Riot Games has once again made changes in the League of Legends jungle for Season 11. This time, it is to help new players learn the role.
Even though the changes are not as significant as in previous seasons, veterans must be well aware of the tweaks for gaining early grips as the new season rolls.
Riot developer Mark "Scruffy" Yetter clarified what to expect from these changes in a pre-season tweet. According to him, the jungle's minor changes are being made to increase League of Legends' pathing diversity.
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The tweaks have exposed some hidden mechanics visually to help beginners learn the jungling role. Riot also reduced the powers of kiting camps slightly.
Changes to keep in mind
It was clear from Scruffy's tweet that the League of Legends devs team had three distinct goals in mind. The first was to increase pathing diversity, followed by reducing the power of kiting, and to help new players with the role of jungling.
To increase path diversity in League of Legends, Riot has unified resistances across all camps. Each jungle monster now has 20 armor and magic resistance, scaling with level, and their health adjusted.
Most monsters previously had very little resistance, allowing champions to do more than true damage. This change has made true damage abilities more relevant in jungle clears.
After the update, small Krugs are worth the time to clear as their XP and gold value have increased over medium Krugs. Gromp no longer has the attack speed burst at the start of its clear. The scuttle crab also has a 60% maximum health shield that can be removed on CC.
League of Legends developers have also increased the movement speed of jungle camps to reduce the power of kiting. This nerf is a fair one compared to squishier junglers like Karthus, who have relied on good kiting to get through their clears.
Jungling routes to abuse in League of Legends Season 11
Jungling is the most dynamic role in League of Legends. But their activities alone can't shape the play. The laners' actions affect the game too. Thus, choosing a jungling path cannot be blueprinted and varies with respect to in-game situations.
Jungling differs from game to game. Learning to adapt to the situational changes concerning specific game scenarios makes jungling such a brilliant and unique role in League of Legends.
In a team-oriented approach, the primary role of a jungler is to secure map objectives like drakes, rift herald, rift scuttler, baron nashor, and others. But strategic jungling with proper jungle paths for farming and ganks often stands out as the key to victory.
Listed below are five situational jungling routes for League of Legends beginners and veterans that might be worth trying in Season 11.
#1 - Quick Level 3 Gank
The general path for Quick Level 3 gank starts from red buff. It is followed by blue buff, moving on to gromp and then gank. Players can reverse the buff orders depending on the path from which they start.
This path is ideal for champions with a lot of single-target abilities. The same can also be used for AD champions who rely heavily on auto-attacks. All these three camps have just one monster.
This three, single-target camp path is ideal for champions that excel at getting kills early to snowball, like Lee Shin and Elise. Once the target objects are clear, the champions are free to assist top lane fights.
If there is a carry versus carry top lane match-up, this path is best for getting the champions snowballing to a victory.
#2 - Same Side Clear
Same Side Clear is an effective League of Legends jungling path for helping the mid-lane. This level 3 path moves from blue buff to gromp to wolves, while the alternate route moves from red buff to krugs to raptors.
The significant benefit of this path is that the players always end up close to the middle of the map. As a result, the jungler is always free to show up against the enemy mid-laner, providing an added advantage for the team.
There is a caution point to note for players following this path. After clearing the jungle objectives, if players try to gank on a side lane on the same side of the map, they risk losing all the jungle objectives in the other quadrant.
Thus, players must be careful before committing to this. The same side clear should be followed only when the mid-lane matchup is volatile. That is, if the enemy has a mid-lane assassin that wants to hit the level 3 fast for an all-in or the own-team laner has to land burst damage like that of twisted fate, Annie, or Syndra.
#3 - Level 2 Ganks
Some League of Legends champions don't even need level 3 ganks to start with efficient jungling. Players can go for level 2 ganks if they want to get aggressive. Xhin Zhao and Jarvan are the best options for this as they get their primary ganking tools within just two levels.
The route is similar to the level 3 gank path. Players can go for level 2 ganks with other junglers, too, as it has very low risk with a chance of earning a high reward. It is helpful if the team has a laner with level 1 cc.
#4 - Vertical Jungling
Vertical jungling is considered to be the most difficult jungling path in League of Legends. This is effective and also the most-used jungle path in pro play and high Elo.
Vertical jungling is applied when a player decides to split the map between the top and the bot sides. Farming the quadrants is done on one side of those halves rather than two quadrants close to the base. As a result, players take a part of the enemy's jungle.
There are a few advantages in going for vertical jungling. Gamers automatically get the upper hand against enemies. Secondly, this League of Legends pathing is very useful if team laners can react to stop the enemy junglers from responding with counter-jungling of their own on the self-side of the map.
In vertical jungling, the players basically serve as a battleward. That is, they themselves scout the enemy jungle to provide vision for the team.
This League of Legends path is generally chosen by players when they have an extremely strong laner in the side lane. Draven in the bot lane and Jayce in the top lane works perfectly as both generally win lane matchups in the 2v2 or 1v1 setting. But due to the nature of their kits, they naturally shove the lane as a part of winning it.
These side lane champions are also squishy and are susceptible to dying to ganks. But playing on their side of the map allows them to bully lanes with no chance of being ganked since countering is easy here.
Enemies are generally not on this side of the map since there are no camps. There are two options for League of Legends vertical jungling setups.
For level 1 invading, when considering the blue side, the jungler needs to take on the blue buff, followed by Raptors, Krugs, and finally the rift herald.
For level 2 invading, after taking on the blue buff, the jungler should immediately target the enemy red buff. Since most junglers start on their enemy blue buff, it is generally a free camp.
Some of the best level 2 junglers to do vertical jungling are Lee Shin, Xhin Zhao, Jarvan, Nidalee, and Kindred.
#5 - Full Clear
The full clear jungling path is the preferred route for beginners. This path allows players to kill all the jungle camps in the starting quadrant first. Then, they move on to the next quadrant to destroy the other three camps.
The path starts with red buff followed by Krugs, Raptors, Wolves, blue buff, and Gromp.
The alternate path is to start with blue buff and then go for Gromp, Wolves, Raptors, red buff, and Krugs, one after the other.
Also read: Complete Jungle guide for season 2021 of League of Legends: Wild Rift
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