Views: 1573 Jungle changes and meta predictions
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Hello.
Here's some kind of a jungle meta prediction blog. I'll post my own thoughts on the changes and how the jungle is going to work out. These are all predictions and nothing can be 100% confirmed during the pre-season. I'll also cover some champions that are going to be strong.
Jungle itemization:
Locket of the Iron Solari and Turbo Chemtank both went up in price and are not fit for jungle anymore I think. Those items should be taken by supports because they're too big money holes for junglers as they are now.
I feel like refillable potion should be a jungle starting item for almost everyone. Only start with 3 potions if you're not confident in being able to clear the jungle with only 2 potions. I wouldn't recommend upgrading the refillable potion because it takes too much money and it's not really needed.
Hunter's machete vs Talisman: Hunter's machete wins 100-0 in sustain. You want to take machete over Talisman for most of the champions because you will always end up getting more out of the lifesteal than from the 20 health regen. The mana regeneration is also not that big of a deal on Talisman as you will get blue buff anyways.
Tracker's knife upgrade is the go upgrade for your jungle item. I value it over the other two and I'd take it 8/10 times or even more. You don't really need to invest in wards anymore and you can get the oracle red trinket without worries.
Enchantment: Warrior is the only jungle item that somewhat benefited from the changes (or basically was nerfed the least) because it has no more AD because armor pen got removed so you have slightly faster clear speed. Cinderhulk's price got increased and jungle monsters have magic resist so the clear speed is slightly slower. Devourer's is still like whatever... slightly worse again with the faster game speed.
Jungle farming
Overall the jungle is harder to clear than it used to be even tough riot nerfed the jungle camps' defence. The problem is the mastery changes because junglers used to go for 21 points in offensive and get early game stats to help with jungle clear but now the masteries don't straight up give stats to clear jungle creeps early game.
I think tanky junglers with slow clear got hurt jungle clear wise. I was trying out Gragas for example and I had much less health than I did before the jungle changes and it was really hard to have enough health to pull off a gank after jungle clear unless you went for 3 potions.
AP junglers don't really benefit from Talisman all that much and they can't get as effective lifesteal from machete as AD junglers so they won't be as sustained in the jungle anymore. I tried out Elise with refillable potion and I made full jungle clear with 50% hp left, all potions used. Compare this to the previous clear where I didn't use a single potion and had almost max hp.
AD junglers are much more sustained and benefited the most from the changes. Lee Sin + Rek'Sai have not been the most sustained junglers out there lately but they shouldn't have any problems clearing the jungle and having enough health to pull off a gank afterwards.
Some of my recommended champions
Lee Sin. Dear god. I think this guy benefited from the changes the best. I think Lee Sin is going to be the best jungler out there for those who are skilled enough to pull him off. Lee Sin benefits from tracker's knifes free ward jumps, armor reduction from camps, enchantment: Warrior change, hunter's machete lifesteal and the faster paced gameplay. Everything is set for Lee Sin to snowball games. You're looking at the future best Lee Sin euw :v)
Rek'Sai was strong and is still strong. She has always been a gank heavy jungler so faster paced gamestyle fits her just perfect. Rek'Sai was never a late game hypercarry but instead a jungler you can snowball games with and guess what: that's what you're going to do with the faster game pace. I haven't tried warrior vs cinderhulk yet but I might just take Warrior for soloQ games to snowball games harder but overall Cinderhulk might remain the better option.
Nunu & Willump ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°). Some of the ad carries are ridicilouse at the moment so a jungler that can buff and peel for them is really good. Enemy junglers are also more vulnerable to counter-jungling as junglers overall have harder time staying sustained in the jungle so I think Nunu & Willump can just live in the enemy jungle now. You also don't have to invest in Sightstone to ward the enemy jungle which is nice.
Zac has less sustain now but he has always had fast jungle clear which works in his favor to set up the first gank and overall he has really many ganking routes and opportunities to set up a snowball for lanes.
Elise + Nidalee are both decent as they both benefit from action happy early game with their mobility. Nothing too much here tough.
Wilcard: Nocturne. I think that guy might just make a comeback. I've never really been a Nocturne player but I think he should be a bit stronger now too.
These are just my opinions after some amount of testing. Some may agree or disagree.
Here's some kind of a jungle meta prediction blog. I'll post my own thoughts on the changes and how the jungle is going to work out. These are all predictions and nothing can be 100% confirmed during the pre-season. I'll also cover some champions that are going to be strong.
Jungle itemization:
Locket of the Iron Solari and Turbo Chemtank both went up in price and are not fit for jungle anymore I think. Those items should be taken by supports because they're too big money holes for junglers as they are now.I feel like refillable potion should be a jungle starting item for almost everyone. Only start with 3 potions if you're not confident in being able to clear the jungle with only 2 potions. I wouldn't recommend upgrading the refillable potion because it takes too much money and it's not really needed.
