My First Time Smolder and he's bad. Let me explain.

[@doublelift]

i played 11 games with him and ended up with a 36% win rate 💀he is fun though For a limited time, (till 2/9) use code: Doublelift, or use my link, gamersupps.gg/Doublelift for a HUGE 22% off anything on the site and let me know what your favorite GamerSupps Flavor is!

[@ShogunLeff]

Had a teammate who got fed on Smolder and I went Akali mid yesterday and I have never seen an adc do so little damage at full build before.

[@octoflex]

Try him ap as a mage. His w has scaleing and his ult has 130%. Maybe a mana item/tear first. Id suggest seraphine, Lichbane, malignance, rabbadons, ludens, and lisandrys (those are not in a particular order). Pta is procable with q so that's what I've been using with manaflow band and gathering storm but haven't experimented with runes much yet. Similar play as brand with focus on grouped aoe damage but with mobility to escape and no hard cc. W and q max. E ends up with a longer cd still but it's manageable

[@carrypotter7335]

Gumayusi has been popping off with him

[@verloreneseele8898]

Well guma has a 80% winrate on him with one game where he ended up 18/1 in high challenger in KR

[@momoaa]

​@@octoflex0 damage brand with no cc 😂

[@Evan-ys2ig]

"my mom works for riot" not anymore lmfao

[@oishiich.4814]

💀

[@paolocavalli7]

lmaooooo

[@Scawtsauce]

imagine your mom works for riot and you are still a dog shit champ

[@mattyoshimoto2382]

HAHAHA

[@tainadeoliveira]

That joke aged so well lol

[@bravepotatoe7513]

Seems like playing smolder goes 1 of 3 ways: get outranged and can't play, get facetanked and ran down or get 1 shotted. If the stars align and you can actually click on people you still do 0 dmg. Good champ I think 👍

[@jsadow6999]

Just buy RFC.

[@titan2540]

he's very good at stealing kills from the useful members of your team, so he's at least got that going for him

[@KOTOBOD]

​@@jsadow6999So 1 q can get range of 1 Cait auto?

[@jsadow6999]

Yes, Cait auto with 7%max hp burn in aoe and execution. @@KOTOBOD

[@jayj5003]

@@jsadow6999 yes 1 auto that takes 25 minutes minuium to stack to become really strong yes!

[@hubertbozek3821]

played against him 2 times yesterday as zeri. And oh boy if an adc loses to zeri pre 6 something is wrong with it

[@akii8685]

as a zeri main this so fucking real lmaooo

[@GalaxyHero13]

I mean, people are still learning how to play Smolder. Give it some time.

[@KUW0M1]

zeri players lul

[@angellopez5315]

@@GalaxyHero13 It has nothing to do with people not knowing how to play him, it’s just numbers and parts of his kit

[@KobesCribOfficial]

@@angellopez5315nah people don’t know how to play with or him in general. I’ve had some really good games with him the build is a big part of it. But also team comp can be an issue too.

[@EMTgamer]

Had a game supporting this champ, we went up 6-0 against a bot lane that was playing poorly and still never felt dominant, ended up losing despite a massive lead as it felt like it never converted into anything meaningful.

[@xplicitmike]

Yeah, that tends to happen a lot in Bronze

[@karenwang313]

That probably has more to do with you being bot lane than anything lmao

[@Boamere]

Pro play has gutted Adc so hard imo

[@Viktor_Von_Doom]

@@xplicitmike we'll just have to trust the expert

[@anthonyfaiell3263]

The way I have put it. Smolder is the type of champion that only wins games that would've already been won regardless. It's not really a playmaking ADC that is going to carry a game with a lead. . Then again, even a 10-0 ADC can be one shot by accidental AOE in a fight. Yay burst meta...

[@AngelicRamen]

I've been supporting a lot of smolders, and it's been so bizarre. Seems like he'll need some real adjustements, especially late game, it feels like playing on a team without an ADC. Unless people just haven't figured out how to play him late.

[@omegaminoseer4539]

I think that he's a lot like Old Sivir. Your whole kit is the damage you get in between W and Q Presses. That feels very alien, since Lucian/Ezreal/Samira/Corki all are Caster Marksmen who have some way to increase pressure while their core abilities (Arcan(E) Shift, Relentless Pursuit, Blade (W)hirl, Rock(E)t) are down. The reason Sivir was considered bad was because she required a lot to pilot Late game, until IE, since you only had 3 AAs worth of damage. Maybe the change has to be maxing W into Q, since the AoE Sivir Riccochet feels a lot better in Midgame than his Q, which will scale anyway. As for playing without an ADC, that Champion's range makes him WORSE than Sivir, since she can just land a fat Riccochet on your backline for like 90%AD, and ~135% AD currently. However, Gumayusi has figured something out that we've missed, so it can just be a positioning problem. Good luck with Supporting, Angelic Ramen! - A Lucid Lucian

[@ayushpatel3822]

@@omegaminoseer4539bro go outside

[@erupter76500]

@@omegaminoseer4539 Log off for me dog, you're done.

