Kassadin

Kassadin is an AP assassin in the mid, and on patch 16.11 they grade out as a strong pick — a 51.7% win rate, 2.9% pick rate, 34,294 ranked games sampled. On the power curve, Kassadin is a scaling champion: comparatively weak early, but one of the strongest picks on the map once core items come online — so the plan is to survive the laning phase and take the game over late.

How Kassadin wins: using Kassadin's mobility to catch isolated targets, and roaming out of lane to snowball the rest of the map. The kit grades 10/10 mobility, 7/10 roaming, 7/10 split-push. Kassadin grades low on engage and siege (2/10, 2/10), so don't take fights that turn on those dimensions.

The most-played core build is Rod of Ages, Archangel's Staff, Malignance, which holds a 50.6% win rate across 2,216 games this patch. Item order and defensive swaps update against whichever enemy comp you select.

The matchup to respect is Skarner, where Kassadin sits at just 40.8%, the lane swings the other way into Mel (59.6%), and on the team side, Kassadin gains the most from a Anivia (+9.7% pair win rate).