A Lack Of AP Junglers in the meta

Throughout league's history, the jungle has had many changes. These changes consists of jungle items, camps, respawn timers, intractable flora, baron and dragon but one thing I don't see much is the presence of AP junglers. There are AP junglers like who can thrive in the jungle but when it comes to the huge pool of champs that are efficient,I feel that AP junglers are being left out (I know that you can bring anyone in the jungle but some champs are more proficient than others and when I mean proficient I mean in clear speed, sustain in jungle, and gank threat to name a few). Also when I mean AP junglers I don't mean tanks that do magic damage, I'm talking about AP mages and AP assassins who do either sustain or burst damage. When breaking down S9 jungle meta with a grain of salt, many of these junglers are either tanks or AD related. You have tanks/bruisers like , AD fighters , AD assassins , and even ADC's (I would throw in but he does mixed damage rather than solely physical damage). Some may make the argument that AP champions are simply being played in other lanes so there is no need for AP junglers and I can agree with that partially. There are plenty of AP tops, AP mids, and even AP supports that can make up for the lack of AP. The arguement that I make for that statement is a what happens in champion select is not in your control. What if your top laner picks a tank, your mid picks an AD assassin, and your support picks either an enchanter or tank and you have a traditional ADC/Marksman other than . You can either play 1 of the 6 AP efficient junglers or pick a champ that you are comfortable with who may not be AP. What I'm trying to say is that compared to tanks and AD related champs in the jungle, AP junglers have less of a variety. I can't really pin point the exact problem with the lack of AP junglers so I will list some of the things that I believe are the reason why AP junglers are being less played to their counterparts.

1. Not enough AP junglers. With more and more champ releases, I would love to see some AP junglers being released with maybe a gimmick or mechanic that benefits them in the jungle similar to marks so they are played mostly in the jungle rather than a solo lane.

2. The reliant of Blue Buff. When it comes to jungle damage AD vs AP, AD junglers can rely on auto attacks because autos are based on AD meaning they can rely less on mana. AP on the other hand will have to rely on abilities to help clear their jungle more efficiently which means they rely more on mana. Also when you are more mana reliant, teams may simply invade and target your blue buff to deny if and you can't donate your blue buff to your mid lane.

3. Jungle Item. The main jungle item for AP junglers is the Runic Echoes enchantment. It gives 80 AP, 10% CDR, 300 mana, and a luden's echo passive. It gives AP junglers the amount of burst damage to clear camps with multiple monsters and damage to champs but when it comes to solo camps like the buffs, gromp, scuttle, dragon, and baron it then becomes an auto fiesta while waiting for the passive to proc up again. The CDR is fine with me because AP champs love having CDR. The 300 mana is somewhat fine but I'd rather it have a lower base mana but with mana regen so you don't have to be so reliant on the luden's proc on the item for mana.

4. The meta simply does not need AP champs in the jungle. With the surplus of AP users in lanes like , there is no need for more AP champs to be slapped in the jungle. Having too many AD or AP users on a team makes it easy for the enemy team to counter it by just building more armor or magic resist.

5. Early game. The issue with AP junglers is their early game. Their early game damage relies on abilities and some of these abilities have long cooldowns due to them probable only being rank 1 or rank 2. Many other junglers many punish this with either invades or just outright killing them.

TLDR: There are a lack of AP junglers in the current meta due to some being reliant to mana or simply having other issues like damage to camps and clear. With top and mid already having a lot of AP users, there is less of a demand for AP junglers.

Edit: Forgot about Amumu who can do a considerable about of AP/Magic damage but I would classify him mostly under tanks.