I've been practicing end fights for a while and I have been going north/south. I am always late to the perch every single time. I believe north/south is quicker because it perches lower, but how much time does it actually save? Also, I've been practicing with no pearls, so do you think it's a good idea to do north/south with pearls and east/west without pearls? I know I could kill an enderman in a boat, but everytime I try to kill an enderman, with enough distance to make the perch in case he does perch, the dragon will fire ball me, which means I cant kill the enderman. Thanks!

Without a pearl is east/west the safest. The dragon turns around one pilar for a while, so you can spot the perch really easily, and walk to the fountain. North/south is much quicker, because the dragon just snaps, and perches, in stead of waisting a lot of time circling around one pilar. You can do north south without a pearl, but you need to quickly run to the fountain when the dragon starts moving to the other side of the island, where it may perch. If you stay just close enough to the dragon you will always catch it, but it is much harder than an east/west perch. I'd say a north/south perch saves around 10-20 seconds compared to an east/west one.

@Windmolema so it's ok to be constantly running back and forth from z>71 to around between the 2 closest pillars to match the dragons movement and catch the perch?

u can always craft a boat and kill an enderman while waiting for the perch

@NoseQ I've tried staying around 70-80 blocks away and launching my pearl from there, and I still end up a little too late even with an optimized pearl throw.

I’d recommend doing ns every time no matter what. If you have a pearl go back as far as you can as long as you can still see the dragon on the other side. If you don’t have a pearl stand between the pillars and try to move towards the center preemptively and predict when the dragon will perch. It will take some getting used to but after a bit you should be able to predict the perch consistently. It’s also better to be early and not sure than to wait until it’s too late, because if you run up too early and the dragon doesn’t perch you can just run back and wait again.