PSA: if your team is ahead, do not get a 4th dragon.
The elder buff has shown to turn games around, even from huge deficits. You can lock away that chance if you never allow elder to spawn by not killing a 4th dragon.
11 Comments
But you are also missing out on a dragon soul and preventing your own team from getting elder. Which is 2 giant buffs you are avoiding.
The whole new dragon system is kind of poorly thought out.
Or learn how to control objectives when being ahead. Not taking the dragon soul is a terrible idea.
I had a game where enemy team was ahead whole game and even took 2 elders and 4 barons and we still won... Yes elder is strong but its very possible to outplay it
This is best if you can trade a baron buff for it. If you have 3 dragons and they have 0 or 1 you can let them get what they think will be your "4th" and instead trade baron for it and end the game. If that doesnt end the game you can still pick up 4th dragon on next spawn and end with the soul if you are close to game end, but ya you should be trying to end the game before elder spawns if you have the majority of dragons. Honestly I have yet to see elder dragon. Game is always over before then. It all depends on how ahead you are. If you are way ahead it shouldnt matter, if you are only a little ahead Baron>4th dragon if the enemy team is not risking 4th dragon.
Yes you are risking allowing the enemy team to take elder, but if you have the dragon soul, you can use that advantage to put pressure on elder. If your team is ahead with dragons then they should already be putting decent pressure on objectives (support is warding well and jg isn't missing smites). Unless the enemy jungler makes a super clutch play, then im most situations getting the 4th dragon is better. It also locks the enemy out from getting any more dragons which can prevent them from snowballing into a victory.
played a normal game with friends where we were wayyy ahead of the enemy team and it was pretty obvious we would win. we were curious about elder drake (cause neither of us had the chance to see it's buff in game) so we just messed around until it spawned. and then the enemy jg had a lucky moment where they stole the elder dragon and we lost the game within the next two minutes, a game in which, up until the enemy stole the elder dragon, we were winning. that execute is ridiculously insane and can very easily turn the game around. I learned my lesson: just don't let that damn thing spawn. It was just a normal so none of us were tilted, it was still a fun game. But god damn that elder drag buff HURTS.
It's funny, I haven't seen an Elder since these jungle changes. No game I've played so far has lasted so long.