Jungle 4.21: Meta? What meta?

Patch 4.20 was the dawn of a new era and a real sign of a big new pre-season, and patch 4.21 sees some quick tweaks to the fun of this new age but the by-product is a whole variety of new champions suited to lurking away in the jungle and then popping out to cause mayhem. Gone are the old jungle items and monsters too, and in their stead are new versions and new evolutions – starting with the Hunter’s Machete.

I’m going to skip the item by item guide on Machete and the new upgrades, but you can check out THIS article by Flamoctapus on what items are great to pick in the new jungle era.

Jungle 101? Jungle 4.21:

So, if you read that - or already knew the changes from the patch notes – you’re ready to move round to the next phase of jungle knowledge; the monsters.

• Krugs (formerly Golems)

Smiting this monster gives the ‘Gift of Heavy Hands’ – a stun on minions for every first and sixth hit. It also offers bonus damage onto turrets in one hit but this consumes the buff. Lasts 90 seconds.

• Raptors (formerly Wraiths)

Smiting this monster grants ‘Razor Sharp’ – a warning icon when spotted and magical sight that identifies enemy wards. Lasts 90 seconds , with one charge to identify any ward. This is consumed whether you are spotted by a green or a pink ward.

• Murkwolves

Smiting this monster creates a ‘Rift Spirit’ which summons said spirit to watch over the wolves/blue buff area of the jungle. As with all the other buffs it lasts 90 seconds but this reduces when the spirit chases an enemy.

• Gromp (formerly the Wight)

Gromp spawns from a frog and a toadstool so gives ‘Gift of the Toadstool’. This means that attackers are poisoned for 4 magic damage plus an additional 8 per level over 3 seconds.

• Red Brambleback (red buff)

Smiting red buff restores 20% of the champion’s maximum health, but this is a waste if starting at red buff so many players prefer vision on the Krug from their top/bot lane to then solo red while the lane takes the Krug for themselves. This buff lasts 2 minutes, granting a 5-10% slow and 5-56 damage on hit over time.

• Blue Sentinel (blue buff)

Smiting blue buff gives back 25% of the champion’s maximum mana pool. Starting on blue you should be smiting Gromp and then fighting, but gifting blue to midlane you should smite carefully; you want to gain the best amount of mana for yourself without the enemy stealing or making it hard work for your mid to quickly take and return to farming. This buff lasts 2 minutes.

Vi versus Blue Sentinel. Photo courtesy of League of Legends official website

The differences in names and the Smite bonuses make things a little complicated but they do work and they have made the jungle a lot more fun, a little harder, and League of Legends’ tactical play a lot more diverse. The potential has just increased massively!

The reason I say jungle is a little harder is that the damage has been increased. Small jungle camps are on a 100 second respawn timer, with increased health, attack damage, gold, and experience – all set at 20%. These camps also have a greater scaling damage during the game and, in case you thought of taking advantage of higher levels versus camp monsters, champions are now penalised with 10% less experience for each level above the camp they are killing (caps at 50%).

In summary, everything hits harder, it lives longer, but it rewards you better. The changes are hard hitting for some junglers who struggle early, such as Evelynn, but the idea is to display the very best in not only teamwork, but also timing and strategy. If your jungler is weak at farming they are probably a dab hand at ganking. This then opens up the play of regular ganks versus a farming jungle, meaning one team can be brave while the other has to hold fast and bide their time.

That’s just an example though. The final three big changes came in the form of Baron and Dragon – the global objectives - and the River Crab/Scuttle Crab.

Santa hat Baron Nashor! Photo courtesy of News of Legends

The Hand of Baron:

This is the new name for the Baron Nashor buff. It grants scaling attack damage and ability power, maxing at +40 of each in line with game time (i.e. baron at 25 mins = +25 stats). The buff also grants bonuses in the form of an aura buff to minions and lasts for 3 minutes. Make sure you read this, because so many people are still clueless as to the minion buffs and die for it.

• All minions get a movement speed bonus matching 90% of the average champion move speed in their vicinity.
• Minions can’t be slowed.
• Non super minions take 75% less AOE/DoT/persistent effect damage.
• Melee minions get a 50% speed boost approaching enemy minions or turrets.
• Melee minions increase in size and take 75% less damage from champs/minions.
• Melee minions have greater attack range and take 30% less damage from turrets.
• Ranged minions receive + 20 AD, +50 missile speed, + 100 attack range.
• Canon minions receive +600 attack range, +50 AD, but -50% attack speed.
• Canon attacks are now AOE and do 2x damage to turrets.
• Super minions receive +25 A.S, and the same movement speed buff as melee.
• Recall time with Baron buff is halved.
• Champions gain a 50% instant heal on recall, plus +50% movespeed for 8 seconds once based.

