Perhaps if you consider the buff kicking in during a 7s chase, and you're suddenly overwhelmed by that slower individual coming back into range for the kill, you might reconsider what "out of combat" type buffs can really accomplish.
That and even Air stacks boost the power of the Elder Dragon DoT buff, so just keep all Elementals out of enemy hands.
DrCyanide6 votesSo, your argument is that you should get it so that you can chase kills better? Because if I'm chasing you for 7 seconds and haven't done any damage to you, I should probably be letting you go anyway.
Bootleg Gay4 votesTo me, most of the dragons are nearly worthless, on their own. It's much better to combine them and get multiple buffs, and even then, it takes at least two.
To me, Water and Air are a great combination as they grant safety, and Fire and Earth combine well to take towers and future objectives.
However, getting just a single buff of one type feels a bit lack luster. If you ever get three of the same one though: HOLY SHIT IS THE POWER REAL
Three Water dragons is absurd when you decide you need to keep fighting, and the three Earth dragons will turn any team into a siege comp. Three Fire is a nearly free Rabadons passive, and three Air makes a mobilty boot enchantment, on top of your actual boots.
So to me, the dragons are nearly worthless on their own, and no matter what, you should always prefer that you get the buffs instead of the enemy team.
Wimbledofy1 votes1 fire buff always feels nice, same with the water one before it was changed ( i haven't really gotten the new water one that much so idk how good it is)
Drunken Yasuo3 votesshoudlnt talk about game balance while in bronze 5 0lp
Primaquarius2 votesBecause rank = intelligence...pls
Drunken Yasuo2 votesrank = game knowledge what youre missing, air dragon is shittier compared to the other dragons
redniwediS3 votesNow that's truly funny! You can hit gold on mechanics alone mate. Just as you can hit gold with only game knowledge.
Rank does not imply game knowledge in the slightest.
CrankyChipmonk1 votesExactly, so if he had game knowledge or mechanics he could hit gold, but he didn't, so there we are.
redniwediS1 votesThat's not at all the point I was making... but I can't really say it's wrong either.
Spreek1 votesNow that's truly funny! You can hit gold on mechanics alone mate. Just as you can hit gold with only game knowledge.
Rank does not imply game knowledge in the slightest.
Bronze 5 0 LP implies no game knowledge because it's literally impossible to be there if you had any.
redniwediS2 votesI think you missed my point here. I'm arguing against someone who thinks low ranked players don't have the right to speak when the topic is game balance.
Rank and game knowledge are not tied together in anything but a correlative way. Yes it's more likely that someone with a very, very low rank doesn't actually understand aspects of the game, but that's not actually what the guy I'm arguing with was saying.
redniwediS3 votesThe game is balanced around every rank. No one gets to demand anything balance wise, but if someone wants to speak their mind they are allowed to. Low ranked players are still people after all.
Still, I'd rather speak with a bronze 5 with 0 LP than an unplaced person who doesn't think low ranked people should be allowed to speak on some subjects.
Drunken Yasuo1 votes2250 elo isnt unranked fam
redniwediS2 votesSorry if I'm actually wrong, but I'm not seeing that.
Still, the rest of my post still stands.
Drunken Yasuo1 voteslook loolking stopped playing ranked when they implemented dynamic queue at 2356 elo (d2 30lp)
SonaTitsAndAss3 votespeople are stupid and they go "HERES THE ORDER OF POWER NEVER DISAGREE" the reason people think wind is so weak is because its a power that comes in useful over the whole game but not as much as the others. For example in laning phase water is the strongest with wind being 2nd and earth and fire being last this is because in lane sustain matter and the wind helps catches people off and gives the jungler an easyier time to pull off ganks and the pure movespeed based junglers (like shyvana yi udyr and voil) who all take this dragon really fast want this the most thats why some people who play those champs use movespeed quints.
When your approaching mid game it be something like earth wind fire and then water. at this point you are doing full out battles to the death so water doesnt matter anymore so it goes to last place. fire is starting to come into effect but you dont have that much ap/ad so its still pretty minor. earth is the most impact because it allows you to take the objects which is what mid game is focused around and wind is the 2nd best because it allows you to make picks and engages to get those objectives.
