The newest champion in League of Legends, Smolder, is now live. Smolder is the 168th champion added to League of Legends and the first to hit the Rift in 2024.
Although Smolder’s kit is heavily reliant on spellcasting, the dragon is meant to be played at the AD carry position. Even though Smolder’s main home is in the bot lane, it’s likely that—especially during the initial stages of his release cycle—League players will experiment with the champion as a mid laner as well due to his traditional spellcasting nature.
“Historically, our AD spellcasters have fallen off as the game goes on (with some exceptions), but Smolder’s spells should pack a punch in the late game (not best in class late game Marksman, but intended to be pretty up there),” League’s lead gameplay designer Matt Leung-Harrison said in a tweet earlier today.
Smolder’s addition to the game comes during a tumultuous time for the AD carry position. Many players in the League community over the last week have been debating the overall strength of ADCs, especially in comparison to other roles in the game. League players, especially the most vocal ones on the game’s official subreddit, have argued lately that the complexity of the ADC position makes it a naturally weaker role due to its higher skill ceiling, while others believe that high ceiling leaves the most amount of room for flashy plays and skill expression. It’s going to take a massive sample size of Smolder games to determine the champion’s overall effect on the current state of the role, regardless.
Following Smolder, the next champion set to be added to League will be a mid lane mage, according to Riot’s 2024 roadmap. It is unclear at this time when that mid-range Vastayan mage will be added to the game, although we expect it to be at some point in the spring.
Like all new League champions, Smolder can be purchased for either 975 Riot Points or 7,800 Blue Essence.
