HELLO!

This ability is point and click single target. After 25 stacks it explodes in a small AoE around the target. At 125 stacks it creates a secondary explosion behind the target which spreads circularly in size, based on how many stacks you have (this explosion also stacks Dragon Practice like normal abilities). At 225 stacks it applies a burn effect and an execute threshold to champions.

To stack Dragon Practice faster, you’ll need to pay attention to how you farm with Super Scorcher Breath and try to kill as many minions with it on a single cast (this is more easily done on caster minions after 25 stacks). You’ll also want to poke enemy champions with it if they get in range, but if they don’t, you can still poke them with your W. At 125 stacks you can poke enemy champions through the minion wave.

Another important point of this ability is that it counts as an auto for certain on hit effects. Sadly, it doesn’t crit.

This ability is great for poking enemy champions, activating First Strike and farming from extra safety. It also slows, which is good for chasing and kiting. However it uses a lot of mana, so avoid spamming it in the early game. It scales with AP.

This ability is similar to Kaisa’s Supercharge, the difference being it ignores terrain. You generally want to hold on to it for your own safety. It can be interrupted by CC so be careful about timing when using it to dodge. Only use it for extra damage if you’re safe to do so.

This is both an offensive and defensive ability. Offensively it’s really powerful in teamfights and good at finishing off low HP targets out of your range, as well as setting up picks from afar with the slow (not to mention free assists!). Defensively, it heals you and the slow can help you kite away from danger. It scales with AP, so if you go a hybrid build your teamfighting will be nastier.








Smolder is a spellcasting type of ADC. You always want to be weaving auto attacks between your abilities like any other ADC, but most of your power budget goes mainly to Q and Passive.





Your Super Scorcher Breath is your bread and butter, and it evolves during the game as you gain stacks by last hitting with it or by hitting enemy champions with your abilities.

Smolder is heavily reliant on his Dragon Practice stacks to deal damage and scale. Your goal is to hit 225 stacks as soon as possible, since this unlocks Smolder's full potential as a late game carry.

This translates into more of a poking playstyle in the early to mid game. You may find yourself spending your time in lane farming with Q and poking the enemy bot lane whenever possible so you can have lane pressure and stack your passive.





The “ideal” number of stacks would be around 10 per minute, so at 12 minutes you should have about 120 stacks and so on. This will be easier to achieve in games where you are farming and skirmishing a lot, and harder in games where you are behind. These numbers are just references though, if you can get close to that you’ll be great but if you struggle it’s okay too – It gets better with practice and awareness.

As a champion that wants to harass others from afar, enemies getting too close are a problem. To disengage you’ll have to rely on Flap, Flap, Flap or the slows from Achooo! and MMOOOMMMM!. You have to chose between using them offensively or defensively at certain times.





Smolder thrives in teamfights since nearly all of his abilities have some sort of AoE. His execute at 225 stacks is decisive in late game skirmishes, since it can finish off the enemy carry from relative safety.

So when it comes to teamfights, you generally want to be standing back and spitting abilities at the enemy even before the fight starts. You should watch your step to avoid getting engaged on or assassinated, but you can step in to finish off low HP targets.

Thanks his more passive/neutral playstyle and strong late game, he generally fares better with champions that can either poke or who have strong disengage, such as enchanters ( Nami, Yuumi) and some mages. Supports with good engage and utility, such as Rakan, Thresh and Braum also work well. But more aggressive supports like Pyke and Leona may find it frustrating to play with Smolder because of his lack of early game damage, but they can still help him snowball lane if you can manage to chip away enemy health while your support looks for an opening.

While getting engaged on is bad for Smolder, if you play to your range and E cooldown most hook and engage supports can't easily get to him due to his range and poke. Thus I find some particularly nasty bot lanes, such as Draven/ Leona, to be manageable as long as you are watching your step and avoiding direct confrontation. If you can manage your wave and position properly, as well as take favorable trades, you can keep them from snowballing lane off kills.

SOME SYNERGIES

SOME MATCHUPS

INSPIRATION

EXAMPLE

PRECISION

EXAMPLE

SORCERY

EXAMPLE

STARTER ITEMS

FIRST ITEM PURCHASES

CORE ITEMS

LATE GAME SURVIVABILITY

AP FLEXING

TANK BUSTING

There are many summoner spells options available, and all have their due place. The above are placed in order (from left column to right column) of viability/popularity, with Flash always taking one of your slots.

Flash is key to dodging abilities, getting out of tough situations and it can also be used with some of your abilities, most notably Achooo! and Super Scorcher Breath to get some extra range. You can also Flash + Flap, Flap, Flap to reach and deal damage to an enemy that's running away from you.

Barrier, Heal and Exhaust are all great for self peel and thus are the most popular – Smolder is a squishy ADC so he usually takes what will work best at keeping himself alive. And what these 3 have in common is that they are generally focused on damage mitigation – Barrier and Heal give you “extra HP” and Exhaust directly targets the enemy's DPS. Heal is good for 2v2 fights in the early game but gets countered by Ignite, while Barrier is a more selfish choice. All three of them can be used to bait enemies into taking what they think will be a good trade and this can turn the tides of a bot lane scuffle.

Cleanse is ideal when the enemy has (relatively) low cooldown on hard CC abilities. Champions such as Ashe, Varus, Leona and Morgana are some of the most common candidates to make you consider taking Cleanse instead of another summoner spell. It is usually a “quick fix” to remedy getting hit by a possibly deadly ability, but it can also be used to cleanse the effects of Exhaust and Ignite.

Ghost was very prominent on ADCs for a while but it is currently outshined by the other options. I would only take it over the others in certain games where the enemy has a high chance of running me down and where that extra mobility will be key for my survival.

