I think Drag buffs should go in this order

Pollyanna Wright·Dec 11, 2014·4 votes·542 views

Waveclear
Towers
Damage
Movespeed

Why?

Making damage 3rd gives incentives for multiple dragons but doesn't give a clear team fight advantage early on. The other team still has a chance to pull the fight around before this point. Having damage first is a pure stat boost that makes fighting alot harder for a team behind.
Having waveclear first gives a team that can sneak a dragon a way to stall out a game. While the other team's first dragon will help them keep pushing in waves, until they get the second dragon their ability to take towers won't be as strong.

Just my 2 cents. Another change I thought about was making the buff only immediately apply to people who help kill Dragon, and other people have to back before they receive it.

5 Comments

asdbnmrtyDec 11, 20147 votes

I think the buffs are fine as is. Your proposed order is way to snowbally, as the ability to wave clear and take towers faster is actually strongest in early game, effectively destroying lane phase.

Looking at each benefit in itself:

Increased Minion/Monster Damage: This is the strongest of the 4, allowing the team to clear significantly faster. Because of this, teams spend less time responding and pushing back waves and more time setting up for fights on objectives (warding, positioning, ganking, ect). This gives teams much stronger initiative as they will be several seconds ahead in anything they are doing. This benefit is advantageous throughout all stages of the game.

Increased Tower/buildings Damage: This ability is strongest earlier in the game, but loses effectiveness throughout the game (as there will be less towers to deal damage to). It is also a situation advantage, as it only applies to buildings.

Increased Damage: An important thing to note with this is that it is a percent increase of damage. This means it is actually weakest early game (when you'll have the least AD/AP), but gets stronger as the team levels and itemizes. Benefit is consistent in all aspects, and compounds with other benefits.

Increased movespeed: The ability to position faster and to make things happen that might not have normally happened (being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference, getting there faster only helps). Likewise, the ability to avoid things that otherwise may have happened. Consistent throughout the game.

In Riot's current order, this all makes sense: -Increased damage: Weakest early, scales with game -Increased Tower/buidling damage: Strongest early, does not scale as well later. -Increased movespeed: Consistent advantage -Increased minion/monster damage: Consistent advantage -Double everything, true damage: You already won game, or man you really need this to make a comeback.

Kuroi86Dec 11, 20143 votes

^^^ This guy gets it!

LeafieDec 11, 20142 votes

Damage should DEFINITELY not be first. I agree with you there.

The rest I don't care much about because I feel like all of them are different types of utility (Wave clear, tower pushing, move-speed). But damage should not be the first one. Not at all.

Kuroi86Dec 11, 20141 votes

I will never understand why people think 6% AD/AP is OMGOP. Geez people, if it's that big of a problem I'd hate to see your ideals on nerfing BF sword.

NorthernDruidDec 11, 20141 votes

The thing about the +AD/AP buff being the first one is that it's not very impactful early on (where it's 6-12 AD or AP at most,) but makes quite a bit of a difference later on (when your glass cannon mage build is starting to clock in at 700AP already) It's even less powerful early on now with 6% instead of 8%

The thing is, if you lose the first dragon, and the second, and the third, but when the game is entering the late game you manage to get your first, there's basically two buffs which significantly affect the entire team. the AD/AP buff, and the movespeed buff.

both the tower/building damage buff and the minions/monsters damage buff are of no use to at least one player on the team. the support. In addition, the tower buff is of minimal use to AP casters who don't do that much damage to structures to begin with.

As someone else already pointed out, movespeed is consistently good, whereas the AD/AP buff is more useful later on.

As such, it's arranged the way it is, with the seemingly OP bonus increase of your most important stats first, because it makes it easier to make a comeback by taking dragon. Or in other words, it means it takes shorter time to catch up in benefits from dragons.