[@Crodas535]

@@ayushpatel3822LMAO

[@dinar4331]

@@ayushpatel3822 1 paragraph = go outside

[@CodyBergquist]

1. I think CDR boots are kind of a must for this champ 2. I think RFC has to be at least a 4th item pick up because the range applies to your Q. He becomes easier to play when you can just RFC Q and then kite until it's back

[@diegolazcano2160]

LS: if you build RFC for range. You aren't positioning right.

[@diegolazcano2160]

Champ needs to be played with a high damage comp. That gives him peel. Maybe he's a Corki type of champ. That needs some sort of hybrid build. Everyone is building him the same as DL. But late game vs a comp that itemized against your dmg. You basically become useless. Unless you can live long enough to execute kills.

[@moguel1524]

​@@diegolazcano2160🤡

[@xMikeyHardyx]

@@diegolazcano2160Yes, but Corki is designed that way. I feel like they’d need to copy ‘this champ converts 90% AD into AP’ to fully get us considering hybrid builds.

[@ensiemen9836]

​​@@diegolazcano2160ye LS can be wrong. I also assume he didnt say it about this champ. Yes sometimes people just buy RFC randomly when theyre already allowed to auto attack. But RFC has huge value on jamps like Smolder, Lucian with milio nami and corki. Or like caitlyn. I dont think u actually play ADC if u sont get how oppressing RFC caitlyn headshot is

[@dzYkiLL21]

I've tried a Smolder build with arcane comet and it's so much better. You go doran's ring first and go dark seal first back. You level W up to 3 since Q doesn't do damage early and you're stacking it anyway so at level 5 you have Q-1 W-3 E-1 and you go max Q>W right after. For builds, you can go the standard Essence Reaver > Navori > Rapidfire(You AA range is your Q range) or go bruiser with Triforce > Manamune > Shojin. Hope this helps.

[@ThePolarpop]

Dorans ring (dark seal.maybe if early back) with fleet gang here

[@mikejamie3214]

smolder has terrible ap scalings. Dark seal makes no sense and d Ring feels kinda bait, i wouldnt recommend this, but i appreciate u experimenting and sharing ur thoughts

[@ThePolarpop]

Wait and your builds at 3 items are exact same. Rfc is so integral to have as ur getting ur end game stack breakpoints. I'm actually experimenting with going ER->RFC->Navori some games instead of RFC 3rd. I'm also considering trying shojin 4th item in crit build lol tho half the time some defensive ish items are.coming into play item 4/5

[@ThePolarpop]

​@@mikejamie3214dark seal maybe bait but dorans ring start is super solid

[@QuackZack]

That's not a build you came up with. That's a viral challenger build going around and it does work because they understand how Smolder work better than you, taking advantage of the high base damage on his W along with the insane 0.90 AP ratio on champ explosion. It's also amazing for shoving waves.

[@xaius4348]

I'd love if his E applied on-hits at 30% effectiveness, if his ult was a bit wider and scaled of of stacks, and if his W gained 5% increased slow per level. Smolder does feel more like a midlaner, despite not technically needing as much gold to scale due to the passive, but it doesn't really matter.

[@xaius4348]

It looks like new smolder builds have been pretty successful in making Smolder a more viable champion, but Smolder could still use some support for his intended builds.

[@MrMarbles0Xecution]

how is his ult not wide enough? its fucking huge.

[@xaius4348]

@@MrMarbles0Xecution True, but it is also rather slow, and you are mostly aiming for the sweet-spot. If they want Smolder to be a scaling champion that can impact teamfights, I think a wider ult is the safest way to shift smolder in that direction, making it a more reliable teamfight tool. Currently Smolder is a bit too short range and poke oriented to really carry teamfights, even when he has stacks. He is much better at cleaning up damaged opponents, using his burst and elder passive, but can't deal with full hp targets safely. Crit Smolder is especially useless against tanks. I would scratch my idea of making his ult scale with stacks however, as it chunks with his new builds. If I were to buff the ult in a different way, I'd make the healing scale with crit chance.

[@anthonyfaiell3263]

yes, he does feel like a mid laner. He provides none of the real value that an ADC provides for a team. Even lethality varus can kind of kill tanks through blight procs. Smolder just tickles frontlines. . The way I've put it, Smolder only wins games that you already would've won anyways. Or he wins against poorly drafted teams with no frontline. This also raises the issue with win rates being used for balancing. But that's another discussion.

[@gavin4451]

I’ve tried this character 6 times. I’ve been fed, I’ve been behind, I’ve been neutral. Every single time I still feel more useless than the enemy adc with legit a full item or more up on them.

[@bravepotatoe7513]

duoed bot with my friend last night he was 120cs to 60 and still getting completly gapped by enemy adc lmao

[@gavin4451]

@@bravepotatoe7513 I only had one game where it felt good. Essence into Mana into Navori into rapid

[@gavin4451]

I was 13-4 tho and it wasn’t due to my champ

[@chrisfury5960]

Its so weirf beause ive played like 10 games and 100% wr and usually top damage every game with him

[@gavin4451]

@@chrisfury5960 what rank are you in? I’ve probably played around 30 games with a 50% wr in emerald. I got my 225 stacks at around 23 minutes on average now. However late game I still feel omega useless unlike other stacking champs unless my team has been stomping. Senna support just kills you straight up. They just need to tweak some scaling or give him scaling q range. Very small but something. I just don’t feel as strong with 6 items as I do with 4 items on Samira, and could even argue 3 items samira is still stronger.

