In League of Legends, in general, and especially in the professional arena, buffs bring certain benefits and are essential factors. In fact, buffs can help a team snowball stronger or provide an opportunity for a struggling team to turn the game around. Buffs like Baron or Rift Herald in Season 14 have become even more powerful with added abilities to push towers effectively. Therefore, controlling buffs requires careful strategic planning. Of course, Dragon and Baron pits also witness many highlight moments in history as players attempt to steal the opponent’s buffs.
However, there is one very powerful buff that has somewhat been “forgotten” in the new season. That is the Elder Dragon. Those who have played League of Legends for a long time know that this is one of the strongest buffs in the late game. Just possessing this buff, when the opponent is below 20% health, Elder Dragon will activate to deal true damage equal to 100% of their health, in other words, “one shot” the opponent in an instant. However, in Season 14, Elder Dragon is not getting much attention.
The manifestation of this is presented by the players themselves, which is that Elder Dragon has encountered a bug causing this buff to appear 1 minute earlier than the normal time of 6 minutes after the Soul Dragon buff is taken. However, when a team obtains the Elder Dragon, the bug disappears and the time for the second Elder Dragon will still be 6 minutes. And notably, this bug has existed from patch 14.1 until the end of 14.2, but no one seems to care.
According to many reasons provided by the players, the first issue is that the time difference is not really significant. In the late game, besides continuously counting the times of the buffs, players must also pay attention to the actions of the opponents as this is a decisive phase. If you are not a professional player, it might be hard to notice the difference.
Additionally, the power of the Void Slug and the Baron buff has become overwhelmingly superior. Therefore, if a team attempts to obtain the Elder Dragon, the opposing team that already possesses the Void Slug and Baron can easily push a wave of minions up to the fourth tower before the Elder Dragon is taken or the second Elder Dragon appears. And since no one has complained, Riot has not addressed this bug throughout the two update patches.
Of course, for regular players, 1 minute is not a big issue. Therefore, perhaps only when professional players speak up or the difference significantly impacts the match, will Riot truly take action on this most powerful buff in League of Legends.