Riot dev responds to concerns with League’s new jungle item changes

A Riot Games developer has responded to concerns with the new 2021 preseason changes for jungle items and upgraded Smite in League of Legends.

Riot announced that the 2021 preseason would finally include a massive overhaul for the items in League of Legends, introducing new Mythic Items that can define a champion’s playstyle and give players more choice in-game.

However, there have been some concerns around the latest changes, particularly for those in the jungle role, as some champions are at risk of synergizing poorly with the new starter items that have been revealed.

With the Hunter’s Machete item now removed from the game, this could have a massive impact on the single-target damage clear speed of champions like Kindred and Twitch.

Riot responds to Preseason 2021 Jungle item concerns

After plenty of jungle mains voiced their concerns about the upcoming changes and the effect on these champions, Riot Phlox responded to players, revealing that they were still monitoring all of the potential changes, and would make any adjustments needed to balance the champions.

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The League of Legends dev also explained that the decision behind the new items was to open up more choice for junglers in their build paths throughout each game.

“Items were to open up junglers to the rest of the item system and actually allow them to engage in choice and not just statistics,” he explained. “It’s just more interesting to choose cool items than get stuck building warrior every game first.”

 

Phlox also addressed concerns around the upgraded smite changes, explaining that junglers would be able to put more of their gold towards items, instead of prioritizing  the smite upgrade

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“For smite, it’s all about ceremonializing the event and actually letting you invest in stuff you care about,” the Riot dev explained. “Frankly people don’t really like spending money to upgrade smite a lot of the time and now they get this cool way to get it rather than spending cash that could be longswords on smite.”

While these changes are currently being tested on the PBE servers, it is possible that Riot will make more adjustments before the full item overhaul in the 2021 preseason.