Everybody knows that you can never truly balance the jungle, because it’s full of cheetahs. But puns aren’t going to stop Riot Games from trying.
In League of Legends’ 2014 season, they’ve noticed that popular damage-dealers like Lee Sin, Pantheon and Kha’Zix have knocked more supportive, tanky junglers “right out of the park”. And they mean to bring an end to that.
“On deeper analysis, we quickly realized the problem was less about buffing tanky junglers to keep up and more that we lacked a strong item path for utility junglers to pick up,” wrote Riot.
Patch 4.11 will bring one new item to the game – the Quill Coat – and heavily rework another – the Spirit of the Ancient Golem. They’re aimed at improving the lot of tanky junglers, who themselves have seen some “additional love”. Maokai in particular has been given a “mini-renovation”, such that he’ll now prove effective in disrupting enemies attacking his teammates.
“Old Maokai might not be the strongest jungler on the scene,” said Riot, “but he’s still very capable of shutting down entire lanes in the early to mid game while not contributing much to later teamfights.”
If you’re just jumping into League of Legends and want to know what champions to pick, check out our best League of Legends champions for beginners guide.
What’s more, Riot have been making some high-level turret modifications and nerfs to dominant champions, with an eye on bringing competitive changes to the upcoming LoL World Championships.
“One champion you might be expecting to see in this category but isn’t (Lucian) is still in the garage as we’re thinking about the best approach to take,” said Riot. “I’m telling you now because we want you to know that we know he’s particularly strong as a well-rounded marksman (especially in competitive play), but we want to make sure we can highlight a meaningful weakness (and strength) in Lucian before moving forward.”
Head to the official LoL site for full patch notes. Any of you Luci-gooseys particularly worried? Just don’t plan on expressing your dismay in the LoL public chat rooms.