Does No One Like Jungle Anymore?

ISpeakJapanese·12/8/2014, 7:39:11 PM·32 votes·8,290 views

To be honest, I was never a big jungler even before the changes to jungle, but I've noticed nowadays many people ask "will fill except jungle" or something along those lines. It always seems to be one of the last roles picked. For people that used to main jungle, do you still enjoy the new jungle??

127 Comments

ValyrianBlade12/8/2014, 9:14:50 PM27 votes

I find in Games where my teammates outplay the other team, I love jungle. Even in Games where my teammates are roughly equal to the other team, I like it a lot still. Thing is, in either of those cases I really enjoy laning as well.

When it comes to Games where my whole team sucks compared to the other team? I hate jungle so much in those games. At least when laning I can still win my Lane. I can still practice farming, practice surviving ganks, get really good at it since the whole enemy team focuses on me to stop me from carrying - it feels amazing when your team is getting wrecked and you get ganked 3v1 by opponents your team fed and get a kill and survive!

Jungling though, if your team sucks you can't do anything. When 2 lanes ping for assistance before you even get to your second buff... When your team is 0-3 before you finish your first clear... etc... There's just nothing to do. You can't practice ganking, maybe at first but it doesn't take long for the enemy to get so fed that you ganking is just an extra kill for them. You can't just farm your jungle and experiment with clear paths because they're so far ahead after 12min they live in your jungle. In the old jungle you at least felt some control when your teammates all failed hard. You could gank early if you saw a Lane in trouble, or you could focus a Lane and get an ally ahead earlier. Now, if your allies die before you finish your first clear and your jungle item, which takes a while so there's lots of chances for it, they're behind and there isn't much you can do. Aside from a few select junglers with the sustain to gank before their first base, junglers just can't impact the game early enough when their teammates suck.

Honestly I think the new jungle is the best role in good games. It's just unbearable in the bad ones.

Leti the Yeti12/8/2014, 7:43:36 PM15 votes

I guess it's kinda bad atm I'm broke, I can clear the camps as fast as I can but my laners end up with way more cs throughout the game despite how much I tried to farm up By the end, I noticed I am as broke as the support Maybe it was due to my choice of champions, thank god they have hgh utility rather than damage dealers, I dont think I could make enough to afford damage items and mot likely end up useless

AbsoluteSadman12/8/2014, 8:03:54 PM11 votes

its a bit TOO hard, but i still love jungling more than any other role

Kowe The Ewok12/8/2014, 9:16:28 PM9 votes

Jungle has become incredibly frustrating. Riots new design forces you behind to early on. If you're playing with Platin / Diamond your enemies will horribly abuse this. If mid OR top gain a single early kill you can enjoy your whole upper jungle half getting taken without any chance to fight back.

ImHerVoice12/8/2014, 8:27:12 PM8 votes

Jungle is shit now. I can play any role though so at any moment I could easily do any other role if I get bored of jungling. Not a problem for me. Rate new jungle 7.5/10 for good effort but shitty gold gain ruins it. Ontop of smite CD being too long to utilize the many different buffs when clearing you generally have to choose 1 buff out of all of them and then just clear the rest of the camps lol. I make less gold than a support.

Drunk Rummate12/8/2014, 8:11:21 PM8 votes

all the jungle champions i liked playing in the past aren't very good anymore. i was never great at the role to begin with, but now my comfort picks feel very weak in the early stages.

maybe in a few months when the meta gets a little more figured out i'll see if any of the top jungle picks match my preferences. until then i avoid it like the plague t_t

Blue Collar Bear12/8/2014, 7:42:34 PM7 votes

I like it more now in some ways, but in others, I think it needs some tweaking.

Nekrovore12/8/2014, 10:25:58 PM6 votes

The new jungle is absolutely brilliant! One of the main reasons I got back into LoL after years of DoTA2. Lately RIOT have been doing everything VERY VERY RIGHT and I really hope developers act on what they believe is best for the game and not what the small and captious part of the community whines about. THANK YOU RIOT PLEASE CONTINUE TO BRINGING LEAGUE TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

HeadHonchkrow12/9/2014, 4:25:55 AM5 votes

Because the new jungle is so goddamn hard. I now need to leash red, and I have basically no EXP and no gold until midgame.

