Since the start of season 13, the jungle has seen several changes in League of Legends—and not all of them have received a positive response from players. As the role is so demanding, junglers have to stay updated on all the changes and even change gameplay styles and strategies to compensate for these changes.
For many junglers, getting early ganks, invading the enemy jungle, or claiming “lane tax” has been essential in gaining experience and levels to help snowball the game. However, at the start of the season, Riot introduced several nerfs to the jungle, one of the more infamous ones being an enemy jungle damage reduction. Since then, nerfs to kill experience, jungle companion damage, and jungle camp gold has followed too.
There’s been one aim from Riot there: slow down the snowballing effect that can arise when League junglers get too far head in the early game. In an effort to curtail that issue, the devs have been trying to promote farming over early ganking.
They may have gone a little far though—according to Riot Phlox, who unveiled several reversion changes on Feb. 27, several of the nerfs may be wound back slightly.
While they are still trying to lessen the effect of early-game ganking and snowballing by nerfing sweeper cooldowns, Riot has increased the jungle camp gold to help push farming. On top of that, they’ve wholly removed the twenty-percent enemy jungle damage reduction, which many players believed was a “godawful rework” by the devs.
These changes are expected to arrive in League Patch 13.5, which is shipping on Wednesday, March 8. More buffs, nerfs, and tweaks for champions and items are sure to be tested on the League PBE across the next week or so.
The Riot balance team is also hoping these are the last of the most “disruptive” jungle changes in League for the time being, though only time will tell there.
