Riot Games Reveals Reworked Chemtech Dragon & Its Elemental Rift

The much-discussed dragon from League of Legends (LoL) – the Chemtech Dragon – is all set to make its mighty return to the Summoner’s Rift very soon. Riot Games revealed a preview for the Chemtech Dragon and showcased some of the features it would bring to the Elemental Rift system once it’s released. Notably, Riot Games has completely reworked the terrain when the Chemtech Soul is live and also changed the buffs that this dragon gives to the players who secure it. In the latest “LoL Pls” video, lead gameplay designer Matthew “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison confirmed that the Chemtech Dragon will be back on the rift in the 2023 preseason.

What are the new effects of Chemtech Dragon?

The biggest change coming our way for the Chemtech Drake is that its soul will no longer grant players the “zombie” effect where they get revived for a short duration and dish out damage after dying. “While we’re bringing Chemtech Drake back from the dead, she won’t bring you back from the dead anymore,” said Phroxzon.

Now the following are the new effects that the revamped Chemtech Soul brings to the Rift:

1. More damage and damage reduction when players are low on health.

2. Plants on the map mutate and get empowered when the Chemtech Dragon takes over the Elemental Rift.

   1. Scryer's Bloom will grant movement speed when moving towards revealed enemies.

   2. Blast Cone will take players a longer distance than before. For instance, from the blue buff to the mid-lane

Why was Chemtech Dragon disabled?

On 25th January, Riot announced that it removed the Chemtech Dragon from League of Legends until further notice. Just two weeks into the season, the dragon, its dragon soul, and the map terrain were disabled on all servers across the world. Notably, this new dragon was introduced during the 2022 pre-season, and the League of Legends community was asking it to be nerfed or removed from the game.

Riot in a blog post said, “When we introduced the Chemtech Drake, Soul, and Terrain in the preseason, we shared our intent for it to have a higher impact on games than the original four elemental drakes. Over the past few months, we've heard your feedback across social media and surveys that, even with this goal in mind, the Chemtech addition has just been too frustrating to play with—especially if you're on the losing team.”

Players voiced their frustration at the time about the Chemtech Dragon stating that controlling vision around its gas zones on the map and fighting as a team in the jungle quadrants right before neutral objectives were proving to be extremely difficult. Additionally, they also criticized Riot for granting players an option to come back to life from the dead for a brief period of time through the Chemtech soul.

Nearly after being missing from the rift for one whole season, the Chemtech Dragon is all set to fly back in style and meet her sister – the Hextech Dragon – in the upcoming 2023 preseason. Riot had already teased jungle role changes for the 2023 preseason and the addition of this toxic dragon might add some spice and fun to League of Legends.