Pro LoL junglers are dominating with new Radiant Virtue builds

LoL players have struggled to find Radiant Virtue’s place in the Season 13 meta since it was added a few months ago, but some pro junglers in China have discovered that it makes tank junglers incredibly strong.

Jak’Sho and Heartsteel both made waves upon being added to League of Legends. While Heartsteel is more of a meme-y late game scaling item than something that’s actually good, Jak’Sho has already seen a series of balance changes and was meta-defining during the pre-season.

But there was one more tank Mythic added with Season 13, one that you rarely see in the average League game: Radiant Virtue.

It’s too expensive for support champions to build and gives less protections than Jak’Sho, while Heartsteel gives much more raw HP and scales infinitely. However, pro junglers are figuring out that Radiant Virtue’s passive gives enough benefits to teammates to make it much stronger than Jak’Sho in teamfights.

Having a Zac or Skarner on your side with Radiant Virtue in a teamfight will make your team near-unstoppable.

Radiant Virtue finally has a place in the LoL Season 13 meta

Radiant Virtue has been slept on for months, with players at all levels struggling to find a place for it on any champion. It’s 3000 gold price tag makes it a steep investment, and the fact that its power level is tied to your ultimate makes it so that buying the item as a normal laner leads to getting consistently outtraded.

Not to mention, any champion with mana problems won’t be done any favors by Radiant Virtue. So what makes it so strong, and why are pro junglers buying it?

First off, the 10% max health bonus scales really well into the later stages of the game. Getting an extra 400 HP is worth around 1000 gold in and of itself, but the extra ability haste for your teammates and bonus healing makes this one of the most gold efficient items in League of Legends. And that doesn’t even include the stats that come with the item itself.

The fact that junglers spend much of the game clearing camps and tend not to take 1v1s means that they can take advantage of Radiant Virtue’s massive upsides without falling victim to its biggest downside.

Junglers like Skarner are incredibly strong when paired with an item like this. With LGD already having a lead in this clip, Zeng ‘Meteor’ Guo-Hao ulting a target and starting the fight was paired with some massive buffs for his entire team. Not only is Radiant Virtue strong when getting engaged upon, but it can help you snowball fights that are already going in your favor.

Zac has been particularly strong with this item considering how well he scales with HP, and builds involving Radiant Virtue have taken Zac’s winrate near the top of the table in both top lane and jungle, something highlighted in our best junglers guide.

That said, this item isn’t too popular yet. Many players haven’t learned just how strong it is, and it’s not slated for nerfs just yet. It’s been noted by the balance team that it may need nerfs soon, so take advantage of it while you can.