This guide relates to specifically how I play Kogmaw. Before voting or commenting on it, I'd ask that you read the whole guide, and reccomend that you play at least one game. One of the most defining things about a carry is their attack range, besides the large damage, and this greatly includes Kogmaw. He boasts one of the highest attack ranges in the game, and his ulti can reach even farther. His damage output is amazing because he does % hp dmg which is very hard to counter. Tanks that stack only hp, such as a Garen or Volibear, can be reduced in seconds to runnning for their lives and losing the team fight, or even dying. Using this guide, you will have up to 70% lifesteal end game, and around 300 damage at practically attack speed cap, and hopefully will end up carrying ur team to victory.

I choose attack speed reds and blues because they will give you a really early lead on ur lane, while later game theyll make you only need 3 attack speed items in ur entire build, making it more flexible. Mana regen per lvl runes helps with ur increasing mana cost on your spells, and at level 6 causes you to be able to spam your living artillery every 6 seconds without losing mana. Finally, armor pen quints causes you to be able to do that extra damage early game, while being effective all the way to late game. Other replacements can be magic resist blues, because I don't include a witt's end in this guide, and magic champions can quickly kill Kogmaw. Also, although I have yet to test them, lifesteal quints would be a good investment.

I choose 21/0/9 as my masteries because as a carry, you're designed to do damage, and the execute damage really causes you to get those close kills, while the lifesteal gives you sustain early game, and attack speed makes you hit with you're Bio-Arcane Barrage even more.

Now here's the fun part. I start off with a Doran's Blade which gives you 6% lifesteal with masteries, 10 extra damage, and the extra health needed with a squishy carry with no escape spell (besides flash). As a champion that needs farm, YOU MUST LAST HIT. At least 5 of the 6 minions in each wave you should have gotten gold from to be effecient. Idealy you can harrass and last hit at the same time, but last hitting is more important than harrassing unless you have a true chance of killing the champion. You want to rush boots since you have no escape, unless you have enough gold to grab Recurve Bow and Boots of Speed. After obtaining you're Recurve Bow / Berserker Greave's you'll notice a significant increase in damage. Next Madred's Razors will cause you to be able to push a lane and kill the turret in you're lane if you haven't already. Once you get you're Madred's Bloodrazor, you can pretty much destroy anyone that comes for you. After that you're gonna need some real lifesteal for ganks and jungling / farming. Keeping you're minion kills up will cause you to be extremely effecient. Phantom Dancer's movement speed makes you hard to chase with you're Void Ooze, and you can chase for long periods. Then you're final attack speed item is Stark's Fervor, which'll give you enough lifesteal and attack speed, with added armor penetration and team aura. Then, two Bloodthirsters will give you amazing life steal and attack damage. However, this is not always the best choice, often times a Banshee's Veil, Guinsoo's Rageblade, or possibly even an Infinity Edge. If you're interested in a hybrid Kogmaw build, Hextech Gunblade with Guinsoo's can cause you to have an extra 1-2% percent damage on you're Bio-Arcane Barrage. If you stay in the back and attempt to only engage when you have Bio-Arcane Barrage off cooldown or already activated and let the tank engage always.

The first point in Bio-Arcane Barrage is for harass and you're Caustic Spittle should be tooken first if you're going for first blood. Although end game Bio-Arcane Barrage will be your biggest damage dealer out of your skills, Caustic Spittle's passive and active burst will be more beneficial early game. Void Ooze doesn't really do any damage or scale very well and should be leveled last. Rank up your ulti when possible as always.

Exhaust and Flash are my choice as Kogmaw needs an escape, and a carry with exhaust quickly turns the tide in you're favor whenever you're about to die or need that first lane kill. Other choices can be Surge, Ignite, or if you're new to Kogmaw, Heal. I do not feel that Ghost would be as useful as flash for Kogmaw.

Level 1 Kogmaw has huge harass with Bio-Arcane Barrage, just sneak in every 30 seconds or so and throw in 1 or 2 hits on the enemy champions and you'll start to take an early advantage. As I mentioned before, YOU MUST LAST HIT. A Kogmaw with no items means a Kogmaw with no damage. His based stats are not worth playing the champion if you do not have the correct items at the correct times. With this build farming and maintaining a high cs shouldn't be difficult at all with this build. If you're not at least in third overall (directly behind two junglers hopefully), something is wrong.

Kogmaw's range means if your team correctly engages, you shouldnt be within targeting range of anyone. Staying in the back, not straying off, and picking off other carries / high dps targets and supports should be the primary focus of you as the carry. Even though you can kill the tank as fast as anyone else, its more beneficial for your team to kill the killers. Also, trying to stay alive can often be more important than chasing for that kill. A carry alive means a huge push if you win the teamfight. Having a Leona and Janna being the only people alive means they're lucky to get one tower.

Kogmaw is an intricate champion to play as he is very squishy with no escape skills, yet he does very high damage, and by nature is hybrid making him extremely difficult to build against. His passive grants you those kills that you probaly shouldn't of got, and may even be the cause of a double or triple kill depending on the situation. In general, maintaining an even score on Kogmaw is easy with his passive. With this guide you should be able to exit a teamfight if you're low on hp, jungle for health, and come back full hp to help with the fight. Hopefully you will enjoy playing Kogmaw.