League of Legends XXXVIII: Featuring Mumble, The Giant Halibut

[Math_Mage]

I'm pretty sure that prior to the recent resurgence of Lane Olaf, which was followed by Nintendude popularizing Jungle Olaf... everyone built Wriggles, HoG, and then meta golemish. At least, that's what I remember.

When I was poking around Olaf back in the day, well before the jungle change, the build guides were all about Wriggle's, Phage, tanky items. The only difference with the new jungle is they've dropped the Wriggle's.

This isn't entirely true. Certain heroes can build damage and still do well. Jayce, Talon and Riven are rather good examples of at least more damage oriented champions. Irelia, Jax and many other heroes often build a Triforce first, and then build tanky. However, right now, its almost a rule that junglers have to build tanky. The most they can afford in terms of offensive items are things like Wriggles, Phage and MAYBE Wit's End/Hexdrinker. The most popular junglers at World's were heroes like Skarner, Shen, and Moakai almost all of which built full tank (I can't remember if the shen players did full tank or more bruiserish build).

Let's be serious, though. Jayce, Talon, Riven, Irelia, and Jax are never going to be popular in the jungle. They will be even less popular when jungle gets harder because most of them don't sustain very well early.