belo im bluwunk and im a Smolder OTP :3 i hit Challenger playing mostly Smolder.

I started maining smolder in early 2025 and I became obsessed with his stacking gameplay and late game carrying capabilities. I think he's really fun and he has a lot of cool things he can do. I have a:

Twitch where I stream most of my games,

Discord server where you can be a part of a community and ask me questions.

Youtube channel where I upload stream highlights (and lowlights).


Follow my guide and I'll show you how to do more damage :'3

PASSIVE

Dragon Practice ✦ Whenever Smolder hits an enemy with an ability or last hit a minion with q you will get 1 stack of Dragon Practice. These stacks improve the damage of and upgrade your abilities, so you always want to maximize getting them.

Q

Super Scorcher Breath ✦ Super Scorcher Breath is Smolder's main damage ability. It works kind of like an auto attack, applying on-hit effects and scaling with crit. Super Scorcher Breath has 4 different thresholds depending on how many Dragon Practice stacks Smolder has: At 0 stacks it's basically a glorified auto attack and does about the same damage as one. At 25 stacks the fireball explodes and does the same damage in a small area around its target. At 125 stacks it splashes in a small area behind the target. At 225 stacks it burns anyone hit for a percent of their health as true damage, as well as allowing Smolder to execute anyone below 6.5% health.

W

Achooo! ✦ Achooo! is a pretty standard ability. It's just a fireball shot in a straight line. Whenever it hits someone it does an aoe splash which can also hit another person giving Smolder multiple stacks of Dragon Practice.

E

Flap, Flap, Flap ✦ Flap, Flap, Flap is Smolder'smain movement ability which lets him fly over walls for a short period while giving him vision in the area and shooting 5 bolts at the lowest nearby enemy. Every 100 stacks of Dragon Practice adds another bolt to this attack.

R

MMOOOMMMM! ✦ MMOOOMMMM! calls down Smolder's mom. Her attack has a wide range and anyone who gets hit in the middle takes more damage and gets slowed. It also heals Smolder slightly. This is also Smolder's only ability that doesn't scale with Dragon Practice.

Smolder has a lot of build options for an ADC so it can be hard to figure out what build is best for him. Currently I think there are 2 main builds that I go depending on the enemy team comp. In this section I'll explain the builds, the small variations, and when and why I take them.

Also here is a LINK to some testing I did for Essence Reaver VS Hubris




The Hubris build gives you great burst potential as well as the range and mobility of Rapid Firecannon. Most champs in the game are squishy enough to be bursted down in one rotation by this game so I usually end up going with this build.

First Strike ✦ First Strike is an okay rune on Smolder, the main purpose of it is to get you access to the rest ot the Inspiration tree.

Cash Back ✦ Cash Back helps you get to your full build faster. Being able to buy shoes earlier also helps you get to your 5 JOAT faster.

Triple Tonic ✦ Triple Tonic's 60 gold early helps you get BF sword or Dirk earlier. The red pot helps you have better all ins. The +1 skill elixir is really good because it'll lower the CD on your Flap,Flap,Flap and Achooo!. The other choices in this rune page aren't as good as this one.

Jack of all Trades ✦ Jack of all Trades is the most imporant rune in this build for Smolder as it gives you 25 AD and 10 Ability Haste once it's fully stacked.

Manaflow Band ✦ Manaflow Band is generally enough mana for Smolder to survive without too many mana issues throughout the game. Going this rune allows us to be greedy and go Hubris instead of Essence Reaver.

Gathering Storm ✦ Gathering Storm is the only rune I'd suggest in this slot since Smolder can't really take advantage of Scorch

Stat shard 1

• Adaptive Force is best for when you want to start Achooo! in a rough lane
• Attack Speed is the best general option for help with last hitting, shoving, and early all-ins
• Ability Haste is the best for scaling into late game

Stat shard 2

• Adaptive Force is really the only option here, you need it to play the early lane.

Stat shard 3

• Flat health is good if you're worried about early lane being rough
• Scaling health is better in general since you want to play passive early most of the time

Hubris ✦ Hubris does more damage than Essence Reaver with this build, especially in short bursts EVEN WITHOUT THE HUBRIS PASSIVE ACTIVE. It also give syou the potential to snowball like crazy if you can get some early stacks on it, but even if you don't stack it early you'll always end up getting some takedowns later at 225 stacks. The lethality is also necessary to get all 10 Jack of all Trades stacks.

Infinity Edge ✦ Infinity Edge makes you do a lot of damage because Smolder's Super Scorcher Breath scales really well with Critical Strike chance.

