Chemtech Drake is making a triumphant return to the rift after a long-awaited year.
League of Legends’ most infamous Drake, the Chemtech Drake, is coming back in preseason 2023, along with some tweaks. The Drake was released in last year’s preseason along with the Hextech Drake but was ultimately removed due to its negative impact on League of Legends gameplay.
There were many reasons for the removal of Chemtech Drake. One of the reasons was the Chemtech Soul, which essentially gave the holder a free revive for a few seconds. Champions with a Guardian Angel could revive two times, and champions like Sion could revive three times.
The Camouflage Zones created by the Chemtech rift were also very unhealthy for the game. It allowed any champion to be camouflaged by entering the Camouflage Zones. Regular wards didn’t work inside the zones; the only way to get vision inside the zones was to face check or place a Control ward. The lack of vision was a big disadvantage for the losing team. They had to risk getting caught to get some vision for the team, which was sometimes a nightmare for pro games.
Killing a Chemtech Drake granted the player a stack of Chemtech Blight. Chemtech Blight used to give the player 6/12/18/24% increased damage against enemies with greater current health than the player. It was a decent buff but nothing problematic.
The elemental rifts were supposed to give a neutral advantage to both teams. But the Chemtech soul broke the game’s flow, and the team who held the advantage would get a free win most of the time. To maintain the integrity of the game, Riot removed the Chemtech Soul.
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Preseason 2023 Chemtech Drake Changes
In a video posted by Riot games on their official League of Legends Channel, Riot Games’ lead gameplay designer Matthew “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, confirmed that the Chemtech Drake would be returning in preseason 2023.
One of the main changes to the Drake soul was that it would not bring the players back from the dead as a zombie.
The new Chemtech soul will grant more damage and damage reduction when you are in low health. However, as Riot Phroxzon didn’t specify the damage boost or reduction number in the video, we will have to wait till the preseason to find out.
Riot Phroxzon also said they would remove the Camouflage Zones for the Chemtech rift. Instead of the Camouflage Zones, the reworked Chemtech rift would feature mutated plants. Mutated Scryer’s Bloom will grant movement speed towards revealed enemies, and the Mutated Blast Cone will increase its travel distance.
When Does Chemtech Drake Return in League of Legends?
According to Riot, the Chemtech Drake changes will return to the rift in preseason 2023. However, we currently don’t have an exact date when the preseason patch will come out, but we can speculate it will drop sometime after patch 12.23, which releases on December 7, 2022.
