Everything Wrong With: Smolder | League of Legends

[@VarsVerum]

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[@Mokfellow]

When is why no one plays naafiri going to come ?

[@grimmreaper6354]

i love how many of the "weak early" chaps just straight up win most of their lanes nowadays

[@lillyie]

unless the name's nasus that is

[@shade_7500]

Yeah kayle doesnt

[@Elimbi1]

Kayle is one of the only exceptions aaaand she does need a buff​@@shade_7500

[@stevesteve4662]

​@@lillyie Doran ring nasus

[@Elimbi1]

Very true... One of the things that I never understood is how for example how Viktor can hold the title "late game machine" aaaaand "lane bully" at the same time

[@imjustgablmao]

its always the "adorable" ones that are the biggest nightmares

[@ardaerkul9135]

Belveth is really adorable, I agree

[@Requilith]

​@@ardaerkul9135belvussy 🥹

[@ericmantovani1835]

His face is proto sonic tier.

[@kaisercheese4011]

Sadly this one isn’t cute at all just annoying

[@omgodification]

Adorable is stretching it quite thin no?

[@michuumichowski]

10:47 Smolder casually stops friendly Aurelion's W with a blast cone.

[@Ratty524]

Imo Smolder is a fine example of what’s wrong with a lot of champ designs these days: it’s not them being overloaded (smolder definitely isn’t) it’s that they have too many easy answers to their problems which limits counterplay. Like bro, at least Nasus has to kill a target in order to get a Q stack, and he’s melee.

[@Elimbi1]

Agree, I play Tristana and at least in emerald it's not that easy to kill a smolder even if you land on top of him.

[@progressivevalen]

@@Elimbi1 I always say that, I main Zed so my job is to kill the adc, and Smolder is like 5 times harder to kill than Tristana or Zeri who have long dashes too

[@flowspersonaluploads3528]

​@@progressivevalenSmolder can be a surprisingly healthy champ because he likes stuff that ramps ability damage which also happens to give a lot of HP

[@collinharris4848]

​@@progressivevalen how is Smolder harder to kill than Tristana, she has two disengage abilities that are both better individually than Smolder's 1. I'm a bruiser main not an assassin and I have a way easier time with Smolder. Never lost lane to one. I'm honestly curious

[@raurisaurus5057]

​@@progressivevalenEarly game smolder is easy ASF to kill. The problem is when he gets items. His hard to kill nature isn't because he's nimble or gets away easily, but because he stacks HP items. (Triforce, Shojins, Liandry's). Riot really fucked up his itemization, tried to force him into being a Crit ADC but gave him absolutely no Crit items to synergize with except Essence Reaver, and once they removed Sheen from Essence Reaver it pushed Smolder down a completely different build path, indirectly making him tankier as a result. It's also a reason why he runs grasp now (don't know why people never realized grasp was great on him far sooner than now but here we are).

[@lillyie]

i believe the essence reaver change from a crit spellblade to what it is now is singlehandedly due to smolder. others were using it just fine but once he got released, it was like irelia's vamp scepter for him: once you get it, you're pretty much full build

[@aabeeek]

Ironically the one hurt the most by this change was not Smolder, but GP.

[@spacehitler4537]

​​@@aabeeeknot like GP wasn't enough of a monster either.

[@MangaGamified]

Yeah sucks to have the burst(sheen) and mana regen separated, but it's probably indirectly better by having collectively less Assassins being stronger like Rengar, The mana regen is a bit better cause it's +15 mana regen on-hit(except Jinx who has 20 mana rockets), the last Reaver was a bit overestimated how much it heals, it was 140% base AD (+ 20% bonus AD) bonus physical damage and restores mana equal to「 40% of that amount, if your target died mid-flight of your spells, you will mana heal none. It just opens other ways of stacking like Essence Reaver + Flickerblade and farming stacks on tanks cause u just need to tickle champs for stacks.

[@Cattildo]

@@aabeeek GP was never really OP imo It's just that Solarbacca single-handedly skews the public perception bc of his gameplay. Everytime a GP gets picked, a smart JG will camp their lane for ez picks.

[@ignacioperez5479]

​@@CattildoGP was OP. Is just it was SO hard to use at a good level You almost never saw a good one

[@pedrocastro3037]

The problem is his kit and way of play is similar to a Midlaner but Riot keeps trying to push him to be an ADC

[@droxght]

i actually think he would be better balanced around midlane instead of adc. he just fits mid better than botlane.

[@Kylesico912x]

Honestly yeah. Just shift his power from hybrid to AP. Or make him better scale with lethality. He'd be a bit weak early game but otherwise fine.

[@Kweejibub]

Uncle Rito sucks. Always taking my cool jungle toys like Neeko and Sylas.

[@cloudson3886]

@@droxght top lane*, Smolder kept high elo top lane in the best state it's ever been, cause people were scared to first pick tanks and went for Vayne, or Gragas, making lane a lot more fun to play

[@dylanhelvetios2300]

​@@droxghtyeah I really don't need more adc mid. Heck take akshan to botlane I'm so done with that shit idea of midlane adc.

[@QuestionableObject]

I have definitely both won and lost games solely because the smolder got enough stacks for his passive elder dragon buff to kick in and it tipped his team's damage over the edge of being able to consistently win the lategame teamfight and push nexus. Smolder is by-design a ticking time bomb of a free permanent elder debuff on anyone he damages, even if he's not doing the majority of it.

[@NeonIcyWings]

Well, he HAD an elder buff passive, but now it's a slightly buffed Collector passive. Because 6.5% is way closer to 5% than 20%. It is honestly depressing how little the League community reads. Smolder's scaling execute was like the first thing to go and yet people still whinge about it like it's live right now.

