The League of Legends 2022 Preseason changes are coming in Patch 11.23, with the major addition of two new dragons. These dragons are known as Chemtech and Hextech and they’re now available to test on the PBE. Jeremy “Brightmoon” Lee, Riot Games lead gameplay producer for League of Legends, admitted that these dragons might be more impactful than the current ones. “We’re ready to adjust if they’re making too much or too little impact. You can expect to see all of these changes on the PBE in a couple of weeks and we’ll be looking for your feedback in the months ahead.”
Chemtech Drake in LoL Preseason 2022
The Chemtech drake is the darker sibling of the Hextech drake. Its standard buff gives those who slay it bonus damage against enemies with more health than them. Teams who obtain the Chemtech dragon soul will also receive a buff that allows them to stay alive for a brief period after they die. During this state, players can still fight and cast abilities.
Furthermore, gas zones will appear in four jungle locations when the terrain transforms for the Chemtech drake. These gas zones camouflage any champion within the zone, making it harder to know the player’s whereabouts on the map. Regular vision wards cannot reveal camouflaged enemies. Teams will need control wards or Scryer’s Blooms to reveal enemy champions.
Hextech Drake
The Hextech drake grants a 5% attack speed along with five ability haste to the team that kills it. Any team that obtains the Hextech dragon soul will gain a unique ability that adds a chain lightning slowdown to their attack and abilities, with a moderate cooldown. In place of the camouflage terrain changes that the Chemtech drake provides, the Hextech dragon spawns pairs of Hex-gates around the map. These hex-gates will allow players to swiftly travel from one location to its paired counterpart.
The gates are only activated with a brief channel, which quickly transports players across the map to the paired Hex-gate. However, players must be careful while using these channels as they can be stopped by damage or stuns. This Hextech drake provides another option of transportation for players with teleports already available. While this drake already seems overpowered, it will be interesting to see how teams utilize its powers.
