The LoL 12.22 Patch Notes have been revealed as the latest update to League of Legends, bringing a whole host of changes based on pre-season.
The changes include the return of the Chemtech Drake, a new Chemtech Rift, three new jungle companions as first mentioned in the LoL Pre-Season Announcement, seven new items, new ARAM balance changes, changes to Rift Scuttler including the removal of its shield, and more.
When the Chemtech Drake is below half health it gains 33% damage resistance and deals 50% more damage. This drake will deal 100% total AD + 4% of its target’s health as physical damage with each attack.
When a team kills a Chemtech Drake they will gain a stacking buff that grants 5% Tenacity and 5% Healing and Shielding power. And upon receiving the Chemtech Soul, players will receive a buff that gives them 10% damage resistance and 10% more damage while below 50% health.
And the Chemtech Rift will turn Honey Fruits into Stim Fruits , providing the usual heal plus a bonus shield, turn Blast Cones into more powerful versions, blasting units twice as far when they explode, and a Firelight Bloom will replace Scryer’s Bloom, revealing a small area around the plant in addition to the opposite direction it was broken from. Allies tagged will also gain movement speed towards that direction for a short duration, and enemy wards revealed will be taken to one health.
In terms of jungle camp changes, all the camps got their own little Durability Update. Riot’s goals with this update are to make it more of an investment for laners to take jungle camps (especially in the early game), keeping fast clear speeds fast while making slow clearers slightly less slow by shifting jungle dps into companions, and shifting some gold and experience from the jungle itself into the new jungle items. On the other hand, Riot actually made Krugs a less durable camp by removing the 2 Krugs that spawned from the Ancient Krug which should make the camp less of a time sink and allow for more interesting early game jungle pathing.
“We’ve also made quite a few adjustments to reduce how effectively both laners and enemy junglers can poach camps,” Riot said. “The Own-Side clearing strength changes are meant to speed up how fast junglers clear their own jungle while increasing the opportunity cost. This Own-Side Clearing Strength change will also help tone down very early invades and vertical jungling which, while interesting and powerful, is currently too reliant on your team’s ability to play around you and maintain early lane pressure.
“In addition, the new Marked for Death change should make getting counter jungled a bit less punishing as well. To be clear, we absolutely do want counter jungling in the game and believe it should be an effective strategy for junglers. However, the current state of counter jungling is far too strong and punishing, making it an incredibly miserable experience for those being invaded which isn’t ideal for the role.
“In an effort to make the jungle more welcoming to players unfamiliar with the role, we’ll be adding visual leashing indicators that will show how far camps can be pulled before their patience starts diminishing. We’re also decreasing the distance camps can be pulled, so no more having to stand on the perfect pixel to clear two camps at once in order to hyper-optimize your clears.
“We’re also taking the healing power out of Smite and Gromp and spreading it across the jungle with the jungle companions. When the % health on-hit damage from some camps is factored in, this should result in a jungle where only a few champions finish their clear with low health, most champions have a decent amount of health to work with, and sustain oriented champions leave very healthy. After all, if every champion could heal like Warwick, there wouldn’t be much value in Warwick’s innate sustain.”
There will also be first clear pathing recommendations for junglers.
The Rift Scuttler shield has been removed, and the spawn time has been moved to 3:30 to help slower junglers take their time clearing while faster ones can get in a pre-Scuttle gank.
Then, looking to jungle companions, if you bring Smite, you’ll have the option to purchase Mosstomper, Scorchclaw, or Gustwalker in egg form at the beginning of the game. They’ll grow and evolve as you progress in the game by getting stacks from monster and champion takedowns, so make sure to give them lots of treats/stacks and love.
“In an effort to conserve the Rift ecosystem, we strongly recommend that our furry and scaly friends (and Smite) be kept in the jungle,” Riot said.
Companion Attacks
Companions will deal 20(+4% base HP)(+15% AP)(+10% AD) and will attack at a rate of 1 attack per second. After their owner has stopped attacking, they will attack two more times and then stop.
Companions will heal their owner for 70% of the above number every time they attack.
Damaging a camp from a distance will cause companions to leap attack toward the camp, dealing the same amount of damage.
Companion Mana Regeneration
Companions will provide their owners with an increase to mana regeneration equal to [(8*percent missing mana) + (8*percent missing mana)*(level/1.3)*0.1] while in the jungle (including your jungle, the enemy jungle, and the river).
Companion Progression
Jungle companions will evolve twice throughout the game by acquiring treats via the following methods:
- 1 treat per large monster/champion takedown
- 1 bonus treat is stored every 60 seconds before reaching the companion’s final evolution form
- 1 bonus treat is stored every 90 seconds after reaching the companion’s final evolution form
- When a large monster is killed with bonus treats available, players will receive 2 treats and 50 bonus gold. 1 bonus treat stack will also be removed.
Companion Evolutions
As jungle companions evolve, they will receive the following bonuses at each evolution:
First Evolution
- Smite damage will be increased to 900 true damage against monsters
- Smite is now castable on enemy champions, dealing 80-160 (based on level) true damage and slowing the target by 20% for 2 seconds
- The jungle item will remain in your inventory
- Companion will visually evolve
- Smite’s icon will upgrade
Final Evolution
- Smite damage will be increased to 1200 against monsters and will do 50% of its damage as AoE damage against nearby monsters
- Players will become empowered and receive buffs depending on their chosen companion
- The jungle item will be removed from your inventory
- Companion will visually evolve
- Smite’s icon will upgrade
Mosstomper
Mosstomper’s Courage: Gain a 75-330 (based on level) health shield after killing a monster camp or after 10 seconds out of combat. This shield will remain indefinitely. Players will gain 20% Tenacity and slow resist while the shield is present and for 3 seconds after it has been broken.
Protection Buff: Take 30% reduced damage from monsters while at least 2 allies are within 1300 units
Scorchclaw
Scorchclaw’s Slash: Scorchclaw will accumulate Ember stacks at a rate of 3 stacks per 0.5 seconds or 100 stacks upon killing a large monster. At 100 Ember stacks, your next instance of damage against an enemy champion will slow all enemies in a 250 unit radius by 30% (decaying over 2 seconds) and deal burn damage equal to 5% of the target’s maximum health in true damage over 4 seconds to the primary target.
Protection Buff: Take 30% reduced damage from monsters while at least 2 allies are within 1300 units
Gustwalker
- Gustwalker’s Gait: Gain 45% bonus move speed when entering a brush that decays over 2 seconds after leaving the brush. This is increased to 60% for 2 seconds after killing a large monster.
- Protection Buff: Take 30% reduced damage from monsters while at least 2 allies are within 1300 units
There’s a lot more to the changes so we’ll included a link below to the patch notes in more detail when they’re uploaded to the League of Legends website
Pre-season arrives on November 15th 2022 UTC.
See more on the LoL 12.22 Patch Notes on the League of Legends website
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
