SKADI - JUNGLE, MID, CARRY

If you are playing Jungle, build Assassin's Blessing. If you are going Mid or Carry build Hunter's Blessing. If by some chance you find yourself trying this in Solo, go Hunters Blessing or Warriors Blessing (it wasn't terrible but definitely harder than the other roles). The most important must have part of this build is going to be your Blink Rune. Blink/Ult is your initiation so make sure to pick this up at level 1. I start building right into Runeforged Hammer ever since it was buffed. Skadi especially is able to take advantage of this with 3 of her abilities having CC. Other options include building right into Ichaival or ASI. Executioner is pretty standard in the hunter meta so we will follow up with that and finish off with Qin's Sais. Qin's may seem situational but of all of the items listed under situational/alternative items, this one has consistently felt the best with this build. Finally, once you are able to afford the speed pot and replacing your boots, you should go into Magi's Cloak in most situations. That being said, any of the items listed under situational/alternative items should be viable depending on the situation.

For the first five levels your skill order should be 1,3,1,2,4 putting 2 points into the 1 before placing any points into the 2. For the first few levels you will just be using Kaldr for some extra damage and since you get him automatically you'll want to focus on leveling your 1. After level 5 you should prioritize leveling your Ult (4), your 1, your 3, and lastly your 2.

Skadi in the Jungle may seem out of place, however she is currently my favorite god to play in the jungle and jungle is my favorite role to play her in. Blink on Skadi is unbelievably powerful in all roles but most so in the jungle. This sets her up to provide superior ganks even from that very first visit to duo lane. You may not have your ult at this point but blinking in so that you are directly on top of your enemies and dropping a Permafrost at your feet can also set up your team with a good opportunity. Immediately after this set Kaldr on your target with Rune of the Hunt. Hold Piercing Cold until your target uses their escape if they have one. With the speed boost from Permafrost you should easily be able to land this after they attempt to escape.

Once you get your ultimate you can initiate with that after your blink and then proceed with the same process. If they are consistently getting their escape off before you can hit Permafrost, instead try to hit them with it where they land, run over it to get the additional speed, and continue the hunt.

This will be your bread and butter for all of your ganks. Blink only has a 30 second longer cooldown than Winter's Grasp so you should have this combo for most ganks and fights. It is especially effective for ganking when you show up late to a fight and the enemy abilities are on cooldown or for clean up if low enemies are grouped after a fight.

Try to use Permafrost to finish all of the major jungle camps so that you can have the extra speed when moving from one camp to another. This will greatly increase the rate of your farm and should put you ahead of most other junglers.

You should be able to solo Gold Fury or Pyromancer around level 14 or so if you are given the opportunity to do so but make sure to place wards if you are going to try this.

Everything from Skadi in the jungle should translate similarly to Mid. The difference here obviously being that you have your own lane to take care of and will have to watch out for ganks from the enemy jungler. Play relatively safe for the first few levels and you should be fine.

Once you get your ultimate you can start using your blink/ult combo to catch the enemy off guard or while they are low. Always make sure that you have wards placed because while you should be able to get the kill easily, you will never know if the enemy jungle is going to come and clean up while you are on cooldown. The amount of times you get ganked here is really going to determine whether you are going to have a good time or not so play accoirdingly.

From mid-game on you should be able to establish a lead and get some freedom to move between lanes and use your blink/ult combo to gank. At this point you will start playing similarly to how you would if you were jungle while making sure that nothing too bad happens to your lane.

Carry will be very similar to mid except even more boring. It may be harder to break out and get a lead, ganks will be harder to avoid in the longer lane, and the enemy ADC will probably put up more of a fight than in mid. On top of all of that you won't be getting much freedom to roam except occasionally to mid lane if the opportunity presents itself.

It will not be until late-game that your play style will start to align with that of the other two roles in this guide as you will spend most of your time farming and trying to get ahead. Keep in mind that you should still participate in team-fights where your presence is needed. The blink/ult combo will do well for this.

There are very few hard counters to Skadi, especially with this build. A few that I have noticed in my experience are listed above.