League of Legends player claims Smolder was designed for the wrong role
Riot GamesLeague of Legend’s Smolder is an ADC that’s generally meant to be played in the bottom lane. However, a player suggested that he’d be better at something else.
League of Legends has come a long way since the game was first released in 2009. Since then, the game has received a ton of visual updates, features, champions, and so much more. One of the latest additions to the game is Smolder, a cute baby dragon who calls for his mom to exhale fire at anyone in his desired direction.
Much like most ADCs, Smolder’s kit relies on scaling throughout the match. If players can consistently build stacks from his passive, the dragon can become a nightmare in late-game team fights. Unfortunately, while that sounds powerful, it doesn’t translate quite well in the game for now, given the champ’s current abysmal win rate.
Recently, a player has also started wondering if Smolder would make more sense if he were to be a champion with a different role. In a Reddit thread, one user claimed that Smolder having Physical Damage is “weird.”
“I dunno. Just seeing him shoot out all these fireballs should count as magic damage in my eyes. I mean, look at Annie. He and Annie have really similar abilities lol, that being to just toss fire all over the place. But Annie’s fire is magical, and Smolder’s fire is… physical,” they explained.
The user then elaborated on how Smolder felt like he was initially developed as a mage before being forced to be a marksman. According to them, aside from visuals, Smolder would perform better if “his stuff was magic damage and scaled with AP instead.”
Given how Smolder’s abilities work, the user also claimed that the champion felt more like a “caster champion.” Following this take, other players have jumped to share their thoughts in the comments.
Riot Games“It’s nothing new. Akali and Katarina stab you with knives and deal magic damage,” one person said, to which another replied, “Gragas is so fat, he has to propel his body with magic when he body slams you.”
These replies pretty much sum up almost the whole comment section, with others bringing up how Gwen deals magic damage even though she uses her scissors and Qiyana scaling with AD despite having elemental magic.
However, one user suggested that it’s clear the gameplay design comes first before being shoehorned into the lore. “Picking up different elements from different parts of the rift is pretty cool, but it doesn’t translate super well to the lore,” they explained.