[@williambittner4601]

Things this champ needs: auto & q range to scale with stacks W is fine E attacks need to count as auto attacks similar to how urgot W works R needs more damage

[@deepjunglewalk_]

just play senna

[@ihatehandles6969]

Everything but the increased range.

[@MrKapucyn19]

@@ihatehandles6969 That's the most needed thing by him. Just having range to somewhat safer use Q's would already make him playable.

[@dethimamekaipolla4487]

maybe he should try not to fail every r so it does dmg

[@redglare9623]

He is fine the way he is, y'all just havent figured out how to play him

[@Vaenezza]

He feels like he has the base kit to be a very strong consistent damage caster ADC. Unfortunately for him, his damage is quite low (especially on E) and the meta heavily prefers burstier comps ATM so he just falls over. I've found the most success with him when the enemy has a beefy frontline fighting your beefy frontline to assert dominance. His Q splashing on an entire team does solid dps, especially once you DO get your burn. I think he needs a general increase in his damage and I'd LOVE to see a late game breakpoint of increasing the range on his Q from stacks. More frequent access to his E and/or it LASTING longer based on stacks instead of doing more pathetic damage would be huge. By the time Smolder gets access to his burn, a Senna has 700 range; A veigar has an extra 200 AP; a Nasus's Q does 600 damage; A sion has 2k extra HP (I don't play Sion XD).

[@hatsumikuu]

Hes E procking on hit would open a lot of builds and not being just a dash

[@torahama362]

@@hatsumikuu His E is his only reposition tool, even if it procs on hit effect it would be not worth simply because u are extremely vulnerable after eing

[@ZoeylaRose]

to be fair tho if his has very consistant dmg it cant be high it would need to be less consistant to apply

[@anthonyfaiell3263]

ADC implies DPS. He is a poke champion, so he is not an ADC. The whole role of ADC is to kill front line through consistent dps. The only time to play him is if you have some other tank killers on your team already. But he does not serve the role of the standard ADC, and will fail in most standard team comps. . The example you brought up could be used tenfold to explain optimal scenarios for most any other adc. When two frontlines are just fighting each other and letting you attack, I'd say most any ADC in existence would have more consistent damage value than Smolder.

[@brennenmay2281]

Feels like he does no damage at all, even late game. The only way you'll ever kill someone 1v1 is if you're stupidly fed, or you're playing against someone with no fingers and actually manage to land ulti on them

[@JoshuaGraves113]

I think t's just people building him terribly tbh. Everyone immediately goes ER when it's so bad.

[@ThePolarpop]

​@@JoshuaGraves113ER is good people just play as if they're Lucian who can all in off 1 poke when ur pure.poke kite burst. Rfc + 225ormore stacks when sieging is just aoe burn poke on enemy team and wave constantly

[@ThePolarpop]

Also they said they might increase his attack speed or attack speed growth and/or also attack speed timer post ability use so thatd be nice

[@JoshuaGraves113]

@@ThePolarpop Trinity, Muramana, banshees, BC and Shojin. That works way better than the ER Navoris that everyone is doing.

[@ThePolarpop]

@@JoshuaGraves113 trinity muramana shojin is good, but so is ER RFC/Navori Navori/RFC(which ive been considering going into a shojin afterwards 4th with), is BC meaning cleaver here? and youre just rushing a banshees everygame 3rd? what?

[@Trasmablue]

smolder is an ad mage basically. have a poke champ sup in the bot lane with him. he cant 1v9 but he adds alot of aoe dmg to a team fight. basically have some strong/healthy front line and youre set

[@bajau7713]

I think this is it, he's not supposed to be a carry type of adc

[@markovchainz8314]

That sounds like Jayce or poke Varus, but honestly I don't see what Smolder does better than either of them.

[@Crodas535]

He’s literally a shitty Corki

[@BobBoican]

​@@markovchainz8314ideally he puts down more consistent DPS more safely than either of them. The closest comp is Corki, his Q is rockets, his E is Corki W, his R is package

[@markovchainz8314]

​@@BobBoican The problem with that is Corki does magic damage. There aren't that many comps where you want physical damage poke coming from your botlane. Teams can easily itemize against that. Varus is one of the exceptions, but he has more utility and burst, in addition to being longer range. Hence, lethality Varus can actually get ahead in laning phase, which is what you need if you want to play a poke/siege champion. Smolder won't do that nearly as easily and doesn't have the range to be a proper siege champion. Corki also only works in the first place because he has range, unlike Smolder. Smolder's ult seems to be the only real ability, and it's sorta like Ornn R in that it's not that hard to dodge.

[@outs23u]

I was hoping to get some conclusions, but it was only moldy gameplay...

[@YourVideosDogchitHeresWhy]

It's doublelift, he's outdated

[@JazzyBerry9000]

I hate how the E doesn't proc PTA. It feels like it should work like Akshan E

[@veigaranaomainadc4930]

Akshan E proc pta?