Anonagon12/8/2014, 8:15:21 PM5 votes

I still find jungling fun, but I feel like its excessively punishing to those who fall behind. I feel more feast-or-famine than I ever had before as an Amumu main. I'm lucky I get a shitton of utility in my ult, or else it would be very easy to become irrelevant.

WooBeeWoo12/8/2014, 9:18:24 PM5 votes

No I hate it and never play it. I literally played it so much before the only thing I knew about laning was when a gank should happen. I hate the lack of influence you have, I hate how so many champs are not viable, and ultimatley its just not fun feeling behind the whole game.

Circuit Bear12/8/2014, 9:24:11 PM5 votes

Jungling doesn't feel particularly good and for me personally, I have basically quit league until tank junglers are viable again. I am kinda tired of the assassin/Lee Sin/bruiser/Lee Sin jungle. People will defend Lee Sin even after someone kicks them between the legs but seeing him a disgusting majority of games for 3 years I am just tired of him.

Similarly, even after all their promises. Most of your major tanks are still bad. Nautilus, Sejuani(though they are reworking her again next patch it looks like), Amumu got nerfed rather hard considering Lee Sin and Evelynn now both have more armor then him base which seems idiotic to me and I haven't seen him do nearly as well as he used too thought I haven't tried him since.

Throw on they killed my favorite jungler(skarner) with a bs rework that makes him feel awful regardless of if he is good or not.

I'll probably give it another try next patch when Shyv and Sej both get buffs.

Chromatic Eagle12/8/2014, 9:45:13 PM5 votes

I think people are too afraid to try the new jungle. I know I am.

Strawberrycocoa12/8/2014, 9:53:39 PM4 votes

I like all the new mchete options and the Smite enhancements are a fucking god send. The spell doesn't feel like you're holding yourself back by taking it anymore since Smite can now either CC or debuff an enemy champion.

DollaMenunaire12/9/2014, 4:41:04 AM4 votes

As someone who used to jungle for fun, I avoid like the plague now.

Now instead of just getting yelled at for not ganking, you get yelled at for about different things

A Retarded Clown12/9/2014, 10:16:15 AM4 votes

unless I'm playing shaco this new jungle is unbearable. I can't clear fast enough, can't even do 2 buffs. In fact, this is why Shaco is a god right now, invading is too easy except against Pantheon (who is the most boring champion to play, ever).

Fiddles is decent but invading him is easy as is warwick (overrated, his early clear still has him get low and he is slow...if interrupted he gets shit on).

Farming junglers like noct/udyr who were niche in s4 are now gone. Never pick, they will never have the gold to do the job (tho in udyr's case that's probably a good thing). Tank Junglers....FORGET about them. Clear is shit, they take SOOO long to get tanky it's not worth it at all. Best bet is pick Shaco/Lee Sin and sit in enemy jungle don't even clear your own jungle unless you need a level it's a huge waste of time.

B3ER12/8/2014, 11:03:51 PM4 votes

Jungling is now the highest risk role (low health clears, counterjungling being more effective than ever and invades made easier for laners), with the most amount of health pots needed, the most time spent recalling (thus being ineffective) and most funds spent on wards. Yes, even more than supports as all supports get sightstone and not all junglers can afford (kit wise) to get a sightstone. The best part is that they now earn about as much as supports. I see enough games where support have more gold.

With all this as it is, Riot is still going to nerf Trailblazer and Devourer while leaving Stalker and Poacher as shitty as they are. The new jungle is shit and after 3 years of diligently learning the role, I've had enough. I'm moving to a new role. I used to play a lot of mid back in the day, time to pick that up again.

Final note: Go fuck yourself, live team. That is all.

EDIT: I'm not saying the new jungle is impossible, I'm just saying that it was nerfed. It is now harder to carry as a jungler and harder to catch up when you're behind. Especially when you get counterjungled/invaded and you dont have a helpful team. In other words: more risk, less reward.

