Light Jungle Review

I’ve never been really huge with jungling whenever I play League of Legends, I mostly shine in team fights or ganking other lanes mid game (ambushing other lanes), but with the new changes in the jungle, I decided to see if I would be more interested now. Everything in the jungle has either been balanced in regards to gold and or XP, or have been buffed up a bit. Since Nocturne was free to play yesterday I decided to try him out, as well as the new jungle.

Now since I’m going in with a new champ and a new jungle, I decided just to make a custom game and fill it with bots, just to see if I’d want to in a real game. I mean, everyone playing LoL is kinda still getting used to the new jungle… who’s gonna notice my lack of skills

I Need Help with Blue

I put most of my points into offense, but I didn’t notice that the masteries would be changing pre-season as well as the jungle itself. I couldn’t really get that much offensive power early on in the game, and the damage I was doing to just monsters didn’t really make it worth it. Needless to say the golem killed me.

After taking most of the points in my offense mastery and putting them into the defensive masteries I stood more of a chance this time. I’m not a really good jungler, but Nocturne is a good character to jungle with. That being said I still think I had a harder time than normal taking down that big rock for the absolutely necessary mana regen and cool down.

If I wasn’t playing with bots, this would be a problem. In a normal game, players are more than happy to help (usually) with nabbing the blue buff early, especially if you’re playing as Nocturne or Shako. This should help you clear your forest and hopefully you gained enough XP to make the golem a little easier. (Don’t be afraid to use nightmare on the golem, those few seconds where he isn’t hitting you really help out in the early game).

Oh, I’m supposed to Gank…

With all the attention I was paying to my health and passive (every 10 seconds Nocturne deals true-splash damage, duration shortens 1 sec per basic attack) I didn’t really pay that much attention to the lanes. Kind of lost a tower… or 3, once again this probably won’t happen in a game with human players. It’s easy to just let top lane know to ask for back up, or let bottom ask for a gank (hopefully they’ll set it up for you…).

Of course I can’t rule out my inexperience with this particular champion. It wasn’t that hard to learn how to combine Nocturne’s abilities in the jungle, as well as in combat. Though I will admit that I still have a lot to learn about this champ.

Over All

The new items, in addition to some of the new masteries, make the jungle a lot more interesting than the old XP farm / ambush point it used to be. It definitely seems like the jungle is going to require more of your time than it used to, so you may have to help top more often now, unless top lane has a great solo champ/player that is.

I kind of like the jungle more, even though it is more difficult now than it used to be. I’m still not that great at it, but it seems like most people in my ELO are still adjusting to the changes, so I should have plenty of opportunities to learn.

League of Legends has changed over all, and for the better in my opinion. It feels like a new game, but is still familiar. The new marketplace (for in game[match] items) is really helpful for those who need to look up specific attributes for their items that they need without much hassle, and when you’re jungling… you need to be fast.