seen (Worlds or LCS) meaning it is a solo queue only item. So you might think the problem is the strength of Devourer and that if you just tweak it it will become viable. But that isn't the problem.

Similarly you might look at top jungle picks in professional play and think that you should nerf the ones being played and buff the ones not being played. But this also misses the problem.

The reason certain junglers (Elise Gragas RekSai LeeSin) are being picked right now at in pro play is that they have qualities preferred in the META. Strong Early Game and Ganking power is foremost among those. The ability to conveniently incorporate a item 2049 is also important, particularly if you can do so before finishing your jungle item. Also in pro play the jungler is usually not a carry. Koo Tigers' Hojin went carry Lee Sin, but this is more an anomaly of getting 4 kills at around 5 minutes and suddenly being in the carry position and embracing it. Pro teams don't try to funnel kills onto the jungler in the early game. What I mean is that there are qualities players are looking for when they play jungle professionally.

Another important factor in the problem of jungle diversity is the volatility of the jungle. Small changes in the jungle can have a large impact on the champions preferred. This creates a FotM effect where buffs or nerfs to champions don't promote jungle diversity but just make a different clique of champions in "S tier".

I think RIOT has to be cautious about the changes they make in the name of jungle diversity. There is a lot of potential for other jungle picks to become top picks with just slight changes in the META, but it's just as easy to knock them out of META.