This champion is a major threat for smolder. Since you're looking for roams with your E, or when farming, playing against a counter roam champ with his R available is difficult. Once you've juked out his E, look for poke. Otherwise you must stay constantly dodging. I'd recommend building swiftness and avoiding the wave entirely. Stack Q and scale.
Ahri
Due to her charm skill, Ahri can be an issue. Once you've juked it out, look for an engage with W into E and proc PTA asap. Returning a failed trade is an easy way to shut her down early before she becomes an issue.
Akali
Due to her W being able to cancel out your Q and AA's, Akali is a major lane threat. When she pops her shadow bomb, stay back and make sure you farm minions with W staying far enough back until her shroud has ended. She will most likely turn to farm minions with Q as she spends time looking for an E pick on you, so whilst her W is on cooldown look for easy poke.
Azir
I feel this matchup is particularly easy. Smolder can dodge Azir's soldiers whilst still farming with Q. Once you've stacked your first Q passive, look to poke down whilst avoiding the wave as his soldiers will most likely be positioned there. Be very aware of ganks and buy pink wards, and if you are scared of a gank incoming then back far from his tower as his R is difficult to get out of without burning flash, making you vulnerable to a hard engage W E Q W azir combo.
Anivia
Anivia's stun is slow moving and easy to dodge. Like azir, anivia is relatively easy to beat in that she can be poked down fairly well whilst avoiding any CC. Her passive is easy for smolder to pop with a full ability combo. Like Azir, buy pink wards and watch for ganks as her wall ability is what will make you susceptible to dying / burning flash.
Aurelion Sol
If Asol attempts to use his breath ability, pop E and escape. It's the easiest way to avoid taking half your health from one ability. Make sure you stay vigilant with map warding and ping when he isn't on your lane as his ganks can be lethal. Look for hard engage once your Q stacks have hit the first level as smolder's damage increases dramatically early at this point.
Brand
A lane tyrant. Brand mid is something I don't see often anymore, but be aware as his burn stun ult combo is devastating. Farm well away from the wave and look for ganks to secure an easy pick.
Cassiopeia
Another hard ability farmer. Cassio is relatively easy to beat pre level 6. If you look for an early engage, make sure that you avoid her slow first as it's difficult for you to maneuver away in that situation. If you hit her with poke first and engage once she is mid health, you should be able to secure a kill. Post level 6 you should ask for a gank to secure the kill, as it's most likely she will only stun 1 of the 2 champions with her R.
Corki
Once you're on top of him, there's not much he can do. Corki typically commits to a full combo using his E to shred your armour and MR, and thus if he turns to run away loses most of his damage. Beware of when he has package, as he will either gank teammates or look for you to be over extended in lane to secure a kill. Other than this, avoiding his R and playing around the wave to avoid R is the easiest way to secure poke and get easy kills.
Ekko
As an AP burst mage, ekko is hard to deal with in lane. Once he uses his W, make sure that you run to either side of the lane and E back to tower, or predict where it'll land using your lane position. If you over extend too far and he hits a Q, you're most likely going to die to his E combo or take too much HP damage to stay in lane and lose plates / farm.
Fizz
Fizz in the current meta is disgusting. I preach that you stay back at your turret, let the wave push to your side and Q farm low minions whilst returning to your side of lane. Fizz is extremely good at one combo one shotting if his R hits. With the huge R combo the itemization at the moment, you must be extremely aware. If you lose sight of him, spam ping as if he picks up kills elsewhere the game is typically going to turn sour quickly.
Play safe, avoid Q E W combos and dodge his ult / take it far back into your turret.
Irelia
You can typically tell when an Irelia player is going to Q to a minion, so you must try and predict when this happens and poke her down with your Q. If she can dash through the back 3 mage minions, you're going to take a lot of damage so be wary.
if you notice a minion on low HP near you and you've tracked her Q stacks, make sure that if she can pop her passive that you are too far back for her to make use of it. Most AA melee champions will be easy to poke down on lane using Q, and this is one of them. Bully her out of lane with your poke to secure an easy win.
Karma
Currently a relatively decent midlaner. I put the threat here as even because karma doesn't have that much kill pressure until after she has an item or two. If you can secure an early gank, then she won't have a good game. If you can secure an early kill through poke then engage the same applies.
If you leave her too long to farm / let her get kills ganking bot / top, then it's bad news. AP karma is a oneshot demon, and tank karma is almost unkillable and provides extreme peel for the enemy team.
SHUT HER DOWN EARLY!
Katarina
Katarina is usually a difficult adversary, but I don't think that's too relevant in this matchup. Your Q and W poke is crazy good, and when she goes to look for minion kills you can tell with her dagger placement whether or not she'll dash or if she will auto minions.
