Patch 11.4 has reached the professional League of Legends scene and the game’s most talented players are shifting their approach to fit the mold of the update. The patch has been live in every competitive region for about a week now and several champions have spiked in popularity after its implementation.
Namely, Skarner and Hecarim have become go-to picks for junglers on a much stronger scale in Patch 11.4. Both champions are seeing massive increases in their pick rate on the professional level.
Over the span of the last week, Skarner’s pick/ban presence has risen to 44 percent worldwide. For reference, the scorpion was only picked in 12 percent of all games on Patch 11.3. Hecarim, on the other hand, has seen his pick/ban rate increase from 22 percent to 68 percent after the new patch, according to League stats site gol.gg. Alongside Udyr and Lillia, he’s quickly become one of the most dominant jungle champions in the game.
Patch 11.4 brought with it major changes to the jungle position, including a decrease in gold and experience rewarded by several monsters. Additionally, the 11.4 jungle changes included an increase in base health to camps such as Gromp and Krugs.
These changes greatly affected the “power-farming” meta that was becoming more and more prevalent in professional play over the last few weeks. Champions such as Olaf and Udyr rose to prominence thanks to their immensely strong ability to clear jungle camps. In Patch 11.3, Udyr and Olaf were two of the three most popular champions in the jungle position with pick/ban rates of 99 and 62 percent, respectively.
Moving forward into the new meta brought about by 11.4, those two champions haven’t gone away, though. Udyr and Olaf have only gotten more prominent in the game’s major regions. Udyr has been picked or banned in all 25 games played on the patch this season, according to gol.gg.
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