League of Legends – Patch 11.10 “Jungle Update”

May 13th was a big day for League of Legends players but was especially important for players that base their play style around the jungle. Apparently, the developers felt that some aspects of the jungle were a bit of a grind and wanted to make the jungle less painful. With that in mind, they increased the jungle camp respawn timer from two minutes to two minutes 15 seconds. This will help to make it feel less annoying for players, as previously, a new camp would respawn almost immediately upon another being defeated, leaving the player without a moment of rest.

Previously, some aspects of playing in the jungle were potentially very risky for players because some easily utilized strategies by the opposing team could make it very difficult for the jungle player. If they fall behind, it becomes extremely likely that they will never catch up. In order to give struggling junglers a little bit of a boost, when a jungler is at least two levels below the average level of all the other players, they will get a 50 XP bonus from large and epic monsters per level that the player is below the average level.

New cosmetics came to the game. For 1350 RP each (roughly $10), players can buy Arcana-themed cosmetics for Camille, Lucian, Tahm Kench, and Xerath. Each of these skins, of course, comes with the option of various Chroma sets that can be purchased individually (for 290 RP) or as a pack at a discounted price. There are also 17 new Summoner icons, and 8 new emotes added to the store.

In this patch, they are also addressing some balancing concerns by touching upon the strengths and abilities of several champions:

• The base damage of Bard’s Traveler’s Call is being decreased from 40 to 30.
• The cooldown is being increased by between 10%-50% for Darius’ Apprehend ability.
• The cooldown for Galio’s Shield of Durand is being set to 18 seconds, and the strength of the shield is slightly decreased.
• Jinx’s base armor is being decreased to 26 from 28.
• Katarina’s base movement speed is being decreased to 335 from 340.
• The damage of Lux’s Lucent Singularity is being increased.
• The automatic targeting for Sejuani’s Permafrost has been improved.
• Thresh’s base health has been decreased from 561 to 530, while his health growth has been increased from 93 to 95.

As with every patch, some bugs have been identified and fixed:

• Akali’s Shuriken Flip will no longer deal double damage if her target is very close to a wall.
• Aurelion Sol’s Starsurge and Voice of Light will no longer have a .25 second delay before their stun, and knock-up status effects take effect.
• The Rift Herald will now spawn in the correct way.
• A bug causing the black ticks in the health bar to disappear has been fixed.
• A bug that caused players whose inventory is full to lose the gold cost of a Wardstone when attempting to sell a Trinket has been fixed.
• Melee champions will now gain the expected 35% bonus to attack range from Rapid Firecannon instead of 54%.
• Vladimir will no longer become untargetable when Sanguine Pool ends while Zhonya’s Hourglass Stasis is active.
• Navori Quickblade now correctly triggers when Yasuo uses the Sweeping Blade and Steel Tempest combo.

We’re fairly pleased with all the new balancing changes, which will help to make the game more enjoyable and fair. The particular focus given to the jungle was very much needed.

League of Legends is one of the world’s largest esports, with 12 regional leagues worldwide. Four regions, China, Europe, Korea, and North America, have franchise systems comprising well over 100 teams and 500 players. The highest-paid professional players have earned salaries of over $1 million, far higher than in other esports, such as Overwatch. Developed and published by Riot Games in 2009, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game available on Windows and macOS.