Tracker’s Knife is gone, but jungle vision alternatives may return

If you’ve played League in the past week you may have noticed a distinct lack of wards on the map. That might have something to do with the death of Tracker’s Knife, a favorite tool of junglers.

For those not in the know, Tracker’s Knife used to act as a jungle Sightstone, lowering the offensive capabilities of a player’s jungle item in favor of sweet utility. In solo queue you probably saw this on champs like Ivern, Lee Sin, and maybe Jax. But in professional play, you saw it everywhere.

As a result, Riot has decided to remove it from the game completely. Vision is extremely powerful and important in League of Legends and can make a huge difference in any single game.

Does this removal completely screw over champs like Lee Sin who use Tracker’s Knife for a cool reason aside from warding? Sure, but it also removes a serious itemization problem in professional play. But have no fear junglers, you may not be without wards for long.

It looks like we could be in for some new jungle items in the near future. Recently on the Public Beta Environment, Riot removed Tracker’s Knife but added wards to the other jungle items. This could create the best of both worlds for junglers, allowing them to fulfill their warding duty while also having interesting itemization changes.

However, these changes haven’t returned to the PBE on this current cycle. We’ll have to wait and see if Tracker’s Knife will ever return in any meaningful way. For now, guess you junglers better buy some control wards.