Hello, it's me, Misterfirstblood from EUW. Finally, with the release of Smolder, we have a freshly new ADC. It's a super cool-looking small Dragon which scales very well into late game. Today, I want to give you a short introduction on how to play Smolder and what to build.

Passive: Dragon Practice
Innate: Smolder generates a stack of Dragon Practice each time he hits an enemy champion with an ability, or whenever Super Scorcher Breath kills a Minion or Monster. His basic abilities deal bonus magic damage based on stacks.

Super Scorcher Breath: Deals bonus magic damage equal to 40% − 52% (based on critical strike chance) of Dragon Practice stacks.
Achooo!: Explosions deal bonus magic damage equal to 55% of Dragon Practice stacks.
Flap, Flap, Flap: Attacks each deal bonus magic damage equal to 20% of Dragon Practice stacks.

Q: Super Scorcher Breath
Active: Smolder spits a fireball at the target enemy that deals physical damage, increased by 0% − 30% (based on critical strike chance), and applies on-hit and on-attack effects at 100% effectiveness and life steal at 50% effectiveness.

25 stacks: The fireball explodes upon collision to deal the same physical damage to nearby enemies.
125 stacks: The fireball sends forth 2 (+ 1 per 100 Dragon Practice stacks) bolts of fire in an arc upon collision that explode at maximum range, dealing 75% of the same physical damage to enemies hit.
225 stacks: Enemies hit are set on fire for 3 seconds, causing them to take bonus true damage equal to 6.5% of their maximum health over the duration, capped at 300 against monsters. Enemy champions are also executed if they are damaged to or while below 2% (+ 1% per 40 Dragon Practice stacks) of their maximum health.

W: Achooo!
Active: Smolder sneezes a fiery glob in the target direction that deals physical damage to enemies hit and slows them by 35% for 1.5 seconds, slowing down in missile speed after traveling 1200 units. Hitting an enemy champion creates an explosion that deals physical damage to nearby enemies, with subsequent explosions against the same target dealing 75% damage of the previous explosion's damage.

E: Flap, Flap, Flap
Active: Smolder takes flight for 1.25 seconds, gaining 100% bonus movement speed, unobstructed vision, and the ability to ignore terrain collision. While in flight, he automatically fires up to 5 − 10 (based on critical strike chance) bolts at the nearest and most wounded visible enemy, dealing physical damage with each hit and prioritizing enemy champions.

R: MMOOOMMMM!
Active: Smolder takes flight for 1.25 seconds, gaining 100% bonus movement speed, unobstructed vision, and the ability to ignore terrain collision. While in flight, he automatically fires up to 5 − 10 (based on critical strike chance) bolts at the nearest and most wounded visible enemy, dealing physical damage with each hit and prioritizing enemy champions.]]
Active: Smolder shouts for his mother to attack from above, causing her to exhale a wave of fire from behind him and towards the target direction, granting sight of its surroundings as it travels. The wave heals Smolder and deals physical damage to enemies hit, with those in the center taking 30% increased damage and becoming slowed by 40% for 2 seconds.

Arcane Comet synergizes pretty well with your poke-based early game and gives you some additional power throughout the early game. Since you might have mana early on, Manaflow Band is also very nice to have, which is why I partially recommend going Sorcery tree. Scorch and Absolute Focus are my bread and butter choices for the other two slots.

The other Path is Fleet Footwork which can be applied with your Q and grants you a ton of Sustain. Your mana problems are not completely solved, but the combination of Doran's Ring starts and Presense of Mind can be enough until you grab your Essence Reaver which then does the rest. Legend: Bloodline and Cut Down are the best generic choices while others are better in specific Scenarios.

Inspiration is a good way to save money and secure reaching the late game a bit earlier by taking Magical Footwear and Biscuit Delivery and thats why I think its the best choice for your second Tree no matter which of these two recommended build paths you are going to choose.

The best items to start are either Doran's Ring for comfortabler laning with less mana issues while Doran's Blade offers a stronger all in scenarios.
When it comes to itemization, your three main items should be Essence Reaver, Rapid Firecannon and Navori Quickblades. Then build whatever your current need is, either Lord Dominik's Regards for armor pen, Bloodthirster against poke, Immortal Shieldbow against burst, or if you just want to maximize your damage, go for Muramana or Spear of Shojin.

Boots of Swiftness increases your E Range, so theoretically its easier to surpass bigger walls with them than its the case with Ionian Boots of Lucidity which would be the next best option.

- Try to scale. The only way you can survive early game is by avoiding all-ins unless you are 100% sure to win. If your jungler is able to bring you ahead, great. If not, just take the CS, try not to get dived, and farm and poke until you have enough stacks to be a real champ.
- You can jump over walls with your E. It has a ton of cooldown in early levels and is your only real escape, so make sure to have it ready in case you get ganked, and only use it offensively if you are sure you will win the all-in.
- You can use W defensively by slowing enemies chasing you. Combined with your E, you might escape some dangerous situations.
- Try to be in the center of your R's direction to receive healing if needed. If you are full health already, don't ruin your positioning by greedily going for a heal that doesn't do anything.
- Secure Red buff in the late game when you have enough stacks to execute enemies with your Q; it can make the difference.

Strengths:
- Great Design
- Infinite Scaling
- Great Waveclear
- Solid Poke

Weaknesses:
- Not a lot of mobility and high cooldown on it
- One of the Weaker early game Champs
- Unable to freeze the lanes (because you are consistenly pushing when grabbing Q stacks, since its AoE Damage)
- Mana problems early on

All in all, I'm really hyped to see a new champion in the bot lane, especially one as cool-looking as this. I am trying to keep this guide up to date as much as I can, but if there are too many changes within the next few days, I apologize if I am not fast enough to update it.

Thank you for reading, guys! See you next time :)