[@worldiefeard8396]

​@@NeonIcyWings tbh a lot of people QQ about Smolder's execute when in reality in 99% of the cases if people die to the execute they were going to die regardless, he just gets a free ticket to pentakill since his Q ends up ksing (not that it's a bad thing on an adc who needs gold but i digress). As you said, it's basically a glorified collector, it's really the least of the issues of his kit. In a few hundred games I have on Smolder, since the execute nerf, it never felt like it was doing anything other than give the adrenaline rush of the "BOOM" that comes with it. He also never really gets that free ticket to 225 unless you're playing sololane vs melee or botlane vs weak laner + melee support... Smolder is really a "proplay problem" much more than a soloqueue issue after all the nerfs. Cause pros *will* always reach those 225 stacks (or... 600 like in G2's game monkaS) extremely early compared to the average soloqueue match.

[@brendan8114]

the problem with the 225 stacks isn't the 6.5% execute, it's the 30-40% max health true damage he did along the way to it that people tend to ignore, it's vayne but aoe, hell that part of the 225 wasn't even mentioned in the video, he only talked about the execute

[@vanmartr]

I’ve won and lost games with the same concept on so many other champs. So many champs are ticking time bombs if the game goes on long enough. You can have a 0/6 garen that still becomes unstoppable and back doors your entire base, or an Asol at 30 mins or a ten death yasuo

[@QuestionableObject]

@@brendan8114 ngl max health truedamage is an inherently toxic concept to me, inherently unmitigatable damage short of locking down and killing the source of the damage which is easier said than done...

[@idkmanp9573]

Smolders q should have been a skill shot

[@liankojou6430]

Yah make it like ezreal q

[@arkokroeger9799]

The Video goes mostly over his concept but in my opinion not deep enough into the concrete problems of his current iteration. The thing is, his wave clear is so insane, that if sufficiently farmed, he can singlehandedly make objectives of the enemy meaningless, especially baron. The enemy can in some cases just not end, no matter what they try. He has essentially "Sivir syndrome", where he can hold games hostage with his insane waveclear, just with infinite scaling attached. It's true that his stacking is currently a bit too afk, which is why I would propose a change similar to asol where he gains more stacks from using his abilities at an enemy (asol q generating two stacks per mini explosion). The thing about his "build diversity" is that, despite being pushed towards Crit, he has some of the worst synergy with the Crit items passives. They took even the sheen passive from essence reaver away for no reason, which is why he builds triforce now, and I probably don't need to tell you why Bruiser smolder is just awful to deal with. An infinite scaler like him has in my opinion to be bound to a specific build path so that he doesn't start with degenerate stuff like building tank on a damage dealer (something like tank veigar support). I personally would improve his synergy with Infinity edge so that it's worth building for him. The thing about his bleeding into multiple roles is that especially smolder mid seems to be pretty pro play skewed. In soloq, he performs constantly worse in solo lanes compared to bot, but that doesn't stop people from playing them in the wrong roles. *Sigh* While smolder is technically a caster marksmen, his q is at its core just a glorified auto attack with hydra passives attached to them once he gains enough stacks. The thing that seems to annoy people the most is how neutral oriented smolder is. His insane effective range with the abuse of minions as extenders allow him to deny any siege while his damage is just high enough to discourage enemies from engaging - despite his all-in not being that great in all honesty. I mean, he can two shot Squishies, but it doesn't feel that much different from other marksmen, he just has longer cool down between the attacks. Don't get me wrong, I love his design, because it feels like what an ADC should be. He can supply the entire damage that your team needs on his own without issues as long as he is protected and he has sufficiently farmed. He is a true late game carry. It's just that his kit is sometimes extremely annoying to play against, even if there is counterplay. In pro play there is also the issue that people sometimes play not as, well, kamikaze as they probably should against him because he will poke you down if you let yourself too much time.

[@jonathanrussell6525]

Didn't Riot specifically reduce how encouraged he is to build crit by making his Q crit scaling lower and removing the crit scaling from his E or something? Kinda seems like the exact opposite of what they should have done if they wanted to shoehorn him towards building crit. Like people were already building him bruiser before that nerf and it just became more prevalent after from what I saw (IDK how he was changed after that though, I haven't really kept up)

[@braules]

Imagine playing against him in Aram. You’ll never touch that tower

[@oscarcliffordsson6948]

The AD was over at 2:25. I saw what you did there :D

[@bite12344]

Riot creating a champ that only serves one role and has clear counterplay that doesn't get automagically removed past mid-game - challenge impossible

[@andreicalegari1837]

Milio? Vex?

[@Blank_Horizon]

Not me, got Smolder two days ago, started spamming him, and now this video pops up-classic, lmao.

[@emperorfantasy8601]

Using PMD music makes the video far more enjoyable, irrespective of the topic. The nostalgia I get form it is immense.

[@manuelbonelli3690]

I think the most broken thing Smolder had was that the execute threshold would increase by 2.5% every 100 stacks and considering how easy is to stack once you get 125 and then 225 it was a really big problem...especially since it was basically an elder execute. It was easy to increase and easier to activate both for him and the teammates making every fight a lose-lose situation unless you could one shot him (which was incredibly hard considering he can play far back)

[@angryflamingos3314]

As a smolder main, dude, I just want him to be balanced enough that people stop hating him.

[@GT-xw7rg]

Ironically enough he can be actually bad 99% of the time like he is right now and people still hate him. We’ve seen smolder be OP, be balanced, and now be down right terrible, and people still hate him. I don’t think his balance is gonna change anything people jsut want to hate.

[@KimbaLemur]

@@GT-xw7rg It's cause he isnt human. Non human champs are very much not liked.

[@MrLiakun]

Hard, without woing into the "hate" territory, let's be honest, facing Smolder is very frustrating.His kit is basically him spitting and sneezing on you the whole lane, flying away when you approach (not a dash so no Poppy / Taliyah counter), and calling his mom to be sure you can't dive or finish him, all while getting closer to the "Battle Academia Ezreal" type of annoying than the usual cocky or goofy champ. On the design Side, he's more or less cute, but not goofy or fun, he's annoying. Samira is over confident, but has to commit and assume when she fights or she's useless. Briar or Neeko are stupid, but in a goofy way. Smolder is over confident while being safe and protected and doing nothing except looking down on his opponents. It feels like facing the headmaster's spoiled daughter.

