Some League of Legends players have mixed feelings about the upcoming changes to Smolder, the newest champion in the game.
Smolder was supposed to bring back the traditional ADC style of gameplay, with a simple kit and strong late-game power. However, players have been using him more like a spellcaster than a typical ADC. Instead of building critical strike items, they’ve been favoring Essence Reaver and Spear of Shojin to boost his abilities and reduce cooldowns.
Now, Riot has announced significant changes to him, particularly focusing on his scaling and late-game execute ability.
Is Riot Games overbuffing Smolder?
However, not all players are convinced that these changes are the right move. Some argue that the main problem with him isn’t being addressed. They point out that Smolder has an unusually high ban rate globally, especially in regions like Korea, where he’s banned in over 50% of matches.
One player expressed frustration on Reddit, stating that the upcoming changes don’t address the core issues with the champion. They find it unfair that Smolder can achieve his execute ability relatively early in the game, sometimes as soon as 18-19 minutes into high-ranked matches.
They believe that having such a powerful execute ability, especially one that’s easy to use, is problematic and makes the champion unbalanced.
However, not everyone shares this viewpoint. Some players argue that the recent changes also tie the strength of the execute ability to the number of stacks he accumulates. This means that while he may have the ability to execute enemies, the actual damage output might not be as strong as it seems.
“The recent changes also tie the damage on the number of stacks. Which means that he gets the execute but it’s piss weak anyway.”
In essence, the League of Legends community is divided on the upcoming changes to Smolder. Some believe that the changes don’t address the core issues with the champion, while others think that they might balance out his power more effectively. Only time will tell how these changes will impact Smolder’s place in the game’s meta.