The Death of Wriggle's Junglers

[Jonathan Meer]

Seems like Wriggle's junglers have all but died in LoL lately. Lee Sin is a rare pick, Olaf is a rare pick, Nocturne is a rare pick. Instead, we're seeing Skarners, Udyrs and Maokais: champs that go tanky gp/5.

Is the bruiser jungler all but dead? Even on Udyr these days, I'm having a hard time justifying anything other than HoG and PS to start with.

[Mal Nova]

It's probably just the meta at the moment. But I'm sure if you can do good with the jungle champ... You can still do great.

I watched just about every Champ you named bet picked as Jungler in the finals. Actually I think all of them...

You should realize that you are solo queing though lol.... and that gold can matter. UNless you can... Ra-Molest in ganking>_>

[Jonathan Meer]

Nocturne was picked once by Team Dignitas against AzF in the group stage. AzF won that game.

Lee Sin got picked by M5 because Diamond beasts on Lee Sin.

There was no jungle Olaf. Nearly every game had a Skarner or Maokai.

[Kaden]

It's a matter of making your worst-case scenario as good as possible. The bruisers (with Olaf being pretty close to an exception, imo) need items to really be able to do anything. Olaf and Nocturne can dive into the enemy team, but unless they've got a good amount of gold, they just get blown the hell up.

If you pick a tanky jungler who can jungle just as well/better than a bruiser and buy gp/10, you're guaranteeing yourself gold income even if you get counter jungled or you can't land ganks. That really goes back to why tanky DPS was such a frustrating meta: champions can keep good DPS with their abilities while itemizing for tankiness. Maokai and Udyr are pretty much the epitome of that.

The other thing that tanks bring are the power of their skills. Pretty much no one ganks as well as Maokai because his kit is just insanely good for it and also comes with a massive damage debuff for the enemy team... that also turns into damage. Skarner is such a powerful initiator that when he does it, the other team just gets to lose someone for it. Bruisers don't get to do shit like that.

[Sage]

gp/10?

<.<

[Jonathan Meer]

Heart of Gold, Philosopher's Stone, Kage's Lucky Pick, Avarice Blade

They all give 5 gold every ten seconds. Supports tend to get a HoG and PS in lane; supporty-junglers (which was a big thing in the World champ) tend to do the same. Some top laners get a HoG. Some mid-laners like DFG and get Kage's.

[King B]

Nocturne and Shyvanna are the only remaining viable wriggles junglers. But like Kaden said, if you can save 1600 and turn it into 2 gp10 items to ensure income and looking at the skills of those tanky junglers that have decent clear speeds, why would you ever play wriggle junglers.