top players bringing smite?
I have a smurf friend and we played ranked, I noticed a top player bringing smite so I asked why, he said that alot of platinum or challenger players do that... why tho? 
6 Comments
Cinderhulk.
Also because challenging or skirmisher's smite are both nice for dueling/chasing their opponent, and top lane can use them pretty much off cooldown to duel their counterpart.
Unless you are extremely sure of what you are doing, I would advice you to only bring it for the true damage enchant if your champ has high synergy with it, like Mundo or Warwick. Then, it can work okay, though, and that's the main use. It's not true that "a lot of" players do this but it's possible. But they don't bring it forth no matter what they pick or what they're doing. Usually, this means you won't be picking a mandatory meta summoner, either Flash/Ghost or Teleport, so it's always a drawback, too, and many champs and teams won't want to run it. Please don't make me see this on a Rumble, Ryze or Riven, .. or against an opponent Jarvan so you lack your flash, etc. -> It's just an option for certain matches, it is far from a "Go-To" strategy.
Usually there are better picks in terms of summoners. And also in terms of items, for smite tops will bring some kind of jungle item. While jungle items are not cost-inefficient at the moment, you'll be investing into stats that work only against jungle monsters or bonus gold from camps on your way. You usually don't want this on top and a 25% bonus hp buff or a worse BC won't outweigh this, I daresay. 850 gold for stats that are worth 0 gold on top plus an enchanted smite is somewhat of a huge early game drawback. You can usually duel your opponent more efficiently with 850 gold spent into Doran's early game power or simply on your core items. Good chances this will cost you the lane before you even get to finish your item if you build into this early. It's like an 850g lead for free after all - imagine you die twice early and fall behind in cs, that's about where this'll leave you as long as you're still at equal gold. Missing Teleport or Flash/Ghost in that situation basically guarantees a lost lane to be honest. But hey - time to deprive the jungler of some pathing options then while you can't def the turret on your own anymore, huh? :P
The midgame gold efficiency is hardly worth the early drawbacks, I assume, no matter which jungle item you build into. If the match actually moves into a 50 minutes late game state, even junglers will often sell their jungle items when they're full, like trading in that warrior/stalker for a BC or simply a GA if they haven't got one. And anyway the natural advantages of having the smite won't be too big because there already is one - slightly faster drakes/barons? maybe. But a necessary secure for such objectives? not really. Mind you, if I'm not mistaken, it can also be affected by Mikael's, QS, Cleanse, ... which may matter in mid/late.
Smite is by its design a jungler's summoner - a top will not really profit from the jungle stats, extra gold, true damage and even the limited all-in power anywhere near as much as a jungler.
The only possible justification is an immense synergy with the champion you are running. Warwick for example naturally has such with his free hits ult, sticking power E and AS buff W.
So it's rather a questionable tradeoff in ranked and often simply fun on normals, like the obligatory Smite on Blitzcrank to grab wary players through a creep.
To steal their jungler's camps :P
Bigger benefit to red side tops. The Rock buff is huge for forcing down towers and winning quick trades.
they are doing it so they can get this item: 
. It is a tank's dream, because it offers high damage, high durability, excellent objective control for your team, and the ability to counter jungle the enemy jungler very easily to get yourself ahead. it also allows them to scale really hard into late game and to access gromp Buff. It basically gives everything that Riot gave junglers to make their life not garbage, but on a champion with a lot more gold, meaning it gives the best of both worlds.