One thing I would also mention is that smolder is probably the champion with the most different ways to scale into the late game. He has AD scaling, AP scaling, Crit chance scaling in his abilities and on top of that his stacking mechanic. And the joke is, that's actually how an ADC is ment to be, weak early game, but later he grows stronger and stronger until he burns everything to death. Considering his thematic aspects of being a child dragon that first needs to grow up before he becomes actually a threat, I think he is probably the best hyperscaler we saw so far from a design standpoint (aside from the percent max health true damage, but that fortunately doesn't scale.). I don't think he is necessarily a hypercarry because of his lack of self-sustainability build into his kit (in contrast to master yis alpha strike), but he definitely can carry games, just like an ADC should if you just give him the time. I am, like you, however, unsure if he is a mage or a marksman. Is he maybe a caster marksmen like ezreal? Probably not, but he has interestingly a very similar moveset with 2 attacks, one mobility tool and a big damage ult.
I believe that he is a textbook Caster Marksman. His Q even applies On-Hits, meaning you're incentivized to avoid Auto-Attacking, unless necessary. Lucian is considered one, while having LESS of his pressure in his abilities and 20% being in his Lightslinger Autos. [3:44] Also, his percent Max True Damage does scale. The bleed increases with his Dragon Practice Stacks, meaning it's possible for his Q to kill you from 20%, like an Elder Drake. This requires 760 Dragon (P)ractice Stacks, but it IS doable.
actually his percent max health true dmg scale🤓not the dmg but the threshold for the execute scale with stacks (which mean you could kill at 100% max health threshold in a 5 hours game but of course it wont happen)
One bone I have to pick with Smolder's ult is it's coded as a projectile, therefore blocked by Yasuo/Samira/Braum. I know it's a perception issue, but it's so weird that this huge dragon gets scared away after its constant barrage of flames hit an obstacle...
Considering smolder has a line saying “my mom works at riot she’s gonna ban you” I’d say sylas calls his mom and replies with “I banged your mom, call me dad” in true gamer fashion
In my opinion 200 years is just a meme. Most new champions aren't that bad. The only champs that are 200 years are K'Sante and on realise Samira and Zeri.
@@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes. in fact most new champions have fairly straightforward kits that only look complicated if you make a wall of text trying to explain it,but otherwise are actually pretty simple,aside from k'sante most of them are only problematic when their numbers are too high.
Tbh i like the way they're designing dragons as "hyperstackers" with executes in the kit as it makes a lot on their power fantasy (elder dragon, asol, and now smoulder) It does make me worried about how they're reworking shyv (hoping its a bruiser, but a hyperacaling bruiser makes me fearful)
2:22 also, wr shyvanna gains stacks based on jungle creeps killed and dragons killed that improves her dragon form abilities It used to be that each dragon gives her a different buff but they just made her more generally good
There are so few marksman champs so it’s great to get another one. Not to mention the theming that the dragon champs grow stronger over time is cool (also yes I know a stacking passive isn’t just on these two). Reminds me how both Lillia and Hecarim both being Centaur like characters incorporate movement speed into their play style.
One thing to mention is that he deals almost exclusively physical damage type. Even if you're going full AP, you'll still deal 90% AD dmg. It means that some AP items are worth less. For example, magic pen is almost worthless as all of his abilities convert AP into physical dmg.
ironically it's literally the idea of the role to be a baby that needs a dedicated babysitter so they can grow strong. i (jinx) just played a game where i was staying behind my pantheon as an evelyn heart appears on my head. despite my please for help the pantheon turns around to tower dive the enemy adc. end of story both adc's die and feel fucking worthless. so yeah of course they cry because they are literally baby champions that get neglected. the moment i swapped from adc to toplane i climbed from bronze 3 to plat 4 in 2 weeks lol
he sucks ap but he is good mid for pretty much the same reasons corki and veigar are it’s just safer for hyperscalers that don’t benefit from having a warden or enchanter sitting on their nuts all game like zeri and kogmaw do, especially considering smolder really likes solo lane xp since getting his q maxed earlier on is huge for how much of his power budget is put into it
With some AP and Dust it clears a wave by itself. Very funny when you reach the point you can fly past a team fight and drop E and R to flip it completely on your way to farm raptors.
I love how you explain how nasus can be kited into oblivion while showing ahri (very good kiting champ) absolutely failing to do so. If you dont have help you can not kite nasus, exept maybe vayne.
Honestly hardly the Ahri's fault. This Nasus looks late game and he was getting a lot of help from Blitzkrank. Most Nasus build lifesteal, so every time Blitz hooked, he was healing a considerable amount of health.
In 1v1 nasus wins against everyone except for maybe fiora/vayne (because %max HP true dmg) but in team fight he's usually lucky to trade 1 for 1 because he relies on running people down with wither, that's why ghost is better than flash on him. In 1v1 scenario he can't really be kited unless you can jump over walls.
To be honest, whomever designed Smolders kit should get a promotion. I don't want a champion that is busted and has a million fucking things in his kit, i want a champion that has a simple yet intresting kit, that asks "Okay, what kind of stuff can i and can't i do?" I litterally cannot find any good flaws in his kit, and it's just a numbers game... However, his E being able to go over walls gives me a slight "Akshan" vibe, but we'll see...