[@giovannicampostrini6309]

@@KimbaLemur well that isnt the case, most not-human champs are ignored not hated, people hate smolder by a lot of reasons, apart from his gameplay and shitty personality, but i think one of those that people dont realize is that everyone was hopping to get other champ when Smolder was anunciated, everyone was hoping for a small dragon who evolves more notoriously through the game, like Kayle but getting from a baby to a big dragon, but no Riot prefered to make him all cute and "marketable"

[@giovannicampostrini6309]

@@MrLiakun finally somebody who understand it, cocky champs are only well received when the champions has some real reason to act that way, like Qiyana that is hard to master, but nobody wants that from a shitty flying lizard who anyone can play pretty well

[@jonathanrussell6525]

I feel like even listening to the vid the impression I got was "this isn't *that* big of a problem," certainly compared to a lot of the other champs I've seen talked about here.

[@mankdemes8887]

He hypothetically isnt. But ruot has s14 brain and decided it would be fair for a infinte scaler to have multiple ways of gaining stscks instead of one like every other champ in the game

[@Wråythe1989]

Smolder is a consistent champion, but also an incredibly predictable one. He doesn't have a lot of options for approaching fights. His sustained dps is actually lower than most ADCs and only really climbs when games go really long due to the %hp DOT and all the splash damage. The issue I see with this is that he has no choice but to play like this -this poke and run playstyle with RFC, trinity, muramana, etc.- because his scaling with crit is abysmally bad. If he could have more and better interactions with crit and AS he would work better with ADC items and he would move away from those uninteractive builds where he just fishes for poke and backs off. This would also make him more squishy and harder to play which would then defeat the purpose of him being a simple, fun, beginner friendly champion. A choice has to be made on what his purpose is within the game and his role.

[@andreicalegari1837]

​@@mankdemes8887that's pure bs, Smolder stacks EXACTLY the same way as Veigar.

[@andreicalegari1837]

Actually, he's worse than Veigar there, because Veigar gets even more stacks when killing champions.

[@mankdemes8887]

@@andreicalegari1837 you cant q a champion for a stack with veigar can you? you're just factual wrong

[@BartixShieldsmen]

Honestly he needs to have the stacks from hitting champs removed. Make him more dependent on getting last hits/kill particpations so that denying him minions or playing safe actually slows him down, similar to Viktor, because as is right now, you either bully him resulting in him getting stacks from chipping you or you play safe and he stacks by getting minions. Either way he essentially gets his stacks for free.

[@zero.0-0]

We're trying to make balance, not trash.

[@egosumv3112]

He already has terrible early damage and high safety. It would be an extremely bad to tell Smolder players to never interact with their opponents, just farm.

[@NeonIcyWings]

If anything they should encourage more interaction with enemy players, not decrease it. Else Smolder players will just play safer, as there's no need to take any risks because there'd be no reward. If you want player interaction you need to reward player interaction, by removing stacking from hitting enemies you're basically telling Smolder to never interact until he comes online.

[@KHfan0011]

So what you are saying is make him unbearable to play and force you into a shitty afk farm playstyle that actively discourages you from rotating an participating in any sort of teamplay whatsoever?

[@mireish590]

Never cook again bro

[@peterpumelig861]

my personal problem with smolder is, how safe of a pick he is in top (my opinion as a top/tank main is kinda biased here), he has both a large aoe slow and a speed buff that allow him to stay out of the effective threat range of most top champs, other than that he has enough dmg early to at least go even on trades with minions in volved or just straight poke you down and gain stacks from the poke. Champs like quinn at least fall of somewhat late game but smolder just keeps on scaling harder

[@RisottoNero-z1w]

I wish I could be a fly and be on the room when new champion kits get discussed. Just to know how some atrocities pass, like Yone.

[@Hellbeastgaming]

PMD OST usage has always been consistent. We love to see it. Good ass video as always.

[@Hunterslammer]

Worst part bout smolder is we don’t have a damn purple and yellow skin yet

[@siegechamp2295]

A day after HLE used Smolder to win against G2, perfect timing

[@frustratedsquirrel]

The main thing wrong with Smolder? I have to wait 24 minutes before he gets a DoT on his fire abilities, unlocking the part of his kit that I find most fun.

[@curtisbilly1569]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with smolder beyond the usual frustrations of late game champions getting to late game without being punished.

[@alfienecron1820]

would've been real funny if you uploaded a 15 minute video just showing a QR that links to smolder's League Wiki page

[@jezebelparker8615]

i love smolder both as a character and also enjoying scaling and evolving; i hope riot finds something to do with him that keeps him fair but accessible

[@AshBlossomWorshiper]

14:14 so who was the most agregious? My vote: machine gun kog, but i looooved it

[@Elimbi1]

Design wise kogmaw is actually fine... ( If you exclude yuumi/lulu) He has clear boundaries and windows of vulnerability

[@AshBlossomWorshiper]

@@Elimbi1 i meant the marksman update version of koggy

[@kulangsakain1833]

that era of league where that kind of kog existed was an actual nightmare

[@MemeAdicction]

As a bruiser player, Hate it to being targeted by smolder there is no resistance that you can build vs smolder, on top of that he can build bunch of HP items Shojin, cosmic, Liandries, Trinity Force fck this champ plus good mobility with E

[@KHfan0011]

They just nerfed literally every single item you just listed. What more do you have to complain about now?

[@grimfin3214]

I’m not a fan of how artificially Lucian and Nilah’s passives force them into a duo lane, but I think there’s something to be said about making Smolder more support synergistic. At present, he free scales in a solo lane, but actually playing him as an adc is torturous. Here’s my idea for an adjustment they might make to get him back in his proper role. 1) Buff his base stats, 2) Raise the number of stacks he needs for his upgrades 3) Give his Q a tiny burn from level one 4) Make it so that his W only slows you if you’re affected by the burn, but his Q gets double stacks if used on a movement impaired opponent. This way, solo lane smolders will miss out on bonus stacks in order to peel themselves, while adc smolders can use their ally CC to increase the rate they get stacks. This creates a more thoughtful gameplay loop, where the player must decide between additional stacks or getting a potentially crucial slow. Alongside some additional compensation nerfs, maybe they could make his ult heal allies as well?

