Smoulder

Most dragons don't care about the petty conflicts of people or beasts, but Smoulder has a strange interest in the battle between good and evil. It seems like he has chosen to side with the forces of good, but it also seems that his involvement somehow serves his interests. For the time being, Smoulder lends his fire to the cause.

Unlocked at **World 1** Level 10?, Cost **3000** Gems and starts at Awakening Rank **R2**.

## Skills / Abilities

Basic Attack - Melee (Flying only) and Ranged (Ground only)

**Active skill: Inferno**

* Smoulder calls down a swarm of meteors on enemies.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, anywhere on map
* Lvl1 effect: drops AoE firebomb causing a flat amount of True Damage plus stat-based Physical Damage, and inflict burn on all enemies in range (slight physical damages on enemies for 5s).
* Lvl2 upgrade: C1-Valley of Death (also requires Efrigid), map 1 (aka "C1-1") (needs hero level 10).
* Lvl2 effect: increase AoE by +25%, increase physical portion of damage by +50% (becomes +100% at R5).

**Passive 1: Rain of Fire**

* Smoulder drops meteors on any enemy that dares to get near him.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, in large range
* Lvl1 effect: small flat and stat-based physical and magical damage on targets, with slight AoE.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S20 (needs hero level 13).
* Lvl2 effect: increases (both forms of) damage +50%.

**Passive 2: Mighty Gust**

* Smoulder uses his wings to unleash a tornado that passes through targets slowing and damaging them.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, in medium range
* Lvl1 effect: damages nearby enemies slightly (both physical and magical, flat and stat-based), with slight AoE, and slows by 50% for 5s.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S29 (needs hero level 16).
* Lvl2 effect: increases (both forms of) damage +50%.

**Passive 3: Heat Seekers**

* Smoulder unleashes a swarm of magic homing projectiles causing massive damage to a single unit.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, in medium range, preferentially to flying enemies
* Note: damage is nowhere near "massive" as advertised, past W1-2:-)
* Lvl1 effect: deals stat-based True Damage to targets, in small AoE.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S36 (needs hero level 19).
* Lvl2 effect: increases damage +50%.

Compare to other heroes in the Unlocking requirements for heroes table.

## Talents (Awaken)

**Inferno Crusade (start with)**

* Normal attack deals AoE damage and burns enemies.
* Effect: deals slight physical damage for 2s.

**King of the Sky (rank 4)**

* An aura that decreases nearby flying enemies' speed by 40%.
* Effect: as advertised, so long as Smoulder is alive and in large-ish range, all fliers are consistently slowed.

**Inferno Breath (rank 5)**

* Decreases Inferno's cooldown. Increases its damage and it also stuns enemies.
* Effect: reduces cooldown by a third, increases damage by roughly almost twice to triple, and adds 2s stun to all enemies hit by Inferno.

**Dragons (rank 6)**

* Smoulder will get permanent haste and increasing attributes when paired with Narlax.
* Effect: Smoulder's damage and HP are tripled, and speed is doubled, lasting forever even if Narlax dies.

See also Awakening suggestions.

## Additional information

**Roles**:

* **Official**: Ranged, Nuker, Tank
* **Unofficial** (player type / game mode): - see also Hero Categories for veterans and Hero roles table
	+ **Veterans** (tournaments): **Anti-air**, **AoE**, CC, Ranged
	+ **Middle** (RS, events): anti-air, support (delay of air & disabling also of ground)
	+ **Early** (initial campaign): AoE damage, anti-air

**Comparisons / Rankings**:

* **Life / HP**: average, though feels far superior since he is only vulnerable to ranged attacks, and increases quickly upon leveling up (e.g., a third more quickly than Lancelot, though Lancelot's increases 3x more quickly upon ranking up)
* **Armor**: none
* **Move speed**: average

* **Damage capabilities**:
	+ **Amount**: average against a single enemy but since every attack does AoE, ends up being rather extreme compared to any other early-game hero - except Efri with whom he's more or less tied (purely damage-wise, though her attacks also slow)
	+ **Speed**: many of his passive abilities fire extremely quickly compared to other heroes - e.g. on average twice more often than Efri's, so even though his active is one of the slowest (yet still a quarter faster than Efri's) he is considered among the fastest early-game heroes
	+ **Range**: lacking the immense range of Fee or Yan, he nonetheless has one of the largest ranges of all early-game heroes - perhaps twice that of Efrigid
	+ **Forms**: physical, magical, *and* true-damage, though primarily a physical and magical (both) ranged offensive hero
	+ **Affects**: ground+air, mostly targeted at enemy furthest ahead
* **Tournament blessing:** average stat boost, though since attacks are AoE this compounds to perhaps one of the largest boosts in the game.
* **Greatest strengths**: (1) practically unaffected by most enemies in W1-3, he can get into the action and deal AoE far easier than a mage who has to hide behind barracks - he does have a large-ish range too though hardly needs it as a result; (2) his AoE is faster, stronger, and flat out better than most mages too, making him literally OP for early worlds; (3) in more difficult scenarios, he falls back on his R4 talent slowing fliers, and if you get it, R5 to stun; (4) his damage is split between physical and magical, so is general-purpose that way; (5) extremely easy to use
* **Greatest weaknesses**: (1) like all early-game heroes, his damage becomes less relevant in W4, and his defense suffers horribly too - then even he must hide behinds barracks or off the path - hence he goes from OP to practically irrelevant (except for his flier slow-down aura) extremely quickly, especially in RS; (2) does not have much in the way of "focused" damage against a single enemy (except heat seekers where all 10 projectiles could hit the same target)

