Counter Guide

How to Beat Smolder

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Smolder looks harmless in lane. Give him long enough and his fireball starts executing your team.

He's a marksman who gets stronger every time his abilities connect, and the stacks keep coming all game. Early on, his damage is ordinary. Leave him alone long enough and his fireball splits, sets you on fire and finishes anyone who drops low. The answer is to make the early game count. Pressure him while he's still stacking, take his towers before he can defend them, and catch him when his one escape is down. For where he ranks right now, check our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling

Where You Meet HimBot lane

Damage TypeMostly physical, plus magic and true damage from his stacks

Why He Is FrustratingHe scales without limit, then executes

MobilityOne short flight over walls

Biggest ThreatSuper Scorcher Breath [Q]

Hardest CounterTwitch

What a Counter Needs

Enough lane pressure to win before his stacks pile up
A way to catch him once his flight is on cooldown

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Smolder on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Smolder

Twitch1,862 games53.4%
Sivir1,125 games52.7%
Jinx6,450 games52.1%
Ziggs649 games52.1%
Aphelios1,140 games51.4%

Picks Smolder Beats

Vayne1,269 games44.9%
Ezreal3,881 games45.0%
Mel698 games45.1%
Varus1,045 games46.2%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the bot lane against Smolder. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 61,438 Smolder games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Smolder Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

His fireball keeps upgrading. Super Scorcher Breath [Q] gains an explosion at 25 stacks and splits into extra bolts at 125. At 225 it burns you for true damage and executes champions who drop below a health threshold.
Stacks come from two places. He gets one for every ability that hits a champion and one for every unit his fireball kills, so a quiet farming lane still feeds him.
Flap, Flap, Flap [E] flies over walls. For just over a second he ignores terrain and fires bolts at the lowest-health enemy near him.
MMOOOMMMM! [R] crosses most of the map. His mother breathes a wave of fire over 4000 units long (it starts behind him, and it heals him on the way past).

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

His range is only average. At 550 he's out-ranged by several marksmen, and in lane that costs him farm and health.
The flight breaks on crowd control. Flap, Flap, Flap [E] ends the moment he's immobilized, and it's the only way he has out of a fight.
The escape is slow to come back. It's up every 24 seconds at rank one, and without it he walks.
He needs time. Every tier of his fireball has to be earned, and a game that ends early never gets there.

Countering Smolder

You'll want at least one of these:

Win the lane early. He's at his weakest before the first few tiers, so short trades at your range add up fast.
Take towers. A Smolder who's losing his outer turret is farming under pressure, and every minion he misses is a stack he doesn't get.
Hold your stun for the flight. Once he's used Flap, Flap, Flap [E] or had it broken, he's got nothing left to run with.

Already picked a champion that doesn't do any of that? It's still playable.

Playing Into Smolder Without a Counter

Stay out of the middle of MMOOOMMMM! [R]. Anyone in the center of the wave takes half again as much damage and gets slowed, while the edges only take the base hit.

Late in the game, keep your health up when he's near. Once his fireball can execute, a champion sitting low is a free kill for him (it also burns for a share of your maximum health, so tanks feel it too).

Dodge Achooo! [W] where you can. It's a long skillshot, and every champion it hits is another stack for him.

Best Smolder Counters

We've picked three that beat him in different ways. Go with whichever suits the way you play bot lane.

Twitch Arrives Unseen

Smolder only has one way out, and Twitch makes him use it early. Ambush [Q] camouflages Twitch for 10 to 14 seconds and speeds him up while he's walking toward enemies who can't see him. When he comes out, he gets a burst of attack speed and Smolder's flight is the only thing between him and a dead marksman.

From there, Spray and Pray [R] adds 300 range to his attacks and turns them into bolts that pierce through everything in a line. Smolder can't out-range that.

Jinx Out-Ranges Him Early

With her rocket launcher out, Switcheroo! [Q] gives Jinx 100 to 200 extra range on top of her 525. That puts her well past Smolder's 550 in lane, and every poke he takes is a trade he can't answer. Zap! [W] reaches 1500 units and slows him for two seconds.

Flame Chompers! [E] root any champion that steps on them for a second and a half, and if one catches Smolder during his flight, the root ends it on the spot.

Ziggs Takes His Towers

Smolder wants a long, quiet game. Ziggs wants the opposite. Satchel Charge [W] instantly destroys an enemy turret that's under 25 to 35% of its health, and Bouncing Bomb [Q] pokes from a range Smolder can't match (it bounces out to 1400 units). A lane that loses its tower early is a lane where Smolder farms under his own inner turret and falls behind on stacks.

Itemizing Against Smolder

Most of his damage is physical, so armor works (his stacks add some magic damage, and late on a true-damage burn). Dead Man's Plate is armor plus the movement speed a tank needs to reach him after he's flown off. His ultimate heals him and his fireball carries some life steal, so Executioner's Calling (on an AD champion) or Morellonomicon (on a mage) cut both by 40%. On a mage, Zhonya's Hourglass puts you in stasis for 2.5 seconds, and that can carry you through the wave of MMOOOMMMM! [R].