By GamGem ResearchLast updated 18 Oct 2026
the Fiery Fledgling
Patch 26.20 · Stats from the 26.18 Master+ sample (680 games).
Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling, grows stronger with every Dragon Practice stack, and MMOOOMMMM! calls his mother down to breathe fire. In our small Master+ sample he was a bot laner more than a mid laner and built AD: Essence Reaver into Black Cleaver opened both leading paths, with Deathfire Touch his usual keystone. Kai'Sa, Tristana and Yunara beat him most often. Jhin and Jinx he did better against.
MarksmanMage
Patch 26.18 · Bot · Ranked Solo/Duo · Master+ · EUW · KR · NA · 680 games · Preview sample
680
Games
Low
Confidence
Win rate by lane
48.8%Win Rate
Flash
Barrier75.0%Win Rate
FlashBarrier
This exact page: taken in 18.4% of games·44.0% win rate over 125 games.
Damaging a champion with an ability burns them over time.
After casting a Summoner Spell, gain a short Move Speed increase that allows you to pass through units.
All Move Speed bonuses are 7% more effective on you and gain 1% Move Speed.
Gain increasing amounts of AD or AP, adaptive over the course of the game.
For each different stat gained from items, gain one Jack stack. Each stack grants you 1 Ability Haste. Gain bonus Adaptive Force at 5 and 10 stacks.
You get free boots at 12 min but you cannot buy boots before then. Each takedown you get makes your boots come 45s sooner.
Fleet Footwork20.1% taken · 46.0% win137 games
Press the Attack2.2% taken · 60.0% win15 games
Grasp of the Undying1.6% taken · 45.5% win11 gamesSorcery + Inspiration65.0% taken · 43.2% win442 games
Precision + Inspiration12.4% taken · 47.6% win84 gamesPrecision + Sorcery7.5% taken · 47.1% win51 gamesWhich ability to max first, and the level each point goes in — Smolder's most common path.
QSmolder breathes fire on an enemy.
Cooldown 5.5/5/4.5/4/3.5s · 25 Mana
WSmolder lets out an adorable flaming sneeze that explodes when hitting enemy champions.
Cooldown 14/13/12/11/10s · 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
ESmolder takes flight ignoring terrain and bombarding the lowest health enemy.
Cooldown 24/22/20/18/16s · 65 Mana
RSmolder calls his mom to breath fire from above, dealing extra damage and slowing enemies in the center of her fire.
Cooldown 120/110/100s · 100 ManaMax Q first, then W, then E. Take R whenever available (6 / 11 / 16).
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QSuper Scorcher Breath | Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| WAchooo! | W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| EFlap, Flap, Flap | E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| RMMOOOMMMM! | R | R | R |
How Smolder performs against enemy bot laners
Recommended items by enemy team composition
SmolderBot average
102030
102030
102030
Close the gap early — it wins at range and at three items — neither before ten minutes
Dodge the primary — its rotation is one skillshot; sidestep it and the rest is chip
Punish the cooldown — Smolder is exposed while its rotation is down
Ward the flank — vision is what turns its best opening into a worse one
Respect the spike — Riot rates the kit 6/10, so a practised player gets more out of it than the average
PDragon Practice
Hitting champions with Abilities and killing enemies with Super Scorcher Breath grants a stack of Dragon Practice. Stacks increase the damage of Smolders basic Abilities.
Passive — never cast
QSuper Scorcher Breath
Smolder breathes fire on an enemy. As he gains more stacks, this ability becomes more powerful.
Cost 25 ManaCooldown 5.5/5/4.5/4/3.5sRange 550
WAchooo!
Smolder lets out an adorable flaming sneeze that explodes when hitting enemy champions.
Cost 50/55/60/65/70 ManaCooldown 14/13/12/11/10sRange 1500
EFlap, Flap, Flap
Smolder takes flight ignoring terrain and bombarding the lowest health enemy.
Cost 65 ManaCooldown 24/22/20/18/16sRange 700
RMMOOOMMMM!
Smolder calls his mom to breath fire from above, dealing extra damage and slowing enemies in the center of her fire.
Cost 100 ManaCooldown 120/110/100sRange 4200
Riot's notes from patch 25.S1.1 to 26.20 change Smolder in 9 patches. The latest is patch 26.20, published 2026-10-06.
PDragon Practice
RMmooommmm!
Smolder has lost quite a bit of power over the last few patches, with the Cleaver ranged nerf and bot lane meta changes disfavoring him significantly. We're further encouraging crit builds to bring his bruiser and full crit builds closer in power.
