New junglers looks to enter the meta in upcoming LoL patch 11.8

League of Legends patch 11.8 represents a strategic shift in jungle diversity, introducing five non-traditional champions to the role. Riot Games aims to break the current one-dimensional meta by enabling unexpected picks that could reshape both solo queue and professional play dynamics.

Gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter’s preview reveals targeted adjustments for Zed, Darius, Mordekaiser, Morgana, and Diana. These champions typically excel in lanes but will now receive specific monster damage enhancements to facilitate jungle viability.

11.8 Patch Preview with tentative changes:

Feedback always welcome, the team is still making final adjustments on a few of these.
pic.twitter.com/CmvKpDRl72

— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter)April 6, 2021

Darius Jungle Power Shift

• P – Hemorrhage, monster damage bonus 175% >> 300%

Darius undergoes the most significant transformation, transitioning from his traditional top lane dominance to potential jungle supremacy. The Hand of Noxus receives a substantial 71% increase in passive bleed damage against neutral monsters, elevating his clear speed from moderate to exceptional.

Initial testing revealed extreme balancing issues when Riot experimented with 500% damage multipliers. Players discovered Darius could solo Dragon at level one and achieve record-breaking clear times, forcing developers to recalibrate the buff to maintain game integrity while still enabling jungle viability.

Despite maintaining a robust 51.06% win rate in top lane during patch 11.7, Darius faces inherent ganking limitations in the jungle role. His kit lacks reliable engage tools, requiring players to compensate with superior clearing efficiency and exceptional dueling capabilities against enemy junglers.

AP Jungle Meta Expansion

The current ability-power jungle pool suffers from limited options, creating strategic predictability in draft phases. Morgana’s jungle adaptation focuses on clearing speed through enhanced monster damage, though she shares Darius’s ganking limitations and faces additional vulnerability during enemy jungle encounters.

Diana emerges as the most promising AP jungle candidate, leveraging her Moonsilver Blade passive for efficient camp clearing while maintaining superior target access through Lunar Rush (E).

Common mistakes for new Morgana junglers include improper spell sequencing and failure to track enemy movement. Advanced players should focus on optimizing Tormented Soil placement and timing Dark Binding for maximum control during invades.

Mordekaiser and Zed receive complementary adjustments, though their jungle viability requires extensive Public Beta Environment testing before conclusive assessment.

Successful implementation of these jungle adaptations could revolutionize draft strategies across all competitive levels. Teams gain significant advantage through role ambiguity, forcing opponents to allocate ban resources differently and creating unexpected compositional flexibility.

Darius specifically offers compelling flex potential, allowing teams to conceal their lane assignments until final selections. This strategic deception becomes particularly valuable in best-of series where adaptation and surprise factor determine match outcomes.

Patch Deployment Schedule

League of Legends patch 11.8 targets April 14 for live server deployment according to the established patch schedule. Ongoing Public Beta Environment testing provides crucial balancing data, enabling Riot to make final adjustments based on community feedback and performance metrics.

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