What lane should you play as Smolder in League of Legends?

The newest champion in League of Legends, and the first of 2024, is Smolder, a bite-sized dragon who packs a powerful punch—and only gets stronger as each game goes on. 

Smolder is a spellcasting, physical damage-dealing AD carry who is meant to be played in the bottom lane. Overall, he’s the 167th champion to be added to the League roster, and the 24th ranged AD carry (the first since Zeri was released back in early 2022). According to Riot, Smolder is the first of at least three planned new champion releases for 2024, not including visual and gameplay updates to existing champions. 

Here’s everything you need to know about Smolder’s playability on Summoner’s Rift, including his best position and most optimal build strategy. 

What position does Smolder play in LoL?

Smolder’s abilities scale mostly with Attack Damage, although his active moves do have some Ability Power scaling attached to them as well. We recommend, though, that you build Smolder as a traditional ADC to maximize the damage from both your auto attacks and your AD-scaling, physical damage-dealing abilities. Trying to force an AP build on this champion just isn’t as optimal as building him as an Attack Damage-focused character. 

Smolder plays quite differently from many traditional ADCs in that the champion is a spellcaster first and foremost. While he’s able to weave in auto attacks between his spells, Smolder is an ability-first ADC. With this in mind, it wouldn’t be too far out of the question to see the champion get played in other roles such as a solo lane like mid lane. But, for now, Riot has been relatively adamant on keeping the dragon in the bottom lane as an ADC. 

Still, that’s not to say we won’t see him expand his horizons at some point in the future. Plenty of League champions in the past—such as Taliyah, Seraphine, and Senna—have flexed into hybrid roles over the years following their initial releases.