Should have brought your skis! Skadi S8 ADC Guide

Skadi is a hunter that has fallen off the meta shortly after her release and hasn't quite found her way back into it since. She has two glaring weaknesses that prevent her from succeeding: a lack of a dash/leap ability and a cc immunune ultimate. This paints a massive target on a Skadi player's back, as backline divers look to force both of these before going all in on a target.

Even if she is an underpowered character, Skadi is extremely fun to play. In this guide I will try to explain as best as I can how to use Skadi's crowd control stacked kit to stay alive through divers and win games.

Kaldr, the winter wolf

Skadi, much like Rama doesn't have a true passive. Instead she gets an extension of her second ability, Rune of the hunt. Kaldr works as an auto attack sponge and extra scaling for Skadi to create favorable trades.

Piercing cold

This is Skadi's hardest hitting ability and best wave clear option. This also enables Kaldr's often underwhelming damage to be more impactful. Should be noted that leveling this ability increases the strength of its slow by a good amount.

Rune of the hunt

Rune of the hunt is linked to Kaldr, the winter wolf. Kaldr's damage is very limited on it's own, but when amplified by either Piercing cold or Winter's Wrath it stacks up nicely. At max level the 10% movement speed stim provides Skadi a little more saftey and chasing potential.

Permafrost

Movement speed is the strongest stat in Smite. Permafrost is what brings Skadi much needed safety to make up for the crippling lack of escape tools. Enemy gods that slide into terrain/other gods/player-made walls bounce back in the opposite direction. This gives Permafrost a really high ceiling when it comes to crowd control duration as it is not affected by diminishing returns. Use this ability to dance around backline divers.

Winter's grasp

Winter's grasp is a ranged root that throws Kaldr at the location and applies damage over time on both Skadi's and Kaldr's location. The tick damage from both circles does stack, so this ability gets the most damage in close range. At max distance the damage does tick while Kaldr is leaping at a target, missing around 2 ticks of damage. However, in practice a ranged two second root is a very useful tool even when missing out on damage.

Leveling order

Trading patterns

Skadi does not have any "true combo" as other characters might have. Instead I'm going to show a few trading patterns she can use in lane. These are mostly meant for a 1v1 lane scenario.

-Poke

Drop Permafrost on top on the enemy and use the slow to quickly secure a Piercing Cold. Sprinkle in a few Kaldr hits for flavor. A lot of the time the crowd control from both Permafrost and Piercing Cold is enough to deter further fighting.

-All in

Drop Permafrost on top of the enemy and move forward with both Kaldr and basic attacks. This forces the enemy to either fight you in the ice ring or burn something to escape. Once their escape has been burnt, utilize Permafrost's speed stim to chase and follow up with a Winter's Grasp into Piercing Cold and sic Kaldr, The Winter Wolf on them. Piercing Cold can be held to fish for beads with Winter's Grasp's root or used earlier if the enemy decides to fight around the ice ring.

-Self peel

Now in the last two, we've been doing the running down. When being ran at, drop your Permafrost on yourself. Divers jumping on you will slide away as they land disrupting whatever they want to do afterwards. Skadi's kit is stacked with crowd control, which makes for great self peel.

Skadi has been historically built as an ability hunter, however this character archetype has never been successful outside of Ullr, who is an exception rather than the norm. Currently, it's not optimal to itemize characters this way so I will be using standard meta hunter builds.

Starts

The Cowl start is what feels best on most hunters right now. It has both health and mana sustain and gets the most raw stats out of all the starts. This start straight up out-trades every other start. Leather cowl is always upgraded into Hunter's Cowl, as the other upgrade is inconsistent.

Full Build

wind demon

A standard crit build. Ninja Tabi are the boots of choice for every hunter. This build is meant to burst squishy characters. Rage works as a single crit item when stacked and The Executioner provides the penetration required in every hunter build. Wind Demon is built on the last slot as it has every hunter's favorite stats and Skadi loves the movement speed stim. Items are bought in this order for a better 4 item power spike, which is around when the adc wants to join the dance for the fire giant.

A standard Qin's build. Ninja Tabi are the boots of choice for every hunter. This build is meant to shred bulky characters. The Executioner and Qin's Sais work very well off each other as Exe deals with protections and Qin's deals percentage health damage, making it hard to itemize against. Dominance is only a suggestion, as the last slot of the build is flexible. Some other options include Odysseus Bow, Shifter's Shield, Berserker's Shield, etc. Items are bought in this order for a better 4 item power spike, which is around when the adc wants to join the dance for the fire giant.

The Early game

Skadi starts the game like every hunter. Clear red buff with the mid laner into purple buff clear with the support into lane. If the support shares the small creeps you should hit level 2 after a few meelee minions. If he doesn't, both of you should hit level 2 after the first wave. Rush to lane after clearing purple, as you are already missing minions. Nothing wrong with you, it's just the way the start is. Now it's very important to get a feel for exp gain in the first level as whoever hits level 2 first gains a massive power spike and will try to run down the level 1 hunter.

Play the lane out, clear camps inbetween waves, ward. You should also be warding. Don't forget to ward. Skadi is a very juicy target in the early game so don't be surprised if you see the enemy jungler snooping around your lane. But that's no problem, as we can back away in time thanks to our wards. Buy boots before your power item as they provide safety with movement speed.

The Mid game

You're around two or three items into your build. Now is the time to pay attention to the gold fury, depending on the state of the game of course. You're starting to feel your damage but you're not quite there yet. You're still confined to your lane outside gold fury fights and the occasional joust in mid. When to rotate is a very complex topic that you kind of get a feel for as you play.

The Late game

It's finally here. You're around level 17-18, you've finished your fourth item and it's time to rally the troops and march towards the fire giant. Four items in is a great place to be as a hunter as you've had the meat of your build and are only waiting for the dessert. Skadi's Permafrost completely covers narrow jungle paths, making for favorable teamfights around the fire pit.

Teamfights

In a teamfight the mid laner and the support are your best friends. Usually both carries want to sit near the support so they can all peel for each other. You never want to be caught alone as you are vulnerable to getting picked. It's very important as an adc to live through teamfights, as without your objective damage the team struggles to push for sieges.

In a perfect scenario, you want to kill their carries first but a lot of the time you don't have access to the enemy backline as the adc. A lot of the time you are hitting what's in front of you. Whether you're one shotting their mid laner or shredding through their solo laner, as long as you're putting up damage you are being useful to the team.

Sieges/Defense

As the adc you are the main character in a phoenix siege. The enemy team will do anything to stop you from doing your job and your team will try it's best to protect you. What's your job? Hit the phoenix. Kaldr does damage structures so that's cool.

Phoenix defenses are a little bit different. Skadi doesn't have a particularly strong base defense kit, but Permafrost can be pretty disruptive. The main objective of the defending team is to eliminate the oppossing adc, greatly reducing the other team's sieging potential.

• Fun to play.
  
  
• Ability leveling order is 4 > 1 > 2 > 3.
  
  
• Works with meta hunter builds:
  Hunter's Cowl > Transcendence > Ninja Tabi > Rage > The Executioner > Wind Demon.
  
  
• Most of her damage comes from basic attacks.
  
  
• Crowd control makes for great self peel. Permafrost is your best source of safety.
  
  
• Stay near your allies in teamfights.
  
  
• Focus on the objectives during sieges.
  
  
• Skadi's best skin is Calavera.