The new League of Legends champion, Smolder, has not even been out for one week yet, and the devs are already thinking of ways to improve the little champion.
The newest League of Legends champion, Smolder, has come to Summoner's Rift on January 31. While his win rate is still far below what most would call good, he's seen a steady growth of improvement over the last few days that he's been playable on live servers.
Lead Gameplay Designer on League of Legends, Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison, revealed his thoughts on Smolder's debut and where the balance team might take him in the future. Are there some buffs and nerfs already planned for the little dragon?
League of Legends: Suggested Smolder Changes Revealed
Smolder might not have the highest win rate at 45% in Emerald+ right now, but that is to be expected as players start to find the right builds and playstyles for this new champion. With his release, Riot Phroxzon also shared his own thoughts on the new champ and what could be improved to raise that win rate a little.
He revealed that the champion has seen a huge increase in win rate from day 1 to day 2 in Masters+. That means that while the champ might have some weaknesses, the apex players have figured out how to play around those weaknesses.
He also explained that the balance team has been discussing whether to add some changes for future updates, like resets on his spells. This is going to take some more monitoring on their part though before making any final decisions on this part of his kit.
Y'all must have been burning with excitement to play Smolder!!
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) February 3, 2024
Despite his low winrates, he's sporting a massive 28% pickrate in regular play (a bit lower in high MMR). It's pretty fire to be more popular than Ezreal!
An interesting tidbit is Smolder has one of the largest...
The team is also looking at his auto attacks and improving his attack speed to make them smoother. The ultimate heal ratio could also be changed in the future.
Smolder has also seen quite a bit of play in the mid lane, which is something Riot wants to address, since the champion was specifically designed as a bot laner. It seems like there are going to be some nerfs to mid lane Smolder in his near future if players keep picking him in the role.
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Finally, some quality of life changes are also on the table, with the team looking to add stacks even if the target dies while the Q missile is in the air.
Overall, Smolder is a pretty successful champion release, with a high play rate and most players also deeming him pretty balanced. So it doesn't seem like Riot is going to be making any huge changes to the champion in the upcoming few patches.