[@GuardianGrarl]

I love Smolder ^_^ I love that he allows my Braum to be a dragon trainer or a Dragonslayer

[@Martorfunk]

I think the biggest problem is that he gets stronger by fighting. I always found that to be a really bad idea when they did it with Veigar, but at least he not only needs to hit skillshots, but he has higher cooldowns and gets countered by being behind minions while pocking him. Smolder on the other hand scales way faster and has way less cooldown due to his nature as ADC. If he didn't scale from hitting enemy champs I think it'll be in a much better state.

[@slanesd]

As an Anivia main, I find it easy to engage onto Smolder. Most people underestimate the power of flash W, I can usually bait out Smolder's E and then wall him to cancel his E

[@samtt2001]

2:00 how does sustainable electricity for delivery offset the wast produced by the packaging? Sounds like a whole load of buzz words without addressing the issue at hand

[@Flinwe95]

Already picked multiple times at worlds in solo lanes. Opposing teams having a really hard time to finish the games before he reaches critical mass making the matches a lot harder just by Smolder existence and not because he played well. I think it proves that there is a conceptual problem with the champ if even at pro level, shutting him down seems to be borderline impossible without comprising your entire team comp...

[@MountainCarver]

Oh boy, Here we go again. Personally love to play smolder so im interested to see if we have the same views on why hi kit has a... subpar design

[@TheRealDeathmatch]

well?

[@ziglaus]

I'm also interested

[@iko8465]

Honestly if Q was a Skillshot instead of a point and click ability, he would a great ADCaster.

[@MountainCarver]

@@iko8465 exactly. Point and click q makes him too overloaded especially when his numbers as too overloaded like when he came out. W is an excellent poking tool plus the slow it has makes him very safe especially with his e. I'd say ult is probably the best part of his kit.

[@iko8465]

@@MountainCarver as an Opponent Smolder W is obnoxious to deal with but that’s not something worth hating on. The elder passive at 240 stacks is tho. The rest is fine. The champion is also a little too much cartooney for my taste but different strokes for different folks. If you love it, more power to you !

[@arfatal54]

Does anyone else remember smolder on release? Cause I have this memory of me proving to my brother that he was op cause if I remember correctly his %Max health true damage and execution were based on stat and stack. I had calculated that at like 250 stacks and 4 items ~27 min game he could basically kill you even if you still had 25% of your hp left cause the %max health true damage and execute were so damn high that the burn would carry to the execution meaning that if you didn't have a healer on stand by even tanks were basically one q away from death at 25% hp

[@ConfettiBerg]

I have had it easy going naafiri or anivia against him mid, but I've only made it to emerald. Still people tend to underestimate how much of a bully Anivia can be cause they always think "oh well she has mana issues" or "Oh she's weak early on" but I just tend to deny him the wave cause the Q range is longer than his auto, especially if he tries to come up and Q (which he will try to do a lot...). Naafiri can easily gap close him him with her W and even if he flap flaps, it follows and slows on impact. She just hard bullies him. But some higher elo slob probably gonna come tell me where I'm wrong at.

[@KHfan0011]

This is what I mean. Smolder is only so strong in pro-play because pros think assassins and other champions that hard counter him are "bad" and "Trash" so they don't play him. If all the pros suddenly decided to play Zed, you'd see Smolder absolutely vanish from Worlds.

[@ConfettiBerg]

@@KHfan0011 because in pro play, they prefer champs that can do all and then some, utility and or team coverage. Assassins, as well all know, don't provide any of this cept damage and they tend to fall off if the game lasts long. coordinated teams can shut an assassin down quickly as well since if they can't kill a squishy target they will die, as most assassins are all in or die trying. In other words, while naafiri would be good, and she does kinda scale for an assassin, she's has no escapes and (especially since she lost her main item, Duskblade) once she's in it's kill or get killed.

[@lokilikesfrogs]

hes soooo problmatic that he doesnt even hada 50% winrate. so op

[@dinconium2570]

I like how easy it is to play him but in teamfights I can't do anything because his Q is attack range and being within attack range just gets me killed

[@weebo3084]

I saw the pic of vars... And now I cannot handle how handsome he is while listenin to him ;___;

[@AGENTXAGENT]

"It's not like she gains XP from attacking the enemy" Riot: Write that down ... WRITE THAT DOWN!!!

[@snekky3415]

Now do one for jhin

[@lillyie]

he already did, that's the first video on the "everything wrong" series lol

[@VoidlingGeneral]

could be a great monthly series with how they keep reworking him :D

[@xSean0607]

The PMD ost rules!

[@SleepingMage]

I just want bro to change based on what drag soul appears

[@angryflamingos3314]

TRUUUUEEE

[@lvl16kayle]

at least wait until smolder isn't 46% wr and even less on "his other main roles" to post this video XD

[@KHfan0011]

You are not taking into account the changes that have happened in 14.19 or that will come in 14.20. You are also forgetting that Smolder's kit is too simple down to a fault. He doesn't have options. He is one-note and only does one thing well. He is not like the actual problem champions like Irelia who have all the tools to literally 1v1 anyone and the only limit is "skill". Any character with inherent utility that allows them to win any matchup at all is far more problematic than Smolder and there's virtually no way to "outplay" anyone with this character. You literally have to, by design, do the same thing every single time which is press Q, try to kite back, press Q, try to kite back, and repeat until they eventually die and if they don't die, then you are useless. You offer no utility to the team and you are borderline worthless in teamfights outside of pure damage. You and all these people are so quick to jump on this particular character while blatantly ignoring actual serious problems in the game or how heavy the downsides to him actually are.

[@s-upper]

i believe they should increase the number of stacks for later upgrades...

[@afoe3962]

Great video like always 🎉

[@Peta813]

Hello Vars. Great video👍. I want to suggest the (best and/or worst champion designs by role). I hope you find the time to do it.

