Scuttling Along: Scuttle Crab's Impact on Objective Control

One of the biggest areas of change each pre-season is the Jungle, as Riot attempts to fix the ever-present problems of Jungle income and vision. This preseason, we were given a large number of changes, including tougher jungle camps, new Hunter's Machete upgrades, and changes to Smite. In addition to these changes, which will all have an impact, we also have a new Jungle camp: the Rift Scuttler, or more colloquially as Scuttle Crab. Look at this cute little guy:

He's different from every other Jungle camp: he's in the river, he's an avowed pacifist, he's scared of loud noises, and rather than die when you beat on him, he simply hides and gives you vision of an end-game objective as tribute so you don't hurt him anymore. It is this vision, as well as the speed buff when you run over his hiding spot, which makes him one of the most important objectives in late game, as it helps you control the rest of the map.

Controlling the Crab

Controlling the Scuttle Crab is actually fairly difficult, and his unique nature presents a few new challenges for teams that want to monopolize his buff. The first challenge is the time required to kill him is very substantial in the early game. A tanky little bugger, the crab will take quite a bit of time to kill without Smite, as much as fifteen seconds at level two depending on which champion you're playing. While he doesn't fight back, this is a dangerous amount of time to be spending in territory that is commonly warded. He also is terrified of Champions, running away from them as soon as they touch him, which is mainly what prolongs the period of time it takes to kill him and dragging you across the river. 

As such, some changes need to be made in your playstyle if you are hoping to take complete control of the Scuttle Crab. The first of which is changing how you ward near the river. Rather than warding in river, you need to place deeper wards to sense if the enemy Jungler is coming to contest. Below is a small map of bottom river with diagrams of "safe" wards, but even deeper wards are preferred. These deep wards will allow you to take advantage of the Crab's mobility to avoid confrontation with your teammate. The second reason that your ward placement will change is that you do not want redundant wards where the Crab is granting you vision, unless that ward is also denying vision (read: pink wards). Placing a green ward in that location is just squandering one of your most valuable resources. Using a pink ward in the corner you drive the crab into will help keep you safe from your enemy.

You also need to use the Crab's mobility to your advantage. The Crab moves as quickly as he can away from his attackers, and if he gets to close to an edge of the river, he'll turn about face in a little dash. The first way to try and take advantage of this is to pin the Crab in the corner of the river. This will allow you to set up one ward and limits how far you need to chase the Crab. Once he tries to dash away, you can reset yourself in front of him and push him back, and while this may make your clearing speed slower, keeps you safe. Don't be afraid to use your Smite on him. While Smiting him doesn't grant you one of the considerable boons of the other camps, the vision and speed shrine are more than enough compensation.

Finally, if you fear someone is going to run across you while killing him, your location allows you to call a teammate from lane or drive the Crab down the river in hope you'll avoid him. Try to avoid situations where you and your ally are attacking him from different directions as this can make you lose your control of him. Similarly, if you get into a fight with the enemy Jungler over the Crab, attacking it will drive it closer to the enemy. If you come across your enemy trying to corner the crab, attacking it into the corner will drive it towards you as it will dash away from the edge of the river. 

The blue locations indicate areas to ward that will give you enough time to escape if you're attempting to pin the Crab. The circle is the location of the speed buff, and the striped zones are ideal places to corner the crab where you won't easily lose control.

Why Bother?: How Crab Impacts Objective Control

Frankly, this is quite a bit of work for a low-income Jungle creep, but the location of the vision and speed shrine is worth the effort. The most obvious benefit is the free vision over the map's most important buffs: Dragon and Baron. With Dragon's new importance in late game, having even one of these two Crab spots means that a team can't out-rotate you by feinting to one and taking the other. This is uncounterable vision, meaning a team can't clear it and force your team to commit to the objective. So obviously the vision of these buffs is the most visible reason for you to take control of the crab.

I'll argue that the speed buff is just as important as the vision, especially if you are the team that is attempting to take the major objective. Repositioning yourself from inside the objective pits and placing your carries behind your front line is crucial in fights over Dragon and Baron, and the speed shrine allows you to react to enemy teams quicker. It also allows team members to avoid some of the most devastating river ultimates, such as the Equalizer and Crowstorm, and allows a team to quickly escape if the fight goes poorly, especially  towards blue buff. 

While the speed shrine might have a short duration, it is fairly useful when counter-Jungling or stalking your opponents Jungle. Using it to rush yourself in the enemy Jungle and take a single Jungle camp allows you to quickly come in, Smite a large minion, and then use the same shrine to escape. It also lets you gain distance on pursuers. This increased river speed means that your team can use the Shrines to gain control of your enemy's Jungle buffs. The other benefit of the speed shrine is for roam heavy mid laners, such as Twisted Fate, Ahri, and Zed. Even one second saved between lanes might mean that they're able to get into position before the warning comes.

While we don't know how much professional teams will prioritize the little guy, taking control of him early and leveraging the advantages he gives you early will put you on a fast track to the stacks of Dragon buff and allow you to challenge the second or third buff transfers. If you can take advantage of those opportunities, you'll find that while Smiting him doesn't immediately lead to victory, the road to it gets a lot smoother through the river.