@@weaponizedautism3269 It's fine, on imobile squishy scaling adcs, because they're meant to counter tanks, while having ample opportunities to be countered thanks to their own weaknesses.
His build diversity might be more similar to Kog'mav, than Zeri. Jist like you said, since he has AP ratios he might build ap. Still backline, just like AD and still squishy, oneshottable. Exactly like AP Kog.
on the note of what you mentioned at the start of the video about "being able to play and edgy ninja one game, then a galaxy consuming monster the next game" this is why league was my goto moba. The characters and their design drew me in, makes me a little sad that I'm gonna have to stop playing league as I do not want vanguard on my pc
Vanguard is no different that other anti cheat software and valorant already uses it. Riot would no way ever risk losing its reputation and money income by abusing vanguard. Also it’s one dimensional and hard coded to do one thing. It’s been out for years and no has reported or found any trace of dangerous software inside of vanguard that could be used for anything besides said purpose. Think logically don’t be paranoid
Honestly I just see him as Kog 2.0, really good build diversity between AP and AD you're just supposed to sit there and use abilities and autos to machine gun the enemy down. Along with being somewhat like Ezreal in being a caster marksman
if you ever bring back that "champion vs" series i think lux vs morgana would be fun since while 'll i don't think they've personally met in current lore, they do have a long fun history that relates back to their kits. (also there's some nice parallels with them both being sisters to justice focused heroes, and their deal with sylas but also i just think talking about their kits and the subtle nuances that reflect their playstyles and synergy with their team would be fun)
well Lux vs morgana is some old stuff. more lore appropiate would be kayle vs morgana and Lux vs sylas maybe dispite both pairings have realy different kits
@@calronkeltaran493 but that wouldn't really work because the "champion vs" serie s is both the character's having similar enough gameplay that they're worth being compared to eachother, it's why he did sona vs seraphine despite them having 0 lore relationship because their kits are very similar.
@@lancerjayden4997 true. I mean at least Lux vs morgana could work with a story update but it requires some mayor brainbending to make it work. in the end, Morgana and Lux should not be enemies in the lore, since both want a more just treatment for mages in Demacia
@@calronkeltaran493 i mean i'm not arguring that lux and morgana should be enemies? just that vars should do a video comparing them on a gameplay basis? like he did with garen and darius, cait and jinx and yone and yasuo which the last pairing aren't even enemies, i just brought up their previous lore because i think they have interesting paralells and in general when character's have similiar kits it's because they're related in lore (darius and garen being cross country counterparts, jinx and caitlyn being rivals, and yone and yasuo being brothers etc) but it's mostly the gameplay that would be compared
@@lancerjayden4997 well you can do a pure gameplay comparision, sure. this would work. but with every other team we do have a lore story behind the rivalry. even with Yasuo vs Yone, they have fought eachother in the past
Naafiri, Briar, Hwei, Smolder, Riot has really brought their champion pool back. Hopefully the Yone's, K'sante's, and other college thesis champion days are behind us
now all they need to do, is finally remove yone agan. A champion only Created, to stop people from complaining about Yasuo being broken: Rito: "WAIT? You think Yasuo is broken?" Community: "Yes" Rito: "But that isnt even his Final Form!!!!!!!!!!" *releases Yone*
i've said this before and i will say this again, it's kit is basically the same as Ezreal's(except for it's W, which is more like kog's E) but it is more fun to use and more fair as well imho, with a scaling passive that works better at late game rather than Ezreal's passive which is stronger on early game, now to be completely honest, i'd rather have a %magic damage burn rather than true damage, simply because it gives the enemy more options on how to build tank against it, and that is my only complaint about Smolder's kit.
If I have a gripe with Smolder it’s that I wish his W and E evolved in some way like his Q, because I think his Q evolve is really cool. But maybe we’d have ended up with some 200 years stuff if they did go that route. Also expecting to see bruiser Smolder TBH, on paper he doesn’t actually get as much out of building crit as you might expect. Q doesn’t full-on crit, it just gets a damage boost but max of 30% at 100% crit. His E doing 10 hits instead of 5 is the biggest boost from crit.
My biggest bone to pick with smolder is that the only time he hasn't ran it down when going bot is when my secondary role adc decided to first time aphelios against him.
The big thing with his AP build it looks like is the fact that the explosion on his W when you hit a champ scales ONLY with AP (and scales fairly well with AP) so if you go AP then landing your W on a stacked group of champs is devastating while with AD it’s just a little extra.
Hmm not sure saying that Smolder's execute is 6-7% accurate considering how stacks increase it. 0.025% x 225 is 5.6% so his execute when he gets it would be more like 11.5 to 12.5% no?
