League of Legends pre-season 2023: Chemtech Dragon returns with massive changes

On November 15, 2022, League of Legends officially released the pre-season 2023 patch notes that showcased a lot of information. Amongst them, the biggest one has to be the return of Chemtech Drake, with a wide number of changes to its abilities.

This Drake was banned from League of Legends after its inception in the 2022 pre-season. Fans felt it was way too overpowered, and that there was no particular counter-play against the same.

In fact, the Drake became a menace in professional play, which prompted the developers to remove it. That said, Riot Games seems to have found a solution for Chemtech Drake and it looks like the beast is ready to engulf the summoner's rift with its poison once more.

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Full details regarding the return of Chemtech Drake in League of Legends pre-season 2023

As mentioned earlier, Chemtech Drake is set to return in League of Legends along with pre-season 2023. Hence, in the next few sections, we briefly explore what changes have so far been incorporated within the game.

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Chemtech Drake overview in League of Legends

The key changes to Chemtech Drake and its soul in League of Legends are:

• Drake: The Chemtech Drake itself will gain a 33% damage resistance and will deal around 50% more damage when its health falls below 50%.
• Buff from a single Chemtech Drake: Once a single Chemtech Drake has been killed, the team doing so will gain around 5% tenacity and 5% healing/shielding power. This effect will stack depending on the number of Drakes killed.
• Chemtech Soul: Once the Chemtech Soul has been obtained, all players receiving the same will gain 10% damage resistance and a 10% damage bonus once the health pool drops below 50%.

Thus, it is quite clear that Chemtech Drake will be somewhat of a high-risk, high-reward entity. Instead of providing players with additional lives, it will enable more survivability and damage once the champion under consideration is wounded.

This will allow players to commit even more during team fights, despite their low health.

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Changes to the Chemtech Rift in League of Legends

The changes to Chemtech Drake aren't only related to the Soul or the buffs, but the Summoner's Rift as well. Once the Chemtech Soul takes over the map, the following changes will appear:

• Stim Fruits: Honey Fruits will get mutated and convert to Stim Fruits. They will provide healing, but also deliver a bonus shield to the concerned champion.
• Blast Cones: Blast Cones will also get upgraded under the influence of the Chemtech Soul. These upgraded Blast Cones will have a much stronger explosion and toss players away to almost twice the distance.
• Firelight Bloom: The Scryer's Bloom will also be upgraded under the Chemtech Soul's influence and it will have some significant changes. Once exploded, the Firelight Bloom will reveal both the usual cone as well as a small area around it. Apart from that, it will increase the movement speed of ally champions affected by it, while also reducing the health of enemy wards to 1 HP.

Thus, it's safe to say that the Chemtech Rift is much better than the previous one, as this time, it wouldn't be a nightmare for supports.

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Overall, the changes look quite good and are definitely an upgrade. However, their full impact will be tough to realize until League of Legends players start experiencing this brand-new Chemtech Drake.