First of all, kassadin is an assassin. He has really good gank power, good lane dominance against other AP carries but weak against other types of champions. He also has probably the best escape out of all the champions, which makes him REALLY hard to gank. However, this is an advantage for kass players since you will barely have to spend any money on wards.

Kassadin can be either really weak in lane or really strong depending on who he is put up against. On my build I suggest doran's ring as first item but that really depends on who you're facing, a mana crystal + 2 hp pots is sometimes better.

You dominate most of the AP carries in lane, but there is some exceptions :

- Orianna : Outranges you on everything and can deny you.
- Malzahar : Depends on how the enemy malzahar plays, but I highly suggest going mana crystal + 2hp pots against him.
- Sion : No explanation needed.

With the rune set I use, to win my lane I rely on Q spamming every time it's off cooldown. Try to not use your E as most people seem to not even know the existence of it so you can pull it out to kill them @ lvl 6. When you are level 6, you can grab a fairly easy kill with RQE + ignite. For example, a ~500 hp squishy dies to this 100% sure when you turn 6.

I've noticed that other guides actually suggest you to max out your E before Q. I personnally think you shouldn't since your Q is your only way to dominate lane.

Farming is also an important thing so farm as much as you can, if you are getting dominated, use your Q to help you farm and wait for a gank from your jungler. If you don't get any ganks to help you out, go gank people yourself.

I recommend the following summoners set-ups :

You really need flash since you're very vulnerably pre-level 6, make sure to have this so you don't get bad surprises such as a shaco early ganking you or any other jungler. Ignite is useful to help you kill your opponent in the lane.

Here you could go teleport instead of ignite if you already know who you're facing mid and that you are most likely going to get dominated. Use teleport so you can port back to base and get health potions/items without losing too much on XP/Gold.

I highly recommend you getting exhaust against champions such as poppy/nocturne/akali, exhaust them when they jump on you and riftwalk out. Sometimes riftwalk just isn't enough against those champions.

As soon as you hit level 6, you can gank bottom lane really easily. I suggest ganking bottom lane as they're lower hp meaning you QE combo will take around 50% of their health.

However, you must make sure you don't get spotted by the wards, so I'll show you this ganking path :

The green dots are where the enemy wards are usually placed.
The red dots is the path you should take with your ult to gank a lane.
Gank top only if it's pushed or if you're sure there's no wards.

Also, if you're a good kassadin and you know what you're doing, do not hesitate to pick up a meijai's as you rack up stacks easily and you hardly lose them (Top elo play : do not pick it up).

As stated above, your first item really depends on who you are facing.
Your core items :


Those really are your most important items which you can follow by


Maybe you haven't noticed but on my two builds there is only 5 items.
I left it that way because your 6th item really depends on what you need that game.

Here are a few suggestions :
- Gives you extra MR + reduces magic resist of opponents, if you're having trouble against the enemy ap carry.
- If the enemy team has a strong CC that they keep for you (warwick ult, malzahar ult)

His early game and mid game are amazing for the following reasons :

- Gank monster
- AMAZING burst
- Hardly ganked (so cannot be stopped during his rampage easily)

Late game, he loses a little bit of potential.

Alright, this is where most people tend to fail with kassadin from what I've seen. In team fights, if you want to go nuke their carry and drop him, you can't just go and ult through their tank right to the carry. If you do so, realize that you're going to get stunned and instantly killed. If the other team's tanks are protecting the enemy ashe really well (or whatever target is really important), do not aim her, simply QE whatever you can while being safe and wait for a good occasion to strike their carry.

However, if you see that the other team's CC is used on your team mates, you can engage on an enemy carry. The best way to do so is to come from behind when they have no CC left... You can travel through walls easily with your rift walk. Come from somewhere unexpected, QE the carry then riftwalk your way out safely.

IMPORTANT : NEVER get too close to someone with CC (especially alistar).