League of Legends: eight ways that Riot could fix the jungle

We broke down the problems with the League of Legends jungle in its current state, but how can Riot fix it?

We’ve discussed the problems with the jungle, as it exists now. But is it possible for Riot to fix the current state of the jungle in League of Legends?

The widely-known Skillcapped video (which we discussed at length last week) laid out some possible solutions to make the jungle a more enjoyable role for its players while also not making the role too oppressive for laners. In addition to these suggestions, I have a few of my own that follow Skillcapped’s same logic.

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I’ll give my take on how each solution could bring the jungle back into balance or at least undo the unbalanced aspects that are already in the current jungle. These will range from the simple (at the beginning of the list) to the more ambitious (at the end). I’m not advocating for Riot to implement any one of these in particular, but rather simply giving some options for discussion and examination.

1. Rebalance camp experience

One big problem discussed in our “Problems of the Jungle” article and the Skillcapped video is that the jungle, right now, is unbalanced. Specifically, the red quadrant of the jungle is far more valuable than the blue side of the jungle, because Krugs and Raptors give the most experience of all the camps, while Gromp and Wolves give among the least.

This, along with the importance of Scuttle Crab, has led to the prevalent strategy of vertical jungling, which makes pathing decisions uninteresting and places pressure on laners simply by virtue of what side of the map they are on. To rectify the situation, I propose that Riot rebalance the camp experience.

My proposal would be to make Gromp worth more XP while making the Raptor camp worth less. This way, junglers who want to start blue buff won’t be massively behind in experience off their first few camps and can actually fight over Scuttle Crab.

Now, this may cause some consternation for Riot and junglers who point out that the two red side camps take longer to clear, have the most monsters in them, and therefore should be worth the most XP. I would counter that given how hard Gromp is to kill it should be worth more but that Raptors can also be reverted to its previous version of one big Raptor and only three small ones. Alternatively, there is another way to balance the experience available in the jungle…