Doublelift explains why Mountain Drakes are “game-breaking” in League of Legends
Riot GamesTeam Liquid’s Yilliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng has explained why he considers one of League of Legends’ elemental drakes to be “game-breaking”.
The star AD Carry – and one of the most veteran players still competing in League of Legends anywhere in the world – took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the current state of the drake system.
More veteran fans and players of League of Legends will remember the days when the Dragon offered the same reward in all cases, but since May 2016 there have been five different dragons that can potentially spawn – the four elemental drakes, of which one will be randomly chosen each time a new drake spawns for most of the game, and the Elder Dragon, which spawns after 35 minutes.
Each of the four elemental drakes offers a different, stacking buff to the team that slays it.
The Cloud Drake provides movement speed, the Infernal Drake provides Attack Damage (AD) and Ability Power (AP), the Ocean Drake restores health and mana while out of combat, and the Mountain Drake offers bonus damage to epic monsters and turrets.
It’s this last drake, however, that Doublelift isn’t a fan of, arguing that it takes away an element of strategy in the game. Where the others offer simple stat buffs, the power of the Mountain Drakes can make fighting for major objectives like the Baron or more dragons – which as the game’s major neutral objectives are often central to the action later in the game – much more one-sided.
but I wonder if there's another way. As a player and also viewer I like seeing fights and back-and-forth around objectives, but mountain drake usually takes that element away (2/2)
— Yiliang Peng (@TLDoublelift) March 4, 2019
Riot are no strangers to significantly updating Summoner’s Rift, with the most recent changes introducing turret plating as a new mechanic for Season 9, and as previously mentioned the dragons already went through a major change to reach their current state.
As yet, however, no plans to explore possible adjustments to the drake system have been announced, so it remains to be seen whether Riot may look at tuning down the power of the Mountain Drake.