Cho'Gath Build Guide by Drasq

Prologue

Revamped the whole guid, changed builds to my own experience and testing. Removed AP Cho'Gath due to the fact that I never use it. Added "Bruiser" instead. Check below for upcoming chapters.

Cho'Gath, the enormous tank.
We've all seen the beastiality!

But let's first have a word about why Cho'Gath is not recognized by Riot Games as a Tank, but rather as a Mage/Fighter/Melee.
This is actually correct! The characters that are recognized as tanks are: Alistar, Amumu, Galio, Rammus, Leona, Maokai, Shen, Taric and Volibear.
The reason why these are recognized as tanks is simply because they have damage reduction spells, for example Alistar his Unbreakable Will. Or they have mass CC's such as Amumu his Curse of the Sad Mummy. Or they have taunts, such as Galio his Idol of Durand. You get the point. Cho'Gath does not has any of these kind of abilities, unless you count Rupture as one.

In this guide, I will try to explain how to use Cho'Gath to his maximum. How you carry your team to a victory. Through well placed stuns/silences and the proper burst.

I will keep this guide up to date and edit/add where I see fit. A guide is never finished, there will be subjects left out, not by choice, but simply because I forgot to mention.
If you have the feeling that there is something that really needs to be added. Please leave a comment below.

I hope you learn something from this guide, and perhaps I learn something from you.
Don't forget to leave a COMMENT below and VOTE up if you think I deserve it.

Pros / Cons

Pro's Large health pool small AoE knock-up AoE Silence Massive true damage Ulti Can use Feast as a Smite ability to steal Baron/Dragon High base Damage High base Health (He gets larger -> handy in team fights)

.....

Con's No taunt Moves rather slowly Carnivore can be denied by zoning

Summoner Spells

My preferred/most used combination is + . Since you'll barely lose experience when recalling, and mid to late game, it's a great way to save towers or help your teammates who initiated a teamfight, by teleporting at a nearby minion or ward.

Viable spells Flash is a wonderful summoner spell, which is used by almost all Champions, it helps you escape or engage. Very handy to ninja Baron as well, by Flash-ing in and then using Feast. Exhaust is amazing to cancel out their AD carry or slowing down an escaping enemy. Ghost is viable as well, depending on your team setup. Ghost is great for chasing enemy champions with Rupture. Teleport is a great way for moving around the map and anticipating enemy attacks.

SPACE

Less viable Heal is all right, best used in teamfights. It can be a life saver or a great way to prevent First Blood. Cleanse You are a tank, you are supposed to be able to take some hits! Ignite Can burn those last bits of HP, very handy early game when you're solo top

SPACE

Jungling Smite Speaks for itself

Runes

Bruiser Solo top build

Greater Mark of Attack Speed
Gives you about 17% AS from level 1, which makes farming and harassing way more effecient early game as Cho'Gath bruiser.

Greater Seal of Armor
We want to get more tanky! This is the way to go, it prevents alot of early damage early game.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Is great for having early game magic resistance. Good against an AP at top.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Is preferred vs an AD top, since you won't need the early MR. Though mid to end game, you'll have alot more than when you'd have taken Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed
The extra movement speed is a great pluss for Cho'Gath as we said in the Cons, Cho'Gath aint the fastest beast roaming the lands.


Other options:

Greater Quintessence of Health
This helps alot early game, the +78 Health at level one is amazing to say the least!

Greater Quintessence of Armor
Very handy if you are solo top vs a heavy melee champion, such as Garen or Renekton.

Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist
Very handy if you're solo top vs an AP champion, such as Kennen

Jungling Bruiser Build

Greater Mark of Attack Speed
Gives you about 17% AS from level 1, which makes farming and harassing way more effecient early game as Cho'Gath bruiser.

Greater Seal of Armor
We want to get more tanky! This is the way to go, it prevents alot of early damage early game. Since all the monsters in the jungle are AD, armor is the way to go!

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Great for jungling, prefered over Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed
The extra movement speed is a great pluss for Cho'Gath as we said in the Cons, Cho'Gath aint the fastest beast roaming the lands.

Masteries

Bruiser Solo top

The best DPS masteries for Cho'Gath (Credits to DuffTime).

