It appears League of Legends’ jungle position needs more love.
Gameplay design director Mark “Scruffy” Yetter discussed positional balance in today’s dev blog, explaining that the jungle is on Riot’s “radar for the future.” While no future patch details were outlined, Riot will focus on making it more appealing for all players.
“It’s one of the most influential/powerful positions, but also low popularity, meaning there’s a satisfaction or accessibility problem keeping it from being appealing despite how powerful it is,” Scruffy said.
The position’s complexity still manages to ostracize players. Junglers are responsible for securing objectives, helping their laners, farming camps, and keeping an eye on the opposing jungler. While a good jungler can effectively control the tides of a game, an inexperienced one can drown in the responsibility.
Though Riot has taken some steps to make the role more beginner-friendly, like camp timers on the mini-map and increasing viable path options, Scruffy admits they weren’t “comprehensive solutions.” The dev does assert that the new jungle starter item, which lets you immediately start your build path, was successful for novices and veterans alike. So players can likely expect tweaks that will similarly “improve the appeal of the role without undermining the core skill and flexibility that current junglers love,” according to Scruffy.
Riot has already tackled the marksman and support roles, who were struggling after the preseason item system overhaul. By tweaking a number of champions and items, Scruffy says they “recovered to appropriately powerful spots.”
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