Hey everyone and welcome.
With a new season starting Riot has once again made changes to the jungle.
This has left a lot of players confused and wanting to know how they should adjust their
playstyle.
That makes sense, as there has been sweeping changes to many different facets of jungling.
Fret not, as by the end of this video you'll be all caught up with everything you need
to know for Season 10.
We'll be breaking down this guide into 3 sections.
In the first section, we'll recap the exact changes you need to be aware of and how you
need to change your playstyle to take advantage of them.
In the second section, we'll be breaking down the new powerful meta routes that that you
absolutely need to be aware of so that you can smash the opponent.
And in the third section, you'll learn what champions have become stronger and weaker,
and an overview of the current meta playstyles.
This is all designed to give you a clear picture of the strongest way to jungle in the new
season, new strategies you need to adapt to, and what you need to leave behind from Season
9.
Alright, so let's jump straight into it, starting with what's changed.
The first big change is to each of the Elemental Dragons.
The Cloud Dragon no longer gives bonus movement speed and instead gives 10% Cooldown Reduction
on your Ultimate.
The Mountain Dragon no longer gives bonus true damage to epic monsters and turrets and
instead gives you an 8% increase to your total armor and magic resistance.
The Ocean Dragon will now restore your missing health while in combat, but no longer restores
missing mana.
And the Infernal Dragon hasn't changed with it still increasing your attack damage and
ability.
However, one change that all of these Dragons have in common is that the stat bonuses they
give have all been lowered compared to Dragons in Season 9.
A good example of this, is how the Infernal Dragon now gives a 5% increase to attack damage
and ability power, whereas before it gave a 10% increase - effectively making it half
as strong.
This change is reflected in their win rates.
On average, we've seen the team that takes the first Dragon have a 1% less win rate than
before.
On top of this, the Dragon tier list has been changed, let me explain.
In Season 9, Cloud Dragon gave you the highest win rate, with Infernal Dragon second, Ocean
third, and Mountain last.
Now, Ocean Dragon is the most powerful, Infernal second, Mountain third, and Cloud last.
This makes sense when you analyze it a little deeper.
Remember how Infernal Dragon's stat bonuses were cut in half?
Well, although Ocean Dragon's stat bonus of regenerating 5% of missing health was lowered
to 3%, it got buffed since the health regeneration is constantly active, instead of only occurring
when you're out of combat.
Cloud Dragon going from the strongest Dragon to the weakest also makes sense.
It used to give movement speed, which was a stat all Champions could make use of.
However, it now gives 10% cooldown reduction on your ultimate.
There are a ton of champions that can't make use of this effect like Nidalee, Elise, Jayce,
etc.
Additionally, you don't always use your ultimate the second it comes off cooldown.
One thing you should also be aware of is that the first two Dragons are now easier to take
as they'll have 850 less health than before.
However, from the third dragon onwards Dragons will actually be slightly stronger, having
750 more health than before.
This can make the first two Dragons very fast to take by yourself, but once the third one
spawns don't get caught off guard when it takes longer to kill.
Now, along with these changes, the third Dragon will also alter Summoner's Rift Terrain.
Cloud Dragon spawns air currents flowing through the jungle to speed up champions in the vicinity.
Ocean Dragon causes existing brushes to expand, with honeyfruit plants sprouting up in each
jungle quadrant.
Mountain dragon causes walls of rock to erupt from the earth, creating new choke points
throughout the jungle.
And Infernal Dragon does the opposite, destroying walls and creating new pathways through buff
camps and removing certain brushes entirely.
At first glance, these changes can seem a bit intimidating, but in reality, they're
very subtle and have had very little impact on who wins the game.
There's also a new Dragon Soul mechanic.
The first team to kill 4 Dragons will get a permanent buff that persists through death
and lasts the remainder of the game.
An Infernal Dragon Soul will make your next attack or damaging spell create a small AOE
explosion every 3 seconds.
