A pro players in depth thoughts on Jungle: Xerde Andrei

All credit goes to Xerxe, this post will be removed upon his request if he so desires.

"It's been all memes and jokes so far; however, I’d like to talk about the jungle changes in-depth and more seriously from both SoloQ as well as competitive/pro point of view.

First off, I'm going to talk about one of the main reasons why the jungle was changed, and touch on Riot's goals for the jungle: Reduce early lane pressure from junglers Increase the number of jungle v. jungle interactions in the early game Encourage variation in optimal pathing Reduce mana restraints as a hard blocker for champions that want to jungle

Junglers could get level 3 as well as gank the laners before they could even get to that level. I understand, that this may have be frustrating for some people but there were ways to counter that: -By paying attention the to map instead of being afk at the turret browsing facebook/twitter/etc., checking if bot or top are leashing/nobody leashing at all. Scouting level 1, checking the buffs, placing a ward at enemy buffs. All these things are useful in telling what their pathing is like and where is going to end. -Realizing that most junglers gank around somewhere between 2:30-2:45, so warding was possible before the time mark. In case warding is not possible, it's much better to stay behind minions or hide in lane bushes and soak experience. It's silly to die to a gank that you know it's incoming, lose the wave gold/experience and give gold to the enemy team versus just staying behind, to at least get lane experience. I don't think players in competitive had any problem regarding these level 3 ganks. It's such a standard gank, people have learned ways on how to play around it, mentioned above.

Right now, I feel like the jungle is not anymore about outpathing&outsmarting the enemy, instead it's "camp someone because you can't get punished due to catch up experience and long respawn jungle camps".The respawn timers are so long is because you have 1+ minute of camping someone without really losing anything, therefore laners get angry and complain. As a result of all these, junglers are considered too "strong" level 3, jungle exp gets nerfed, some being put solely into the scuttle crab.

The reason I don't find this Scuttle crab change good is because by making it so valuable (it gives more gold and experience than any other camp, by a large margin) everyone is going to want it due to the fact that it’s one of the most important objectives in early game. I don't think it will encourage variation in optimal pathing, nor bring champion pool diversity, it's likely going to limit it to junglers that are strong early game, can adjust their pathing to take the crab ASAP without affecting clearing their own camps (Skarner/Olaf/Xin/Graves/Trundle).

By giving the Scuttle more importance, the number of jungle v. jungle interactions in the early game will not increase, but rather force the laners that have more early game pressure to collapse and take it. The unfortunate jungler will fall one camp behind; not just a regular camp, but the MOST valuable camp of them all. I've seen in NA that mid laners are already taking Smite, just to make sure they secure the crab for jungler/themselves. This is why I don't like making the crab such a relevant camp, in the middle of the map, especially where everyone has access to it.

A year ago, Raptors camp was the best one to start with, same reason as with the crab, more experience, gold and wanting it to respawn as soon as possible. Because it was that vital, people started invading with stronger lv1 champs like Graves/Braum/Taliyah. Sometimes you couldn't contest it because the enemies were too strong so you had to give it up and be behind until it respawned. The major difference is that you knew exactly where the Raptors were going to respawn, they were in the exact same location where they were taken the first time + being on your side of the map, so you had more chances to fight back and defend yourself if you got invaded the 2nd time.

But for the crab, not only is it in the middle of the map, limiting your options on how to approach the fight, but if you are to mess something up or get caught, you're most likely to burn a summoner or die. It's RNG as well, assuming you have winning bot + neutral mid and losing top, you want the crab to be towards bot because they can move first from lane and help. By making it random, it could respawn on your losing top so you can't contest that one, then you have to hope the next one respawns bot where it's winning, but then again, what if it respawns top again?! I've had a replica of this scenario where in a game 5-6 crabs respawned only top side, and I couldn’t contest a single crab that game. I wasn't behind in experience that much because I took Krugs on spawn, but the problem was that I spent a lot of tempo. I was playing on redside as well, so if enemy had any wards on me doing Krugs, my bot could have gotten dove at any point, making my only winning lane be at disadvantage. This is my problem with making it random.

Honestly, I haven't seen a single AP jungler since this change, but I'm quite sure they wouldn't fit in this "meta" simply because they are not strong enough first levels to contest the crabs against AD bruisers. The change to Runic Echoes doesn't help much either, it's actually worse now. I like the CDR but the mana doesn't feel too useful. I'd like to see a combination of CDR/MS, but perhaps it would be too strong.

To end this on a more positive note, I do like the Talisman changes, I can finally clear 2 camps with Hecarim and not be oom. yey!"