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League of Legends Preseason 2023 preview: Jungle pets, return of Chemtech Drake

Big changes are coming to alleviate pressure in the Jungle in Preseason 2023. (Photo: Riot Games)
Big changes are coming to alleviate pressure in the Jungle in Preseason 2023. (Photo: Riot Games)

The League of Legends (LoL) Preseason always brings some big gameplay changes onto the Summoner’s Rift, and Preseason 2023 looks to be no different, with developer Riot Games putting a lot of focus on the jungle.

“We know it’s often a highly stressful role where you need heaps of knowledge to be baseline proficient,” said Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, Lead Designer for the League Balance Team & Preseason.

If you often play as a jungler, you probably know the pressure of having to make sure you multitask and protect *cough* babysit — your teammates, all while strengthening yourself with jungle buffs and taking map objectives.

And oftentimes, you end up becoming the team’s punching bag, whether it be your fault or not.

Phroxon mentioned that his team wants jungling to become "more intuitive" and to "help alleviate some of its more painful parts".

Here are some of the changes to watch out for in the jungle.

Improved buff sharing

Although it's a necessary part of jungle play, giving away your buffs to your laners can make you feel bad about giving up the gold, experience, and other benefits they provide.

Phroxon confirmed they’re "exploring options to make this less painful for junglers".

Jungle Pets

Although this isn't the final iteration, devs are experimenting on Jungle pets to help with the buff sharing. (Photo: Riot Games)
Although this isn't the final iteration, devs are experimenting on Jungle pets to help with the buff sharing. (Photo: Riot Games)

One such option is through jungle pets, a feature available back in Season 6.

Little things like clearing out the jungle or killing huge monsters will be a lot easier with the help of these creatures. As you progress through the jungle, you gradually raise and feed your pet until they are old enough to empower you.

Before you cheer, devs mentioned in their Preseason preview notes that the final design and iteration hasn’t been locked in, so this is still a work in progress since they still want to determine how strong these buffs would be “relative to the base kit, runes, items, etc".

Jungle Pathing Aid

It’s clear that Riot wants the jungler role to be more accessible to players, especially newbies.

That's why this time, the dev team is coming up with a jungle pathing aid, similar to the recommended items list.

That said, this guide isn’t meant to spoon-feed players, but to help newer ones master the role better.

Markers will also help junglers who love to clear two camps simultaneously to optimise wave clear. They will no longer have to guess which spot would make the jungle monster reset and thus waste their efforts.

Chemtech Drake returns

The Chemtech Drake is back but she won't bring you back from the dead, thankfully. (Photo: Riot Games)
The Chemtech Drake is back but she won't bring you back from the dead, thankfully. (Photo: Riot Games)

One of the biggest changes in Preseason 2023 is the comeback of the Chemtech Drake.

This green Dragon was first introduced last year with Preseason 2022, but was pulled out in January due to negative player feedback.

“While we’re bringing the Chemtech Drake back from the dead, she won’t bring you back from the dead anymore,” Phroxon explained in the preview.

In its place, the updated Chemtech Soul gives you more damage and damage reduction when health is low.

And when the Chemtech Drake takes over the Rift, the plants on the map change and become stronger.

The New Chemtech Rift will feature empowered plants like Scryer's Blooms that add movement speed when chasing a champion within vision. (Photo: Riot Games)
The New Chemtech Rift will feature empowered plants like Scryer's Blooms that add movement speed when chasing a champion within vision. (Photo: Riot Games)

Scryer's Blooms, for instance, grant increased movement speed when heading in the direction of revealed enemies, and Blast Cone can throttle you to greater distances, such as going from the blue buff to the mid lane.

The rest of the details haven’t been covered yet since everything is still being tested and worked on, so we might expect a few more changes coming closer to the release of the Preseason update.

For more details, here's the latest LoL Pls Preseason Article.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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