Thoughts on the new jungle
Ok, well first of all I admittedly don't like what I've seen so far regarding the new jungle. As far as I can tell Riot is trying to shift the game towards early game junglers, which makes me feel the emotional equivalent of a sigh, as I tend to focus on mid/late game junglers. By taking the benefits of the old machete and splitting it up into two items, I feel as if they made the early game for a lot of junglers that don't have inherent sustain, large amounts of CC, or summoned creatures such as elise's spiderlings to tank, simply weaker. This goes doubly in my opinion for AP junglers such as amumu, who don't really benefit from the removal of armor from jungle mobs. The increased gold costs to get to that full jungle item enchant also pushes the game towards junglers that can gank early, leaving champions that have a hard time ganking effectively pre-6 , such as amumu, diana, and nocturne, in a rather sore position. The addition of the hunter's potion is also a slight sore spot for me. It's not that I think it's bad. In fact I think its a very good sustain item for junglers in the early/mid game. However it's component, the refillable potion, is in general......Just not efficient on most of the weaker junglers who require the extra sustain simply to make their first clear, as getting through that crucial clear nearly requires you to buy the three health pots instead, forcing you to start from the bottom to get it, putting many champions who already have a relatively hard time making it to their machete upgrade+enchantment even further behind.
Next off, I admittedly am not happy about the removal of the trailblazer, mainly as it made clearing easier and provided sustain for many junglers that simply couldn't get it anywhere else, such as amumu. It also gave many tanky junglers an enchant that actually did something to benefit their kit, buy providing sustain as well as a better clear, and even some wave clear for preventing turret sieges. Now there really isn't a smite enchant that really does anything for the tanky junglers, with challenging smite being relatively useless, as the two second damage reduction isn't likely to save you if you're dealing with someone who is simply fed/outranges you, and chilling smite being useless in general for tanks. The tracker's knife is cool and its a neat idea, especially for junglers who benefit off of wards, such as lee and jax, but it doesn't do anything for junglers like amumu/malphite/maokai.
The masteries are in my opinion....iffy. I can't really say I have a definite problem with them, but I do feel generally caged into certain options, even having several options be entirely useless on a champion, which does worry me slightly.
TLDR: I feel like riot is shifting the jungle heavily towards early game junglers, which worries me severely considering that there are many champions that either don't have a role outside the jungle to play, or if played in a lane tend to be sub-par. As far as I can tell the jungle has become a lot less open towards champion diversity, and I am very worried for the future of several champs. I also feel like the machete upgrades have become semi-useless on many champions.
These are just my thoughts, and to be honest im looking for the opinions of others to size up against.
viable for jungle. A champ who by no means has any place in the jungle. I worked some shenanigans into making it possible just so i could play my favorite champ in my favorite position. This new jungle killed that which I worked so hard fine tuning and mastering.