[@RevereShin]

HONEY WAKE UP, A NEW "Everything Wrong With:" JUST DROPPED.

[@adcyuumi]

I was instantly concerned when I saw this video was only 15 minutes long.

[@riproarers3668]

So I played a game of Smolder top vs a Kayle last night and good god everything he said is just so accurate. I used to play Kayle so I know her pre 6 was absolutely garbage. I legit had like 30-35 stacks and a lvl on her just bc I could bully her out of lane. Late game came and her jg literally had to camp me to get a shot at killing me. Nobody deserved that.

[@warren1078]

I get dumpstered everytime i play against a high mastery smolder mid in high emerald. I play mid range mages typically so theres not many answers to smolder. he beats you in all ins even early as an ap mage, and then past level 9ish you just have to sit at your tower cause he smashes you.

[@RadicalJawzFunnyMoments]

He’s super fun to play at least

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

Or be me going 0/8 as Smolder make a Veigar bot go 20/0 with a tanky Thresh babysitter and see me do nothing all game

[@minimemuffinxx2791]

such an important video

[@M0ONCommander]

AP miss fortune is my favorite artillery mage

[@PillowHyena]

Smolder main since release. I mained Anivia before but recently have been playing ADC to duo with friends. Was absolutely terrible at any traditional ADC, but Smolder was the smoothest transition in earth to me. Ability spam (like a mage), AFK farming (like anivia), AOE and absurd range/poke, strong as hell late game/teamfighting, but Smolder also has mobility. Every time I win lane with Smolder I feel like I'm cheating.

[@KD-_-]

Infinite scaling max hp aoe true damage with a good laning phase lets gooooo

[@A1phaz0ne]

What really disappoints me so greatly is the fact Riot knows how to make decent caster Marksmen. Xayah is practically the perfect example of one and Ezreal is a solid example too. But with Smolder, he so clearly feels like an actual mage, but one forced towards Crit items. Which feels so bad because attack speed feels like such a worthless stat on Smolder. He doesn't want to actually auto attack. He wants to spam Q. His entire gameplan is to farm stacks, which only ever comes from ability usage. Xayah is so perfect because as much as she wants to spam Q and E, her auto attacks actually matter because they're what sets up feathers for her E. Which her abilities also prep feathers for her auto attacks to lay out. She's a crazy successful Caster Marksmen. Smolder on the otherhand, is arguably an AD Veigar, but is constantly pushed toward trying to buy crit items. Which again, wouldn't be so bad if attack speed mattered at all for Smolder. But they completely neglected his auto attacks.

[@wellingtonandrade947]

They said that they doesn't want ADCs building other classes itens and changed itens and champs to not do this, but then this lizzard can build bruiser itens, mage itens and so on They said that they doesn't want ADCs having mobility cause they can't be so safe and removed Galeforce, but then they gave him an ability that can cross walls and give move speed while he damages you They said that they doesn't want all ADCs building Colector every game cause that's an snowball item, you only should buy it if you start ahead, but then they gave him a Colector in his kit They said that infinite scale champ are too broken and nerfed ASol to the hell to keep him controlled, but hey, let's create another infinite scale champ This champ just has everything wrong with him, he just shoudn't have been created, not the way he is

[@bmac4]

As someone who took this little bastard mid as soon as he came out I started saying he is way too self sufficient in Mid to be thought of as a pure ADC. The only major drawback to playing him mid was the opportunity cost of the lack of CC most mids had. I've always loved playing ADCs mid but nearly all of them either struggle to roam safely or waveclear, neither of which are even remotely a problem for Smolder. Also I think Smolder into Malzahar might genuinely be an 80-20 matchup, Mal straight up cannot level his W or he's inting lol

[@andrealasorte7747]

i don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to give an infinite hyperscaler one of the safest escapes in the game not only that but his best items also give HP (trinity,spear,liandry etc.) so it gets to the point where he's essentially a ranged bruiser with the AoE of a mage and consistency of an ADC for starters he should 100% be forced out of these tanky builds,and maybe reduce his ability to just f off with his E if anything goes wrong

[@KHfan0011]

Oh so you mean Ezreal? Cuz Flap is absolute dogshit and gets interrupted by CC.

[@Wråythe1989]

If anything he should just be made better with actual ADC items, because with those he is actually terrible. When he was released he was clearly not balanced around the bruiser ones, but his crit build has not been addressed yet. He is abysmally bad when building crit and AS in terms of dps and his survivability is zero. Currently, his crit build has to be played as if he was Kog'maw but he has nowhere near the the DPS to justify a whole team playing around you.

[@KHfan0011]

@@Wråythe1989 he is so fucking horrible if you try to play him Crit

[@boldisordorin9010]

If you can afford factor79 at that point you can afford a private cook

[@BlazenMikay]

Imo they need to have smolder feel more “pokemon like” instead of infinite scaling it should be an adc version of Kayle Removing the scaling and reworking the damage out put could make him be able to go on hit or lowcool down adc or current bruiser like build.

[@allentayoto7387]

Holy.... I just clicked the first video I saw and was dumbfounded to hear Var's voice HAHAHAH now it makes sense why his Genshin channel is named Vars II. Anyways, Smolder's problem IMO is the same as Aurelion Sol's. They're way too powerful in the late game that they made them too weak in the early. So much so you can't even trade with them and you end up being bullied until you've finally stacked up in late game.

[@VoidlingGeneral]

a good smolder is a gutted smolder, kinda goes same with alot of the new champs riot releases nowadays

[@omgodification]

Finally, common sense

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

They need to rework him, K'Sante, and Briar imo. Most of the other 2020+ Champions are balanced

[@omgodification]

They had us in the first half ngl

[@happycamperds9917]

​@@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato Renata needs a rework desperately IMO.

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

@@happycamperds9917 I mean, she's powerful, but she never has felt fundamentally flawed to me, just they have a hard time balancing her... like Vex!

