WR.WIKI
PATCH 7.1 · LIVE
CHAMPIONSSmolder
Smolder
CHAMPION · ADC

Smolder

Verified across 3 sourcesLast updated · 2026-05-26
adcS+5 src
01

Overview

last updated 2026-05-26
Editor's pick · most-quoted
“So I I have made a couple changes now that I've understood the meta a little better. I have included Ashe into S tier. Uh but the main thing is Smolder is still a god tier champion despite the nerfs. So yes, the were somewhat decent, but Smolder is already such a strong champion. I already explained in my patch breakdown why I don't think these nerfs are as effective as you might think, and that's because those extra stacks that Smolder is not getting, he's a going to still get to 175 stacks by the time the third dragon spawns, right? By the time the late game Baron becomes a threat. So, by the time that you actually get into these late game team fights, Smolder will still have his full stacks. So, because of how the timing works in Wild Rift, those extra 25 stacks are really not that big of a deal, and Smolder should be able to get them. He won't be as dominant in those mid game team fights, especially if he's ahead. However, he should still continue to do Smolder things. So, especially now with the the new crit build that we've been seeing with Essence Reaver and even opting into Infinity Edge, Smolder still does an insane amount of damage. You have to be a little more careful with him if you do go for the crit build as you're a little more squishy, but overall Smolder will continue to do Smolder things, and I still think he belongs in God tier.”
— royal · patch 7.1e · (05:40)
Open questions (5)
  1. 01Stack-priority (when to Q in lane vs poke)
  2. 02Build path (Manamune-line? RFC?)
  3. 03~~Rune setup~~ — answered alongside builds above (2026-05-26)
  4. 04When Smolder out-scales Ezreal — power-spike comparison
  5. 05Matchup priority
02

Tier history

6 entries · 3 sources · 3 patches
PatchSourceRoleTierΔDateNotes
7.1ehellsdeviladcS+−12026-05-19—
7.1eroyaladcS+−12026-05-17—
7.1ditzstu4rtadcS+·2026-05-08—
7.1ditzstu4rtmidB·2026-05-08—
7.1droyaladcGOD·2026-05-08—
7.1hellsdeviladcGOD·2026-05-08—
03

Builds

1 source
WR Metaaggregator statspatch 7.1e
WR51.77%PR12.05%BR17.15%
Items (in order)
Essence Reaver
Essence ReaverAttacks grant Mana Regen, and damage amplification
  • +35 Attack Damage
  • +25% Critical Rate
  • +20 Ability Haste

Spellblade: Casting an ability generates a Spellblade charge (max 3 charges) that lasts up to 10 second(s). Hitting an enemy with an attack consumes a charge, dealing 90 bonusas physical damage and granting 40 Movement Speed for 2 second(s). This bonus damage can Critically Strike. Each ability generates only one charge per 2 second(s).

Mana Siphon: Attacks restore 3% missingMana on-hit.

3000 gold
›
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Ionian Boots of LucidityCooldown
  • +100 Max Health
  • +15 Ability Haste.
  • +45 Move Speed.
  • +50% Mana Regen

Summoned: Reduces spell cooldowns by 15%.

900 gold
›
Magnetic Blaster
Magnetic BlasterIncreases attack range and damage
  • +25% Critical Rate
  • +35% Attack Speed

Fervor: +5% Move Speed.

Energized: Moving and attacking will generate an Energized Attack.

Power Blitz: Energized Attacks gain 100 range (50 range for melee attacks), deal 40-100 bonus magic damage, and grant 60 Movement Speed for 0.75 seconds. This damage bounces to 5 nearby enemies and can Critically Strike.(Deals 50-80% bonus damage against minions.)

3000 gold
›
Spear of Shojin
Spear of ShojinGain damage bonuses
  • +450 Max Health
  • +40 Attack Damage

Dragonforce: +20% Ability Haste.

Focused Will: Dealing damage to monsters or enemies with abilities increases your champion’s ability and passive damage by 3% for 6s. (Stacks 4 times).

3100 gold
›
Infinity Edge
Infinity EdgeIncreases Critical Strike Damage
  • +60 Attack Damage
  • +25% Critical Rate

Infinity: Critical Strikes deal 205% damage instead of 175%.

Limit Break: When your total gain from items exceeds 100%, every 1% excess grants 0.6 bonus Critical Damage.

3400 gold
›
Mortal Reminder
Mortal ReminderArmor Penetration (%) and reduced enemy healing
  • +25 Attack Damage
  • +25% Critical Rate
  • +15% Attack Speed

Last Whisper: +30% Armor Penetration. Attacks that Critically Strike gain an additional 6% Armor Penetration.

Sepsis: Dealing physical damage to enemy champions applies 50% Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds.