The new Dragon. Photo courtesy of MMO Games

Dragon:

Killing dragon no longer gives global gold. It grants some gold and experience to the slayer, which should usually be the jungler smiting it. As of 4.21, the Dragon Buff order is as follows:

1. Dragon’s Might - +6% total attack damage and ability power
2. Dragon’s Wrath - +15% damage to turrets and buildings
3. Dragon’s Flight - +5% movement speed
4. Dragon’s Dominance - +15% damage to minions and monsters
5. Aspect of the Dragon – repeatable fifth stack. Triples all other bonuses and attacks burn enemies for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. This buff lasts 3 minutes.
As of patch 4.21 Dragon now drops souls for Thresh, fires attacks as spells (meaning they can be shielded), and will finish attacks before switching targets, thus making it harder to juggle the drake damage. It still is a case of the closest person to it tanks though, so the jungler or a bulky champion make an ideal “back of the pen” bait to soak while the rest bring the dragon down.
 

Scuttle Crab:

This river crab exists in the river. No way! There are two; one for each major buff. It respawns every 3 minutes and grants vision and a speed buff AOE zone for 75 seconds once it is dead. It will always try to run away once attacked, so be wary of the tenacity and frustration it can cause in a moderately handy vision bonus compared to the potential of being caught out in the open and killed.

This is the monster section completed. The only extra tweak is that you don’t lose buffs when executed by jungle mobs. This might seem overly lenient, and many have joked about this being helpful for the most publicly witnessed jungle calamity from Brokenshard, but the idea is that it helps lower tier players more than anyone adapt to the patch and the difficulty.

Champions: Who’s Hot?

It’s hard working out which champions are now the best picks in the jungle. The issue is that with the patches making jungling harder but also more rewarding, players are having to learn once again how to handle damage, how to path through the jungle, and the timing of returning to base without being counter jungled.

As such, a lot of players are now favouring a “gank first, jungle later” ideology that involves a heavy presence in lanes after 1-2 camps in between each appearance. The pressure worries laners and also distracts the enemy jungler because they are most likely getting messages asking for the same help to be offered to their lanes.

So then, who is a viable pick in this day and age?

Lee Sin

The Blind Monk is still, probably, the best jungler around. The reason I say this is that he’s an older champion like Irelia and, like her, he has a ridiculously broad playstyle remit. He can be tanky, he’s mobile, he can throw out a heap of damage… It’s a running joke that they always nerf Lee but for all they tweak him he never really falls down. Riot’s developers still have him lined up for work in 2015 due to the high demand for changes, so expect nerfs and the appearance of niche junglers who are safe to exist in a world that Lee Sin does not dominate.

Sejuani

Sej is one of my three favourite junglers. She rides a boar, swings a mace, and she’s just badass about it. In season 3 she was a very strong tank jungle pick, as was the more mobile Hecarim, but like him she fell off – replaced by the likes of Vi and Jarvan.

Now she returns, coincidentally in time for the Poro Rider Sejuani skin release. Shh, I’m not cynical. In fact, I’m delighted. This will be the skin I have been dreaming of, and I get buffs to go with it! Sejuani’s Q “Arctic Assault” is a short range tackle ability that now scales off AP, not a percentage of the enemy’s health. This is great for the impactful burst damage that the tackle would suggest.

‘Flail of the Northern Winds’ is her W ability, and this has taken on the role of scaling off max HP percentage now, with an additional 3% damage per 100 AP that Sejuani has. Each rank costs reduced mana and deals AOE damage. This damage has been slightly nerfed but will scale with HP percentage like the ability’s single target damage does.

Sej’s final move change is ‘Permafrost’, her E. This does reduced damage now but has a reduced cooldown making it a lot more viable for buying that extra second or two to pick off an opponent. The slow duration has been fixed at 1.5 seconds at all ranks for fairness, but then given her ultimate is firing a massive block of ice at anyone in front of her it’s not the biggest problem.

 

Poro Rider Sejuani. Photo courtesy of Lolnews.br

Jax

Jax is a simple one. His damage has been increased on his ultimate and he has a reduced cooldown on his ‘Counter Strike’, meaning he can soak more damage and stun it back as a chunk more regularly. A fearsome jungle bruiser and a solid ganker in the right hands.

Twisted Fate

TF was picked by Cowsep, an English pro streamer who is in Challenger tier in Korea. When Cowsep (who dresses like a cow on stream) can’t get Master Yi jungle, he goes for crazy picks. AP jungle tends to be the thing, with picks like Karthus, Veigar, Graves, Kayle, and Twisted Fate.

The idea is that TF can sustain mana, throw out stuns or AOE damage, and farms quite handily with the mobility to minimise damage. Once at level 6 the TF then follows the route of Warwick; scare the living hell out of everyone. Unicorns of Love then had their jungler ‘Kikis’ play it in game 1 versus TSM at IEM San Jose, to phenomenal effect. Solo queue has since boarded the hype train, leading to my next two suggestions…

Nocturne

Noct is one of those champions who isn’t super hot right now but has his advantages. The ultimate is a fantastic vision denial, and I’d pick him as a counter to the Twisted Fate pick. His ult nulls the Twisted Fate vision passive on that ult, not to mention the fact that Nocturne has strong potential to counter jungle and duel the TF.

