Thoughts on jungle changes (Goals, results, and the aftermath)

During my recent time playing league, I've been playing a pretty significant amount of jungle. I come here today to discuss my thoughts on the recent changes that rocked the jungle. As well, my experience has been split between solo queue and inhouse games between me and 9 other friends, as this split offers some additional information as to what these changes have resulted in.

First things first, I think it prudent to try and establish what these changes were meant to accomplish.

1: Increase jungler interactivity 2: increase jungle diversity 3: decrease jungle impact in the mid and early game

My general experiences so far have been either largely negative or largely positive depending on what champion I've played. and as a result, whether or not I can either force the enemy jungler out of river or take scuttle fast enough to sneak off with it.

When playing eve I'm often able to do scuttle rather quickly due to my low CD Q and my charm. When I play ww or graves, I'm either able to take it quickly enough that I don't even have to worry about the enemy jungler, or I'm able to contest it well enough that I don't have to worry about them. And that's where the first problem starts.

Goal number 1 issues:

The idea of using scuttlers as a way to force junglers to interact seems like a good idea on paper. In reality it often isn't.

Realistically in most cases jungler A is going to be better at it than jungler B, and as a result, jungler B isn't going to even try, as doing so ends up being risky, as scuttle is now important enough to garner more attention from laners, which means that skirmishes for scuttle are more likely to end in collapses.

The only situation wherein the changes MIGHT accomplish this goal is in the case of an early-game jungler vs an early-game jungler. And even then the above issue still applies.

In short, in a majority of jungle matchups, these changes result in exactly the opposite of what we want, as conceding scuttle for the sake of not risking death will likely become a common strategy.

Goal number 2 issues:

For most of last season, and what has occurred this season, jungle diversity has shifted heavily into junglers that are good at applying early pressure to lanes and snowballing. Part of the main goal of these changes was just to reduce early jungle pressure, and for good reason. My personal experience both as a jungle player and a top player has shown me that it's gotten out of hand.

If riot had simply gone with the pre-7 exp nerfs alone, we might have had some actual progress in fixing this, even if it was simply a blanket nerf to jungle. But they didn't.

Scuttle now gives a significant amount of exp, whereas before it gave very little, meaning that camp exp wasn't just nerfed, it was moved into scuttle. As discussed above, the scuttle changes often result in jungler B conceding scuttle altogether past the first spawn, meaning that if your champion isn't able to contest scuttle, you are at an inherent disadvantage, while your enemy isn't.

As well, this advantage in the form of significant exp and gold can be denied to one champion for most of the game, making the power difference grow as the game goes on and one jungler is forced to continuously cede scuttle.

What does this mean for champion diversity?

What it means is that most champions that can't contest scuttle are have become either entirely non-viable, or much worse.

Early game junglers such as xin and ww, who were already strong, have now become even more dominant. Due to their consistent ability to duel and contest early scuttles, they now snowball even harder with gold and exp in the early and mid game, while simultaneously stomping any jungler that can't match them steadily further down into the dirt. Between the lead dominating scuttles provides them and any lead obtained through counterjungling, at which they are also good at, they can easily snowball, nay, AVALANCHE, any lead they can get.

Tank junglers have been the worst hit, as they often lack the 1v1 potential to duel early-game junglers, as well as the damage to quickly take the now-tankier scuttle. Junglers that rely on early ganks but aren't good at dueling, such as kayn, have also begun to become less effective, as these changes pushed their ability to scale back even further, with almost no compensation.

Farm-to-6 junglers such as have also decreased in power, as many now struggle even harder to hit level 6 and be effective before lane matchups have been influenced beyond the point of no return. Farming junglers in general are also starting to struggle due to the blanket pre-7 exp nerfs. Considering that both of these groups of champions were already struggling, the fact is that these changes have kicked them while they were down. (Side note: To Riot Sotere: You may not like to encourage farm-to-six junglers, but you don't get to pretend as if they don't exist when reworking the entire jungle.)

Goal number 3 issues:

Did these changes make junglers less relevant in the early game? Perhaps. But from what I've seen, not really. The only difference is that now instead of level three ganking people are opting towards level 2 ganking. Either that, or simply opting towards early game junglers who are able to abuse scuttle to get to level 3 before the enemy jungler can. And even then, how much could these changes have pushed back the time on the first gank? 30 seconds? a minute? In terms of achieving enough early game power for early ganks, the only thing these changes have done is make early game junglers the only ones who can early gank.

So has the problem been solved? Only partially. And even then, there's an argument that it hasn't at all.

These jungle changes have done more than just remove early power from the jungle. They have significantly restricted the champion pool for jungle, pushed tank junglers entirely out of viability, and made early game junglers stupidly powerful in matchups wherein they have free reign of the river. As well, these changes have inspired mid and top laners to start taking smite in order to help contest scuttles.

And frankly? These changes made jungle less fun for me. When I was ahead, I was absolutely stomping my enemy jungler. I felt bad for them, because in several cases they had absolutely no chance to come back, or even attempt to. Some DC'd out of despair, rage, or both. And I don't blame them. I've been on the opposite side too, and it feels absolutely dreadful.

Riot, I understand why you undertook these changes.

Please understand that you've failed in what you tried to do.