League of Legends players have some mixed feelings about the new changes coming to Smolder, the latest champion added to the game.
Smolder’s had a strange effect on League ever since he joined the game. He was designed to be a return to standard ADC gameplay, with a simple-to-grasp kit and good late-game scaling, but as usual, no play survives first contact with the League player base.
Smoulder has been received more as a caster than a traditional ADC, with most players ignoring crit items and instead building Essence Reaver and Spear of Shojin to maximize ability output and cooldown reduction.
General– Saw a bunch of interesting discussion around balance philosophy yesterday. Will try to make a post later this week around some of the thoughts there (staleness, mastery, etc.)AP Items– Lich Bane, while being pretty anemic last season and having a lot of its lunch… pic.twitter.com/6ZaI4exbbv
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) February 28, 2024
Like with any new release, Smolder will take a while to settle into his position in the meta. To aid this, Riot announced a new slate of changes for him, but some of the changes are giving players pause for thought.
Smolder to receive big changes to scaling and late-game execute
The big changes to Smolder will come to his stacks, which will now give more power to the burn on his Q and the shots on his flight (E). However, some players don’t think this will be the right kind of change for him.
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One player on reddit said: “I’m reading the upcoming changes for Smolder and I do not think they address the main source of frustration with this champion, a champion that has close to a 40% banrate globally and over 50% in KR where they instantly ban anything over the top.”
“Having the execute being a point-and-click ability that you reach with relative ease and early into the game (I’ve seen Smolder reach this 225 cap in 18-19 minutes in GM lobbies) is bonkers, and I can’t really comprehend why they’re okay with how the champ turned out.”
Not everyone agreed, with the top comment pointing out that: “the recent changes also tie the damage on the number of stacks. Which means that he gets the execute but it’s weak anyway.”