I think Smolder resembles Ezreal in some ways: Q is a projectile that applies on-hit, W is a utility skillshot, E is repositioning tool with long cooldown, R is a long range damage skillshot with slow travel speed
so i've played a decent amount of smolder on pbe, and theres a couple things you didnt mention that make the champ even stronger. First, his execute is VERY strong. while yes, the threshhold is not significant, it applies off the fire waves you create from 125 stacks as well. what this means is that, unlike asol, who requires enemies to stand still in a very small area of his e, smolder can proc his execute threshold on pretty much every enemy in a teamfight. Furthermore since the cooldown is roughly 3s, and the burn duration lasts for 3s, you can effectively have a 100% uptime on your execute threshold, ensuring that as soon as an enemy drops below that threshold at any time or place in the teamfight, youll kill them. Furthermore in respect to saying he is vulernable to dives, smolder has a tool that no other adc has to the same strength as him: instant wave clear. smolders ult will instantly one shot the wave from any distance when used, so if you are alone in lane and you see the enemy stacking a big wave against you, even if the wave is halfway down the lane, you can still ult the wave and instantly one shot it with no counterplay. on top of that, the ult heals you in case you the enemy tried to get you low before diving you. other champs like ezreal and MF can do similar things, however ezreal cannot one shot the whole wave and MF needs to stand stil and be relatively close to the wave.
I tried smolder AP, AD wiith AS, AD with crit, and AD with lethality. AP - Yes, his W is quite strong in this build, but his other abilites are quite lackluster with it. Hard to get there and not that strong when you are there. AD with AS - Due to his very short AA range, Builds that revolve around being in close quarters for extended periods of times to apply that attack speed is suboptimal. He has no fancy outplay potential or hig dueling power like other short ranged ADCs like Draven/Vayne AD With Crit - Challenging to play but gets to the point he does considerable damage fastest to play variant with more damage on Q then on W. I'd recommend this build most of the time. AD with lethality - A bit harder to get around, but his W and ult are absolutely brutal if he gets his items. It takes longer for this build to pop off. I'd only build if i am fed anyway. I also tested if hes better with manamune or essence reaver as mana item (he needs one, since he has to spam Q to stack). They are kind of same in efficiency, but Manamune is much safer and adds damage to his abilities without the need to get into aa range, thus i prefer manamune build.
I wonder if he'll end up like Kog in which players won't put up with it in Solo Q to protect him. But in pro play he would see more use thanks to coordination. In terms of his kit its fine imo. The max health true damage needs to be earned via stacks and isn't in the base ability. He doesn't cheat and has clear weaknesses.
Smolder's Q and his AP ratios, I just have this chill down my spine knowing Shadowflame's new passive. Gaurenteed crit with abilities below 35%, that along with stormsurge. I forsee a build where Smolder goes around 1 shotting people with Q R combo if he gets the stacks which he probably will.
Any modern champion release where you can tell what’s happening and their distinct 4 abilities just by playing against them is a win. My first few times vs ksante and I felt like I was playing dota
Veigar with 5k AP does not get engaged on. He stands in mid lane and waits for you to enter Q range, and if you something weird like Zed R you get ulted.
I feel like they'll be really fun to use, and snowballing fits my style (been playing Senna for quite a long time). Also, are my ears deceiving me, or you've used PMD music in the background (specifically from the 3DS era)?
Isn't it crazy how balanced he looks? Remember that he is the first champ of this season, so he's setting the bar for the champions that follow. Aside from the face (obviously) I'd say this little guy is a hit.
revisiting this video after it turned out he was turbo op the nerfed to the ground now a mid tier pick, who wouldve thpught true dmg, kayn e and unlimited scaling would be a probelm
the problem with max hp true damage is rhe enemy can't build around it, so they need options to play around it. Fiora is a great example of this, positioning well so she can't hit vitals really reduces her output. Vayne has to focus fire to get hers (admittedly, I don't think this is as good a limitation). The other problem is max hp true damage should only be present if it's a central feature of the champion like it is for Fiora and Vayne.
It would have been cool to have a kayle style level up where by 16 hes a full size dragon and maybe work it into the map dragons where depending on the map he gets a certain set of minor ability tweaks
I for one really like Smolder. Sure his original face wasn't... Ideal. But thank god we got a little Skylander monster champion instead of another anime boy band member or whatever. I was honestly willing to believe that we'd never get another non-humanoid champion ever again. I agree with your takes on the gameplay, too. I think Smolder could end up a good one.
i wouldnt worry too much about ap smolder, his only good ratio is on his ult. cryptbloom/void staff smolder might not be bad though due to the magic damage gained from his passive.
Hey. Quick fix idea for Kai'sa. Passive has crit ratio instead of AP ratio. still deals magic damage. W has no AP ratio and scales with ad and crit but doesn't scale hard anymore (scales a little more than ziggs q). still deals magic damage. R has no AP ratio. That way Kai'sa has to go crit.
Funny thing is lore wise a single sigh from asol would probably delete smolders bloodline for nine generations or so. Kinda hard to have beef with the creator of all stars in the universe.
i want healer infinite scaler that use poison the more stack he has the longer poison debuff and he can buff teammates to apply poison too of course poison can be cleanse by item and spell
What is the best champion to main in each role to go from iron to challenger? Is there some stats that proves there is one for each role that could be the best possible team comp in league?
