Cresting the third role of Summoners Rift, we’ve come to the 50% mark of our Season 6 breakdown; this time with a focus on the one and only jungler, did Riot leave a healthy ecosystem behind, or are we left to ask Vi??
The Jungler
The jungler, the recluse of the rift. An analogical family of League of Legends would mark the jungler as an eccentric distant relative who pops up out of nowhere various points (thank you Sky Williams for the analogy.) One of the most impactful roles of the game, jungling as a whole requires a different play style — one that was focused on macro play, decision making, and map awareness, in contrast to the micro, mechanical and methodical play so evident in the lanes. After all, your opponent in the jungle wasn’t an opposing laner but rather an equally nomadic adversary that could be anywhere at any time. It's the jungler's duty to provide ganking pressure, secure neutral objectives and overall be a controlling force in the game. Armed with the unique summoner spell smite, the jungler would prowl the fog of war activating this spell to rain a massive amount of true damage on minions and monsters. A core and distinctive role since the inception of the league, the season six changes only serve to strengthen the jungler’s dynamic and unique identity.
A Not So Brief History
To truly understand the changes made in Season 6, we must first rewind a year back and take a closer look at the opening of Season 5. For a whopping 3 seasons, the jungler meta was relatively untouched. Sure Riot introduced a new Wight camp in patch 3.15 and with Season 4 brought in a little bit of diversity with the Spirit Stone and Madreds Razor changes, but it wasn't anything major. Fundamentally, the jungle was dominated by aggressive junglers who had an easy time clearing and an even easier time ganking. AP junglers were non-existent except for Elise, who was broken. Other than that, the jungle was literally dominated by only a few champions, namely Lee Sin, Vi to a certain extent, Jarvan, and Elise, with Evelynn coming along post rework. Of those listed, Lee, Eve, and Elise would shine the brightest and it would be these champions who would form the Unholy trinity of “to hell with diversity”. Although heavy impact changes such as feral flare saw the rise of on-hit attack speed junglers, such as Master No skill (I WAS IN ALPHA) and Win Nhao (Xin Zhao), they we’re promptly nerfed the next patch. Riot seemed adamant at making sure that unless you picked or banned Lee Sin or Elise, you were going to have a bad time. The meta was volatile and unhealthy; tier one and tier two picks left little room for diversity, unless you were Nightblue3, Cowsep or a Trick2g worshipping fanboy you’d stick with the aggressive, safe, junglers.
A Briefer History
Conversely, however everything changed when the fire nation atta--- I mean everything changed with the onset of Season 5. Season 5 was a season of massive jungler growth. Hand in hand with the Summoner’s Rift visual update came the birth of an entirely new jungle with new items that would change the face of the jungle entirely. The unique smite-altering items that Riot Games released in path 4.20 of the Season 5 preseason gave breath to a meta that had so long been stale. Althought every smite item fit their own niche pick, the item with the most impact by far was ranger’s trailblazer. Literally godsend for junglers who had a weaker time clearing camps, Ranger’s Trailblazer altered smite into an area of effect ability that also healed. This change allowed the rise of junglers who, prior to the changes, would’ve been considered off meta. Rengar, Khazix, as well as Possible AP junglers were also enabled with Trailblazers which at the time had a zero cost to switch to the other smite items, being skirmishers for dueling and stalker’s for ganking. To wrap up our historical tour, Season 5 also saw the rise of runeglaive AP junglers, cinderhulk tank junglers, the advent of Rek’sai to the league and the long awaited dethronement of Lee Sin at the top, though he still remained strong. Of course we’re here to analyze the Season 6, not dwell on Season 5 moreover it’s fundamental to remember that it was the changes of Season 5 that enables what we see today in Season 6.
Season 6: Knives, Blades and Sabres
Although minimal on paper, Season 6 has seen changes that had a large impact on the intrinsics of the jungle. In patch 5.22, green wards were completely removed from the game; trinkets were modified to give earlier vision. These vision changes have largely impacted the dynamic in most lanes. Early free vision lends to a safer laning phase for laners, especially those who had a penchant for “forgetting” wards existed in the shop. Moreover these changes have also lent weaknesses to a laner’s defense against jungle ganks. Given the shorter duration of trinket wards in the early game and the lack of vision wards to compensate, junglers can now abuse early vision timing for high impact early ganks.
