4.21 Jungle

     Hi guys! I wanted to discuss the changes in the season 5 jungle, my opinions on the changes, and champion viability. Before we get started, most of my opinions were formed based on experimentation, talking to higher elo players, and watching other high elo players (e.g. twitch streamers/IEM). I'm going to be splitting this post into a few parts. One part will be discussing the camp changes, including neutral objectives. Another part will be discussing the smite changes. Finally, I'll talk about which champions I find best in solo queue. Bear in mind that other players may have different opinions on some of these topics. Almost all of the content I will be using in this post will be taking from the Patch 4.20 & 4.21 notes which will be posted at the end. There will also be TLDRs in this post as well as a TLDR presentation. For the most part though, jungling has been made a little bit more difficult and tedious.

Changes to camps

     If you have been playing on the Season 5 Summoner's Rift, you may have noticed that many of the camps have been replaced in some way, shape, or form. There have also been additions to the jungle. The wraith camp has been replaced with the razorbeaks. The wight has been replaced with the gromp. The golems have been replaced with krugs. The ancient golem (blue buff) is now an ancient sentinel. The lizard camp is now the brambleback. The wolf camp is still the wolf camp. Except the big wolf has two heads now. Direwolf hype. Also, a new camp has been implemented. This new camp is called the "Rift Scuttler" which grants vision of the portion of the river in front of the baron pit and dragon pit. 

     Each of these camps have a bonus if you smite them, except the Rift Scuttler. He's lame.

     Smiting the Razorbeaks will give you an "Oracles" effect. If an enemy ward is near you, an eye will appear over your champion's head. After the eye appears, you'll have a short period of true vision which will reveal the enemy ward if you walk by it. Then you can kill it to clear enemy vision. 

     Smiting the Gromp camp will give you a buff which lasts 90 seconds. This buff poisons enemies that attack you for 4 + (8 x level) magic damage over 3 seconds. So, as an example, if you smite the gromp camp at level 10, any enemy that attacks you (champion's included) will take 84 magic damage over 3 seconds. 

     Smiting the Krugs camp will give you a buff for 60 seconds. This buff will make it so every 6th auto attack will stun minions & monsters. Also, if you attack a tower, the buff will immediately expire but you will deal a decent amount of true damage to the tower (65 + 15 x level). So if you're level 10, it will do 215 true damage to a tower. 

    Smiting the Wolf camp will summon a little spirit that will watch over the nearby crossroads for 75 seconds. The best part is that it will follow around an enemy champion in your jungle & also ping your mini map so you know someone is there.

    Smiting the new buff camps (Ancient Sentinel & Brambleback) each have bonuses unique to their camp. If you smite the Ancient Sentinel (Blue Buff), you'll instantly receive mana back. This is useful for when you're low on mana & are trying to give your blue buff away to your mid laner. The Brambleback (Red Buff) heals you when you smite it. Just a note, the blue buff and red buff were also slightly altered. Both buffs last for less time (2 minutes). In addition, red buff slows for less & burns for less damage. However, it now heals the target with red buff for +1% of their maximum health per 5 seconds, making it very useful on super tanks (e.g Maokai). 

     Each of these are useful in their own way. 

     Generally, you'll want to smite the Gromp when you're having trouble with early clears. In fact, it's very useful to start the Gromp first on some champions that don't plan on doing an early gank. In this case, you'll want to do a camp - buff - camp - back - buff - gank/continue farming pattern. As an example, you'd start gromp - blue buff - wolf camp - go back to buy your jungle item & more health potions or a ward - red buff - look for a gank or continue farming. In addition to that, it's also useful to pick up the Gromp buff when you're someone who plans on being a front line for your team. Since you'll be taking a lot of damage, you'll be poisoning the enemy team as they attack you. Smiting the Krugs camp serves a similar purpose except it's more focused on auto attack based champions such as Udyr and Master Yi. However, it's also useful for split pushing for the aforementioned champions as well as other strong split push champions like Nocturne & Shaco.

     For the most part, those two smite buffs are for clearing. The razorbeaks are probably the most useful smite buff though because of the truesight buff that it gives. This allows you to know exactly where an enemy placed a ward and clear it. In my opinion, smiting the razorbeaks is generally the best bet whereas the other smite buffs are more situational. The wolf smite buff is also pretty useful but more so useful when you feel like you have a lack of control on your own side of the jungle. It warns teammates where the enemy is in your jungle so if you have no wards on your blue buff side of the jungle, it's very useful to smite this camp. However, if you're dominating the game, it has a lot less value.

