League players rejoice as Smolder nerfs make him the worst ADC
Riot GamesAfter a few patches of complete and total meta dominance, Smolder has finally been hit with some significant nerfs and now has the worst ADC win rate in the game.
Smolder got hit by the nerf bat hard on patch 14.6, with his late-game hyperscaling getting drastically cut down. This comes after he dominated every level of play from Bronze to pro, setting Pentakill records along the way.
So, his scaling was significantly cut back in a number of ways. Though the nerfs were warranted, players are surprised by just how far he’s fallen.
Smolder’s win rate has fallen to the lowest in the game at the time of writing, making him go from arguably the game’s best champion in the role to one of the worst in a single patch.
Smolder goes from League’s best ADC to its worst
Between reaching 24 pro play Pentakills 3 times as fast as Zeri and dominating at every level of play, Smolder really needed to be nerfed and is arguably one of the strongest champions that was ever released in League of Legends.
The day before the patch went live, one of the worst LCK teams, Nongshim RedForce, almost took down reigning Worlds 2023 champions T1 simply by having Smolder on their team. He really was that strong last patch.
T1 eventually won this game, but only after taking 2 Barons and 3 Elder Drakes. And, though he’ll still be strong for as long as the LCK, LPL, and LEC have 14.5 enabled, players in the LCS and on the live client don’t have to worry about it.
But what exactly did they nerf? Here’s a quick rundown of his patch 14.6 changes:
Q: Super Scorcher Breath
- Base execute threshold reduced: 1.25% max HP >>> 1%
- Execute threshold per 100 reduced: 2.5% >>> 1.5%
W: Achooo!
- Width reduced: 125 >>> 115
E: Flap, Flap, Flap
- Speed reduced: 100% >>> 75%
Additionally, these nerfs are even lighter than the initial set of changes, with Smolder’s Q also having its required stacks for the third evolution of the ability being increased from 225 to 275. It seems the nerfs above were enough to knock him off his pedestal.
The general sentiment? Good riddance.
From a win rate peaking at 55% all the way down to a low of 45%, Smolder’s had a cataclysmic downfall to the absolute worst ADC in the game statistically speaking. Though, it seems lower level players are still doing alright with him in low ranks due to how easy he is mechanically.
Though there’s a chance the balance team gives him some light buffs in the near future and find a happy medium for Smolder, he’s not worth playing for now.