[@omfg322]

Man who could have gussed a strong late game hyper scaler cant reach that level when games end quicker and that overbuffing it causing it to win almost every early and mid game fights is broken ImAgInE mY sHoCk

[@ibrahim5463]

This was an unexcpected

[@Strongesttypemoonprotag]

I agree with all points.

[@essen_es]

I was complaining about smolder the second I was being bullied by him in mid lane and then when i fight back he just fly's away. he is far too safe a champ to be able to just press w and chunk me through the wave.

[@carnifex423]

If you can’t close out against a smolder you’re gonna regret that at 30 mins

[@Khezu_in_the_mountain]

Its funny that you bring up smolder's evolution being equal to kayle's. Personally, I feel like getting stacks on smolder doesn't feel that impactful. The waveclear is nice, but the actual dmg of the burn isn't that much and the execute is like 1% more than collector passive, which isn't even that good itself. I feel like all hard scalers ( kayle, kassadin, asol, veigar, nasus, etc) feel more impactful whenever they get a large amount of stacks or hit their breakpoints than smolder does getting his.

[@spatz2219]

Khezu

[@infiniteearth6996]

I mean this incorrect in my opinion he’s evolutions are impactful asf but you don’t feel it in your solo Q games because smolder is a marksman he’s still needs team dependence where all all the champs you listed can play for them selves therefore making them feels more impactful but when smolder is being played around hes far more powerful than them hence his pro play presence

[@Khezu_in_the_mountain]

@@infiniteearth6996 It doesn't change the fact that at 3 items i feel the same power whether or not I reached 225 stacks or not. The burn has barely any impact on a fight, and while the execute is good for securing kills, most people would die to one or 2 autos once they hit the execute threshold anyway. The thing is that smolder's base kit is already good for pro. Even without the infinite scaling, he would probably see SOME pro games. I don't even really care about power level ( I played vel'koz when he was 46% winrate and I play talon despite him being weak this patch), all I want is for a character that has a stacking mechanic to have that mechanic FEEL impactful. I honestly wish they'd treat him like vayne, where instead of trying to force him bot, they balance him around seeing equal or near equal presence in solo lanes. Due to the nature of his kit, if he's balanced around being forced to go bot he'd feel terrible to play regardless of his strength which is a sentiment I don't share with other marksmen.

[@charlychokoneko-chama2768]

Smolder is definitly not a champion wich you don't have excessive frustration playing against (wich is quite impressive from riot since he is a recent champ) and i appreciate. But yeah i think i agree with you on the evolving AND infinite stacks is maybe to much. Just the evolving part is enjoyable enough in terms of gameplay and they made it quite cool, simple and intuitive (imo). But yeah You pick Smolder and you KNOW unless serious problems you WILL scale and enjoy it not like Kayle when i have a doubt about it when picking her unless i counterpick or really good team comp. Nasus does stack well now but you know it's gonna be hard to reach people

[@dizzyheads]

I miss Navori that increase ability with crit

[@FrankD1396]

I love Smolder. I’m sad he’s in this kind of state 😭

[@MrAnimeFan4Eva]

Look i was playing top lane and went against a grasp smolder as a melee champ so i never got close, couldnt farm under tower and they hit the execute burn by 20 minutes....so the game was instantly over it's the worst version of a time bomb because like you can delay a nasus a bit by smart playing but once that execute turns on its a uphill battle :(

[@R3alSt3al]

Smolder is my No. 1 go to ADC since he was released. Yes I always liked these type of ADCs as before him my 3 main champs was Ezreal and Ap Kai'sa, Xayah. Yeah Xayah is a normal ADC, but always loved her feather mechanics. I got questioned at least every 3rd game by my team why I pick him, because "he is bad" said by teammates, because they had an autofill ADC last game who picked him and got to 225 at 30 mins and was useless the whole game. On bot most of the times you get fall behind thanks to the fact that either hard engage or poke by the enemy can make you completely useless and graps is not really an option on bot. But the teams jungler plays around bot a bit or the team your team has more than 5 braincell and able to turtle in base for you to reach 3 items and 225 stack, doesn't matter the comp the game becomes winnable. RFC is just stupidly broken on Q, and pair it with a sheen proc if you go trinity and manamune damage. But sadly or not he is in the same shoes as Zeri, Yummi, K'sante (there is probably more which doesn't come to my mind). In order to nerf him out of Pro play they would need to completely kill the champ in soloq. Q splash damage needs to be nerfed and in exchange they should give a little base damage back to his Q on the target he casts the spell on.

[@serafinw105r2f]

While I think you made fair point for why smolder is a problem, I can't help but notice how you didn't talk about all the smolder build variations and how riot had to push him away from building items that have crit to a moderate success. I mainly play top lane and I have to deal with my fair share of tank smolder top,and while is not as outrageous as what zeri used to be back then with the bruiser builds, the dmg he can output when he is not even building ad or ap is dumb. Also, I absolutely agree with the fact that smolder gets to 225 stacks way too early. Every smolder I lane against get to that threshold before 20 mins while Im just a sitting duck waiting for a gank or for the enemy to make a dumb mistake. Which often doesn't matter because now he is tanky enough to be an easy pick and still 2 taps my team.

[@FrankD1396]

I hate how Riot makes a champion that they have to gut to keep them balanced. You would think that they would have the foresight to realize when a champion design would go down this route but it just keeps happening. It’s such a shame. I don’t blame them for wanting to experiment but they should honestly understand by now the parts of champions that could break the game and how to avoid them.

[@Brewxel]

and then there is me , never played adc , trying to learn smolder all day long , i love the champ , and i suck with skill issue cant make him work at all :') xD i feel like i deal 0 damage late game instead of me beeing actually a champ at that time but aw well ill keep playing him even if he gets nerfed to the ground again and again cuz i like him

[@FarayLNoob]

KZbin i dont even play league why are u recommending me this, i'll give it a like tho, that guys sounds smart

[@TheWTFsauce]

Personally smolder feels better in the mid lane but I know that means they gotta nerf his e and q into the ground for him to feel “fair” but to be honest it’s like you said, if smolder is at the point he is game breaking it’s kinda the enemy’s fault

[@ArkLazarusMaximus]

I'd have prefered if for the Dragon champion, we got Alatis from LoR instead. Hopefully we get him as a champion in the future.