[@rangerowneg]

dl playing like trash then blaming everything except himself, classic

[@sabaistory4221]

that zac missing everything

[@mikevos4460]

and even calls himself blob boy

[@Saida___]

I’m guessing he’s not made for solo bot carry. He might do well with a 2range setup like ashe/senna. But it also feel right letting him go mid instead when he does good dmg early which means most mages can’t trade with him , have high mobility to gank/help jg and have a good wave clear and decent gank capabilities

[@pikakillah_8015]

smolder's base hp and ad is one the 3 lowest for ADC. He needs q mana and cd reduced or even a q range increase. If you try to stack when q is up, you will run out of mana very quickly and its not an auto reset (you cant immediately auto afterwards if you autoed before). Also, the ultimate doesn't scale with stacks. You may as well play senna if you want to stack.

[@bigdank-kt4kj]

the ult ratio is already absurdly high for a aoe spell of that range and his auto q is instant if u q at the end of his windup animtation

[@hunterbateman3266]

Feels like he ought to have had a different resource other than mana (not necessarily energy, maybe a heat-up meter)

[@jacobmyers3551]

i mean, post essence reaver his mana issues are non existent and as far as cd goes i rarely run into issues once i have lucid boots and navori. and for the early game for mana as long as your farm focused on your stacks biscuts get me through early game nearly every game and that's even with taking fights. unfortunately speaking from a low elo perspective but i mean the concepts im sure stay the same.

[@pikakillah_8015]

​@@jacobmyers3551 The way to play smolder now is to go comet with manaflow band. start with dorans ring and upgrade w, use w to get stacks and its a strong wave clear early game. You still dont want to poke champions with q before Essence reaver (like you can with other champs).

[@TrapOri]

I think Navori is bugged on Smolder's Q where the auto attacks aren't reducing it's cooldown, only when you press Q and the Q lands does it go down a little bit. That's probably why the DPS is so low, cause his main dmg source is stuck on a long CD.

[@ryanseaman9802]

That is true. His Q doesn't reduce its cooldown which is weird considering it acts as an auto

[@zionzhade8177]

I don't think it's bugged, you just get diminishing returns with Navori. It reduces cooldowns by the remaining cooldown left. On abilities that have low cooldowns, like Smolder's q, it's not going to do very much. 12% of 2.8 seconds, which is what the CD of q at level 9 with only Navori is, ends up being .336 seconds shaved off, and that number gets smaller and smaller as the cd approaches 0 with your autos.

[@PinkeySuavo]

It works, go into practice tool and buil navori with a bunch of attack speed items. It just lowers the CD by the 12% that's left, so the lower CD the less impact autoattacks have. If you pay attention AAs have effect on the beginning.

[@XulteS]

the CD it restores is just too small

[@killerkonnat]

I didn't know Smolder was supposed to be an ADC. I thought he was a solo lane poke caster. Lmao. Seeing his results he's not doing great at being an ADC so I was partially correct.

[@asir9129]

3 steps to make champion in current years 1. Make quirky 2. Give true damage 3. Give %hp damage

[@Saryan1]

Tried him for the first time yesterday on solo Q in Master Elo. I got absolutely demolished by MF / Zyra. I went 2/10/6 on a 27 minutes game. The champ is absolutely garbage, he lacks identify in what he is meant to be. Riot describes him as an AD Casting Carry, similar to Ezreal or Lucian but he doesnt have the range that Ez has and doest have the damage that Lucian has. The main problem here, is that all his damage come from 2 abilities only, his Q and his ult. His W and his E do absolutely no damage, even when maxed out, they only serve the purpose of helping you stack your passive. His Q has about the same range of his autos which is 550, this is absolutely insanely short for an ADC with so limited mobility. You can argue that he is similar to Lucian in the way that he needs to go very close to his enemies to actually do damage, but the difference is that Lucian ACTUALLY does damage. Smolder does absolutely no damage even when getting in your face. It will take him about 30+ minutes to fully stack his Q (Doublelift did it in 28 minutes and he's literally a pro player) As a Master player I ended up with 216 stacks by the time my game ended at 27 minute mark. He takes to long to scale, and it doesnt even matter if you do scale cause you do no damage whatsoever lategame. You get 1 shot by everything and need to get close to do damage if you dont have ult. This champions doesnt need a buff but rather need to be reworked. 2 of his abilities do absolutely nothing, his W even "stun locks" you in the animation and you cannot auto attack right after it.

[@jeremiahwalker6464]

Smolder is actually pretty good, but you need to build him a very specific way. Item order: Essence Reaver -> CDR Boots/Zerkers (I prefer CDR) -> Kraken (Your Q procs both on-attack and on-hit. It also acts as a basic attack for Kraken and PTA) -> Navori (By this time you should have enough Crit to make Navori relevant since it scales) -> Last 2 items can be whatever crit items you want. I prefer 2 of these: Stormrazor, Blood Thirster, Immortal Shieldbow, Mortal Reminder/Lord Dominck (Depends on what I need). With this build, you should be a pretty huge threat. You needs to focus his ult to hit down the center. It does 30% more crit damage and slows 40% for 2 seconds. Best used to start fights or kill someone out of range. You can either max W or E second. W will give more damage but it is unreliable to hit. E actually gives decent damage if you built crit. Number of projectiles scales up to 10 at 100% crit. Also, the CD for E goes from 24 seconds all the way down to 16 seconds at max rank. W only goes from 13 to 11 CD at max rank. Which ability I max depends on the enemy team I am facing. Do I need the extra mobility or do I only want more damage? Can I reliably hit the enemies with W or are they too mobile? Also, Doublelift should have built Mortal Reminder if he intended to fight Aatrox. It would have made a world of difference. But I'm not sure I agree with fighting Aatrox constantly as an ADC.