Quepha12/9/2014, 2:15:25 AM3 votes

i think it's more that you now HAVE TO know what you're doing to jungle transitioning your skills from mid to top lane isn't that hard, moving down to bot lane isn't much different, if you're support you never have to worry about not getting your slot, but if you go into the new jungle and don't really know how to do your first clear and end up dying to red buff, you just aren't going to have fun for the rest of the game.

coppinslinger12/8/2014, 8:07:07 PM3 votes

I really like it! I always played more utility oriented junglers that can make an impact on a low-budget. Now that the high-aggression junglers like Leesin, Kha'zix, and Rengar aren't as good anymore, my style of jungling is more effective than ever!

Granted, I can see why people don't like it. The new jungle is REALLY punishing if you don't know what you're doing. If you aren't carefully balancing farming, ganking, and objective control, you can just end up behind in levels and gold as well as down towers and dragons. It takes a lot of figuring out and I definitely think this jungle is not beginner-friendly at all.

RAT IN GAME UwU 12/9/2014, 12:50:05 AM3 votes

To be honest, I was never a big jungler even before the changes to jungle, but I've noticed nowadays many people ask "will fill except jungle" or something along those lines. It always seems to be one of the last roles picked. For people that used to main jungle, do you still enjoy the new jungle??

it's terrible now, they made everything so strong that inexperienced players that haven't followed a guide recently(almost everyone you will ever play with) just die repeatedly to minions up to 5-10 times before like 10, i personally am fine with it but it's not fun like it used to be it's a lot of wasting gold on potions, constant recalling and being forced to sit around and wait if your teammates are stupid and pushing all lanes waiting to get ganked by their jungler...i guess you can counter gank or attempt to kill one of your opponents minions but since they're so damn hard if they catch you trying to do it, you're dead, they raised the skill cap at least 10 fold and the average player can't compensate for that, so it's not fun anymore for them, and players like me are forced into jungle roles out of necessity or we risk letting some potato do it and single handedly lose the game for us

unban swifty12/9/2014, 2:17:17 AM3 votes

I still enjoy Jungle. The reason more people are "leaving" the jungle is with the recent changes it's a lot harder. Not to mention high damage-no sustain assassin junglers like Kha'Zix are having a really hard time in the new jungle. It takes longer to become strong enough to get a good gank, and the first 5-6 levels are just farming jungle and warding so it isn't as "interactive" with the game until later.

ZT Xperimentor12/9/2014, 8:28:02 AM3 votes

I rarely jungled before it changed, so take it with a brick of salt. But now that it has changed, I avoid it at nearly any cost. In some test runs I've done, It's near impossible to keep up if you're not using a champion with built in sustain or defense (master yi, nautilus, ext) because you're constantly retreating to heal up. I'm guessing duo top will come back in season 5.

Kowe The Ewok12/9/2014, 4:03:45 PM3 votes

The jungle has become incredibly frustrating.

If one of your lanes looses pre level 6 you are doomed. The enemy (or even your own team) will start to counterjungle you. due to Riot's design forcing you back early on you won't be able to challenge the invader. Often- even with the help of your mate who lost the lane (The power of level 6 and an early brutalizer through kill gold).

You will get invaded, your jungle will be warded (talking about Platinum MMR here) and you WILL get destroyed.

Being able to take your camps in addition to his lane farm will catapult him further ahead while you get knocked out of the game, waiting for your camps to respawn, being so far behind that ganking means a freekill for your enemies.

The experience distribution and camp cooldown are HORRIBLE for balancing. It might work in lower ELOs, but whenever I team up with a few Platinum or Diamond mates this is exactly how it goes for either side. Snowball or get snowballed. One jungler will always be taken out of the game.

BastionKross12/9/2014, 6:06:44 PM3 votes

Jungle is my worst role, and I try to avoid it over all the others. Back before the changes to the jungle, even if I got stuck being jungle, I could still do it. I had a reasonable idea of how things worked because it wasn't THAT much more complicated.

