Lets face it: Cho-gath is fun. Otherwise you wouldn't be looking at this page. Everyone enjoys the way he can om-nom-nom his way to victory. But the problem with most Cho' players is that they tend to build him as a hp tank. Although Cho' can easily get over 5k health with a tank build and it appears very daunting, he doesn't have a taunt to make the enemy's even care that he's around. A 5k hp tank that can only do little bits of damage here and there is worthless if he can't draw in the enemy attacks.

Now the fine makers of this game decided that Cho's abilities should build on ap in high amounts. Since rupture does a full 100%, Scream 70%, and feast %50, if you can get your ap in the 300s and get some cool down reduction, you are a Cho' that's worth being afraid of. Keep in mind this build isn't sacrificing on health either, so you still have over 3.5k health to keep you alive and scary.

Now you got a Cho'gath that can kill enemy's and draw fire, allowing you squishies to slay in peace and harmony!

I do a standard mage type build type build but toss in defense on seals to maximize their potential. Remember, you are TRYING to draw fire, which means you have to be able to survive it too!

Masteries are the basic 9-21-0. If you are not level 30, i would recomend 9-x-1, where 1 is the ghost mastery. Ghost is gonna get you ganks in the early game and get you out alive of bad situations in the mid and late game. Very helpful.

Because you are trying to be the biggest baddest space bug in all the land, your early game laning is super-duper important. You can't let yourself get behind in levels, so you must stay on the lane for long durations.
This is why we start with a ((Regrowth Pendent)) and a ((health potion)). Alive and happy farming minions.
I tend to back for my first time when I have 1.35k. Not very long, I know, but the buying here is important.
We are gonna get a ((philosophers stone)) and ((boots of speed)). I separated out the items as I did just in case you backed to early; this is your priority.
Cho' needs his boots o speed because he'll finish enemy's with a feast and has no abilities that help him close the gap. Fast = happy nomming. The philosophers stone is so good on Cho' you may as well be cheating. A) you get health. B) you get mana (A and B mean you don't have to back unless to buy) and C)because you get more money. As a tanky character, you do need to let your squishies buy **** and this is an expensive build. More money makes life better. Keep in mind though, we're gonna sell this in the end to make room for something else.

After this very important buy, we go to the ((catalyst the protector)). At this point, you are probably about level 9 and have something like 600 mana and 1200 hp. Still a little squishy, and you can burn through your mana a little quickly. The catalyst will see an end to that.

((Rod of Ages)) is perfect for tank/mages so I don't think I need to say why we finish that.

((Abyssal Scepter)) is pretty great, I'm glad they added it to the recommended items. AP + magic resit is great, add some magic pen. and you're golden. Excellent item. *Note at this point we are kinda alternating between tanky stuff and magie stuff. If you are dominating the game for some reason like the other team just sucks, abort the rest of this build and buy more mage and finish off with some high hp (soul stealer, death cap, warmogs)

((Frozen heart)) balances cooldown reduction with armor, continuing our build. This is currently a recommended item. Cooldown reduction is important because it means more feasts. Realistically, your gonna die at some point in this game, loosing some stacks of feast, and you are gonna want to recover from that as soon as possible. Cool down reduction makes that happen and allows you to always have one ready when a team fight breaks down.

((Rabadons Deathcap)) for AP. This puts you over 300. That means all your ruptures are doing about 575, yours spikes are hitting for about 125, and your feast is almost doing 1000 dmg (950). That's immutable true damage. Something very very scary.

Lastly I tossed on a banshees, but that's kinda just a place keeper. The last slot you can use a banshees if they got a few stuns, a guardian angel in case you've been dieing, crystal scepter is really good on him but you may not need the slow at this point... Use some discretion here and play to the other team.

Items not recommended: Frozen mallet (go with crystal scepter), Atma's impaler (you don't use your auto enough to make it worthwhile), Sunfire cape (just doesn't do enough and you have AOE already), and typically not thornmail (You don't have a taunt so you can't make them hit you, and you want them to hit you over your squishies. However, does offer the most armor for any one item. If you're taking a LOT of dps from auto attacks, worth considering...)

Ignite and ghost. No question about it. Ghost is great for offense and defense and you'll use it the whole game.

We take ignite over other spells for a few reasons. First it's huge in the early game. When laning, you will find that you can often get your opponents down to very low health, but don't have another hit to kill them with, or they can get back to their tower. With ignite, they can be standing under their tower, you can rupture them just inside turret range and ignite them and get out with only taking 2 or less tower shots. If timed right with a creep, 0 shots. It's a great coup de grace when you don't have feast (either on cool down or just before level six) and other times you'll be in a team fight, feast someone, they have like no health left and your other skills are on cooldown, ignite will finish the job.

In my opinion, exhaust is for dps characters, ignite is for mages. Cho's a mage.

I find Cho excels at 1v2. Just sit under your tower, throw down some ruptures, to keep their health low, and you can score some kills when they get greedy.

Remember your passive, you gain health and mana from killing stuff. If you are low on either, just slide back and last hit minions.

In mid game, you should have no problem running through a jungle and using a rupture/scream combo to kill the golems/wraiths/wolves. Take that easy money!

Have fun.