Others mastery options are to go more defensive, something is the likings of this:

Jungling Bruiser Build

runix affinity is great for jungling, speeds up your jungling with the red buff and you can be more careless spamming your spells when you have the blue buff.
The defensive masteries give you an easier time in the jungling and make you a more sustained ganker if things go wrong. Since we're building a tanky Cho'Gath you can't miss out on the defensive tree

Skill Sequence

Cho'Gath Bruiser

I mostly start with 1 point in Rupture.
Why:

• Great way to harass from a long range
• Creates a gap between you and the enemy when chased
• Deals the most damage compared to Feral Scream or Vorpal Spikes

At level 2, I mostly chose Vorpal Spikes
Why:

• Allows you to be more agressive in lane
• Great damage, able to win damage trade-off’s
• Has the potential to keep your opponent zoned
• Able to push harder
• AoE damage when positioned properly
• More single target damage/hit

At lever 3, I specifically take Feral Scream instead of another point in Rupture
Why:

• A much larger burst ( Rupture level 1 + Feral Scream level 1 > Rupture level 2 in damage)
• Consumes less mana, so viable to last hit a wave of minions
• Good way to harass and kill enemy champions when used properly to avoid your target from being healed by their support or being able to stun/slow you.

This Skill Sequence is known as "The Bruiser" Build. This is also the new way of playing Cho'Gath. It has great survivability, pushing and damage capabilities.

Here we level Vorpal Spikes first. For the reasons listed above under "level 2"
After that we level Feral Scream for extra harrassment.

Cho'Gath Jungler

At level one, we take Vorpal Spikes first. This will give you an easier time in the jungle since you'll be 'AoE-ing' all the minions = faster killing = more gold = faster ganks = more money = continious circle.

At level two we take Rupture. Because of this, we can now actually start ganking if necesarry and possible. (see " Rupture tips and tricks" for more info)

At level three we take Feral Scream so we can use our combo when ganking, preventing the enemy from flashing or using spells (check " Feral Scream tips and tricks" for more info).

After level three we max Vorpal Spikes for even faster jungling and better ganking.

Items - Preferred

Starting with either Cloth Armor with 5x Health Potion at top vs AD champions, Null-Magic Mantle with 5x Health Potion at top vs AP champions and Regrowth Pendant with 1x Health Potion at top for 1v2 or for jungling.

There also is another option, by starting with either Cloth Armor or Null-Magic Mantle 2x Health Potion and 1x Sight Ward. I mostly prefer this choice, which allows me to stay in lane a lot longer for the fact that I dont have to go back to buy wards. Because of this, I can overextend and don't worry too much about getting ganked. Which allows me to be even more agressive and to push the other champion out my lane. Giving me maximum farm.


+99 Armor, 500 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 20% and reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 20%. (1000 range)
This must be my FAVORITE item! Basicly says that AD carries damage is reduced by -20% (theorethically) since most of their damage comes from auto attacks. It provides a massive amount of armor, adds a large amount of mana to your mana pool and a very well needed -20% cooldowns! A must have!


+25 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2, Tenacity +35
These are THE main tanking boots, tenacity reduces silences, stun duration, taunt duration,... by % of the Tenacity, in this case -> 35%

and/or
I mostly go for Cata's first, depending if the team/my laning opponent is AP or AD, I either build Cata's into Banshee's Veil or go for Frozen Heart after I get boots unless if I don't need the armor or Magic Resistance, then I go for Wit's End, I generally build them both, just depends on what you need most at that moment in game, to see what you'll be building first. MR, Armor or extra damage (AS). If the enemy team is AP heavy, this won't be sufficient, so you can add Banshee's Veil depending on your preferrence/what's needed.



+40 Attack speed, 30 Magic Reistance. UNIQUE Passive: your attacks deal 42 bonus damage and increase your magic resistance by 5 during 5 seconds, stacks up to 4 times.
A must have for Bruiser Cho'Gath. It increases your attack speed, thus your general damage. It also provides more magic resistance, which is always a plus, since you're playing the tank. The more attack speed, the more damage with Vorpal Spikes.


