LoL Preseason 2023 Changes | Jungle Pets, Chemtech Drake, Items & More

Preseason 2023 is about to appear on PBE, and we are excited to tell you all about it. This preseason we will witness changes to the jungle, the return of old beloved items and the addition of new ones, strengthening of the top lane, more tools to assist newer players, and much more.

The preseason is a big part of League of Legends that happens near the end of every year. In the preseason, Riot Games makes some significant changes to League of Legends in order to continuously improve their game and keep it up to date. By 2023, we can expect some major changes, especially in the jungle. So without further ado, let's look at what Riot Games has in store for us in 2023. 

• Get a new headset for preseason 2023

The Preseason changes were released on October 3, 2022, a bit earlier than usual, such that Riot can test out the new changes in PBE and gather some feedback from the players. 

Before looking closer at the new changes, it is important to keep in mind that we are still in the beginning of testing on the PBE, and changes to the information currently available is likely to be updated along the way when we have more information about how well the new changes fits into the current game. Now that you are informed, let's dive right into the new changes for the 2023 Preseason. 

LoL Preseason 2023: The Chemtech Dragon is Back

The infamous Chemtech Dragon is making a return after being disabled in January of this year. The last time the dragon was active, many fans were unhappy with the drake, and Riot received a lot of criticism. However, this time the dragon will come with a brand new buff, soul, and changes to the map. Here is everything you need to know about the "new" dragon:

• When Slain: The Chemtech Dragon will grant a small amount of Tenacity and Heal/Shield strength.
• Chemtech Soul: Grants bonus damage when below a certain amount of health.

When the third dragon of the match is a Chemtech Dragon, the Summoner's Rift will change to a Chemtech-inspired look with Zaunite chemicals and mutated jungle plants consiting upgraded effects:

• Blast cones: Blasts twice as far as before
• Honey Fruits: Changes into Stim Fruits. Stim Fruits will no longer slow champions that consume them and grant a small shield in addition to the usual heal.
  
• Scryer's Bloom: Upgrades into Stalker's Bloom. When hit, the Stalker's Bloom will reveal a small circular area around the plant itself and a cone opposite the direction it was hit. Additionally, it will grant movement speed towards enemies revealed by the bloom and reduce the health of all wards revealed to 1 health. 

Major Jungle Changes Coming for Preseason 2023

League of Legends has struggled for a long time with newer players finding it too challenging to play in the jungle, resulting in too few players wanting to play the role in lower elos. Preseason 2023 looks to do something about the issue by giving the jungler more assistance in clearing the jungle, ganking, and communicating with the other players. 

Jungle Pets Joining the Rift

Yes, you heard right. This year we will see the addition of pets coming to the jungle for 2023. The new creatures will assist the jungler in different ways depending on which pet you choose at the beginning of the game. The pets can be purchased in the in-game shop as an egg and will continuously evolve through "treats" that can be acquired through monster kills and slowly over time as the game progresses. Once the pet is fully evolved, it will give owners Avatar buffs which empowers them with different abilities. Here are the different pets you can choose from: 

• Ixtali Ixamander: The Ixtali Ixamander will provide a shield based on your current health that provides bonus slow resist and Tenacity when broken. This jungle pet is perfect for frontline and tanks. 
• Ionian Cloudleaper: The Ionian Cloudleaper will provide bonus movement speed and is great for junglers looking to move around more quickly on the map.
• Noxian Embercat: The Noxian Embercat ill provide slows and bonus damage and is a great choice for more aggressive junglers.

Jungle Pathing Recommendations

As already mentioned, the jungle role can be quite difficult for newer players. One of the aspects that makes it so hard is the jungle pathing. Knowing where to go and when can be quite challenging, especially when you are still in the process of learning the game itself. 

For preseason 2023, Riot looks to do something about the difficulty of jungle pathing by adding recommended jungle paths. These recommended jungle paths will be adjusted for every champion. 

• Related: Jungle Guide Part 1: Camps and Plants

The jungle pathing recommendations were determined by gathering data from high-elo junglers on their high-mastery champions. The pathing recommendations will be updated each patch and will always be the most common routes of high-skilled jungles that led these players to victory. 

Jungle Leash Range Indicator

Another course of action to make the jungle more welcoming to the newer players in preseason 2023 is the addition of visual leashing indicators. These indicators will show the players how far a camp can be pulled before its patience starts to diminish. In addition, the distance a camp can be pulled will be decreased to avoid having to stand on the perfect pixel to have hyper-optimized jungle clears. 