3300 gold
Runes
Fleet Footwork
KeystoneFleet Footwork
Fleet FootworkKeystone

Moving, attacking and casting builds Energy stacks. At 100 stacks, your next attack heals you, grants increased Movement Speed, and restores mana or energy if you attack a champion. At 100 Energy stacks, your next attack gains 100% Attack Speed. Heal: 15 - 85 + 30% bonus Attack Damage + 30% Ability Power Movement Speed bonus: 20% for 1 second. When attacking a champion, restore 8% missing mana or 8% missing energy. Heals for 35% (Melee) / 15% (Ranged) when attacking minions or monsters.

Source: wildriftfire.com/rune-list (maintained by iTzSTU4RT, scraped 2026-05-18)

Brutal
BrutalMinor · Precision

Attacks deal 6 (+ 8% Bonus Attack Damage) bonus adaptive damage to enemy champions.

Source: wildriftfire.com/rune-list (maintained by iTzSTU4RT, scraped 2026-05-18)

Coup de Grace
Coup de GraceMinor · Precision

When an enemy has less than 40% health, deals 8% bonus adaptive damage.

Source: wildriftfire.com/rune-list (maintained by iTzSTU4RT, scraped 2026-05-18)

Legend: Alacrity
Legend: AlacrityMinor · Precision

Gain 3% bonus attack speed when engaging in taking down monsters, enemy champions and minions, up to 20% at maximum stacks.

Source: wildriftfire.com/rune-list (maintained by iTzSTU4RT, scraped 2026-05-18)

Bone Plating
Bone PlatingMinor · Resolve

Blocks damage from the next triggering champion attack and 2 more attacks.

Source: wildriftfire.com/rune-list (maintained by iTzSTU4RT, scraped 2026-05-18)

Skill priority
Q›W›E
Spells
FlashFlashBarrierBarrier

Source: [[Sources/web-pages/2026-05-26-wrmeta-smolder-build-7.1e|WR Meta]] · sampling: Diamond / Master / Challenger (Legendary tier).

Situational item swaps (explicit):

  • Quicksilver Enchant or Galeforce (boot enchant) — depends on playstyle and battlefield situation
  • Cut Down instead of Coup de Grace — for consistent damage output, especially against tanks
  • Legend: Bloodline instead of Legend: Alacrity — enhances survivability via omnivamp
04

Commentary

verbatim creator quotes
royalhand-written· Patch 7.1d analysis (Royal)
patch 7.1d

Scope: This section reflects state as-of patch 7.1d per Royal. May be outdated for later patches — see top-level Tier history. "The GOD tier champions continue to be Ezreal and Smolder. Smolder scales like an absolute beast." — [[Sources/videos/2026-05-04-royal-tier-list-7.1d|Royal, 7.1d tier list]] (05:33) Why he's GOD in 7.1d: Pure scaling — "scales like an absolute beast." Royal places him alongside Ezreal as the two carries who stay GOD even as item/rune meta shifts (the 7.1d Lethal Tempo nerf and Empowerment buff didn't dislodge them).

itzstu4rtauto· Auto-extracted commentary (iTzSTU4RT, 7.1b)
patch 7.1b

Generated by /wr-extract from iTzSTU4RT's patch 7.1b video transcript. Re-running this skill OVERWRITES this section. Promote keepers into your hand-written ## Patch 7.1b analysis (iTzSTU4RT) sections above. Mid "Did get the Lichbane buff. did get a buff by himself as well, but again just doesn't really have the agency to really do too much in the mid lane. Smolder got nerfed a few times and the problem now in mid lane is that you're not going to get as much damage. You're not going to trade as effectively in the mid lane. bot lane is very easy to gain stacks towards his passive because you got two champions to auto attack and you have a support by your side that's going to protect you every single time that you walk up and use your abilities to try and stack your passive um to try and get to that elder drake mini elder drake threshold that you want to get to with 400 stacks um but overall it's you know mid lane is just he's just not as strong a pretty easy champion to play mid lane you just put the pool down you do a decent amount of damage but it's like a support champion playing a mid lane pretty mid um Zoe just doesn't really do enough damage." (53:22) Adc "move on to the dual lane. Uh, as I just briefly mentioned, uh, Smolder being very strong with allowing you to get stacks. And people have been telling me like, why is Smolder strong and why is he S+ tier even though he keeps getting nerfed time and time again?" (55:25) "Get stacks towards your passive and try and poke enemy champions and deal damage with to enemy champions as much as possible. There are some scenarios where I'm playing Smolder and I'm just using my ultimate during the laning phase. Like I'm not even doing it during a team fight or I'm not doing it to try and kill the opponent." (56:31) "I'm just doing it to try and get more stacks towards my passive because I want to get 150 stacks. That should be your goal when playing Smolder. Don't try and win the early game." (56:43)

