A D5 Jungle main's constructive criticism of the patch.

TL:DR, The patch is settling out to be better than we expected, but there are a couple issues. Champs that can take Precision tree primary are too strong. The jungle is even more snowbally than before. Mages still can't jungle.

Now that the patch has started to settle out while people figure out the meta and the pathing, the earlier freak out is going away. In the first couple days, it wasn't uncommon to see junglers lower level than supports. Now that people have figured out where the XP is at, it's fine. Getting first scuttle is still super important, but not to the extent people made it out to be. It's a little absurd how important krugs are for experience now. You get more experience from krugs than you do from buffs(unless you're cashing in catchup xp). The game is extremely snowbally in the jungle right now. Since champs that are strong early are meta(which was the goal of the patch, so kudos), whichever one gets ahead early just strangles the enemy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it needs to be acknowledged. Being 4 levels ahead or behind in the jungle is not uncommon now.

The biggest complaints I have is with the attack speed removal from machete, and losing the MS on runic echoes.

With the machete change, the problem is that champions that can take Precision as their primary tree get an insane tempo boost over any champion that can't. Here's an example of the tempo difference. I'm a rek'sai main. Rek'sai can take PTA or Electrocute and both are considered 'meta.' If I hop into practice tool with PTA, it takes me 16 seconds to take red buff with no leash. If I do the same with Electrocute(precision 2nd), it takes 18 seconds. That's approximately a 2 second difference PER CAMP that you gain if you can take precision primary.

This is fine on Rek'Sai because she can just switch to taking PTA. But what if you are an Elise? What if you're a Zac? Or a Rammus? Some champs just can't take precision primary, and get left in the dust by champs that can. In my opinion, that's a large part of why graves is so dominant this patch. He's a champ that thrives on tempo, and he gets a free tempo boost that most other champs can't.

The other major problem is that the jungle item got nerfed and it was billed as a buff. If the goal was to allow new junglers to jungle, they failed. Nidalee, Eve, and Elise can still be played. They are about the only 3 that can still be played. Fiddle can find some success since nobody can play against him, but Nid, Eve, Elise are the only three who are consistently playable. If you'll notice, all three of them have a consistent healing or damage reduction in their kit. Eve has passive, and can full-heal off raptors. Nid clears so fast she doesn't take damage, and has her heal if she has the mana. Elise has her spiderlings to soak damage and heals in spider form. The thing that will allow more ap champs or mages to jungle is an item or rune that lets them take reduced damage from jungle monsters.

Overall, this patch is fine. Champs that can take Precision tree primary are too strong. The jungle is even more snowbally than before. Mages still can't jungle.