Rioter responds to criticism of upcoming jungle changes in League of Legends
Riot’s take on criticism of jungle changes. What does one of the designers say?
One of the most significant updates for jungle is coming to League of Legends. The developers want to make the role interesting to players who have so far rather avoided it, so they will make a number of improvements that aim to make jungle play simply more accessible.
Although Riot has indicated that it has no plans to make the jungler role no longer allow players to demonstrate their skills, fans were skeptical, criticizing the considerable amount of new features. The developers, however, are further confident that skill expression will not be eliminated. What exactly does one studio employee write?
Riot addresses criticism
In 2023, new pets will be added to the jungle, replacing current items for junglers and helping to clear camps. In addition, a number of simplifications like an indicator of the optimal clearing path will come to the game. Despite the developers’ assurances about the ability to demonstrate skill in the position in question, many players criticized the changes and wrote that Riot will lower the requirements for the jungler too much in pursuit of improving the affordability of the role.
Riot Phroxzon, in an interview, says that the changes are aimed at shifting the difficulty of junglers from elements that are fundamental to the role to other places.
We want to move skill expression from places that are extremely impactful, but are hard to learn, into places that are satisfying for all levels of play.
Rioter refers to the new pets for junglers, describing them as a better visualization of what Ember Knife or Hailblade allowed. The older mechanics were “difficult to explain,” had few visual indicators of their effects and required reading a “wall of text” to be able to understand them.
Perhaps the most controversial change, however, concerns guiding players through jungle celaning. Until now, it was up to the player to decide which path would be most optimal for them, but next season is expected to change that. Rioter admits that this mechanic reduces the skill requirement for the player, but guarantees that it will be possible to excel elsewhere.
The changes have already appeared on test servers, so interested players can experience for themselves the novelties that have been prepared by Riot. Both the employee and the studio as a whole hope that players will slightly change their critical approach when they check out for themselves how to play in the refreshed jungle.