[@YourVideosDogchitHeresWhy]

Kraken slayer 😂 rlly bro gtfo 😂😂

[@TekkatV2]

I have 56% on him in DII and I think the main issue is that people prioritize the wrong things on him. I alwaya go fleet + revitalize and might have to go d shield vs poke, the only thing that matters is to survive and scale your stacks.

[@jaku86]

Same here. Fleet just feels so good on Smolder. I've seen comet, but I feel like you lose a lot of utility of Fleet. Braum+Smolder is pretty strong. Quick Braum passive and ulti combo feels nice.

[@Alternative-Works]

Why is everyone in the comments saying he doesn't scale / have good lategame? My experience is that after your 225 stacks his dmg goes from dog to dragon and he usually tops dmg to champs

[@marcobogazzi8446]

He doesnt have the dmg to shred a frontline he has good aoe if no one is watching at him

[@renno2679]

12 minute video with one (first ever) game with the champ and a 1 minute "explanation". Thank you, Doublelift. Very insightful.

[@andyhuynh2625]

PLEASE LET SMOLDER AUTO AFTER CASTING W IT FEELS FUCKING HORRIBLE. YOU CANT AUTO AFTER W. IT LOCKS YOU OUT. AHHHHHHH

[@maciejkleszczynski9808]

Smolder feels very strong to me. Got on the champ as supp main and have 8-0 and penta so far. Just been playing him on normals and i am no high elo player but still to me he feels much stronger than other adcs. I build Shojin into Frozen Heart almost every game and then continue to build tank stats + cdr

[@A1phaz0ne]

Man, this video did not age well, considering how many nerfs he ultimately had lol. Seems like you just sucked with the champion.

[@DharcCharmer]

Where you fucked up is thinking that rapid fire was a luxury item. Rapid fire is your third item every single time it's a part of your core. Your range is fucking abysmal , so you need the rapid fire cannon to safely poke with your q. The best setup for this champion is comet ruins with secondary ruins inspiration boots with biscuits, itemize in order of Doran's ring into dark seal into essence reaver into Navori's quick blades and rapid-fire. Fourth item is typically lord doms.

[@sanhakim1335]

My problem playing against smolder is his flying ability instantly displaces it in the third dimension, making it really awkward to try to land skillshots on him. Any other champ that goes airborne has a relatively long animation to get up there and/or only stays there for a short time in combat

[@sensacioles]

Going Comet + Doran's Ring and buying a Dark Seal on first base actually is really viable for this champ, I'm enjoying his early game far more with this strat. It works even better paired with a harass support that also uses comet or just ccs the target to let you hit yours (Karma, Ashe, Xerath, Zyra). You start off prioritizing leveling W until you hit 6 or return to lane with Sheen, then you start to level Q to take advantage of Sheen proc on it.

[@superior152]

How to play Smolder late game: Pray my team knows how to teamfight and I don't get one shot by an assasian.

[@Saryan1]

As Smolder, you literally get one shot by a tank as well.

[@gustaaavo]

I ain't peeling for a smolder lol, why would I peel for a doom bass that picked a champ that does no damage? I would just go AP nautilus and forget he exists

[@jeromemartel3916]

Isn't that the case for all ADCs?

[@nathanfabre8317]

You're right, I prefer myself asseuropeans.

[@quyenhuynh8666]

The ult is dog shit, it does almost no damage.

[@xviolaa]

Agreed, especially for how hard it is to land. There's no reward

[@sansyyy8788]

the audible "enemy missing" ping after you stole one wolf to get 1 stack to reach 225 as the transition was happening for some reason made me laugh xD ( 7:43 )

[@VergiliosSpatulas]

0:43 It literally says so in the tooltip how his Q scales off of crit, are you blind?

[@moshrom3473]

Finally someone recognizes how thrash he is. He should be perma banned outside of quick play until Riot fixes him. He literally gets manhandled by most supports in this meta. His scaling is thrash, his early is thrash, his damage is thrash, his design is thrash, everything about him just sucks.

[@simsence831]

The fact that Smolder said "my mom works for riot and she is gonna ban you" is really sad. Riot fired the designer that made Smolder in the big lay off that happened not long ago.

[@glaedr1997]

Just feels like a worse ezreal

[@trollitofdez6]

If they make his E more spameable it would be crazy flexible imo

[@chaseshipley2682]

Worse but easier

[@erupter76500]

@@trollitofdez6 I think his Q should have been a longer range skill shot. Having a targeted ability with that short of range on a champion that is essentially an ezreal with a dragon skin makes him feel exactly like ezreal would feel if his Q was a shorter ranged targeted ability.