The only trouble I have with Smoulder is the fact that his Q is point and click. If he's basically Ezreal, but with a point and click Q, why would anyone even play Ezreal? Imagine if Veigar's Q was point and click? It would be insane
Bcs he is an easy champion, so his stats is gonna be lower. Kinda similar reason why champs like Garen isn't usally good in higher elos. It's an easy champ and therefor balanced as one
I'm curious about something, you said you could be ok with smolder having max health true damage if a big part of his power budget is allocated to it so what do you think of the fix Druttut proposed for Vayne consisting of nerfing her kit and especially her Q but bringing back W to 14% at max rank
I saw a lot people getting 225 stacks pre 20 min. Also i think he might be a little too vulnerable for mid lane vs assassins. but he might be a good pick if they already picked another mage mid.
Smolder's gameplay isn't 200 years of collective game design, but his original face sure was 100 years of Disney
maybe isnt 200years disign but it is fk garbage design anouther fk dashing piec of shit with huge mobility because why not
Everyone kind of complained about it but I thought it was kind of funny.
Disney has good dragons (dreamworks has the best dragons). This is some China garbage bro
His face/head is still horrible.
Gameplay looks cool tho
@@UniquelyAwful league players trying to not blame China for bad character designs in the game challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
He should have named him Aurelion Smol I think
Good idea for the "definitely not" skinline
@@Ray.6406 i agree
@@Ray.6406 it might confuse people in loading screens tho, which is something riot would avoid even if it's an amazing pun
Smol...der
Funnily enough that's what the dragon of the Cosmic Lulu skin is called
One thing I would also mention is that smolder is probably the champion with the most different ways to scale into the late game. He has AD scaling, AP scaling, Crit chance scaling in his abilities and on top of that his stacking mechanic. And the joke is, that's actually how an ADC is ment to be, weak early game, but later he grows stronger and stronger until he burns everything to death. Considering his thematic aspects of being a child dragon that first needs to grow up before he becomes actually a threat, I think he is probably the best hyperscaler we saw so far from a design standpoint (aside from the percent max health true damage, but that fortunately doesn't scale.). I don't think he is necessarily a hypercarry because of his lack of self-sustainability build into his kit (in contrast to master yis alpha strike), but he definitely can carry games, just like an ADC should if you just give him the time. I am, like you, however, unsure if he is a mage or a marksman. Is he maybe a caster marksmen like ezreal? Probably not, but he has interestingly a very similar moveset with 2 attacks, one mobility tool and a big damage ult.
Doesn't it scale with stacks? Not well (1% per hundred stacks lol) but it does tecnically speaking scale.
I think he's caster adc because his Q is just click on ezreal Q
I believe that he is a textbook Caster Marksman. His Q even applies On-Hits, meaning you're incentivized to avoid Auto-Attacking, unless necessary. Lucian is considered one, while having LESS of his pressure in his abilities and 20% being in his Lightslinger Autos.
[3:44] Also, his percent Max True Damage does scale. The bleed increases with his Dragon Practice Stacks, meaning it's possible for his Q to kill you from 20%, like an Elder Drake. This requires 760 Dragon (P)ractice Stacks, but it IS doable.
actually his percent max health true dmg scale🤓not the dmg but the threshold for the execute scale with stacks (which mean you could kill at 100% max health threshold in a 5 hours game but of course it wont happen)
I would say he's a Specialist, or meaby a hybride.
One bone I have to pick with Smolder's ult is it's coded as a projectile, therefore blocked by Yasuo/Samira/Braum. I know it's a perception issue, but it's so weird that this huge dragon gets scared away after its constant barrage of flames hit an obstacle...
That’s gotta be a mistake. It reminds me of an rumble ult it should work the same way
It's also an aerial attack, and technically an "energy attack" if that makes sense. Windwall actually kinda makes sense in this instance, but yeah
One question still stands, If Sylas steals Smolder's Ult, does call Smolder's mom, or does he call his own mom
Good question
Considering smolder has a line saying “my mom works at riot she’s gonna ban you”
I’d say sylas calls his mom and replies with “I banged your mom, call me dad” in true gamer fashion
either way it's gonna be super good on him considering it scales extremely well with ap
He calls his mommy
OUR MOM :)
I felt my skin shrivel when he said Nilah was released 1.5 years ago
*Sylas steal Smolder's ult*
Sylas: I'm your new step dad.
There are 2 wolves inside of riot games, 200 years and perfectly designed
In my opinion 200 years is just a meme. Most new champions aren't that bad.
The only champs that are 200 years are K'Sante and on realise Samira and Zeri.
@@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes. in fact most new champions have fairly straightforward kits that only look complicated if you make a wall of text trying to explain it,but otherwise are actually pretty simple,aside from k'sante most of them are only problematic when their numbers are too high.
@@frankwill7137 Indeed.
@@frankwill7137 I'd argue Hwei is just as much of a clusterfuck as Aphelios was, when he gave birth to the meme.
@@sighman9209Fair point.
