The ascension of tanks begins with League of Legends patch 11.4.
Due to the preseason item overhaul, the jungle meta was shaped by champions’ interactions with items, such as the infamous Goredrinker Olaf. Buffs have also caused Udyr to rise to S tier, alongside Nidalee and Graves.
That however, is about to change. Drastically.
Riot’s explanation is that junglers have more control over games “due to their increased purchasing power early game turning into combat stats”. In turn, this puts them ahead by experience and gold, so Riot has chosen to adjust experience and gold to three camps first before they decide on buffs and nerfs to champions.
Gromp
- Experience decreased from 135/138.375/145.125/155.25/168.75/182.25 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) to 125/128.125/134.375/143.75/156.25/168.75 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
- Gold decreased from 105 to 85
Large Krug
- Experience decreased from 37/37.925/39.775/42.55/46.25/49.95 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) to 27/27.675/29.025/31.05/33.75/36.45 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
- Gold decreased from 42 to 32
Small Krug
- Experience decreased from 18/18.45/19.35/20.7/22.5/24.3 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) to 16/16.4/17.2/18.4/20/21.6 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
Crimson Raptor
- Experience decreased from 45/46.125/48.375/51.75/56.25/60.75 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) to 35/35.875/37.625/40.25/43.75/47.25 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
- Gold decreased from 45 to 35
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For Gromp, Large Krug and Crimson Raptor, their experience has decreased by 10 at earlier levels, up to 13 at level nine. Gold wise, they’ve all taken a big hit, especially Gromp.
According to former LCK shoutcaster, analyst, and T1 content creator, Nick “LS” De Cesare, the result is that “champions whose base kit and base levels are really powerful, notably tanks or utility junglers are going to fall into that department, or champions that have very low gold cost items are going to become increasingly better.” As such, tanks like Skarner, Zac, Sejuani, Rammus, Amumu, or champions that bring a lot of value after their first item like Ivern, are viable once more.
However, junglers that are able to hyper-clear their camps, like Udyr and Karthus, are still able to thrive simply because their clear speed is so fast that the dip in experience and gold for three out of six camps isn’t going to affect them as much.
So in short, keep banning Udyr in your ranked games.
Click here to read the full patch 11.4 notes.
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