[@dejawukong]

When you have a company where they ignore their community, think they know better, don't play many other games and don't look at their competition for ideas you get problems

[@gentlemanredefined]

The fact that he builds Liandries and Shojin while going grasp should be some of the biggest red flags ever that this is an unhealthy champion design

[@KHfan0011]

Please tell me what else I am supposed to build, Mr. Challenger. They fucked all my other items.

[@gentlemanredefined]

@@KHfan0011 if he was better designed you'd build normal ad caster items like essence reaver and flickerblade

[@andreicalegari1837]

​@@gentlemanredefinedessence reaver sucks

[@gabrielsch8292]

i feel the problem with adc's latetly is that they feel too tanky

[@akii8685]

from my experience playing against smolder as an adc it feels like you can do whatever you want to stop him from playing the game early, and past 15 mins when you leave lane then he stacks for free and somehow comes back into the game and rolls u late. idk if its my job as the adc to keep applying pressure to him even tho im fed or really ahead of him coming out of lane. he gets anything after starving him and hes right back in the fight, and to me thats the most annoying part. his kit feels fair to play against, its just the ability to come back from anything given the smolder player can keep calm.

[@Wråythe1989]

This is because people are applying meta tactics mindlessly without thinking what the enemy's win condition is. If a player stomps Smolder early and then proceeds to not close the game and leave him alone for 20 mins because they started rotating mid willinilly then that's a game sense/macro problem, not a Smolder one. Players need to ACTIVELY deny him stacks. Players have to capitalize on their leads and CLOSE the game instead of wasting time fishing for kills that don't accomplish anything. You'd be surprised how many mechanically good players don't climb as much as they could because they don't understand game state mechanics, wave management, and win conditions.

[@lupoyc]

Ok, some friend of mine sent me this video to ask an opinion about it, and this gonna be LOOOOONG. Im actually in the TOP 7 Mastery Points Smolder in World, my account is almost mono Smolder, and i've played him during all his buffs-nerfs-reworks. Let's start with a single little thing that will make pissed the 90% of people looking at this comment: Smolder IS-NOT-BROKEN. Ok, after writing this comment prompting all the monkeys to comment with dribble in the mouth in order to insult me, I can finally expose the true experience and notions of a Smolder main. Smolder is a late game champs, and as you said in the video, is a champion with a weak early-mid game and a strong late game He scale EXACTLY like Veigar, Farming with Q or hitting enemies with skills, give you stacks that improve your skills damage (we are talking about few damage, like 40-60 at 225), but also evolve your spells. What you actually exposed as a problem, the fact about his evolving state, is actually the difference between Smolder and Veigar Veigar stacks give him the basic power of the champion itself, making him a literal nuker, while Smolder is more like a scaling Ezreal, which is also super similar in the kit itself But let start for what you said about his ''stacking while existing'' Well, this is kinda of a bad way to expose him, since almost all the scaling champs stacks literally existing; Veigar is identical to him, asol use a single spell clearing all the wave and stacking enemies inside it, Sion grow with minions dying around him, Syndra scale hitting the enemies with abilities, Thresh collect souls literally walking around, etc What make people say about Smolder most, is that he's SUPER-INCREDIBLE good in ESCAPING. My dear little frens, do you know that actually Smolder E in early game have 24 seconds CD? o.O This mean he can use it only 2 times/minute in early game, and already this should be enough to understand how to punish him really hard But let's talk more about what REALLY piss of people, THE BURN AND THE EXECUTE TOGHEDAAA (Sorry, Elden Ring cit.) Let's talk first of the Execute itself, that after 14.7 became a literally joke, and maybe u ask me why? Because 1.5% more than a collector became totally useless when Elder spawn, and in avarage games Smolder reach 225 around 20-25 minutes, IF YOU LET HIM STACK. But also if you are lucky enough to meet a Malzahar against, or stack super well reaching 225 at 18', you burn is W-E-A-K. The actual burn with 2-3 AD items is around 4-4.5% with 2 items over 50 AD on it; kinda ''mhe'' isn't it? 5% of 1800 HP is 90 HP, healt that you can actually recover with a single healing ability, since most of the times Smolder doesn't build antiheal at all, or he gonna lose a lot of damage output After this i actually have no intention to talk about W and R, because if you skilled at last LIKE A SILVER, you can easily dodge them both WALKING. Now, finally for the happyness of all the haters, let's talk about HOW MUCH POWERFUL HE IS IN LATE GAME!11!!1 Let's start from the fact that Smolder start to became dangerous talking about damage only when you reach around 400 stacks, before he deal way lessa damage than a single Draven AA + Q, the problem start when he reach 5-600 stacks, and start to melt everything down But listen a bit to me, if Smolder reach 500 stacks, the fault is of him being broken or your team that let him farm that much? Smolder, as ANY late game champs have to be punished in early game, but not punished of 2-3 minion waves lost, i mean literally destroyed with snowball, sitting him with ganks or taking a strong counterpick for him Have you any single idea what mean to play Smolder Mid against a LeBlanc, Xerath, Yasuo, Lux, Viktor? I Don't think so- You can't even farm or you just gonna explode, also under tower. Should we talk about other lanes? Nocturne, Evelynn, Braum, Mr Yi, Nautilus, Shaco, Malphite and many other, you can't even imagine how much. There is also strong late game counters, like Nasus or Veigar; he gonna cry also early if Nasus build Doran Ring and Aery. There is uncountable way to totally destroy this champions, but people still complain about his late, and that have a only, single, reason: the lack of gaming skills. Do you know, being noob or do not want to came out of their champions pull? yeah, that kind of skills. You can't even compare yourself with the Smolder you see in Pro-Play, above all because they are like 0.00001% of the players in this game, but also because in pro-play you find literally 20 champions in the whole series, and what the result of this? Yesterday they used Twitch for the first time, and he OBLITERED the game Is Twitch broken? OBVIUSLY NOT, but is a uncommon pick, something they are not used to fight often, and it repaid the choice. Soo guys, please, stop shit-talk about champions... There is some unbalanced champions indeed, but nothing is actually broken. And about WR meaning nothing unfortunely we cannot tell this about Smolder, because he have a Pick-Rate of 3% with a WR around 46%, and this mean that also OTP and counterpicks are not working for this little Prince. He's in bad conditions in a meta that should be builded for him, you know More HP on enemies and Smolder should ''melt people with his OP true damage'', but instead he's suffering a lot, continuosly living under a useless, undeserved hate veil... Im just feeling sorry for him, because i love play this champion, it bring me joy in a disgustingly toxic game, and he really doesn't deserve all of this Open your orizons people, League is evolving, and for how much we enjoy take care of our favorite champions (me to for Smolder), the meta evolve and if you want to win you have to expand your champion pull! If you care more about a victory than the time with your favorite champions, maybe you are doing something wrong in this game... Look at me, i've barely 45% WR being mono-Smolder, but still enjoy my times with him, because this is how a game should work, it should make you happy :) (With this im not meaning you have to int game eh, you have always to do your best, don't forget!) Saying that, i hope you will find your champion to take care of and start enjoy the game for what it is, and if you are a Smolder hater, try him! Give him a chance, and probably you gonna find all the answers you are looking for ^^ See you people, peace