Now? Jungle has gotten to the point where if I was forced to jungle I wouldn't even know where to start. What items to buy. What upgrade to get. I've been fortunate to avoid being the jungler so far, but if the time ever came I'd probably be more help to my team being a double top laner or something. The new jungle is so complicated and intimidating now.

NeX Daark12/9/2014, 9:58:56 PM3 votes

The new Jungle is a joke. It might make competitive play more diverse but in solo its just not fun. It's sad that even popular Junglers like NB3 are giving up on it. The XP is extremely low and unless you can snowball hard you will be even level with a decent adc and support.

There really isn't the carry potential from the jungle either. If lanes play smart and don't give up a kill to a jungler pre-6 snowballing is near impossible.

Mid lane and adc are the roles to play right now. Armor itemization is awful and now showing up bot even level is a death sentence if your lane is losing.

It also building of MR making mid lane even stronger in team fights.

Velasan12/8/2014, 11:14:09 PM2 votes

I actually prefer the new jg, but I think I can answer the original OP's question (although I'm reiterating some of what has already been said).

First, JG is one of the worst positions to carry from. If your team feeds too much in the first 5 minutes you will also have no kills because your just trying to farm jungle monsters. Even if you had a successful gank before that time you might have given up that kill to your laner and not taken it yourself. By that point there is no chance of you solo'ing said fed enemies and they start invading your jg and that feels pretty rotten.

In other words, it's great when your ahead and terrible when your behind.

Secondly, a lot of people were never that good in the JG to begin with. Now that it has changed all those people who only were able to barely play it and get by now can't do it at all because they have no idea what's going on. How many times have you seen someone first pick something they can't play at all?

So, basically it's just discouraging all those people from trying it to begin with.

Solidair312/9/2014, 6:09:05 AM2 votes

I'm still cool with it.

Would be nice if Nautilus could get a little buff though! His early clear I feel is just a bit TOO weak. It should be weak, but I can barely use my W.

slaverythegame12/9/2014, 7:12:44 AM2 votes

new jungle is trash. Riot is setting the standard along with EA in American video game companies having low standards for their games. Now small european indie team are released quality games like this war is mine while EA and Riot with giant studios filled with huge teams are releasing buggy coded games like lates dragon age or games with shit gameplay like season 4 league of legends. Honestly Ihope LoL dies along with blizzard and every other major American video game developer for their incompetence.

shppy12/10/2014, 12:42:26 AM2 votes

Used to main jungle, and of course i don't enjoy the new one.

-Stuck at a lower xp level than ever because the changes cut xp/time,

-Get less gold than ever because the changes also cut gold/time (increasing small camp gold/xp by ~20% does NOT make up for doubling their respawn delays, even when you factor in junglers actually clearing all 4 small camps now; the numbers aren't even there in theory, much less in reality)

-Have to spend even more of that limited gold on pots.

-New jungle items are painfully inefficient in PvP and no longer have the S4 gold generators to make up for it.

-Dragon losing global gold made junglers even poorer still, as the loss of that global gold is much more significant to the members of the team with the lowest incomes (the junglers and support), for whom that global gold would be a larger fraction of their income.

-Jungle damage is heavily overtuned, and it's caused a massive viability divide between those with sustain (or full-attack blocks/dodges) and those without, while also leading to those non-sustain champs having a harder time ganking (which is often their niche) because they're too beat up just from farming to be capable of ganking without being murdered by the enemy laner.

As someone that doesn't particularly enjoy sustain junglers, this jungle just feels like one kick in the ribs after another. Why bother jungling anymore when I'm more underleveled, underfarmed, and underitemized than at any point in this game's history, all while the risk involved is significantly higher?

Karakazan12/9/2014, 10:02:53 AM2 votes

Number of 'carries' just went down by one team member, and it doesn't feel good when you play support and get carried. WW or dodge.

Blue Collar Bear12/8/2014, 8:24:02 PM2 votes

Hm. Do you guys think that the jungle is more friendly towards ganking junglers that operate on a low budget? I'd have to say that right now I disagree.

