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Could it be viable to take smite into lane now

Zahz··3 votes·4,745 views

Curious on everyones thoughts. I realize its a little bit of a stretch but what if you are in a lane and take smite to use on the nearby jungle camps. With the new changes to smite giving buffs when used on the big baddies would that buff be worth using over some of the other summoners. If you smite raptor you get true sight for spotting a ward which translates into not only free gold by eliminating wards and forching the enemy to replace them, but supporting your junglers ganks. This could also translate into turning the blue buff golem into an emergency mana pot, wolfs into a scout when jungler needs a check on his buff when he is running behind etc. Heck even a top or bot could use it on nearby monsters to gain a quick poison or stun buff to boost. Which could turn out to be a pretty nasty turn of evens when an adc with a AS boost starts firing off stuns in the bot lane for only a smite. Especially when the Red side would only have access to the poison gromp and not a stun to event he odds. Same for top lane. I doubt im the first one to think of this but i havent seen it discussed (honestly i didnt look either)

9 Comments

Grand Eleven1 votes

Top lane skirmishers with a melee champ is insanely good. bonus true damage every hit and no vision juking works really really well.

Cozarkian1 votes

The stun doesn't work on champions.

Mathematically, chilling smite provides better net health (damage dealt + damage reduced) than ignite, and before buying skirmisher's you can use smite for poison buff, jungle exp/gold and quickly killing cannon minions to push the lane. So yes, top lane smite is probably a good idea. I think support smite would work too for the added objective control and the ability to help feed your adc jungle exp/gold by smiting monsters to low health for the adc to finish off.

However, the PBE changes probably change the above analysis. Chilling smite gets fewer seconds of on-hit damage, devourer's enchant is being nerfed, and jungle is nerfed if you don't have a hunter's machete (which isn't the first item for a smite laner). After it hits live, I think teleport or ignite will be better options again.

Another consideration - and the reason I don't take smite toplane - it's probably not a big enough advantage to make it worth dealing with disgruntled teammates, especially the jungler, who might be annoyed you are taking his jungle camps and refuse to gank for you.-

Zahz1 votes

thank god. but that does raise the issue that a bot lane adc in one side has a poison buff at their disposal while the other has access to a true damage turret shot u can dump your stun buff on

and i read a lot of junglers think half the buffs are pointless for them which makes me wonder if they were intended to be used by some laners instead.

Centuros1 votes

thank god. but that does raise the issue that a bot lane adc in one side has a poison buff at their disposal while the other has access to a true damage turret shot u can dump your stun buff on

and i read a lot of junglers think half the buffs are pointless for them which makes me wonder if they were intended to be used by some laners instead.

Which buffs are pointless for junglers? They all seem fine to me, except maybe Wolf Smite ward, because it sits in the oddest location.

Cozarkian1 votes

Trying smiting your opponent's wolves. That's a little more useful because it catches the enemy jungler on the way to blue/gromp.

I think blue smite is the least useful. If I'm taking the buff, I don't need the mana and if I'm giving the buff away, I either don't need the mana or I have ranger's trailblazer and get enough mana from that. What would be awesome is if it reduced cool downs by 10 seconds.

Dr Clueless PhD1 votes

Right now, the big fad is to take an attack-speed focused Champion top lane and pick up Skirmisher's with Smite, from low to high elo. Smite them for the true damage, and melt their face off. Warwick is the biggest offender right now, both in top lane and the jungle.

L0reweaver1 votes

Yes, thank god someone else is doing this. Reasons to take smite in lane: 1 increased spawn rate of larger minions 2 smite items allow smiting of champions or a smite that clears a wave of minions 3 smite will give you bonuses on small minion camps 4 the bonuses on these camps is awarded on the smite, not the kill so the laner can steal buffs from the enemy jungler a. smite wolves for a free ward in the enemy jungle b. smite toad for poison dmg to all the minions attacking you c. smite golem, yeah stunning minions isn't that great but you get a free 50 dmg to a turret d. short on health, smite red real quick and run. e. short on mana, quick smite to blue and run. f. smite the raptors before switching lanes to find the enemy wards 5 dragon and baron are both more beefy giving a team with 2 smiters an advantage taking camps 6 two free wards w/ out of combat movespeed buff if you've got a smite for the crabs

There are so many reasons smite can be taken in lane that i have a hard time picking anything but smite/flash now

Zahz1 votes

i could see this causing a good size meta shift with some of the more mobile champs as well.

Zahz1 votes

bumping for further discussion

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