As we go around to late game the order becomes fire wind earth and water. fire because now everyone is getting their items so it starts showing its power. wind because its allow you to pick someone out and then force a teamfight and win. earth starts becoming less useful because generally late game if you win a fight you won the game. and water becomes useless due to you know having to care about sustain because the fights are either you live or you die.
but people dont want to think about the game they are just like "herp de derp give me tier list for champions, buffs, objectives, dragons if its not in a tier list i dont care"
Jet Sett1 votesNot sure about you, but I've seen teamfights stalled so the teams just poke each other til someone goes in to initiate, making water incredibly effective to prevent your team from getting poked down low enough. Wind seems useless because the utility is much harder to appreciate, you're almost never going to realize that because you weren't hit for a few seconds you sped up and got away, and unless you got at least two wind dragons you'll never even feel much of a difference unless it's an incredibly long chase.
SonaTitsAndAss1 votesif they are poking they are in combat thats why its useless in combat is classed as hitting someone as well as being hit so thats why water dragon is pretty useless the reason wind is good is because people like j4 cant waste their eq just to simply get a bit closer but wind gives him the speed needed to use them effectively.
Jet Sett1 votesAssuming you have more than one wind, and assuming you stay in combat after poking, which is not what poking is. You poke/get poked, stay back and heal while your opponents get withered down. You have to commit to a fight if the enemy has water because they can retreat a short bit and heal up.
Zelnick2 votesI would say an air dragon is only good if you have two or three of them, it's not worth contesting and dying for, more of a luxury.
The Bearded Bard1 votesI don't see how it's weak at all. Perhaps it's because I play mages with high burst, low base movement speed, and low dps, but I think the earth dragon is the worst. An extra 10 damage to towers and epic monsters? What use is that to me with my .8 auto attacks per second?
Sneakyy XD1 votesPerhaps if you consider the buff kicking in during a 7s chase, and you're suddenly overwhelmed by that slower individual coming back into range for the kill, you might reconsider what "out of combat" type buffs can really accomplish.
That and even Air stacks boost the power of the Elder Dragon DoT buff, so just keep all Elementals out of enemy hands.
"This dragon buff is terrible compared to the others and to the investment required to get it" is not the same as "this dragon buff gives literally nothing".
King of Mongoose1 voteswont need to chase with air dragon if you had killed them with extra ap/ad from fire drag
CoolKnightST1 votesAir dragons are fine. The benefit a lot for supports and junglers but tend to lose their pressure in later stage of the game. It's a bit like the opposite of the water dragon that benefit you more in later stages of the game.
Old Man Teeto1 votesThere's the reason why Mobility boots aren't built 99% of the time, it's because they suck in combat.
Cloud Drake sucks in combat. It doesn't even let you avoid combat unless you saw it coming in the first place since it deactivates to everything and you DO actually have to fight things in the game to accomplish things.
YumaS2Astral1 votes[{quoted}](name=Old Man Teeto,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZrLvoE3B,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2016-05-28T20:18:11.347+0000)
There's the reason why Mobility boots aren't built 99% of the time, it's because they suck in combat.
Cloud Drake sucks in combat. It doesn't even let you avoid combat unless you saw it coming in the first place since it deactivates to everything and you DO actually have to fight things in the game to accomplish things.
However, it lets you get out of combat if you want to.
And the reason why mobility boots aren't purchased is because ----> 
<---- this exists
agbudar1 votesi dont get why people complain about extra mobility many items got nerfed because of the "hidden" power it provides.
LazyW0lf1 votesThe reason people think Air dragon is useless is because it fills a niche that the others don't. You always attack enemy champions, so Fire dragon is always useful. You almost always attack structures and epic monsters, so Earth dragon is almost always useful. You're always out of combat at some point, so Water dragon is always useful. You are rarely being chased for a long period of time to activate the out of combat movement speed, so Air dragon is rarely useful. Simple as that.
Sire Hippington1 votesthe biggest issue of air dragon is that out of combat ms is very weak unless it comes in bigger numbers. A single air drake means nothing, exept for the aditional truedamage if you get the elder dragon. 15 ms just doesn't make enough of a difference if it requires 5 sec out of combat. it will hardly help at escapeing or chaseing, and it's not enough to out rotate anyone. Now if you have all 3 air drakes, it looks different. 45 ms is enough to make the difference in thos scenarios, and if you get elder for the full 67.5, you have massive advantage on a coordinated team, as you will move around the map ~20% faster than your opponents, allowing for good rotations, flanks, picks and so on.