Riot has announced some massive Jungle Pets nerfs are coming in patch 13.4.
Every season, Riot adjusts and reworks many aspects of League of Legends to keep the game fresh. Moreover, their goal is also to make the game more easily accessible to newer players. And one role that gets changed every single season is the Jungle.
Although the most influential role, Jungle is also one of the most intimidating roles in the game. Recently, Riot has made various changes to make Jungle more intuitive for newer players. Some of these changes are, adding a path recommender, and rune recommender, showing the kite limit for all monsters, and, most importantly, adding the new Jungle Pets.
The Jungle Pets replace the previous Jungle items. Instead of buying Emberknife or Hailblade, you must purchase one of three Jungle Pets. These Jungle Pets have their buffs and stats, like Mosstomper granting shield to its user, Gustwalker giving bonus out of combat movement speed, and Scorchclaw granting bonus damage.
While the Jungle Pets made the overall Jungle experience more fluid, unfortunately, for many experienced players, it made the Jungle less skill expressive. Moreover, the jungle pets made many champions far more potent and viable than others, like Maokai, Udyr, Zac, Amumu, Evelynn, etc.
Though Riot tried to nerf some of the overpowered champions like Maokai, they are still one of the strongest jungle champions in the game. That’s why Riot will be nerfing Jungle Pets in the upcoming patch 13.4.
Read more: League of Legends Patch 13.4 Notes.
Jungle Pets Nerf Patch 13.4
- Damage AP ratio reduced from 15% to 12%
The upcoming nerf to Jungle Pets is aimed toward their AP ratio. Currently, the top Jungle champions are AP champions or using AP items. For example, Maokai is the strongest Jungle champion in the current meta and an AP champion. And Udyr is the 2nd strongest Jungle champion, and though he used to build both AD and Tank, his current strongest build is a hybrid between AP and Tank. Similarly, the subsequent top Jungle champions follow a similar pattern.
Moreover, a few patches before, Riot tried nerfing these champions because of their overwhelming influence. But they are still at the top of the meta, even after the nerfs. Because of that, they are nerfing the Jungle Pet’s AP ratio.
However, many players do not favor this change, as many other AP Jungle champions are not doing well in the meta. For example, Diana, one of the strongest champions in the previous season and one of the beloved champions, is comparatively weaker compared to Maokai and others. Similarly, Nidalee, another AP jungler. She is also weaker in the higher ELO. But for now, we have to wait and see how it affects the upcoming meta.
Release Date
The Jungle Pet nerfs will hit live servers on patch 13.4, scheduled to release on Thursday, Feb 23, 2023.
