[LoL] Dragon Thoughts/Theory - Patch 4.21

I wanted to take a small break from making videos from Worlds, and since I haven't been keeping too up on the pre-season (just playing a few matches), I thought I'd take a look at the new dragon, especially with the change from 4.20 to 4.21 as well as the loss of global gold/exp from season 4. Mostly I'll will be talking about the first buff, especially in relation to lane swaps and turret trading for dragon.

First I want to take a look at the timing of the new dragon buffs, mostly fastest potential speeds.

Dragon Buff Timers

Assuming you move in to take Dragon ASAP and assume respawn + 30s to kill/setup for each time, then you could end up with these timings for Dragon's buffs.

3:00 – 6% AD/AP

9:30 – 15% Building Damage

16:30 – 5% MS

22:30 – 15% Monster/Minion Damage

29:00 – Final Buff, Doubles previous, 150 damage true damage burn over 3s

These are some very generous timings, considering that teams will have to be dealing with contention over Dragon, but these are some good timings to talk about some upper potential of dragon.

Buff #1

Some quick gold values for the 6% AD/AP, using Long Sword and Amplifying Tome for the value of the buff as they are closer to the gain the opposite team would get by taking a turret, as opposed to the higher stat gain per gold value of Needlessly Large Rod and B. F. Sword.

The buff is worth -

21.60g per 10 AD

13.05g per 10 AP

This gives an early dragon take some decent gold values, though not quite as valuable as the season 4 dragon, though the results are immediate (which makes a huge difference). Making a rough estimation, it would not be until the 80-100 AD mark, or the 130-160 AP mark where the gold value of the 6% damage buff will be equivalent to the gold of the first dragon take (depending on what level the dragon is at the first take). However, even though it takes longer to reach that equivalent gold value, very early takes of the new dragon are MORE valuable than the old dragon because of the immediate results. Teams will receive the buff in lane, before their first buy, and though the gold from the previous incarnation of dragon would mean that first buy is delayed, when the first buy happens (particularly on AD focused champions) champions will be getting more gold value out of the dragon buff than the previous season 4 dragon. This effect is a bit muted for tank focused champions though, so teams need to take this into consideration as well.

Overall though, the new dragon buff #1 is going to be of higher value compared to the old dragon alone. The really interesting interaction comes when you consider how this new dragon compares to trading for an early turret.

Values of AD/AP needed to compare to an outer turret global/local gold -

127 AD = 275g (global + local)

58 AD = 125g (local)

210 AP = 275g

96 AP = 125g

For the global gold, values are going to be very similar, particularly in terms of AD, every champion in the game will be getting more value out of the 6% buff than they would be getting out of the turret gold. This becomes a slightly better trade in terms of AP values, however AP champions will also be benefiting from the AD buff (though in very small numbers). So purely in terms of global gold, an early dragon trade is going to be in favor of the dragon. It must be said though, these are small numbers we will be working with in terms of extra AD/AP and gold values.

The real interesting interaction comes when you compare the early dragon to the values of local gold. It takes a lot more AD/AP to compensate for the extra gold that one person can gain from the turret. Just like in season 4, this means that trading a turret for dragon creates a power focus against a power spread. Two things can also increase this power focus, where as nothing will increase the value of dragon in trade.

1 – The team taking the turret trade also gets a kill in the tower dive/take. This would create a much more power focus and give a lot of advantage to the champion(s) that were able to pick up the kill/assist. What this means for the team that decides to take dragon, is that they must also be willing to sacrifice the turret in a trade, and not take the risk of defending it, as it could hugely backfire.

2 - If the champion getting the local gold from the turret is a tank focused champion. Since they will be netting the least value from dragon, they gain more power from the focused gold than they would get from having the dragon buff themselves.

What we see from this is that while dragon has a pretty flat value of gain for a team, trading for a turret can end up with an even larger spike in power for that team, if they are able to get a kill, and/or they are running a tank champion that gets that local gold. These two things, particularly the kill, are a bit of an ideal scenario though, and the champion kill should not be happening if the team taking dragon is playing properly. If it does happen however, then the trade is going to be very high in favor of the kill/turret for dragon.

