League of Legends Season 13 Jungle Changes: What to Expect
Jungling in League of Legends is a challenging role that requires a deep understanding of champion mechanics and game concepts such as fog of war, pathing, and teamfighting. To succeed as a jungler and climb the ranks, it’s essential to master these skills.
For the upcoming Season 13, Riot Games is introducing several quality-of-life changes to the jungle that will make life easier for new junglers. The Summoner’s Rift jungle can be a hostile environment, but these changes aim to help players navigate it more effectively.
Jungle Camp Changes
The most significant change in the 2023 preseason is buffing jungle monsters. They will now have increased health pools, making them more challenging to kill. However, their attack range is being reduced. Additionally, certain jungle monsters will deal on-hit damage based on a percentage of the target’s current health.
The Rift Herald is also getting a change: when killed, it will grant more experience to all nearby targets. This change may lead to more early teamfights, but the Herald’s initial charge damage is being reduced to balance it.
The Rift Scuttler, a favorite of many junglers, will now spawn slightly later, giving players more time to complete their initial clear. It will also have more health but will no longer have a shield.
Camp Mechanic Changes
Riot is introducing two mechanics to discourage counter-jungling and invading. When a large monster dies, smaller monsters in the camp will be marked for death and will die after ten seconds of not being in combat. This prevents enemy junglers from stealing part of a camp and leaving one monster behind to delay its respawn.
To punish invading junglers, non-true damage sources will now deal 20% more damage to monsters in their jungle. This change makes it more difficult for invaders to quickly steal camps.
Large monsters will now heal and restore mana to the champion who kills them, as long as they have their jungle companion with them. The healing and mana restoration come in the form of a projectile fired towards the champion after a short delay. This change reinforces the importance of helping your jungler when they’re being invaded.
Camp Gold and Experience Changes
To discourage laners from stealing jungle camps, the gold and experience given to non-junglers for killing large monsters in the jungle will be reduced. Junglers, on the other hand, will only gain 75% experience from lane minions before their first pet evolution, unless they’re behind in levels. If a jungler falls behind due to a disconnect, they’ll receive catch-up experience. Large monsters now give additional experience if a jungler has a jungle companion.
These changes aim to establish clear boundaries between junglers and laners, reducing conflicts over resources. Laners can still farm jungle camps if their jungler is unavailable, but their time will be better spent in their lanes.
Recommended Pathing
New players often struggle with jungle pathing, but Riot is introducing first clear pathing recommendations to help them. These recommendations will appear on the mini-map and above the camps themselves. They’re based on data from high-skilled junglers and will be updated regularly. This feature will greatly assist players learning to jungle in Season 13.
Objective Planning
Riot has implemented an objective voting system to ensure teams are on the same page when contesting objectives. Similar to a surrender vote, this system allows the team to decide whether to contest or give up an objective. The jungler’s vote counts as two votes, recognizing their role as the main decision-maker in these situations.
Leashing Range Updates and Indicators
To address the frustrations of monsters resetting during a leash, Riot has introduced a new mechanic called patience. When a monster loses all of its patience, it will soft reset by returning to its camp, regenerating health, and ignoring attacks outside of leash range. If a monster remains in place for ten seconds, it will hard reset, regaining all its health and ignoring all incoming attacks. Leashing ranges for jungle camps have also been lowered, making it difficult to double clear camps and exploit the pathing mechanics.
Jungle Companions
The most exciting mechanic coming in Season 13 is the addition of jungle companions. These companions replace traditional jungle items and evolve throughout the game. There are three companion options: Mosstomper, Scorchclaw, and Gustwalker.
Jungle companions deal damage to monsters, jungle monsters, and champions and provide various benefits to their owners. They attack once per second, heal their owner, and regenerate their owner’s mana while in the jungle.
Evolving the companions requires collecting treats, which are earned by killing champions and large monsters. The final evolution grants enhanced abilities and removes the need for a jungle item.
Companion Evolutions
As jungle companions evolve, they receive bonuses:
First Evolution
- Smite damage is increased against monsters and can now be cast on enemy champions, dealing true damage and slowing the target.
- The jungle item remains in the inventory.
Final Evolution
- Smite damage is further increased and deals AoE damage to nearby monsters.
- Players receive buffs depending on their chosen companion.
- The jungle item is removed from the inventory.
These changes aim to create a more friendly jungle environment for all players, especially newcomers. Season 13 is shaping up to be a jungle-focused season, but there may still be adjustments before the official release. Enjoy experimenting and learning in the preseason to prepare for the challenges ahead.
League of Legends, Season 13, jungle changes, jungler, game mechanics, jungle monsters, Rift Herald, Rift Scuttler, counter-jungling, invading, pathing, objective voting, patience mechanic, jungle companions, evolutions.