This will put a smile on Tank players on League Patch 11.4.
The jungle “tanks” are slowly returning to the Rift after the release of League Patch 11.4. The jungle meta was originally shaped by champion-item interactions, such as Olaf and Goredrinker. Udyr was also unexpectedly making his way to the top of the S rank junglers, along with Nidalee and Graves. However, the whole meta is changing as Riot had made many adjustments for the jungle camps.
The developers said that the junglers had too much impact on the game “because of the amount of money in the early stages that can be converted into early damage is too much”. To fix the problem, Riot reduced some monster camps experience and gold in League Patch 11.4 before deciding to buff or nerf certain champions later.
Gromp
EXPERIENCE 135/138.375/145.125/155.25/168.75/182.25 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) ⇒ 125/128.125/134.375/143.75/156.25/168.75 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
GOLD 105 ⇒ 85
Large Krug
EXPERIENCE 37/37.925/39.775/42.55/46.25/49.95 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) ⇒ 27/27.675/29.025/31.05/33.75/36.45 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
GOLD 42 ⇒ 32
Small Krug
EXPERIENCE 18/18.45/19.35/20.7/22.5/24.3 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) ⇒ 16/16.4/17.2/18.4/20/21.6 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
Crimson Raptor
EXPERIENCE 45/46.125/48.375/51.75/56.25/60.75 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9) ⇒ 35/35.875/37.625/40.25/43.75/47.25 (levels 1/3/4/5/7/9)
GOLD 45 ⇒ 35
Gromp, Krugs and Raptors camps have been reduced by 10 experience at all level compared to previous versions. Not only that, but the amount of gold from them also dropped sharply, causing the more “active” junglers to reach their power threshold a lot slower.
According to former LCK commentator, who is currently also a streamer for team T1, Nick “LS” De Cesare, the above changes will bring utility champions, tank-oriented champions without expensive items requirement back into the meta. Therefore, Skarner, Zac, Sejuani, Rammus, Amumu,… are slowly making their way back. The LEC tournament is currently using Patch 11.3 but has soon brought the above champion to the tournament to focus on ganking and controlling the targets.
However, champions with fast camp clearing such as Udyr and Karthus will still be popular in League Patch 11.4 because their camp clear speed will compensate for the gold and experience reduction. In the next versions, it is expected that the aggressive junglers will completely disappear and thus, replaced by the tankier champions. This is an advantage for the laner, especially the positions that need damage to carry towards the end of the game.