Hey guys I'm Shok, multi Rank 1 Challenger mid laner and content creator! I played league professionally from 2017-2021 and have been rank 1 in multiple seasons, as well as rank 13 on the NA ladder in season 9.

I upload regularly on YouTube, and stream everyday on Twitch so feel free to follow me on either of those platforms :)

Season 10Season 9
Season 9 NA

Laning as Smolder is one of the most difficult parts of the champion and can depend a lot matchup to matchup. One of the most important things to realize is that especially in the early levels, stacking perfectly should take a backseat to trading. Obviously, if you can do both that's great, but it's super important that you take advantage of your strong level 1 in order to put yourself at an intial advantage.

At level 1 use your strong autos + low q CD to get prio on the wave, and if your opponent tries to walk up without a cooldown look to either zone them or chase them down with a fleet auto. If you have boneplating you can also look to trade aggressively while this is up.

Levels 2 and 3 hopefully you have push over the wave, and can use the fact that you're higher level + have a bigger wave in order to win trades. You can Q last hits when possible or Q your opponent if they come up to the wave. Be very careful using too much mana on W and only use this if you can guarantee followup autos or Q. E can be used to avoid key abilities and is one of the best ways to ensure you remain healthy in the first few levels.

It can also be good to force an early base as Smolder, do this by trading out your HP and then TPing back to lane. This can make sure your opponent doesn't reach strong early components like chapter/alternator/dirk/sorcs etc and you are much stronger than your opponents matched on weaker components.

Generally, as the lane goes on it will get more favorable for you, especially around level 8-9 you have significant kill pressure. Level 6-7 can be pretty scary as most champions are spiking around this time, you can use an ult to one shot the wave to help you reset in a bad situation if you really need it.

In the mid game you want to accelerate towards 2 items and 225 stacks as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is to try and shove the sidelanes out as far as you are able to without dying. Try have have your TP available as that will let you sidelane while still being able to TP into a teamfight if necessary. Be very picky with your fights early as one of the worst things you can do on Smolder is TP to a teamfight and nothing ends up happening while you lose time farming. Simply by being efficient Smolder should be accelerating compared to other champions because he farms quicker and scales harder, so time spent dead or walking around randomly hurts you a lot.

Make sure to setup your sidelane vision as well, ideally a pink + a yellow ward to keep you as safe as possible. With ER especially Smolder farms camps very quickly so try and push waves and immediately pressure turrets or jungle camps. While you are comfortable fighting from 1 item and 125 stacks onwards, 225 and 2 items is where you really come online so only join fights before this if they are stacked in your favor somehow (your team is stronger, more members at the fight etc).

Smolder teamfights as a front to back caster. You're mainly looking to just Q whoever is in range of you and try hit as many targets as possible with W or R. The Smolder teamfighting skill mostly comes from knowing when to use R (ideally in chokes or following up CC) as well as E usage. E has a long enough CD that you are only going to get 1 or 2 Es off in a teamfight, and while it's down you are going to be very vulnerable to threats and so it will become harder to DPS. Consider E more of a repositioning tool rather than using it for damage.

Remember that you are a DPS champion and not a burst champion, so don't risk yourself in order to hit backliners unless they are really out of position. Try keep in mind the key threats and specific abilities to avoid in the teamfight e.g. Leona R, Syndra E, etc and think about how you are going to play around them. Sometimes they can be avoided/dodged/outranged, and other times you might just have to wait for your opponents to use them first before you commit.

That's all for this guide, but if you want to see more of my Smolder content you can check out my YouTube channel, and if you want to ask me questions about Smolder feel free to drop by my Twitch or send me a message on discord (shokoce)