I know its not popular, and I have only tested it in Turbo, but with the new auras (7hp regen in dire top jungle, 1.5 mana regen Radiant bottom jungle) I noticed that with Naga at least, you can 0 minute jungle. If you are on opposite sides, your mid t2 tower is in range of both the camp and the aura regen (5 regen, + armor).
In my games, immediately going to the camps to start jungling with quelling blade and tangos, building wraith bands at pace, I was able to achieve 1.25-1.75x farm of the pos 5/4 in gold, keeping a level pace up to 14 mins with those positions.
After 14 minutes, I started overtaking the top positions (mid, 3). The pos5 or pos4 always very confused, but getting solo xp and decent farm if they know how.
I do not expect this to work in Ranked, however it seems viable that there is a return of this role due to the auras and massive size of the map. In Naga's case, I can easily convert her farm into map pressure and eventually end-game power.
I'd like to know what your thoughts are, which heroes would be viable for this strategy. A few requirements I've noticed:
- Must be able to push a majority of the map around 14 mins – this means primarily illusion/summoners that can avoid being seen from the map and have escape.
- Must be able to jungle with only mana/hp regen and without any supporting abilities. If 1.5 mana was enough for Leshrac I'd try him, but that seems like a pipe dream.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/17n5lqd/the_return_of_the_jungler/