A few days ago, Riot Games gave the first elements concerning the changes to come in the jungle during season 13 of League of Legends. The studio has one main goal: to make the jungle more accessible to players and champions. During its last presentation, highlighting the new features and new champions coming to Summoner’s Rift, the studio took the opportunity to reveal new information on the changes coming to the jungle.
A less punitive position
Riot Games said it before, from a champion perspective, they want to make the ability to clear camps fairer. The principle is simple: “removing some of the complexity from monster takedown and making it appear in other aspects of the game”. We still don’t know exactly what the studio meant by that, but it looks like we have the answer.
The role of jungle is not the easiest to take in hand, and yet it is very often crucial to the strategy of the team. Riot Games therefore wants the jungle to be more intuitive and wants to help remedy the more complex aspects. The first change will improve buff sharing. Giving buffs to your laners is important when you’re jungler, but losing the gold, XP and bonuses they give is unpleasant. Riot therefore wants to change this to make the process less taxing for junglers, such as buffs that leave behind a small being who also holds a buff, among other things. .
Riot is also trying to improve the waiting rules in jungle camps. The goal is to ensure that you don’t get punished too long for bringing camps too far unintentionally (when a side is re-set when you try to make a second one at the same time for example).
These changes will help make the penalties lighter in case this happens. Some junglers like to max out monster kills, and Riot Games wants to reward them for that. Empty camps will continue to be unique and optimal for champions like Kayn who starts with raptors for example.
The goal is not to make the jungle easier to master, but to make getting started in the jungle easier. Other jungle modifications are also in development, but it’s still too early to tell according to the studio.