Tbh i like the way they're designing dragons as "hyperstackers" with executes in the kit as it makes a lot on their power fantasy (elder dragon, asol, and now smoulder)
It does make me worried about how they're reworking shyv (hoping its a bruiser, but a hyperacaling bruiser makes me fearful)
I mean shyvana technically is a infinte scaler currently, so they might keep that passive
@@eliaslind4339as a shyv solo lane one trick saying she has infinite scaling (while true) is stretching it beyond belief lmaooooooo
How about this, make her a reverse Darius. Passive gives you insane durability but kit has low damage so you are forced to build full crit on her.
it remembers me the old times when true damage was a feature that only champions related to void had
@@camposovo6601 Amummu, Darius, Garen: Am I a joke to you?
best part of smolder is the small chance of him saying "my mom works at riot she's gonna ban you"
that voiceline aged like milk before he even released as his designer was one of the recent layoffs
My lunch video is here
real
I’m eating subway rn
Same
😂😂
waiting for my iskender rn
2:22 also, wr shyvanna gains stacks based on jungle creeps killed and dragons killed that improves her dragon form abilities
It used to be that each dragon gives her a different buff but they just made her more generally good
There are so few marksman champs so it’s great to get another one. Not to mention the theming that the dragon champs grow stronger over time is cool (also yes I know a stacking passive isn’t just on these two).
Reminds me how both Lillia and Hecarim both being Centaur like characters incorporate movement speed into their play style.
RAAAAHHHHH SKYLANDER MENTIONED!!!!
God i need to play it again
The "tiny little demon spawn that jus wants to see the world burn" shud have been repped by Veigar, not teemo
Sylas can steal it's mother...cool
basically arcane spyro
even his splash art has the same pose as the skylanders figure
One thing to mention is that he deals almost exclusively physical damage type. Even if you're going full AP, you'll still deal 90% AD dmg. It means that some AP items are worth less. For example, magic pen is almost worthless as all of his abilities convert AP into physical dmg.
10:45
never in my life have i been so offended by something i 100% agree with
ironically it's literally the idea of the role to be a baby that needs a dedicated babysitter so they can grow strong. i (jinx) just played a game where i was staying behind my pantheon as an evelyn heart appears on my head. despite my please for help the pantheon turns around to tower dive the enemy adc. end of story both adc's die and feel fucking worthless. so yeah of course they cry because they are literally baby champions that get neglected. the moment i swapped from adc to toplane i climbed from bronze 3 to plat 4 in 2 weeks lol
League players will see a caster marksman and instantly start talking about ap and midlane 😔
Like it's so annoying, just let us have him for the love of god.
Bro does kinda function like an APC
We already Caster Marksman at home...
That Gyrocopter.
he sucks ap but he is good mid for pretty much the same reasons corki and veigar are
it’s just safer for hyperscalers that don’t benefit from having a warden or enchanter sitting on their nuts all game like zeri and kogmaw do, especially considering smolder really likes solo lane xp since getting his q maxed earlier on is huge for how much of his power budget is put into it
6:33 as an asol main, the execute on singularity is actually massive once you hit mid-late game, definitely a very big difference maker
With some AP and Dust it clears a wave by itself.
Very funny when you reach the point you can fly past a team fight and drop E and R to flip it completely on your way to farm raptors.
@@Illegiblescream yeah its part of why i love the champ so much lol
Massive to KS, also massive to secure more stacks with the R
@@mendozamonreal1719 frfr theres been games ive carried bc i ks'd in the early game LOL
I love how you explain how nasus can be kited into oblivion while showing ahri (very good kiting champ) absolutely failing to do so. If you dont have help you can not kite nasus, exept maybe vayne.
Ahri just doesnt have enough dmg to deal with Nasus' hp pool, especially later on in the game
And this comes from someone with 1.7k matches on Ahri
Honestly hardly the Ahri's fault. This Nasus looks late game and he was getting a lot of help from Blitzkrank. Most Nasus build lifesteal, so every time Blitz hooked, he was healing a considerable amount of health.
@@Kylesico912x also, ghost/wither combo can catch up with anyone. no matter who you play, you will run out of dashes before ghost runs out
In 1v1 nasus wins against everyone except for maybe fiora/vayne (because %max HP true dmg) but in team fight he's usually lucky to trade 1 for 1 because he relies on running people down with wither, that's why ghost is better than flash on him. In 1v1 scenario he can't really be kited unless you can jump over walls.
@@Kylesico912x nasus doesnt build lifesteal, its his passive
To be honest, whomever designed Smolders kit should get a promotion.
I don't want a champion that is busted and has a million fucking things in his kit, i want a champion that has a simple yet intresting kit, that asks "Okay, what kind of stuff can i and can't i do?"
I litterally cannot find any good flaws in his kit, and it's just a numbers game... However, his E being able to go over walls gives me a slight "Akshan" vibe, but we'll see...
I mean if we are being honest, he is kind of like ezreal - his q w and r all just shoot stuff and his E is a dash. Or cait with her net
"I can't find flaws in his kit"
Yeah
Max %hp true damage execute is really balanced
@@weaponizedautism3269I mean it’s a slightly stronger collector that you don’t get till 25 mins.
