The 12th Season of League of Legends has come to a close. As such, players can finally experiment with the brand-new preseason patch, which always makes major changes to the game's core systems. This year, aside from the addition of a few new and returning items, most of the preseason changes target the jungle role.
In past League of Legends seasons, jungle has traditionally been the hardest role to get into, as it doesn't share many necessary skills with other roles, generally relying more on game knowledge than raw mechanical skill. Prospective jungle players often need to read guides or watch instructional videos to learn the role, rather than simply learning by playing. Riot Games is aware of this fact, and the new preseason changes are its attempt at making jungle a more accessible role for new or inexperienced players.
The Preseason Changes Significantly Raise the Skill Floor
The preseason's main changes to the jungle role revolve around the first clear of the game. In past seasons, junglers would have to carefully choose which clear path to take, taking the strengths and weaknesses of their champion into account. For example, fast Area of Effect clearing champions like Hecarim were able to clear all six jungle camps before the scuttle crab spawned at 3:15, while slower clear junglers would either have to take less camps and go for an early gank, or sacrifice the extra scuttle crab gold and full clear.
Previously, one of the main skills in the jungle role was being able to full clear before the scuttle crab spawned through clever use of the patience range of each camp. Essentially, players could lure the camps closer to each other to reduce travel time. In the case of Gromp and Blue Buff, players could even lure the camps close enough to take them both at the same time, drastically lowering their clear time. For many jungle players, perfecting the first clear of the game was where a lot of the role's enjoyment and skill expression came in.
The First Clear Is Nearly Impossible to Botch
In the new preseason, several changes have been made surrounding the first clear of the game. There is a new feature that recommends a jungle path to follow based on high-tier players, but it generally fails to take lane matchups into account as real players would, so it may be a bit of a trap for new players. The preseason also adds new jungle pets, which deal AoE damage to camps. This, along with the fact that the scuttle crab now spawns at 3:30, makes it possible for previously slow-clearing junglers to full clear before scuttle, somewhat eliminating jungle champion identity and making it hard for players to track their enemies.
Preseason has also significantly reduced the patience range of jungle camps, making advanced strategies like clearing Gromp and Blue Buff together impossible. These changes combine to make the first clear of the game extremely easy, almost to a fault. Without the skill expression and involved patience range gameplay, the early game as a jungler is not nearly as fun to play. Though the skill floor of the first jungle clear was indeed raised significantly with these changes, clearing was never the hardest or most important part of the role.
The reason that jungle is so hard for new players to understand is that the role, at its core, is about long-term decision-making. This means that when a jungler makes a mistake, it is much less immediately obvious than the same thing happening in a lane. If a laner makes a mistake, they either lose a chunk of health or die, instantly teaching the player what they did wrong. Making a wrong decision in the jungle may not negatively affect the player for several minutes. If Riot wants to make the jungle role more welcoming to inexperienced players, making the first clear this easy is not the way to do it.