Blogs
Patch 5.11 Jungle Changes: We got everything you want
Hey guys! Patch 5.11 hit live Wednesday morning and I'm here to discuss the changes, specifically to the jungle, in this patch.
Champions
Aatrox is a champion that doesn't see much play recently. He was mainly popular back in Season 3 when a first blood would result in a serious snowball in one team's favor. Because of that meta, Aatrox was very popular due to his passive and his reliability in turret dives. This buff is a pretty solid one as it means that, late game, Aatrox' passive will be up every 2 minutes and 30 seconds (half of a GA). While I don't believe this change will necessarily make Aatrox meta, I do believe that he'll be a much better pick this patch.
Hecarim's a bit more prevalent in top lane right now but is seeing more play in the jungle due to a nerf a few patches back where Hecarim's mana cost was increased on his Q in exchange for more damage dealt to monsters. The passive change is a bit of a buff (it registers the additional movement speed faster resulting in more AD) However, the E change is a nerf. To put it simply, his E won't result in you one-shotting people if you homeguard into them. That being said, he's still a fairly solid pick and I expect to see plenty of Hecarim despite these changes.
While not the biggest buff, I'm still glad to see my favorite bug receiving a bit of love. Kha'Zix' isolation radius was nerfed back in Season 4. The isolation radius was increased from 350 to 500, essentially killing a Kha'Zix's ability to lane and making it harder to get picks in teamfights. This isn't a full revert but it's still a solid change. That being said, I think Kha'Zix will definitely need a bit more love before he becomes a powerful jungle pick in the current meta.
So the main change in this mini rework is that Malphite now has a new active. That being said, the rework actually kills a playstyle that some high elo players have been using (namely former Elements Wickd). Players built AD (Trinity Force/Hydra etc) on Malphite and it was a very effective strategy. With this rework, that's no longer possible and this encourages more of a full tank or an AP bruiser Malphite instead. What does this mean for jungle Malphite? Keep building exactly how you normally do (Cinderhulk/full tank). Just a slight adaption in playstyle to take in account the active. Is Malphite now top tier due to this change? No. But he's stronger as a tank champion now.
Sejuani was noted to be nerfed in 5.10 but the change never went through. It was funny because a lot of people actually stopped banning her and she was left open in a lot of games. Jokes aside, Sejuani has officially been nerfed. She's still a powerful pick, but personally, I think that banning Rek'Sai and Gragas is a much better idea over banning Sejuani. She's no longer the overbearing force that she was prior to this patch.
While Shen is a champion that is more known for his top lane play, Shen used to see a bit of jungle time awhile back. He can still jungle albeit a bit poorly. These changes help him overall as a champion and will likely increase his play. The main problem with the changes are that they won't actually help Shen in his early jungle clears which is where he has problems. Specifically, the passive CD reduction takes effect at level 7 BUT at that point, you already have Cinderhulk or Bami's Cinder. Your clear will already be better at that point. So I don't believe this will necessarily make Shen jungle a good pick. He'll do great in top lane though, I believe.
Shyvana jungle is another champion that hasn't seen much jungle play as of late but was fairly prevalent recently in top lane. All that aside, the buff to W should help her clears even more in jungle and she'll be able to clear even faster. Also, this helps her skirmishing so counterjungling or looking for duels early game may be something that a Shyvana jungler may be interested in.
This patch didn't see many changes to the jungle, only a few jungle specific champions received many changes. The jungle meta is largely unchanged and a lot of the top tier picks are still the top tier picks. In this case, I still fully expect champions like Rek'Sai, Sejuani, Gragas, and Nunu to reign over the jungle with a few champions being a bit behind but still relatively strong picks. Thanks for reading everyone.