@@weaponizedautism3269 It's fine, on imobile squishy scaling adcs, because they're meant to counter tanks, while having ample opportunities to be countered thanks to their own weaknesses.
@@weaponizedautism32698% hp execute that only exists until 225 stacks? That’s fine
I'm playing Camille support and damn enemy Smolder is basically free lane on bot. He is extremely squishy
Me playing ekko support: ☕
would be super cool if either at different stacks or (as with kayle) ultimate levels he grew into an older dragon.
His build diversity might be more similar to Kog'mav, than Zeri. Jist like you said, since he has AP ratios he might build ap. Still backline, just like AD and still squishy, oneshottable. Exactly like AP Kog.
on the note of what you mentioned at the start of the video about "being able to play and edgy ninja one game, then a galaxy consuming monster the next game" this is why league was my goto moba. The characters and their design drew me in, makes me a little sad that I'm gonna have to stop playing league as I do not want vanguard on my pc
Vanguard is no different that other anti cheat software and valorant already uses it. Riot would no way ever risk losing its reputation and money income by abusing vanguard. Also it’s one dimensional and hard coded to do one thing. It’s been out for years and no has reported or found any trace of dangerous software inside of vanguard that could be used for anything besides said purpose. Think logically don’t be paranoid
You're not quitting league
What's wrong with vanguard? Isn't that the anti cheat thing? Are you a cheater?
Honestly I just see him as Kog 2.0, really good build diversity between AP and AD you're just supposed to sit there and use abilities and autos to machine gun the enemy down. Along with being somewhat like Ezreal in being a caster marksman
Video Vars is so nice and calming to Smoulder. And then you check Community Tab Vars and he's an absolutely unhinged madman!! lol
6:29 actually, about 15~20% of the time. It's quite significant in the hands of a skilled pilot for the champ.
7:34 As an Aphelios main I am offended
if you ever bring back that "champion vs" series i think lux vs morgana would be fun since while 'll i don't think they've personally met in current lore, they do have a long fun history that relates back to their kits. (also there's some nice parallels with them both being sisters to justice focused heroes, and their deal with sylas but also i just think talking about their kits and the subtle nuances that reflect their playstyles and synergy with their team would be fun)
well Lux vs morgana is some old stuff. more lore appropiate would be kayle vs morgana and Lux vs sylas maybe dispite both pairings have realy different kits
@@calronkeltaran493 but that wouldn't really work because the "champion vs" serie s is both the character's having similar enough gameplay that they're worth being compared to eachother, it's why he did sona vs seraphine despite them having 0 lore relationship because their kits are very similar.
@@lancerjayden4997 true. I mean at least Lux vs morgana could work with a story update but it requires some mayor brainbending to make it work. in the end, Morgana and Lux should not be enemies in the lore, since both want a more just treatment for mages in Demacia
@@calronkeltaran493 i mean i'm not arguring that lux and morgana should be enemies? just that vars should do a video comparing them on a gameplay basis? like he did with garen and darius, cait and jinx and yone and yasuo which the last pairing aren't even enemies, i just brought up their previous lore because i think they have interesting paralells and in general when character's have similiar kits it's because they're related in lore (darius and garen being cross country counterparts, jinx and caitlyn being rivals, and yone and yasuo being brothers etc)
but it's mostly the gameplay that would be compared
@@lancerjayden4997 well you can do a pure gameplay comparision, sure. this would work. but with every other team we do have a lore story behind the rivalry. even with Yasuo vs Yone, they have fought eachother in the past
Naafiri, Briar, Hwei, Smolder, Riot has really brought their champion pool back. Hopefully the Yone's, K'sante's, and other college thesis champion days are behind us
now all they need to do, is finally remove yone agan. A champion only Created, to stop people from complaining about Yasuo being broken:
Rito: "WAIT? You think Yasuo is broken?"
Community: "Yes"
Rito: "But that isnt even his Final Form!!!!!!!!!!"
*releases Yone*
i've said this before and i will say this again, it's kit is basically the same as Ezreal's(except for it's W, which is more like kog's E) but it is more fun to use and more fair as well imho, with a scaling passive that works better at late game rather than Ezreal's passive which is stronger on early game, now to be completely honest, i'd rather have a %magic damage burn rather than true damage, simply because it gives the enemy more options on how to build tank against it, and that is my only complaint about Smolder's kit.
yeah im suprised how good it is, its ezreal but less mechanical
1:27 ain’t no way. I literally feel like she was just realized yesterday 💀
If I have a gripe with Smolder it’s that I wish his W and E evolved in some way like his Q, because I think his Q evolve is really cool. But maybe we’d have ended up with some 200 years stuff if they did go that route.
Also expecting to see bruiser Smolder TBH, on paper he doesn’t actually get as much out of building crit as you might expect. Q doesn’t full-on crit, it just gets a damage boost but max of 30% at 100% crit. His E doing 10 hits instead of 5 is the biggest boost from crit.
My biggest bone to pick with smolder is that the only time he hasn't ran it down when going bot is when my secondary role adc decided to first time aphelios against him.
