Riot reverses some jungle changes planned for new preseason

Riot Games is preparing to tweak some additional aspects of the jungle once the new preseason period begins.

League of Legends Season 9 is reaching its conclusion and that means big changes are on their way during the launch of the upcoming preseason. One meta feature that the balance teams are looking to change up is the current state of the jungle.

“The balance between ganking and farming has been overly skewed towards ganking as priority. We want to open up more varied strategies for junglers and make them the lost farm for ganking more substantial,” Riot Games developer Scruffy said.

Scruffy goes on to describe how non-buff jungle camps will respawn in two minutes in the preseason patch, 30 seconds sooner than the current respawn time. Average camp gold and experience points will be down by 5%, however gold and experience per minute for pure farm will be increased by 12%.

These adjustments are intended to allow power farming to be a more viable option for junglers. This may also encourage junglers to experiment instead of restricting meta picks to champions that prioritize ganks in the early game.

These changes have been announced shortly following the reveal of upcoming adjustments to the Summoner’s Rift map. The adjustments are mostly focused on the jungle, with major changes also being made to how dragons function. Each dragon variant will cause major structural changes around Summoner’s Rift upon their appearance. Additionally, the Elder Dragon will provide a devastating new buff that will execute any enemy that reaches a low enough health percentage.

Scruffy shared the details of the upcoming update on Twitter and the changes were met with positive fan feedback.

“That’s the best change I’ve seen so far and it implements a positive impact to make the game healthier. Good job balance team,” one Twitter user said.

League of Legends Season 9 will conclude November 19 and preseason changes will follow shortly afterwards.