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So, Poacher's knife is god awful

SirDrButterballs·7/3/2015, 10:10:21 PM·18 votes·2,316 views

Poacher's knife might be the worst item for a jungler to have compared to other. the fact that it doesn't add any jungle sustain or gank potential and also that the only benefit for the jungler it does have is faster clear time makes its effectiveness minimal at best. Even with a fast clear time that doesn't mean that you will be able to gank more because you have neither the effects of a champion smite item or the HP/MP sustain given from trailblazer. Not applicable for everyone who might read this but i can't remember the last time anyone has bought it and am sure anyone that has has gotten flamed. I know someone out there will say Trailblazer doesn't add any gank potential. I feel that even though trailblazer may not have anything for gank potential it has more jungle sustain compared to Poacher's Knife. Trailblazer stuns the jungle camps and also restores health and mana when used. With this it is able to help the jungler stay alive and be more viable for ganks after taking camps.

20 Comments

Matezoide7/3/2015, 10:43:37 PM9 votes

It is core on Nunu if you are running the Nunu Bot skin and spamming laugh though.

umbraˉ7/3/2015, 11:25:34 PM7 votes

At least the icon looks cool and it makes your smite grey

so thats pretty good

Pæan7/3/2015, 11:14:48 PM6 votes

I was playing as Shaco jungle and the enemy elise decided to rush a item 3711 after I first blooded her and got all 4 buffs. I mean, why are you broadcasting that will invade my jungle when I'm hugely ahead and am already farming 3/4 of your jungle after clearing my own.

HamburgerJunior7/3/2015, 10:13:35 PM4 votes

Agreed, poachers knife is considerably weaker than every other smite item.

NommyPancake7/4/2015, 2:58:16 AM2 votes

I hope that Riot can change it from **counter-jungling **item to **objective-secured **item

When smite:

10 movement speed for 3 seconds
Enemy unable to smite for next 1 second (but can attack)
Next **One **Spell or attack deals true damage

Just an example here >.>

TotalJerk7/3/2015, 11:37:21 PM2 votes

Riot has acknowledged numerous times that it is a shit item. You're just nagging at this point.

ChaosThief7/4/2015, 12:22:05 AM2 votes

Personally I think poacher's knife should compete with trailblazer to assist fast clear junglers.

In other words, you can use poachers on your jungle as well.

But I'm not on the balance team OR am challenjour, so who cares about me.

Rebonack7/4/2015, 5:49:17 AM1 votes

Make it the power-farming Smite.

Have it provide its bonus benefits on both sides of the Jungle regardless of what you're blasting with it, but reduce the bonus gold down to 20 from 30. This would be the item that says 'I want to amass as much gold as quickly as possible.'

Beldori7/4/2015, 6:07:38 PM1 votes

Easiest way to make poachers good is make it so it can do double smite damage against large enemy jungle monsters and doubles the time to respawn the camp(or some sort of time increase) cause right now unless the enemy is more or less in control of your jungle then your not gonna care if they minor counter jungle since it barely affects you

A Miss Fortune7/3/2015, 11:23:39 PM1 votes

Nunu item 3721 summoner 11 {{summoner:2}}

IllllllIIIIlllll7/3/2015, 11:49:17 PM1 votes

it's great situationally on twisted treeline so it doesn't need a change at all Kappa

Jeddy0177/3/2015, 11:54:59 PM1 votes

Yeah,with all these changes to the jungle enchants,you figured they would work on the jungle items (Poacher's specifically) as well.I guess it's the enchantments 1st,then Poachers the only jungle item that really needs some help.

Solari Fortune7/4/2015, 1:09:36 AM1 votes

The Main issue with Poacher's Knife I feel is the Red Flag saying "HEY I'M GONNA BE IN YOUR JUNGLE SO YOU BETTER WARD IT!!" My friend has bought it though on Nunu, and when ever the enemy jungler was ganking top or bot. He would run into the other side of the jung and take everything they loved. It seems to really only work for nunu since he has double smite.

Jungle Lux God7/4/2015, 2:39:12 AM1 votes

Poacher's Knife is EASILY the worst jungle item.

It's smite bonuses are too specific, and forces you to play a specific way, no matter how impractical it is. This telegraphs your intents to the enemy team so much that it's easy to shut down a jungler that buys it, and considering 3/4 jungle enchants need to be built ASAP you won't really have the option of changing jungle enchants at all without selling your jungle item.

It also becomes as good as smite without a jungle item when you fall behind, and the other three jungle items are so much better when you are ahead. There's no place for it right now.

And the worst part is, it can't be straight buffed. It can either can get buffed a little, but not enough to account for the risk of counterjungling, or it can be buffed up so much that it completely removes the risk of counterjungling, which is not acceptable for the game.

Trebbi7/4/2015, 5:35:46 AM1 votes

Poachers has always been about objective control so why not make it slightly bigger in damage or let it have a longer range than the other smites?

What if it went to 1200 true damage and have slightly longer range?

Remove the extra 30 gold and cooldown reduction in other jungles, but keep the movement speed on ALL CAMPS(not just the enemy) and you have a smite that isn't really telegraphing that you will invade, but rather you want to secure the main monsters regardless where on the map they are and get on moving to the next one.

Skirmisher = Dueling Stalker = Ganking Trailblazer = Safety Poachers = Objectives