League of Legends: New Smolder Buffs and Nerfs

Riot Games is making another round of changes to Smolder, the adorable but struggling dragon in League of Legends. These updates include buffs and nerfs across his W, E, and ultimate, aiming to improve his early-game impact while keeping his late-game scaling in check.

Right now, Smolder has one of the lowest win rates among ADCs, making these changes crucial for his playability and viability in solo queue. The buffs target his damage output and ability uptime, while the nerfs tweak some of his early-game strengths to prevent him from becoming too overwhelming. 

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W – Early Buff, Late Nerf

Smolder’s W now deals more damage early, making it a better tool for poking and farming. However, its damage when maxed out has been slightly reduced, meaning he won’t be able to snowball^[1] too hard in the late game. Additionally, the explosion damage on champion hits has been nerfed early but gains 5% more AD scaling, rewarding high AD builds.

• Early-game buff: More damage for better farming and poke.
• Late-game adjustment: Explosion damage nerfed but scales better with AD.

E – More Damage Per Missile

Smolder’s E is getting a significant boost in both base damage and scaling. This means his poke damage will be more effective, giving him better trading potential in lane.

• Base damage increased from 5–25 to 10–30 per missile.
• AD scaling increased from 25% to 30% per missile.

This damage boost makes E much stronger overall, allowing Smolder to harass enemies more effectively in the laning phase.

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Ultimate – Lower Cooldown

One of the biggest buffs is to Smolder’s ultimate cooldown:

• Previously 120 seconds at all ranks.
• Now reduced to 110s at level 11 and 100s at level 16.

With items and cooldown reduction, Smolder’s ultimate cooldown can be lowered to 60 seconds in the late game, making it available twice as often as before. This means more fight presence and higher impact in team fights.

Related: League of Legends: Gwen Mini Rework - Late Game Nerfed.

Smolder remains one of the weakest ADCs in terms of win rate, so these buffs should help improve his standing. The stronger E and lower ultimate cooldown make him more aggressive, while the W adjustments ensure he doesn’t overpower opponents late game. We’ll have to wait and see how these changes affect his win rate, but for now, they seem like a step in the right direction.

References

1. [1] "Snowball". wiki.leagueoflegends.com. Retrieved March 15, 2025