+45 Armor, +18 Critical strike chance. UNIQUE passive: Physical attacks deal an additional 2% of your maximum health in damage.
A must have item as "Bruiser Cho'Gath", due to the fact that it increases your overal damage to around 240 AD, which means it pratically doubles.


+30 Ability Power, +30 Attack Damage, +30 Attack speed, +15 Critical Strike, +250 Health, +250 Mana, +12 Movement speed Multiplier. UNIQUE Passive: 25% chance on hit to slow the target by 35% for 2.5 seconds; on cast, increases your base attack damage by 150% for one attack. 2 seconds cooldown. Does not stack with Sheen or Lichbane
This is a brilliant item, since Cho'Gath benefits from every stat.

Items - Optional

+100 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On being hit, returns 30% of damage taken as magic damage.
Honestly, I am not a big Thornmail fan. I only take it when I see no other choice, for example against a Sion who's fed and steals more life then damage you can do.


+68 Armor, +38 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Passive: Revives your champion upon death, restoring 750 health and 375 mana. This effect can only occur once every 5 minutes.
This item provides both Armor and Magic Resistance, which are useful. I must say, the reviving is mostly a fail, since they'll be drinking tea at your corpse until you pop up again, with some luck you can do a rupture on your body, but they'll kill you 85% of the time. This item can be great situational, but I wouldn't implement it in any Cho'gath build as a core item.


+75 Armor, +350 Health, +25 Health Regeneration. UNIQUE Passive: 5% Cooldown Reduction and 20% chance on being hit to slow the attacker's movement and attack speed by 35% for 3 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Slows movement speeds and attack speeds of surrounding units by 35% for 2 seconds + 0.5 seconds for every 100 armor and 100 magic resistance. 60 seconds cooldown.
A great item choice for Cho'Gath, he benefits from every stat. The item is pretty expensive, but I would take this item after frozen heart, as in late game. As when you go for Randuin's Omen You will need a Cooldown Reduction item for sure, probably with AP on it, and also some Magic Resistance, only IF you are leaving Frozen Heart out. I have my doubts about how viable it is in any of these builds. Not the usage, but the implementation of the item.


+56 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Active: Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 seconds cooldown.
This is a magnificant situational item. Put to it's best use when the enemy team has gamebreaking CC, against Warwick, Malzahar, etc.


+330 Health, +30 Health regen, +15 mana regen. UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 15%. UNIQUE Active: Nearby Champions gain 40% movement speed for 3 seconds (60 seconds cooldown)
A great situational item, especially if you found yourself building Philosopher's Stone along the way if you have been zoned at laning and had a reduced income.


+20 Attack Damage, +700 Health. UNIQUE: Physical attacks reduce your target's Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds
Great situational item, can be a great asset to your team if you're against Teemo or any fast moving character. (and in the end, you will also benefit more from the HP you get due to Atma's Impaler).


+20 Attack speed. UNIQUE Aura: Gives nearvy allies 20% lifesteal, 20% attack speed and 30 health regen per 5 seconds. Reduces enemy armor by 20.
Another great situational item, if your team's AD carry can't afford it or when it doesn't fit in his build and it's really needed. This can be a game changing item.


Jungling


+30 Armor, +23 Attack Damage, +15 Life Steal. UNIQUE Passive: 20% chance on attack to deal 500 magic damage to a minion/monster. UNIQUE Active: Places a sight ward with 600 cast range. 3 minute cooldown.
This can be an optional jungling item. Makes it easy to ward enemy buffs or your own. I would suggest this for inexperianced junglers.

Farming

Cho'Gath is a wonderful farmer!

Early game

You will just be last hitting minions. As I covered at the "Skill sequence 1" part, we will have Vorpal Spikes at level 2, which will increase your farming and pushing capabilities. In the section " Vorpal Spikes - Tips and tricks", I will cover how to position yourself to have maximum pushing and farming capabilities.

TIP: When I am dominating Solo Top, I tend to stand before my minions, so the new enemy minion wave starts attacking me, because you'll heal off most or all of the damage with Carnivore. Because of this, my minion waves will always be full HP when they reach the enemy tower and while we're bringing down the tower, my minions will sustain longer because they don't join the fight with half HP.
Of course, this is not done very early in game. First you need to focus on farming, not on pushing towers. This allows you maximum farm.