I haven't looked at any of his abilities, just to not get spoilered for this video... here we go
Smolder seems like he'll be chill
its surreal watching this video and recognizing the clips because i watched the videos theyre from
I honestly love playing Smolder, and the fact that they didn't have to massively buff or nerf him right away is a good sign
The big thing with his AP build it looks like is the fact that the explosion on his W when you hit a champ scales ONLY with AP (and scales fairly well with AP) so if you go AP then landing your W on a stacked group of champs is devastating while with AD it’s just a little extra.
Hmm not sure saying that Smolder's execute is 6-7% accurate considering how stacks increase it. 0.025% x 225 is 5.6% so his execute when he gets it would be more like 11.5 to 12.5% no?
I think Smolder resembles Ezreal in some ways: Q is a projectile that applies on-hit, W is a utility skillshot, E is repositioning tool with long cooldown, R is a long range damage skillshot with slow travel speed
so i've played a decent amount of smolder on pbe, and theres a couple things you didnt mention that make the champ even stronger.
First, his execute is VERY strong. while yes, the threshhold is not significant, it applies off the fire waves you create from 125 stacks as well. what this means is that, unlike asol, who requires enemies to stand still in a very small area of his e, smolder can proc his execute threshold on pretty much every enemy in a teamfight. Furthermore since the cooldown is roughly 3s, and the burn duration lasts for 3s, you can effectively have a 100% uptime on your execute threshold, ensuring that as soon as an enemy drops below that threshold at any time or place in the teamfight, youll kill them.
Furthermore in respect to saying he is vulernable to dives, smolder has a tool that no other adc has to the same strength as him: instant wave clear. smolders ult will instantly one shot the wave from any distance when used, so if you are alone in lane and you see the enemy stacking a big wave against you, even if the wave is halfway down the lane, you can still ult the wave and instantly one shot it with no counterplay. on top of that, the ult heals you in case you the enemy tried to get you low before diving you. other champs like ezreal and MF can do similar things, however ezreal cannot one shot the whole wave and MF needs to stand stil and be relatively close to the wave.
I tried smolder AP, AD wiith AS, AD with crit, and AD with lethality.
AP - Yes, his W is quite strong in this build, but his other abilites are quite lackluster with it. Hard to get there and not that strong when you are there.
AD with AS - Due to his very short AA range, Builds that revolve around being in close quarters for extended periods of times to apply that attack speed is suboptimal. He has no fancy outplay potential or hig dueling power like other short ranged ADCs like Draven/Vayne
AD With Crit - Challenging to play but gets to the point he does considerable damage fastest to play variant with more damage on Q then on W. I'd recommend this build most of the time.
AD with lethality - A bit harder to get around, but his W and ult are absolutely brutal if he gets his items. It takes longer for this build to pop off. I'd only build if i am fed anyway.
I also tested if hes better with manamune or essence reaver as mana item (he needs one, since he has to spam Q to stack). They are kind of same in efficiency, but Manamune is much safer and adds damage to his abilities without the need to get into aa range, thus i prefer manamune build.
As an Umbra enjoyer, I finally have something similar to him on the rift
I was really hopping that the next dragon character would be a cool Chemtech drag like creature. I love the design of the chrm drake.
I feel like his kit is an elegant design. Simple but have enough gimmick to be interesting.
9:40 it makes sence that he needs protection. I mean, why do you think his mom watches over him? :D
ive forgotten hes coming out so many times now
Sneezing on the W was funny as hell
This aged like a silly goose
Only weakness is that 200 years never even existed without one champion’s epithet: the Weapon of the Faithful.
'why does every new champion look like an anime character' UM EXCUSE YOU, RENATA GLASC WOULD LIKE A WORD
I wonder if he'll end up like Kog in which players won't put up with it in Solo Q to protect him. But in pro play he would see more use thanks to coordination.
In terms of his kit its fine imo. The max health true damage needs to be earned via stacks and isn't in the base ability. He doesn't cheat and has clear weaknesses.
Smolder's Q and his AP ratios, I just have this chill down my spine knowing Shadowflame's new passive. Gaurenteed crit with abilities below 35%, that along with stormsurge. I forsee a build where Smolder goes around 1 shotting people with Q R combo if he gets the stacks which he probably will.
The comment that stood out for me was, "The freak shows from seasons 9 through 12" hahaha!!
They should be able to shake off engage if said engage can be made from an entire screen away.
Any modern champion release where you can tell what’s happening and their distinct 4 abilities just by playing against them is a win.
My first few times vs ksante and I felt like I was playing dota
Veigar with 5k AP does not get engaged on. He stands in mid lane and waits for you to enter Q range, and if you something weird like Zed R you get ulted.
That's peak.
I feel like they'll be really fun to use, and snowballing fits my style (been playing Senna for quite a long time). Also, are my ears deceiving me, or you've used PMD music in the background (specifically from the 3DS era)?
When I get a ADC as Premade who plays Smolder, you can bet I will say "Gesundheit" every time he uses W xD
4:30 PEKINWOOF MENTIONED AWOOOOOOOO 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🥵🥵🥵🥵 WHAT THE FUUUUUCK IS META???