Preseason 2023: Changes to the Vision System

Tracking for Allied Wards

Until now, there haven’t been any quick ways to check which wards are soon expiring other than looking at the wards placed. For preseason 2023, Riot is introducing new ward visuals on the minimap that will give an overview of the expiration time of the wards by indicating when a ward is close to expiring. This will be achieved by changing a ward's appearance when they reach 60 and 30 seconds remaining before expiring. 

• Related: Warding 101: A Guide to Staying Alive and Winning Games

Timers for Enemy Wards

Keeping track of every single ward that has been placed by the enemy and also communicating the information to your teammates is pretty challenging right now. Riot Games is looking to make this easier in the 2023 preseason by introducing enemy ward timers. If you manage to ping an enemy ward that you saw them place within 10 secons, a  perfectly accurate timer will appear until the ward is removed or it expires. 

Preseason Changes to the Communication Tools

Communication in League of Legends is difficult enough as it is, and the pings available have been quite limited and maybe not used the way it was originally thought to be. I mean, who hasn’t pinged the Enemy Missing when infuriated with your teammates, right? For preseason 2023, we will witness big changes to the various communication tools in League of Legends.

 Updated Ping Wheel

As you can see in the picture above, we will have a new upgraded ping wheel in League of Legends to facilitate communication amongst the teammates. The number of pings will be doubled, and we will have some pings returning this preseason, but also some completely new ones to add to the collection. 

• Old Returning Pings: Retreat, On My Way, Assist Me, Enemy Missing 
• New Pings: Push, All-In, Hold, Bait 
  

There will also be a whole new ping wheel that focuses entirely on vision. Here are the three new pings for the Vision Ping wheel:

• Vision Cleared 
• Enemy Vision
• Need Vision

Voting on Objectives 

League of Legends is primarily a team game, even though many players seem to forget that. Planning to take objectives together can be quite difficult, and only using the "On My Way" and "Retreat" ping is often not sufficient. To make sure that your team is on board with taking bigger objectives, League of Legends is introducing Objective Voting.  

The objective voting system will appear when objectives are pinged and will have a similar look to a surrender vote. Now all the players in the team can vote if they would like to contest the objective pinged or if they should rather give it away.

Pings Will Appear On Screen

You have probably been in a situation where your enemy laner leaves to gank, and you ping Enemy Missing, but your teammate does not react and ends up dying. This is, of course, very infuriating, but it is also understandable as pings appearing off screen can often be missed. 

The new update looks to change this by having all Enemy Missing show up on your screen regardless of where they are pinged on the map. Retreat, On My Way, Assist Me, Hold, All-In, and Push will only be displayed when pinged whitin 3000 units of your screen's edge. This is how Riot Games explained the size of 3000 units: 

Approximately corner to corner of your screen when fully zoomed out or 20 Teemo's

Preseason 2023: New Loadout and Ability Recommendation

Recommended Runes and Summoner Spells

It can sometimes be quite challenging to know exactly which runes and summoner spell to go, especially if you are trying out a new champion. For Preseason 2023, Riot Games are introducing optional recommended rune pages and summoner spells in champion select. The recommended runes and summoner spells will appear by clicking on a button to the left side of the edit rune page button. When pressing the new button, up to 3 rune and summoner spell set-ups will be displayed, and you will be able to select one to use in the game. 

Similar to the jungle pathing recommendation, these changes will be updated once per patch and are selected from which setups are optimal and popular at that point in time. These are, of course, only recommendations, and Riot Games still welcomes players wanting to theorycraft and try out new loadouts. 

Until then, why don't you check out this guide on how to play Thresh:

Recommended Ability Level Ups

In addition to the new recommendation to runes and summoner spells, we will also see a new update providing players with recommended ability level ups. These recommendations tells you which abilities are typically leveled up. These recommendations will also be updated every patch based on what is currently optimal.

Preseason 2023: Make Top Lane Great Again

Riot Games is looking to show the top laners some additional love with some new changes. These changes will to help top laners scale faster and hit key items and level breakpoints quicker relative to mid and bot lane. Here is a breakdown of the new changes:

• Solo Lane Experience: Solo lanes' experience multiplier gained from minions will change from 93% to 95%.
• Duo Lane Experience: Duo lanes' experience multiplier gained from minions will change from 24,73% to 22%.
• Mid Lane Gold Changes: When last hit, all minions spawned in the mid lane will be worth 1 gold less before minute 14.