In a normal lasting 40-50 minute game, it's not rare for Cho'Gath to have around 200-300 Minion kills.

Mid/Late game

Whenever you'll be passing through the jungle, you can Rupture from behind the bushes, while running towards the minions, then using Feral Scream. Most of the minions are dead because of this, some just needs a hit or 2. It's a fair 60 to 80 gold, while passing through and you lose about 3 seconds time. A great way to increase your gold.

Jungling

Step 1
Starting at Blue buff. Have someone pull it for you. If this is not an option, start at wolves.
You should easily be able to kill either of these. If you are fast enough, you can always start at wolves, by the time you killed those, blue should just have spawned.

Step 2
Go for Blue buff or Wolves, depending what you did in step 1. It's possible to initiate in a lane for a gank, depending on how much %HP you have left. In doubt, keep jungling.

Step 3
Go kill Wraiths, swap targets for maximum damage, as your Vorpal Spikes finish them off. Make sure to position yourself appropriatly for maximum damage.

Step 4
Get the red buff, by this time your Smite will be at 1 to 5 seconds cooldown left. Which is no problem, in doubt, get the double golems first.

Step 5
Kill the red lizard or golems, depending on what you did in step 4. You can keep on jungling from here on, since you simply won't die die to Carnivore and Regrowth Pendant.
You should be ganking lanes now, if there is no option, get Boots of Speed and keep jungling/ganking until you have enough money for Recurve Bow or straight to Wit's End

Cooldown timer

KevAlmighty has written a jungle timer. Where you can see the remaining cooldown of yours or the enemies buff duration, including Dragon and Baron.
Jungle Timer

Warding

Warding is necesarry to not have your buffs stolen. That is why we place a ward at our own buff and even at the enemy his buff, so we can steal it or gank the enemy jungler while he is taking it, and stealing blue buff in the process.

We can also ward our lanes in the river, to prevent our allies from getting ganked. If they don't do it themselves, you should do it.

From the moment you think the enemy jungler is capable of taking Dragon on his own, you should really be warding it and ganking the enemy jungler when he does so, and stealing Dragon in the process.

Rupture - Tips and Tricks

Step 1

Keep your eyes on the enemy! Being a 'Rupture God', you need to use some psychology. See how the enemy reacts when you move a little closer (in range to use Rupture). Keep doing it with some pauses, and see what he does.

Options:

• Enemy runs back
• Enemy stays at position
• Enemy strays to the sides
• Enemy will engage

Step 2

Depending on the action your enemy takes, you will have a better idea where you'd have to place your Rupture.
Now that you tried to harass a bit with Rupture you can try the same thing, see what your enemy does when you come closer.

For example. Let's say "When you come closer, your enemy moves back a little (no Rupture placement)"
Place a Rupture behind the enemy, since he automatically runs back he will be caught in the knock-up.

Step 3

You can't of course keep doing this and hope to remain succesful. You have to anticipate. Know your opponent, gamble his skill and know where to place Rupture.

Facts:

• Rupture is a great way to keep teammates out of trouble, by placing Rupture in front of the enemy who's chasing your teammate.
• When there are some of your teammates stacked together with low HP who will get ganked. Try running in the enemy team and Rupture, Feral Scream and Feast away! Take one for the team. Best to have you killed then giving away an Ace!
• Rupture can seperate an enemy champion from their team when they're running away, giving your team a free kill.
• In a 1v1 with an enemy melee champion, you can place Rupture in front of the enemy melee champion to interrupt their DPS. If they flee, they'll be slowed for a few seconds, allowing you to lay on further damage before they can escape.

Example: how saving your teammates

BEFORE



AFTER

Feral Scream - Tips and Tricks

This is a great spell, silences enemies in a cone in front of you for a full 3 seconds (1.95 seconds on people with 35 tenacity).

We can use this in quite a number of situations, we have to make sure to make use of the silence whenever we can.

