Skadi Mid S3 - If Young Kaldr Don't Trust You I'm Gon Shoot You

Skadi mid is a very fun and highly viable role for her, as her clear and burst damage make her a relatively easy match-up against most mid-laners. This build is designed to take advantage of the high amounts of XP and farm that mid-lane allows. High physical power, penetration, and cooldown reduction work wonders on Skadi, as all of her abilities scale well off of it. This build differs from how you would build her in the duo lane, as it is more focused on getting lots of physical power and penetration early to get extra tower damage and work towards building a huge advantage.

Skadi's biggest downfall is her lack of a reliable escape ability. This is amplified in the mid-lane, as it is much easier to get ganked from either side. However, Piercing Cold is one of the best clearing abilities on any hunter and Winter's Grasp is one of the best ultimates in the game for getting early kills.

Pick Skadi mid if you want to push a hard advantage in mid-lane and be highly aggressive. She doesn't work super well with a passive playstyle. Also recognize that in the later game reliably hitting basic attacks will help you immensely, so don't play her if you aim is bad. Also, because you are physical, it is nice to have more magic damage somewhere on your team. Sol and Chronos are both great magical ADCs, Ao Kuang is a great magical jungler, and Hades solo is a good magical solo laner to round out a team with a physical mid.

Because Kaldr, The Winter Wolf's health is based on basic attack hits, playing Skadi mid into Chronos mid is usually not the best idea, as a smart Chronos can use his Accelerate to quickly deal with Kaldr if your ult is down. However, Skadi does very well in most match-ups so you don't really need to be wary in picking her.

START & EARLY GAME

Playing Skadi successfully in the mid-lane requires good mana regen to match that of other mages, as well as a lot of physical power early to counter items commonly seen on mages such as Doom Orb. Transcendence accomplishes both of these things, and is easy to stack in mid. Get it's tier 2 item Charged Morningstar first along with some potions, and then back ASAP to finish it off. If you are getting camped or feeling unsafe you can buy Warrior Tabi before finishing Transcendence.


MID GAME

Once you start getting your stacks rolling, you can go one of two items to follow it up. If you are ahead or looking to push a lead but give up sustain get Jotunn's Wrath. The physical power, penetration, and cooldown reduction help you use Winter's Grasp much more frequently and allows you to push towers harder and do better in burst fights. If you need more sustain or are getting camped/feeling kind of unsafe, or looking to push early gold furies get Asi first. This is simply the best lifesteal item for hunters, but also has some attack speed and penetration that help with her basic attacks and tower damage. Eventually you want both of these items.



LATE GAME

Following some CDR and lifesteal, you can look to get more penetration and physical power to shred tanks and towers. Titan's Bane is by far the most cost-effective and lets Kaldr and you deal massive damage to tanks and objectives.

For your final item there are a few things to consider:

If you are face-rolling your enemy in large team fights and looking for more attack speed and damage to just deal with them quicker, get Odysseus' Bow. It's passive and 40% attack speed can easily seal out a game for you, although it gives up a bit of burst damage.

If you are looking for more sustained tank shred and physical power Qin's Sais is a good choice. It's passive work surprisingly well with your kit and lets you deal with tanky targets even more. Build this if there at least three highly tanky targets on the enemy team.

If the enemy team has a lot of healing such as Guan Yu or if up against a fed Vamana get Brawler's Beat Stick. This item gives you very reliable anti-healing as well as some good physical power and penetration, which Skadi loves.

Passive : Kaldr, The Winter Wolf Your best buddy in the game, Kaldr is definitely a unique passive in Smite that allows you to do a lot of ridiculous stuff, but does require some management.

1. Piercing Cold : This ability is your main wave clear and burst damage. It can easily full clear the wave at level 6 or 7 with Transcendence but is on a decent cooldown. The slow is great for sticking to enemies, and this should be comboed with Kaldr to make use of the extra damage he gains from the slow debuff. Look to level this first and use it whenever possible on enemies in teamfights.

2. Rune Of The Hunt: This is the main tool used to control Kaldr, and leveling it up gives Kaldr different abilities. I usually level this up at either level 2 or 4, depending on how aggressive I want to be. The leap he gains at level 1 of this ability really helps him stick to targets. Kaldr can be kind of tricky at first, but with proper management is a lot better. Don't use him to wave clear or make him tank any unnecessary damage, as your 1 should be just fine for clear. Use the 3 > 2 >1 combo as someone is walking towards you to get the most damage out of Kaldr. Also make sure to put him on towers as he does tons of structure damage. I like maxing this before the 3 because of the extra abilities and attack damage he gets.

3. Permafrost : This is your main CC ability and works much differently than many other kinds of CC in Smite as it is a "slide". Basically you want to use this as a zoning tool if you need to get away or as some good engage to separate or get enemies out of position. It is also the closest thing Skadi has to a defensive ability, so use it wisely. Sometimes people will try to focus you if they see that it is down.

4. Winter's Grasp : Your ultimate is a disgusting ability that basically lets Kaldr just get kills for you. The best way to use this is to let Kaldr go in, use your 3>2>1 combo, then wait for Kaldr to get to low health and then pop it to root a target securing kills. You can also use this on Kaldr to let Kaldr tank towers and split-push, but usually I find it better to save this for caught out enemies or for big teamfight plays.

Skadi mid is a great choice for a mid-lane hunter and can work in almost any situation. Although she suffers from low mobility and not having an escape, she can still easily be played by most people comfortable with hunters in the mid-lane. She requires a good team comp, preferably with lots of CC and a few tanks, but generally does well whenever played due to her pure power.