Kog'Maw Build Guide by SWAGRID

Hey man, how was the test?
I considered the soul stealer, but cannot reccomend it. Getting 20 stacks is always very difficult and you die from tiem to time. So no CD here. Only high AP but even this is not guaranteed.
A third Archangel's Staff provides at least around the same anmount of ap! Maybe/probably more. We have now 9% mana to ap conversion + 45 base AP! This is TONS of AP. + you get more mana and mana reg. Thats acutally all you need and want. SO I would always go for the staff over the soulstealer.

But thank you for asking. Seems you are having fun while riding the swag wave to success!

Hey man! Thanks for tuning in. I am using smart cast on all characters all the time. You can even see in the video. I just use the option to show the range (by holding down the button).
So all I can do here is hand out this tip to all other users who havnt tried it out yet. Because you are right, smart casting improves your game alot!

Hiho!

Lich Bane is not as good here. But only because you do not really want to auto attack a lot/ being too near.
If the bane proccs, you will have to be as close as your range attack. And since you can proc it so easily and often you would rather want to be near the enemy the whole time. This is not recommended. Not because it is bad, it just does not fit into this playing style / build.
You want to operate from max distance and only sometimes throw in an ooze or bio arcane barrage.
If I wanted to plain attack with kog'maw I would probably go to AD instead because the life leech helps me to stay in fight.
In short: In general its a power item, but here you do not really want it. And trust me you are doing more than enough damage ;)

Hey Toast! Thanks for your time and effort you put in here.
I cannot disagree on Lich Bane's raw power. But I am usually not this kinda guy to jump in and fireing everything out. This would be better on brand or veigar I guess^^
I fyou are having a full build with 3x archangel, your ulti and voide ooze is doing really enough damage, considering you can shoot 3 x living artillery within one proc of lich bane.
Like I said in generaly ou are right, so I dont want to say lich bane is a bad item or it does not enough damage. But I find myself rarely in the situation to abuse it.

I did use the bane several times already and found it most often that I am too close. And just using it with the range of an activated bio arcane barrage, I think every 8 seconds this procc is not enough.

Unfortunately I cannot record a whole game. It seems to me sometimes it is very dificult to explain people how to play this type of kog'maw. It is not only about the build. along with the build comes an entirely different playing style. This it what it makes so unique.
There are already plenty of lich bane works on moba fire for kog maw. But there you are charging into the enemy, which I usually do not recommend here.
I think it is important to understand the different playing approaches here and then being able to understand why such a powerful item as Lich Bane which relies on auto-attacking, is not as good here. it is something you cannot prove with math, as you just have to play differently.
However because so many people asked about it and I always appricate it, I will try it out again later and play a bit with 2 archangels and 1 bane. But I am sure I am rather sniper killing from far away.

sorry for the late answer!
keep on surfin

Hi!
first off: wow loads of calcualtions.
second: i have to apologize because I probably made the mistaker to not explain myself properly in this guide. I just quickly said Manamune could be a choice, because the ulti uses more ad, and it has alot of mana too. But I knew already all those details. I just wanted to mention the item and not saying "if i could i would use it over Archangel's Staff. Because Archangel obviously has a higher mana to AP conversion , etc.
I though it was clear right fromt he beginning. Thats why I did not even include the manamune in the item description and said from the very beginning that the archangel has EVERYTHING you want and is the real deal"
I will update my sentences about manamune so it does not confuse more people. However your calculations are helpful for other members who ask themselves why no manamune. For me it was always clear that the AA is the best choice here. But thank you very much still!

First off: thanks for the compliments and the upvote!
I noticed you are putting alot thinking in here and I appricate this as I also did so and it kinda tells me people like this build alot.
As for the Void Staff problem:
I think here we have just a little misunderstanding. The void staff calculation is meant to be for the NATURAL MR. Obviously the more the enemy stacks MR the better the Void Staff becomes.
You said already this is situational, and therfore you cannot and should not put the staff into a core build. It is a situational item. You are always playing or should building towards the general playing population tendencies (if this makes kinda of a sense).
Only when you see then the item builds of your opponents differ from the general tendencies, you will have to adapt to it (e.g. buying the Void Staff).
In other words, you always have to start calculations with their base mr. This is what I did here. The original problem was how to treat champions with a higher base MR. And after the calculations we saw that using MR pen-runes over a core Void Staff is so much better! And those runes even got better in the Hecarim- patch!
Not only are we doing the right thing here with the runes, which is mathematically more optimal, BUT as said in the guide: it ALSO leaves us open to still buy the Void Staff if we need to adapt!
The previous calculations just helped us to notice runes are kick *** here and we do NOT need the Void Staff in a core build against the aggregated/general population tendencies (builds).

