10 biggest changes from patch 6.9
By Andrew Ross
3.) Elemental Dragons
People wanted Dragon to matter again, and the new Elemental Dragons is Riot’s way of making that wish come true.
For the first 35 minutes of the game, one of four Elemental Dragons will spawn every six minutes (only three types will appear per game), and each Dragon gives a unique buff.
The Mountain Dragon grants 10/20/30 percent bonus true damage to epic monsters and turrets.
The Infernal Dragon grants 8/16/24 percent increased attack damage and ability power.
The Cloud Dragon grants 15/30/45 bonus movement speed while out of combat.
The Ocean Dragon grants a regeneration effect that restores 10 percent of your missing health and mana ever 18/12/6 seconds.
After 35 minutes, the Elder Dragon will spawn every 10 minutes instead of the Elemental Dragons. He gives two buffs that each last two minutes. The first is that basic attacks and spells burn the target for 45 (+45 per stack of Elemental Dragon buff) damage over three seconds. The other buff is that it increases the strength of Elemental Dragon buffs by 50 percent.
Dragon has been a joke this season, but this new system is not to be taken lightly. All of the Elemental Dragons give strong buffs, and those buffs can become quite insane if you are able to stack them. This is going to make the objective a very high priority again, and people will no longer be able to give Dragons away for nothing.
The Elder Dragon might be good enough for teams to prioritize it over Baron if they have have been able to take the Infernal or Ocean Dragon that game.
4.) Rift Herald
Dragon wasn’t the only objective that Riot wanted to make worth fighting for.
The Rift Herald didn’t impact the game as much as Riot had hoped, and they decided to change that by totally reworking the buff.
It now spawns at six minutes instead of four, and it will never respawn once it has been slain. The creature’s stats have been increased to make it harder to kill, and that’s because it has an entirely new buff (Glimpse of the Void) that lasts 20 minutes instead of only two. Not only does it last 20 minutes, but it does not get lost upon death, getting Baron or anything else. Once you get it, you have it for 20 whole minutes.
Glimpse of the Void: While no allied champions are near you, you gain five percent damage reduction against enemy champions and gain charges of Corruption. At 100 charges, your next basic attack discharges all the stacks of Corruption to deal 15-270 magic damage (at levels 1-18, damage halved for ranged champions).
The fact that the buff lasts 20 minutes no matter what immediately makes it worth fighting for. It will be interesting to see how teams plan to use it and when early fights will begin for it.
Next: What happened to the jungle?