Hello folks,

This is my First build so sorry if it is not that great and lacking some information and Details.

Well how to start this, I am WolfSYR at the moment level 30 and from the beginning I have been interested in Cho'Gath because of his beautiful huge size. Playing him however was not as easy as I thought it would be, but at the end I got the whole concept of him.

I just want to let you know that this build is my personal build, if you like it (I hope you will) feel free to use it, if not then please let me know the reason as I might benefit myself from your opinion.

Enough talking about me and let's talk about mighty Cho'

Cho'Gathis a champion which is really underestimated sometimes. Summoners quiet often do the mistake of attacking him head on in a team fight which is deadly wrong.
If the enemy team does not have at least two attack damaging champs and a strong caster no-one can bring you down.
Some champions are totally useless against Cho'gath (such as Veigar & Karthus for example at the moment) as their abilities will do barely any damage to him.
His Abilities are really usefull in their Crowd Control & AoE effect (slow down & silence)

Carnivore his Passive is in early game use full on last hit, so make sure you always Last hit minions and monsters to get the health & mana.
RUPTURE: Knocking enemies in the air, and slowing down their movement. Can be used Offensive and defensive at the same time.
FERAL SCREAM: Silencing enemies and also damage. Mostly usefull when champions try to use their ulti and stopping them (Karthus's Ulti, Nunu's Ulti, Fiddle Stick's Ulti & health steal etc...)
Vorpal Spikes: Always makes enemy champs stay away, scared to get even 30damage out of it. Also useful tactic wise as enemy champs can't farm on your minions and have to wait for them to get near turret to farm. This way loss of xp & gold for enemy team.
Fest: Even without ability power, the ulti does quiet alot of damage compared to other champs. And when killing the unit growing in size, gaining health and with the right items attack damage.

Pros:

1-Can reach high HP (for some reason it is not stated, but he should get a max of 4850HP)
2-His abilities are both offensive and defensive
3-High damage taking capability
4-Excellent in starting a team fight
5-Hard to approach if enemy is melee and ranged cannot go 1vs1 against him.
6-Deals Alot of damage (Also for some reason The Blood Thirsts life steal and attack damage have not been included so +40 & 10% life steal are missing)

Cons:

1-Mana starving in beginning
2-Low Attack Speed
3-Low damage early game

There is not much to talk about them here, except as a Tank you need more Defence and a bit of Offence and no Utility.
How ever there is one thing which you can do.
Instead of takingBurning Embers to provide you with 10 ability power when using ignite, you can take with that 1 point leftHaste and get the benefits of increased movement speed and duration.
The rest I don't think can be replaced.

The reason I have chosen these runes is that this build is for a Tank and these runes all help in Armor and Magic resistance to ensure with his items the unlikely hood of being killed.
If you are going to start a team fight, you will need to head in while ensuring that you get targeted before your team.
Greater Mark of Resilience: +0.91 armor x 9 = +8.91 armor
Greater Seal of Resilience: +1.41 armor x 9 = +10.41 armor
Greater Glyph of Warding: +1.49 magic resist x 9 = +13.41 Magic Resist
Greater Quintessence of Warding: +4.5 magic resist x 3 = +13.5 Magic Resist

Which means that you received +19.32 Armor and +26.91 Magic Resistance. Don't let the small numbers make you think "daaaamn only!!!!", this +19.32 might end up saving your tail if most team mates have died and your the only one left with less than half of your health defending a turret from 3 champs.

Another option which you could do with Runes is to make all of them to Magic Resistance. Not one of my favourite option as most damage dealt to a tank are dealt from ranged attackers and melee units with high attack speed. Furthermore, it is going to be rare to find a team which is fully equipped with proper mages (only had it twice in 500games) and usually that is a total lose for their team.

But at the end, you chose what you think is the best for your Cho'Gath :)

There are some spells which you can use of course, but there are some which you should NEVER use with a tank such as Cho'gath.

I have choosen:
Ghost Always handy to run behind some low health Champ and also helpful in ensuring you can get away from a full team Gang. You always should have a back door plan.
Ignite: Useful all game long. There are two options in using Ignite in my opinion.
First option: Ignite him when he is trying to run away from you with low health.
Second Option: Ignite him and use Rupture if possible then attack, as he is slowed.
I know it looks like yeah these are the only two options, but no. Some people just ignite without even attacking which is a total waste. Lower the HP without attacking is like telling him yeah love go back to your base and heal, I will be waiting for you here and then we can play together another round of who is more afraid to attack.
Also Ignite is the most useful Spell versus Tryndamere, while he is under his ulti effect, you cannot target him. However if you ignite him in the middle of it, there is a 80%chance that he will die.

