For all intents and purposes, this guide is to be considered unfinished. I haven't even gotten through the item build yet, much less started typing out all the number crunching necessary to understand the build.

know as Face-Melting Kog and the far more popular AD build also known as Limb-Tearing Kog. Both of these builds allow the champion to shine as a carry. Both can dish up very large amounts of damage in very little time while still having a lot of fun-factor to them. Each skill has several different uses and is very entertaining to use, starting from Kog's Caustic Spittle all the way to his Living Artillery.

contrary, they do, and well. However, as Bio-Arcane Barrage has two distinct aspects to it, both builds can only really focus on one.

---

Autoattack Aspect Bio-Arcane Barrage is an ability that works in tandem with your autoattacks. When it is activated, it increases your attack range by a large amount and also enhances the damage you do with those autoattacks. Each attack does standard damage based off of AD, but is also granted additional Magic Damage for 8 seconds. As might seem obvious to some of us, being able to hit the enemy many times during the duration of the ability is a very, very good thing. Limb-Tearing Kog may have an Attack Speed as high as 2.00 (or even higher), meaning that it can hit an enemy as many as sixteen times before the skill expires!

Max Health Damage Aspect Bio-Arcane Barrage allows adds additional damage to your attacks in the form of magic damage based on the target's max health. It starts at %2 of the target's max health and maxes out at 6%, and that's without considering how AP stacks on the ability. For every 1 Ability Power Kog'Maw has, the Magic Damage of this skill increases by 0.01% (while being rounded up to the nearest percent for every 50 AP). This means that a good Face-Melting Kog (with a little over 900 Ability Power) can increase the per maximum health damage by 18%, totaling to 24% of a target's life per hit.

---

Bio-Arcane Barrage causing a lot of damage. The question then becomes which is better? Or rather, at this point in time the question is becoming "When will this guy get to the point?"

tract. Each ability has a very unique aspect and use. Given that not everyone has been playing nothing but Kog'Maw for the last six or seven months straight, let's go over Kog's abilities and what they can do for you.

---

Icathian Surprise is as surprising a passive as its name indicates. Upon death, Kog'Maw becomes a ticking time bomb, doing more and more damage with each level. At 18th level, Kog deals a massive 550 True Damage, meaning that the damage that champions receive from the explosion can not be mitigated; Magic Resistance and Armor have absolutely no effect on this. It is alleged that this is not the best passive in all of League of Legends, likely due to the fact that Kog'Maw must die in order for it to take effect...but when used correctly, will make all the difference in team fights or ganks. For example, when being ganked, it is often better to turn and fight the gank instead of trying to escape it. If you've planned far enough ahead in the five seconds it requires for you to die (Kog is squishy, remember), you can easily get a kill, or if you're lucky, a double or triple kill (depending on who you're being ganked by). In team fights, if you somehow find yourself smack dab in the middle of a 5v5, your explosion can easily setup the rest of your team to clean up and come out on top. Targeting the lowest health enemy that is running away is not always the best decision, although it may get you another kill. Consider, instead, hitting multiple enemies grouped together to assist your allies in winning a team fight.

---

Caustic Spittle seems like the one active ability Kog possesses that matters the least, but I assure you that this is not the case. While it doesn't do massive, game-ending damage to a single or multiple enemies, it's high AP to damage ratio of 0.7 lets Kog deal out decent enough damage to an individual champion while reducing their Armor for the duration of the debuff it causes. Early on in the match, this is also an excellent ability for last hitting on minions where your attack speed is not quite what it could be. This skill is exceptionally useful when you're ganking: hit an enemy with this, activate Bio-Arcane Barrage, and let your autoattacks just melt the enemy champion. It's also very good for focusing carries in team fights. Let us not forget, though, that the passive effect of this skill increases Kog'Maw's Attack Speed, though. At level 5, this ability increases Kog's Attack Speed by a staggering 30%!