The Ocean Dragon Soul will give you a strong health and resource regeneration for 3 seconds
every time you deal damage.
The Cloud Dragon Soul will give a flat movement speed boost of 10%, which increases to 40%
for 3 seconds when you use your ultimate, but it has a 30 second cooldown.
And the Mountain Dragon soul will give you a shield after not taking damage for 5 seconds.
Now, although these Dragon Souls can look really powerful you have to understand that
to unlock them a team has to kill 4 Dragons of their own.
This is taking a lot longer than people initially expected and it makes sense when you think
about it.
The first Dragon spawns at the 5 minute mark.
Every time you kill a Dragon it takes 5 minutes to respawn.
This means, the fastest a team could get a Dragon Soul would be 25 minutes into the game.
Keep in mind, that every time the enemy steals a Dragon away, this delays unlocking a Dragon
Soul by another 5 minutes.
Realistically, players aren't unlocking these powerful Dragon Souls until after 30 minutes
in-game.
And we can see the effect these changes have had on game length.
Overall, the average game length has increased.
Not only that, but we've specifically seen a large drop of games ending at the 25 minute
to 30 minute mark.
One reason for the increased game length is due to the Dragons being weaker, and the more
powerful Dragon Souls not kicking in until past the 30minute mark on average.
That being said, there are still other changes at play that we haven't covered.
Elder Dragon no longer spawns at the 35 minute mark.
Instead, it will spawn 6 minutes after a team has killed their fourth elemental Dragon.
Since, as we mentioned, teams on average are killing their fourth Dragon past the 30 minute
mark, this means the Elder Dragon is spawning later on in the game.
Additionally, there was a small nerf to Baron that many players aren't aware of.
Baron Buff now lasts 3 minutes instead of 3 minutes and 30 seconds, 30 seconds shorter
than before.
It makes sense, with these changes, how games are lasting a bit longer.
This runs contrary to what a lot players anticipated.
One of the reasons for players thinking games would be shorter and more snowbally was that
Riot had changed the Rift Herald.
Rift Herald now spawns earlier at the 8 minute mark instead of the 10 minute mark and now
will respawn 6 minutes after it's been killed.
They've also lowered its health and attack speed making it easier to kill.
On top of this, it now only takes 1 second to channel the eye of herald instead of 4
seconds.
A lot of players thought these changes would make games end faster.
However, if we look at the stats, we can see that the win rate after taking First Herald
is actually on average 4% lower than taking First Dragon.
What this means, is that despite Dragons being weaker overall, they're still stronger than
taking a Herald.
This may seem a bit confusing as to why this is, but Riot made a few other changes to the
Herald.
When it's summoned it now has less health while also taking more of its current health
as damage when it uses its headbutt.
This means that it can be destroyed significantly faster than before.
They've also buffed Turret Plates, making them give more resistance when a turret plate
is taken.
This also contributes to Rift Herald being less powerful than it was before.
On top of all of this, they even had a mid patch update where they lowered the Plate
gold from 160 gold to 120 and increased the bonus resistance per missing plate from 30
to 40.
This has only served to make Herald even weaker since you're getting less gold off plates,
while it also being more difficult to take multiple plates with the increased resistances.
Now, although earlier we mentioned how Elder Dragon is spawning later on average, Elder
Dragon itself has been changed to give a more powerful buff.
Before, Elder Dragon's buff would scale and be more powerful the more Dragons you had
taken.
This meant, the team with more Dragons had a more powerful Elder Dragon.
That's been removed, and now Elder Dragon gives a flat buff regardless of how many Dragons
you've taken.
This can make it so the team that's behind has more comeback potential if they manage
to take an Elder Dragon.
On top of this, the Elder Dragon buff now has an execute that triggers if an enemy is
below 20% health.
In addition to this, the buff now lasts 30 seconds longer, 3 minutes total, which is
the same as Baron Buff.