Good Spells for Cho'gath:
Exhaust
Cleanse (not one of my favourite because you can just get Mercury Trends which are more usefull, but we will get to that later on)

Spells which are NOT good for Cho'gath:

Everything else. Like please tell me why would you needHeal,Carity,Teleport, etc... for him. Yeah he is Mana starving in beginning, but killing minions gives you mana and one mana potion is better than wasting a spell on something you just going to use once. If you play Cho AP yes, it might be useful but not as a tank dawg.

Now my Favourite part of the game.
Items, as all of you know, are the most important game part and the more you have the better it is. Since this build is for a tank, you need as much health and armor as possible and of course damage. That's where the beauty of this build comes.
Let's start from the beginning:

First the purchase of aRegrowth Pendant with aMana Potion, should keep you farming until your level 6-8, depending on your lane. Getting shoes in the beginning doesn't help at all, while the Regrowth pendant ensures your HP regen is high and not to forget that upon farming you get HP & Mana. In case your low on health or mana hug the turret, let the creeps come and kill them.
I usually try and stay in my lane until I can at least purhase theGiant's Belt.
In case you have to return and you have the money, purchaseBoots of Speed. You should always try and getWarmog's Armor ASAP, to increase your health by +950 & +450 in addition to +30hp/regen & +15hp/regen. Since Cho'gath starts with low health this item alone will boost his hp to equally match tank champs.

Now once you have Warmog's Armor, it is time to choose the shoes. Choosing the shoes is very important and needs one simple calculation. It depends on the enemy champs you are playing against. Usually the shoes for Cho'gath which are helpful are theBoots of Swiftness. However, you have to see first of all who you are playing against. You have to check their abiliy effects (Crowd Control also named CC), and see if they for example: And believe me it worked for me and saved my life many times.

Moving on, you have now 2 main items which help you survive as you need to focus on your low health in the beginning. Now we can start increasing his armor as you are at this point most probably in the end stage of beginning of the game and around level 10-11. Ganging will slowly start and without proper armor and only high health you will not survive, because the Xin in the enemy team is increasing his speed and attack damage.
Here is where you start building up your items to purchase theGuardian Angel. You should always try to get first for the buildChain Vest for normal armor and thenNull-Magic Mantle for magic resist to balance it out. Then you can buy theCloth Armor and I am sure you have extra gold since it only costs 300 so also purchase the another item, depending on the situation, in case you are facing difficulties with the enemy champion damaging you too much get another Chain Vest to build yourAtma's Impaler to provide you with more armor and 2% of your health into attack damage. At this stage you would most probably have around 3K health which means you get +60damage.
If your team is winning and you have no difficulties with the enemy team start to build theFrozen Mallet as it needs more gold and gives you some attack and quiet a bit of health.
No matter which one you choose of those two, the next item will be the other. So if you get the Atma's Impaler, next item is Frozen Mallet.

Regarding the last item which is on this build might be strange to some people I know.
The reason why I have chosenThe Bloodthirster is that later on in the game you will be at one point where it will be rare to lane alone because of enemy team gang. Let's say this happens and you are alone against 3champs, 4 champs or 5 champs, you deal 236damage you have 25% life steal and huge armor. You can either try to at least to ignite one enemy, Rupture the ground, silence the whole team and eat one. You will be able to kill at least 1 and hold the lane until your team arrives and if they might only arrive when your health is about 500 SO WHAT. Lower the whole enemy team and die, this will leave the enemy team 4vs5 and they are on low health as snack. You can push at least 2turrets down this way and an inhibitor.
You are a tank and your role is to lower the enemy and assist not to be proud of your kills (but you will get at least 8 with this build I promise)

Let's say you do not like to get The Bloodthirster then just getForce of Nature which gives you magic resist, health regen & movement speed.

At the end this is just a suggestion and you know better your play-style.

The skill Sequence is always the following:

F

(ignite usually in that slot as D is for Ghost) ->

Q -> W -> Q -> W

-> and once they are really low on health

E

to eat them

just make sure to space them out a bit to ensure they won't be able to cast any abilities and get away from you.

I hope that you did not get bored from my build and the long typing. It was a bit hard to write this all down as English is not my Native language. Hope you found at least some useful information and if I did a couple of mistakes just let me know.
Now go log in an kill some folks.
"Let us fight like gentlemen!" - Cho'gath