League of Legends is reworking the jungle role to be less scary to newcomers

gamesradar.com:

League of Legends is making some big changes to the jungle role in 2023 with the intention of making it more accessible to newcomers.

In a blog post published on Friday, developer Riot assures that it's taking great care not to "dumb down" the jungle position and simply wants it to be "complex in the right places."

"Jungle is a powerful role, but also the punching bag of the team," Riot says. "We’re supposed to gank every lane, control all the macro, perfectly farm our camps, and set up vision ALL at once. It’s a lot. And that’s awesome—that’s why we main this role—but it’s way too much to jump into without a pool noodle."

One of the key ways Riot plans on lowering the barrier to entry for would-be junglers is to better demonstrate for them how the role is played, which sounds like a new tutorial is incoming. Furthermore, Riot teases rather vaguely that jungling mechanics will be adjusted to be "less punishing and more intuitive."

Riot also says it's considering adjustments to the rules around camps resetting as well as leash range. "When you’re newer to the role and accidentally lose camp patience it feels like you’re getting slapped in the face," Riot says. "Even for experienced players the rules are finicky and sometimes your champion feels useless because they can’t abuse these rules as well as other champs."

Future updates will also address jungle clear optimization with the intent of making more champions viable junglers. Riot acknowledges that certain champions have better clear rates because they're more easily able to "abuse" certain rules, and it sounds like that'll be a big focus of this comprehensive jungle rework.

"Right now in League, it’s not realistic to expect a ton of different characters to be viable