Essentially, the Elder Dragon buff is super powerful right now and you definitely want
to prioritize taking it if it's up more than you would have on the previous patch.
So what do all these changes to the Dragons, Rift Herald, Elder, and Baron mean?
Well, you need to think a bit more long term than before.
In the previous meta, securing early dragons, along with a Herald, into an early Baron could
be a powerful path to an early win.
Now, it's less about securing 1 or 2 early Dragons, and about securing all 4 Dragons
for your team to unlock the Dragon Soul.
Since Rift Heralds are weaker than initially anticipated, you need to not only focus more
on getting those Early Dragons, but repeatedly securing each subsequent spawn.
Now, changes to the epic monsters are only one half of the change.
The other half is the changes to the smaller jungle camps.
These are so important, so listen up.
Jungle camps now respawn 30 seconds faster, from 2 minutes and 30 seconds down to 2 minutes.
To help balance this, Riot has also lowered the XP and Gold camps give.
This is a huge buff to farming junglers, since their fast clear speed means they can take
advantage of the lower respawn timers.
However, it's also a nerf to ganking junglers, since they naturally farm less, when they
do clear their camps, they will be getting less gold and experience on average.
Another massive change, is that catch-up experience has been removed.
It used to be that your jungle item would grant you additional xp on monster kills if
you were behind in levels.
That's no longer the case.
This means, junglers that are ganking too much and falling behind in levels will find
it more difficult to catch back up in experience by farming a hyper valuable camp like Krugs.
In addition to this, solo experience has been slightly buffed while shared experience has
been slightly nerfed.
This is a buff to Top and Mid lane and a nerf to bot lane.
However, it's also a slight nerf to junglers.
A common tactic for aggressively early game junglers is to soak minion waves after they
successfully gank.
Since Shared Xp has been slightly nerfed, this also means you'll be getting a bit less
experience when you use this tactic as a jungler.
So what do all these changes mean?
Well, no longer can a jungler just spam gank a lane and rely on kill and shared experience,
along with catch up experience from a camp like their Krugs, to keep them in the game.
Instead, you'll be more rewarded by pathing correctly, while also being punished harder
for inefficient and ineffective ganks.
Overall, junglers shouldn't be too worried, it means there's more skill expression for
junglers and for the better jungler to come out ahead more often than before.
Now, what these changes have done though, is alter the current metas for routes and
introduce new powerful routes.
This is due to how the camps themselves have had their experience and gold changed.
In season 9, we saw the Korean Krug Strategy emerge as the dominant opening route, where
you take Red, Krugs, and Raptors.
This was due to your Red side jungle, specifically your Krugs, giving so much more experience
and gold than your Blue Side jungle.
That's no longer the case, Krugs base experience have been significantly reduced.
At the same time, they've massively buffed the Gromp to give more experience and gold.
To help compensate for these buffs, they've increased its base health by 300 though.
Now, don't worry, the Korean Krug Strategy and all of the other routes we've taught you
are still completely viable, they're just a bit weaker and not the only route that you
have to take every game.
Currently, there are two specific routes that have emerged with the changes to the Gromp
and Krugs.
First, is the super fast level 3.
Since Gromp gives more experience, you can now hit level 3 off of 3 camps if you take
it.
A lot of high level players are going Blue, Gromp, into Red, in order to get a super fast
level 3 where they have double buffs.
This is most popular on aggressive early game junglers that want to gank over farming like
Jarvan, Lee Sin, and Elise.
You can do this same route on the other side of your jungle too, starting Red, then Blue,
then Gromp, hitting a super fast level 3.
This leaves you more flexible, since you can choose between either of these routes based
on which lane you want to gank as you'll transition to the opposite side of the map you started
on.
The idea behind this fast level 3, is that a lot of early game junglers don't exactly
scale.
They can't full clear their jungle to make use of the faster respawn timers.