Teleport is a summoner spell for when you are focusing on macro play. It is most commonly seen in higher elos and Solo lane Smolders.

STANDARD

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Your standard maxing order is usually Q → W because it's more worth it than E. Even at max level, Flap, Flap, Flap has a long cooldown and the damage doesn't increase substantially. Achooo! may not deal a lot of damage in the grand scheme of things (unless you build some AP) but the lower cooldown makes it so it will still do more damage than E and it offers a decent amount of utility thanks to its slow.

When combined with MMOOOMMMM! and augmented Super Scorcher Breath this ability only enhances Smolder's teamfighting, while his E is still mostly used to escape threats every now and then.

If you are going for a more poke-oriented playstyle in laning phase you can put 3 points into Achooo! before maxing Super Scorcher Breath.

NICHE

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This is a more niche skill order that focuses on increasing your mobility. In terms of winrate it is inferior to the usual W maxing second but it still has its uses (mainly in situations where you REALLY need your E on a lower cooldown or more single target DPS).

Which side is right? Both of them, actually. Well, sometimes they are too good and sometimes they are too awful in the meta, but that's not my point here.

The point is that depending on your elo ADC will either be a good or bad experience. It's like playing Master Yi in low elo x high elo: good in low elo, bad in low elo (generally). But with the ADC role it's the opposite.

The ADC role requires a degree of skill that goes a little beyond just knowing your champion. It's about knowing how to play in a team, good positioning, farming… all the basic boring stuff to League of Legends that the majority of the playerbase finds less exciting than going on a murder rampage to your way to victory.

Low elo ADC can feel like hell to play because your team doesn't know how to play around you and you don't know how to play around yourself. High elo ADC can feel overpowered because whoever plays to empower their bot diff has a high chance of winning the game.

Being good at your champion can only take you so far. What can you try to work on to improve at the ADC role?




GENERAL TIPS


Get yourself familiarized with your champion’s limits and respect them (if you want to stay alive)
There’s no shame in admitting you’re tilted and performing poorly. Respect your limits and take a break.
Start listing what has the potential to kill you (or counter you) in champion select and figure out what you can do about it
Beware of and practice better positioning, both in lane and during teamfights
Be mindful of your wards. Seeing any threats coming your way is one of the most effective ways of surviving them
Ba careful with greed. An extra wave or kill can cost your lead.
Try to have matching recalls with your support and keep a good recall tempo. You don’t want to be late to an important objective or to your wave
Try to adapt your champion choice to your team and support choices. If you pick an ADC that doesn't synergize with your team, it will make it harder for everyone to work together.


HOW DO I KNOW WHAT CHAMPION TO PICK?


If you're new to the game, you shouldn't think about it too much because you need to know other champions and understand their playstyles more or less.

If you've already played the game for a while, you'll likely have an idea of how team compositions work. Some teams, due to their champion choices, are better at teamfighting. Some are great for area control, some have a lot of sustain, some have great poke, some have high DPS, some are good at making picks and so on.

If your team has hard engage you should consider a champion that can benefit or add to that. If your team is more of a hit and run playstyle, you should avoid champions that want to hard commit to fights. If the enemy team has a particularly strong engage you and your team should consider counterpicks to that playstyle.

Knowing when to pick this or that comes from experience, observation, trial and error! You should try to hit a balance between having synergy with your team and making up for its weaknesses. For example, if your team has a lot of early game champions you should consider a late game champion in case the game goes on for too long.

Smolder is a great teamfighter who prefers a poke or hit and run playstyle. He's also a late game champion. You can pick Smolder with champions that have a similar playstyle or to cover for your team's weaknesses.




WHY AM I SO WEAK?


ADCs as a whole don’t have cheap itemization, but they are very reliant on items. Plus, most are weak in the early game, which means getting kills and snowballing (and not falling behind) is harder when compared to a mid or top laner that scales fine with a few levels and their core item.

You may also gain and lose your leads by mispositioning, making bad decisions and dying avoidable deaths. The little things start to add up until you feel you're weaker than you should be.

So how do you fix that? Basically all of this translates into: farm well and stay alive until you’re stronger. To find success in this role you need to keep high income, that means practicing those last hits and knowing when to give up things to maintain your life and lead.

That's doesn't mean you should never take risks or get 10 minions per minute every game. What it means is that you need to keep your basics sharp and practice making good decisions.


EXTRA TIPS:


Be mindful of your abilities. Using them at the wrong moments can make you lose cs
Practice last hitting under turret. Melee minions usually need 1 auto after 2 tower shots, and ranged minions need 2 autos and 1 tower shot at lower levels.
Use abilities to farm minions that are dangerous to get close to
Avoid being in range to get harassed 1 v 2
Remember to farm waves and jungle in the mid to late game, even if you are ahead.
Choose your fights wisely. Ask yourself how much gold and xp you might lose if you rotate to a random skirmish.






The state of the minion wave dictates if you should fight or retreat during the entire laning phase.

In the early game minions deal a lot of damage so getting aggro can make you hard lose a trade. On top of that, they also dictate who is going to get levels 2 and 3 first – in the bot lane, if you are level 1 you usually have only 2 abilities (1 yours, 1 from your support), but if you are level 2 you have 4 abilities and that can quickly turn into a kill.



Because of that it’s very important to know how to manage your wave properly. Here are the basics you need to know.

EXTRA TIPS:


If enemy is going to get level 2 before you, it’s wise to retreat. Especially if they have an engage support.
Avoid fighting enemies in a huge enemy minion wave. If your wave is bigger, you can look to fight.
You need big waves to pull off good dives, in most cases.
Dying but losing a few minions is better than dying and losing 2 whole waves
Be careful to not pull a bad freeze on yourself. If you want to recall, try to get your wave to fully crash under enemy turret, otherwise it can freeze or slow push.