One last little thing for you and other who are interested:

If the opponent has 50 or less MR AFTER flat magic pen, you need the Abyssal Scepter.
If the opponent has 5o or more MR AFTER flat magic pen, you need the Void Staff.

This is the general rule of thumb based on math. It is a really helpful rule. Just keep in mind the Abyssal Scepter is not good in this particular kog'maw build because of the short radius (500 around us). So the only option is Void Staff and only when the opponents has 50 or less MR AFTER flat magic pen. Very important!
But as long as noone stacks mr except their tank, we are perfect to go with our runes, against every champ. Even vs those with a high base mr! Only when they start stacking you need to evaluate the situation and base on the result, buying a Void Staff.

I hope this helped you and got rid of the little misunderstanding.

Swagrid

Wow! Great build! Alot of detail too. Check my out my Teemo GUIDE on my profile too!

This is a fun build to play, but I can never seem to do much with it in the early game, it in the mid-late game that I shine with the freakish range of his ult. Good build and keep 'em coming!

Yeah, I realized that Abyssal Scepter wasn't that great on Kog'Maw because of Living Artillery, but the actual range on the Abyssal's passive is 1000 (Abyssal entry in LoL Wiki), so it would benefit everything but his ultimate, and even then it would benefit it if they got close enough.

Also, in your calculations you might want to figure in the 10% m-pen from Arcane Knowledge .

On another note, I did some testing with this build and found that you are wasting SO much of AP Kog'Maw's potential by staying at max range throughout the fight. As you already stated in your guide, Bio-Arcane Barrage deals boatloads of damage (14% of the targets max HP as magic damage each hit), plus the 863.148 damage from Caustic Spittle (along with it's flat resistance reductions), and the utility and damage from Void Ooze.

The thing is, when staying at max range, all you can do is spam your Living Artillery, yet you could be dealing so much more damage if you could get within that 720 range for your auto attacks and void ooze when you have bio-arcane barrage up. I realize that getting that close to the enemy makes it possible for you to be focused, but if you start the fight and get close enough about halfway through to start using your other skills, people will be desperate most of the time to kill the people they began the fight focusing, and your team may be in dire need of that extra damage and slows to either mop up or simply survive the fight. While being a veritable howitzer might be nice, in many cases I've found that the damage I was doing with just one skill wasn't impactful enough to warrant this playstyle. May want to talk more in-depth about when you should get in range for your other spells (because in all honesty you should need to at some point, unless the other team is being crushed already).

hi again.

you are having doing some minor mistakes here.
firstly, the radius is 1000 on Abyssal Scepter, but this is a total radius and youa re the center. thats why i told you that you only have 500 AROUND you. this is a huge (!) difference, many people overlook. if you had 1000 in front AND back, your radius would be 2000!

Second you do not need to figure in the 10% mpen from Arcane Knowledge because it is applied to EVERY calculation as it is independed from items. Meaning you get this 10% to your void staff or mpen runes or other items. so in a mathematical way it does not change anything, meaning it does not improve one item but not another. The calculations were only whether to get a core Void Staff or not, and in this example the 10% mpen does not matter.
But obviously you are skilling it anyways.

about the Lich Bane: as said in another post, I am testing it again for fun, but depending on playstyle you do not need it, besides it cost 600 more gold. The item build for now is perfect. If I see that Lich Bane works well too, I will include it in the alternative build, or maybe even put it into the core. But I will do so ONLY if I see the the gameplay you are having so far, is NOT changed. Otherwise youa re playing an indifferent kog maw, which I do not want. I built this because it plays so brutally good the way it is.

Swagrid