New Dragon needs new deliberations
Riot·1/20/2015, 8:12:53 PM·0 votes·6,534 views
Traditionally, the most valuable part of a dragon's hoard isn't the gold coins littering its expansive cavern floor, but the treasures and artifacts buried amid the precious metals. Which is a good thing indeed for League of Legends teams, as gold was outright removed from Dragon in recent patches! But much like the differences between coins and treasure, the buffs that replace the gold bounty require careful appraising to find its true value. To the consternation of supports and junglers, you can't just take the bounty and invest in wards or items anymore, and leveraging each Dragon Slayer stack to its maximum benefit requires understanding how each fits with your overall team strategy.
Conversely, it's less useful to a siege-based composition -- though not entirely purposeless. True, movement speed helps them avoid engagements they cannot win (and because Janna is arguably a linchpin to their strategies, it stacks nicely with her own movement bonuses). But avoiding a fight isn't the same thing as winning advantages, and if a team spends their entire time running away from assassins and hard initiators, they won't get to leverage Dragon's Wrath to their advantage. In contrast to the prior Dragon Slayer buff, the siege team then wants to divert effort towards preventing a pick composition from getting to stack number three.
DRAGON'S MIGHT
The first Dragon Slayer stack, titled Dragon's Might, is universally useful, given that the 6% bonus it gives to each player's Ability Power and Attack Damage remains relevant late into the game. But its greatest impact is early on, prior to any other in-game development. In a straight-up fight between equal numbers, it'll be as if the buffed team has an extra Longsword or Amplifying Tome in each of their pockets, with the extra damage tipping the scales in their favor. No matter what the composition you're running or what champion you're playing, those stats will help achieve your team's aims.DRAGON'S WRATH
A siege composition, such as ones running Jayce, Azir, and other long-range champions, is going to love the 15% extra damage to towers and buildings from the second Dragon Slayer stack, Dragon's Wrath. It speeds up their composition's strategy, allowing them to conduct hit-and-run operations on enemy defenses with greater efficiency. They'll be less vulnerable to a flanking initiation from Jarvan, Maokai, or Thresh. While Dragon's Wrath is a must-have for siege compositions, it's not as useful for pick comps that use the aforementioned initiators. As their strategies are more dependent on winning fights than taking turrets (only taking turrets after they've secured a numerical advantage), the impact of extra turret damage is less important than padding their combat stats. Such a team composition, if fighting from behind, is going to be disappointed with the results of taking a second Dragon, as the only effective increase to their capabilities is a comparatively minor experience bonus. In such an instance, it would be better to give up Dragon to the other team, perhaps leaving one or two people to safely harass them from range, while the rest of the team either clears out lanes or pushes a turret.DRAGON'S FLIGHT
Where Dragon's Wrath is a poor fit for a team composition dedicated to brawling, Dragon's Flight is arguably a must-have. The 5% movement speed bonus pays dividends into their team strategy: they get to river-side choke points and blind spots faster than the other team, and their initiators can get into position more reliably, mitigating the effectiveness of kiting them.
Conversely, it's less useful to a siege-based composition -- though not entirely purposeless. True, movement speed helps them avoid engagements they cannot win (and because Janna is arguably a linchpin to their strategies, it stacks nicely with her own movement bonuses). But avoiding a fight isn't the same thing as winning advantages, and if a team spends their entire time running away from assassins and hard initiators, they won't get to leverage Dragon's Wrath to their advantage. In contrast to the prior Dragon Slayer buff, the siege team then wants to divert effort towards preventing a pick composition from getting to stack number three.