Rapid Firecannon ✦ Rapid Firecannon has really good synergy with Super Scorcher Breath. You're able to shoot an auto attack and a Q from one Rapid Firecannon proc. Use it to poke teams down before teamfights start.

Bloodthirster ✦ Bloodthirster is the item that gives the most Attack Damage in the whole game while also giving you Lifesteal.

Mortal Reminder ✦ Mortal Reminder has 5% less armor penetration than Lord Dominik's Regards but since Smolder does so much mixed damage, he can afford to give up that 5% for anti heal most of the time

Boots of Swiftness ✦ Boots of Swiftness are the best general use boots for Smolder. You can also go Mercury's Treads if the other team is heavy on ability power or Plated Steelcaps if the other team is heavy on attack damage

Crimson Lucidity ✦ Crimson Lucidity are the most OP boots in the game. They give you 25 Ability Haste which is as much as Spear of Shojin and even 8% Movement Speed whenever you hit an ability. However, the un-upgraded counterpart Ionian Boots of Lucidity suck and I ONLY BUILD THIS WHEN I WIN FEATS OF STRENGTH

Lord Dominik's Regards ✦ Only go Lord Dominik's Regards if you think you really dont need anti heal

Guardian Angel ✦ Guardian Angel is good against undodgeable assassins like Rengar or Talon. Make sure you try to play forward and pressure the enemy team with this item. If you die last in a teamfight there's no point in buying this.

Mercurial Scimitar ✦ Mercurial Scimitar is a fantastic item since it's recent buff. Build this against annoying CC like Skarner or Lissandra or Malzahar. It has enough lifesteal to keep you healthy between fights and the magic resist and Movement Speed on the active are really useful.

The Essence Reaver build is going to be better at taking down tanky teams (think Sion Ornn Tahm Kench) and keeping you alive against assassins that are guaranteed to close the gap (think Zed Talon Fiddlesticks). The point of this build is to keep you alive longer with the hp stacking early, and farm as many Dragon Practice stacks as possible on fat tanks with the huge amount of Ability Haste in the build.

Fleet Footwork ✦ Fleet Footwork procs on Super Scorcher Breath and gives you Movement Speed and a little bit of healing which can help you kite. You can also go Press the Attack if you're fighting extremely tanky teams and want a little extra damage.

Triumph ✦ Triumph gives you gold and Health for each takedown. You don't need Presence of Mind because you'll already have enough Mana from Essence Reaver.

Legend: Haste ✦ Legend: Haste is the best rune in this slot for Smolder because this entire build is built around having a lot of Ability Haste to spam your skills to stack your passive Dragon Practice.

Cut down ✦ Cut Down and Coup de Grace are about the same thing but it's better to take Cut Down because you already have an execute which means the bonus damage while they're low doesn't help as much.

Transcendence ✦ Transcendence gives you even more Ability Haste making your Super Scorcher Breath and Achooo! cooldowns even lower meaning you can stack your passive Dragon Practice faster.

Gathering Storm ✦ Gathering Storm is the only rune I'd suggest in this slot since Smolder can't really take advantage of Scorch

Essence Reaver ✦ Even though earlier I said Hubris does more damage than Essence Reaver, it's better to build Essence Reaver in the instances where you're fighting a bunch of tanks and melee champs and/or assassins. It gives you infinite mana and a lot of Ability Haste so you can keep spamming Super Scorcher Breath and Achooo! and because you're able to constantly spam these abilites, you have a lot more stacks than usual.

Spear of Shojin ✦ Spear of Shojin is a really good item to build against tanks because it gives you percentage damage on all your skills based on how many stacks you maintain. It's especially good with Essence Reaver because you'll be spamming a lot of abilites as both of these items give you Ability Haste

Black Cleaver ✦ Black Cleaver gives you Ability Haste which is the main point of this build while also giving you Movement Speed and Armor shred which will help you and your team kill tanks faster. Having more Ability Haste means spamming more abilites.

Infinity Edge ✦ Infinity Edge makes you do a lot of damage because Smolder's Super Scorcher Breath scales really well with Critical Strike.

Bloodthirster ✦ Bloodthirster is the item that gives the most Attack Damage in the whole game while also giving you Lifesteal.

