Veigar vs Smolder Counter Pick

Two passives that stack are competing for the same lane. Phenomenal Evil Power builds up when Veigar lands a spell on a champion or gets a kill on a unit with Baleful Strike. Dragon Practice builds up when Smolder damages champions with abilities or secures a kill with Super Scorcher Breath. The difference is that Veigar can farm his stacks off minions without risk, while Smolder’s strongest source depends on hitting a champion. On patch 16.13.1, Veigar wins 63.9% over 108 games, a healthy gap built on a small sample.

Both champions have a 550 attack range and spend Mana, and they begin with nearly identical health, 575 for one and 580 for the other. Smolder’s physical attacks run into 18 base armor, which is truly low, yet he lacks any hard crowd control to force engagements. Achooo! detonates when it touches a champion, Flap, Flap, Flap carries him across terrain toward the enemy with the least health, and MMOOOMMMM! slows instead of stopping. Event Horizon shuts down all three, while Dark Matter lands only after a short delay, which makes it the safest way to build stacks against a target moving at 330 to 340 movement speed with no dash outside his ultimate window. In the late game, Primordial Burst punishes a frame that finishes at 2,275 health and 92 armor at level 18, compared with the mage’s 2,416 health and 106.4 armor. Difficulty is rated 6 for one and 7 for the other, and early magic resistance is the adjustment players most often forget.