Riot is making some changes to the jungle for 2021 preseason

Lead gameplay designer Mark “Scuffy” Yetter revealed information regarding jungle changes in the 2021 preseason just a few days before the big update will hit the Public Beta Environment (PBE). 

Fans of League of Legends have experienced a lot of jungle changes throughout the years, and even though this preseason won’t be heavily focused on the jungle, Riot still has some changes in store.

The upcoming changes will be focused on jungle pathing diversity, making the jungle more beginner-friendly, and reducing the power of kiting camps. The changes will hopefully make the jungle role easier to get into for new players, while older players will get the opportunity to create newly viable clear paths. 

Jungle camps will be more uniform in 2021 preseason

Riot will be making changes to all jungle camps’ resistances and health. The goal is to make camps more uniform to make different jungle paths more viable. The current state of the game has some very specific jungle clearing paths that the majority of players use simply because they are the most effective. 

From the preseason, all jungle camps will have 20 armor and magic resistance that scales with level. All camps’ health will also be adjusted to “hit a middle ground of durability”. 

One camp in specific will most likely benefit from these changes, which is the Krugs. The camp is often overlooked in the early game clearing paths because it takes a long time to clear, and is therefore not an efficient use of time before later in the game. Riot will reduce the large Krugs’ health significantly, which will hopefully open up for clearing paths that include the camp. 

The small Krugs will also receive a buff in XP and gold to make them worth clearing. As of right now, the small Krugs are often left behind by junglers that don’t have any quick AOE damage to clear them. 

Jungle camps better visualized to help new players

The jungle position can be very hard to play and understand compared to other roles because of the many responsibilities across the map. To help with that, Riot will make it easier for new players by visualizing hidden mechanics on camps to help them learn the jungle.

The Scuttle Crab in the preseason will no longer heal and grant mana to the killer. It will also lose all resistances and instead get a 60% max health shield that can be destroyed with CC. 

Players who are used to getting healing from the Scuttle Crab don’t need to worry. The healing effect will now be added to the Gromp, which will make it a lot easier for players to get access to it. The Gromp will also lose its increased attack speed and damage on the first three attacks.

Lastly, Riot will be looking to reduce the effectiveness of kiting jungle camps. Kiting camps are common for experienced jungle players to take less damage and keep their jungle clears more efficient. This strategy has become a bit too strong, especially for ranged junglers. 

To reduce kiting, Riot will be buffing the movement speed on all jungle camps to the point that it will be hard to run away from them in the early game. This change might push ranged junglers out of meta, or at least force them to change up the clearing path. 

The changes are by no means set in stone, but will be tested on the PBE very soon.