Kadita sits at S-tier with a 53.0% win rate, and she's the only mid laner at that tier right now. While players are busy picking Kagura and Pharsa, Kadita is quietly one of the best-performing mages in ranked. She hits like a burst assassin, has a passive that makes her tanky enough to survive trades, and her dive combo is one of the hardest things to peel in the game.
If you want a mid laner that punishes immobile enemies and dominates the current meta, this is your pick.
#Why Kadita Works Right Now
Most mid laners in the current patch are static. Pharsa needs to stand still to channel her ultimate. Cecilion sits back and stacks. Kagura is mobile but purely reactive.
Kadita does something none of them do: she closes distance aggressively and forces the fight on her terms. Her Skill 1 summons an ocean wave beneath her target, dealing magic damage and a brief knockup. Her Skill 2 launches her forward on a wave, dealing damage and slowing enemies in its path. Chain both skills into her ultimate, which pulls nearby enemies inward and detonates with massive AoE magic damage, and you have a combo that can delete a marksman or mage before they react.
Her passive is what makes this viable. Whenever Kadita takes damage, she regenerates HP over the next few seconds. This means she can dive into a fight, absorb some hits during her combo, and walk out with more HP than you'd expect. It's not healing that saves you from a full burst combo, but it gives you a margin for error that other mages don't have.
#Recommended Build
Use this build as your baseline in ranked:
| Slot | Item | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcane Boots | Magic pen and mobility |
| 2 | Clock of Destiny | Mana, HP, and stacking damage |
| 3 | Lightning Truncheon | Burst amplification with mana synergy |
| 4 | Holy Crystal | Raw magic power spike |
| 5 | Divine Glaive | Magic penetration for tanks |
| 6 | Blood Wings | Survivability and magic damage |
Emblem: Mage Emblem with Rupture (magic pen) and Impure Rage. Impure Rage gives you mana back on skill use, which matters because Kadita's combo is mana-hungry and you want to cycle it multiple times in mid-game teamfights.
Battle Spell: Flicker. Her combo already has a charge built in, but Flicker lets you reposition after your ultimate or escape if your dive gets peeled.
When to Swap Items
If the enemy team stacks magic defense, replace Blood Wings with Genius Wand as your fifth item and keep Divine Glaive as your sixth. Against teams with no tanks, Blood Wings stays and you can swap Divine Glaive for a second Holy Crystal if you're snowballing.
#Her Combo
Kadita's combo has one core sequence. Practice this until it's automatic:
Full Burst Combo: Skill 1 (wave under target) → Skill 2 (charge forward) → Ultimate (pull and detonate)
The timing matters. Cast Skill 1 first to apply the knockup and set up your target, then use Skill 2 to close distance and slow them. By the time you land, the ultimate radius pulls them in and they eat the full explosion. If you cast in the wrong order, enemies can walk out of the AoE range.
Fog of War Entry: Hide in a bush near the enemy mid laner, cast Skill 2 to enter, immediately Skill 1 as you land, then ultimate. This is your kill pattern at level 4 and beyond. The entry distance on Skill 2 is longer than it looks.
Poke Trade: Skill 1 alone is enough to poke in the laning phase. You get a wave, some damage, and a brief knockup. Don't use Skill 2 if you're not committing to the full combo, it's your gap closer and escape tool.
#Laning Phase
Level 1 and 2 are passive. Last-hit minions with basic attacks and save your skills. You win trades at level 4 once you have both skills and your ultimate available.
The moment you hit level 4, look at your mid lane opponent's HP and position. If they're below 70% HP or standing past the halfway point in the lane, Skill 2 into Skill 1 into ultimate is a kill.
Secure blue buff every cycle. Kadita burns through mana fast, and blue buff lets you spam skills without backing repeatedly. Missing blue means missing damage windows.
If your opponent is a Pharsa, the matchup is heavily in your favour. Wait for her to start her flight ultimate, then Skill 2 into her landing position. She can't escape your combo mid-channel. According to Kadita's matchup data on mlbbhub.com, you hold a 57.2% win rate against Pharsa specifically.
#Rotations
After you push your mid wave, look bottom first. The gold laner is almost always more vulnerable than the EXP laner, and a kill on the marksman snowballs your team harder.
Don't rotate just because the wave is pushed. Ask yourself: is there a kill available? If both side laners are safe under turret, take your jungle camps instead and return to mid.
At turtle timing, you're not the initiator. Let your tank engage, wait for the enemy tank or support to use their CC on your frontline, then dive the backline with the full combo. Kadita melts squishies but dies fast if she gets CC'd before her passive activates.
#Matchup Guide
| Enemy | Difficulty | How to Play |
|---|---|---|
| Pharsa | Easy | Dive during her flight ultimate. She can't move. |
| Cecilion | Easy | Skill 2 into him and burst before he stacks bats. |
| Kagura | Hard | She purifies your knockup and dashes out of your ultimate radius. Wait for her umbrella to be mid-flight before committing. |
| Valentina | Hard | She steals your ultimate and uses it back. Avoid trading ultimates at full health; get her low first. |
| Eudora | Even | She one-combos you if you get stunned. Stay unpredictable and don't stand still in lane. |
#Common Mistakes
Using Skill 2 to escape without Skill 1 first. Skill 2 is your only gap closer. If you burn it reactively without the full combo, you're stuck in melee range with no follow-up.
Diving at the wrong moment. Kadita's passive heals her after she takes damage, but it doesn't make her unkillable. Diving a Chou or Khufra when their CC is off cooldown ends you before the passive does anything meaningful.
Ignoring blue buff. Missing even one blue buff cycle in mid-game is a big deal. You lose a full rotation of skills in a fight that decides an objective.
Staying in mid all game. Kadita's value comes from finding isolated targets. A Pharsa stuck in mid lane is a wasted matchup advantage. Rotate, pick a kill, come back.
#Who to Draft Kadita With
She pairs best with tanky initiators who can absorb the first wave of CC before she dives in. Tigreal, Atlas, and Khufra all work well. Atlas is particularly strong because his ultimate pulls enemies together, which amplifies Kadita's own pull and detonation.
Avoid pairing her with teams that have no hard engage. If your frontline is Carmilla and a roaming Angela, there's no one soaking hits before you go in, which removes the margin for error her passive provides.
#Countering Kadita
If you're on the enemy team and facing Kadita, Kagura is your best answer. Kagura's built-in purify removes the knockup from Skill 1, and her dash can exit the ultimate radius before it detonates. Keep the purify available specifically for Kadita's Skill 1 and she loses most of her all-in potential.
High-mobility assassins like Lancelot and Hayabusa also work because their invincibility frames on skill casts let them dodge through her combo windows. The fight becomes a timing game rather than a guaranteed trade in Kadita's favour.
Kadita rewards the players who commit. Her kit is designed around making a decision and going all in. If you're the type who second-guesses dives, she'll punish your hesitation. If you can read when a target is killable and execute without overthinking, she's one of the most rewarding mid laners in the current patch.
Check the full stats on her hero page at mlbbhub.com and cross-reference your matchups before every ranked game.