itzstu4rtauto· Mid
patch 7.1b·mid

“Did get the Lichbane buff. did get a buff by himself as well, but again just doesn't really have the agency to really do too much in the mid lane. Smolder got nerfed a few times and the problem now in mid lane is that you're not going to get as much damage. You're not going to trade as effectively in the mid lane. bot lane is very easy to gain stacks towards his passive because you got two champions to auto attack and you have a support by your side that's going to protect you every single time that you walk up and use your abilities to try and stack your passive um to try and get to that elder drake mini elder drake threshold that you want to get to with 400 stacks um but overall it's you know mid lane is just he's just not as strong a pretty easy champion to play mid lane you just put the pool down you do a decent amount of damage but it's like a support champion playing a mid lane pretty mid um Zoe just doesn't really do enough damage.”(53:22)

itzstu4rtauto· Adc
patch 7.1b·adc

“move on to the dual lane. Uh, as I just briefly mentioned, uh, Smolder being very strong with allowing you to get stacks. And people have been telling me like, why is Smolder strong and why is he S+ tier even though he keeps getting nerfed time and time again?”(55:25)

“Get stacks towards your passive and try and poke enemy champions and deal damage with to enemy champions as much as possible. There are some scenarios where I'm playing Smolder and I'm just using my ultimate during the laning phase. Like I'm not even doing it during a team fight or I'm not doing it to try and kill the opponent.”(56:31)

“I'm just doing it to try and get more stacks towards my passive because I want to get 150 stacks. That should be your goal when playing Smolder. Don't try and win the early game.”(56:43)

royalauto· Auto-extracted commentary (Royal, 7.1e)
patch 7.1e

Generated by /wr-extract from Royal's patch 7.1e video transcript. Re-running this skill OVERWRITES this section. Promote keepers into your hand-written ## Patch 7.1e analysis (Royal) sections above. Adc "So I I have made a couple changes now that I've understood the meta a little better. I have included Ashe into S tier. Uh but the main thing is Smolder is still a god tier champion despite the nerfs. So yes, the were somewhat decent, but Smolder is already such a strong champion. I already explained in my patch breakdown why I don't think these nerfs are as effective as you might think, and that's because those extra stacks that Smolder is not getting, he's a going to still get to 175 stacks by the time the third dragon spawns, right? By the time the late game Baron becomes a threat. So, by the time that you actually get into these late game team fights, Smolder will still have his full stacks. So, because of how the timing works in Wild Rift, those extra 25 stacks are really not that big of a deal, and Smolder should be able to get them. He won't be as dominant in those mid game team fights, especially if he's ahead. However, he should still continue to do Smolder things. So, especially now with the the new crit build that we've been seeing with Essence Reaver and even opting into Infinity Edge, Smolder still does an insane amount of damage. You have to be a little more careful with him if you do go for the crit build as you're a little more squishy, but overall Smolder will continue to do Smolder things, and I still think he belongs in God tier." (05:40)

royalauto· Adc
patch 7.1e·adc

“So I I have made a couple changes now that I've understood the meta a little better. I have included Ashe into S tier. Uh but the main thing is Smolder is still a god tier champion despite the nerfs. So yes, the were somewhat decent, but Smolder is already such a strong champion. I already explained in my patch breakdown why I don't think these nerfs are as effective as you might think, and that's because those extra stacks that Smolder is not getting, he's a going to still get to 175 stacks by the time the third dragon spawns, right? By the time the late game Baron becomes a threat. So, by the time that you actually get into these late game team fights, Smolder will still have his full stacks. So, because of how the timing works in Wild Rift, those extra 25 stacks are really not that big of a deal, and Smolder should be able to get them. He won't be as dominant in those mid game team fights, especially if he's ahead. However, he should still continue to do Smolder things. So, especially now with the the new crit build that we've been seeing with Essence Reaver and even opting into Infinity Edge, Smolder still does an insane amount of damage. You have to be a little more careful with him if you do go for the crit build as you're a little more squishy, but overall Smolder will continue to do Smolder things, and I still think he belongs in God tier.”(05:40)

hellsdevilauto· Auto-extracted commentary (hellsdevil, 7.1e)
patch 7.1e

Generated by /wr-extract from hellsdevil's patch 7.1e video transcript. Re-running this skill OVERWRITES this section. Promote keepers into your hand-written ## Patch 7.1e analysis (hellsdevil) sections above. Adc "dragon lane. Honestly, even after the nerf, Smolder is disgusting. Smolder is still very, very powerful." (18:25)

hellsdevilauto· Adc
patch 7.1e·adc

“dragon lane. Honestly, even after the nerf, Smolder is disgusting. Smolder is still very, very powerful.”(18:25)

06

Patch notes

mentions of Smolder
Patch 7.1e
  • listedSmolder · included in this patch's champion changes