After spiking heavily in popularity across solo queue, Riot Games made a handful of changes to a number of League of Legends champions in Patch 14.5, including high rising AD carry threats like Twisted Fate and Smolder.
As we swoop into the early days of the new update, however, players are discovering that Twisted Fate in the bottom lane might have seen its last days, while Smolder is still absolutely crushing the competition across multiple different ranked distributions.
For example, Twisted Fate has already been played 17 thousand times across ranks Platinum and higher, but currently has a floundering 48 percent win rate, according to League stats aggregate U.GG. He is still getting banned in 30 percent of his matches, but his play rate has dropped over four percent since the adjustments made to his kit.
Riot was quick to lessen his capabilities in the bottom lane in the latest patch, dropping his AD ratios and attack speed to much more manageable numbers while causing his effectiveness in the marksman role to drop significantly. Now, players will need to revert back to playing him in the mid lane like normal, unless they still believe they can make the champion work in the bottom lane.
Smolder, on the other hand, saw a collection of nerfs to his kit in Patch 14.5, but despite the changes and a micropatch nerf, he still remains one of the best champions in the role. He is approaching a 53 percent win rate with a 50 percent ban rate over 121 thousand matches across Platinum ranks and above, and the complaints within the community haven’t stopped yet.
With his powerful scaling and simple playstyle, Smolder has become a fan favorite among lower elo players and high tier professionals alike. His ability to take over a lane in the early game with AP damage, his supreme wave clear, and destructive execute damage in the mid-to-late game have made him a must pick or ban today.
If Smolder continues to soar high above the rest of his peers in Patch 14.5, players could expect even bigger nerfs to the champion on Wednesday, March 20 when Patch 14.6 drops on live servers.