PDragon Practice
The baby dragon has been absolutely blasting his opponents since getting his hands on Deathfire Touch. We've had to do an unfortunate number of micropatch nerfs back to back, and we are hopeful this will be the last one we need to do.Included in these changes are a continuation of the latest nerf's push towards bringing him back into primarily critical strike builds rather than just Essence Reaver into bruiser, which we think can sit stronger since at the end of the day, a squishier Smolder has more weaknesses to play around, like being burst by enemy spell rotations.
Base Stats
QSuper Scorcher Breath
WAchooo!
RMMOOOMMMM!
Smolder's early game has been bolstered significantly after gaining access to Deathfire Touch. While we’re nerfing DFT, we still expect it to be his best keystone, so we’re also tapping him down to compensate. Update: Smolder continued to skyrocket in winrate this patch despite the previous nerfs as players adapted builds. We’re nerfing him again and will continue to monitor his performance after the Black Cleaver and Deathfire Touch interaction is changed in the next patch.
Base Stats
As expected Smolder has become much more powerful with the new Essence Reaver and increased minion counts. Since we’ve tuned our systems to our liking for now, it’s time to take stock of individual champions, Smolder being one. We want to make sure Smolder’s strong late-game damage has durability tradeoffs, even when buying the occasional HP item.
QSuper Scorcher Breath
Smolder, like Gangplank, stands to gain a lot of power from Essence Reaver's changes in this patch so we're taking a swing at how strongly his Q scales with critical strike purchases.
Base Stats
Despite being a thematically scale-ing dragon, Smolder's early game is actually quite potent. Peeling back some of his comfort early game by allowing enemy poke to hurt more and stick better.
PDragon Practice
We'd like to give Smolder a shot in the arm (wing) this patch. Since his last update managed to largely remove his stalling aspect from pro play, we think there's room to re-add some of his stack scaling that he lost.
WACHOOO!
EFlap, Flap, Flap
RMMOOOMMMM!
Smolder's been the opposite of on fire recently which is ironic given his name, so we're looking to buff up the areas that aren't hitting the bar we'd like. His W is below the bar for last hitting early game, his E bolts aren't worth using offensively, and now that his R doesn't cook waves, it doesn't need to have a long cooldown throughout the game. Altogether, these should light a fire within our favorite little dragon and get him back on track to receive some head pats from Mommy Smolder.
QSuper Scorcher Breath
We're delivering a very small Smolder buff, opening up Infinity Edge as a capstone option by letting its crit damage scale Q, since crit chance already scales the ability.
Riot's data lists 3 looks for Smolder with their own art, the base skin included and 17 chroma variants.
Best ARAM build
This champion’s win rate on each patch the preview sample spans, over its own games there. What actually changed each patch is in Riot’s own notes.
| Stat | Smolder | Rank | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base health | 575 | =149th | 620 |
| Health per level | 100 | =117th | 104 |
| Base armor | 24 | =130th | 30 |
| Armor per level | 4 | =157th | 4.6 |
| Base magic resist | 33 | =4th | 32 |
| Magic resist per level | 1.1 | =145th | 1.55 |
| Base attack damage | 58 | =95th | 59 |
| Base attack speed | 0.638 | =108th | 0.656 |
| Attack speed per level | 4% | =4th | 2.5% |
| Move speed | 330 | =117th | 335 |
| Attack range | 550 | =9th | 175 |
| Stat | Level 1 | Per level | Level 18 | Rank at 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 575 | +100 | 2275 | 146th of 173 |
| Mana | 300 | +40 | 980 | =107th of 145 |
| Armor | 24 | +4 | 92 | =165th of 173 |
| Magic resist | 33 | +1.1 | 51.7 | =141st of 173 |
Riot Data Dragon 16.20.1. Growth curve: League of Legends Wiki — Champion statistic.
Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling, is a Marksman and Mage champion in League of Legends. Riot rates the kit 6/10 for difficulty, 8/10 for attack, 2/10 for defense and 5/10 for magic. Smolder spends Mana and has 3 skins with their own art. Smolder's attack speed per level of 4% is the 4th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20 (shared with 2 others).
Hidden amongst the craggy cliffs of the Noxian frontier, under the watchful eyes of his mother, a young dragon is learning what it means to be heir to the Camavoran imperial dragon lineage. Playful and eager to grow up, Smolder looks for any excuse to practice his burgeoning abilities. Though he's still a fledgling, his skills are nothing to sneeze at, easily setting fire to anything that burns.
