Kassadin vs Smolder Counter Pick

A 53.7% result for Kassadin over 134 games on patch 16.13.1 is the narrowest kind of edge — close enough that patch-to-patch noise could move it, and small enough that it should be treated as provisional. The reason it is close is that both champions are scaling picks that avoid the early game rather than contest it.

Smolder stacks Dragon Practice by hitting champions with abilities and finishing enemies with Super Scorcher Breath, and every stack raises his damage permanently. Kassadin waits for level 6 and then for the items that make Riftwalk repeatable. Neither wants a fight in the first ten minutes, which suits Smolder on paper: he holds 550 attack range against 150 and farms from safety while Flap, Flap, Flap ignores terrain and bombards the lowest-health enemy.

What tips it is the state of that scaling when it matters. Smolder carries 575 base health and 2,275 at level 18 with 92 armor, a marksman frame that a blink assassin holding 2,567 health removes outright once his items exist. His damage is physical, so Void Stone does not apply, but Achooo! and MMOOOMMMM! are area effects that reward a stationary target, and Riftwalk is the opposite of stationary. A difficulty rating of 8 against 6 is the honest cost of that plan.