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New Dragon Vs. Old Dragon

Killer X 12·11/23/2014, 6:22:46 AM·6 votes·6,751 views

So, the very old dragon was pretty lame. It was only a big deal early, and even then people in low elo almsot completely ignored it.

Old dragon, scaled with the game so it could give more gold as the game went on. This made the objective important to control throughout the game, but also alowed teams who had lost the early game to stick in for the long run.

New Dragon. Fight for it, always. Get 5 dragons, win game. Lose first dragon? Its okay. As long as you can still win your lanes you can get the next one...wait...that doesn't sound right.

Idk, i like the new dragon, it makes it important and something we ca npay attention to, but the whole "5 dragons = auto win" thing and the amazing ability to snowball the game off of just dragons...i'm not digging it too much anymore.

Anyway, just wanted to voice that i like the dragon, but i think that it was a strange choice to go from making dragon an objective that let you stay in the game to an objective that completely snowballs your team. An early first dragon is no where near the end of the world, but if things were even or so then things start looking shitty. Say you miss that timer, shit better pay attention for the next one. You can guess around when it is, but of course they're setting up 2 minutes early (which is what i do when i've gotten the first dragon), you can take that dragon from them, but if you dont'. Then it starts going down hill. 1st buff makes champs strong, so harder to beat them in a 5v5. 2nd buff makes minion sstronger so its harder to control the lanes and predict where the'll push out too. 3rd buff makes the other already stronger champs, faster... and so on. Snowbally.

Like it? Dislike it? Like the idea but prefer it didn't snowball so much? Thoughts?

10 Comments

Cerbearus11/23/2014, 6:28:57 AM2 votes

Have fun even trying to get 5 dragons. The threat of 5 dragons has a much bigger effect than just having 5 dragons ever will. Baron buff is much stronger and much easier (and quicker) to get. Now I want to see a game drag out so long that a team gets baron buff and 5 dragons. Dear lord that sounds like it would hurt.

Hullabaloo90711/23/2014, 3:20:30 PM1 votes

I think these changes are bad for solo q. People will need to start grouping earlier and rotating better, since dragon is much more important than it was. Teams will have an easier time doing this, but with solo q the jungler, mid, support and adc all need to coordinate to grab that early dragon.

I think the other thing is that champs that can solo dragon early are much more important now, because if you can sneak one it is big.

Jungle Lux God11/23/2014, 6:29:36 PM1 votes

I like the idea of the Dragon buffs, but I don't like the execution of it in terms of the first two buffs. The first buffs giving damage bonuses makes it possible to only snowball off of the first Dragon with the extra damage you get, while the second buff is, in my opinion, a buff that is only there to give a predecessor before getting the third.

I think the first two buffs should be switched so that the first dragon is less snowbally and the second dragon has more impact.

Legostrike11/23/2014, 6:34:15 PM1 votes

I frankly love it. It's turned my games from "meh, we lose" when the score is 0-5 to "We're behind but this dragon steal keeps us in! Booya!" Gosh darn it I just love that the game went from a snowball to an absolute fight for every inch of the Rift. The Drag steals I've seen have been amazing so far.

LaughingStapler11/23/2014, 7:26:32 PM1 votes

The game has been made much more snowbally than ever before and late game champs suffer as a result. Teams with a lead have all manner of new tools and buffs to help them push for the win but defender's have not received comparable tools.

The team who gets the first Dragon wins much more than ever before due to the large permanent buff and that makes trading for other objectives risky. As such, team comps built to win early dragon skirmishes will dominate and strategic options are severely limited. These changes seem counter to Riot's stated goals. I've elaborated here.

KnKitsune1/12/2015, 8:45:54 AM1 votes

Find new Drag to be too easy to kill... Doesn't feel any different.