Thoughts on Elemental Dragons

ZXPrototype·7/26/2017, 5:02:45 AM·2 votes·360 views

Elemental drakes have been out for a while now, and I'd like to discuss where they are balance wise at the moment.

A while ago Riot talked about how one of the pillars of LoL design space was making each individual game unique from another. I personally felt the fact there are 10 players each with his or her own specific champion pool creates enough variability, but the fact that some champs have a numeric edge or are simply more popular ("one tricks") means that having an RNG dragon on the rift adds a lot of interesting dynamics game to game. I really do love what it has done to LoL having played prior incarnations of the dragon, so here's what I think could be improved about each type:

**Cloud:**I think the movespeed buff is reasonable, however I find the dragon itself dies way too quickly to ever have an epic 5v5 teamfight around the pit to contest it. Perhaps making the dragon fly high into the sky/become invulnerable at 50% HP if later on in the game will allow for more possible conflict. Ocean: Statistically this drake is definitely very powerful but depending on the time of game (if you already have mana items as an AP mage) and what you are playing you may never even notice its effect. Squishy Supports in particular often get focused 100% to 0 when caught out so don't benefit from health regeneration and have a ton of MP/5 from items. Instead of a flat buff perhaps a special proc once the resource bar/ all spells are on cooldown will feel more meaningful. Mountain: Of all the drakes, this one has no immediate impact from slaying it and requires a little bit of patience to pay off. Maybe a one time buff once slain that gives a one time bonus damage on auto attack against turrets will feel more impactful. Infernal: This drake completely warps gameplay. Everyone bum rushes the pit when it spawns because these cause the most direct snowballing. On top of that, it is extremely backbreaking to try and win a game against a team that by chance fell upon multiple infernals as there is 0 counterplay once they have the damage buff. Maybe only make the bonus damage live under certain conditions to make counterplay more accessible? Who knows. It feels too significant as is.

1 Comments

RavensCapsOs7/26/2017, 5:33:11 AM1 votes

Honestly, of all the changes they have made to the game since I started in 2013, what they have done with Dragons and now Rift Herald sticks out to me as their best and most successful.