TLDR 

1. Smiting Gromp = Helps clear speed. Useful for tanks mid/late game.
2. Smiting Krugs = Helps clear speed for auto attack based champions. Useful mid/late game for split pushers since it does true damage to towers.
3. Smiting Razorbeaks = Gives Oracles. Generally the best one to use smite on since it lets you know where an enemy warded.
4. Smiting Wolves = Useful if you lose control of your jungle or if you're invading and want better control over the enemy jungle.
5. Smiting Blue Buff = mana. Smiting Red Buff = health. Both buffs last for less time. Red Buff now regens 1% of maximum health. Useful on tanks now as well.
6. Everything hurts more.

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    Another huge change is the changes to the neutral objectives. Both dragon & baron have received massive changes that affect their role in the game as well as their value. For one, dragon no longer grants gold to your team on kill. Also, the bonuses baron buff grants have been changed as well. Dragon gives you bonuses depending on the number of times that you have killed it. 

1. On the 1st kill, dragon grants +6% damage & ability power team-wide. 
2. On the 2nd kill, dragon grants 15% damage to towers & structures.
3. On the 3rd kill, dragon grants +5% movement speed.
4. On the 4th kill, dragon grants +15% minion & monster damage.
5. On the 5th kill, you're granted a temporary buff called Aspect of the Dragons which lasts 180 seconds and will remain on you even if you die. This buff doubles all previous bonuses & your attacks burn for 150 true damage over 6 seconds. 

     The key thing to note here is that the 5th dragon is temporary. However, all the other dragon buffs are permanent. Once your 5th dragon buff expires, if you get the 6th dragon, you'll receive the Aspect of the Dragons buff again. 

      This changes dragon's role in the game dramatically and makes the game itself a lot more teamfight centric in the mid game and demands a lot more vision control out of the jungler & support to maintain control over the dragon pit. The game snowballs a lot harder for the team that can maintain dragon control. In solo queue, about a week after 4.20 launched, team's that managed to secure the first dragon had approximately a 74% win-rate vs team's who didn't secure the first dragon. Previously, you'd just get more gold for items.  

     The changes to baron buff were minor in comparison to the changes to baron. Baron now spawns at 20 minutes & will grant you a similar buff albeit with a few changes. It grants up to 40 AD & AP (depending on the game time), reduces your recall channel time to 4 seconds, heals you for 50% of your maximum health/mana on successful recall, and grants you 50% movement speed for 8 seconds on successful recall. In addition, it empowers your minions making it useful for pushing waves & sieging towers. 

1. All minions match 90% of average movement speed of nearby champions, up to a limit of 500 movement speed.
2. All minions are resistant to slow effects.
3. Non-super minions have 75% damage reduction vs AoE, DoT, and persistent effects.
4. Melee minions gain +50% movement speed when within 800 units of enemy minions or turrets
5. Melee minion size is increased
6. Melee minions gain +75 attack range
7. Melee minions have 75% damage reduction versus champions and minions
8. Melee minions have 30% damage reduction versus turrets (similar to cannon minions)
9. Ranged minions have +20 attack damage.
10. Ranged minions have +50% attack speed.
11. Ranged minions have +100 attack range.
12. Cannon minions have +600 attack range.
13. Cannon minions have +50 attack damage but their attack speed is halved.
14. Cannon minion attacks are now AoE & deal 2x damage to turrets.
15. Super minions gain +25% attack speed.
16. Super minions gain +50% movement speed when within 800 units of enemy minions or turrets.

     The key thing you can take away from this is that baron buff makes your minions super powered and overwhelming. And to buff the minions, all it takes is one person with the baron buff to be with the minions to empower them. If all 5 of your teammates have the buff, a useful method of pushing would be to set up a 1 - 3 - 1 where you would send 1 player top, 3 mid, and 1 bottom to simultaneously shove the waves. This results in 3 waves of baron buffed minions to overwhelm the enemy team. Note that this isn't the ideal method of sieging with certain team comps. Sometimes, it's best to just group as 5 and dive the enemy team. The best part of the baron buffed minions is that the cannon minion range is so long that it's longer than the turret range. To kill the cannon minion, carries may have to step out of position which can result in a quick catch. This is especially useful if paired up with an item such as Banner of Command which now makes it so your minions no longer take magic damage. That way, the only one who could effectively kill the cannon minion would be either the ADC or another AD champion. This effectively destroys some champion's wave clear (e.g. Ziggs/Orianna) and can make sieging incredibly easy.

