The fiery little fledgling, Smolder’s gameplay is here to fill your Dragon fire-throwing fantasies.
League of Legends is really good at consistently coming up with unique champion designs. 2023 was a big example of that. Briar, Naafiri, Hwei, and Milio were the new additions to the League of Legends roster last year. Now we move onto a new year and what better way to start it than to release the gameplay trailer of the upcoming cute little marksman champion, Smolder!
Not even an entire day ago, we had seen the champion trailer for Smolder that showcased his narrative concept. Smolder is a cute little dragon who is still learning his way to becoming a fierce monster, with the supervision of his mother, who is always watching him from not too far away.
Now we have the gameplay trailer at hand where we see him causing some ruckus in the rift with his cute fire-breathing techniques. Moreover, all of his abilities have been leaked too.
In this article, let’s take a closer look at what his abilities look like and how they work.
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First Impressions on Smolder’s Gameplay
Being a Dragon marksman, it’s no wonder that he would be equipped with some long-range abilities too. Here we can see him using fire blast from a decent range.
He also seems to be flying across the terrains and walls while attacking the enemies using small shots of fire.
Then we also see him using AoE damage onto multiple enemies. One thing is interesting here, that is he is always maintaining quite a safe distance and seems to be flying around while the spells are cast. It’s quite similar to how Syndra’s movement is not disrupted while throwing her dark spheres around.
Then we also have this huge fire blast, very similar to how Pantheon’s ult lands. This attack is also similarly telegraphed with clear markings on the landing area.
Smolder Abilities Leaked
Thanks to SkinSpotlights, we also have the full abilities reveal of Smolder. Here’s a detailed rundown:
- Passive – Dragon Practice: Hitting champions with abilities and killing enemies with Super Scorcher Breath grants Smolder a stack of Dragon Practice. Stacks increase the damage of Smolder’s basic abilities.
- Q – Super Scorcher Breath: Smolder belches flame at his enemies. This ability evolves with stacks gaining the following:
- 25: Damages all enemies surrounding the target.
- 125: Sends explosions behind the target that deal 75% of this spell’s damage.
- 225: Burns the target dealing max health true damage over 3 seconds. Enemy champions that drop below a total health threshold while burning are killed instantly
- W – Achooo!: Smolder lets out an adorable flaming sneeze, damaging and slowing enemies hit. Hitting champions causes an additional explosion.
- E – Flap, Flap, Flap: Smolder takes flight, gaining Move Speed and ignoring terrain for 1.25 seconds. While flying, Smolder attacks the lowest health enemy.
- R – MMOOOMMMM!: Smolder’s mom breathes fire from above, dealing extra damage and slowing enemies in the center of her fire. Smolder’s mom also heals her son if she hits him.
From the abilities, it’s clear that Riot wasn’t lying when they said they wanted to go for a traditional, simple, yet fun ADC champion. Smolder’s Q has an evolving feature, consistent with his ‘training to become a stronger champion’ narrative. At fully stacked Q, it has an execute built-in like Elder Drake when the enemies reach below a certain HP.
W is pretty straightforward explosive damage. The E is interesting as it gives him move speed and also the flying over terrain ability. This is the one I was talking about earlier in the first impression section. Smolder clearly will be hard to catch with this Talon E built-in in his kit.
The ultimate not only does AoE damage to enemies but also has self-healing.
All in all, it’s a very strong kit for an ADC with a lot of escapes and forgiving spells built-in. It’ll be interesting to see how Summoner’s Rift treats the new fiery fledgling.
Smolder Reveal Date
Smolder is expected to be released in Patch 14.2, scheduled for Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