Fans of ‘Summoning Insight’ will have heard Nick "LS" De Cesare, coach of Meet Your Makers (MYM), describe the Twisted Fate pick as more of a surprise than a dominance pick because it only deals out on hit damage. Nocturne can stroll in in, fear, and whittle away the aspiring nuisance that is the card dealer. Patch 4.21 also saw Nocturne gain a movement speed increase towards those feared, either by himself or others such as Fiddlesticks.

Rek’sai

I will have an article on Rek’sai to come following this piece and it will go into detail on builds, play style, laning vs jungle, and the usual advantages and disadvantages. What I would say is that, like Nocturne, she would be a good pick versus Twisted Fate. Her ultimate allows a tunnel dash in a matter of seconds, providing similar global travel. In terms of champion style think Pantheon but with more subtlety, and a more balanced growth across the match rather than a high early/weak late game. A massive annoyance and classic “OP on release” with the tunnel escape cheeses.
 

Rek'sai splash art. Photo courtesy of League of Legends official website

Shyvana

Shyv, as of 4.21, has a lower cooldown on her bite ability – Q: ‘Twin Bite’ – and deals 20% bonus damage to jungle monsters from her W: ‘Burnout’ ability. Tanks are good junglers at the moment, so Shyvana’s looking like a solid addition to the crew, and with a Skirmisher’s Sabre we could see some painful punishment of overextending in lanes.

Yorick

Named after a character in ‘Hamlet’ and loosely based on the Gravedigger from the same story, Yorick is an awkward pick. He is supremely annoying. Previously he would shut down a top lane and now we have the likes of Gnar and Jayce returning he has been butted back out.

Instead we now have a jungle that is suitable for this walking miser. His hybrid damage and constant ghoul assistance make jungle farming a safe enough chore and, with careful timing and coordination, his lack of speed is irrelevant as a reason why he can’t gank. That’s not to say it’s not difficult, but a solid jungler will know their pathing well enough to avoid detection and swoop in on a lane.
 

Other solid picks for 4.21 include the nerfed Warwick (sustain/that ult), Xin Zhao (sustain, early pressure), Jarvan IV, Vi, Fiddlesticks… you see the trend; tank it out or sustain yourself.
 

Champions: Who’s Not?

Not everyone can be a super hero in the jungle though. Evelynn is still squishy since 4.20 and 4.21, despite her base armour going up. Amumu too has been hit, with less damage from his ‘Despair’ – the pool of tears AOE.
Kha’zix, who has been a very highly contested pick throughout most of 2014, is enjoying a time out with his spikes being put on an increased cooldown and Pantheon – the hero of 4.20 – has been dialled down a bit with a loss of attack speed. This is to stop him soloing dragon at level 2 to secure insane early lane bonuses that more often than not won games.

Other changes include Rammus, who has increased cooldown on ‘Powerball’ and less of an armour shred on his taunt, and Rengar. This was described as an “oops” moment by Riot because Rengar’s Bonetooth Necklace was accidentally benefitting from cooldown reduction. This made him a little bit more dangerous than he was meant to be, so now all is fair.

The reason the ‘Who’s not?’ section is shorter and not as champion by champion listed is because all picks are still a nifty pick if you play it right. Elise was top tier with Lee Sin but now she has fallen off. That isn’t to say she is useless or no longer viable, but she’s now more of a specific target pick; she’s to be an obstructive champion with her web. Riot are making the jungle a lot broader in terms of suitability. Champions like Yorick and Twisted Fate work. Champions like Twitch and Irelia work. Player skill and judgement on the match ups are being brought into focus more, rather than “this pick beats that pick so GG”.

Blood Moon Elise in Spider Form. Photo courtesy of Mediavida.com

What’s coming in the future?

The first note is the decrease in price for Sejuani in the LoL store; down to 4800IP from 6300 and to 880RP from 975. This is fair, given her lack of popularity and uses up till now and perhaps should have been done sooner, but also shows Riot are trying not to come across all “hey it’s Christmas, buy some champs and skins”. That said, it makes business sense – lower the champ’s cost, people buy with IP, they feel comfortable, they splash the cash on RP.

PBE, the Public Beta Experience, is currently trialling Smite on a charge system. This would mean it could stack up to 2 charges, with a 15 second cooldown between uses of stacks and the usual cooldown periods aside. Charges start at 1 minute 40 but whether this will come into the 4.22 patch we don’t know.

In terms of champion changes you should expect tweaks to Rek’sai once people start clicking that she has excellent mobility and fudges everything with that knock up. Her burst damage could perhaps get turned into an armour bonus instead, copying a Malphite shield so that she isn’t ripping it up but she isn’t getting torn down for not doing as much damage. This is purely theoretical though, but we saw changes to Gnar, Azir, Yasuo, and Braum very quickly after release.