Dragon has been a core part of League of Legends Jungle gameplay since day 1. It has seen many face lifts and changes over its 6 plus year history, but one factor has remained consistent, the eternal question. Should we take Dragon? The decision to take Dragon, especially at early levels in the game can and most likely will make or break a lot of the rest of your game. An early damage boost and later on bonuses to farming and objectives can give you enough of an edge to take the game over your opponents. Dragon can also lead to devastating fights for your team, if taken when you have a numbers disadvantage, or leaving struggling lanes to be taken just for the first dragon to be vanquished. The decision to go for a Dragon can mean the difference between an early game lead and an uphill battle. So what should you ask yourself when the decision pops up? Here are some questions to ask yourself, and see whether going to dominate the digital drake is a deserved deed (score one for alliteration).

Question 1: How are your Mid and Bot lane faring?

This is the first thing you should look at in the early game when wondering whether Dragon will be a worthy investment. Unless you are a select few champions, taking the drake solo will not be possible. So who is going to help you is very important. Look at your bot and mid lanes and see if they would be in a position to help you. This is a rather simple analysis to make. If both lanes are pushing their opponent out of lane constantly and have room to leave lane for a couple of seconds, then call them over. If both lanes are struggling then try and get one of them ahead before you get a dragon under your belt. As for which lane to help, bot lane will be more fruitful a majority of the time, since 2 champions to help you take a dragon is better than one. However if you think you have a better chance of getting a kill mid (flash is down, enemy pushed up, etc.), then help the mid lane. Your bot lane is going to be your primary source of help for Dragon, but your mid laner can be equally as good of an asset if you can get him down to dragon long enough without his lane being severely harmed.

If one lane is struggling and the other is doing well is more of a situational analysis. Every game is different, but for the most part there are some factors to keep in mind. If mid is hurting but bot is doing well, then you could probably go for the Dragon as long as you can keep tabs on the enemy mid laner. Mid lane is not only further away from dragon, but also the solo powers of their mid laner probably are not enough to take on you and at least one other bot laner, let alone two bot laners. If Your Mid lane is doing stupendously, but your bot lane is not doing so well, then there are two courses of action you could take. One would be getting bot lane to try and hold their lane in place while you and your mid laner go for the dragon. This might extend some of your bot lane's resources, especially if they were led into an unfortunate fight, but could ensure a dragon and damage advantage for your team. The alternative is ganking bot with your mid laner, and then all four of you going to take the Dragon together (or whomever was alive going for it). These are all things your team can control, but what about the enemy team?

Question 2: Where is their Jungler/ Could they easily collapse for a fight?

Knowing where their enemy jungler is an extremely vital piece of information to consider. This could mean the difference between a secured dragon and a stolen dragon. If you have just seen their jungler in the top lane or top side of the jungle, then you probably are good to go for the dragon. If he was just bot or mid, or hovering around the pit, you have a couple of options. Leave dragon alone and wait until a more opportune time to take it. This might allow the enemy to take it, especially if you miss your chance to and they get lucky in fights against you. However if you don't fight or go for dragon, then they definitely cannot steal it or beat you in a team fight. The second option would be to gun for the dragon, send your laners all to dragon and force a fight there. This is more advantageous if you are on the blue side meaning the enemy jungler most likely has to go over a wall to get to the dragon (either flash or an important mobility spell will be burned to just get the dragon). This also could lead you to lose a fight, if dragon damages you enough and their lanes surround you and prevent an escape. This is easily the highest risk, highest reward decision. There is a third option. You find and kill the jungler. If you deep ward the enemy buff brushes and in river, you should be able to get an idea where the enemy laner is, and collapsing on them when they are low is a great way to secure a dragon take for your team. This will take longer, and if the enemy lanes do not come in to aid, they will push your lanes up and get a land advantage. It's all about what your situation is, and what you are willing to give up for the Dragon. But what about the fifth member of the team, the one who is not on the bottom half the map?

Keep in mind the positioning of the top laners. They might seem insignificant in dragon takes, but they can make all the difference. If the top laners have teleport, then in four seconds they could go from farming in the top lane, to leading their team headfirst into a team fight by the dragon pit. Keep in mind where there might be wards by the dragon pit, and while taking dragon have your top laner keep tabs on their top laner so that they don't teleport onto you without warning. Make sure your top laner knows what is going on, and that they can teleport in if things go south while you are taking dragon or fighting the enemy team off of it. If enemy teleport is not a threat, then you have less need for the ally teleport, since that would leave a lot of time for the enemy to take your tower. In retrospect, if the enemy has teleport but your ally took something else, then simply make sure you know if and when the enemy is using it, and have your ally full steam ahead against the enemy tower while the enemy top laner is gone.

Question 3: Could you take it with little consequence?

So you know have looked at all the champions in the game, and you know where they are and how they are doing. Now you need to think about the actual execution of the beast itself. This is where you need to do some self-evaluation, as well as some stat evaluation of everyone else. How much mana does everyone have? Is there a chance Dragon could actually kill some of your allies? Do you have smite available in case their jungler sneaks up on you? Could you take it quickly, or would it be a time investment because of a lower damage team? The longer you think it is going to take to kill the Dragon, the more you might want to re think the idea. Every second you spend killing the dragon is another second your team has a chance to be collapsed on, another second the enemy jungler could come and steal your buff, another second the enemy can push your lanes, etc. The quicker you can kill dragon, the quicker you can get to using it. If you have a tankier support and a tankier jungler, you might be able to soak up more damage, but it will take longer to actually whittle the beast down to smiting levels of hp. If you have a damage support, a damage jungler and a carry, you should be able to take it quickly, but your hp bar will suffer. Ideally, this is a case of having the best of both worlds. Having tank and damage allows a quicker dragon take, with only one champion needing to take the brunt of the damage. The ideal scenario for the quickest Dragon take would be having the mid laner and carry doing damage to the dragon, while the support and jungler try and eat most of the damage. Again, all these are situational, but sending a mix of offensive and defensive to vanquish the drake is your best bet for a quick and successful take.

I hope that all these points you consider in your next game, when you want to move in for that first dragon kill! If you want to ask questions about anything here or in my other articles, or just talk and chill, contact me @buns_and_roses on twitter! Hope you guys have success on the Rift!

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