Crimson Lucidity ✦ Crimson Lucidity are the most OP boots in the game. They give you 25 Ability Haste which is as much as Spear of Shojin and even 8% Movement Speed whenever you hit an ability. However, the un-upgraded counterpart Ionian Boots of Lucidity suck and I ONLY BUILD THIS WHEN I WIN FEATS OF STRENGTH

Boots of Swiftness ✦ Boots of Swiftness are the best general use boots for Smolder. You can also go Mercury's Treads if the other team is heavy on ability power or Plated Steelcaps if the other team is heavy on attack damage

Ravenous Hydra ✦ Ravenous Hydra is a really good substitute for Bloodthirster if you don't need more Attack Damage or the extra safety from its shield. The only downside with Ravenous Hydra is that sometimes you will lose Dragon Practice stacks to it's passive. It's good for when you need more Ability Haste to kill waves and tanks.

Rapid Firecannon ✦ Rapid Firecannon has really good synergy with Super Scorcher Breath. You're able to shoot an auto attack and a Q from one Rapid Firecannon proc. Use it to poke teams down before teamfights start. You would only ever build Rapid Firecannon in this build if late game you really needed the range to not die. There are two items you can swap out for Rapid Firecannon. Bloodthirster or Spear of Shojin. If you need Lifesteal swap out Spear of Shojin but if you don't need Lifesteal swap out Bloodthirster.

Lord Dominik's Regards ✦ Lord Dominik's Regards is an item you would replace Black Cleaver for late game after you have full build. I would only recommend swapping to Lord Dominik's Regards if you aren't facing multiple big tanks. Otherwise Black Cleaver still might be better.

Mortal Reminder ✦ Mortal Reminder is an item you would replace Black Cleaver for late game after you have full build. I would only recommend swapping to Mortal Reminder if you are facing a bunch of enemies who can heal. Otherwise Black Cleaver still might be better.

Death's Dance ✦ Death's Dance is a good substitution for Bloodthirster if somehow you're getting 1 shotted by Attack Damage assassins. It's a good item because it gives you Ability Haste and Armor along with it's passive which helps you survive dives.

Here's a tier list showing my initial thoughts on which build to go based on seeing each champion on the enemy team. Experiment with the builds so you can decide which one to go for yourself :D

Here's what I do level 1 pretty much every game as long as im not being lazy



The ward stops you from getting cheesed level 1 which Smolder is really weak to and then standing in that spot next to tier 2 tower will safely spot anyone trying to invade thru there so your jungler wont complain at you :D


Smolder's early game is really bad so I reccomend you take Teleport no matter what. Barrier isn't good because you aren't looking to have all in fights anyways so bringing it is a waste. Teleport gives you a lot of leniency in lane because you can get chunked out and TP back with full health plus a component which can win you the lane. In a hard lane where you get poked out really hard early (think Caitlyn Karma), I usually back when I'm low and buy Cull.
Level 1-3 is pretty simple, your main goal is to try and farm with Super Scorcher Breath and hit the enemy laners with achoo! as much as possible to hit 25 stacks. Before getting 25 stacks, try to not commit to long fights and focus on short trades/getting stacks because Smolder is super weak before 25 stacks. When trading level 1, do not trade without Super Scorcher Breath up. Most of the time you should have the lane shoved towards you so it's safer. After 25 stacks you can start to put a little more pressure onto the enemy team as you can now push faster and do more damage through minions with AOE. Try and look for scenarios to land Super Scorcher Breath on minions or so you can splash damage onto their ADC while they're CS'ing. You should also try to time Achooo! to hit them while they try to last hit.


Here's an example of a quick trade pattern for early game. This trade is almost always going to be in your favor if you don't eat any huge skillshots (think Kai'Sa Void Seeker) or get all-inned afterwards (like getting hit by Draven Stand Aside or Thresh Death Sentence'd).



Here's an example of good farming with Super Scorcher Breath at 25 stacks (ignore the minion minions)


On early bases you should try to prioritize spending as much gold as possible.

If I'm going Hubris build:

• 1300g B. F. Sword
• <1300g whatever Hubris components you can afford
• 450g on very first back (or death) Cull

If I'm going Essence Reaver build:

• whatever Essence Reaver components you can afford
• <600g on very first back (or death) Cull

First back is really important because once you get your first component ( Serrated Dirk or B. F. Sword) you're able to do a lot more damage and start to win trades/skirmishes. You can trade and play more aggressively as long as you land your Achooo!. A combo that you would use in a trade/skirmish would be W>AA>Q>AA>E. It can be shortened into W>Q>AA>E for a faster burst.


