Angus18

With the current elder buff you have more stats and the burn that increases your damage directly so you would be already dead on top of the enemy getting things like regen/ms/damage against objectives. They said they are removing the burn and the extra stats so it is pretty much the same thing in combat but worse and it is actually easier to balance because you can just increase or decrease the execute %.

I just wanted to drop in and say the fact you GET this makes me so relieved!

We've swapped what is a tremendous amount of fairly hidden power for what we hope is a similar amount in an incredibly understandable, knowable and satisfying way.

Elder dragons are still rare in League, so you won't be popping heads (or getting popped!) in every game, but when it happens I hope it's a satisfying way to wrap up that game.

gregstiemsma

Drakes changing the Rift seems kinda bullshit but I'm willing to give it a chance

I actually love this post! The very healthiest mix of scepticism plus willingness to be impressed!

Alibobaly

Yeah I only really care about pro play and additional RNG really leaves me unhappy. I'm also worried that they're over-saturating the map with mechanics now and it's going to confuse new players and viewers to no end.

This is a fair concern, but this is actually one of the reasons we stuck with existing mechanics from SR being reused. Ie: walls, paths, brush, movement speed zones (scuttlecrab), honeyfruit and water.

There's nothing new in the map you haven't seen before, but remixed and repositioned to give a bunch of brand new combat experiences.

Qaaee

Kinda lost on the dragon's soul thing. Do you get the elemental soul based off of the 4th dragon killed, or the most common drake?

Once the dominant dragon is identified (it's the 3rd elemental dragon), the map will transform to that element. I'm addition, the Dragon Soul you're playing for shares that same element.

Hope that helps!

anialater45

Seems like it will be very aggravating to play against. Executes in general are, so this seems to just make it worse.

As with the game as it exists on the current patch, you shouldn't be fighting someone with elder buff unless it's a pick or unfair fight in your favour. The new buff should solidify this as correct thinking!

anialater45

Okay but like, whats the counterplay? What can you do beside just hope they screw up? Or are you just screwed because they have an instant kill ability.

Well firstly, they need to get you to a low health state to execute you. If you're a 10/0 Garen then that's still going to be challenging. Secondly, they can't execute you if they're CC'd or dead, so picks are valuable.

Finally, you can always hourglass and hope your team has your back before the enemy can reapply the burn?

Ultimately, you probably shouldn't be fighting them right now and instead be focusing on minimising your structure losses as much as you can whilst waiting out the buff.

nysra

We are willing to test stuff but only as long as you guys are willing to remove bullshit features if they turn out bullshit instead of forcing them upon us just for change's sake. And well, Riot has implemented a lot of really bad ideas over the years and let them stay for some reason, so excuse me but I don't really have much reason to be optimistic here. Still going to try it, but I can already see what is going to happen.

I don't know dude, we've certainly removed a lot of things that didn't work, too! It's not like we keep stuff in the game that people hate just to upset them.