r/SmolderMains

My duo is a Smolder main, and i am having a really hard time, i kinda feel so useless as i watch my poor adc getting pummeled into oblivion during the laning phase, it does not matter if i shield and heal the outcome is almost always the same: relegated to farm under turret and die lol. Is there a way to help like changing build runes etc, or should i just give up and swap with another champion? It kinda makes me sad since i love Yuumi, but i would also love to win some games 🥲

Has anyone thought of running the BC build with Conqueror instead of DFT. With high ability haste you are able to cast Q nearly every 2 seconds. Plus it allow you to scale into taking long fighter. It works well against bruisers and tanks and the yellow tree has really good runes for Smolder.

Hey everyone, I’m a low elo Smolder player (around Gold/Plat). My friend I usually duo with is around Gold/Silver. I have roughly 50 games on Smolder with around a 55% win rate (It used to be higher, but apparently playing ranked at 4 AM while being slightly intoxicated wasn’t the best idea lol).

I’m mainly interested in hearing what more experienced Smolder players think and whether there are things I could improve.

1. Item build – Crit vs Bruiser and build order

I’m personally not a huge fan of Black Cleaver for damage reasons, especially after the recent nerfs. My usual pool of items is:

Essence Reaver → Infinity Edge or Rapid Firecannon → Lord Dominik’s Regards → Spear of Shojin or Endless Hunger

I basically build some combination of these every game. I also always go for the Omnivamp boots.

What I’m mainly unsure about is the order.

For example:

Essence Reaver → Infinity Edge → Rapid Firecannon? (more damage?)

Essence Reaver → Rapid Firecannon → Infinity Edge? (for matchups where the extra range matters?)

Should Spear of Shojin or Endless Hunger sometimes come before Infinity Edge or Rapid Firecannon?

When should Lord Dominik’s Regards be bought early?

Are there situations where the Bruiser-oriented build is clearly better than Crit, and is Black Cleaver still worth building despite the nerfs? I’d especially like to hear how you decide between Crit and Bruiser Smolder and how you determine your 2nd/3rd item.

2. Runes – Deathfire Touch vs Fleet Footwork

I’ve basically always played Deathfire Touch, mostly because it seems to be the established/default rune. But when I read the numbers, Deathfire Touch honestly doesn’t look like it deals that much damage.

Would Fleet Footwork make sense, especially into heavy poke lanes where the sustain and movement speed could help?

I also have quite a lot of mana problems before Essence Reaver. Would something like Manaflow Band or another mana rune actually be worth taking?

I’m also curious how important things like Magical Footwear and Jack of All Trades are with my item build. Are they strong enough that you really don’t want to give them up?

3. Summoner Spells – Teleport vs Barrier

I personally really like Teleport instead of Barrier.

My reasoning is: Smolder doesn’t really want to fight early anyway, so Teleport helps me maintain farm, tempo, and better recall timings. It makes bad lane states much less punishing and also makes greedy lane decisions or recalls less punishing.

Later in the game, I’m usually positioned far enough back that Barrier often doesn’t feel like the difference between living and dying, especially when I’m heavily CC'd while dying.

4. General Smolder tips/ A few more general questions:

What would you consider a good stacks per minute target on Smolder?

Are there any lesser-known tricks or habits that made you noticeably better at Smolder?

Lastly, I just wanna say that I really dislike Smolder only having two skins, and neither of them being particularly special. :/

Thanks in advance! I would love to hear what you guys are running and why. :)

After the recent buffs to fleet, is the consensus still going Deathfire every game, or is Fleet a viable alternative now?

this build came up because cleaver procced on deathfire ticks but they patched that no? am i missing something? in my head surely shojin or triforce+manamune is better but cleaver is still highest wr build i dont understand how

Does anyone know the last time this chroma was in the mythic shop?

I want it so bad 😭 Is there any pattern to the available chromas or is it down to pure randomness?

Is Maw viable to build as a second item in place of Shojin against a mage botlane or heavy AP threat?

I'm mainly thinking about threats like Syndra, Veigar, and Viktor, who have a large amount of damage that's almost guaranteed to hit you regardless of how well you position.

Since Smolder seems to be one of the few ADCs who don't have to rush crit it seems like it could be an option. But the way that nobody talks about this item on marksmen makes me wonder if it's just bait.

Maybe dumb question but most smolder builds i find go essence reaver then black cleaver as the first items, but should I always go black cleaver? Like even if I'm against a team where no one is a tank and there's maybe just one bruiser? I recently played a game like that with some friends and they thought it was dumb to go black cleaver second item into that team. (We lost really hard)