With every season,League of Legendschanges dramatically. Like any long-lived game, it needs to change regularly in order to stay interesting and survive, so that’s not surprising. In the past,League of Legendshas redesigned its entire map, rebuilt runes from the bottom up, and overhauled the majority of its items. Recently,League of Legendsturned its attention to the neutral drakes, adding two new drake variants for players to kill in exchange for permanent bonuses. Those were the Hextech Drake and the Chemtech Drake. While they were highly original ideas, the Chemtech Drake unfortunately didn’t survive; Riot Games removed it only a little while after its release.
The Chemtech Drake was definitely problematic forLeague of Legendsin its time. Its map changes made it impossible for fragile champions to walk through the jungle without getting ambushed, and its Soul bonus was simply too good to keep in check. Nevertheless, the Chemtech Drake deserves to make a comeback. It may have faltered, but Chemtech as a concept belongs as a pair with Hextech.InLeague of Legendslore, Chemtech has all kinds of interesting uses and implications that could get put to use in a second version of the drake. Riot just has to commit to giving the drake another chance.
Another Version of the Chemtech Drake
League of Legendsneeds to bring the Chemtech Drake back because the current season of the game feels far less compelling with only one new drake. Having one new drake adds a bit of variety, but not quite enough to feel like the refreshing wave of change that’s meant to kick off a season. Thematically, it also feels strange to have a Hextech Drake without a Chemtech Drake.TheLeague of LegendsshowArcaneshowcased how hextech and chemtech are opposing sides of innovation in the game’s lore. Hextech Drake feels a little out of place alongside the elemental drakes, but with Chemtech Drake returned, Hextech Drake would feel a little more at home.
Bringing Chemtech Drake back would be a significant task, since Riot Games would have to rework it significantly, but the lore about chemtech provides plenty of potential directions to take it in. For instance, while the chemfog probably couldn’t safely return to Summoner’s Rift,League of Legends' plants could be mutated by the effects of chemtech, providing additional stat buffs or debuffs when they’re used. The Chemtech Drake’s main benefits could include bursts of health regeneration or damage resistance, whereas its Soul could provide bigger overarching buffs or even let a team poison other champions. Riot has plenty of options when it comes torestoringLeague of Legends' lost drake.
RELATED:Riot Games' Fortiche Investment Could Lead to a League of Legends Cinematic Universe
Cause for Chemtech Drake’s Return
Notably, Riot has already laid the groundwork for Chemtech Drake to return with entirely different mechanics.The newly released support, Renata Glasc, features a chemtech-powered death prevention ability that’s not far from the Chemtech Soul’s zombie ability. Now that this core aspect of the Chemtech Drake has been repurposed, the drake has additional room to return to the game with new abilities. Renata may have helped the Chemtech Drake distance itself from its problematic roots.
Riot Games hasn’t discussed how big a priority reworking the Chemtech Drake is. While it’s probably interested in letting the drake come back, it has plenty of other projects in the works. The Udyr rework is well on its way, andthe upcoming Void championis likely a priority forLeague of Legendsas well, since they’ll help the game transition away fromArcane-adjacent content. Hopefully Chemtech Drake returns toLeague of Legendsbefore the end of the year, though, bearing a wide range of new functions that make it feel at home on Summoner’s Rift, rather than a frustrating objective to deal with.
