Top lane Smite?
What is with the new pro meta of having top laners take smite? what is the pros of this? obviously the con being losing flash or ignite or something...
14 Comments
Skirmishers cinderhulk is pretty much the only reason its a thing. Its like a short cd exhaust with true damage tied in on it, cheaper sunfire, bonus percent health etc.
Honestly, unless you're Challenjour and experience the same threats that they do top lane, you have no reason to even give a shit about it... Low elo it isn't worth the hype.
Increased dragon/ baron control... like yesterday balls (c9 top laner) stole baron because he had smite... and then like they said below the enchantments are pretty strong for top laners...like cinderhulk and skirmishers
the smite is needed on certain champions because they are so tanky and do damage with their base stats hence the fizz and the hecarim. The idea of it is to get in the back line and kill the carries with it. Fizz with cinderhulk + frozen heart he gets tanky and his playful trickster + (Q) makes him hard to lock down also his base stats are high to do enough damage and smiting the carry will kill them quicker.
the main argument for taking smite is that you can jungle early on if a lane-swap occurs. Other than that it´s highly overrated.
The top laner is usually higher level than the jungler, so your smite does more damage in smite fights.
The top laners are usually in 1v1s so skirmishers means you win trades and smite is up often enough to ensure that you have a good amount of kill pressure if you start with your offensive item.
The enchantments are strong items that are gold efficient. previously warrior, currently cinderhulk and perhaps soon the runeglaive.
It's fun on 
if you know how to roam and counter jungle safely. It also makes her hurt a lot more than people expect her to.
It is purely to get 
(with that exact smite + enchant combo) on champions that have decent built in escapes like 
. It is even more favored if the team plans to lane swap and double jungle (top laner helps the jungler clear for an extended period).