[@okidoxb4846]

Aphelios is now arguably a caster marksman, and he's pretty unique!! He likely always should have been designed as a caster primarily in design anyways and Im glad Riot is allowing this to be the way the champ is played rather than enforcing a AA focused design. So between Zeri, Samira, Aphel, Smolder, etc we know riot can explore more than simple linear skillshots for their marksmen! Zeri didn't NEED to be problematic tho they just needed to PICK. Either let her build mostly AP or mostly AD, not both. Either let her Q be an ability or an AA not BOTH, it shouldnt be applying spell and AA effects at the same time while ALSO letting her build AD and AP, thats busted. Mobility was another issue. Anyways smolder: scaling should NOT be easy and he should have thresholds of power. Even Annie another beginner champ teaches u how to CS, that should be the FLOOR requirement to scale. Come on RIOT!! That dot is a problem, and the size of the AoE.

[@Taylor-bw4zg]

Remember when u didnt a PhD just to figure out when/how to beat ur lane opponent? So glad i dont play anymore

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

People will shit on clear noob friendly characters like Garen but then fight tooth and nail to defend shit like Yuumi and Smolder. Make it make sense.

[@Oakslee]

the people that defend yuumi are yuumi mains, a.k.a: people who are not good at league of legends and like to tie their hands behind their back after the game starts. I don't know anyone who defends smolder tbh, but I'd assume it's the same thing.

[@erichong4786]

​@@Oaksleeyummi mains and people who are just too tired to pilot anything else. After you play a game of 100000000 apm zeri you'd want to autopliot too.

[@KHfan0011]

Okay. Yuumi doesn't even have to move for herself and Garen gets stats for free just for existing without having to farm or do any sort of damage to gain them. Now if you're done, please go take your bias somewhere else.

[@pickcollins9910]

I have never defended Yuumi. There’s a veritable cacophony of grander bullshit in league than getting killed by a stacking champion after you let him stack. This is the modern equivalent of making an entire KZbin video to screech about Nasus being fundamentally broken bc he can get enough Q stacks to one shot someone. You counter the stacking champ by setting them back before they stack. There’s really nothing new here that you wouldn’t be expected to understand against any other stacking champ like Aurelion, Veigar, Senna, Kindred, Nasus, etc. so I’m not positive on why it’s suddenly bad when smolder does it

[@Invisius1]

as an assassin main, i don't mind him too much, but he is still a bit too strong when it comes to lategame it feels like. Where he really goes wrong, with his true damage. I don't understand why almost every new champ has to get either true damage or %maxhp damage. I have a friend who is a toplane main who mains champs like Ornn, Tahm Kench, Sion, Cho and Mundo but there are so many games where he has like 300 ar/mr and he just melts as soon as he enters the field cause champs like smolder, Udyr, Gwen, you name it. And, fair, if it was just tanks it sucked for, then sure, thats a counter pick, but when an udyr can awaken his Q, oneshot our beefy tank, and do the EXACT same to me as an assassin character, exclusively because of his %maxhp burst, sucks really hard... Or for smolder, where it doesn't really matter what you buy, since if you can't burst oneshot him, he will come out on top by kiting and burning you down, and fairly quick as well.

[@gentlemattman]

If you enjoy playing Smolder, there's nothing wrong with that. Play what makes you happy. ❤

[@cloudson3886]

As a top laner, i think Smolder is a necessary evil to keep tank first pickers in check and i WANT him to be strong, especially his AP build and i wish they did not nerf it, forcing him into ER first(if you build muramane you're stupid, sorry Zeka) makes him bad into more tanks, he still can keep a lot of tanks and Volibear/Nasus in check, but Malphite match up is terrible. Balance him around top lane and mid lane specifically is the solution, cause even when weak adc, this little dragon is what makes top lane fun for a lot of people, cause it makes people scared to first pick tanks in higher elo's and Gwen being only reply nowdays is stupid

[@Tai_Wu]

I hear Pokémon mystery dungeon music

[@yuntianzheng2793]

less dmg from stack, instead give more "mechanic" and split the mechanics on other abilities instead of just q. Like more slow on w faster e move speed...

[@Ternalin]

League reflects the era of the time and the people playing it. So if the era is shallow, vapid and full of narcissism, the game will be the same. That's why you have vapid characters like Seraphine, unbalancable messes like Pyke and Yummi and clear derivatives of other franchises successful like Smolder and Samira (who is a Spyro and Dante rip off). It really shows the people's standards have fallen so far, Riot can get away with anything... even abusing their staff.

[@joshaltea]

The best version of Smolder is the one that isn’t played