Imo their ability naming game is still on-point, though I doubt Vars would agree on that.
Isn't it crazy how balanced he looks? Remember that he is the first champ of this season, so he's setting the bar for the champions that follow.
Aside from the face (obviously) I'd say this little guy is a hit.
Disagree. He's playstile look's boring and he's honestlly a downgrade from the cooler full line up of Marksman we got ever since Kalista came up.
@@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes. Hey, that's your opinion. Nothing wrong with that.
@@LordGhostTurkey Same.
As an Asol JG and Top, I cannot wait to glide down from top lane and gently place a star on a half health Smolder for a free 50 stacks.
His ap ratios look crazy but if you go ap, you're doing the same as ad but a little more damage. It's just the ult that ine shots
revisiting this video after it turned out he was turbo op the nerfed to the ground now a mid tier pick, who wouldve thpught true dmg, kayn e and unlimited scaling would be a probelm
the problem with max hp true damage is rhe enemy can't build around it, so they need options to play around it. Fiora is a great example of this, positioning well so she can't hit vitals really reduces her output. Vayne has to focus fire to get hers (admittedly, I don't think this is as good a limitation). The other problem is max hp true damage should only be present if it's a central feature of the champion like it is for Fiora and Vayne.
They build health and Regen...??
my lunch video heeeetre tyyyy
I just wish he looked more like a dragon face wise
It would have been cool to have a kayle style level up where by 16 hes a full size dragon and maybe work it into the map dragons where depending on the map he gets a certain set of minor ability tweaks
I cant stop laughing at that sneeze @7:14
6:23 well that didn't age well hahah
"he's not kog'maw he dosnt feel like a marksman, he don't need attack speed more like a battle mage," So... Literally AP kogmaw then?
I for one really like Smolder.
Sure his original face wasn't... Ideal. But thank god we got a little Skylander monster champion instead of another anime boy band member or whatever. I was honestly willing to believe that we'd never get another non-humanoid champion ever again.
I agree with your takes on the gameplay, too. I think Smolder could end up a good one.
i wouldnt worry too much about ap smolder, his only good ratio is on his ult. cryptbloom/void staff smolder might not be bad though due to the magic damage gained from his passive.
Hey. Quick fix idea for Kai'sa.
Passive has crit ratio instead of AP ratio. still deals magic damage.
W has no AP ratio and scales with ad and crit but doesn't scale hard anymore (scales a little more than ziggs q). still deals magic damage.
R has no AP ratio.
That way Kai'sa has to go crit.
As someone who's in love with AP Kai'sa I Say no thank You.
Funny thing is lore wise a single sigh from asol would probably delete smolders bloodline for nine generations or so. Kinda hard to have beef with the creator of all stars in the universe.
i want healer infinite scaler that use poison the more stack he has the longer poison debuff and he can buff teammates to apply poison too of course poison can be cleanse by item and spell
Off tangent but i would freaking LOVE if you made a skylanders video. Any channel, you’ve got my support.
What is the best champion to main in each role to go from iron to challenger? Is there some stats that proves there is one for each role that could be the best possible team comp in league?
I was expecting "Kayle, But as an ADC" when they announced him as a scaling hypercarry. He seems super lackluster.
"if you engage on Smolder h'es fucked" As every adc champion should be in that situation
The only trouble I have with Smoulder is the fact that his Q is point and click. If he's basically Ezreal, but with a point and click Q, why would anyone even play Ezreal? Imagine if Veigar's Q was point and click? It would be insane
Because Ezreal now W's less than every 8 seconds now.
Because Ezreal’s Q has longer range?
Bcs he is an easy champion, so his stats is gonna be lower. Kinda similar reason why champs like Garen isn't usally good in higher elos. It's an easy champ and therefor balanced as one
That's funny that you say that because Veigar before rework had a poin and click Q
well ezreal has way more moblity and range, plus he can do something if you get on top of him
Yooooo! Vars used gameplay from Ross let's go!!!!
If shyvana kills him does she get stacks?
Smolder is essentially ranged nasus. I rest my case
New caster marksman, cool
Discount Spyro or the Shyvana Rework that could've been?
Why not both?
I'm curious about something, you said you could be ok with smolder having max health true damage if a big part of his power budget is allocated to it so what do you think of the fix Druttut proposed for Vayne consisting of nerfing her kit and especially her Q but bringing back W to 14% at max rank
Why does Smolder look like if Spyro and Haribo sweets had a collab??
I saw a lot people getting 225 stacks pre 20 min. Also i think he might be a little too vulnerable for mid lane vs assassins. but he might be a good pick if they already picked another mage mid.
Personally im super excited for Smolder. It will be nice to not have another humanoid in botlane!
What the hell did kayle do?
9:12
Thank you riot for giving him AP ratios, I will use my newfound power for evil
Badass.
Anyone gonna talk about that Kayle at 9:11 😭
7:13 I see what you did there lol
Reminds me of Ap Kog'maw can do a ton of damage but second he jump he's dead because he has no get off me skill just a revenge passive if killed