New Items and the Return of Old Items for Preseason 2023

Going into 2023, Riot games are introducing 12 new or updated items. As already mentioned, the stats effect and names can be changed while the updates are available on PBE. 

New Items 

Jak'Sho, the Protean (Mythic Item)

• Cost: 3000 Gold
• 400 Health
• 30 Armor
• 30 Magic Resist
• 20 Ability Haste

• Voidborn Resilience: For each second in champion combat, gain a stack granting 2 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 end of combat.
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 5 Armor and Magic Resist

The Unspoken Parasite (Ornn Upgrade)

• Health: 550
• Armor: 40
• Magic Resist: 40
• Ability Haste: 25
• Passive - Voidborn Resilience: Passive is identical to base version

Radiant Virtue (Mythic Item)

• Cost: 3000 Gold
• 400 Health
• 30 Armor
• 30 Magic Resist
• 20 Ability Haste
• Build Path: Aegis of the Legion + Kindlegem + Ruby Crystal
• Guiding Light: Upon casting your ultimate you Transcend, increasing your max health by 10% for 9 seconds. While Transcended, you and allies within 1200 range of you gain 15 non-ultimate ability haste and heal for 1% of your max health every 3 seconds, increased by up to 100% based on that champion's missing health. 60 second cooldown.
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 100 Health

Primordial Dawn (Ornn Upgrade)

• Health: 550
• Armor: 40
• Magic Resist: 40
• Ability Haste: 25
• Passive - Guiding Light: Passive is identical to base version

Heartsteel (Mythic Item)

• Cost: 3200 Gold
• 800 Health
• 200% Base Health Regeneration
• 20 Ability Haste
• Colossal Consumption: Charge up a powerful attack against a champion over 3 seconds while within 700 range of them. The charged attack deals 125 +6% of your max health as bonus physical damage, and grants you 10% of that amount as permanent max health. 30 second cooldown per target.
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 1% increased health and 6% champion size

Leviathan (Ornn Upgrade)

• Health: 1050
• Health Regen: 300%
• Ability Haste: 25
• Passive - Colossal Consumption: Passive is identical to base version

Returning Items 

Rod of Ages (Mythic Item)

• Gold Cost: 3200
• Ability Power: 60
• Health: 300
• Mana: 400
• Build Path: Catalyst of Aeons + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome
• Passive: This item gains 20 health, 20 mana, and 4 ability power every minute, up to 10 times, for a maximum of 200 health, 200 mana, and 40 ability power. Upon reaching max stacks, gain a level and all effects of Eternity are increased by 50%. (Note: this will not increase the level cap of 18)
• Unique Passive - Eternity: Restore mana equal to 8% of premitigation damage taken from champions, and health equal to 20% of mana spent, up to 15 health per cast. Toggled abilities can only heal for up to 15 per second. For every 250 health or mana restored this way, gain 25% decaying move speed for 2 seconds.
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 5 Ability Haste

Infinite Convergence (Ornn Upgrade)

• Ability Power: 80
• Health: 450
• Mana: 550
• Passive/Unique Passive - Eternity: Passives are identical to base version

Catalyst of Aeons

• Gold Cost: 1100
• Health: 225
• Mana: 300
• Build Path: Ruby Crystal + Sapphire Crystal
• Unique Passive - Eternity: Restore mana equal to 8% of premitigation damage taken from champions, and health equal to 20% of mana spent, up to 15 health per cast. Toggled abilities can only heal for up to 15 per second.

Spear of Shojin

• Gold Cost: 3400
• Attack Damage: 65
• Health: 300
• Ability Haste: 20
• Unique Passive - Dragonforce: Non-ultimate spells gain an extra [8 (+8% bonus AD) Ability Haste for melee champions | 6 (+6% bonus AD) Ability Haste for ranged champions], reduced to [4 (+4% bonus AD) Ability Haste for melee champions | 3 (+3% bonus AD) Ability Haste for ranged] for spells with immobilizing effects
• Unique Passive - Exigency: Gain up to [15% melee | 10% ranged] move speed, based on your % missing health (maxed out while below 33% health)
• Build Path: B.F. Sword + Kindlegem + Caulfield’s Warhammer

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Updated Items 

Iceborn Gauntlet (Mythic Item)