Situational options:

• When someone tower dives you, you can use a Feral Scream + Rupture combo. This will make sure he can not flash or use any kind of "teleport" ability such as Tumble or Rocket Jump, placing a well positioned Rupture will knock the enemy in the air, keep in mind. If people have Tenacity items, the silence duration is lowered by 1/3 as noted above, so you have to be quick to place the Rupture due to the 0.75 sec delay on Rupture
• When you are fighting an enemy champion and he's low on health and you see his support coming to help, Feral Scream the support and bring down the enemy champion. This way the support can not heal or shield the enemy you're fighting, giving you a great advantage. When you've killed the enemy champion while the support is silenced, you should easily be able to finish the support as well.
• In teamfights, make sure to feral scream the AP champions and/or their support, leaving them worthless for a full 3 seconds. Silence has a bigger effect on AP champions, due to the fact that they fully rely on their spells to do damage.

Example: Silencing to disallow them to Flash away

Vorpal Spikes - Tips and Tricks

Vorpal Spikes are great for pushing and last hitting. You can hit the minion sooner, since the is a small delay on the damage of Vorpal Spikes, barely noticable though, but this allows you to last hit faster and push harder.

Positioning

If you want the maximum damage out of your Vorpal Spikes you will have to be positioned accordingly. Try to hit all the minions with your Vorpal Spikes, but making sure not to lose some last hits.

Off or on?

It can sometimes be adviced to turn it off, for the reason above; you might do damage to a minion which could result in you not being able to last hit the minion.
In other cases, when damaging a turret, it's adviced to turn it off. Since when you are attacking a turret and your Vorpal Spikes hit an enemy Champion. The turret will attack you as if you'd have attacked the enemy Champion with any other spell.

Example: how to position

Feast - Tips and Tricks

Feast, the most loved spell of Cho'Gath, his ultimate, with a 60 second cooldown. The amazing thing about it, is that it does True damage!

Where and when to use it?

• Use it together with Flash to steal Baron while they're doing it. You'll most likely die in the process, but regardless, a great move.
• To devour an enemy and getting the kill + stack (if not already stacked at 6).
• Use it to scare the living **** out of someone, if someone plays aggressive and will most likely kill some of your teammates (mostly a carry). Feast on them, so they HAVE to back off
• Use Feast to make it easier for your teammates to kill the one you are focussing.

Example: Ending Lux her Ultimate before it lands, by Feast-ing on her precious bones

BEFORE



AFTER

Team Work

You role as Cho'Gath in team has a wide variety.
Why would you choose Cho'Gath and why would your other team mates want you to.

What can he do:

• Big burst damage
• Disruptant (knock-up and silence)
• Can take some damage -> Tanky of his own nature

This gives us a better idea of how we are going to use Cho'Gath as a right hand of the team!
Try being as disruptive as you can, ripping the team open with Rupture, leaving them scattered around the place, where you can easily pick one to kill, the rest will flee, only, and ONLY than can you yell "Release the hounds!" (sorry I really wanted to implement this).
Try saving people with Rupture, use Feral Scream properly and at the right time.
Rupture people who're doing scary things! For example Karthus his Requiem. A few matches ago I did it on lux and she casted her ulti in the air, she was still loading it while being in the air, and when she almost landed, she threw her ulti. Anyone else noticed this bug?
Don't forget that you're the team's tank! So do your part! Engage, don't hang back, take some damage,...

Hall of Fame

Random matches -=DRASQ=-

Change log

4th of January 2012 // Published the build + minor changes (Typo's and forgot Wit's End).
5th of January 2012 // Added "Team work" .
6th of January 2012 // Revamped the whole guide, seeing as I never use the AP Cho'gath build, added a Bruiser build instead and revamped both builds.
12th of January 2012 // Added HQ pictures for the "Tips and Tricks" section.
13th of January 2012 // Wrote the " Feral Scream Tips and tricks" section and added an HQ picture to show an example of how to use Feral Scream.

Upcoming Plans

• Adding a "how to" against enemy champions at Top
• Inserting pictures of how to use skills.
• Inserting pictures in "The hall of Fame"
• Adding a jungle section
• Adding a Warding section

Thank you note

I hope you learned something from this guide.

With my special thanks to:

• Jhoijhoi for answering some questions of mine and her wonderful "How to make a guide" guide.
• PsiGuard for reviewing my guide.
• KevAlmighty for writing a jungletimer.

Please leave a comment below, and don't forget to vote and +rep me, if you feel I deserve it.

Thank you,

Sincerely
DrasQ