Proposal: remove jungle items and change smite
What if smite were changed to be upgradable via jungle tokens received for killing large and epic monsters as well as the crab? In this way, it would function like Gangplank's ultimate. With this change, the entire line of jungle-specific items could be removed, thus ending the seemingly endless stream of balancing woes created by those items.
New skill:
- Smite
Passive: Gain 7 health and 4 mana per second for 5 seconds when damaged by a monster. Killing large monsters, epic monsters, and the crab grant jungle tokens.
Active: Deal (390-1000 based on level) true damage to target monster. If that monster holds a smiteable buff, gain that buff.
Upgrades (cost jungle tokens):
- One of: poaching, stalker, ranger, and challenging smite
- Additional health and mana per second
- Two levels: Killing monsters grants (15/30) bonus gold
- New jungle effects. Examples: after smiting a monster, you gain double your base regeneration bonuses when that monster attacks you ; smiting the skuttle crab makes its ward reveal stealth units or briefly (1 second) reveals all units on that side of the jungle (north/south - only units inside the jungle, not lanes) ; killing a monster with smite as the final blow grants a precision bonus of X gold, etc.
If this were done, then junglers would not need special items, and any clear needs they have, such as ways to help caster junglers/etc., could be dealt with via non-gold monster-specific upgrades to the spell itself.