Hunter's machete vs Talisman: Hunter's machete wins 100-0 in sustain. You want to take machete over Talisman for most of the champions because you will always end up getting more out of the lifesteal than from the 20 health regen. The mana regeneration is also not that big of a deal on Talisman as you will get blue buff anyways.
Tracker's knife upgrade is the go upgrade for your jungle item. I value it over the other two and I'd take it 8/10 times or even more. You don't really need to invest in wards anymore and you can get the oracle red trinket without worries.
Enchantment: Warrior is the only jungle item that somewhat benefited from the changes (or basically was nerfed the least) because it has no more AD because armor pen got removed so you have slightly faster clear speed. Cinderhulk's price got increased and jungle monsters have magic resist so the clear speed is slightly slower. Devourer's is still like whatever... slightly worse again with the faster game speed.
Jungle farming
Overall the jungle is harder to clear than it used to be even tough riot nerfed the jungle camps' defence. The problem is the mastery changes because junglers used to go for 21 points in offensive and get early game stats to help with jungle clear but now the masteries don't straight up give stats to clear jungle creeps early game.
I think tanky junglers with slow clear got hurt jungle clear wise. I was trying out
Gragas for example and I had much less health than I did before the jungle changes and it was really hard to have enough health to pull off a gank after jungle clear unless you went for 3 potions.AP junglers don't really benefit from Talisman all that much and they can't get as effective lifesteal from machete as AD junglers so they won't be as sustained in the jungle anymore. I tried out
Elise with refillable potion and I made full jungle clear with 50% hp left, all potions used. Compare this to the previous clear where I didn't use a single potion and had almost max hp.AD junglers are much more sustained and benefited the most from the changes.
Lee Sin + Rek'Sai have not been the most sustained junglers out there lately but they shouldn't have any problems clearing the jungle and having enough health to pull off a gank afterwards.Some of my recommended champions
Lee Sin. Dear god. I think this guy benefited from the changes the best. I think Lee Sin is going to be the best jungler out there for those who are skilled enough to pull him off. Lee Sin benefits from tracker's knifes free ward jumps, armor reduction from camps, enchantment: Warrior change, hunter's machete lifesteal and the faster paced gameplay. Everything is set for Lee Sin to snowball games. You're looking at the future best Lee Sin euw :v) Rek'Sai was strong and is still strong. She has always been a gank heavy jungler so faster paced gamestyle fits her just perfect. Rek'Sai was never a late game hypercarry but instead a jungler you can snowball games with and guess what: that's what you're going to do with the faster game pace. I haven't tried warrior vs cinderhulk yet but I might just take Warrior for soloQ games to snowball games harder but overall Cinderhulk might remain the better option. Nunu & Willump ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°). Some of the ad carries are ridicilouse at the moment so a jungler that can buff and peel for them is really good. Enemy junglers are also more vulnerable to counter-jungling as junglers overall have harder time staying sustained in the jungle so I think Nunu & Willump can just live in the enemy jungle now. You also don't have to invest in Sightstone to ward the enemy jungle which is nice. Zac has less sustain now but he has always had fast jungle clear which works in his favor to set up the first gank and overall he has really many ganking routes and opportunities to set up a snowball for lanes. Elise + Nidalee are both decent as they both benefit from action happy early game with their mobility. Nothing too much here tough.Wilcard:
Nocturne. I think that guy might just make a comeback. I've never really been a Nocturne player but I think he should be a bit stronger now too.These are just my opinions after some amount of testing. Some may agree or disagree.
Now, someone like
The problem with ap junglers is you don't really have the luxury to do red buff without having
Talisman is bad and if you want to start with it you're probably forced to start with Gromp so you can have
Gromp --> Blue --> Wolves --> Red buff may become the most popular jungling route for AP junglers and maybe even AD junglers too but I think AD junglers are in better position with Hunter's Machete so you can just start with Krugs.
I'll use a
Talisman Krug start: I spent
Machete Krug start: I spent both potions, survived red buff with some health left.
Talisman Gromp start: Cleared whole jungle, no hp left to gank after red buff.
Machete Gromp start: Cleared whole jungle, enough hp for 1 gank.
Also talisman+refillable potion allows for a krugs/red start since you get some mana regen from both.
IMO the new jungle has a "new optimisation" problem, where people don't know how to properly minimise the damage taken or maximize the healing done. Plus runes/masteries should be taken in account too.
EDIT: I totally agree on AD junglers being stronger. The buffs were aimed at AP and tank junglers, but they helped AD too, plus the increase in ambient gold, new AD items and needlessness of buying wards/potions helped them more than AP/tanks who had their item costs going up.