Back in 2019, the League of Legends development team spiced up the battlefield with the addition of Elemental Drakes. By slaying either the Cloud, Infernal, Mountain, Ocean, or Elder drake, individual champions, and teams could become more powerful in an instant, turning the tide of skirmishes and matches.
As the year 2022 rolls around, they decided that five different drakes weren't enough. In comes the Chemtech and Hextech drakes. Recently announced in a 2022 preseason video, these two baddies aim to be more impactful than their predecessors. With little information known prior, Riot Games on Tuesday morning decided to pull back the curtain on exactly what these two will do and what players can prepare for.
Chemtech Drake
Slaying the Chemtech Drake will grant a standard buff that:
- Grants bonus damage against enemies with more current health than you (up to a 5% increase in damage per stack).
If the Chemtech Drake would be the Dragon Soul of the match, the buff goes even further:
- When a team obtains the Chemtech Dragon Soul, they receive a buff that grants them a brief second life after they die. Over the course of the duration, the champion's health rapidly decreases until they die...again (for good this time).
Another factor that comes with the introduction of the Chemtech Drake is the change of terrain:
- When the terrain transforms for the Chemtech Drake, gas zones emerge in four jungle locations. Gas zones camouflage any champion within the zone. Camouflaged enemies are not revealed by regular vision wards, but are revealed by Control Wards, Scryer’s Blooms, and other things that reveal invisible units.
Hextech Drake
On the other side of the coin is the Hextech Drake. When slain, its' standard buff:
- Grants attack speed and ability haste to the team that delivers the killing blow (5 Ability Haste and 5% Attack Speed per stack).
If the magical/mechanic beast is the Dragon Soul for the match, champion's gain a Statikk Shiv-esque effect:
- When a team obtains the Hextech Dragon Soul, they gain a unique ability that adds a chain lightning slow to their basic attacks and abilities, with a moderate cooldown.
Unlike any terrain buff previously introduced into the game, the Hextech Drake allows players to teleport/fast travel through the map at high speeds:
- When the terrain transforms for the Hextech Drake, pairs of Hex-gates appear across the map which allow champions to quickly travel from one location to the paired counterpart. Hex-gates are activated with a brief channel (that can be interrupted by stuns or damage) before rapidly transporting a player across the map to the corresponding Hex-gate.
As if that's not enough, everyone's pal, the Rift Scuttler, is being nerfed due to its strength in the early game. According to the development team:
"We believe that the first Rift Scuttler spawn is too impactful in deciding the outcome of the early game, so we're reducing its importance and resolving the encounter more quickly. Now that it's squishier, you or your enemy can defeat it more easily and, in short, back off to safety sooner. The first Rift Scuttler will now have 35% reduced health, grants 80% reduced XP, and has been slightly reduced in size to match its lower value."
Players will be able to begin experimenting with these changes when Patch 11.23 goes live on the Public Beta Environment later in the day on Tuesday.
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