---

Since I've already covered Bio-Arcane Barrage pretty extensively, I'm not going to regurgitate (hahah, Kog'Maw!) an explanation of how it works and why it's a great ability. Some tactics you want to consider using this ability for include the following: early game harass, pokes, last hitting minions, and tank-melting. Remember that this ability gives Kog'Maw a massive range boost, allowing you to out-range just about every champion in League. You can also utilize this skill to quickly tear down super-minions.

---

Void Ooze is an immensely useful skill, with a large number of diverse uses. This ability is a skill shot, meaning you need to anticipate the enemy in order to use it effectively. That also makes it a thousand times more useful. For example, let's say that one of your allies is being chased. You can strategically place your Void Ooze to be in the path between your ally in need and the offending enemy champion, effectively blocking off their route of pursuit. You can also use this skill to last hit many minions at once. In fact, by the time this ability is level 5 (using this build) you'll be able to one-hit an entire mass of minions, granting you great farming ability mid-game. Since Void Ooze scales at a rate of 0.7 to every 1 Ability Point that you have, it will easily do 600 damage to any enemy champions in its path. It is a bit Mana hungry, though, so use it judicially, especially early game.

---

Finally, Kog's best ability (well, it's his Ultimate, so duh), Living Artillery. At level 1, this ability does a huge amount of damage to enemy champions, effectively allowing you to gank and feed early game. At level 3, it still does good damage (not quite as effective at this point in the game, however), but where it really shines is in its range. Living Artillery, at level 3, has such range that it can target areas out of sight range. Since it grants sight twice, once at the start of use before it hits an enemy and once for a small duration upon hitting an enemy, minion, or monster, this ability can also be used very effectively for safely scouting bushes, Dragon, Baron, and dark shadowy corners of the map. It's also very, very, very good at preventing enemy champions from recalling to safety (imagine how much they're swearing at you when you interrupt their recall while taking a good quarter of their life out). Living Artillery scales both with AD and AP at a rate of 0.5 to each, it can benefit from whichever build you decide to use. Remember, though, that for each successive use of the ability within six seconds of your last using it, its Mana cost increases by 50. Since this build doesn't grant unending amounts of Mana, it's a good idea to use it only when it will truly be effective.

---

Mastery build was forever burned into your brain, allow me to remind everyone here what is called for:

not any sort of cardboard cut-out copy. The slobbering vomit monster has a whole lot of range and versatility, allowing you to effectively harass the opposition with or without Mana. A good AP Kog build will probably focus on getting very large amounts of Mana so as to spam Living Artillery, but this build doesn't require you to waste your Masteries on Utility.

of Attack Damage, and a decent amount of Ability Power. This helps Kog'Maw farm in lane, enhancing his autoattack, his Void Ooze and Caustic Spittle with the AP, Living Artillery with both AP and AD, and (most importantly) the Bio-Arcane Barrage with absolutely (almost) every Mastery chosen.

increased Mana replenishment through Clarity sort of explains itself.



even though I know both of those make so much sense for Kog (and understand how you could have made that mistake, seeing as how every Rune is of Alacrity). However, Attack Speed is the only thing we shall give to Kog through our Runes, as that is all that is necessary to make the champion ridiculously powerful.

reasonable attack speed through his per level increase and the passive effect of Caustic Spittle. With pure Attack Speed runes, Kog'Maw need only get two of Nashor's Tooth in order to reach an Attack Speed of 2.00. I can hear the burning question "But why two of that particular item? Isn't (insert cooler, more unique item here) a better choice?" I promise I will go over that when I cover item selection. Until then, let's continue.

squishy, it is also true that he allows you to easily initiate an engagement while being far away from the damage. Since Kog'Maw is a very serious damage-dealing carry, he will get focused immediately in team fights. If you're playing Kog and get focused by five champions, it doesn't matter how much Defense, Magic Resist, or Health you have supplemented through your Runes and Masteries; you will very quickly find yourself with all of 6 seconds to choose who you want to explode on. Staying out of the center of the battle will allow the slobbering vomit monster to still deal very large amounts of damage while allowing for a quick retreat and making it difficult for the enemy team to focus.

to be focused!

(Finally!)