League of Legends Patch 12.22 introduces changes to the jungle role in Preaseason 2023. Chemtech Drake, jungle pets, and an overhaul all included!

Preseason 2023 Jungle Changes

Chemtech Drake

The sixth drake, the Chemtech Drake, makes a return in this update. The goal with this new and improved objective is “to encourage calculated, aggressive plays and incentivize players to fight to the end to gain the edge over their opponents,” according to the full patch notes.

  • Chemtech Drake: 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.
  • Chemtech Buff: When your team kills a Chemtech Drake they will gain a stacking buff that grants 5% Tenacity and 5% Healing and Shielding power
  • Chemtech Soul:  Upon receiving the Chemtech Soul, players will receive a buff that gives them 10% damage resistance and 10% more damage while below 50% health

Chemtech Rift

Of course, coming along with the Chemtech Drake is the Chemtech Rift. Instead of the Chemtech gas propagating as fog in the rift and acting like one big bush, it has now instead seeped into the Rift and mutated the environment, resulting in each of the jungle plants being enhanced.

  • Stim Fruits: Honeyfruits will upgrade into Stim Fruits and provide the usual heal plus a bonus shield in addition to no longer slowing champions that consume it
  • Blast Cones: Blast Cones will now blast units within their range twice as far when they explode
  • Firelight Bloom: Scryer’s Bloom will upgrade into Firelight’s Bloom which will reveal a small area around the plant when broken in addition to the usual cone in 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 1 health.

Jungle Changes

Now we get into the meat of the patch: the jungle itself.

New Jungle Camp Mechanics

Marked for Death

  • When a large monster dies, all small monsters in their camp will be marked for death. After 10 consecutive seconds of not being in combat with a champion, monsters that have been marked for death will die.

Own-Side Clearing Strength

  • Junglers now deal 20% more damage from non-true damage sources to monsters on their own side of the jungle. This increased damage will not apply when invading and dealing damage to the enemy’s camps.

Parting Gifts

  • All large monsters will now heal [27+3/level (increased by up to 2.25x based on missing health) health and restore 15+2/level (increased by up to 2.25x based on missing mana) mana upon takedown if you have a jungle companion. This heal/mana restoration will take the form of a projectile that will be fired towards the champion that last-hit the monster after a 0.3 second delay.

Camp Gold and XP Changes

Lane Minion Experience

  • Junglers will only gain 75% experience from lane minions before their first pet evolution unless the jungler is behind the average game level

Large Monster Gold

  • All large monster gold given to non-junglers has been reduced by 15 gold

Large Monster Experience for Non-Junglers

  • All large monster experience given to non-junglers has been reduced by 15 experience except for the Ancient Krug which has been reduced by 12 experience

Large Monster Experience for Junglers

  • All large monsters now give an additional 15 experience if you have a jungle companion

Specific Camp Changes

Blue Sentinel

  • Health: 1850 >>> 2300
  • Attack Damage: 78 >>> 66
  • NEW: Blue Sentinel now deals 5% of its target’s current health on hit

Gromp

  • Health: 1650 >>> 2200
  • Attack Damage: 74 >>> 70
  • Attack Range: 200 >>> 175
  • NEW: Gromp now deals 5% of its target’s current health on hit
  • REMOVED: Gromp will no longer heal the champion that killed it upon dying

Krugs

  • Ancient Krug Health: 1050 >>> 1350
  • Ancient Krug Attack Damage: 74 >>> 57
  • NEW: Ancient Krug now deals 3% of its target’s current health on hit
  • Krug Health: 500 >>> 650
  • Ancient Krug and Krugs Death Animation/Smaller Krug Spawn Time: 1.3 seconds >>> 1 second
  • REMOVED: Ancient Krug no longer spawns 2 Krugs when killed and instead spawns 4 mini Krugs
  • NEW: Ancient Krug is now counted as 2 CS (Note: The Krugs camp as a whole will still be counted as 4 CS)

Murk Wolves

  • Greater Murk Wolf Health: 1200 >>> 1600
  • Greater Murk Wolf Attack Damage: 35 >>> 30
  • NEW: Greater Murk Wolf now deals 3% of its target’s current health on hit
  • Murk Wolves Health: 480 >>> 630

Raptors

  • Crimson Raptor Health: 800 >>> 1100
  • Crimson Raptor Attack Damage: 20 >>> 17
  • NEW: Crimson Raptor now deals 3% of its target’s current health on hit
  • Raptor Health: 425 >>> 500
  • Raptor Attack Damage: 10 >>> 7

Red Brambleback

  • Attack Damage: 78 >>> 66
  • Health: 1850 >>> 2300
  • NEW: Red Brambleback now deals 5% of its target’s current health on hit

Rift Herald

  • Experience Given to Champs within 600 units: 200 >>> 300
  • First Spawned Rift Herald Charge: 2000 >>> 1500 (Note: Actual damage done will be higher than this value)

Rift Scuttler

  • Spawn Time: 3:15 >>> 3:30
  • Health at Level 1: 1050 >>> 1550
  • REMOVED: Rift Scuttler no longer has a shield

Jungle Companions

The Emberknife and Hailblade jungle items has been retired, and instead replaced by the jungle companions. If you have Smite, you can purchase one of the three companions: Mosstoomper, Scorchclaw, or Gustwalker, in egg form. These companions will evolve and grow as you feed them stacks from monster and champion takedowns.

Companion Attacks

  • Companions will deal 20(+4% bonus 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 your companion evolves, they receive the following bonuses:

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

Leashing Range Updates

Visual indicators for the leash range of each camp are being added to make the jungle “more welcoming to players unfamiliar with the role.” The distance camps can be pulled are also being decreased.

  • Soft Resets: After losing all patience, instead of fully resetting, the monster will ‘soft reset’ for 6 seconds. While soft resetting, the monster will path towards its camp center, regenerate 6% of its max health per second, and will ignore attackers outside of its leash range. Attacking a monster while the attacker is within its leash range will end the soft reset and restore some patience. After these 6 seconds have passed without the monster being attacked, the monster will ‘hard reset’ and ignore all attackers, rapidly heal, and return to its original position.
  • Soft vs Hard Reset Speed: Monsters will move more slowly while soft resetting, and faster once they hard reset
  • Patience is Key: Monsters will not lose patience for 1.5 seconds after being attacked by a champion within the leash radius
  • Patience Regeneration: Camps will now begin to regenerate lost patience after 2 seconds of being back within their leash range
  • Small Monster Patience: Small Monsters will match the patience of their respective large monster as long as it is alive and within 700 range
  • Leash Ranges (in units)
    • Blue Sentinel: 1000 >>> 650
    • Gromp: 700 >>> 450
    • Krugs: 900 >>> 650
    • Murk Wolves: 800 >>> 650
    • Raptors: 800 >>> 650
    • Red Brambleback: 1000 >>> 650
    • Rift Herald: 1200 >>> 1100

Recommended Pathing

As the final addition towards the goal of making jungling more approachable for new and off-role players, first clear patching recommendations are being added. Your recommended pathing will be visible on both the minimap and the camps themselves, numbered in the suggested order. The data was gathered from high-skilled junglers on their high mastery champs worldwide, and are based on win percentage. Naturally, this will be updated every patch.

The suggested order will be situational depending on team composition and matchups and is “not meant to replace the skills and knowledge needed to have an optimal first clear, but more so intended to help those less familiar with the role.”

For the full League of Legends Patch 12.22 Notes, click here.