It's no secret that Riot's placement of plants means that they wanted plant interactions to shake up struggles over objectives, during each of the possible phases: vision, engagement, and disengagement. Due to the existence of plants, setting up for an objective requires a few more decisions, but also allows for a few more options. We'll be looking at each plant, where they show up, and how they can affect big moments in the game.

The Plants

Blast Cones: Knocks away all nearby units when attacked. Shows an indicator that shows projected landing spot when hovered over.

These can be used for a number of purposes, including creating a little space between you and a pursuer, knocking an unsuspecting foe into your team, and getting over walls while either saving a dash or not having one in the first place.

Scryer's Bloom: Releases a cone of vision in the direction opposite of where it was attacked from. Reveals champions for 3 seconds and other units and wards for 12 seconds.

The Scryer's Bloom's effect travels a small distance into the enemy jungle. It can be used to scout enemies near the outer jungle camps, find champions attempting to set up for an objective, and clear out any wards the Bloom has affected.

Honeyfruit: Drops five Honeyfruit onto the ground, ripe for consumption. Each Honeyfruit heals for the larger value between 3.5% maximum health or 8 + 6 per level flat health. Eating a Honeyfruit also slows the consumer by 35% for 0.25 seconds. They can spawn along all river walls.

Good for a quick heal and a shot of mana, but they can be dangerous pickings as they can both slow you and cut off escape paths if not all Honeyfruits have been consumed.

All Plants have set spawn locations and restricted numbers per area. Two Blast Cones and one Scryer's Bloom can exist in each quadrant of the jungle at any given time. Two Honeyfruit can coexist in either half of the river at any given time. Respawn times vary slightly by plant type and location, but have a minimum length of 5 minutes and maximum of 7 minutes.

How to Deal with the Plants

When you're looking to set up for a Dragon or Baron play, you need to take all the usual precautions. Use your sweeper trinket to clear enemy wards, place your own wards in expected enemy approach spots, and blanket high priority areas with Control Wards. With the arrival of plants, new considerations have to made. A number of plans are available, but all have their limitations.

On the above map, the red dots signify Blast Cone spawn points, blue dots represent Scryer's Bloom spawn points, and Honeyfruit can spawn on any river wall near an objective pit.



Use All the Plants

If you think your opponent can make better use of the plants, you may want to just use them all and secure Dragon or Baron the old-fashioned way. Champions like Kennen or Amumu, big teamfighters, can make great use of Blast Cones to cover ground they normally couldn't. Denying your opponent Scryer's Blooms is a good idea almost regardless of situation, unless you know they haven't begun approaching yet and want to save it. Removing Honeyfruit removes the opportunity for either team to create zones of control or heal up mid-fight before a chase or reengage.

Scryer's Bloom Vision Swings

One of my favorite features of the Scryer's Blooms as a support player is the ability to reveal wards. This lowers the reliance on the sweeper trinket and lends some lenience to both sweeper usage and Control Ward placement. However, it is very important to remember that this is the one ward revealing method that doesn't disable the wards revealed. The enemy team will have full vision of you while you're clearing out their wards, much like the old Vision/Pink Wards.

Honeyfruit Zone Control

Honeyfruit are great for healing, but can be used as a way to dictate your opponent's movements as well. A 35% slow for 0.25 seconds may not sound like a lot, but many Honeyfruit spawns will be near wall corners and thus be directly in the way of desired approach or escape paths.

If you do choose to leave the Honeyfruit alone, you should have a clear idea of what your escape path will be should you need to retreat. Avoid pathing near them when you don't feel completely safe, as you can easily get caught between an enemy and a minefield of slowing fruit.

Attempt a Blast Cone Pick

The "Gank" Blast Cones on the edge of the enemy jungle can be used to launch an enemy champion into the objective pit or river depending on which team you're on and which objective is being contested.

As an example, let's say you're on blue team and are looking to take Dragon. The enemy team has a Kennen who is looking to use the river ledge Blast Cone (furthest to the right on the map) to hop the wall and engage on your team while you're doing Dragon (as the enemy knows you'll be there.) If you've cleared enemy vision in the river and Kennen gets a bit too greedy and walks over the blast cone while trying to ward, someone on your team can either dash over, hit the Blast Cone, and bring the Kennen with him to his death, or just hit the Blast Cone from the river with sufficient range. Like most pick plays, your success will be dictated by superior vision. Launching a Kennen into your team without full knowledge of the enemy team's location can be suicide. Similar plays can be executed using either river ledge Blast Cones or the Blast Cones behind the Dragon or Baron pits.

Blast in for the Steal

This is the dream play everyone wants to pull off as a jungler. With the addition of the Blast Cones behind the pit, a Baron or Dragon steal can happen with one less dash/Flash than before. That is assuming that the team taking the objective doesn't clear it or is attempting to take the objective during the 60 second growth period where a plant can be seen, but not yet interacted with. You can't always hold off on an objective play based on something as minor as a plant spawn time, but this also leaves openings for a miraculous steal.

The addition of plants probably won't change your warding habits much, but vision removal and potential play possibilities are both expanded with the addition of Blast Cones, Scryer's Blooms, and Honeyfruit.

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