Reinvigorating Kai'sa Jungle

When Kai’sa first came before the auto attack range increases, from 500 to 525. She was considered weak because of her horrible laning phase. But while she lacked in the lane, she dominated the jungle. Not many people got to experience her as a jungler, as right away Riot went in and made sure Kai’sa was balanced purely for the bot lane. Overlooking the small amount of players taking her into the jungle. I was one of the few people who immediately started playing her in the jungle and became my new favorite champion. Between a mixture of Vayne and Kha'zix, I instantly fell in love with both Kai’sa’s kit and theme. A Jungle marksman assassin, and while both Kindred and Twitch are viable marksmen junglers, they just aren’t my cup of tea. Kindred focuses too much on her marks and her abilities, while Twitch cheeses and uses his camouflage to take people by surprise. For me, it was Kai’sa jungle or nothing and throughout the champ’s lifespan, the balance changes to Kai’sa have really hurt what made her so much fun when I first played her. So, I’m here now to talk about what made her fun and how I would change her going forward.

What made her fun:

Kai’sa’s theme is the same archetype as one of my favorite characters, Samus Aran from the Metroid series and what made Kai’sa originally fun for me was that feeling of being a bounty hunter/ hunter of void. The older version of her kit rewarded players who isolated their target and made sure to mark them with her W before engaging. This almost always guaranteed the kill on a champ, even on champions such as Xin Zhao, which I won’t deny was overpowered. One of my fondest memories of Kai’sa jungle was launching a W from inside the jungle, marking them for my ultimate and flying in for a surprise gank. While Kai’sa can still do everything that I just said, two major things stop her from completely being viable in the jungle: her lack luster clear speed and the major loss in early kill pressure from all the nerfs to make her a scaling adc. So why is this such a big deal? Kai’sa jungle no longer feels like a bounty hunter who battles the other jungler. Rather she feels like an adc desperately trying to stay afloat while most jungle champions can simply counter jungle and invade for a free kill. This inevitably puts her behind and gives up almost all the jungle pressure in the game, making it unfun to play against most opponents. The changes I want would hopefully remedy this problem and make her jungle more viable.

The Challenge:

Make Kai’sa jungle have a better/healthier clear and give her better early kill pressure, while keeping her intended role balanced. I’m not asking for Kai’sa jungle to be meta. The goal of these changes would be to allow her to coexist with the adc role, while making jungle Kai’sa no longer a complete troll pick in the jungle.

The easy way:

A: Give Kai’sa’s Q bonus damage against non epic monsters

B: Give Kai’sa’s Q Isolation damage against non epic monsters and enemy champions (Nearby enemies that are Isolated from Allies are marked)

C: Give Kai’sa’s passive isolation damage against non epic monsters and enemy champions (Nearby enemies that are Isolated from Allies are marked)

D: Give Kai’sa’s passive Bonuses damage against non epic monsters

Personally, I lean towards B. This would give kai’sa a better clear on single target camps while also giving her back that assassin marksman feel while in the jungle. I’m no balance team, so I can’t comment on damage numbers. But I feel as though this would give her an assassin vibe while jungling and prevents her from seriously abusing this added effect on her Q in lane and in large scale teamfights.

The Crazy Idea I came up with at 3AM in the morning:

        Kai’sa’s Passive would get a large damage buff, but to compensate, her auto attacks would only apply plasma stacks (her first passive) after:

•      Hard CC
  

•      A hit from Void seeker (Her W)
  

•      If Icathian Rain (Her Q) hits 6 missiles on one person, minion or monsters of any kind 
  

Crazy rework idea that I just wanted to throw out there just for the hell of it, don’t think too hard about it. 😊

Closing thoughts:

Even if this essay misses the mark and people dislike my Ideas. I hope this ignites a conversation over not only Kai’sa as a Jungler, but more champs that could use simple yet effective changes to make them viable in the jungle; and that Riot games at least notices my notion to make Kai’sa better in the Jungle.