How to Counter Smolder in LoL
Smolder is the latest champion to hit Summoners Rift. He is an ADC champion who needs to gain an early lead to snowball quickly. He is a very basic champion with a simple kit; however, he can be deadly if he is fed.
In this Mobalytics article, we will discuss several tips and tricks to help you counter Smolder, the 167th champion to join the League of Legends and the first champion to arrive in 2024! If you want to learn how to play as Smolder or any other champion in LoL, head over to the Mobalytics Champion Page. for information, including builds, tips and much more to help you start your climb!
We’ve made quite a few guides on Smolder already, and you might be interested in these too:
How to Play Smolder
Smolder Ability Reveal
Smolder Champion Page
Understand His Kit
The first thing about countering any champion is to understand what each of their abilities do and what they want to achieve throughout the laning phase. So, let’s get to basics.
Smolder is an AD Carry, so he will be played in the bottom lane. He has one dash tool, quite a lot of poke, and can get a heal from his Ultimate. Let’s break down what each of his abilities and his Passive does.
Smolder’s Passive is Dragon Practice
Dragon Practice grants him a stack whenever he uses a spell to damage an enemy or gets a kill. Getting stacks bolsters the damage output of his basic abilities.
Smolder’s Q is Super Scorcher Breath
His Q dishes out damage, but synergises with his Passive. The more stacks he has, the more upgrades he can get. At 25 stacks, he damages all enemies. At 125 he sends an explosion that deals a lot of damage. At 225 stacks, he burns the target.
Smolder’s W is Achoo
Achoo slows and deals damage to enemies.
Smolder’s E is Flap, Flap, Flap
It’s a movement tool that can help him get over walls. While using his E, he damages a nearby enemy with low health.
Smolder’s Ultimate is MMOOOMMMM
Smolder’s mother comes down, dealing damage to nearby enemies while healing her son.
Avoid Fighting in the Jungle
Team fighting versus Smolder is pretty simple in honesty. If you use our following advice in this article, team fighting can be made extremely easy. But in this section, will focus on where you should and shouldn’t team fight vs Smolder in Season 14.
Your best bet is to avoid team fighting in close sections of the map. This is because he has multiple AOE tools built into his kit. His Q can damage multiple champions at once, and as teams will be grouped to gather in the jungle, he can hurt your whole team. His Ultimate is also very powerful in tight areas of the map.
I suggest avoiding fighting in the jungle, around major objectives, and around towers. That means that you should fight in open areas of the map where there is a lot of space, such as in a lane. If you can catch him out and lock him down, even better.
Abuse His E Cooldown
I want to keep this section pretty brief. Like most AD Carries, he has one mobility skill. His E allows him to reposition, get over walls, and dodge skillshots and incoming damage.
If he uses this ability for no major reason, try to track its cool-down and play aggressively while it is unavailable to him. He is much weaker and vulnerable to all-ins when he is without his E, and even better without his Flash.
According to the LoLWiki, his E has a 20+ second base cooldown, which will give you plenty of time to re-engage after your abilities have come back up.
Don’t Let Him Get Ahead
While technically true about every champion in League of Legends, try and limit how far ahead Smolder can get. If you don’t feed him early, he will struggle to carry in the game’s later stages.
Similarly, if you can delay his Q empowerment, he won’t be as strong as he could be. With every Q upgrade, he will become stronger, so delaying this will be highly beneficial.
The ways you can prevent him from getting ahead are:
- Constantly trying to fight him.
- Ganking him over and over again and killing him.
- Zoning him away from farm so he cannot get gold and XP.
- By abusing his cooldowns.
Lock him down with CC
Smolder’s E is his only real movement tool that can allow him to escape and dodge skill shots. While his Ultimate can also protect him, if you see him waste his E, then you should try to capitalize on the cooldown to gain a significant health lead or kill him in the lane.
Locking him down with CC will make it nearly impossible for him to survive or escape your damage. If you can lock him down for a long period of time, he will not be able to dish out any damage in a team fight, which heavily increases your chances of winning the fight.
If he doesn’t have Flash available to him, there is no real way he will escape.
Counter Pick Him
Another thing you can do is counter-pick him. Counterpicking is one of the best ways to beat any champion during the laning phase. Five champions that are good against Smolder. We are using a mixture of lane opponents and champions who are good in team fights.
Leona
Leona is one of the strongest Engage Supports right now. Vs Smolder, she can play aggressively from levels 2 onwards and consistently engage with him. In team fights, Leona is also really good because her Ultimate can lock him down and his allies at the same time- which will help in team fights.
Caitlyn
She can be a real nightmare to deal with due to her range and her empowered auto attacks. Caitlyn also has good poking and wave-pushing potential so she can constantly push him into his tower.
Sejuani
Sejuani is a very underrated Jungler who has a ton of CC tools. If Sejuani consistently ganks bot lane with her Ultimate, you will put him behind. He will have to also invest in armour pen items to kill her.
Zac
Zac will purchase items that make him tankier and harder to kill. You’ll force Smolder to invest in armour penetration to be able to kill Zac. Zac also has a lot of CC, which is perfect against Smolder.
Vayne
She has strong all-in and can win extended trades thanks to her W. Post-six, Vayne’s kill pressure only intensifies with the empowerment from her Ultimate.
Ban Him in Ranked Queue
The new season has just started, and you don’t want to start on the wrong foot and lose games for no reason. Losing nowadays costs a lot of LP, so you must do as much as possible to increase your chances of winning the game.
Usually, we say that you should ban the new champions at the start when they are released. This is because the chances of your allies playing them to a high level are quite low. You may find your teammates picking him in every role too, and not in the lane he’s supposed to be played in.
Ban him for the first week or so, so you do not get him on your team in ranked. You may say, “But the enemy can pick him and perform poorly on him.” While that is true, you then run the risk of your allies not knowing what he does and completely getting destroyed by him in the bottom lane.
Note: this doesn’t really apply to normal games. Don’t ban him in normal games; don’t be a jerk.
Final Thoughts
Smolder is one of the recent champions that I have liked the look of in LoL. He seems to be fun and simple, which is what I love. I also love the champion design and his overall aesthetic. We hope this article will help you face Smolder if he makes it through your lobbies soon!
Want to see what champions are dominating this patch? Head over to the Mobalytics Tier List for Patch 14.2.
