There are some serious changes coming to the forests of Summoner’s Rift in the near future.
Riot Games has specifically called out its intention to make jungling a more beginner-friendly and less punishing role than its current state. From new jungle items to decreased counter-jungling, recommended pathing, and objective voting, the jungle might feel like a totally new place next season.
Here are all of the major Preseason 2023 jungle changes summed up so you’re prepared for what’s coming.
The big change coming to jungling is the new items and new smites that will be affecting every game junglers play. There will now be three varieties of jungle item, each coming with a jungle companion, a Pokemon-esque elemental animal who evolves as you kill jungle camps. These will focus on dealing damage, speeding up, and healing oneself.
As the jungle companion evolves, so too does the smite, now evolving all the way up to an Avatar smite, which does far more damage and even splashes outwards to nearby enemies.
There are several quality-of-life changes meant to make the more cerebral aspects of jungling less unspoken and easier to grasp within a game arriving as well. Firstly, jungle camps will have clear indicators that show at what point they’ll be at risk of resetting, and each champion will have a recommended clear order which will be visible both on the map and by pressing Tab.
In addition, junglers now deal reduced damage to enemy jungle camps, making counter-jungling a much more costly effort.
Jungle has long intimidated many League of Legends players, as roaming the map while balancing objectives, ganks, and your own farm can feel like a totally different skill set from laning. This preseason’s changes look to genuinely assuage some of those worries, though some aspects do risk lessening the degree to which skilled junglers can assert leads on their opponents.
However, if you’ve ever wanted to play jungle but memorizing different clear paths seemed a step too far, this season will be a great chance to try out League of Legends’ most unusual role.
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