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League of Legends: Riot disables Chemtech Drake after negative feedback

The Chemtech Drake's time in the League of Legends (LoL) Summoner's Rift is over after developer Riot Games announced on Tuesday (25 January) that they will be disabling the feature.

This comes after many players expressed frustration over the new addition.

The disabling of the Chemtech Drake also includes all other buffs related to this Zaunite Dragon, like the Chemtech terrain and the Chemtech Dragon Soul.

“Chemtech addition has been just too frustrating to play with — especially if you’re on the losing team,” the Summoner’s Rift team said. This came from player feedback from social media and in-game surveys.

The Chemtech Drake was introduced to the Summoner’s rift in Preseason 2022. In its first iteration, slaying the Dragon gave the team a damage amp increase that could go up to 6%, which is especially effective against enemies with higher health pools.

In addition, the bleed-out period of slaying team members was reduced to four seconds while their damage output was reduced by 40%. Champions revived by the Chemtech Dragon Soul would also have a zombie state indicator on their health bar.

On top of the Chemtech Dragon Soul, the terrain of the Rift also changed. In the Chemtech Terrain, bushes disappear and chemical gas was released in the jungle, camouflaging anyone who was in it while also disabling the champion’s ability to jump and gank at enemies.

This change in the terrain has proven to be a huge problem for champions like Rengar (who was given adjustments in patch 12.2 to deal with it), Maokai, Fiddlesticks, and Sion.

The Chemtech Drake, Dragon Soul, and Terrain have been the bane of players on Ranked Games. Photo: Riot Games
The Chemtech Drake, Dragon Soul, and Terrain have been the bane of players on Ranked Games. Photo: Riot Games

Since its introduction, the feature has faced much backlash from the community, with the official LoL subreddit blowing up with threads like “Chemtech Dragon is unfun” or “I just lost a game [be]cause of [the] new Chem tech drake terrain".

Even League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK) caster and analyst Maurits “Chronicler” Jan Meeusen said in an interview last year that the “Chemtech Drake is not fun.”

But the topic that gained the most traction was “Realistically will Riot admit Chemtech drake was a mistake and remove it?

Most players agreed that the Chemtech Drake has been a problem, especially during their promotions, but would rather see changes instead of completely removing the unfriendly Drake.

Almost every patch since Preseason 2022 has tried to address complaints about the Chemtech Drake, but the complaints haven’t ceased.

The developer team has fielded a survey two weeks ago to cover feedback from both English and non-English speaking players.

Riot Game Designer “GreaterBelugaWhale” also replied in the said thread, adding that “If we come to the conclusion something is bad, we assess the priority to change or remove it, as with everything in League”.

The dragon will be going back to the dev room where the team will be working on design changes to solve issues that people had with the current version, “while maintaining the spirit of what we were trying to originally achieve", The Summoner’s Rift team said in the announcement.

The team’s main focus will be on the Chemtech Terrain, which has proven to be difficult for many champions.

The team warned that “this may take time to do right", so we will be missing the green gas-releasing, zombifying Dragon in the Drake rotation for a while… or not.

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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