As with the previous incarnation of dragon, a pure 1 turret for 1 dragon trade ends up with the power focused onto the champion who gets the local turret gold, while slightly greater power is going onto the entire team who kills dragon. This generally ends up as a slight advantage for the team that creates the focus early, because now they have a lane that will have a clear advantage and can focus ganks and pressure onto it, keeping the opposing champion(s) in a weaker position, hopefully causing them to lose gold/exp from CS, creating a greater power divide in that lane. On the opposing hand, the 6% buff across the dragon taking team is going to be small early on, and unlikely to cause a lead in any lane. This is where taking the turret, in terms of gold value, is going to end up being the better trade in most situations

Of course, there is a lot more to the turret vs. dragon trade. Most of it is the same as season 4 dragon. You're gaining map pressure by taking the turret, giving yourself a few more options of movement around the map, as well as better vision control in that area. In lane swaps it also means that from then on you can force the 2v2 in bottom lane (as more often than not its a trade on top turret) or allow the opposing team to move their duo to the top lane, making them vulnerable to ganks and giving your team pressure for the second dragon. Outside of the map pressure, with the power focus in one lane, you can bully that lane until the second dragon, increasing the power difference. This means that when the second dragon spawns, the team who has taken the turret trade is likely to have a solid power spike to take control of that second dragon. (We can see this happening a lot when teams are running Rumble top, getting him ahead and using his mid-game power spike to take the second dragon).

On the side of the team who takes dragon, we do see some more interesting results than from last season. The team still has the potential gold of the extra turret that is up, like before, but now they have a scaling buff that will eventually be way more valuable than the turret, in terms of gold, as well as having grabbed that first dragon buff and are looking to getting the rest of the buffs at a quicker pace. Let's take a look at what this ends up meaning for a few team compositions.

As Mid-Game focused -

An early dragon will allow you to reach that final buff a lot quicker, syncing up with the strong power you are looking for around that 30 to 35 minute mark. This gives the early dragon a lot of value for these teams. The flip side is they will be losing a little bit of mid-game power around the second dragon, especially if your mid-game power focus is in your top lane, though if you are running the mid-game spike on your boat lane, IE. Corki, then you will not be suffering nearly as much from the trade, and the early dragon will be huge for you.

As Siege focused -

You're really going to be getting the biggest benefit from the second buff, so this trade becomes of situation of when you want to start your team siege, and how well you think you will be able to contest for that second or third dragon to get buff #2. The second buff will be a huge boon for you team, and make those 1 or two shots you are able to get onto a turret that much more valuable. If you are looking to start your siege around the 11-15 minute mark, trading and taking the first dragon will be valuable for you, where as if you are planning around the 18-20 minute mark to start sieging, the choice will come down to how well you feel you can fight for dragon's 2 and 3, whether you want to guarantee your first buff in a trade, and look for the opportunity to take either 2 or 3 or you feel your team can turn that power focus into stronger dragon fights than your opponents.

As Late-Game focused -

Taking the dragon trade is going to be valuable to you, primarily in denying the early gain of the later buffs to mid-game focused teams, and making sure that you have that strong first buff that will compliment your late game focus. These are two strong points, and probably one of the best team compositions to be willing to trade a turret for that early dragon and then look to take other objectives will the opposing team picks up dragon's. This will force buff #2 towards the 16+ minute mark (longer if that first dragon is delayed) and delay that deadly buff #5 until the early-late game (at least 35 minutes in) where the Late Game team will be able to start to contest them.

As Tank/Bruiser focused -

The first dragon is going to be a lot less important for these teams, as they will not be building as much AD or AP as other teams, normally opting into early AR/MR/HP items rather than damage focused ones. It will be much more in their favor to look for that early turret in trade, getting better gold focus into that lane and helping to secure future dragon's as well as opening up the map for skirmishes and jungle bullying earlier on.

As Split-Push Focus -

The early dragon vs. turret is going to be a fairly even trade, depending on who gets the local turret gold. On your primary split-pusher, this would give them an earlier opportunity to create that pressure around the map, opening up potential possibilities, against another split-push focused team, this would be the better choice. Against other team compositions, particularly ones that are 5v5 focused, it may be the better idea to take that early dragon as taking dragon's later on will be much harder. This would delay that final buff and give a longer window for the split-push team to work with.

These are just some general advantages that a few team compositions would can gain from the early dragon, as well as some denial they can cause. Specific games will of course have to be individually considered, what kind of team compositions both sides are running, when they hit power spikes, what is going be be there focus, etc and how the team compositions will interact with each other as well as the dragon buffs and the potential timing of them.

