Just for a little background, I have been maining Cho'Gath top since season 3. I feel like I have a lot of experience with him and know how to properly utilize his kit.

A lot of people misunderstand Cho'Gath. They believe he should be either a full tank, meant to soak as much damage as possible, yet doing very little damage himself. Or they belive that he should be a glass cannon mage, instantly deleting anyone, but also vunerable to being deleted himself. I believe both are too far in each extreme. Instead, I believe that Cho'Gath is best as a bruiser/battlemage. He is naturally tanky with his ultimate and has great damage and scaling on his abilities. With this build, you'll be hard to kill and still do fantastic damage! The best of both worlds!

Offense:
Laning with Cho'Gath is straightforward. Your goal is to poke down the enemy's health until they're low enough for you to full combo and get the kill. Don't be greedy for kills pre-level 6. The enemy laner will have to stay while low for this to happen. Once you hit 6, your ult will give you crazy burst and you'll be able to execute a fleeing enemy before they know what hit them.

• Poke with Q's. These are your main damage source! Even their base damage hurts. This is what you should spend the majority of your mana on.
• Supplement with some W's and E's. Don't go out of your way to attack with E's. Either wait for them to come to you, or attack minions in a way that the spikes will travel towards the enemy champ.
• Full combo is Q -> W -> E -> R. The Q so you can run up to them, W to prevent them from turning or you or using mobility abilities, and E to slow down their escape and proc that max health damage, then R for the finisher.

Defense:
Against poke, your best defense is still a good offense. Just poke them back and punish them with Q's for attacking you. Don't push up, and be willing to sacrifice some CS until you can get a kill and make them scared. Against an all-in attack, use your defensive combo: W -> E -> Q. The silence will stop them from pulling off their combo. The E will do some damage and slow them. And then Q when you can predict what direction they are running.

Passive - Carnivore
Cho's passive gives him fantastic sustain. Just CS like normal and you'll restore health and mana. It's nothing flashy but really helps to keep you healthy and ready to fight.

Q - Rupture
This is Cho's most important ability. A skillshot with a slight delay. You have to get good at hitting this ability, playing Cho'Gath well depends on it. Do not Q directly under an enemy, otherwise they will have time to run out of it. You need to predict which way they will walk and place the Q there. A lot of times I will place a Q just behind an enemy (with a little bit of overlap) as they're finishing killing a minion. They naturally will walk backwards after killing the minion and when they see the Q, they will want to walk backwards to run away from the spell as well. Their brain works against them here and they'll run into the Q.

Your Q's are useful for getting picks, assisting with engages, and also counter-engaging. Cho'Gath lacks mobility but he can pop a Q right behind him as he's running away to stop from being chased. It's such a powerful ability and useful in so many situations.

W - Feral Scream
Having an AoE silence is very strong. It also does good damage once you start putting some more points into it and as you get AP. Use it to stop/punish all-ins. It's much easier to hit a W on someone who is charging in on you and using abilities than it is to hit a Q. In teamfights this ability can shutdown an entire team.

E - Vorpal Spikes
I feel like this spell is often overlooked and undervalued. It does percent max health damage that scales with Feast stacks as well as AP and it also slows. If someone all-ins you, it's just free damage. And if you are trying to chase an enemy, this E helps you stick to your target. It's great in ganks! The spikes also launch in an AoE behind your target as well, doing the slow and damage. So you can attack minions to hit champions behind. Cho's E is also a great minion clearing tool for pushing lanes.

R - Feast
This ultimate is just beautiful. It deals true damage that scales with AP and max health. It will seriously nuke champions and no one expects the damage that it does. Use this at the end of combos to secure the kill and get stacks. It also does even more damage against minions and monsters. Dragon being contested? Munch the dragon to help your jungler secure it. You'll get a stack for it too! What do stacks do? Why, they give you bonus health!

Make sure to get the kill with this ability or you won't get a stack. Something very imporant in lane is to know whether or not to eat a minion or save it for a kill. My rule of thumb is this: if you don't think you can get a kill in the next 30 seconds, just munch a minion to keep building stacks. Just remember, the minion stacks cap out at 6. But champion stacks are unlimited.

Cho'Gath works best as a bruiser/battlemage. His ult combined with Gargoyle Stoneplate will give you insane tankiness. No need to go a bland, 0 AP tank build. And no need to go glass cannon and get nuked yourself. Recognize Cho can do great poke and great burst damage. Embrace the damage and enjoy the side effect of not dying often! Give this build a try and I don't think you'll be dissapointed. Thanks for reading!