TLDR

1. Dragon makes the game snowball a lot more. Games are a lot more teamfight centric.
2. Dragon no longer gives gold. Instead gives special bonuses on each kill until 5th kill where all previous bonuses are doubled temporarily for 3 minutes (stays w/ you on death). Can get buff right back if you kill dragon again.
3. Ward control is pretty critical.
4. Baron buff makes minions really troll. With proper wave control and banner of command, can make wave clearing impossible for enemy team depending their team comp. Baron buff is op.

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     Obviously, due to the changes, vision control is critical around the river area for when you're planning on taking these objectives. I'll discuss some decent ward placement and then talk about the importance of the Rift Scuttler in these situations. **These images were taken from http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/summoners-rift-update-preview.html**

     The following marked places are great wards for vision control around specifically the baron pit.

     Each ward is marked and I'll discuss the importance of each ward and where a pink ward would be useful. I'll also discuss it based on which side you're playing on, red side or blue side.

1. The 1st marked ward is the ward in the bush behind the red side's red buff. This bush is ideal for a defensive pink ward from red side to let you know if the enemy team is warding either for mid lane or is placing a defensive ward for a baron play.  However, it's also useful for a deep ward stealth ward from the blue side. If placed correctly, it gives you vision of someone walking towards the razorbeaks camp and will also give vision of both sides of the bush.                                     
2. The 2nd marked ward is the standard bush ward in the river. This ward is one of the most common wards and is used to maintain vision of those walking up and down the river. It also helps to prevent "death bushes" where you get ambushed as you face check baron pit. It's often pinked as well but I don't recommend pinking the bush due to the amount of traffic the bush experiences. You often lose the ward.                                                                                              
3. The 3rd marked ward is the topside mid lane bush. Similar to the 2nd ward, this ward lets you see when people are going top, heading towards mid, or heading towards baron. This one, in my opinion, is a better pink ward location if you pink it on the side. If placed correctly (near the edge), players don't pay too much attention as they walk through the bush and won't see the ward. Also, if placed correctly, the ward can be used as bait for a play from your team. Otherwise, place a standard stealth ward.                                                                                        
4. The 4th ward is a ward that I think is critical for red side. This gives you vision of that corridor and allows you to see anyone heading in that direction. If blue side were heading towards baron, it is very likely that one of their teammates would walk through that ward. It's also not too common of a ward spot so it's unlikely to be swept or seen by a pink ward. The reason you place the ward there instead of in the bush is because placing the ward in the bush doesn't give you vision of the corridor.                                                                                                                
5. The 5th ward is a standard deep ward for red side on the blue buff. It gives you vision of anyone who doesn't walk through the 4th ward. It also gives you vision of the blue buff as well the corridor. The ideal location is in the intersection rather than the bush at the blue buff since it will give you vision of that entire intersection. Keep in mind that this ward is also a useful defensive ward for blue side. However, for blue side, instead of purchasing a ward, smiting the wolf camp may prove more useful since the spirit will follow anyone in the jungle and ping their location for you. This is more useful when you're being overrun and need coverage/safety in your own jungle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
6. The 6th ward is an incredibly underrated but amazing ward. In high elos, it's relatively common but lower elos don't think about this one too much. This is a critical ward for both red side & blue side. If placed correctly, this ward gives enough vision of the enemy team to the point that you can distinguish whether or not they're attacking baron. Also, since it's in an unconventional location, it's VERY unlikely that the ward will be swept out unless the enemy has an oracles lens or saw you place the ward.                                                                                                       
7. The 7th ward is placed just inside of the baron pit in the corner. It's a pretty useful ward for both sides since it gives vision of the baron pit. It's also in an awkward location so the ward might be missed by a sweeper. You don't have to ward specifically in that corner and could pick any of the edges in the baron pit that you feel comfortable with.                                             
8. The 8th ward is a useful defensive ward for red team as well as an incredibly useful pink ward location for the blue team. If placed right at the edge, this ward gives vision of the red buff and the intersection. For red team, this is useful if you're being overran on your top side jungle. For blue team, you can place a pink right at the edge since that bush isn't frequently visited. If you can get a deep pink ward into that bush, sometimes that ward can maintain vision at the red buff for 10-20 minutes depending on the enemy team. 