We can't also forget, that trading turret for dragon is not the only option, extending the laning phases and running standard lanes is also a choice that teams can make, one that will naturally delay the timing of dragon buffs which will be more beneficial for one team than the other at times. In example, siege compositions that feel they will have an advantage on the early-mid game dragon fights could look to draw out the laning phase, timing dragon 1 and 2 so that the second buff coincides with when they want to start their siege.

All in all, it's a lot more of an interesting interaction on the early dragon in this season than the last one.

Buff #2

This buff is going to be very strong for mid-game and siege focused teams. For these teams, especially against teams that have solid wave clear, it is very important for them to maximize their damage against turrets, allowing them to push the advantage they have faster and creating a larger one through gold lead and map pressure. This buff makes every hit they are able to sneak/weave in during a siege or map rotation that much more valuable. For other team compositions, this ends up more as a stepping stone to to the #3 and #5 buff as they will be less focused on making turrets their primary objective in matches.

Buff #3

This buff is (aside from the final buff) is the 2^nd most important buff that dragon offers in most situations. Movement speed is very nice for everyone, offering greater map control, better rotations, greater escape in split-pushes and away from fights, better chase potential, and stronger ability to dodge skillshots and find proper positioning in teamfights. All in all just a very solid buff that is beneficial to everyone and every composition on similar values. While the earlier you get this buff, the better it is for your team, it's strength will shine more around the post 20 minute mark or the mid-game, where map rotations are huge factors in winning the game. This means that in an early turret/dragon trade, this buff is not a huge factor in that value, as the difference between picking this buff up at the 16-18 minute mark or the 22-24 minute mark will not make a huge difference in most cases.

This buff has a base gold value of 203.10g at 325 MS (using boots of speed as the baseline for gold value), the lowest base value of champion MS. This of course grows when champions pick up T1 and T2 boots.

Buff #4

This buff is in a way, useless and a placeholder. It would almost be better, or at least a bit sillier if instead this buff just said “charging up to super saiyan levels.” The big reason this buff is a bit useless, is that at this point in the game, teams should have enough damage for wave clear. 22+ minutes into the game, we should be seeing full first items if not a full 2 items from teams and AP champions with a Death Cap will be able to wave clear very quickly already. Teams getting to this 4^th buff early, when the bonus you would get to wave clear would be the most useful, are much more likely to be mid-game focused and on the offensive, they will not be getting nearly as much benefit from this in map rotations, siege, or any offensive moves than a defensive team would gain from this buff.

The one thing that this buff does offer, is greater Baron pressure, giving a large increase in damage against it, so teams looking to take an early Baron in particular, will want to look at reaching this buff early.

One big thing to note, is that this was Buff #2 in Patch 4.20. In the previous patch, this buff was much stronger, being a great pick up for late game teams who want that early wave clear power to survive against mid-game teams. It would also let teams clear the jungle faster, earlier in the game, creating extra potential gold for teams, as well as allowing roaming champions to clear out their waves faster. This buff was a lot stronger in its previous position. The Building damage buff still had value as buff #4 for all the same reasons that it has value now.

This swap really changed dragon's focus onto mid-game teams. The earlier turret damage gaining increased value early on, especially for siege compositions or heavy map rotation teams, while late-game/defensive teams really lose out in this buff swap, not being able to make solid use of the Building Damage while the Minion/Monster Damage is much much less useful later on than it is early.

Buff #5

Well, there's not a whole lot to say about this one. This is just a huge buff, often times a game ender, providing so much in terms of just, everything. Combat stats, map movement, Baron control, base races, siege, diving, everything is amplified and creates a massive advantage for the team that is able to pick it up. The really interaction with this buff between teams is how long you can deny the other team from getting this buff, and that's part of where the early dragon interaction between teams is also extremely important.

TLDR/Recap

Dragon is now a much more interesting objective with a lot of the interaction placed onto the timing of the first dragon and what teams are willing to give up to get it, or willing to take to give it up. Certain team compositions will benefit differently from the timing of the first dragon take, and whether or not they want to use that first dragon to speed themselves towards the rest of the buffs, or as a denial, delaying the rest of the buffs for your opposition. Teams will have to decide where their priorities lay, not just for the first dragon, but for the respawn times and buffs down the line as these have become way more important. No longer is that first dragon simply about a gold trade, but rather potential changes to in game play on a much larger scale.

Unfortunately, the current dragon very heavily focuses mid-game teams, putting another huge timer in the final buff against late-game compositions, providing a huge way for the mid-game teams to close out a game. With the switch of Buff #2/4 this mid-game focus has been made even higher, allowing even small windows to remove turrets from the map that much stronger.