Everything about Chemtech Drake: does he return to League of Legends?

Just two weeks into the 2022 ranked League of Legends season, the Chemtech Drake—as well as its corresponding Dragon Soul and terrain—have been disabled on all of the game’s servers worldwide.

Riot disables Chemtech Drake in League of Legends

Riot has not yet given a timeframe as to when the Chemtech Drake will return to the game. The League developer cited feedback from social media and in-game surveys that the “Chemtech addition has just been too frustrating to play with—especially if you’re on the losing team,” according to an announcement made by the company earlier today.

The Chemtech Drake was added alongside the Hextech Drake ahead of the 2022 ranked League season, upping the number of Elemental Dragons presently available on Summoner’s Rift from four to six. Moving forward, only five drakes will be present in games on the map. The Hextech Drake is slated to remain in League while its Chemtech counterpart undergoes a heavy rework.

“While the Chemtech Drake and its corresponding systems are disabled, we’ll be iterating on design changes to solve the issues with the current versions, while maintaining the spirit of what we were originally trying to achieve,” Riot said. With this in mind, Riot put forth the initiative to overhaul the Chemtech Rift’s terrain but warned that it “may take time to do right,” essentially meaning that the Chemtech Drake will be out of the game’s regular dragon rotation for quite some time.

Riot Games disables Chemtech Drake, Soul, and Terrain until further notice

Starting January 25, Summoners will no longer see the Chemtech Dragon on Summoner’s Rift, which leaves the following:

Cloud Drake
Mountain Drake
Infernal Drake
Ocean Drake
Hextech Drake

Riot wrote that it’ll work on “[solving] the issues with the current versions, while maintaining the spirit of what we were originally trying to achieve”, meaning the Chemtech Drake may not return “for a while”.

It also acknowledged that it “missed the mark this time” on the drake’s implementation, and thanked the community for their patience. The Chemtech Drake was first introduced during the 2022 League of Legends Preseason together with the Hextech Drake, and saw play in the first two weeks of the competitive season

When does he return?

Riot has not yet confirmed when or if the Chemtech Drake will return to League. Earlier this month, the League balance team said on Reddit that if the developers “come to the conclusion something is bad, we assess the priority to change or remove it [as] with everything in League.”

It’s unclear if the Chemtech Drake will return to League, but for now, it won’t be available in ranked games. Additionally, competitive leagues around the world should expect to see the removal of the Chemtech Drake affect on-stage games moving forward.

Who is Chemtech Drake?

Chemtech Drake is a neutral Monster. Chemtech Drake gains 0% − 200% (based on missing health) bonus attack speed. Each Chemtech Drake killed grants a stack of Chemtech Blight Chemtech Blight.

If the rift is dominated by the Chemtech, obtaining 4 Dragon Slayer Dragon Slayer stacks grants the Chemtech Dragon Soul Chemtech Dragon Soul.

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).

Features

Passives

Resistant Skin RESISTANT SKIN: Dragons are Cc-immune icon.png immune to all crowd control, except Stasis icon.png stasis. Additionally, Dragons’ stats cannot be modified by any means.
Ancient Grudge ANCIENT GRUDGE: Elemental Dragons gain 20% bonus damage and 7% damage reduction per stack against enemies with Dragon Slayer Dragon Slayer stacks, up to 80% bonus damage and 28% damage reduction.
DRAGON BREATH: Dragons deal bonus physical damage equal to 7% of the target’s current health with their basic attacks. Additionally, Dragons gain 30% armor penetration.

Abilities

TAKING FLIGHT: Dragons Airborne icon.png knock back all nearby enemies upon starting the fight.

Notes

Dragons’ basic attacks are considered spells – they’re unaffected by any effect that would behave with basic attacks, and can be negated by Sivir Spell Shield.png spell shields.
Dragons cannot damage other monsters.
If the team that slays a dragon has a lower average level than that of their opponents, they receive 25% bonus experience per average level difference. The bonus experience is sharply increased for the lowest level members of the team, equal to 15% per number of levels behind the dragon squared, up to a maximum of 200%.

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).

The highlighted green areas will become gas zones

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.

Is Chemtech Drake removed?

Effective today, we’re disabling the Chemtech Drake, Soul, and Terrain. While the Chemtech Drake and its corresponding systems are disabled, we’ll be iterating on design changes to solve the issues with the current versions, while maintaining the spirit of what we were originally trying to achieve.

How does Chemtech Dragon work?

The Chemtech Dragon, on the other hand, adds areas of camouflage to Summoner’s Rift that hide champions while they are outside of a certain distance from enemies. The dragon soul buff associated with it gave the receiving team the ability to respawn on the spot as a zombie upon death and briefly fight again.

What do dragons do lol?

Killing the dragon grants experience to killer and nearby allies. If the killing team is lower average level than their opponents, the Dragon grants a bonus XP of +25% per average level difference.

What does Dragon do in League of Legends?

When the dragon takes flight, usually upon initial damage, it knocks back all surrounding enemies and wards. It’s basic attacks deal additional physical damage equal to 5% of the target’s current health as well as 50% splash damage in a cone. The percent damage increases by.