My name's Raucous. I'm currently a student in the U.K. and you can find me playing league of legends on the EUW server in the platinum bracket. (Hopefully diamond before the end of season 4) I've been playing the game since late October 2012, so for around 15 months. Despite not having played the game for that long, I have gained a lot of knowledge. I consider getting Platinum in 15 months, with no previous experience of MOBA games or RTS games, a solid achievement. I've played the jungle role for most of my time on the game, but I won't go into detail here as to why I like the role. I'll save that for another post. I'm pretty sure this blog will be solely league-related. I hope to get a YouTube channel up and running as soon as I get a new pc!
Without further ado I hope you enjoy reading!
As a Lee Sin main, I have found myself enjoying the season 4 jungle a surprising amount. In Riot's season 4 preview they showed a worrying amount of riven jungle, promising they wanted "carry" style junglers to be stronger by being able to complete bigger items with their new heaps of gold. Don't quote me on that but I think that was the jist of it. I didn't feel great about this. I liked the fact that junglers were poor. To get fed and be impactful you had to pull off efficient ganks, and manage your time carefully. What I love about playing lee is running around with mobility boots, a machete, a dorans blade and some green wards, and pressuring the whole map. I now pictured a riven or kha zix appearing out of the jungle at level 8 and chopping me to bits with a hydra, cleaver and last whisper, before getting a penta kill and beating down on my nexus.
I actually wasn't far wrong. This week in LCS we've seen several fed Pantheons and Kha Zix's murdering ad carries with their elder lizards, brutalizers and last whispers. So Riot's plan did work. Damage junglers who ramp up slowly are getting the gold they need.
However, Lee Sin is still a top tier jungler. Despite the new jungle creeps and items providing more gold, Lee's mobility, early game damage and sustain still places him at the top of most jungle tier lists. So, do I prefer the new jungle? Yes, I think so. By the end of season 3 the jungle was looking pretty boring. Lee and Vi were king and queen (Elise, Zac and Jarvan were also royalty) and if you tried to pick something uncommon like Malphite you would be murdered by creeps let alone champions if you fell behind. Lee, Vi and co. are still top tier, but as you can see in LCS with Gragas and Zed jungle, we're seeing changes.
Are junglers controlling the flow of the game in season 4 as much as in season 3? Im not sure. I think the changes to dragon and that new junglers like kha usually farm quite a lot in the early game has resulted in a less pressured early game. Meteos has been playing well, but he has not been the same terrifying force as he was last season. Is this good? I'm not sure. As cool as the 22 minute first blood at baron was in CLG vs CRS was im not sure if I want to see that every game. I havent seen much lee yet, although I havent been watching all the games due to school work. I don't find time to watch OGN, but I would love to see how bengi and kakao are playing lee right now. I remember a commentator saying that although Faker is the star, Bengi's Lee set the pace of the game, running around with mobos, a d blade and pockets full of pink and green wards. His pressure is amazing and his mechanics, well, you know, korean + lee sin main = $$$.
I hope youre all enjoying the season 4 jungle as much as I am and I would love to hear what people have to say about it in the comments.
Thanks for reading and glhf,Raucous
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