A developer of League of Legends has explained that the “Jungle” position is currently too influential in LoL. Therefore, with patch 1.14, there are some changes that will make the Jungle less important for the game.
This is the Jungle in LoL: League of Legends is essentially a pure PvP game: 5 players fight against 5 others. However, there are some NPC mobs that spawn regularly. Killing them gives money, experience points, and important buffs.
These mobs are located in fixed camps in the “Jungle” between the lanes: The player who kills them professionally is the Jungler.
What is the problem? According to Riot Games, the position has become “too important” in LoL in recent months. It has “too much influence” on the game.
This was evident at Worlds 2020, where a “Carry Jungle” meta emerged. In this meta, the Jungler is the team’s main damage source.
At Worlds 2020, the Jungler from world champion DAMWON Gaming, Canyon, dominated the competition with aggressive picks like Graves and was even named MVP of the finals.
The clip shows Canyon’s stats at Worlds 2020. He was simply number 1 in everything:
“Jungler has too much influence in LoL”
Here are the upcoming changes: The design chief of LoL, Mark “Scruffy” Yetter, announced on Twitter what changes will affect the Jungle in patch 11.4: The Jungle will give less gold and experience.
4 camps are affected by the changes:
- The big frog Gromp and the Raptors from Razerbeak will give less experience, each 10 gold less, and their HP will increase by 100.
- The “Stonebeasts”, the Krugs, are also hit by the nerf: Soon there will be less gold and experience points, but at least the HP will remain the same.
Riot Games apparently wants to push the meta back from “Carry Jungle” after the role dominated Worlds 2020.
Already in patch 1.13, LoL nerfed some of its strongest Junglers like Olaf, Ivern, or Elise.
This is the reaction: Fans are actively discussing the change. It is believed that the change will primarily force Junglers in LoL to go back “into the lanes” and seek ganks.
In the current meta, it was apparently possible for Junglers to avoid ganks and only level in the Jungle to shine later in team fights where they could exploit their power advantage:
- Some oppose the change. They say: No wonder nobody plays Jungle when you make it so unattractive. Even if the Jungler is strong, it would still be an unpopular role. Something needs to change here.
- Other LoL players welcome the change. They say: The Jungle nerf is necessary because currently every game is decided by the “Jungle Gap”: Who has the better Jungler wins.
Riot Games has already hinted that they want to strengthen the Midlane in the next patch.
The largest Twitch streamer for LoL is Tyler1. He is a trained ADC but has complained terribly about Junglers and said: It is the easiest role in LoL but played by no-talents. He then set himself the goal of climbing to the highest ranks in the role that was new to him.
Streamer skips Twitch for goal in LoL – Costs him about $56,000 in subs
