Preseason 2022 PBE Preview: Patch Rundown and Analysis

As we enter the finish line of League of Legends Season 11, Riot gave us a sneak peek at some of the changes to come in the Preseason of 2022. From smaller changes, such as item icons, audio and visual changes to decently big system overhauls such as new dragons, Season 2022 has a lot to look forward to. New mythic and legendary items can mark exciting new changes to the meta. These changes can lead to some more 200 years or it could finally give the player base the experience they are looking for. The new season is likely to offer something to new players and returnees alike.

Dragons

Chemtech Dragon

First up is the release of the Chemtech Dragon, a mechanical, corrupted-looking beast whose surroundings seem to emit toxins.

Credit: Riot Games

Like any other dragon, when it is slain, it will give the entire team a buff. A champion with a Chemtech Dragon buff deals bonus damage to enemies that have more existing health to you. The damage will scale with how much more existing health the enemy has than you, up to 5%. This will change the tides of some fights as the more existing health the enemy team has relative to the team with the buff, the more damage will be dealt, allowing them to utilize their omnivamp or conqueror to heal back up and to get clutch takedowns for themselves. This might be a very pivotal dragon buff to receive for champions that itemize Goredinker and Sterak’s Gage as well as opt for the Conqueror keystone. They usually fall to a decently low health threshold as they enter the fight and sustain themselves up through means such as omnivamp and their damage.

The dragon’s soul is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It is most akin to Sion’s and Kog’maw’s passives. When a team receives the Chemtech Dragon’s soul, they get a buff that allows them to survive and continue acting after they die in a ghastly form.

As with every other dragon soul, the terrain shifts to match the soul type. In the case of the Chemtech Dragon, there will be new zones of gas that grant camouflage to anyone in them. They will still be revealed by anything that grants vision of invisible champs such as the Scryer’s Bloom plant, Control Wards, and any other interactions that should reveal them.

Hextech Dragon

The second dragon being added to the game is the Hextech Dragon, which is more ethereal looking in its mechanical design and its hues of light and dark blue, gold, and purple.

Credit: Riot Games

The buff that it grants when it is slain will grant 5 ability haste and 5% attack speed per stack, useful on about anyone. The amount of attack speed you get is half of the one you receive from choosing the attack speed rune shard in slot one, and the ability haste you receive is only three less than the ability haste shard. Think of it as getting an extra rune shard in that slot with a mix of ability haste and attack speed, a nice effect that is sure to feel noticeable after you receive it.

The Hextech Dragon’s soul gives the team that obtained it a cripple effect on their basic attacks and abilities in the form of a chain of lightning. Similar to Nasus’s Wither and Fiora’s Parry, enemies hit by the lightning chain will be slowed. When a member of the team that receives the Hextech Dragon’s souls attacks, it unleashes a chain of lightning that slows the basic attacks and the abilities of enemy champions hit by it. A powerful buff to have, so Riot mentioned that it has a decent timer on its cooldown.

When the soul for the game is Hextech Dragon’s, teleporters called Hex-gates appear around the map and allow players to traverse the rift quickly to the other portal the one they entered is connected with. Where the teleporters are located and their destinations have yet to be revealed. Entering a teleporter requires a brief channel that can be canceled through damage or crowd control, effectively stopping the teleportation.

Objective Bounties

Along with these system changes, there will be a new inclusion to the bounty system: Objective Bounties. When a team reaches a threshold in how far they are behind (calculated through an algorithm that takes into account levels/XP, gold, how many dragons each team has, as well as how many turrets) a bounty will activate for the losing team that can be collected by taking the objective.

The losing team receives gold from getting the specified bounty, as displayed here:

• Baron/Elder Dragon - 500g
• Dragon/Rift Herald - 500g
• Outer Turret - 250g
• Inner Turret - 400g
• Base turret - 400g

Depending on how far behind the losing team is, these gold values can increase by up to 60%, allowing for comeback potential akin to getting a huge shutdown on an enemy champion that had an 800 gold bounty in the case of Baron, Elder Dragon, Dragon, and Rift Herald.

There is a 15 second alert period when the bounty objective is about to be active and a 15 second lingering duration when the bounty will disappear. This can be prolonged if the losing team is in combat with the objective bounty.

