LOL Preseason 2022 plans reveal new mythic items and dragons

Riot Games released their plans for the League of Legends 2022 preseason.  In the 2021 season, the focus was on new champion balance and diversity, which we saw more on the rift. Now, plans for the following year include two new mythic items and two new dragons, as well as objective bounties, rune and item changes.

Hextech and Chemtech dragons coming to the rift

The 2022 preseason is coming with a big addition of two new dragons: the Hextech and Chemtech dragons. The Hextech dragon is covered in blue and gold hue. When players defeat this dragon, they gain Ability Haste and attack speed. However, the reward for getting the soul is a chain slow similar to  Stattik Shiv’s passive. Hextech Gates will be created as soon the dragon gets control over the rift. These gates can transport players to fixed locations in-game.

The second new dragon Chemtech drake is the darker sibling of Hextech. The champion’s color includes gold and ash with a light purple on top of its head. The Chemtech drake gives teams increased damage when they kill it. It also transforms players into a zombie state when they die, allowing them to keep fighting and cast abilities. The Chemtech drake creates camouflage zones in certain areas of the map.

Two new mythic items

The first of the two new mythic items in the League of Legends 2022 Preseason will be a support tank item for champions like Leona and Nautilus. With this item, when players stop their opponent’s champion from moving, all nearby opponents take increase damage for a brief period. The second item is for mages to increase their in-game survival rate. This mythic item gives champions damage reduction that lasts for some seconds after taking a hit. During this period,  the champion will also get Ability Haste favoring longer-range mages.

Moreover, Riot will improve Legendary items for mages, assassins and tanks. The preseason will see assassin champions get a new Legendary item that gives Ability Haste and repays a part of their Ultimate’s cooldown when they kill enemies. Tank champions will also get an item that gives bonus health depending on total mana and uses some of it to form a shield whenever they immobilize an enemy. For mages, their Legendary item will grant them magic penetration against newly shielded enemies.

Champion bounties and runes in 2022

This League of Legends Preseason will introduce objective bounties for teams to have another way of making comebacks. Unlike champion bounties, objective bounties require players to win map objectives. All the objectives taken accumulate as the opponent’s lead grows and are shared among the whole team.

For runes, Glacial Augment will be reworked to improve its ability in slowing down enemy champions. The Lethal Tempo will also see some changes geared toward increasing its attack speed and unique uses in the precision tree.

New challenge system

This new system will rank up over time, showing players legacy in different modes and gameplay. Riot’s lead gameplay producer Jeremy “Brightmoon” Lee said that this system will focus on players’ “inventiveness, breadth of playstyles, collection and everything else in-between.” Additionally, Riot will bring back Ultimate Spellbook mode with a bigger ultimate book.

Most of the changes will be available before the end of the year on League’s PBE.