Dragon pit (League of Legends)

"Dragon pit" redirects here. For  Wild Rift, see Dragon pit (Wild Rift). For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation).

The dragon pit is one of the game's most unique jungle camps as its occupant varies throughout a match of League of Legends, with even the initial spawn be determined at random. One of five dragon monsters may occupy the pit at any one time, and serve as a neutral objective that rivals Baron Nashor.

Prior to V6.9, The Dragon was the sole occupant of the dragon pit and there was generally no need to distinguish the camp from the monster in terms of gameplay. With the introduction of the elemental drakes, it became necessary to document the objective separately from the individual dragon units. The dragon system received a substantial overhaul in preseason ten, modifying the spawn mechanics, rewards and even the layout of the pit.

Game Mechanics

Spawn

• First Drake: At 5:00 into the game, an elemental drake ( ) of a random type spawns in the dragon pit.
• Second Drake: If it is slain, an elemental drake of another type spawns after 5 minutes.
• Rift Changes: After the second drake has been slain, an element, that is different from the two previous drakes, is selected and the Rift is changed based on that element. From now on, the elemental drake of that element will be the only one to spawn.
• Rift Drake: 5 minutes after the last drake has been killed, an elemental drake of the Rift's element spawns. This repeats until a team has killed their fourth drake and acquired its respective Dragon Soul.
• Elder Dragon: Once a team has killed their fourth drake:
  • The remaining elemental buffs will be  locked.
  • Once the Dragon Soul has been claimed, the next dragon to spawn will be the Elder Dragon, which spawns 6 minutes after the last drake has been killed and will respawn every 6 minutes thereafter.

The next dragon to spawn has their insignia noted in both the spawn timer and the wall of the alcove.

Elemental Rift

• The third drake transforms the Rift before it spawns and after that, its element will be the only one to spawn for the remainder of the game. The transformation on the Rift occurs on the same areas, which are the dragon pit and the buff camps. The first three dragons are now always different from each other.
  • Cloud Rift: The Cloud winds quicken! Air currents flow throughout the area around Blue and Red buffs, granting speed boosts to everyone inside, even units that are  untargetable. Additional Scryer's Blooms spawn to the entrances of the jungle. Dragon Pit also becomes a speed boosting wind tunnel. These speed zones grant 20% bonus movement speed, increased to 35% while out-of-combat with champions.
  • Infernal Rift: The Inferno blazes! Sunders the Rift. The brush nearest to Blue and Red buffs burn away, and new pathways open up through the Blue and Red buff pits. Additional Blast Cones spawn to the entrances of the jungle and Alcoves. The entrance to Dragon pit widens.
  • Mountainous Rift: The Mountains rise! Triggers a seismic shift throughout the Rift. Two new bluffs of rock emerge in each jungle quadrant. A rock formation rises in front of the Dragon pit.
  • Ocean Rift: The Oceans bring life! Brings new life to the Rift. Most of the brush in the jungle grows larger and new Honeyfruit spawns near the buff camps. Water pools into puddles throughout the jungle, which functions with Qiyana's Terrashape and Waterwalking. New brush patches sprout up around the Dragon pit.

Rewards

Main article: Dragon Soul.

Strategy

• Killing dragons is one of the main tasks of the  Jungler. Junglers often require assistance from their team for this task, and the champions best positioned to provide this assistance are usually the mid laners and bottom laners.
• When a team attempts to kill a dragon it usually gets weakened during the fight. Given the nature of the dragon pit, the team attempting the kill has limited escape paths. For this reason it's usually a good idea to gank the enemy team when they're trying to kill a dragon. A good gank may score several kills, steal the dragon kill, or both.
• Dragons (and other epic monsters) should be finished with effects that instantly deal high amount of damage (i.e. Smite, Cho'Gath's Feast, Nunu's Consume) to prevent the enemy team from stealing the kill.
• When initially attacked, dragons will  knock back every nearby champion, and begin attacking and chasing the closest champion. Attacking the dragon from a safe distance to get it to attack an unprepared enemy champion can be useful.

Combat

• When a dragon starts fighting, it takes flight,  knocking back nearby enemies. The knock back cannot be blocked by  spell shields but it can be resisted by effects that makes you immune to displacements ( crowd control immunity and  Unstoppability).
• Dragons have 30% armor penetration.
• Their basic attacks deal bonus physical damage equal to 7% of the target's current health. These basic attacks are treated as spells. They're not affected by effects that reduce or block basic attack damage, such as Ninja Tabi's passive and Shen's Spirit's Refuge, and they can be blocked by  spell shields. Dragons cannot damage other monsters.
• Elemental drakes have a Unique Passive called Ancient Grudge, which grants them a buff against enemies with Dragon Slayer stacks. This buff gives 20% bonus damage and 7% damage reduction per stack.
• If the team that slays a dragon has a lower average level than that of their opponents, they receive 25% bonus experience per average level difference. The bonus experience is sharply increased for the lowest level members of the team, equal to 15% per number of levels behind the dragon squared, up to a maximum of 200%.

Tips to prepare dragon ganks

• Have a ward in the river close to the dragon camp entrance, providing complete vision of the pit. This will reveal enemies attempting to kill the dragon while also spotting enemies standing guard at the entrance. Killing the Rift Scuttler is a good way to provide vision in front of the dragon pit, but it does not provide vision inside the pit itself.

Tips to prevent dragon ganks

• Use a Control Ward or Oracle Lens to check for wards before attempting to kill a dragon, do not destroy wards unless you absolutely must eliminate their vision.
• Eliminate the bottom lane enemies and then attack the dragon with the help of your bottom lane teammates. The enemy middle lane and jungler are usually not strong enough to fight three champions at once.
• If you are in the Red team, lure the dragon out of its pit. This makes the dragon chase you into the river, making it harder for the enemy team to steal it by engaging over the wall of the dragon pit.

Recommendations for each type of elemental drake

The buff provided by Cloud Drake is useful for both teams regardless of their gold lead or deficit; leading teams can create pressure, split push, and rotate around the map faster for positioning, while trailing teams can still use it to expand vision, respond to split pushing, and position defensively. Even with a single stack, Cloud Drake can be very powerful in split push compositions, especially if it's denied to the enemy team.

The buff provided by Infernal Drake is considered by many players the strongest, due to its raw power boost. If viable, contest the dragon at all costs. In the early game it doesn't make much difference, but its power in late game is massive.

The buff provided by Mountain Drake allows teams more durability for extended fights, and its effectiveness increases the more resistances the team builds - it can be useful to build more armor and magic resistance when you have multiple of this buff.

The buff provided by Ocean Drake is deceptively powerful during the laning phase: the healing during downtime allows less assertive laners to extend their presence. Another benefit is its ability to mitigate damage against poke teams, forcing the enemy team to spend more mana and delaying or even preventing potential flanks.

Focus on killing the drakes with the buff that can benefit most your team. For example, focus on infernal drakes for team fighting, and on cloud drakes for roaming and split pushing.

Trivia

• In  Teamfight Tactics Sets 1 and 2, a Dragon features as a PvE Round monster in Round 8–7.
  • In Set 2, the Dragon's element is different depending on the game's element.
  • In Sets 1 and 2, the Elder Dragon features as a monster in Round 10–7.
• Prior to V6.9, there was only one species of Dragon to fight, this retired dragon can still be seen flying at the west edge of Summoner's Rift as ambient wildlife.

Media

Patch History

See Also

• Cloud Drake
• Infernal Drake
• Mountain Drake
• Ocean Drake
• Dragon Soul
• Elder Dragon
• Aspect of the Dragon

References