The League of Legends Patch 11.10 jungle changes are on the horizon. The PBE changes are coming to a head as the rest of Season 11 may involve a heavy shift in the jungle meta. Thanks to Mark “Riot Scruffy” Yetter, players can plan what champions to practice before the 11.10 update on May 12.
11.10 Preview with tentative changes:
Irelia is bumped because we think we can do better work with a bit more time, and updated jungle accessibility list is here. pic.twitter.com/n1KjRk193i
— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) May 4, 2021
The Patch 11.10 jungle number changes
The number changes in the update preview provide insight into what the jungle meta may look like going into Patch 11.10 and beyond. The first major change in the notes consists of comeback experience making a return.
Large monsters in the jungle will grant extra experience per level. The scaling will be in accordance with the average level of champions in the game. Smite will also receive changes as the spell no longer scales based on levels. It will start at 450 base damage and go up to 900 damage after the Smite item quest completes. The spell will also break the Scuttle Crab’s shield before its damage applies. Along with smite changes come tweaks to Emberknife and Hailblade. The two items will have less Omnivamp; reduced to 8%. Smite’s percent healing will also increase to 15%.
The jungle monster camps will change in Patch 11.10 in terms of attack damage to champions, health, gold value and spawn times. The first major change is that the spawn timers on all maps will increase to two minutes and 15 seconds. Their indicator has been adjusted as well. The hour glass will become bright, indicating an impending spawn at 10 seconds before the camp respawns.
Jungle monsters attacks have been reduced across the board. All monsters, big and small, will have reduced damage in the early and late game. To adjust for the clear speed of champions, the Blue Sentinel, Red Bramble Back and Rift Scuttler will receive increased health statistics. The increase is 50 health points in the early game and scales into the late game with around 90 points increased at max level.
To adjust for the increased spawn timers, some jungle monsters will increase in gold value from about one gold to 10. The monsters in question are the Mini Krug, Murkwolf, Gromp and Crimson Raptor.
What these changes will do to the jungle meta
The current jungle meta revolves around scaling and farming. The big champions, in the high and low levels of the ranked spectrum, include Hecarim and Udyr through Season 11. Recently, Ability Power champions, like Rumble and Diana, were buffed but these still involve high rates of farming and scaling. Champions like Lee Sin, Kha’Zix and Evelynn have not seen the rift consistently, thanks to their low priority as gank-heavy junglers. These changes should make those listed champions extremely viable.
Gank-heavy junglers were previously outpaced in the farming meta. In the time it takes to gank a lane, whether unsuccessfully or not, an enemy Udyr or Diana could amass a lead off of jungle camps alone. Thanks to the Smite changes, sacrificing levels for ganks will become less punishing. The spawn timing change also creates a larger window for champions to gank once finished with their clear.
In Patch 11.10, champions that should be meta in the jungle include Nunu, Less Sin, Evelynn, Rammus, Kayne and, possibly, Zac. The current item system allows for a diverse set of jungle champion builds. Because of this, tanks and damage junglers may all be viable. Champions like Hecarim or Udyr may still show up in games, but their playstyles will adjust to fit the new gank-heavy meta.
A similar catch-up experience and gank-heavy jungler meta happened in Season 9. It saw tank champions like Seguani and Nunu appearing in the professional meta. But, it also opened the doors to assassins like Ekko and Rengar.
When Patch 11.10 drops on May 12, players should expect these champions and playstyles to lead the jungle meta forward.
