Jungle Items are supposed to be for junglers...

so your trying to tell me you dont like your free extra baron/dragon controll ?

im ganking top your doing drag ?? ezz il just send ez

its cool when roles are not pre-defined but people actually use them as they feel. fiddlesticks was a midlaner once. less predefinition, more variation.

I like the fact that other roles can take jungle items. Why are people so pissy about it?

Is the jungle item and smite crowding out other options, or is it just a viable alternative? Does the person choosing to take smite and buy that item give up enough power from not having a different summoner spell?

If so, then it's actually adding more choice and diversity to the game, which is a good thing.

If someone takes Smite, that means that they are giving up either Ignite (killing power), Teleport (global map pressure), or Flash (initiate/escape) for it, while also getting nothing in the early game (until they've built the item) except for the ability to smite cannon minions and maybe push/farm a little better.

The reason Runeglaive works on AP Ezreal is because he's a longer-ranged burst assassin who doesn't really need Ignite to do his thing, but who had a huge weakness in having very poor waveclear outside of his ultimate. For him, the added waveclear from Blasting Smite, allowing him to escape from being locked under his tower the entire laning phase, is worth more than a little more killing power. Runeglaive also gives him even more waveclear (and some mana sustain) to compensate for his weaknesses.

When I run any lane with smite, my team is loving it when I swing in to hit dragon or baron and we drop it before the other team can converge on us. It can be a game changer, if you use it right. I also like the smite buffs, VERY nice to have for all the choices of which way to go, varying by opponent laner.