Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 30

Jungle Accessibility

One of our longer term goals is to increase position preference for the jungle in lower MMR. We’re attacking the problem from a few angles that we think will in particular reduce some of the esoteric optimizations and help onboard newer players to the role. These are the changes we're initially planning at time of writing, Tuesday the 27th; tunings may change by the time this goes up on Friday but the general rationale will still hold true:

• More forgiving jungle clears - With the current shorter jungle timers the pace of farming and ganking has gone up considerably, making every misstep a major setback for both the jungler and their team.
  • Jungle Monster Base Attack Damage reduced across many camps
  • Jungle Monster Attack Damage scaling reduced across many camps
  • Camp Respawn Timer :: 2 minutes >>> 2 minutes 15 seconds
  • Camp "bright' warning timer :: 15 seconds >>> 10 seconds
  • Jungle Gold from non-buff Camps :: Increased by approximately 5%
• Widen the viable champ pool - We think that less reliance on having a perfect AOE clearing kit or the right CC tools to have Scuttle dominance will open up viability to a few more champs.
  • Smite (along with crowd control) will break the Scuttle Crab's shield before applying damage
  • Omnivamp on jungle items :: 10% >>> 8%
  • Smite Percent Max Health Healing :: 10% >>> 15%
• Reduced snowball - Another factor that is both causing too much stress but also too much influence over the game outcome is how hard the jungle position can snowball. We think reducing this will make the position easier to break into and more enjoyable long term.
  • Reintroducing comeback XP - Large monsters grant 50 XP per level you are below the average level of the game minus 1 (if the average level is 7, you get comeback XP at level 5 and below)
  • Smite Damage to Monsters :: 390-1000 (based on levels) >>> 500 at base, 1000 after Smite quest completion
• Camp Leashing Clarity (future work) - A particularly important skill for high level jungle optimizations is to perfectly manage the monster leash ranges and drag them into optimal positions for max clear speed. While not removing this skill, we want to help newer junglers learn the rules and leash ranges of each monster camp.
  • When within 200 range of causing the monster to leash, a warning particle will appear to show the monster’s leash range

At a high level we want these changes to be helpful and satisfying for Jungle players across all levels of play but we’re not aiming for a significant power increase or decrease for the position. We’re giving and taking away power in equal measure while shifting mechanics so that the jungle is a bit more welcoming to newcomers. There are probably a few more iterations and adjustments to make before these changes go to live servers so we’ll be reading and processing your feedback from the PBE.

Thanks again for playing with us.