Mythic Item Changes and Inclusions

Crown of the Shattered Queen

• 70 Ability Power
• 250 Health
• 600 Mana
• 20 Ability Haste
• You are Safeguarded, reducing incoming damage by 50%. Safeguard persists for 1.5 seconds after taking champion damage.
• While Safeguarded, gain 10-40 Ability Power (by level)
• (Regain Safeguard if you haven’t taken champion damage for 40 seconds).
• Mythic Passive: 1% Move Speed & 50 Health

Crown of the Shattered Queen at first seems like a nice addition for artillery and other ranged mages that struggle with staying alive through fights, but in practice it can turn into a really problematic item. Typically, mages always have to take this trade-off of survivability versus damage. If you get too much survivability, you usually lack a lot of damage (evident by how lackluster items such as the current Demonic Embrace feel awful to build). If you build all damage, you run the risk of dying before being able to output any significant damage that you have loaded up. The damage and the tankiness that this provides has to outweigh the cost of losing the damage of other mage mythics such as Liandry’s and Luden’s in order for regular mages to forgo those items in favor of the Crown. Besides that, you will only ever really build this when you are overcapped on damage or your champion relies heavily on entering deep within the fray, such as Vex and Sylas. On Vex, she can engage from afar and have the Safeguard persist; potentially nuking an enemy squishy with the Safeguard AP addition. Theoretically, she can get the reset from a takedown and target someone else in the teamfight while not having to worry about getting immediately popped after going in. The damage reduction and health on Sylas can be insane as he engages with a fight-changing enemy ultimate and sustains himself up after taking reduced damage.

Evenshroud

• 200 Health
• 20 Ability Haste
• 30 Armor
• 30 Magic Resist
• Repentance: After Immobilizing champions or being immobilized, cause that target and all nearby enemies to Repent increasing the damage they take by 12% for 5 seconds
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 5 armor and Magic Resist

Advertised in the Preseason 2022 video as a new support mythic, Evenshroud can cause tanky, crowd control supports to become potent damage dealers and enhancers through this item. With its stats giving resistances and ability haste, some immediate champions that come to mind that might build this item are Leona, Amumu, and Maokai, all three that rely on heavy crowd control and thrive with more resistances and ability haste. It effectively replaces Abyssal Mask’s old passive, and changes it to be a mythic instead.

Frostfire Gauntlet

• 350 Health
• 25 Armor
• 25 Magic Resist
• 20 Ability Haste
• Immolate: Taking or dealing damage causes you to begin dealing 12 + 1% bonus magic damage per second to nearby enemies (increased by 25% against minions and 150% against jungle monsters) for 3 seconds
• Snowbind: Attacks create a frost field for 1.5 seconds and deal magic damage to all enemies in the area. Enemies that move across the field are slowed
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 100 Health and 6% size

Frostfire Gauntlet is getting a mini-rework. As a staple to tank mythic items, it will be sure to shake up some of the itemization top lane. The stats and the mythic passive hasn’t changed, but its Immolate has been nerfed a bit. Instead of dealing 12-30 (based on level) + (+1% bonus health) damage per second to nearby enemies, it deals a flat 12 + 1% magic damage now.

In compensation, Snowbind now scales with attacks according to the Preseason Preview, and the slow zone no longer has a cooldown anymore and it does the damage, allowing each attack to apply the slow. Unless they forgot to specify basic attacks, the Snowbind passive might proc on abilities which will be a big buff to the item overall.

Turbo Chemtank

• 350 Health
• 25 Armor
• 25 Magic Resist
• 20 Ability Haste
• Active - Supercharged: Grants 40% move speed towards enemies or enemy turrets for 4 seconds. Once near an enemy (or after 4 seconds) a shockwave is emitted that slows nearby champions by 50% for 1.5 seconds (90s cooldown)
• Refuel: Moving and dealing damage fills up the Chemtank. At 100 stacks, your next basic attack deals magic damage to all nearby enemies (increased by 25% against minions and 175% against jungle monsters)
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other legendary items 5 ability haste and 50 health

The immolate damage for Turbo Chemtank has been removed, but in return, they have buffed the mythic passive by giving 50 health per legendary along with the ability haste. They also added the passive Refuel, which acts like an AOE of Deadman’s Plate that deals damage to nearby enemies.