Smolder's mid game is pretty strong as long as you don't get absolutely demolished in laning phase. After rotating to mid lane, I try to take raptors on repeat as this camp gives a lot of stacks. In fights you should be looking to splash your q onto their backlines whether it's through Super Scorcher Breath'ing the minions or objectives. Your goal mid game is just to push mid wave on repeat and rotate to fights that are happening on the map. At this point you should be able to get 4-6 Dragon Practice stacks per wave. Position yourself to Super Scorcher Breath the backline minions to hit the enemy if they are also hitting the wave that you are. Other than that, your mid game is pretty similar to every other ADC.


Here's a clip of me poking people and being annoying with Super Scorcher Breath in the mid game. Do this as much as possible to get extra stacks and poke people down.


I wouldn't have gotten this Super Scorcher Breath to land without Rapid Firecannon it's really good :D



Once you've finished your Rapid Firecannon (Ideally you have 225 at 3 items), what you should be doing is poking enemies with Super Scorcher Breath from afar to set up fights. Being able to chunk people before team fights is pivotal, as it can set your team up for success. Your goal is to do as much damage as you can while not dying, use your Flap, Flap, Flap intelligently as it can help you play aggressive without being caught. It's important that you use your Flap, Flap, Flap to fly over walls and disengage especially against champions can't follow ( Flap, Flap, Flap over a wall after Nocturne uses Paranoia on you). Try to look for opportunities to hit enemies with the center of your MMOOOMMMM!, don't just use it whenever you feel like it. A good time to use it would be when someone gets CC'd or in the middle of a team fight because not a lot of people would be paying attention to your ult because it usually isnt very highly impactful. A bad time to use it is at the beginning of a team fight to engage. Because MMOOOMMMM! is really slow, it won't hit them most of the time.


Here's what your MMOOOMMMM! can look like if you're patient with them. They're usually so much better if you wait for someone to get CC'd first.

Super Scorcher Breath-
One really cool thing you can do with Super Scorcher Breath is use and auto attack and a Super Scorcher Breath with the same Rapid Firecannon proc.

Here's me using Super Scorcher Breath and an auto attack with the same Rapid Firecannon proc on a target dummy cause i was too lazy to find a real clip c:

Achooo!-
You can start Achooo! as a first ability if you're going against long ranged bot lanes that don't allow you to walk up and auto the wave. This lets you trade with them while staying a safe distance.
Also I usually start Achooo! if I see 5 people invading for free 5 stacks and better AOE damage. You should only use this ability if you know you're going to hit it, hold onto it if you don't think you can as this ability uses a lot of mana. When you don't have w, your skirmishes and trades are going to be significantly weaker.
One more thing you can do is a Achooo! + Flash combo. You can start to buffer Achooo! and then use Flash into the rest of your combo to get some quick unexpected damage on someone.

Flap, Flap, Flap -
Most people don't use this ability to deal damage and only use it as an escape tool. Flap, Flap, Flap actually does a lot more damage than you would expect it to, especially with the Hubris build. A cool thing you can do with E is if you're getting tower doved, you can fly into the wall on the bottom side and this will make it hard for the enemies to hit you. You can still get CC'd so try to do it before you get cc'd and try to dodge cc while in the wall.

Since Smolder's execute only works on damage HE applies, a cool thing you can do once you hit 225 stacks is you can use Flap, Flap, Flap to execute enemies after you apply your burn on them at low health. Flap, Flap, Flap does a lot of burst damage which can guarantee you an execute.


Here's a clip of me showing a great way to survive dives using Flap, Flap, Flap. Just pretend these target dummies are about to kill me. If you've ever seen a Kayn use Shadow Step outside the map to get away, this is kind of the same idea.


Here's a clip showing what I mean with finishing off someone with Flap, Flap, Flap. It's a great way to confirm a kill once you hit 225 Dragon Practice stacks.

MMOOOMMMM! -
MMOOOMMMM! is an extremely slow moving ability. In a 1v1 try to combo it off of your Achooo! to make it easier to land the center. One cool thing you can do is you can ult backwards to make it easier to get a Center hit. It's a very situational but it can make or break your fight. Usually you should use it in a 1v1 against the other ADC to ensure that you do enough damage to kill them. This can also work against a Braum Unbreakable since it only blocks skillshots from the front.

The backwards MMOOOMMMM! (right) hits way faster

15.21
- lifesteal on Doran's Blade removed so Jack of all Trades is a bit nerfed but it was OP enough that my builds aren't changing. You just hit the 5/10 jack stacks a bit later.

15.22
- Going First Strike now instead of Arcane Comet because the Inspiration tree got buffed really hard. Triple Tonic and Cash Back are really good now and its ok to give up Transcendence since its pretty whatever.