The Buff Timers
I heard on Surrender at 20 that Riot is trying to change the buff timers to 2:30. This kinda bothers me.
Does anybody REALLY want to start wolves again? I feel like Starting Buffs was a great change to the jungle.
3 Comments
They're just switching up the meta so the game doesn't get too stale. I wouldn't worry about it; a new meta will form with different jungle paths and different early gank times.
I'm very wary of this change in particular. Ganking is the most fun part of jungling. Shifting the initial timing by that much across the board is going to have a massive ripple effect. Jungling needed improvements, but I'd rather have seen them go map side by opening up more ganking paths rather than all of these things.
I really really hope that these are coming with major champ changes as well or things are going to get out of hand fast.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but my theory as to why they changed the buff timers is to help keep down the current dominant junglers. I'm feeling their goal is to allow it so that tank junglers can actually have a "fighting" chance now. From what I've seen is that machete costs 400g now so you can get two pots and you get to clear 3 or 4 camps before you have to go back. This is enough to upgrade your machete so you can do the big buff(red or blue). This change I feel is to try and solve the current meta's problem as you losing a buff puts you extremely far behind. It is also to stop early dominant junglers being able to come and gank, at least with a red buff that basically guarantees either flash or death.
While you do like starting buffs, if you lost a buff as a tank jungler, you will be REALLY far behind as you usually need to rush to 6 as fast as possible in order to even pull of a gank easily. The current junglers who are strong can counterjungle you, steal your buff, and ALSO gank just as easily pre 6. They will also hit 6 before you as they got more experience from your buff/ganks they successfully pulled off. I'm hoping the changes will affect the game this way, as playing anything outside Lee Sin, Kha, J4, Nunu, and Elise involves a lot of risk, so hopefully this will allow other junglers a fighting chance.