Another high impact change the season has brought with it lies within an often overlooked part of the league. Built as a fast paced, high action game, the currency of the rift innately generated gold and gold so carefully scrounged off of last hitting, coupled with the experience gained that lies inborn to the Moba are often overlooked aspects. Nevertheless these relatively minuscule changes to the game’s structure now come into play with the Season 6 jungle. Jungle camps now give less gold early as well as less experience. This impacts multiple things in both the jungle and lane dynamics. Less experience now prevents laners from grabbing a camp early for a juicy level 2 experience boost. In compensation of this the two jungle item starts, the reworked Hunter’s Machete and the new Hunter’s Talisman now offer a +15 experience for junglers clearing camps, at the cost of the bonus gold previously offered. These changes will prove a detriment to item dependent junglers, however help with junglers who rely on levels to hit powerspikes; causing a heavier focus on macro play and playing around levels and discouraging a heavy farm, no ganks until level 19 jungle style.
Itemization has also played a large role in the opening acts of Season 6. As mentioned prior, changes have been made to Hunters Machete and Talisman. Catered at diversifying the jungle and allowing for a larger variety of champion play, Hunter’s Machete aimed at auto attack based junglers and Hunter’s Talisman which lends sustain and mana regen have opened the jungle to champions who would’ve otherwise struggled. Sustain issues that barred champions from the role of jungle have also further been addressed with the inception of Hunter's potion. A refillable item much like the Crystalline Flask of old, this item rewards junglers with a small recovery of health and mana per jungle clear effectively buffing low sustain junglers. Tank junglers have now also buffed both indirectly with the armor penetration nerf, as well as directly as their early sustain issues have now been addressed. Ability power junglers have also been given a new chance at life with a new enchantment, called runic echoes. Playing of a charge like system akin to Luden’s echo, AP junglers are now given an easier time clearing and a breadth of room to succeed. Lastly retaining the Stalker’s Blade and Skirmisher’s Sabre, affectionately named red and blue smite respectively, Riot has also introduced a new smite Tracker’s Knife. Acting as a jungler’s sightstone, Season 6 has only further put emphasis on the role of the jungler as quintessential to the game’s macro play and map control.
Although a lesser impact than other roles, masteries, for one, still play a part in the writing of a new year of jungling adventures. Heavily dependent on the type of jungler played as well as the style or the summoner, the Season 6 masteries have been heavily slanted towards that of a lane play style. Most masteries have a common ground in taking a point in the cunning tree that allows for 15% duration of buffs with the rest up to choice. Contingent on the jungler of choice, common masteries include Thunderlords Decree for bursting and raw damage in ganks, Strength of the Ages for tank Junglers and Storm Raiders surge for more effective ganks, which thanks to recent buffs is now gaining in popularity. All in all, although it's probably the least impactful change, masteries have still made a splash in the jungle however to a lesser extent.
Conclusion
Much like the other roles, the birth of Season 6 has also introduced a host of new junglers that have begun to prosper. The marksman update that had been Riot’s brainchild at diversifying the botlane have also allowed for perhaps unintended side effects. Although far from being Meta-defining, such as a the release of Lee Sin or Rek’sai, Graves and Quinn jungle have now been on the rise as top tier picks, with an insane clear time and devastating ganks respectively, these picks have begun to revolutionize the jungle. No longer only a support role, such as the Meta of Season 2, only a tank role, such as the Cinderhulk domination, or only an aggressive bruiser such as the League of Black Cleavers, the Season 6 jungle has proven itself to be far more diverse than its predecessors, with virtually anyone being able to jungle, and to a certain extent succeed. Although I’m not recommending that you auto lock Soraka jungle in your next match, Riot has certainly done away with the niche trifecta that has do long dominated the meta game.
Thus concludes the end to our expedition of the shadowy jungle of the rift. Where, however, are we left now? The jungle is a dynamic and assorted environment. Unique in the champions played, as well as unique in its importance and playstyle the jungle will remain an important and pivotal role for the time forthcoming. If Riot continues its trend and precedent of mid-season jungle changes, rest assured we’ll see another hotfix that may give another rise to a new and diverse jungle meta, after all Season Six has already shown to be an interesting and crazy season (Hello Trundle support???). But until Based Riot gods bless us with another jungle rework, another item or another Meta defining champ, I’ll be marauding through the wilderness, slaying monsters, grabbing objectives and t?a?x?i?n?g? uh, helping my laners in another year on the rift. So why not join me? Hop on to your nearest rig, potato or oven of choice and let’s embark on another expedition, another journey, and another season, of League of Legends.
