Now that we’ve had a chance to let the preseason jungle changes settle into place we’ve gotten a more accurate picture of where the role currently stands and what still needs to be changed (as is typical with these large changes). Our main goals this time around is to bring down early ganking/diving power, shift some power from gold income to experience earned for junglers, and ultimately reducing early game volatility.
This won’t be the last followup change we’re making to the jungle because we have a few bigger issues we’d like to address like early game agency (specifically for level 1-4), balanced champion sustain, monster durability, making sure we strike the right balance between kill rewards and farming rewards, and more. That said, we’ll only ship these if we’re confident they’re the best direction for the game.
INCOME
Treat income currently rewards champions that gank more than champions that prefer to farm. Ideally both playstyles are viable, so we’re tipping the scales to be a bit more balanced.
- Gold per Treat: 30 ⇒ 20
- Experience per Jungle Camp with a Companion: Experience for clearing a jungle camp has been increased by 5 experience per camp
VISION
Early vision has been proven to deter early ganks in the past, especially in high skill levels. While we don’t want to go back to giving teams permanent map visibility, we do think some extra vision early will help curb the amount of early ganks currently happening on live. Given that you’ll have 2 players in the bot lane, this should be a safe way to introduce more vision leveraging the duo lane’s unique strengths..
- Stealth Ward Trinket Cooldown: 240-120 (based on average champion level) ⇒ 210-120 (based on average champion level)
GANKING SUCCESS
With the same intent of deterring the large amount of early ganks we’re upping early tower damage so that the benefits of early dives also come with an appropriate level of risk. As a reminder, turret shots ramp up in damage by 40% per shot against the same target.
- Turret Damage: 192-344 (0-14 minutes) ⇒ 182-35- (0-14 minutes)
OTHER CHANGES
Compared to previous seasons jungle companions are bringing a lot more burst damage into the game, particularly against epic monsters. This has caused situations where some champions appear from the Fog of War and their companions also appear and secure an accidental steal. We believe that securing epic monster secures and steals should be as intentional as possible, so we’re adding 1 more rule to the jungle to give some additional clarity.
- REMOVED Smite Fights are for Champions: Jungle companions can no longer deal lethal damage to epic monsters,