BlueBuffandChill12/9/2014, 11:41:57 AM2 votes

i mained jg in s4 now im learning adc fk s5 xD

SummonerSquid12/9/2014, 2:01:47 PM2 votes

I still like to jungle.

Whitakker12/9/2014, 3:06:15 PM2 votes

I'd greatly appreciate it if my laners would stop pinging me for assistance when I'm on the opposite side of the map. Dude, you see I'm at red buff, right? How the hell do you expect me to be up toplane in 10 seconds to help you with that Darius? If I drop what I'm doing, I'm taking at least a good minute out of my farming time to go "Boo!" at the Darius who won't give a shit, since if he's pushed you up, he's most likely warded the bush. Thanks, now you've wasted both of our times, and I'm 2 levels behind.

tl;dr: It is not the jungler's job to win your lane for you.

Swagicus12/9/2014, 8:13:15 PM2 votes

I was never that dedicated to playing the old jungle, but I did enjoy it. I played a lot of Nautilus and Zac, and had a good time locking up my opponents while my allies got the kills.

Sadly, in the new jungle I am having a lot less fun. I still mainly play Nautilus and Zac, and although I can still clear rather well the changes in gold and experience have really made jungle less desirable. If I go for an early gank, and nothing comes out of it, then I'm going to be two levels behind. That forces me to purely farm so that I don't instantly die upon ganking, but even if I dedicate all my time to farming I'll still be outpaced by the experience of the laners.

I wish that the jungle was more forgiving of early mistakes.

Poldy Scarecrow12/8/2014, 11:15:28 PM2 votes

I prefer the new jungle. The camps are more interesting and feel alot more rewarding to clear and smite. The different buffs also make your choices more meaningful and not just a way to get extra gold. It's a bit harsh but overall more fun imo.

Ophelmark12/9/2014, 5:55:38 PM2 votes

To be honest, I was never a big jungler even before the changes to jungle, but I've noticed nowadays many people ask "will fill except jungle" or something along those lines. It always seems to be one of the last roles picked. For people that used to main jungle, do you still enjoy the new jungle??

Talking from some1 that plays very casually.In normals that is.I avoid it cause i don't have a single idea in how it works now.I have seen some junglers start from the monsters in the side(don't even know how are they called now).And other junglers start with blue.Why? i don't know.Before i had a rough idea of what to do.But that's not the case anymore.So that's why i avoid it.if i can.Sure i can go and look for some guides but what's the point i want to play now.And jungling is not my main.

MrSexyHobo12/9/2014, 2:47:48 AM2 votes

i hate playing in the new jungle balance aside. even if certain champs wernt way op in the jungle now i would still despise it

theracody12/9/2014, 2:58:16 AM2 votes

Personally, I like the new jungle. I preferred jungling before, but I still like it now. I still generally find myself doing fine within my jungle(idk if it's my masteries or what) but I do agree that it's super hard to gank before 6 on almost every jungler now, especially with the amount of damage the camps can do. I still do extremely well with Nocturne most times I play him. I don't get why people are complaining about "no sustain" junglers and then mentioning Khazix and Rengar . Kha's sustain is somewhat weak, but rengar is still godtier with my jungle style. I think people just forget his roar :I It could also be that I max w second but eh idk. I'm glad that I don't see lee sin every game anymore though. More fun when I can't build my strategy around "oh, I'm gonna be against LeeSin " The trailblazer nerfs might screw me up though

Zirzon12/8/2014, 10:00:59 PM1 votes

I end up filling jungle quite a bit, and I don't think it's quite as bad as most seem to make it out to be. It may be a bit stronger than it should be currently (especially for the first clears), but not unmanageable. I think largely what some people find frustrating is how large a change it was from the easy jungle of last season. Last season most champs could jungle easily, and had more than enough health and time for constant ganks. Now you often have to stay in the jungle longer before you emerge.

However, I expect some more changes are coming to the jungle in the upcoming patches that will make more people feel good about jungling again.