• Gold Cost: 2800 ⇒ 3000
• Health: 450 ⇒ 400
• Armor: 25 ⇒ 50
• Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 0
• Ability Haste: 20 (unchanged)
• Build Path: Bami's Cinder + Null-Magic Mantle + Cloth Armor ⇒ Sheen + Kindlegem + Chain Vest
• Passive - Spellblade: After using an ability, your next attack is enhanced with an additional 100% base AD physical damage and creates a frost field for 2.5 seconds. Enemies that move across the field are slowed by 15% +.004% bonus health (halved for ranged users). Your primary target is crippled, applying a 100% stronger slow on them and reducing their damage by 10% against you for 2.5 seconds. 1.5 second cooldown.
• Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 50 health, 5% Tenacity, and 5% slow resist

Abyssal Mask

• 500 Health
• 300 Mana
• 40 Magic Resist
• 10 Ability Haste
• Eternity: Restore mana equal to 15% of damage taken from champions, and health equal to 20% of mana spent, up to 15 health per cast. Toggled abilities can only heal for up to 15 health per second.
• Unmake: Curse nearby enemy champions, reducing the Magic Resist by 5 + 1.5% bonus health (maximum of 25). For each Cursed enemy, gain 9 Magic Resist.
• A champion can only be Cursed by one enemy at a time (prioritizing the most potent Curse)

Frozen Fist (Ornn Upgrade)

• Health: 550
• Armor: 70
• Ability Haste: 25
• Passive - Spellblade: Passive is identical to base version

Randuin’s Omen

• Gold Cost: 2700 ⇒ 3000
• Health: 250 ⇒ 400
• Armor: 90 ⇒ 60
• Ability Haste: 10 ⇒ 0
• Build Path: Warden's Mail + Cloth Armor + Ruby Crystal ⇒ Warden's Mail + Giant's Belt
• [NEW] Active - Humility: Briefly slow nearby enemies by 55% for 2 seconds (60 second cooldown)
• [NEW] Passive - Critical Resistance: Critical strikes deal 20% less damage to you
• Passive - Rock Solid: Reduce incoming damage from attacks by up to 5 +0.35%, capped at 40% of attack's damage

Ravenous Hydra

• Attack Damage: 70 ⇒ 65
• Unique Passive - Cleave: 60-12% total AD (based on distance) ⇒ 60% of total AD for melee champions and 30% of total AD for ranged champions to all enemies around them
• [NEW] Unique Passive - Carnivorous: Gain 0.6 AD and 0.1% Omnivamp on minion kills, increased to twice that amount for champions, large/epic monsters, and siege minions. Stacks up to 24 AD and 4% Omnivamp. Lose half of these stacks on death.

Tiamat

• Unique Passive - Cleave: 60-12% total AD (based on distance) ⇒ 50% of total AD for melee champions and 25% of total AD for ranged champions to all enemies around them

Sunfire Aegis 

• Item Tier: Mythic ⇒ Legendary
• Gold Cost: 3200 ⇒ 2800
• Health: 450 ⇒ 400
• Armor: 35 ⇒ 50
• Magic Resistance: 35 ⇒ 0
• Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 0
• Build Path: Bami’s Cinder + Aegis of the Legion ⇒ Bami's Cinder + Chain Vest
• [REMOVED] Unique Passive - Flametouch: Flametouch has been removed
• Passive - Immolate: Immolate damage is no longer increased by 150% against monsters

Aegis of the Legion

• Gold Cost: 1400 ⇒ 1200

Turbo Chemtank 

• Item Tier: Mythic ⇒ Legendary
• Gold Cost: 3200 ⇒ 2800
• Health: 450 ⇒ 500
• Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 50
• Armor: 25 ⇒ 0
• Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 10
• Build Path: Bami’s Cinder + Cloth Armor + Null Magic Mantle ⇒ Kindlegem + Negatron Cloak + Ruby Crystal
• [REMOVED] Passive - Refuel: Refuel passive has been removed

Navori Quickblades

Even though these changes weren't in the original Preseason 2023 Preview article by Riot Games, we can also expect some changes to the Navori Quickblade, according to Riot Phlox.

• Ability Haste: 30 ⇒ 20
• [NEW] Unique Passive - Transcendance: If you have at least 60% Critical Strike Chance, your Attacks reduce your non-Ultimate Ability cooldowns by 15% of their remaining cooldown.
• [NEW] Unique Passive - Impermanence: Your abilities deal up to 20% increased damage based on critical strike chance

And with that, you know everything there is to know about the League of Legends preseason 2023 preview. Which changes are you most excited about? 

Join us on Discord and let us know!