Cho'Gath was one of the first champions I played.
I still like playing Cho'Gath because of his amazing survivability and power.
Because all his spells scale nicely with AP, I think going AP/Tank is the best way to play Cho'Gath.

Pros:
Naturally has lot's of health
Good AP Scaling on spells
Great at harassing
Very tanky
Has high lane time due to his passive
Low cooldown on Feast (And cool sound effects)
Can easily be accidently targeted because of his size xD

Cons
Spamming spells early can lead to mana depletion
Moves somewhat slowly

I choose Clairvoyance and Teleport. Teleport is useful for getting around the map. I chose clairvoyance as the other spell because It helps your team prevent deaths and can help your team in ganks.

Other Options


Clarity is good because it lets you harass more in your lane. I don't choose this spell because I use my skills enough to scare the opponent, but not too much to lead to mana starvation. If you last hit minions and use your skills sparingly, you don't need Clarity.


Exhaust can help your team also in chasing people when you try to gank them. Also, exhaust can be used defensively if someone on the other team is trying to kill a teammate. Exhaust slows the opponent and reduces their damage output temporarily.


While I normally choose ignite on other champions, I don't find it very useful for Cho'Gath. It does a decent amount of damage and can normally get kills early, but Cho'Gath will probably never use it and still get kills if he is duo laning. If he is solo laning, then he will just be farming/harassing, and killing when the jungler comes.


This can take the place of clairvoyance. It isn't a bad spell and you can even use it when you are dead. I don't like this spell because of the very long cooldown and if you are winning, you probably won't use this spell too much.


This is a good choice on any champion. This is all preference, so if you like Ghost, feel free to take it.


Flash is the same as Ghost. It's all up to what you are comfortable with using. A good choice for Cho'Gath.

Any other spells like Revive, Rally, and Heal, I highly do not recommend.

Masteries are standard for Tank/AP Hybrid.
For Runes, I use these because they are very common for a lot of champions, so they shouldn't cost you too much.
I recommend using Greater Mark of Magic Penetrationx9 for Marks and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction for Glyphs. For Seals and Quintessences, you can use whatever you like. I use the standard armor and health.

Carnivore - Whenever Cho'Gath kills a unit, he recovers 34 - 68 health (+2.5 per level) and 8 - 16 mana (+0.5 per level).


Carnivore is a really good passive because it prolongs your laning time early game. Because of this, Cho'Gath can use his Rupture to kill 3 minions, regain some of his mana, and harass the opponent all at once. If you are low on health, all you need to do is kill some minions. This is useful mostly during your early game.





Rupture - Ruptures the ground at a target location. After a short delay (0.75 seconds), enemies are launched into the air for 1 second, dealing magic damage and slowing them by 60% for 3 seconds

Active - Deals 80/135/190/245/305 (+100% AP) Magic Damage

Cooldown - 9/9/9/9/9

Range - 950

This is a really powerful skill because of the high base damage and the AP scaling. Even better, it is an AoE knock-up + slow. This is normally used to initiate because of its good range.





Feral Scream - Cho'Gath screams in a cone in front of him, silencing enemies for a short period and dealing magic damage.

Active - Deals 75/125/175/225/275 (+70% AP) Magic Damage and silences for 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds.

Cooldown - 13/13/13/13/13

Range - 300

Feral Scream is normally used to follow up with Rupture. It has good damage, and silences all enemies in the cone for 2-3 seconds. This can be used offensively because of the high damage, or defensively to silence enemies, which can save you or your teammates. I max this out with Rupture so when combo'd together, they do massive amounts of damage.





Vorpal Spikes - Cho'gath's physical attacks launch spines which deal magic damage in a line in front of him.

Toggle - Deals 20/35/50/65/80 (+30% AP) magic damage

Cooldown - None

Range - 40

Having 1 on Vorpal Spikes is pretty good for farming and AoE slow if you have a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. At level 18, you will be auto attacking around 120 on minions and your Vorpal Spikes will do around 260 if you complete this build. That's not that bad for clearing minion waves.





Feast - Devours an enemy unit, dealing true damage (1,000 to minions) that ignores armor and magic resist. If the target is killed, Cho'Gath grows, gaining extra health (max 6 stacks). Cho'Gath loses half his stacks (rounded up) upon death.

Active - Deals 300/475/650 (+70% AP) True Damage (1000 to minions) and gain 90/120/150 health per stack.

Range - 100

Feast was nerfed down from 800 recently, but the AP ratios were increased. This encourages building Cho'Gath with AP. Feast can do around 50% of a squishies health. On tanks, it still does around 40% of their health. That's how powerful this is. Build up for stacks on minions (Aim for the tank minions) early in your lane. At max stacks, you can start to feast on champions. Feast is a great way to finish people off because they think they have enough health to stay in a fight, but you can easily prove them wrong with feast.
In a 1v1, use Rupture, Feral Scream, and then Feast. This does around 2500 damage at the end of this build.

Core Item Build



These items are essential to this build. This gives Cho'Gath his tankiness and his AP. For Abyssal Scepter and Zhonya's Hourglass, you can build either first. If the other team has heavy magic damage, build Abyssal Scepter first. If they have a lot of physical damage, build Zhonya's Hourglass first. If you are not dying, you can get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter after Rod of Ages. If you are still not dying and do not need Magic Resist and Armor (This will probably never happen), get a Rabadon's Deathcap after Rylai's Crystal Scepter. An alternative for this is a Guardian Angel. This adds to your overall tankiness and can save you a few times.

Optional Items

These items are for all tankiness, and no AP.


I don't like building all tank, because then you are not a threat to the enemy team at all. With the AP/Tank build, you are a big threat to them and even if they focus you, you will not die easily. These items can be interchangable with the other items if you really need to. For example, if the mages are killing you, you could get a Banshee's Viel instead of a Abysall Scepter. Again, I really don't recommend doing that though.

Early Game

Cho'Gath has a very strong lane presence. He can farm forever if you play conservatively while getting kills/assists. Try to last hit with your auto attacks. If the enemy is standing in all the minions, you can use Rupture to hit at least 3 minions and the enemy. Try to conserve mana, and always save at least 50% of your max mana for getting kills. If you bring Teleport, you can base, buy an item, and teleport back. I have been in solo lane with Cho'Gath against the toughest opponents, such as Mordekaiser, Singed, Vladimir, Anivia, and Malzahar. Cho'Gath can lane against anyone if you play correctly.

Mid Game
This is when you should start leaving your lane to be in team fights and team pushes.
You can tower dive at level 6 and live. If you do, use Rupture. If it hits and the turret starts to target you, follow it up with Feral Scream and Feast for the kill. To initiate fights, use Rupture from afar and run up and Feral Scream. This disables the opponents for about 5 seconds (Knock-up and silence). [[Feast any champion if you think you can get a kill or if your team can get the kill after you feast.

Late Game
This is when Cho'Gath is nearly unstoppable. You can kill anyone, and they can't kill you. You should always be in the front because you are the tank. You can probably nuke any non-tank with your Rupture, Feral Scream, and Feast. If your game gets to around 55 minutes, you can sell your Mercury's Treads and get a Phantom Dancer (ONLY IF YOU'RE DONE WITH YOUR BUILD AND ALREADY HAVE ELIXERS).

Cho'Gath is a very powerful champion if played/built correctly. He can tank and nuke enemies easily. He can clear minion waves in a few seconds. I use this build and it works for me every time, even if my team isn't doing so good. Have fun playing Cho'Gath!

Any feedback/comments would be great
If you downvote, can you please explain why with logic?
Thanks