Yeah... they seem pretty dumb. When I saw the reveal of them all I could think was how lame they sounded. Like Skarner's pointless little crystals. A silly little trinket in the jungle that might prove useful in some games but ultimately no one will really care about.
If they want to make jungle more interesting... give each side a roaming jungle camp. Like a big, boss-style monster that wanders around the jungle at random or something. Have it give a decent buff if killed and a BETTER buff if stolen by the enemy team. Since it wanders, invading the enemy jungle to claim it is difficult to do unless you get lucky or plan your route out with wards to tell where it is. BUT... since it's a strong buff now invasion and counter-jungle junglers freaking MATTER, and there is an objective for them to try for! It would also encourage people to ward the enemy jungle, which is always smart play.
Don't just put little buffs in the jungle randomly. I assure you, those will NEVER feel cool. Even if you steal a drag with the ward plant or survive being chased because of the "satchel plant", you can't really claim anything but luck. The game gave you a randomly spawning advantage that saved you. If we're making the game more random to make it exciting, just have a random player on a random team get struck with a Karthas ult every five minutes or something. It's just as random and arbitrary and it might actually matter outside of the incredibly narrow situations these dumb little plants are for.
Or if that sounds dumb and unfair like it IS... maybe don't include plants whatsoever.
