Jungling in League of Legends could be a much more balanced role in the near future. League of Legends gameplay designer Mark “Riot Scruffy” Yetter gave the community something to brace themselves for with his post on the Dev Corner. Massive Jungling XP buffs are coming to League of Legends soon, and no, you don’t need to quit playing ADC when that happens.
In the Dev Corner post, Mark talked about how being a Jungler was going to be more of a farming experience rather than a race to see which Jungler ganks first, which puts aside the underlying threat of constant ganks that every bottom lane main fears.
The reason for the change is because of the missed marks with League of Legends preseason adjustments. The nerfs on Jungle XP made it hard for late-game farming and scaling. Pathing isn’t at the sweet spot when it comes to balance. And the number of early-game ganks are almost similar to Season 9’s amount, which deviates from the term “farming.”
Mark stated in the Dev Corner post that they wanted to “skew towards incentives to farm over gank” with their XP buff for Junglers and that the goal was to make sure Junglers spend a reasonable amount of time in the Jungle before ganking. League of Legends is promised to receive Jungle XP buffs from four minutes to eighteen wherein the XP will be spread across the less targeted camps that are “often skipped by gank heavy Junglers.” Additionally, the game will also “push back the minion farm penalty removal to further nerf funnel strategies.”
This change means “gank heavy Junglers” like Lee Sin, Master Yi, Warwick, and Shaco are going to be more focused on farming rather than paying a visit to mid lane because of the higher potential for gains. Not only does this change give a sense of relief and safety when playing Ashe or Lux, but it changes the whole playstyle of Junglers, which could prompt more innovative strategies and builds for Season 2020.
Although Mark talked about other buffs and nerfs coming to League of Legends in Patch 10.3, it’s unsure if it includes the Jungle XP boost. But if it does, then players are going to need to spend more time playing their lanes more safely because the Junglers will be busy spending their time smiting away Jungle camps.
