Smolder is the newest champion to League Of Legends, and is a great scaling late-game champion with a very weak early game to start with.

While he isn't the weakest champion in the early game, he's far from the strongest early game ADC you'll meet and thus, the scaling machine must grow

With a similar style of spellslinging to Ezreal, but playstyles that can resemble ADCs with Max Health damage like Varus or Kog'Maw, he can be a versatile champion that has yet to find his true flame to spark

This is gonna be a detailed explanation on Smolders abilities, so I should be able to cover most of the information on them

Passive: Dragon Practice

Dragon Practice is Smolders Passive, and the reason he scales so hard into the late game.

Hitting champions with abilities, and killing enemies with Q [Minions or Enemy Champions] grants a stack of Dragon practice, which increases the magic damage on all of his abilities with each stack he gains.

This is one of two main reasons Smolder scales so hard, and makes him so much stronger as the game goes on to the point of being able to challenge almost anyone if given enough time to stack up his damage

Q Ability: Super Scorcher Breath

Super Scorcher Breath is the 2nd scaling ability of Smolder, and the main source of damage within his kit.

It deals damage based off his AD, AP [though very low AP scaling] and has higher damage based off his crit chance as well. Dragon Practice affects his Q as well, not only giving it magic damage, but giving effects based off stack amount

25 Stacks: Damages all enemies in an AOE around the initial blast. No additional effect is gained from getting stacks

125 Stacks: Sends 3 projectiles behind the original Q target that does 75% of the abilities damage. Every 100 stacks grants another projectile that fires behind the main Q target. This permanently scales, and also will proc Hydra effects on every projectile. So when you get it, if you have Tiamat or Titanic, the point and click Q will proc Hydra, then the 3 projectiles that shoot afterwards, rather they hit a target or not, will also proc Hydra effects, meaning right away you get 4 Hydra procs off 1 Q for amazing AOE damage and waveclear

225 Stacks: Burns the target for 6.5% max health true damage over 3 seconds. Every enemy that drops below 7% health [7% is the amount it executes when you reach the 225 stacks] while burned will be killed instantly. Every 40 stacks will raise the execute threshhold by 1%. This is why Smolder could end up building as a Tankier champ as well, simply becase of this Q stack effect, but you have to be able to farm well to get it as soon as possible or it won't be useful

Smolders Q in the early game is insanely weak and practically useless aside from very weak minion securing or horrible poke, which is why I level 3 points into W first (I will explain more in the section about Achooo!). It doesn't really start to feel useful until closer to 125 stack mark and you have at least 1-2 fully built items.

However, in the late game, this is the most annoying and oh so amazing ability to have in your kit to provide damage, secured kills and become the scaling menace you were meant to be

W Ability: Achooo!

Achooo! is Smolders W and what I personally prefer to put 3 points into early before putting everything else into Q

Smolder lets out a sneeze, causing a bubble to float forward and dealing AP damage to everyone hit. If it hits a champion, it also explodes dealing extra stronger AP damage to the target

The W does slow down as it reaches the end of its range, kinda similar to how Ekkos Q slows down as it reaches its limited range

If you saw above, you saw that I recommend leveling W first and putting 3 points into it at level 1,3,5 before putting the rest of my points into Q, and there is a heavily good reason for me doing this

Smolders W has high decent AP scaling and damage in the early game, and combined with Dorans Ring, Comet, and Scorch [Possibly Dark Seal if you're following the Korean Route], this becomes the best harassment tool in your kit

Your Q won't be useful until the later stages of the game, that is pretty obvious to notice, and even with 25 stacks, it won't do much without items

So with W, while you're getting your build path items and waiting on your Q to get stronger, you're abusing the AP ratio on your W to have heavy poke on enemies, stacking your passive, having a slow, and a good wave clear tool as 2 bubbles can kill caster minions.
Overall this is definitely one of his more underrated abilities for the early game, and it needs the attention it deserves


E Ability: Flap, Flap, Flap

Flap is Smolders main movement tool for getting into or out of fights as he needs. Smolder gains 100% movement speed [and any movement speed enhancement like ghost also stacks on this], and lets him ignore terrain for 1.25 seconds.
While flying, he attacks the lowest health enemy 5-10 times dealing very low attack damage with each hit.

Truthfully, this is a really good tool for getting out of fights or securing kills as needed. The only real problem with this ability is that most CC interrutps it, so you could be knocked out mid flight into a bad spot.

The ability also stops prematurely if you try to use any abilities, so there's no giant way of using it like Zeri and her W when she's flying over walls.

Regardless though, the terrrain traversal makes it an excellent tool for engaging or escaping as needed, and at worst, you're just forcing the enemy to waste flash to catch you.

Ultimate Ability: MMOOOMMMM!

Smolders ultimate is MMOOOMMMM! Smolder calls his Mother to breathe fire from above, dealing damage based off AP and bonus AD. Enemies in its center take more damage and are slowed for 2 seconds. This also heals Smolder for an AP% if he's hit by the ult as well.

