Thoughts on new jungle champion buffs
So I was doing some testing on the jungle buffs in terms of early-game clear speed.
Starting with the good, Diana receives the second-largest buff and was probably the closest to being a viable jungler before. Expect to see her as a legitimate part of the jungle pool.
Garen receives the largest buff. He can already clear jungle somewhat and the W changes alongside also help his clear as the shield is larger early game. It does slow his resist stacking - which is important to his scaling with the other W changes - but he clears quickly and decently healthily now. His ganks are still pretty bad and his itemisation is awkward. He will be forced into Warrior due to being unable to proc the fire nova from Cinderhulk. I don't think it is going to push him into jungle as his main role but it should be an ok option.
The change to Darius mostly affects how healthily he clears. You can save an AA on most camps and potentially even 2 on buffs. The heal is much more significant. You do need to slow the big wolf to proc your heal there much of the time.
Talon sometimes saves 1 AA on a camp, but usually clears each camp in the exact same time. Buff is pure placebo.
Zed saves 1 AA on red and blue buff and receives no change elsewhere. Ignore this change entirely.
Morde wasn't on PBE. Changes look like they're significant especially in the case where you can carry your passive between camps. Morde can clear already in decent time so saving a couple of autos is nice. Not sure that clear speed is what is gating him from the jungle role though.
Tanks as a whole receive buffs larger than Talon or Zed as soon as they reach Bami's Cinder and very significant buffs at cinderhulk. It greatly improves their clear throughout the game. The PvP damage should not be underestimated either. With no bonus HP and just at Bamis you're getting an extra ~15 damage or so which doesn't sound much but the item scales decently well. Sunfire cape in particular (although not a jungle item) can reach very noticible amounts of damage. Direct buffs to Amumu and Rammus as well mean that we can expect to see a plethora of jungle champs attempting to re-enter the meta. Nunu, Sejuani, Zac, Amumu and Rammus should all be looking much, much stronger.
Feels like Teemo should have been included into this group of buffs.
I'd welcome since she not only diversifies the jungle and adds more AP, but is not insanely mobile and will likely push no one out with her presence while remaining viable.
Going to have to see, I doubt early he will be any better than live, but once his passive starts outlasting the damage from camps we might see something different, again he's not a wall hopping beast so I'd welcome it.
I think his clear will still be too slow to remain viable, should he get that speed though, I think that it would be alright to let him.
Will be very good, his E can easily be dodged, his clear is good, he has no insane mobility. He's probably the most healthy of the picks.
Zed will be fine, his W is too costly to hop over a wall he is not committing too. His invade potential will be balanced and his gank assist is same as zed mid. Level 6 he will be a different animal, but I'd like to see this one.
No, this would be a mistake, what allows for Talon to keep E without being oppressive is that he must be mid to farm and you know you are "safe" during that window. Talon can hop over the enemy blue then the large wall to lane. That route is extremely hard to counter and cannot be protected from while guarding everything else. Never knowing where Talon is would be horrible for laning.
