Jungle Changes Mega-Thread
Okay, so here we go. Lots to unpack here. Let's discuss a few things for those of who don't have PBE accounts.
Red/Blue Starts
This one is a bit weird. At the moment I prefer to take the buff camps last in a side of the jungle, because I want to optimize the amount of time I can use the buffs to disrupt the enemy jungle or gank lanes. (Haha, good one. No, it's so I can optimize the time to disrupt the enemy jungle. But other people use them to gank)
Now, you have to start red or blue. The time of the first buff is 2 minutes and all, but this still feels like it's going to really hurt early early game aggression. I expect we'll see a lot fewer level 3 Lee Sin/Shaco ganks.
Also, good luck convincing your top laner to leash you red when you're on red side. That's a huge walk.
Red/Blue No Longer Have Minions
This is in direct opposition to the change Riot made back in Season 2. Back then Riot shifted a lot of XP from the large buffs to their smaller minions. This was done to make it less rewarding for Shyvana and Nunu to invade and Smite steal a buff from the enemy jungler. Now, we're going back to the days where an early invade can set you like two levels behind? Especially with how destructive the raptor camp is for a level 1 jungler...
Krugs and Gromp Spawn Later
Get rekt poachers. You want to start a camp? You'll miss a wave. Leave the jungling to the junglers. One hundred percent approve of this change.
Large Krugs takes reduced damage from ranged autos
Also known as Fuck Nidalee. This is fine. Graves, Nidalee and Kindred are the only real ranged junglers, and all of them should spend more time farming so they can't perma-gank anyway. If you want to jungle, play a melee champion.
"Power-Farming Junglers are Something We're Suppressing" Well, RIP Shyvana and Master Yi. Guess those champs just get dumpstered while we wait for a rework that lets them lane/gank better?
Xypherous Specifically Ignoring a Question about the Effectiveness of Counterjungling Also not good. Riot, stop pretending like the jungle is only for gankers. If there is a weakness in the map that can be exploited, it will be exploited. If you don't have an answer to longer respawn times fucking over gankers when they get counterjungled, then you aren't prepared to launch these jungle changes.
Speaking of Longer Respawn Times This is perfect. Leave a single raptor, a small Krug, a puppy, and take both Red and Blue much faster. Your opponent's jungle will be a wasteland and they will have no way of making up the gap. Finally counterjungling has real serious consequences. If this isn't changed I imagine the power of ganking junglers will drop rather dramatically, between this and the Nunu buffs.
Wolves aren't Guard Dogs Anymore Riot, I seriously think you guys have an issue. With each year you go into the jungle and kill more and more puppies. First you took away our Spirit Wolf by removing Devourer. Now you take away our Spirit Guardians who watch over our jungle. We need more puppies in this game, not less.
Smite Healing as a Stop Gap for the Difference between Fast Clears and Tanks As Ivern has demonstrated, clear speed is very relevant to the efficacy of a jungler. Tanks may be able to expend Smites to have healthier clears in the mid and late game (at the cost of a combat summoner in the fight right after...worth, I guess?) but they'll still have a slower clear than assassins and mages in the jungle.
This needs to be fixed if you ever want tanks to compete with fast clear champions in the jungle.