Around the world top laners are beginning to adopt Smite as a second summoner spell in exchange for Flash. We’ve seen it used on a number of top laners starting with Shyvanva, and most recently seeing it on Gnar and Hecarim. It seems that this is becoming more and more popular, with little signs of slowing down or counters.

Why Does it Work?

The reason why top laners can dive as a tank and do damage.

Skirmisher’s Sabre is the reason top laners are bringing Smite. The Challenging Smite effect of Skirmisher’s Sabre virtually guarantees a kill against an enemy AD Carry or mid laner. When the top laner Smites a target, it applies a true damage burn which refreshes on hit, as well as a 20% damage reduction done by the target to the user. A top laner who has the capability of diving the back line should never lose the 1v1 to a carry. This ability kicks in when the top laner reaches roughly two items. This is because the 25% boost to bonus health only really takes effect once you have a second item with health. This second item spike can also be hit sooner than most because of the relatively low cost of Cinderhulk.

The second Smite also serves a secondary purpose. Objective control. Not only having double the Smite damage for dragons and barons but you can also push waves slightly faster than your opponent. Getting level 2 in lane before your opponent can win you the lane outright. It also allows a top laner to farm easier under turret or in the jungle during a lane swap.

How can you deal with it?

The easiest way to deal with it is have another top laner with Smite. This doesn’t actually give you team any advantages, but it evens the playing field. Although the enemy team can force you onto a champion who doesn’t take advantage of Smite well so beware of the bait if this is your strategy of choice.

The other way to deal with it is by putting pressure on the laner. This is works best in a straight up 2v2/1v1 lane set up as a Smite top laner can do decently well in a lane swap scenario while they have to sink some gold into the Smite item to actually be able to use it in a fight. The pressure has to be relatively early into the game in order to take advantage of the lack of escape summoner spell effectively.

This can still be a pain once mid and late game hit though because your opponent will have two Smites. The easiest way to deal with this is getting vision control and creating picks as a result. If you are able to pick off the top lane or jungle, not only are they missing one of their Smites, they're in a 4v5, making it rather inadvisable for them to try and fight you straight up.

How long until it’s gone?

The reason why top laners take smite.

Top lane Smite will be around until Riot changes the way Challenging Smite OR Cinderhulk works. The combination of these two things is the reason that it has become so popular. The Smite offers incredible dueling as well as the ability to quickly take jungle camps, which is especially useful in a lane swap. My guess is that they are going to make any major changes to the way Challenging Smite works because any changes to Cinderhulk would have large effects on the jungle and the meta there.

What I think Riot should do is either remove or reduce the damage reduction from Challenging Smite, most likely reduce. A reduction to 10% damage reduction on Smite would maintain the slight advantage that the Smite is designed to give without chopping an arm off the target. Even if this isn’t enough it is definitely a step in the right direction IF Riot wants to take Smite out of the top lane meta. I personally don’t mind seeing it in the top as long as there are viable options that don’t take Smite.