I think the idea is decent, but the execution is off. I'm fine with the RNG aspect, but I think the buffs given by the dragons hasn't hit the mark yet. Air and earth and just plain boring, regardless of their 'potential' strength. Even if they are buffed and become strong, they just aren't interesting. Fire and Water are only marginally more interesting, but not enough to make the system feel good.

Damage or regen or movement speed or objective taking. Wow, so interesting!

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

May 27 2016 21:38 GMT

#24

On May 28 2016 06:16 Zess wrote:

Show nested quote +

That's only the elder dragon?

true damage to drag/baron/towers
baron is tanky as fuck so it can be a significant boost
the difference between them arriving at baron at 4k hp and at 0 hp easily
the dignitas dream

edit: just 3 man baron in about 10-15 seconds with vayne/jax/eve in midgame
its just stupid they scouted it but it doesn't matter

Lonyo

United Kingdom3884 Posts

May 27 2016 22:42 GMT

#25

There are 2 neutral pits. Each team picks 2 buffs they want. The buff picked randomly spawns at one of the two pits with the opponents buff at the other pit. They spawn 1-2-2-1.

Once you kill the dragon you wanted, the opponents second pick appears, then your third pick, then opponents fourth pick. Either team can kill any dragons (and take your desired buffs).

Dragons spawn at 5 and every 5 mins after that.

At 25 minutes, the baron spawns at baron pit and elder dragon at dragon pit. Elder dragon buffs the other dragon buffs, baron does baron buff.

Each dragon buff is worth a less than currently as you have 8 possible dragons, but it's also much harder to control both dragon pits. Up to 4 stacks of any one type of buff (since up to 4 dragons of one type can spawn).

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

May 27 2016 22:50 GMT

#26

thats dumb everyone just picks fire drakes and its the same thing with 2 pits
or you pick cloud because you're playing for late and don't care

Bulgaria4134 Posts

May 27 2016 22:57 GMT

#27

Regarding the complains that earth and air are not very good, I read in reddit a post from Riot employee who said that they acknowledge this and actually like it, they want some of the dragons to be inferior so the RNG factor be more impactful. Not much of a random they said if all the buffs are on equal power or something like that

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

May 27 2016 22:59 GMT

#28

wouldn't mind being weak but they are lame and promote shitty gameplay

enemy team being able to baron in 10 seconds anytime some idiot gets caught bot is just dumb you have to constantly watch for it

or being an early team and having 3 x cloud drakes spawn and its totally useless

cLutZ

United States19574 Posts

May 27 2016 23:01 GMT

#29

On May 28 2016 07:50 Slayer91 wrote:
thats dumb everyone just picks fire drakes and its the same thing with 2 pits
or you pick cloud because you're playing for late and don't care

I still think that having 2 neutral objectives (that are actually good) active at once earlygame is bad design. Maybe if one pit rotated between the crap buffs (air, earth) and the other was the good ones rotating (water, fire) then that would be interesting. Like, you can get a crap consolation prize as you sacrifice earlygame.

On May 28 2016 07:57 M2 wrote:
Regarding the complains that earth and air are not very good, I read in reddit a post from Riot employee who said that they acknowledge this and actually like it, they want some of the dragons to be inferior so the RNG factor be more impactful. Not much of a random they said if all the buffs are on equal power or something like that

Lol, they actually admit they want the RNG factor to be very big?

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

May 27 2016 23:19 GMT

#30

I don't get the earth hate, boring aside i rank it higher than post nerf water.

Only air truely sucks

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

May 28 2016 07:53 GMT

#31

I don't think Earth is bad, I just think it's difficult for players to understand it. It's way better in pro play after water nerfs. In pro play it's Fire>>Earth>Water>>>>>>>>Air. In SoloQ, Water is about even with Earth.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

May 28 2016 08:04 GMT

#32

Earth is best drake in game.

You get 3 earth drakes and a Reksai can take three towers and an inhib in the time the other team does baron.

Redox

Germany24794 Posts

May 28 2016 08:14 GMT

#33

On May 28 2016 08:01 cLutZ wrote:

Show nested quote +

Lol, they actually admit they want the RNG factor to be very big?

??????

Of course they do, its the whole point. Which is just what I said in my post and why this thread is so off.

cLutZ

United States19574 Posts

May 28 2016 08:41 GMT

#34

Indeed, why not give champions a 5% chance of slipping when they change directions in the river.

Redox

Germany24794 Posts

May 28 2016 08:49 GMT

#35

On May 28 2016 17:41 cLutZ wrote:
Indeed, why not give champions a 5% chance of slipping when they change directions in the river.

Funny how you posted a simple straw man and yet when you think about it this would actually have some interesting strategic implications.

Gahlo

United States35165 Posts

May 28 2016 11:13 GMT

#36

On May 28 2016 08:19 Slusher wrote:
I don't get the earth hate, boring aside i rank it higher than post nerf water.

Only air truely sucks

Agreed. They need to find something to do with air other than ooc movement.

On May 28 2016 17:41 cLutZ wrote:
Indeed, why not give champions a 5% chance of slipping when they change directions in the river.

Champions minus Nami, Fizz, and Nautilus you mean.

DarkCore

Germany4194 Posts

May 28 2016 11:51 GMT

#37

On May 28 2016 17:14 Redox wrote:

Show nested quote +

??????

Of course they do, its the whole point. Which is just what I said in my post and why this thread is so off.

I find that pretty funny since for a very long time Riot was trying to remove RNG from the game (dodge mechanic, crit calculation). But the RNG from dragons isn't super bad, since you know in advance which one will spawn next, so you can plan ahead.

I just think that implementing RNG is a cheap way to create diversity. Granted trying to open multiple viable comps is very difficult and this might be the only way, and I don't think the dragons are game breaking, I just wonder if there was a different way to achieve it.