Cinderhulk: Tank Junglers Are Reborn

As we all know, there are four types of jungle enchantments. We have Warrior, Magus, Devourer and we did have Juggernaut. Each of them helped your clear time decrease, which helped produce money quicker or get you ganking quicker. However, Juggernaut was literally just extra hp. For a tank such as Sejuani, or Nautilus, whose clears aren't bad. they're just slow, this item didn't help them at all. To help tackle this and to add some more incentive to play these in-your-face tanks, Riot replaced Juggernaut with the Cinderhulk enchantment.

(Art source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Zac-390388455)

About Cinderhulk

The Cinderhulk item has been a great item to bring back tanks into the meta. It's unique passive "Immolate" has the passive Sunfire Cape has, because they work in pretty much the same way. Cinderhulk's passive is 16 (+1 per champion level) magic damage per second to nearby enemies while in combat. So as a tank, if you're butting heads with the enemy front line, you'll be doing damage to them just by standing near them. Unlike Sunfire Cape, the Cinderhulk passive only activates while in combat. It also increases up to 24 (+1 per champion level) magic damage per second depending on how long you're actually in combat. This is a huge benefit to junglers with slow clear times such as Nautilus and Sejuani. 

Aside from all the unique passive benefits, it also works great for tanks in another aspect. It gives a huge boost of health in the early game, which is great, but it also boosts any bonus health you buy by 25%. It's basically a Rabadons Deathcap but for HP! Although it sounds like a great idea to stack Warmogs Armour, please don't. The bonus from buying an item such as Spirit Visage, which gives 400hp, would be 100hp. You're basically buying a 500hp item because you own Cinderhulk as well, which is a very cost effecient item for a tank. You'd be crazy NOT to buy one.

(Art source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Birth-of-Nautilus-300325545)

Who Should I Buy It On?

Well, you may have guessed it by now, but in case you haven't: Tanks. They generally have slow clears due to no damage in their builds, and they often build a lot of HP items, so as mentioned, the Cinderhulk can help them in both ways. Some specific examples of would be Nautilus, Sejuani or Zac.

Nautilus survives well in the jungle because of his shield, and it scales with max HP, so not only do you get an extremely high max HP limit, you also get a shield on top of all that. He's a great champion for peeling, and he'll be up close and personal with the enemy so the Immolate passive is also beneficial. His W also has a damage per second effect, but he needs to auto attack to activate it.

Sejuani is probably my favourite person to buy Cinderhulk on at the moment. The math behind it is a bit confusing, but I'll do my best to explain it. Similar to Nautilus, Sejuani's W scales off maximum HP. But the only part of her W that scales off her maximum hp is when she starts swinging her flail around her head. With 5 skill points in your W, you do 3% maximum hp, magic damage per second, for 4 seconds. So on top of your Immolate passive from Cinderhulk doing damage per second, your W is also doing that as well. If you can land a good Sejuani ultimate and get between the enemy, you're potentially going to burn a team down before your backline can get to them!

(Art source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Sejuani-354578106)

Should I Use This In Solo Queue?

 

Tanks are certainly not a bad choice in solo queue. I don't believe you need to have too much previous experience with a tank because with a lot of combat stats and survivability, you have a higher chance of surviving than if you played Master Yi or Fiddlesticks jungle. I am not guaranteeing you WILL survive, because that's up to you, but with the right item pathing, and as long as you work with your team, a tanky front line is always going to be a good thing in a 5v5 situation.

It'll also depend on which tank you want to play. Someone like Nunu is highly reliant on his team to do damage late-game, so if you cannot keep your team alive, you're basically a snowball-throwing yeti (which isn't very threatening). Nautilus is probably my top recommendation because he's got incredible lock down and crowd control. His ult can knock up a single target without fail, his E slows in a huge area of effect, his Q can stop people from running and even his passive allows you to root anyone you auto attack. Nautilus won't be able to carry a game for you, but he certainly won't let your team die.

Overall

Riot have created a great item which has added a lot of diversity into the jungle. No longer do you have to beg for a "tank top" in solo queue, or fear taking forever to clear your camps. Cinderhulk is a huge boost for tanks and I'm glad to see more picks other than just Jarvan IV, Vi and Lee Sin. It has helped make solo queue a lot more interesting and I personally hope to see it transfer into the competitive scene a lot more. Go out there and try it for yourselves, join the tank revolution!