Legendary Items Added/Updated:

Winters Approach

• 400 Health
• 500 Mana
• 15 Ability Haste
• Awe: Gain bonus health equal to 8% mana
• Mana Charge: Strike a target with an Ability or Attack to consume a charge and gain 3 bonus mana, doubled if the target is a champion. Grants a maximum of 360 mana at which point this item transforms into Fimbulwinter

Fimbulwinter

• 400 Health
• 860 Mana
• 15 Ability Haste
• Awe: Gain bonus health equal to 8% mana
• Everlasting: Immobilizing or Slowing (melee only) an enemy champion consumes 3% of current mana and grants a shield for 3 seconds, absorbing damage. The shield is increased by 80% if more than one enemy is nearby

Axiom Arc

• 55 Attack Damage
• 10 Lethality
• 25 Ability Haste
• Refresh: Whenever a Champion dies within 3 seconds of having a damaged them, refund 25% of your Ultimate Ability’s total cooldown

Shadowflame

• 80 Ability Power
• 250 Health
• Damage to champions benefits from 10-20 Magic Penetration based on the target’s current Health. (Max value at 1000 or less health, Min value at 2500 or more Health)
• Gain the max Penetration if the target was recently affected by Shields.

Cosmic Drive

• 60 Ability Power
• 250 Health
• 30 Ability Haste
• 5% Move Speed
• After damaging champions with 3 separate Attacks or Spells, gain 30% Move Speed (decaying to 15%) and 40 Ability Power until leaving combat.

Horizon Focus

• 110 Ability Power
• 150 Health
• Now also includes Slows to trigger Horizon Focus. (Rylai's Crystal Scepter also works)

Demonic Embrace

• 60 Ability Power
• 450 Health
• Dealing Ability damage burns enemies for 2/1.2% max Health magic damage every second for 4 seconds.
• Convert 2% of your bonus Health to Ability Power

Seraph’s Embrace

• 80 Ability Power
• 860 Mana
• 250 Health
• Gain Ability Haste equal to 1.3% bonus mana
• Restore Health equal to 40% of Mana spent, up to 25-50 +10% Ability Power per cast
• (Toggles can restore the same amount per 1 sec)

Force of Nature

• 350 Health
• 70 Magic Resist
• 5% Move Speed
• Absorb: Taking magic damage from enemy Champions grants a stack of Steadfast (max 6). Enemy immobilizing effects grant an additional 2 stacks.
• Dissipate: While at 6 stacks of Steadfast, take 20% reduced magic damage and gain 10% increased Move Speed

Knight's Vow

• 400 Health
• 10 Ability Haste
• 150% Base Health Regen
• Active - Pledge: Designate an ally who is Worth
• Sacrifice: While your Worthy ally is nearby, redirect 10% of damage they take to you and heal for 8% of the damage dealt by your Worth ally to Champions. If they have less than 30% Health the damage reduction is increased to 20%

Abyssal Mask

• 400 Health
• 30 Magic Resist
• 10 Ability Haste
• Unmake: Curse nearby enemy champions, reducing their Magic Resist. For each cursed enemy, gain 7 Magic resist

Runes

Lethal Tempo

• Gain attack speed for 6 seconds when striking at least one enemy champion with each attack. This effect stacks up to 6 times
• While this effect is at its cap, also gain attack range and increase your attack speed cap to 3.0

Glacial Augment

• Immobilizing an enemy champion will cause 3 glacial rays to emanate from them towards you and other nearby champions, creating frozen zones for a few seconds that slow enemies for 40% and reduce their damage by 15% against your allies (not including yourself)

First Strike

• Damaging an enemy champion with an attack or ability before they do so grants 5 gold and First Strike for 3 seconds, causing your attacks or abilities to deal 12% extra damage against champions, and granting 100% (70% for ranged units) of that damage dealt as gold

Scuttle Crab

The final change that is mentioned in the Preseason 2022 preview is the nerf to Rift Scuttler. Rift Scuttler and its priority have always been an extremely vital part of the jungle. The meta for jungle champions is shaped partly by a jungler’s ability to clear their camps and contest scuttle. In order to prevent the jungle from snowballing too hard too early. The first Scuttle Crab will now have 35% reduced health, give 80% less XP than successive Scuttle Crabs, and it will be a bit smaller to signify this change. Hopefully this stops Blaber from flashing for the first Scuttle now.