An analysis of why Devourer was a good addition to League of Legends

EDIT: http://leagueoflegendsradio.podomatic.com/entry/2015-09-30T21_43_17-07_00 ^Podcast episode of me discussing this post. Skip to 18:40 for this part.

I'm (was, rip demotion) a diamond 4 Master Yi main. I've played this game for about three years now, and I've played with wriggles, the dreaded feral flare, release devourer, nerfed devourer, and sated devourer extensively. Here's why Sated Devourer is BY FAR the best iteration of the on-hit attack speed jungle item family:

First, let's outline the issues that have plagued this item class for as long as time can remember (sort of):

1. They end up extremely overtuned
2. They give too much "up-front power" for an item built specifically for the late game
3. They promote an "afk farm" mentaility
4. They're snowball reliant- if you're ahead early you can just continue stacking to infinity and beyond.
5. There's no chance for the enemy to actually stop your snowball because it relies on player-jungle interaction rather than player-player interaction. (this one is important)
6. Coordination is required to contain these junglers typically, and that's hard to come by in SoloQ.

Well, solving the first two points is pretty simple. Play around with the numbers until you have a more balanced finished product. The third one is an issue of players reacting poorly to the item more than the item itself in my opinion. I like to run exhaust on Master Yi because I prefer to teamfight in most cases rather than splitpush and I appreciate the early presence it gives. Players afk farming has more to do with their lack of knowledge than it does with a flaw in the item- whether or not the item "promotes" this type of gameplay is beside the point. Bad players= bad utilization of the tools they're given- this applies to more than league- that's a universal law of ineptitude.

Point 4 is something that Sated Devourer fixes excellently- even if one player sates faster than another, eventually they both end up with the same exact item. This has always been an issue with the on-hit jungle item tree- once someone has started up, they can literally snowball infinitely. Taking away this aspect makes the item much easier to balance and prevents most abuse cases by capping any given champion's allowed strength with the item.

Number 5 is also a big issue that devourer does a good job solving in my opinion- early dragons HUGELY affect your stacking now. In my above paragraph I mention that it all evens out eventually no matter how quickly or slowly you sate, but everyone knows that sating earlier gives your team an advantage. This is an advantage that would be reaped regardless through you having more gold, this just highlights the fact that League if a team game based around objectives- not seeing how fast you can run through the jungle and kill stuff by yourself. Forcing players into taking dragons forces team coordination, even though many champions can solo it. Your team still has to keep enemies off you, there are often ward to contend with, and really sneaking dragons doesn't work as well now as it used to in previous seasons.

Ahhh, SoloQ. The reason that Katarina and Akali were pick or ban for so long is because they prey on the lack of harmony SoloQ is famous for. Stopping a jungler looking to sate is often a team affair- denying jungle camps, warding enemy jungle, preventing early dragons, those are all team efforts, and in SoloQ, things that require a team to stop are often considered "OP" because team spirit is sadly in short supply. If people knew the tactics required to shut down a sated jungler they would have a much easier time dealing with them and we might see less complaining on the boards about them.

Sated Devourer is easier to tune, requires smarter play, increases player-player interaction, and has a more visible power budget than any of the previous iterations of this type of item, and this is honestly one of my favorite balance decisions Riot has ever made. Whether the item is overpowered or not at the moment is irrelevant- what matters is that we have a way to fix it, and it's an easier way than we've ever had in the past. Just give the item a chance, and I'm sure Riot will make the changes that need to be made. The formula they've struck is excellent- they just need to stick with it and not rework the damn jungle for the 14th time in a row.