The League of Legends preseason is in full swing, and big changes are coming to the game we all know and love as announced in Patch Notes 12.22 and 12.23. Read everything about champions changes, item updates, Chemtech Drake’s return, jungle rebalances, and more!

With just the first two League of Legends preseason updates, we see changes small and drastic to over twenty champions, items, the Jungle, and so much more. Let's look at the five most important changes coming to the League of Legends preseason so far. 

Don’t forget also to check how G-Loot can help you track all your League of Legends stats, and make your GGs more rewarding with daily Missions and weekly Brawls. 

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Champion changes coming to the League of Legends preseason in Patch Notes 12.22 and 12.23

The first of the five important changes are the drastic changes that come to many of our favorite and forgotten League of Legends champions. Between patches .22 & .23, a total of twenty-three champions received significant changes for the main League of Legends game modes. In addition, sixteen champions receive a minor buff to their Tenacity (+20%), and four receive a buff of 20% energy regeneration in the ARAM game mode. 

The most notable champion changes from the preseason updates come to Amumu, Tahm Kench, Dr. Mundo, and Zeri. These four champions received changes to all aspects of their kit, including changes to their base stats, damage ratios, and scaling. 

In addition, Rammus, Maokai, Kindred, Ivern, K’Sante, Kassadin, Kayn, Malphite, Mordekaiser, Shyvana, Sion, Syndra, Trundle, Yuumi, Zac, Cho’gath, Lillia, Nunu, and Rakan, all received minor balance changes to one or two aspects of their kit. 

Item Updates to League of Legends in Patch Notes 12.22 and 12.23

The preseason updates see several new and old items added to the game, including the historic Rod of Ages and the Catalyst of Aeons items. Before we get into the new changes and reworks, the two popular tank Mythic items, the Sunfire Aegis and Turbo Chemtank have had their stats reworked and are now available as legendary rarity items. We have three new powerful choices to replace the two tank-oriented Mythic items. 

The first is Jak’sho, the Protean, and its Ornn-upgraded version, the Unspoken Parasite. The second is Radiant Virtue, with its Ornn-update being Primordial Dawn. And third is Heartsteel, and its upgraded version, Leviathan. 

The three new Mythic items come with strong passive effects. Radiant Dawn has “Guiding Light,” a passive that increases your health for nine seconds upon casting your ultimate, that also grants the user and allies within 1200 range a significant (non-ultimate) ability cooldown and health regeneration. Jak’sho, the Protean, works as follows: “Passive - Voidborn Resilience: For each second in champion combat, gain a stack granting 3* armor and MR, up to 8 max. At max stacks, become empowered, instantly draining enemies around you for 3% of your max health (reduced to 30% against minions and monsters) and increasing your resists by 10% until the end of combat.” 

Last is Heartsteel, a new type of health-oriented tank item similar to Warmog’s. Heartsteel is quite a unique item as it allows players to gain additional permanent health through its passive Colossal Consumption. This ability uses your champion's max health to damage your opponent significantly. The last interesting aspect of Heartsteel is that it is the first item to introduce “Champion Size” as an effect, something previously exclusive to the champion Cho’gath. The mythic item grants 6% for each legendary item purchased, allowing any champion to grow up to 30% in size, creating a new unique strategy surrounding blocking and front-lining for your teammates. 

Remaining Item Changes

In addition to the list of new tank-oriented Mythic items, there is much more to cover. The former Frostfire Gaunlet (Frozen Fist) item sees a rework, returning to the old name of the Iceborn Gauntlet in addition to a rebalancing of stats. The previously mentioned Rod of Ages and Catalyst of Aeons return some power to the scaling mid-lane champions, as we can see in the immediate changes to Kassadin and several other control mage champions. Last, to sum up the remaining changes quickly, the preseason introduced additional changes to the Abyssal Mask, Randuin’s Omen, Aegis of the Legion, Ravenous Hydra, Tiamat, Spear of Shojin, and the Navori Quickblades. 

Chemtech Drake’s return in League of Legends

After almost a year of sitting on the sidelines, the Chemtech Drake finally returns to Summoner’s Rift! The Chemtech Drake sees several drastic changes compared to its previous form, which is worth understanding before you queue up your next game on the rift. The first notable feature of the Chemtech Drake is its change at half HP, where it gains 33% damage resistance and deals 50% more damage. In addition, the Chemtech Drake deals 4% of its target’s (current) health in addition to its regular damage. 