If kat manages to pop an ult on you, then run away using E. If your lane is even by 10 mins, then ask for a gank when she overextends too far to dash back to turret.
Be wary of kat ganks as this is how she usually picks up kills against midlaners. She's extremely good at it, so make sure to either A) countergank quick enough by spotting her through ward placements or B) spam pinging the lane she's ganking / your own lane to notify teammates.
If she falls behind on lane then she's useless late game, so make sure that happens!
Lux
Since Lux only really has one ability that forms her engage, you must bait it out. Once her Q is on cooldown, engage with her and E once you see her E get released whilst Q is down to either move around it or brute force to your ability range.
Most Lux players will pre-emptively farm the wave with their low R cooldown ability then look for map opportunity to support objectives or roam for ganks. Be aware of this and counter gank, even if you have to sacrifice minions. If you can shut her down early, it's another champ that won't do much except provide a single stun for the team.
Malzahar
Smolder Q stacks on malz minions. Stack quickly and bully him out of lane whilst watching for ganks and with his R.
Easy lane!
Orianna
Orianna mid is a pick you don't see that much right now. If you do come across it, then you must take care as she will typically just poke you down with her Q, moving her ball around whilst auto attacking minions exclusively. Try to poke by positioning your W so that it doesn't hit minions and use that into an E Q combo to out trade her on lane.
If the wave pushes into her turret she will more than likely wait for a gank and just ult then slow you so that you die quickly. If you're at her tower and know which side the gank is coming from, E into the opposite jungle and escape back to tower.
Make sure that you outrade her Q poke with your own Q poke.
Pantheon
As a champion that scales so well off of ganking, you will have to buy a lot of pink wards and possibly a farsight once available to stop him from ganking top / bot. If he does get to those lanes and is looking like he will secure a kill before you can get there, then trade it for 1/2 turret platings.
Since he ganks so often, it will be easy for you to take the turret quickly and get full gold value, thus most likely outscaling. You can then look for your own opportunities with E to gank through the terrain on top / bot.
Other than this, beware of his hard CC engage as he can cancel out all of your returning damage and get excess poke with another Q after his combo is over to bully you out of lane.
Qiyana
Since Qiyana has visual indicators as for which element she has taken, you know if she's looking for a stun. Try to stay away from river as she can get a neat combo on you by taking water then earth with a double Q toss and electrocute proc.
Watch for her ganking as she can get huge stuns on your team for free kill potential.
Stay away from walls where you can and play central to your lane / closer to your side whilst stacking Q and looking for out of her Q range poke.
Swain
Stand behind minions and try to bait out his stun pull. Once you've done this, it's typically quite easy for you to get some nice poke down onto him with W and Q, with E as an extra added bonus.
Once he hits 6 and has R, he can win the all in every single time so try to lower him and bully him out of lane with your poke.
Sylas
Sylas is extremely good at getting on top of you and killing you quickly. As well as this, stealing your ult means that he can secure kills on other lanes easily.
Beware of pushing the wave into him or being on his side of the lane at all, as once he freezes it in his favour he can win by stunning you. Play behind minions and wait for his stun to miss for you to choose to engage, and watch for him roaming as it'll be a free kill for him most of the time.
Syndra
Syndra can easily out poke you here. With her typically also taking electrocute, it means that you're really unlikely to win a trade-off when she can just stun you and proc electrocute then run away. Try and bait out her push stun first, then E into her following up with a full combo to proc your runes and poke her down. Then juke out her second stun and run back to your side to secure good free poke.
Taliyah
In lane, taliyah isn't really a threat too much. Low elo taliyah's don't use E to farm because it costs so much mana and they don't know how to balance the cost of the ability with staying on lane, but this also makes them more likely to E W you and get a free poke combo, If you can bait her E out or get her to farm with it, then poking her back down becomes easy for you.
Once she's level 6, watch for ganks and if she leaves lane for even a second, even to recall, let your team know as she can secure picks for her team / herself easy.
IF she has backed and you can see an opportunity presenting itself for her to gank, such as botlane on enemy tower, then roam down and provide pressure to force her back to mid. Take TP 100% of the time in this lane as you'll be counter-ganking a lot.
Talon
Gank king. Another champ for you to watch for roams with and make sure that he doesn't secure early ganks for quick kills, as it will end your lane very quickly.
Make sure that you sit at turret when he's level 2, as he can quickly shut you down. Take E second and make sure that he doesn't proc his passive. Once you're a higher level, you can poke him down when he goes to melee farm minions to force a back and get you ahead.
Tristana
Tristana has amazing escape, so kill potential is extremely low. Look to stack Q as quick as you can as every wave will be pushing in to you.
