5.1 Jungle Changes

Specific Champion Changes

Elise

     This is a pretty solid buff to Elise but it doesn't quite bring her back to where she was in season 4. She definitely needed the love and this will help her clears. However, she still has mediocre damage, a weaker rappel (E), and a thinner cocoon. She'll still be popular in competitive but I don't think she's going to be too effective in solo queue. 

Evelynn

     Another decent buff but, again, I don't feel like it'll make Evelynn a top pick. Her clear in the new jungle is still pretty painful but I think she's at least viable now. The E change for on-hit effects will be really nice, imo. It definitely encourages the bruiser build on her or AP, though I personally prefer going a Warrior -> BORK -> Tank build or Triforce instead of BORK. The love for underpowered champs is nice though. Thanks Rito!

Hecarim

     I'm actually pretty fond of the pony and am excited to see buffs for this guy. The early game mana changes is REALLY nice and will help him a lot since there's no spirit stone as they mentioned in the notes. The W heal will also make it so those level 2 cheeses by mean champions like Pantheon/J4 won't be as effective on him. Overall, I don't think he'll be a top tier pick but he's definitely a viable pick this patch.

Nautilus

     So this is interesting. I felt like doing the math to see what it'll be like so we're going to math this out in 3 phases. 1) Base health + 9/21 + rank 1, 2) Juggernaut  + 9/21 + rank 5 (level 9). 3) Juggernaut + 9/21 + Randuins + rank 5 (level 9). Two for each one, pre change and post change.

*Since the Juggernaut mastery counts items as well, we'll put all the health together at once in the 2nd and 3rd bullet for the masteries*

Will be using this mastery page. No health in runes.

• (Pre-change) 576 is the health at level 1 without the masteries. So the base shield = 100 health. 15% bonus health = 15% of 54.36 which is the bonus health from the masteries = 8.154. Shield strength at rank 1 pre-change was 108.154 at level 1 rank 1.

          (Post-change) 576 is the health at level 1. 630.36 is the health with the masteries. The base   shield = 65. 7% of MAXIMUM health = 44.125. So level 1 rank 1 shield is 109.125. 

Overall a minor buff.  

• (Pre-change) 1264 is the health at level 9 without masteries (86 health per level). 1854 health counting the Juggernaut enchantment and masteries. Base shield strength = 300. 15% of bonus health = 15% of 1854 - 1264 which is 590. 88.5. So 388.5 shield strength pre-change.

          (Post-change) 1264 is the health at level 9 without masteries. 1854 health counting the Juggernaut enchantment and masteries. Base shield strength = 85. 17% of maximum health = 315.18. 400.18 shield strength post-change with Juggernaut enchantment.

Slight buff at one item.

• (Pre-change) 1264 is the health at level 9 without masteries. 2369 health counting Juggernaut enchantment + Randuins + masteries. Base shield strength = 300. 15% of bonus health = 15% of 2369 - 1264 which is 165.75. So 465.75 shield strength pre-change.

          (Post-change) 1264 is the health at level 9 without masteries. 2369 health counting Juggernaut enchantment + Randuins + masteries. Base shield strength = 85. 17% of maximum health = 402.73. 487.73 shield strength post-change with all the items. 

Slight buff at two items. 

     So it looks like overall a buff. Thanks Rito!

Rek'Sai

     

     This champion has been a little absurd for awhile so these nerfs are well needed. She still has a pretty strong level 3-4 since her q damage at rank 1 is the same and the q damage for rank 2 was a REALLY minor nerf. The main nerfs are to her AD ratios on her Q as well as slight base damage nerfs. Her W AD ratio nerf is a little awkward, imho. I honestly think the key problem with her kit was the E true damage but oh well. She's still going to be a top tier pick, except with a bruiser build (e.g. triforce -> tank) rather than full damage/GA 100 to 0 the entire enemy team. 

Skarner

     Skarner has been having a bit of trouble and has been sort of forced into picking Rangers to not run out of mana. The Q change will help a lot. Similarly, the E buff keeps him slightly relevant. He's still not going to be a top tier jungler but it's nice to see him get some love after he was gutted shortly after his rework.

Smite changes

     I'm actually super excited about this change. In 4.21, we'd see junglers saving their aggressive smites like their Chilling Smite/Challenging Smite instead of using it on creeps to get the jungle advantages. With this change, you can hoard up a smite, use one on a camp, and still gank with another charge of smite shortly after using it. Also, we should have less of those issues where you have no smite for dragon because you just used it on a gank. 

Other changes

Resets

      

     Slightly awkward change. They were sick of bottom lane taking camps for an easy level 2 cheese. But it hits junglers a little hard since a lot of junglers liked to abuse the reset mechanic to take less damage. I used it on a lot of melee champions.

Baron

     I'm not going to regurgitate everything on this post. To sum it up, it's more feasible to do 20 minute dragons. He doesn't hit as hard. It's an interesting change but I think they should've nerfed baron a little bit to compensate. Personally, I feel that the baron buff is too powerful.

Jungle Scaling

     Don't leave your Krugs up the entire game. Don't be that guy.

Hunter's Machete gold

     Yay! Jungler's get more gold! I'm actually pretty excited about this and can't wait to see just how much of an impact this will have. I've felt pretty poor as a jungler lately and have frequently had to tax lanes a lot more than I'd like. Hype.

Stalker's Blade nerf

     I'm a little salty about this nerf. While I understand that it was a little absurd for early game pressure, I REALLY liked it. I might still build this but it'll take a little bit of experimenting. The other option's just don't sound too attractive. Skirmisher is nice for 1v1 skirmishes but the Stalker's might still be viable. We'll see.

     Alright guys, that's all I've got for 5.1 jungle changes so far. I'll be creating a tier list in a few days once I finish experimenting with a bunch of champions. If you have any questions or comments, comment on my FB page, tweet me at @Lilnovalas, or comment here. Thanks for reading!