A Solution to the Jungle Items Problems
It's pretty clear at this point that almost nobody is happy with the jungle items right now.
The biggest problem with jungle itemization stems from the fact that virtually every jungler is required to start with Hunter's Machete. By doing this Riot eliminated a choice for junglers that all that all laners must make, choosing between a starting item that is very gold efficient but has no build path (Doran’s) or take a less gold efficient item with a build path (Every other starting item.) This in and of itself isn't really that much of a problem though it is somewhat sub optimal. The bigger problem comes from how they've positioned itemization to deal with jungle scaling. Junglers can't continue to jungle with just a Hunter's Machete. The game virtually forces junglers to spend their next 400 gold on Spirit Stone in order to be able to continue jungling. So now not only are junglers denied item flexibility in their first item choice they are also denied it with their second leaving them 700G down a path they might have preferred not to take.
The idea of providing an additional upgrade path for the Spirit Stone into the spirit items seems like a natural solution. In order to compensate the player for the 700g investment they have been forced to make with Machete and Spirit Stone the Spirit items had to be very cost effective but as we saw in Season 3 if you make them too cost effective the laners will buy them, which is something Riot wants to avoid. Now with season 4 they have added a gold generation burden to these items as well and in order to maintain the cost balance on the spirit items their combat stats have been nerfed. (Everything said about the Spirit line also basically applies to the Madred/Wriggles.)
Riot wants items that are only for junglers to accomplish three things. First they want jungle items to be required to farm the jungle. Without jungle items it should be very difficult for a laner to kill the neutral monsters solo before say mid game. Second they want jungle items to provide cost effective stats for all junglers but not so cost effective that they would be purchased by laners. Third, they want the purchase path for jungle items to scale with the jungle. To this end we have the Spirit items and Wriggles. The problem with them at this point seems to be that they are suffering from kitchen sink syndrome. They're trying to be gold generating items, champion type items, (ie. AP/AD/Tank) and play style items (ie Spirit Wraith/Lizard for ganking, Spirit Golem/Wriggles for farming). In the process of trying to do all of these things they end up doing none of them particularly well and leave everyone feeling unhappy. So what is the solution?
The solution is to get rid of all of the various upgrades to Hunter’s Machete and make a starting jungle item or series of items that scale automatically. Something like a Rod of Ages that scales up with time or the trinkets that scale with level. This item or items can then be used to provide the core differentiation between a jungler and a laner. Here’s an example:
Bush Knife
300g
Increased damage dealt to neutral monsters by 10%
Reduces damage dealt by neutral monsters by 10%
+2 Gold every 5 seconds
Unique Passive: Experienced Hunter. Every minute Bush Knife gains +1% increased damage to neutral monsters up to +20%, and +1% reduced damage dealt by neutral monsters up to 20%.
The automatic scaling could be with time or with levels whatever works best but building from this basic concept and borrowing a few ideas from the Doran’s items, you can make a small series of starting jungle items that address the key issues of different jungle champions and play styles. Ideally I think you’d create four different jungling knives. For AP junglers who need more mana how about a “Lizard Handle Knife” that is a “Bush Knife” that adds +4 mana regen that scales up to +12 over 10 minutes. For AD junglers or manaless junglers how about a “Lizard Handled Knife” that gives +10 health regen and +5 heath on hit with auto attacks. For tank junglers why not a “Golem Handled Knife” that gives +100 health that scales to 200 over 10 minutes. For farming junglers why not give them a “Madred’s Knife” that gives +%20 increased gold from neutral monsters. Of course these are all just ballpark ideas the actual numbers would probably need to be tweaked.
This system gives a lot more starting options for junglers to fit their champions and play styles. It also accomplishes everything Riot has stated they wanted to do this season. It gives more gold by adding gold generation to the jungle only items but also by freeing up gold that previously had to go into Spirit/Wriggles items. It opens up more options for junglers by being able to more directly target what different junglers need rather than painting in the broad strokes currently used by the Spirit/Wriggles items. Last, but not least, it keeps the jungle deadly to those not equipped with jungle items to prevent laners for stealing or feeding off of jungle camps. Additionally it makes the jungle power level easier to manage by simply tweaking the damage bonus and damage reduction percentages of the knives up or down.
The principle objection to this system would be that a jungle item system of this type creates a dead inventory slot. This could be fixed in one of two ways. The first would be to add to the knife system a mechanic similar to Eleisa’s Miracle where after a set amount of time or levels the knife is consumed and the champion gains the abilities permanently thus freeing up the inventory slot. A second even better solution would be to create an enchantment system for the knives similar to the enchantment system for boots that would add stats and effects to the jungle knives. You could have five or six enchantments for different kinds of junglers. For example an AP jungler who wants to do damage could get an enchantment that adds AP and CDR, an AD jungler who wants to do damage could get an enchantment that adds AD and attack speed, a tanky jungler could get an enchantment that adds health, armor and CDR, and a support jungler could get an enchantment that adds a health regen and mana regen aura. These enchantments should be priced in a manner similar to the BF sword and Needless Large Rod forcing the jungler to choose between incremental stat improvement and inventory slot efficiency.
League of Legends has an amazingly extensive and flexible item selection suitable for virtually every play style, damage type and role in the team composition. The solution to the jungle Itemization problem is not to continue to shoehorn extra features into a small selection of jungler specific items. Instead Riot needs to provide a single core item that allows the jungler to be a jungler without tying them to a playstyle, damage type or role in the team composition which is what the existing jungle items currently do. By eliminating the current jungle items and allowing the jungler to define his existence as a jungler with a single starting item, the jungler is given the freedom to select from the entire item pool the items that best suit his or her playstyle, role in the team composition, damage type and current need at any moment in the game.
What do you think?
TL:DR - All current jungle items need to be scrapped in favor of a small selection of starting jungle items that only junglers would wish to buy, that automatically scale with the jungle, and that more directly address a junglers playstyle or role in the team comp.