Once you've stacked second Q, look for roams and teamfights as Q 2nd stack is extremely strong in those situations.
Twisted Fate
In lane, TF is really easy to deal with as he can't solo kill you and will look to yellow card for a gank. Let the wave push to you and freeze so bait him onto your side and get a gank to secure the kill.
Once he hits 6, be wary of roams as most of the time TF secures a kill. You also must remember that his gold scales better than you due to his passive, so denial of farm is your best way forward. He can't get 100% of the minions with Q only, so keep the wave to your side when you can.
Veigar
Both Veigar and Smolder scale, but Veigar out scales Smolder and you must be aware of his minion farming. When he early game goes to Q farm minions, E, W, Q and poke him. He will most likely E you here, so play around it and dodge his W to take reduced damage.
If he E's you when you're far enough on his side, flash out because you'll probably die too quickly to secure a kill as you will be either be getting ganked or you'll take too much poke to sustain in lane.
Vel'Koz
When vel'koz pops his Q, use E to fly back and to not get hit by this ability. Try to dodge as once he hits his passive you will be ulted and dead.
Using your minions as a shield block and by dodging his W, you can E in and then W Q for good damage. You will be able to poke him down so long as you've dodged that initial Q.
Vex
Vex has a visual indicator for when she will be able to fear you. Wait for her to use an ability to farm the wave, and dodge her secondary fear causing ability to then engage and poke down.
Be wary of her R ganking other lanes, as you will be able to see this before it happens by utilising good jgl ward placements.
Viktor
Viktor's E is quite easy to dodge as you can see the direction before it hits the ground. When he pops W, then E out and charge him to poke pre level 6. Once he has hit 6, don't go for a full engage as he can pop ult and then kill you quickly.
Stack Q level and poke him down after you see his E get used to farm.
Vladimir
Play safe on your side and stack Q to then go and gank other lanes using E to cut through terrain and R to secure a slow and a kill, whilst using teleport as a crutch to return to lane.
Yasuo
The best way to deal with Yasuo is to wait for his wind wall to be down, for him to have no Q stacks at the time and then go for an engage that way. Once he has his first boots item, only poke down and avoid Q tornado whilst staying on your side of lane to back to tower should he hit and ult.
Also beware of him dashing through the wave and E away if he does. Play safe whilst stacking Q and then gank other lanes as it's hard to win a one on one with Yasuo without supremely good positioning. Yasuo W also blocks your ult as well as all of your other abilities, so stay clear in the early laning phase and don't engage unless your jungler can peel hard.
Yone
Much like Yasuo, dodge Q and stay on your side of lane, Refer to Yasuo.
Zed
Once he gets on top of you, it's over.
Make sure you avoid his shadow clone damage, and just Q stack early and look for roams. The odds of solo killing him are too low.
Ziggs
Make sure you are taking TP here as Ziggs is a turret destroyer and will get ahead early if he's able to take your turret, so make sure that you keep it healthy and keep the wave pushed so that he cannot break it down.
Be wary of R ganks on your teammates and ping when he's missing for them to back away.
Other than this he has no real kill potential as his main damaging ability is so easy to dodge that it's comical.
Zoe
Positioning behind waves makes it really easy for you to dodge Zoe Q / E
Experienced Zoe players will position themselves on the side of lane where their jungler is / where they have the most vision to prevent a gank, so beware of her Q circumventing the wave to hit you. Since all her abilities are completely straight lane and you know when she will use them, you can play around it.
When her E is on cooldown, it's an easy engage. Otherwise you must juke out her E otherwise her burst is extreme to engage.
Annie
You don't win lane into Annie. Her oneshot combo has too much range and she can burst you down whenever she has 4 stack stun. Roam and pick up kills by skirmishing instead of facing her head on.
Galio
Most Galio players will build partial tank, so my threat analysis is based off of that. If you come into a Galio that is full AP electrocute baus combo, then you want to avoid a confrontation and refer to my Annie threat. Otherwise, you can poke him down with W and Q, whilst securing picks off lane as his escape is too good. When he R's to a lane, look for a pick on an opposite lane or if applicable counter-gank as he will pick up too many kills off mid.
Welcome to my fiery Smolder guide to midlane, the newest LoL champ to release!
Hi!
My name is Kikife, and I'm currently on my first ranked climb. With that being said, I have an eye for builds on champions and rune selection and therefore through some testing believe these runes and items to be Smolder's most optimal.
If you have any feedback for the builds, leave a suggestion down below.
Please note that building lethality on Smolder is a waste of time in my opinion and this build is the most optimal. With that being said, try it out for yourself and enjoy!
[14.2] Smolder - The Ultimate Stomp Machine
Build Guide By Kikife
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