As many League of Legends players know, Rift Scuttler is an essential part of a jungler’s pathing, especially in the early stages of the game. The upcoming Patch 9.9 will be making some significant changes to the camp, as the crab will be spawning at a later time than usual.
These changes were first tested out on the Public Beta Environment, where the Rift Scuttler’s spawn time changed from two minutes to three minutes and 15 seconds. It changed how junglers went about clearing their camps, as a whole neutral monster was removed from their pathing.
“Right now, there’s a lot of frustration between junglers and laners due to an expectation for the laner to help the jungler secure Rift Scuttler when it first spawns,” Riot Games said. “At two minutes, this tension creates forced, awkward conflict between players who at that point are barely level two, pushing players to pick junglers and laners that are strong at level two and one, respectively.”
With these changes, this forces junglers and laners alike to make better decisions surrounding the Rift Scuttler, like deciding to take the crab before recalling to buy items. Also, this allows players to pick champions with weaker early levels, as junglers will not have to skirmish so early in the game.
This shouldn’t affect the experience that junglers get from Rift Scuttler either, as the crab’s level will match the average level in the game. As a result, it will give players more experience and more gold too. Overall, these changes should make for some pretty interesting and balanced fights for vision in the river.
