As you all may be familiar with Cho'Gath either playing him AP, Tank , Off tank .. or encountered this ferocious versatile beast in the deep forests I just wanted to bring some other type of build to the table. The balanced build.
See him as the perfect opportunity to build yourself a battle mage from oblivion, sturdy yet to be feared for the heavy incoming damage.

Cho Gath can be anything, and this build is an attempt to balance cho gath as a tanking mage who can both engage and lead the team as well as sneak to intercept in a gank, or be the bait for a gank. All possible... you are after all cho'gath ;-)

I will skip discussing runes as i cannot see their full power at this point. I'm lvl 15 so ... no point in discussing greater stuff i didn't test..

not going to discuss masteries but maxing usefull attributes in both offense and defense is viable it seems.

Skills are in any combo viable, however I prefer to have rapture (yes yes rupture) as my first skill to knock back large amounts of minions and to suprize / test the other hero's skill and ability (in playing expierience).
The feral scream is something I largely underestimated for a long time. It is far easier to land and the damage output is still fairly high versus the MP it consumes.
At lvl 6 ofc you want to feast, thanks to having mainly feral scream and vorpal spike you will have some MP left for feasting your N# stack. The rest of the sequence does not matter that much. With alot of mages Feral scream will benefit you more, Fighters Rupture will benefit you more. Though that is interchangeble at any point thats why it doesnt really matter that much. Just need to land it wich requires practice with rupture.

oh yes, "why Smite" ? Often one asks me. Well i have in my current mastery page 5 extra gold with smite. So spamming that since the very beginning gives you an advantage in the end + its a good tool against super minions in endgame AND you can get some quick HP from a minion if they nearly kill you and you want to get away alive denieng them a first blood if they are dominating.

Choice for items might seem unusual but we are trieng to come to a perfect balance here in terms of tankability and offense.
The mana regen item will be needed at start to keep spamming your skills more allowing you to dominate and control the lane. If you push too far alreasy play a "little" more passvivly. However still keep trieng to deny the other hero Gold, denieng XP will be alot harder due to lack of proper ranged attacks (no vorpal doesnt count ; )).
When you hit lvl 6 and have the money, buy merc's. The bonus speed and the tenacy will help you good at that point to even control the lane more (oh yes, use the health potion in time and in early stage or keep it for when someone ignites you).
FoN as next item makes sense togheter with frozen heart ONLY if the other team is balanced in terms of magic and physic attack. (e.g. 3 mages 2 fighters or other way, with 3 fighters I would go thornmail instead of frozen actually).
the fiendish codex is just a builup item towards Deathfire grasp.
Togheter with Rabandon's deathcap. You will have a 200 AP boost. granting you 7 % extra damage on it's active (dno how the 30% is calculated if calculated on total it will be even more ofc !)
Now this boost is quite epic considering your cooldowns now are down by 15 % and you can do more damage with any spell and Nom nom feasting like a real MFing cho gath is now not just A nuke but A NUKE !! on top of that ... after buying you nashor's tooth you will be able to spam your already heavy damage spells more frequent and you will hit faster allowing you to kill creeps faster without having to per se waste mana.

Remember that your team makes you strong or weak. If your with a bunch of losers who know jack. Just try to get feast 6 in the jungle a bit more and play more caustious. If you would the the MF'ing cho'gath who doesnt care that's just fine... but with 5 good players in other team and non in your you will eat your own teeth for breakfest.
If your team is good, be offensive and defensive at the same time. This build is not the kind that can just walk into enemy base and tank 5 towers so dont be too brave.
Ive had build where i can lterally tower dive 5 enemys ... but thats a totally different approach for other guides. This is to tank what's needed and still be able to kill faster.