League of Legends players seem to be unsure about the inclusion of Jungle Pets in the game, questioning how they add value to the title. This comes as Riot Games prepares to roll out the preseason reworks for Season 13, including an update that aims to improve the Jungle role.
Out of all the roles in League of Legends, Jungle is one of the hardest to learn. Players seem to be intimidated with having to roam the whole map to assist teammates in other lanes, while also killing neutral monsters, Dragons, the Rift Herald, and Baron Nashor. Riot Games had since updated the game a few times to balance out the jungling experience. The most recent Jungle update for Season 13 are Jungle Pets, which would replace the starting items for Jungle players. These adorable creatures—a blue wolf, green frog, and red fox—have effects meant to assist players while farming Jungle monsters. They evolve like Pokemon too.
In a YouTube video, League of Legends game designers Ezra "Riot Phlox" Lynn and Tim "Riot Truexy" Jiang said they wanted to make the Jungle experience more fun and rewarding through Jungle Pets. The gameplay clips also showed the creatures attacking monsters with the player, which may mean that they act independently. Lynn also quipped that these will keep junglers sane. Despite their cute design, many players in the comments weren't the biggest fans, emphasizing that Riot was focusing on the wrong things. The most common concern was the toxicity within League of Legends where players often pin the blame on junglers. Other Jungle mains also said they were tired of relearning the role because of the constant updates being made. Some joked about jungling being so hard that Riot had to create support animals for them.
The reception wasn't all negative as some players said they felt more motivated to play Jungle now because they want to see the creatures fully evolve. One noted that Jungle Pets were "cool and unique," but also thought they might need tweaking. Meanwhile, the PBE for League of Legends Season 13 is currently live, which gives players a chance to experience Jungle Pets before they go live.
The obvious frustration of players are valid, especially considering that League of Legends was named one of the most toxic games. Although Riot Games has been working to improve reporting systems across its games, the problem still persists. Avid gamers know that having toxic and uncooperative teammates can affect their overall gameplay experience.
Nonetheless, Jungle Pets seem like a promising addition to the game as they lessen the burden of junglers a little bit. Only time will tell if players will warm up to them, or Riot will have to patch them out like the Chemtech Drake.
League of Legends is available for Mac and PC.
