Logical Improvement to Cloud Drake ("The Ugly Drakeling") - good balancing effect

Besrell Ker··3 votes·787 views

There has been a lot of discussion about Cloud drake specifically over the last few weeks of LCS play. It is widely acknowledged as the "ugly duckling" of the drakes, to use the best term the casters and players have called it. The movement speed is certainly undervalued by players in a professional world of lane swaps, 1-3-1, 4-1, and other types of play that increased rotation benefits.

With that being said, here is a simple suggestion that would increase its value, slightly, but at the same time make it feel so much better to players.

*Healing Rain - decreases burn effects experienced by players and teams objectives by 30-40-50%. (Applies to Elder Drake, Brand passive, Liandry's, Red Buff, and so forth.)

Note that this would not remove the movement speed buff it already applies, just add to it.

Reasons for contention-

  1. It's thematic! Yay, who doesn't like appropriate theme content, they named it the Cloud Drake after all and not the Wind Drake for a reason. Movement speed works with the wind in the clouds, but there feels like there is a missing element to its name.
  2. There are no current defensive drake buffs. It seems to be a good balance to the Earth Drake and Infernal Drake. Ocean Drake provides sustain, but not during combat.
  3. Burn has really increased in prevalence throughout the game and effectiveness. There are not many effective ways to prevent burn and this would certainly give the Cloud Drake contestable late game value, giving your team the ability to withstand an Elder Drake siege or team fight.
  4. Cloud Drake obviously needs some sort of small tweak or adjustment to make it competitive. Unless of course the idea is that one of the Drakes has less impact. The statistics show right now that there is not much of a gap on the Win-Loss record of the different drakes. However, I would say that those are somewhat skewed given the effectiveness of the other three drakes in comparison early. Cloud Drake certainly fits the role of consolation prize versus something that is contested.

9 Comments

DarioSiehtFeinde1 votes

Sounds like a great idea.

I'm not sure if a anti-burn dragon would make sense, but a defensive dragon would be awesome! [slayer-jinx-wink]

Besrell Ker1 votes

Thanks :D. I think the main idea I was going for with the anti-burn was to supplement the speed boost in a small discernible way that was still balanced. On the note of defensive Drake like % MR or armor would be fun too.

DarioSiehtFeinde1 votes

Wow, this was 5 months ago? I usually use the EUW boards but I just realized that EUW doesn't notify me about NA Forum messages.

Sorry about the 5 months delay xD

ModThe Djinn1 votes

I think this would make it an even LESS desirable Drake, sadly, as there are some teams where the only burn prevention would be Red Buff. I'm not too excited about a Drake buff that ONLY helps against Red Buff.

Besrell Ker1 votes

I think that it would be an important tool for dealing with the Elder Drake's burn effect. Help push you to decide as a team between Baron and Elder Drake in terms of the two objectives. There are plenty of dot (burn) effects that are in the game besides red buff and dragon it would just depend which it applied to and which it did not.

ModThe Djinn1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Besrell Ker,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=JXYwAF8E,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-06-19T07:35:10.879+0000)

I think that it would be an important tool for dealing with the Elder Drake's burn effect. Help push you to decide as a team between Baron and Elder Drake in terms of the two objectives. There are plenty of dot (burn) effects that are in the game besides red buff and dragon it would just depend which it applied to and which it did not.

The thing is that Dragon is specifically designed to be useful to ALL teams, and all characters tera on them. Sometimes in greater or lesser quantities, but still.

It is entirely possible for an entire game to go on where elder Dragons are taken, and the only burn damage is Red Buff. If three Anti-Burn dragons spawn, that buff is useless.

Besrell Ker1 votes

The point would be to supplement the movement speed of the current buff, not to re-write it to this. So the mvmt speed would still effect game play significantly. I would think once again it would depend on what it is used for. Red buff is an important tool not only for champion ganking and engaging, but also taking turrets. So there would be value regardless of the Elder Dragon. Also, I think it would depend on what got classified as a "burn" versus "dot". Plenty of damage over time effects could be included like Twitch's poison, darius' bleeds, and so forth.

Automatis1 votes

bad

Besrell Ker1 votes

Thank you for your well thought out and described criticism.

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