     These are just some of the wards that I find useful for the baron pit. I'll discuss dragon ward coverage next.

1. The 1st ward is a useful defensive blue side ward. It gives vision of anyone walking into your bottom side jungle. Similar to the ward on the opposite side, if placed correctly, it gives vision of both sides of the bush. The ward is also a great deep ward for red side since it gives vision of the blue side razorbeaks if placed correctly.                                                                                    
2. The 2nd ward is for the bottom bush of the middle lane. This ward is great for seeing enemies walking to bottom lane from middle lane or visa versa. It's also great for making sure there's no ambushes being set up, similar to the 3rd ward in the baron section. It's another great pink ward location for the same reason as the 3rd ward in the baron section ; people don't expect a pink so so they might not see it / baits.                                                                                                                
3. The 3rd ward is for the river bush. This ward is critical for the same reason the baron side river bush is important. It gives vision of the river since it's at the intersection of the river so you can see people heading towards dragon, the blue side bottom jungle, mid, bottom lane, or into the red side bottom jungle. Similar to the baron counterpart, it's useful to make sure there's no death bushes being set up.                                                                                                                  
4. The 4th ward is critical since it gives vision of the blue buff corridor, similar to the 4th ward on the baron side. This allows you to see players heading towards dragon or retreating into their jungle. It also allows you to see when the mid laner/jungler is heading towards their blue buff if they head through that corridor.                                                                                                          
5. The 5th ward is a deep ward specifically for blue side. This ward allows you to have vision of the enemy wolves which can be useful since most junglers don't expect a ward to be placed there. If you maintain vision there, you can screw with the red side jungler since knowing he's there will make it significantly harder for him to make any plays on the bottom side & mid lane. However, it's also useful since it's common for players to run by the wolves/kill the wolves as they head towards the dragon pit. For red side, it's useful for you to smite your wolf when your bottom side jungle is out of your control since it can inform you the locations of the enemy champions in your jungle. Something I failed to mention is that it's also useful for you to smite the enemy teams  wolf camp if you're taking control of the enemy jungle since it'll give you vision of the enemy players as they walk through their jungle.                                                                                                                                                                                                    
6. The 6th ward is an important intersection ward for both sides. It gives vision of that intersection for the blue side as a deep ward though it's frequently swept. It's also a decent pink ward spot for blue side in lower elos since the enemy team may not check the bush.                    
7. The 7th ward is pretty much in a similar location to the 6th ward. This ward is for having better vision of the gromp and blue buff. It's also in a location that's less likely to be swept since most players sweep the center of the intersection or the blue buff bush. Also, it's useful for making plays on dragon baits.                                                                                                                       
8. The 8th ward is a decent defensive ward for red side for dragon. Similar to the 6th ward on the baron side, it's not frequently swept and it makes for a decent ward since it allows you to see enemy champions as they enter the dragon pit. You may even be able to see them attacking the dragon depending on the blue side's positioning.                                                                             
9. The 9th ward is a standard dragon pit ward where you place the ward in one of the corners. This ward is simply for coverage inside of the pit, similar to the 7th ward on the baron side.                                                                                                                                                                 
10. I almost forgot about this 10th ward but I found this bush to be really useful for deep pink wards for the blue side. This bush is similar to the 8th ward on the baron side. Not many players check that bush and people don't expect there to be a pink in that bush. If you're lucky, the ward will last for quite some time and provide decent vision of that corridor.

     Now lets talk about the Rift Scuttler's role in vision control. The Rift Scuttler, when defeated, provides vision in front of the baron pit or dragon pit. It also provides a movement speed increase if you run through it. This lasts 75 seconds. This is critical for baron and dragon control since the vision can't be cleared. As a general rule, it's a good idea to kill the crab if you're planning on taking the objective soon or that you have a feeling that the enemy team is going to try to make a play for it. The movement speed is also useful for forcing teamfights or retreating away from unfavorable teamfights. Otherwise, don't bother killing it. The mob is annoying to kill early game and provides very little gold/exp. Just remember, if you plan on taking baron/dragon or defending it, kill it.  

     That's all I'm going to write for part 1. I'll be talking about the smite changes in my post which I'll create tomorrow. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback, comment here or send me a tweet at @Lilnovalas! Thanks for reading! 

     Sources 

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-420-notes

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-421-notes

     TLDR Sway Presentation
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