For each Chemtech Drake your team takes, each player gains 5% tenacity in addition to 5% Healing and Shielding power. In addition, the Chemtech Soul gives your team 10% damage resistance and deals 10% more damage when below 50% HP. Note: The soul buff only activates UNDER 50% HP, whereas the regular dragon’s buff is always active.

Jungle rebalances in League of Legends Patch Notes 12.22 and 12.23- a whole new game

As with most every season, the biggest changes to League of Legends come to the jungle. This time, the changes are drastic. Just about every aspect of the jungle has changed, including the summoner spell Smite, Jungle-specific items, the stats, and just about every aspect of every camp. Aside from the camp's visual look, it is a new game. Let’s go over the most important parts. 

Jungle Compansions and the new Smite upgrades

As the Jungle role can sometimes be quite lonely, Riot Games has added some awesome friends to assist you on your journey! The three companions are Mosstomer, Scorchclaw, and Gustwalker, represented by the new green, red, and blue jungle items. Each of the three has a unique bonus effect. Mosstomper grants a shield after killing a jungle camp or being out of combat for 10 seconds. Scorchclaw deals additional damage and provides a small slow at 100 ember stacks, whereas Gustwalker provides a 45% decaying movement speed buff when entering a brush. 

In addition to these effects, all companions provide a 30% damage reduction from monsters if you have at least two allies nearby, which is incredibly beneficial when fighting Dragons, Herald, and Baron Nashor. 

The companion's scale in damage and buffs as you clear through your jungle, having two evolution stages. You can work towards your evolutions passively through the treats, farming jungle camps, or assisting on champion takedowns. 

The first evolution upgrades the Smite ability to 900 True Damage against monsters, on top of the ability to cast Smite on enemy champions, dealing a small amount of damage and slowing the enemy for two seconds by 20%. Then, with the final evolution, smite upgrades to 1200 damage, dealing 50% of that as AoE damage when fighting the Wolves, Raptors, or Krug's jungle camps. In addition, the jungle item leaves your inventory, allowing for more space to buy those vision wards to assist your teammates! 

Camp changes 

The other major aspect of the jungle rebalance is each camp's base stats and the various mechanics surrounding that. There is far too much to get into, but here is what you need to know. There are many changes to the resetting of jungle camps, significantly reducing the range they can walk but making it less punishing when you pull one too far. 

Another noteworthy aspect of the camp rebalance is that the “big” monsters of the jungle camps now deal an additional 3% of the target's current health on hit. That may not seem much at first, but this change drastically incentivizes players to remain at a lower health total while they clear their jungle, making them more vulnerable to invades. 

On the topic of invading, junglers now get a damage buff to camps on their own side of the jungle. The change aims to assist some of the “slower” junglers from getting overrun in the early stages of the game, which attempts to increase the champion diversity. 

Player assistance & communication tools in League of Legends preseason

The final aspect of the crazy list of preseason changes is the improved communication and player assistance tools added to the game. One noteworthy addition is the introduction of a suggested first Jungle-clear. As described by Riot Games, the feature should suggest the most successful first jungle clear for your champion, making it easier for players to try and learn the jungle role. 

Another great addition to League of Legends is the new planning tool. The preseason update introduces Objective Planning, a system that allows players to quickly suggest and vote on decisions surrounding the game’s monster objectives. Players may start an objective vote as early as 75 seconds ahead of the objective’s spawn. 

The last thing to discuss is the changes coming to Champion Select. The preseason introduces Champion Select Anonymity to prevent players from using 3rd-party tools to scout their teammates to reduce the increasingly common champion select dodging. In addition, the game now allows players to switch pick orders with their teammates to improve the ability to draft with their randomly matchmade teammates at the start of the champion selection phase. 

Now it’s time to make your League of Legends games more rewarding!

Excited about all these preseason changes, and want to test them all by yourself? Before you go into your next game, don’t forget to join G-Loot to earn rewards as you play League of Legends. Moreover, with G-Loot you can track all your stats for League of Legends and other awesome games like VALORANT, Apex Legends, and PUBG.