Dragon: is it worth?
After tinkering with the new SR a bit, my biggest question is... is it worth it to slay the dragon?
Note: I use the words "your" and "your team" interchangeably when talking about the dragon buffs. Remember that the buffs are global, so they apply to your whole team even if I use the word "your". I'll specific if something applies to just one player on the team.
- My first thought was yes, because you can get significant buffs. On the other hand, slaying the dragon no longer puts you ahead, but rather gives you kill potential. The old dragon put your team in the gold lead and helped you progress to victory directly. The new dragon doesn't do that. It's a larger investment to kill for a smaller initial reward, but a greater reward for successive dragon kills.
Getting to the point: The old dragon gave you gold, the new dragon gives you the potential to get gold
- One of the reasons gold is almost synonymous with "who's winning" is that more gold allows you to buy better items, which give you better stats. Gold = Items = Stats. Maximizing gold allows you to maximize your stats, as long as you go back to the shop to cash out. The old dragon was a means of gold, which eventually became AP, AD, MS, LS, Etc.
The new dragon cuts out the middleman and gives you stats directly. One benefit of the new dragon is that you become stronger directly after slaying it, and there is no need to go back to base and buy items first. If you can sustain through the dragon while slaying it, you have more stats to fight with or take further objectives.
Getting to the point: If you can sustain through the dragon, you now have more immediate snowballing power
- The stats you get from slaying the dragon scale, no pun intended. This means that a single dragon gives you a ton of extra late game power. In comparison to the old dragon, the first buff gives you more stats than you could get before, but you are unable to chose which stats it gives you. The old dragon gave 180-270 gold, which is theoretically worth 5-7.5 AD and 8.3-12.4 AP. Let's say you have 80 AP, which is probably around your first or second back. The new dragon gives you 6.4 AP, which is less than the gold value of the AP the old dragon would have given you. Same goes for AD and for both stats combined. If you have 200 AP you get an additional 16 from dragon, which is a lot more than you would have gotten before. Same goes for AD and for both stats combined.
Getting to the point: The new first dragon buff outscales the old one at around 170 AP and 100 AD
- The buffs get pretty significant as you slay more and more dragons. The buffs also seem to benefit certain phases of the game. For example, it makes sense that the first buff gives you scaling stat bonuses, because in the early game you're still trying to build up your champion's stats. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th buffs focus on waveclear, rotations, and objective control, which are much more important in the later stages of the game. The 5th, 6th, and nth bonuses you get are more or less "end the game" buffs because of the huge power spikes you get.
Getting to the point: The new dragon buffs address concerns to different phases of the game
These are just some of the big differences. Early dragons won't pay off until you're team is able to level up and buy enough items to get some damage. For certain tanks and support champions, the %AP/%AD increase won't benefit you directly, but will benefit your damage dealers. This impacts solo queue, because tank and support-based junglers now receive fewer benefits from the dragon, or at least from the first buff.
With all that being said, is the new dragon worth?
I understand this is a lot of text. Skim through the bolded parts at your leisure. Let me know if you agree, disagree, or are confused.