On top of this, they can't do something like clear their Red, Krugs, and Raptors, and then
once these camps have respawned, rely on the catch up xp to rebound them back up in levels
since catch up xp has been removed.
These aggressive junglers instead are prioritizing on hitting level 3 as fast as possible to
influence the game before they get outscaled.
Essentially, early game junglers are pathing a bit more aggressive than before.
Nothing epitomizes this more than a new invade strategy that has emerged.
You start at your Red, then immediately invade the enemy's Blue, into taking their Gromp.
Since Gromp gives so much more experience, you'll actually hit level 3 off it.
Compare this to before, where if you did this exact same invade strategy, you would have
to do Red, invade their Blue, take their Gromp, then their Wolves, in order to hit level 3.
This is an especially effective counter to the old Korean Krug Strategy.
Since if the enemy does their Red, Krugs, and Raptors, you'll have already cleared your
Red, stolen their Blue, and Gromp and hit level 3 with double buffs.
This gives you all sorts of options and control over the game.
You can set a trap looking to kill them in their jungle.
You can immediately pivot to your blue side jungle to defend it and get a farm lead.
Or you can just choose to gank a nearby lane.
Overall, since you hit level 3 so much faster, you're in a much more powerful position when
you execute this invade than before.
Again, these haven't replaced the previous routes.
The Korean Krug strategy is still viable, they are just new routes available to be used
when the situation calls for it.
The biggest thing you should be taking away from this is that you can now be more flexible
with your starting location.
Now, let's talk about what champions have become stronger and weaker.
Overall, these changes have caused the pool of viable champions to seperate into two distinct
extremes.
You're either a farming jungler that can take advantage of the new low respawn timers.
Or you're a really strong early game junglers that can look to snowball the game early on,
securing dragons before the farming jungler can overtake you.
For farming junglers, Karthus has become especially strong, as he was already top tier before
the changes to the jungle, which now reward his farming playstyle even more.
Some other examples of farming junglers that got a buff from these changes are Kayn, Graves,
Master Yi, and Jax.
The combination of fast clear speed along with great scaling can give them a ton of
solo carry potential, which makes them uniquely effective in the lower elo brackets.
For early game junglers, the typical superstars of the early game such as Lee Sin, Jarvan,
Rek'Sai, and Elise are all great, but one champion that's standing out is Olaf.
Olaf is unique in that he's one of the strongest early game junglers and can beat almost anyone
in the 1v1, but he also has one of the fastest clear speeds.
For these reasons, he's started to emerge as a uniquely powerful early game jungler
that can also make use of the new low respawn timers.
Ekko has also somewhat fallen into a similar category, where he can have a strong early
game, but his clear speed really picks up while having great scaling.
That being said, champions that fall in between these two playstyles have now become significantly
weaker.
A great example of this would be Amumu.
Amumu is rather weak in the early game, while also having rather mediocre scaling.
One other thing to keep in mind though is that conquerer has been changed.
It no longer does true damage to shred through tanks, but is stronger against non-tanks as
compensation.
This has made early game junglers that run conquerer like Lee Sin, Jarvan, and Olaf even
stronger early on, but it's also made room for 2 tank junglers.
Nunu stands out as one of the strongest tank junglers on the current patch as he's not
only well rounded, but has great Dragon control with his Q ability.
Zac is another tank junglers, who both has great wave clear to make use of the new camps,
while also having great scaling as a tank.
Overall, as it stands, there are two distinct playstyles: you look to take over the game
with powerful early game junglers securing Dragons, or you look to outscale and farm
efficiently, making use of the new low respawn timers.
Alright, that's going to do it for this guide.
Keep in mind, this is just the start of the pre-season and there's a ton more for us to
cover that we couldn't possibly fit into just one video.
So stay tuned, as each week we'll be unraveling all the new cutting edge strategies you won't
find anywhere else.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below, and as always, good luck,
and have fun, on summoner's rift.