It has begun
Unless Riot is scared about the effects of it and proceeds to nerf the **** out of the new Cinderhulk, patch 5.5 might herald a deep change in the meta.
http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.overallPositionChange&order=descend&roleSort=Jungle
Preliminary data seems to indicate that tank-focused junglers are on the rise:
had huge rises in the ranking of the junglers, most of them going from a sub-50% to an over 50% winrate.
And some other tank junglers, like
, are among the overall best rated junglers. And if you just look at winrates, Seju and Sion seem to be rather...OP? With both featuring over 57%?
However, the effect of the changes will not stop there:
- Strong tanks might affect which AD carries are favorites. For example, Vayne and Kog'Maw are experts at dealing with strong tanks in a timely manner, while picks like Corki, Ezreal and Runaan's-Kalista are not as good against them. And that's not even talking about the synergy between MF and Amumu (Curse of the Sad Bullettime?).
- Likewise, it might affect top-lane picks and itemization. If you have a strong tank in the jungle, you don't necessarily need another tank-focused champion in the toplane, too - which might lead to more damage-focused picks up there. Likewise, strong tanks features strong tank-busting - and what items are better for that than
,
and
?
What do you think will happen?