Boards›Gameplay

Jungle items are now extremely gold inefficient and are best skipped on most champs.

Lafouboy·11/16/2015, 7:30:01 AM·14 votes·1,807 views

Looking over most of the items for junglers, I have found that the new jungle items are actually very gold inefficient. Like... very. The only reason it was gold efficient before was because of the passive that made it easy in the jung (which has straight up been placed on hunter's potion; another item that you can buy separate from this jung item), the smite upgrade, and the bonus gold per large monster kill (which has been removed entirely). With two of the those removed, all base jungle items have left is the smite upgrade on 2 of the three; with the third one not even having that.

The smite upgrade will have to be worth over 1,450 gold alone to be considered 100% gold efficient (which it is not). Ultimately, unless you REALLY NEED that Sated Devourer, just drop the jungle item altogether.

Now you should just start building towards your first item. Preferably boots.

Gold efficiency chart: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ASPk9DIQug-3x7d2ZZ5PU7c7-NiE9Tj5q3MgeIYZoc4

28 Comments

MLDzXnRRR11/16/2015, 7:34:32 AM4 votes

They are so expensive now....

BluePolarizer11/16/2015, 8:07:13 AM3 votes

thanks for the tip. I'll just leave my stuff at machete/talisman and go for a big ticket item.

Sohleks11/16/2015, 8:50:37 AM2 votes

I find nice success going straight up full hp+resist tank item first instead of cinderhulk for that price...

trash sion11/16/2015, 2:10:13 PM2 votes

I made a post about this a few days ago and all I got was salty replies. I agree with you, they jacked up gold prices while removing what made the items useful in the first place... the only jungle item I finish now is devourer, and only on certain champions. I'll often still get red or blue smite and not enchant the item because they're just so useless now. Specifically on Hecarim, I've started going to Blue smite, boots, triforce, deadman's, frozen heart, visage, and then steraks or t-hydra. I sell my jungle item whenever I have no use for the smite anymore, usually when laning phase ends. I'm not sure why anyone would buy the enchants any more, they definitely need buffed before they become useful.

Cherysse11/16/2015, 7:48:32 AM2 votes

They are too expensive and have no adventages now, you will get killed just for trying to build them :S

Spoofghoul11/16/2015, 3:20:20 PM2 votes

For tanks its probably better to get item 3068 over item 1401 because lets face it the damage is equal, the armor makes you take less damage from champions and monters. the 15% bonus hp isnt all that great anyway its only worth like 2 ruby crystals once you hit 2k bonus hp well in that case id rather have the armor which is worth the same but at leasst you actually get to use that gold value the instant you buy it instead of having to buy like 3 more hp items

Widder8811/16/2015, 9:07:19 PM2 votes

I agree.

Lich bane is just straight better than Runeglaive. Warrior is not really necessary. Better buy Ghostblade or something else. Devourer is still good for something like Warwick. Cinderhulk, not really appealing imo.

But that is no problem. If junglers buy lane items, the jungle is probably better balanced, because junglers don't depend anymore on the balance of a very small number of jungle items.

Items like Talisman and Machete are good for early jungling, maybe make more of them, but the T2 and T3 jungle items can be deleted alltogether imo.

Andrionar11/16/2015, 9:32:59 PM2 votes

Warrior doesn't fit in to build well and it gives nothing special anymore compared to other items you can buy (no real passive, like devourer, cinderhulk and rune glaive has).

Lets say you already upgraded your matchete (if you wan't to survive in the new jungle you have to upgrade it) and wasted 1 k gold in to it, the rest of the Warrior would cost only 1.6k gold, wich gives 60 ad and hydra gives only 75 ad wich is a lot more expensive.

Enchantment Warrior - 1.6k gold (after matchete upgrade) R. Hydra - 3.6k gold.

But personaly I don't build warrior even if it's cost effectient becouse of hes cheap ad that he gives you early game.

RisenDarkKnight11/16/2015, 3:23:45 PM1 votes

You're forgetinng about the xp passive. The 30 extra xp per camp is pretty valuable. Without that you'll be very behind in xp early game.

yay nibbers11/16/2015, 1:54:40 PM1 votes

I still think Runeglaive and Devourer are still worth buying on their appropriate champions, Runeglaive being essentially a cheaper Lichbane with mana return and Devourer being Devourer. Not really sure about Cinderhulk myself, and Warrior is worthless now that it doesn't have armor penetration.

tier 1 and 2 jungle items are still important in all circumstances though because they give you the extra xp you need on top of the handy handy smite upgrades or wards.

Dominick Destine11/16/2015, 12:25:37 PM1 votes

Blue smite is too good.

Also +30 gold per camp is also too good.

Thread is pointless.

Jungle Lux God11/17/2015, 3:22:39 AM1 votes

I was thinking the same thing, except from a gameplay standpoint rather than an efficiency standpoint.

Cinderhulk was added because tank junglers needed the extra clear speed. Do they need it now? I tested Naut's clears with two different item combinations, one with Cinderhulk and the other with Crystalline Bracer/Giant's Belt (which is the closest thing you can get cost-wise and stat-wise to Cinderhulk without being Cinderhulk), and I Cinderhulk was only about 15 seconds faster on a four-camp clear when both item builds used identical paths, masteries, runes, and every other item being exactly the same, including the same smite upgrade.

This makes it extremely favorable for the Crystalline Bracer/Giant's Belt kind of build path because you can build them into other items, gives more stats than Cinderhulk, and doesn't tunnel-vision on the jungle focus like Cinderhulk does. Obviously results may vary depending on the tank jungler, but you can also tune your build to build other items you need for the mid-game, whether you need something like a Warden's Mail for mid-game teamfights against a heavy-AD team comp (or otherwise need to build it to tank jungle camps) or some components for the core items you may need for stuff like Righteous Glory, you can afford to buy these now that Cinderhulk is not only not needed, but an inferior option to whatever else you could be building.

Runeglaive is in a similar situation. It was made for mana regeneration for mages in the jungle, but now that the regen comes so late and there are some decently good options for jungle mana sustain with the Hunter's Potion, and with Runeglaive coming so late and being so incredibly focused on jungle clears that it just isn't relevant anymore.