**Daily Trial**: visit Smoulder's Daily Trial page

**Skins**: visit Skins page

**Story**: visit Story page

**Short Tips**:

* In more difficult situations (tournaments, RS, and later worlds), place him away from enemies but close enough for his aura to work its' magic.

* If you are sure that you want both Smoulder and Efrigid, get him first b/c he's better and much easier to use than her in earlier worlds (W1-2), and until she surpasses him at her R4.

**Further Info**: visit Heroes overview page

Detailed Skills, Talents and Stats Info here.

## Ideal Ranks & Teams

* **Early game**: level 20 or so and perhaps R4 for flier slow-down, but not worth going much further (R5 stun is nice but too rarely delivered)

* **Ideal rank for tournaments**: minimum R4 (flier slow-down) for usage outside of his week. R5 reduces the cooldown of his active and adds a nice stun effect. R6 is needed only when blessed. Note that you are not likely to beat his synergy team with pure skill - its' boosting is too extreme.
* **Ideal team for lower leagues**: R4-5 Smoulder + strong damage and support heroes (though needs a strong amount of luck for anything less than his R6 synergy to have a chance)
* **Perfect team for a GM**: R6 Smoulder + R5-6 Narlax + R6 Leif

* **Leveling guide:**
	+ For his tournament blessed week: **high priority** => stats improve damage greatly, due to its AoE nature, making him a powerhouse who exceeds non-blessed damage Meta, although his HP is so extreme he doesn't need help beyond the blessed status.
	+ For other situations: **no priority** => his flier slow-down and stun works regardless of level.

## Commentary

This flying fire-breathing dragon rains hellfire down upon groups of enemies, while hovering above them completely unaffected by those without ranged attacks to reach him in return.

* **Cost**: Same as other 3000 gem heroes (and 2.5 times the elixir to level up compared to your free heroes), but worth it:-). Most notable is that you must also purchase Efrigid if you want to unlock his upgraded, level-2 abilities.

* **Initial (early game)**: ★★★★★ as an extremely OP (over-powered) hero - every one of his attacks deals AoE damage and also burns enemies, and he is the first hero that can outright halt the progress of a flying enemy - hence his designation as a Tank - plus he is fairly resistant to damage himself (e.g., to archers), so unlike Efrigid or other Nukers before him, he can be placed right in the middle of the action (actually, above:-).
	+ **Campaign & Shattered Realms** (& daily missions): extremely OP hero
	+ **Realm Siege**: like Fee, good only at first - although ideal for low-difficulty situations, his power wanes *very quickly* too. Unlike her though, his R4 flier slow-down can keep him relevant when you need that help.
	+ **Advice**: not a bad choice by any means - not one of the best, but far better than most, IF you are going to spend gems at all at that point. P2W players especially will have an EXTREMELY easy time in the early game with him.

* **Later (mid game)**: ★☆ if you use him in a more defensive role (i.e., place him behind barracks, or even to the side where his aura can slow flying enemies but without letting him engage directly). Like any W1 hero, his damage output & defense in later worlds is negligible, and while his R4 aura, passive Mighty Gust, & R5 active stun (if you have it) can be put to some use, it does very little to affect the many extremely tough ground-based enemies in later worlds (plus later-world towers do fantastic damage to flying enemies anyway). If you have him you can use him but it is definitely not worthwhile investing in him past R4-5, for any mode other than tournaments.

* **End game****:** (ranking varies wildly with situations)
	+ **Tournaments**: one of the most situationally useful early-game heroes. More junior players spending a lot of time in lower leagues will get quite a bit of use out of his R4-5, although ironically later on more specialized heroes (such as Shamiko) will often - though not always - replace him in higher leagues.
	+ **Realm Siege & events**: here too his R4-5 can be effective, more so than some heroes (e.g. Fee) and less so than others (e.g. Connie)
	+ **Weekly missions**: can help sometimes - again by slowing fliers and at R5, rarely stunning them

Overall: Kind of an ideal hero with a wonderful array of abilities, though with stats attuned towards enemies in earlier worlds. Unlike Efrigid, it is likely that you will replace him in later worlds, in exchange for a hero who can deal better with ground-based enemies; yet he will come back and be even more useful than her in a larger number of tournament situations. So even if you plan from the start to replace him, he is still a good, efficient purchase - plus a very fun hero to use in the meantime!

See also: hero strategy & purchases

## Leveling

It costs 14075 Elixir to level up Smoulder from level 1 to 20, a further 92101 to reach 30, and another 963028 to the maximum of 40, or 1069204 elixir total.

Navigation

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