[@Saryan1]

Thanks, Im not the only one that thinks making his Q a point click with 500 range is complete bullshit@@erupter76500

[@domreto5055]

trust the goat adc of Na vs a rando tbh but also his mannerisms are common for alot of pros when they rate a champion

[@franklee538]

He’s fun to play but he feels so weak

[@happyzahn8031]

Interesting. Your last comment is he is strong early and bad late...I see exactly the opposite. I hate smolder on my team because he does no damage for the first 3 or 4 levels compared to almost any adc.

[@magnusm4]

He's an interesting champion. His supposed role is ADC yet his kit screams modern Annie ap mage. Zwag made a video playing him ap. What is really interesting is he maxed w first while stacking q. w's damage on top of it's range was so insane he wave cleared the whole wave with one W very early. And the poke was unreal if it landed. I thought this whole time he was supposed to be a mage since nothing in his kit helps his basic attacks and his abilities hit hard when built around. Seems they tried to make Smolder what Kennen is. A hybrid who can go both ways. Except Kennen got a basic attack passive like Twisted Fate and a stun to support his basic attack.

[@miamesa8652]

Apparently you go comet, max W, adaptive force and you get a dark seal asap to get your adaptive force to be AP. Gives you insane wave clear and poke on lane. Late game smolder feels like Ezreal. If you aren't ahead then you aren't doing anything, but here if you're ahead, the stacks can help you remain relevant if you've kept up a really good farm. Lucidity seems mandatory, if only to last hit with Q more often.

[@puddingniple7654]

Who are you guys playing with? My duo pentas every 3rd game and has such a high win rate with smolder. We kept talking about how broken he is. His first game started off with a quad and every game from there just keep getting better.

[@Wunde]

Comet, Doran ring, max W, Mid it's a really strong pick

[@KiMLoKO1]

whole fucking book for each ability, gone are the times where a ability would just shoot a spell and thats it.

[@rca9319]

smolder is broken you just need a different build that fits him better, remeber doublelift said the same about zeri when she first came out and look what happen she was completly broken 2v9 with the hydra build

[@pineapplegamer6986]

It’s so strange that the designer for smolder got laid off right before he came out. It’s even more sad that the champ sucks in game and people hated the design.

[@iAmUzaar]

Tech layoffs are often (usually?) indiscriminate. It doesn’t make sense to me either

[@OpalShade]

well, I love my baby boy Smolder. I doubt it is a good comparison to ranked, but I am having a blast with him in QP, over a 100 games with over 60% win rate. He's just one of those champs who is extremely reliant on his team due to his low range, and he has to work from front to back. But he can absolutely carry a game in late. e: Wanted to add, I did Mastery 7 him in 3 sessions. Not sure if that is just easy when everyone else has having a hard time with him. But just to further illustrate that he can lift his weight in the right situation.

[@ramunettv]

On-Hit is actually really good, since his Q’s proc pretty much any on-hit items. I’ve seen people building tank hydra builds and it works pretty well. He is definitely a late game specialist that has a hugggeeee power spike at 225 stacks.

[@redeyedanime2512]

no cdr boots lul

[@wisecatstudioz]

from what I've seen smolder is basically only good if you're already steamrolling the enemy team and they're very far behind on scaling and equipment but even then he's still not good when compared to other champions that focus on crushing enemies that are behind.

[@Orionzmx1723]

This aged so well didn’t it

[@jonathonmulka8735]

My smolder games have been amazing; you're just building him wrong. Start with W it does a stupid amount of damage and lets you poke like crazy. Build Dorian's ring and comet-scorch runes. Hes a mage that builds ad but he scales with ap better early game. First back grab dark seal for ap. Now build essence to haste boots to quickblades. go crit ad afterwards hes insanely strong.

[@IngoGarza]

Doublelift with yet another dumb take. How this guy was ever a pro...

[@kikikillian1208]

I tried a few different ways of playing Smolder so far: Although I haven't tried Bruiser yet, I tried Core items (Essence Reaver + Navori and Bloodthirster iirc) into tank items, as after a while his Q with stacks deals enough damage and what you need is survivability (Ezreal anyone). I tried full crit, but once you get CCed you're done for, so that was rather underwhelming. And I tried full AP. Full AP was... interesting. It definitely worked, since his W scaling is essentially at least 100% against champions (the more you hit, the higher, up to for every champion 429 + 183% AP if you hit all five enemies, although unlikely), and Lich Bane makes your Q not entirely useless, also ult healing comes in clutch, but it heavily relies on hitting W in the first place. You definitely don't want Magic Pen since your damage is still AD, however something like Horizon Focus is amazing since your W's range is actually pretty high. In any way, I recommend Comet, it's just so much more consistent early on.

[@CaptainNookz]

I'm not going to listen to someone who got gapped by Imaqtpie every single time. Also Smolder isn't your standard run of the mill ADC, hybrid with Liandrys is the best way to play him, especially once you reach 225 stacks.

[@heathergartrell8660]

Been playing a full AP build with him and despite wasting the crit interaction with his kit, I feel WAY stronger building him like a pure mage. If you can land your W consistently he's a bursty little monster. That being said, I still don't feel like he can snowball even if I'm doing really well. He's in a strange position for sure.

