Ok Riot, we need to talk about the new Jungle Items

RyuPhalian·11/24/2014, 6:58:37 PM·2 votes·840 views

So I have been noticing lately that not all of the new jungle items are as strong as the others. For example, Ranger's Trailblazer item 3713 seems to be the most powerful base jungle item in the game as of right now, most likely due to the shear power and synergy with Devourer item 3726 allowing one to quickly plow through the jungle and gain more Devour Stacks faster. Now how do we fix this without just blindly nerfing them and calling it a day? Well U believe that with Smite's new longer base cooldown, all of the base items should lower the cooldown when used successfully in their specific role. Here are a few ideas (Note: numbers are more to give an idea of how it works, NOT a set in stone solution)

  • Stalker's Blade item 3706 : CC/Ganking item which slows a Smited enemy movement by 50% for 2 seconds. I believe it should also reduce Smite's cooldown by maybe 10 seconds if you are able to kill the Smited enemy within 6 seconds. Rewarding Lane/Jungler cooperation and team work.

  • Skirmisher's Sabre item 3715 : Damage/Ganking, this item is all about killing your enemy quickly when ganking. Reducing the cooldown of Smite by 15 seconds if you kill the marked enemy while only reducing the cooldown by 5 seconds if you get an assist would reward kill gank junglers with a larger Risk/Reward

  • Poacher's Knife item 3711 : Invading, an item which needs more tweaking than buffing, possibly doing a bit more damage to enemy jungle monsters to make invades a bit easier but this item needs a bit better Risk/Reward to give it a reason to use it over Ranger's Trailblazer when invading.

Now that isn't to say that the Jungle Enchantments are completely balanced either. Right now, Devourer item 3726 is as powerful as the original Feral Flare. On the other hand, Juggernaut item 3725 is more balanced and I believe should be the bar to compare all of the other items. Now how do we help out the other items without just adding bigger numbers? Well that is simple, give them something to make them stand out from other items. Juggernaut has Tenacity while Devourer has stacking magic damage.

  • Warrior item 3714 : AD/CDR/ArmorPen. This is for AD champs who want damage but don't focus on Auto-Attacks so much. Possibly giving a weaker version of the burn damage from Elder Lizard, though this seems like it would be more viable if Devourer wasn't so strong. But if they don't want to add the old DoT burn then what Riot could do is make it so that after you kill a large jungle monster, you gain bonus physical damage to your next attack to enemy champions or large jungle mobs (so that you don't waste it on one of the little guys accidentally).
  • Devourer item 3726 : AS/On-Hit. This is probably the most powerful enhancement for the new jungle as of right now, and it's not hard to see why. It's Feral Flare but in a way, better. At the cost of health back on hit, you no longer have to farm to get the bonus damage on enemy champions and it starts at a base 40 damage, compared to Feral Flare's 25. I believe reducing the base magic damage to 30 would help give the other enhancements a chance to shine.
  • Magus item 3708 : AP/CDR. Oh Riot, they always have trouble making the AP jungle item stand out from the others don't they. This item NEEDS something to make it an individual, to make it exciting, and NOT just a pile of stats. Adding something like Grievous Wounds could help as that ability isn't common among the items. Another idea would be to have a version of the bonus gold mechanic from the Spirit Stone line from Season 4 but instead of Gold, it's Mana since AP junglers tend to be more on the mana hungry side.

So what do you think of these ideas? Do you agree, and if not, why? I am open to discussion. I have been jungling since Season 1 and I will admit that I am not a master, do believe I have a strong handle of the mechanics. It's obvious that Riot wanted to make these new items to make a larger diversity, to not only fit each champion but each play style and I have to give them an A for effort but it needs polish. I want it so that you don't always go "item X with enhancement Y" every game but instead say to yourself "Well, our team has 'this' so I should get 'that' to help fill that void." and then later "Ok, are we on the back foot/evenly matched/steam rolling, better get this enhancement".

1 Comments

Alderon WolfBane11/24/2014, 8:51:12 PM1 votes

TBH only reason Ranger's Trailblazer item 3713 is even popular is because of the lower smite CD

they either just make it same CD as other smite's or take away the healing portion of it, since it's AOE you won't really take much damage give it more risk for having a nice clear.

And for Devourer item 3726 it's pretty simple instead of starting with 40 base damage it should either 0 and make them earn the right for it to be broken status. or make it work similar to mejai's where death equal you lose X amount of stack's (doubt this would make it but just a thought)

and +2 on assist is crazy considering how easy it is to get assist.

as for the other smite's they seem pretty balanced it's just champs that make them broken which can be balanced out.