Cho'Gath Build Guide by Mordok Kall

Introduction

Cho'Gath is a champion with a lot of farming capabilities, base damage and base tankiness. So why not use these abilities to get a lot of money and win any lane? And thus Corporate Cho'Gath was born.

This is my first build, please let me know where I can improve.

Masteries

I would recommend taking 0/21/9 masteries focusing on armor, magic resist, health and cooldown reduction in the defence tree and movement speed and increased buff duration in the utility tree.

Another recommendation would be to take 9/21/0 masteries, taking extra AP, cooldown reduction and magic penetration in offence instead of the utility masteries.

Runes

I would recommend using the magic penetration mark, they give you a bit more damage, which is particularly good on your Vorpal Spikes. I haven't found any other good working marks for Cho'Gath yet.

Armor seals are pretty standard in top lane for tanky champions and on Cho'Gath these will let you better survive AD champions in lane. I would recommend these seals.

Magic resist per level glyphs are also standard on a tanky toplaner like Cho'Gath and they are indeed good on him. They make you just that much more tanky in top lane.

The AP per level glyphs are not standard on a Cho'Gath but they are not bad. Against champions with magic damage you will take more damage, but on the other hand, you will deal more damage yourself.

Flat health quints are always a good choice on tanky champions, Cho'Gath is no exception to that rule, these quints add a lot of early game lane survivability.

Flat AP quints can be used to get a little more damage on Cho'Gath. You will be sacrificing survivability, so think carefully before you make this choice.

Skill Sequence

At level 1 take a level in Rupture, this way you start with your crowd control, which is very useful when you commence in a level 1 fight, or when you get ganked very early by the enemy jungler.

At level 2 take a level in Feral Scream, this will become your main harass skill so we will max this as soon as possible.

At level 3 take a level in Vorpal Spikes, this will make last hitting easier and it will give you some free harass when fighting melee champions.

Next at level 4 and 5 we will further level Feral Scream.

At level 6 we will level our ultimate Feast.

After this we will keep on leveling feral scream until it is maxed at level 9. After this we will max out [[vorpal spikes, which will be maxed out at level 13. We will level Vorpal Spikes last. This skill will be maxed at level 18. Of course we will level Feast whenever possible, meaning at level 11 and level 16.

Items

Start out with Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion.
If you feel like it you could start out with Regrowth Pendant and one Health Potion, but I would recommend the boots.

First item you're going to build is Philosopher's Stone, it gives you health regen, mana regen and gold per 10.

Then build Heart of Gold, this gives you health and gold per 10.

Follow it up with Kage's Lucky Pick, which gives you AP and gold per 10.

The reason I build all these gold per 10 items is that Cho'Gath has a strong early game and farming capabilities (from about level 6) even without items. By building gold per 10 items you can rapidly grow your money pile and build all kinds of cool items later on in the game. Extra advantage is that a lot of your items will be items you build from those gold per 10 items, so you lose no money.

Next we start building our 'real' items. We start of with the Catalyst the Protector, this will give us extra health and mana. And that equals good times.

After this we complete our boots: either Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi. Around this time, you are going to need the extra movement speed. You could build them earlier, but normally you won't need to.

Then we will complete our first major item: Rod of Ages, built out of Catalyst the Protector this item gives tankiness as well as damage.

We quickly move on to Abyssal Scepter. You're going to need magic resist, and why not add some extra damage in the process. This item could be replaced by Wit's End, which gives you magic resist and attack speed. Versus melee champions, this could equal more damage.

Finally we will built the last items from our gold per 10 items: Start with Shurelya's Reverie, then Randuin's Omen and finally Morello's Evil Tome. Shurelya's Reverie will give the entire team extra movement speed with the active and is practically a must on Cho'Gath. Randuin's Omen is also a must on Cho'Gath, especially in late game versus enemy carries that depend on attack speed like Vayne and Kog'Maw. This will shut them down! Morello's Evil Tome is a little less needed, though it gives you extra damage, cooldown reduction and an active that kind of replaces ignite and is very useful versus high healing champions like Warwick, Vladimir and Dr. Mundo. However this item can be replaced by other items like Frozen Heart or Guardian Angel.

Summoner Spells

Recommended

Get a lot of kills by suddenly teleporting to another lane. Most of the time it is hard to get kills in your own lane, especially without help of your jungler. Counter ganking, or ganking in general is the way to go. And Teleport will take you there. Also very useful for split pushing.


Very standard on any character. Flash away to save your life or flash to the enemy carry to land your feast and cripple them in a teamfight. Flash is always useful.


In a lane where you think you might get kills, Ignite will give you a little extra damage. Ignite is absolutely not bad, but when you just take it for the heal reduction, consider building Morello's Evil Tome earlier and just going with Teleport.



Useful

No real synergy, but not bad to take, will let you slow down your enemy and take his damage a notch down. Take when no-one else takes it in your team, and the enemies have a champion like Tryndamere or Vayne.


Some people are very good with Ghost, most are not. To those who are good with it: go ahead, it's not bad. To those who are not good with it: don't use it on Cho'Gath, try it with another champion first.


Since you're a tank you won't use it as much late game, but early game it can be a lifesaver against hard lanes.

I can see some synergy, but most people still need to learn how to use this summoner spell.



Not Recommended


Just not worth it. People who use it, mostly use it to die again faster.


You are not a jungler, don't take this.


You are Cho'Gath, you laugh about crowd control. Never take this, take Mercury's Treads instead. If the enemy uses crowd control on you, they are not using it on your carries, so it's a good thing.


You don't need extra mana, especially not when you have build Philosopher's Stone, so this is a no-go.


No synergy whatsoever, dont take it unless you have a solid plan with it. Note: I have not yet seen anyone use it with a solid enough plan.


You are not a support and you don't need the extra vision for your skills, don't take it!

Skill Tips

When the enemy is good at dodging your Rupture you can still use them to block of exits, like: go here and you will be knocked up! Also try to use this in combination with other crowd control effects like stuns and knock ups. That way you are sure your Rupture will hit.

Use this to end channeled skills like Infinite Duress, Nether Grasp and Drain. Also very fun to disrupt enemies in lane. For instance use this when an enemy Singed is about to toggle of his Poison Trail this way he will lose a lot of mana, which is very frustrating on Singed.

Summary

I hope this guide has been useful.
I wish you all of luck on the fields of justice!
Leave comments on how to improve this or other guides below or contact me directly.

Mordok Kall - EUW