[@dicerson9976]

Smolder doesn't really come off as an ADC to me. His biggest source of damage is a point-click ability on a low cooldown. YEah, his ad scaling means his rightclicks do damage too. But he doesn't really have any particular right-click synergies beyond the shared stats. Even Corki has *something* that makes his rightclicks pretty alright, and he still isn't good enough to go anywhere but mid. But hey, you know, that probably means Smolder also works as a midlaner. His E is decent mobility, which means he's pretty safe in a short lane. His W is excellent waveclear since its a huge chunky aoe, very high range so its decent poke. And of course his Q is very consistent damage, great for last hitting (and in fact wants to be used for that, to stack) and turns into amazing waveclear once you hit the threshold. So really, Riot has done it yet again and created a champion that is just not cut out for their intended role.

[@basedleafeon3221]

ADC? Nah he is a mid/top laner. No ADC should be prompted to STAY IN LANE AND FARM EVEN THOUGH THE ROLE IS MEANT TO BE TEAMFIGHTING.

[@oAZTECKx1]

this champion does everything veigar does, but worse, but veigar also get's a caged stun, and a reliable ult.

[@Kikkia2018]

Weird that the scaling champ is actually kinda good early (at least with W poke) but takes so many stacks to be useful. My friend thinks he needs another stack goal between the first and the second, and I think he needs one before the third. It feels so long before you can get that third goal, which honestly is a game changer but the game is already over by then. 90% of Smolder games I’ve played and seen on YT end right after they get there, win or lose. Stacking on cooldown, too. Maybe the Q cooldown is a problem too, Drututt did mention that. I dunno.

[@nguyenhuuhiep1505]

the duality of man: Gumayusi: this new champs is fun and so op at the same time Doublelift: literally skull emoji

[@MrHGravity]

His long range w ability should really have been something different. It feels like such a, "eating a half warm hot pocket." meh ability. Alot of ADC's have that problem, where one of their abilities is just a, "champ needs to have 4 can only think of 3." problem. It's extra awful because it feels like Kogmaw's E. So... it's a leftover half warm hot pocket.

[@in_vas_por8810]

Funny how smolder seems to be close to a pick/ban kinda ADC in challenger games lately.

[@Dudziglol]

I sincerely never saw a (Ex) Pro player have a take so wrong in the champion... How on earth do you think hes weak late game with a 6,5% true damage AoE BASIC ABILITY? The issue is that he's not a usual carry that does have higher dps, but if you compare him to a Ezreal, he's a lot stronger late game (Ezreal would not have killed aatrox on the infamous other 7 adc would have smashed him) and no, hes not strong early game because the lack of damage in this part. Hes not a champion until 225 stacks, after that hes a monster.

[@thierrydebrunhoff5869]

make his q a skillshot and he‘ll be fine (upgraded q only splits if it connects with an enemy)

[@nicolaseveno1549]

Nah everyone complaining about Smolder dmg but the real problem is that AAtrox still hasnt been deleted from the game. DISGUSTING and tankiness while 2-shotting all

[@crush9262]

thought it was just the smolders in my games. cheeks dmg

[@kevinprinz3204]

Idk if it just me but i played smolder thrice and won all 3 of them aswell as having faced smolders that whilst feeding early still managed to get the usual adc 3 item power spike. Especially if he gets to the elder dragon burn. But yeah if peoples mental breaks and they give up minute 12 then I can see him being bad

[@Simaris12]

He gets good around 1k stacks when execute threshhold exceeds 25% and magic damage ramps up. But you wont see such games in high mmr. Anyway hes adorable.

[@leeroyj7300]

I think its less that hes bad and more that you're used to heavily overtuned/overloaded marksman

[@jvxtapose]

people are finding ways on how he is used now. They usually go poke type smolder with doran's ring and W as starter to get insane poke dmg

[@LukeA471]

I've won early and lost late every game on him so far. Arcane comet W max abuse early is the way to win lane every game though it's funny

[@Twitch-oq3ir]

i have had a lot of fun with smolder and i have seen some other smolder perform good. I had success with fleet, triumph, lifesteal, cutdown and secondary manaflow + gathering storm. in the stat shard i always go cdr, you dont need the ats at all and since there is less cdr in items now the stat shards actually matter. I went ER -> Navori / RFC and always maxed E second because it allows you to kite a lot better. Someone else played him with comet but went the same build. Honestly seemed very strong in his hands ngl, so maybe comet is actually better.

[@Wholesome_Dungaree-Wearer]

maybe if he could use his Q as a skillshot with slightly longer range OR a point and click that would be cool?

[@redrocker1582]

Ah yes. "New champ sucks" mentality strikes again. Same thing with Viego, Gwen, Yummi and pretty much any other champion released in the last 2 years until people finally learn it and suddenly becomes op in 2 weeks. People never learn.

