Junglers might have less sustain and later ganks come Patch 8.6

In Friday’s edition of Quick Gameplay Thoughts, League’s lead gameplay designer Andrei “Meddler” van Roon talked about the state of the game, including some jungle changes we’ll be seeing around Patch 8.6.

The starting jungle items are going to be potentially changed, adjusting sustain and clear for all junglers, so ganks won’t be coming as early. The full statement he made on the items can be seen below:

Jungle items - Two potential changes. First is changing sustain so it’s more missing health/mana based. Goal there is to make early ganks a bit riskier like they used to be a couple of seasons back (not ganking at or close to full health, so more chance of a turn around). Would also potentially help out those unable to clear at present because they’re so mana limited. Second change is lowering early clear speed a bit as well, push first gank times back a bit later in the game again.

As of right now, sustain has made junglers pretty scary, ganking early at near-full health. Tuning the starting items should make the early game a bit safer for laners, so they won’t have to worry about a full health Lee Sin at level three. (Let’s be honest, somehow that’s still going to happen, though.)

We can expect to see this changes on the Public Beta Environment soon as the Patch 8.5 cycle wraps up.