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 2nd
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 4th
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.