[@DavidGlendaleArdenaso]

in my opinion he could get a new progression like 175 Q stacks can increase his Q cast range

[@jaejus3817]

It is free wins all day against one. I recommend duo with an adc that knows Smolder is trash and will let the enemy team pick it. The only games I've seen smolder win was due to his team being stupidly ahead, so he would have won even if he picked attack speed soraka adc

[@rodrigoleal3224]

hey! u should try comet runes, and start the laning phase with W, thats how u win the lane, the damage and poke is insane. level 4 u recall faster and buy a darkseal. thats it

[@GodWearsGucci134]

I have played with and against smolder in the past days like maybe 15 games, and out of those 15 there was not a single game where any smolder wether it was on my team or enemy team won

[@Kofja]

do what Koreans seem to do on him. Arcane comet and start Doran's ring and W>Q>W>E>W> then start maxing Q, W has good ap ratios and level 1 if you hit a champ sitting near caster minions you can get lvl 2 pretty fast, though Smolders early fighting power is very low still. first back they get dark seal and long sword to have adaptives convert to ap. Build they seem to go Essence, cdr boots, Navori, Rapid Firecannon (Q range scales with attack range so rapid lets you throw Qs from further away) and then later stuff like shieldbow, bloodthirster, zhonya or other situational items :D Runes are: arcane comet, manaflow band, absolute focus and scorch. second magical footwear and biscuits. take 2 adaptive force or 1 and attack speed, and health. getting stacks fast is important and seems like 22min is when they have at least 225 or more stacks. so hitting champs with abilities regularly and last hitting with Q is key.

[@aze480]

i dont know why everyone thinks this champ sucks, every game ive played that he's in he will killsteal a double randomly then get 3 items and as soon as he hits it his Q halflifes anything it hits no matter your armor or hp, and puts a 10% execute on the whole team

[@royms4310]

idk bro, i've been abusing smolder and got at least 70k dmg per game, i actually feel like its the opposite than a "early game champ" i feel like the pre 125 stacks its GARBAGE cause you deal 0 dmg but if you just play it somewhat like a nasus or veigar and farm as much as possible and get in a lot of fights to get more stacks you become an absoulte demon post 225 stacks and beyond, but you are NOT a draven or a kaisa so you just have to spam habilities and when everyone is low you ult, and go all in with q's, the execute thing is broken

[@z0tw]

Shocked they didnt hotfix buff this little guy. I've seen him in 7 games so far, only time he won was he was on my team and my teams solo laners carried us to hell and back. Smolder was 7th in damage and really didnt do anything. That's just the problem is like....he doesn't do anything. No CC or anything. Veigar at least has cage and a point and click nuke. Nasus has W and can buff himself with R. Smolder just kinda....sneezes at you, flies around a little for fun and then his mom comes and really just....yeah

[@mohamedshawky6612]

iplayed this champ for 50 games as master adc and here is my thought : 1- this champ goes full build and absolutely deals no dmg at all. 2- the only thing good about this champ is the true dmg and execution q buff which can help allies in team fights 3- his early game is so shitt that u pray good enemy bot let u farm 4- riot should either reduce his q number of stacks so he can scale faster or they should buff his abilities man they deal no dmg !!

[@goji101]

I see alot of hate for this champion, and all I'm going to say is maybe if the league community actually played good fucking supports and not this twitch and vi shit, maybe you might find his late game to be exceptionally strong with an elder dragon execute that the enemy back line can not push up with their tank because of the splash damage from q every second. Not to mention the fact his q does a true damage burn and the execute % scales up with stacks, like if you had a braum there, that game was actually over, what can any melee champ do against a braum, get stacked, and die, and even if you manage to get onto the adc, braum ult and shield from backline damage. Seriously, community just needs to start playing perfect supports like braum and not this cheese shit

[@devinwilliams5960]

Build parth is wrong, korean build covers his entire problem in the early game. Comet with scortch and absolute focus, doran's ring start + dark seal first back to keep adaptive power as ap and 2-3 points w first and you'll win lane every time or at the very least go even and then win later

[@hiiambarney4489]

Honestly, he is kind of like a veigar, only on bot lane, so he destroys low elo as he feeds in lane and if the games not over within 20 mins from then he will come with 1000 stacks and executes you at half life.

[@demigin]

this didn't age well kekw

[@chuuli]

supporting smolders recently has def been a challenge and every game he's in his bot lane tends to lose lane/game. it can't all be bad players so i wonder why it is he feels so weak

[@JoshuaGraves113]

The build path/items people are building. The fact he gets out ranged against the meta ADCs.

[@Brunoscaramuzzi]

His E dont proc on-hit or press the attack and does no damage. Akshans E does it and it is the reason akshan is viable. People are playing with max W to farm and pass the lane phase, but even with full build there are adcs that does a lot more damage than this shit dragon..... nice riot

[@joetwo7]

AP twitch support vs lethality vi support truly a meeting of the minds in botlane

[@Horrylite]

Bro just go comet and harass runes. Dorans ring start W max till 5 and you literally never lose lane. W takes 1/5th of their hp at lvl 1 all the way up to like level 7. My god these "pros" really have no idea how to play.

[@ThatGuyMyers]

The best way to handle Smolder is to ban them so your team doesn't pick them.

[@Tristan-lm8wt]

His couldowns are bad, his damage is bad, his range is bad, and his scaling dosent make him stronger even in late game he is still as bad, needs a huge buff

[@Dawz3G]

rapidfire isnt luxury on this champ its required cus it increases your Q range, thats the reason he also feels really good with milio

[@LawsonR]

I'm watching this, and geez DL. No wonder you aren't doing damage, you aren't auto-attacking anything.

[@whYLiE09]

Hes a scaling champion. He's garbage until 225 stacks. Thats when he becomes really really strong. Im liking PTA on him right now just for the early fights. Late game PTA doesnt exist