Smolders Ult is a good way to not only get sudden sustain to win a fight last second, but also do a ton of damage in the process of the fight and secure a kill if you're fast enough.

It does take a second to windup, and if Smolder dies anytime during or before his ult goes off, it will stop prematurely and fly off.

It can be a good tool for snipe kills if you're confident in your aim, but with the ultimate warning people enable and the fact the ground basically vibrates like an earthquake it's easy to know when it's coming, and leaves an icon on the map where it's coming from

Each part of the game for Smolder can vary based on scenarios, so this won't always be the same case on how to do things on Smolder, but the basic premise is about the same in most cases

Early Game
It's kinda obvious what you should be doing as Smolder during the early lane phase, and that's just focuing on getting your stacks up.

There isn't really anything else you should be doing aside from CSing with your Q for stacks and occasionally poking with your W as well for harassment poke as well as stacks.
Your early game is weak, so unless the enemy gets low from you and your support, and/or your jungler comes to gank, there isn't a ton of damage you can do without items.

The best way to try to get stacks is easier off caster minions by using W on them once you have enough damage, then using your 25+ stack Q AOE for execute so that you can clear the wave faster, and you still get the stacks off the minions.
As the game progresses this will be easier to just use your Q instead of W+Q, but if you're looking to push a bit more than W+Q [with 25+ stacks] makes it alot easier

Mid Game
Same premise as the early game almost: Get your stacks, farm and now maybe prioritize getting kills if you can afford it. Now the only difference is where you do it and what you're doing.

By this point you should have 125+ stacks, hopefully around the 150-175 stack mark, or optimistically higher, but no big deal if you aren't. The main goal here is just to farm up to that juicy 225 max health mark, while also assisting in claiming objectives as well if you can afford it.

Some ADCs do tend to focus on CSing more than anything, and while that's not so bad, it's not healthy either because it can risk ruining objectives if you decide not to help, so don't always go for something you don't need and try to help with objectives

Late Game
By this stage, you should be at 225+ stacks, meaning you're now a menace to the enemy team and hopefully a machine at melting.
Obviously this comes down to who's currently winning, and what there is to do, so don't push alone if you're losing and you know the enemy has claim on your jungle.
Stay with your team if you can afford it, contest baron, try to help end but mainly just do your best to be a team player. You may do a ton of damage now, but you're not immortal

So you're probably questioning WHEN to build a Smolder build focusing on either Crit, Tank or AP. I'll try my best to explain each here:

Crit Smolder:
For Crit Smolder, it's probably what you're gonna build 90% of the time. Normally the time to build this is nearly every time.

You're the main damage carry, you need to make your damage stand out, and the best way to do that is to follow how he was meant to be build, though in league, everyone always finds a way to build different

But the basic explanation: 90% of the time this is what you should build

Tankier Smolder:
Tankier Smolder isn't built as often, but it still can be viable if done correctly. Usually I only like to build this if the team is heavy on one type of damage

This can be if they have 3 AD, and 2 AP, but the 2 AP are a support and a midlaner who won't have any impact, or are a tank champ with AP built in

The basic premise of this is simple: You will be doing a ton of damage in the late game thanks to your Q max health true damage, and still being able to take a ton of damage dished out to you by the enemy

The main drawback to this build is only if you're not able to farm to get those stacks as fast as possible.
If you can't build up your stacks to 225 easily to make your damage viable and still be beefy, this isn't gonna be an easy build for you to follow


AP Smolder:
I never, and I mean NEVER, condone the use of AP Smolder in ranked games, this is your only warning, so do not expect this to be some secret meta carry strategy

AP Smolder is an interesting idea considering yes, he does have AP scaling. Very weak AP Scaling excluding in his ult, but still, he has AP scaling

When should you build this? Only if you're intending to have a fun game, BUT, you may get yelled at for trolling especially if you do it in ranked, so I'm not condoning the use of it in the slightest in anything but Norms, Bots and ARAM

Can this build work? Yes. It surprisingly can. The only way it works though is if you're still stacking as Smolder should, but you'll have to stack twice as hard to keep your damage viable so you constantly keep getting magic damage from your passive stacks

The main damage in AP Smolder comes from his W and Ult, because his W actually has 65% AP scaling, and his ult has 100% so you will get usage out of AP Smolder, but it is heavily W and Ult reliant. Not to mention his ult will heal you for 75% AP so you'll get some decently chunky heals out of it

Again as a reminder, only do this build for fun, never in ranked unless you're seriously confident you can, and you're willing to risk being flamed if you do end up failing the build

Smolder is a really interesting and to me, fun ADC scaling champ that brings a refreshing feel to the botlane.
As long as Smolder doesn't get the Zeri treatment [Multiple nerfs over and over anytime he gets remotely decent], this champion will be around for a long while and I can't wait to see how far he can get in this meta.

I will be updating this guide more later, but as for now, I've done alot already so it will be updated as I feel more influenced to do so.