Greetings to you all today my compatriots, allies, and snacks! It is I, Cho'Gath! What, what... What?! Of course I am a Gentleman, as you can tell by the appropriate garments that I am wearing and the magnificent wallpaper and paintings around this parlor of mine. Now, fear not! I would never Vorpal Spike someone in the back! After all, I am a tank, and a good gentleman will fight head on with another! Fate has intertwined ours, so you will ask yourself, why has this amusing guide been created?

My dear friend VoidScourge has decided to select me as his champion of choice! "Maining" as you Summoners say. This is wonderful, because now I may feast on the delectable meals that await in the Fields of Justice! He has many tactics, which I hope that you do not find this allotment of the guide to be very somniferous! The table of contents is right here near the fireplace of my dastardly parlor. So let us start, shall we? Nom nom nom nom nom!

VoidScourge here! I'll take over for the rest of the guide, so here we go!

Ranked Games suck. They're full of people who don't understand how to be nice to others and is the true toxic environment. I would advise staying out.


LilyPichu's interpretation on Ranked Game (as well as mine) Play Video

Pros

• Heavy lock-down + high true damage from Feast
• Good sustain in lane and in the jungle
• Good global presence
• Good at securing jungle objectives
• Good initiation, peel, and counter-ganks

Cons

• Ganks can fail and sometimes easily counter-ganked
• Weak against high mobility champions and other champions like Sivir or champions who have the Banshee's Veil
• Soaks up skillshots that could easily be dodged by most champions
• Weak against all-in champions, such as Xin Zhao or Poppy
• Mana-hungry, sometimes even to certain extents of the late-game.
• No escape, unless Rupture hits and you gtfo.
• Reliant on sustained mobility

While this ability may seem useless, it plays a good role early on or in later stages of the game. When jungling, you will get health and Mana restored every time you kill a jungle camp. This increases your sustained presence in the jungle, especially when the buffs have expired. In lane, this means you also get more sustain, provided that you are able to keep up with the creep score to heal yourself.

Rupture can be used to knock up any enemy that happens to in it after a 0.675 second delay. This delay time is important, because when using this, you will have to lead to your targets. This is to be your main form or initiation, but it can be difficult to aim against champions with dashes, such as Zed or Vayne. Because of this, try and backdoor them in order to reduce the chance of this, or get them in the habit of doing so, and aim where you think they will go next.

While Feral Scream is used to silence enemies after they have been ruptured, saving it may be useful. When someone is about to flash for example, you can use Feral Scream and prevent them from doing so.

Vorpal Spikes allows your basic attacks to become stronger, making it essential to have when jungling. One thing however that you must be aware of is that Vorpal Spikes damages all units hit, including minions, which can cause you to miss creeps under towers. Also, if the lane is pushed up, this could attack an enemy champion and enrage the tower. The toggling of this ability is there for a reason!

One thing crucial about Feast is that you must be aware of its cooldown. Using Feast at the wrong time can mean losing a fight or death later. Despite of the red rings of Vorpal Spikes that can be seen when a champion can be feasted, sometimes, getting the kill for yourself may not be the best idea. If you continuously steal kills like this, you will be a detriment for your team and they will be mad at you. Also, don't use this on champions like Soraka, who can heal themselves, or Shen, who can wall for days. You will end up wasting your ultimate. If you fail to use it in a gank or big fight, I eat the minions in lane or the monster camps.

Laning as Cho'Gath is difficult. While he scales off heavily in the late-game and powerful initiation, it's going to be quite some time before you get there. First thing that needs to be addressed is getting creep score. If you are playing Cho'Gath mid (Which I only recommend under skilled Cho'Gath players), this can prove to especially difficult, especially when against ranged champions such as Ahri or Ryze. They can harass you in every way they want, and there's not much you can do about it. If you try using skills on them to trade off, this can lead to mana starvation and an easy tower kill. If all these situations weren't bad enough, you think "The creeps can push to the tower and I will kill them there." This will work, but the tower will take damage and the Vorpal Spike issue arrives, where it's difficult to get creeps when Spikes are hitting them and the tower steals it from you.

Cho'Gath, I find, is better suited in the top lane. He plays well against what I call "The Big Three (most annoying top laners)", who are Jayce, Yorick, and Singed. I will go over champion roster later, but for now, I'll keep it general.

As stated earlier, letting the lane push up is a bad idea because you will miss creep score and the tower will be taking unnecessary damage. However, pushing up the lane won't work either because if you move up to the tower to get creep score, this not only opens up means to be ganked and not have an escape, but using Vorpal Spikes under the tower can cause it to make you take unnecessary damage.

When Cho'Gath lanes, you have to freeze the lane, and avoid being harassed. Against champions like Nasus and Malphite, this can be easy. Just get creep score and try to stay on the other side of the wave that the enemy laner is not. Don't worry too much if you take some harass, because top laners tend to have weak harass early on, but if you lose 1/4 of your health, I'd try to avoid it some more. :) Just don't let the lane get to either tower side, and you will be fine.

Another thing to be aware about is the size of your character model. While this can prove to be an advantage by absorbing all your team's damage, you can absorb some unnecessary damage such as Nidalee Javalin Tosses or Teemo Noxious Traps because the hitbox on your character continues to increase, unlike Zac, whose hitbox remains the same, despite of his model increasing in size. Another thing to be aware of is that you lose half these stacks upon death. Meaning, if you have 6 Feast stacks, you lose 270 base health. Let your team know that even though you are a tank, that you value your life if things get sticky. Tell them when you are backing out and let them decide whether they can continue the fight. You cannot afford to lose stacks, but if your death will save your team inevitable deaths, sacrifice yourself.

Cho'Gath can be pretty aggressive in the jungle, but you need to secure success for your teammates and stay healthy and get farm.
The jungle route:
Ancient Golem or Elder Lizard
Wraiths or Wolves
Buff not visited
Golem or Wight

Cho'Gath can excel well with both starts. If you start blue, I would recommend avoiding the Wolves early on. While Cho'Gath may be tanky later, the critical strikes that the Wolves have can prove to be devastating and force you to recall early.

After you receive double buffs, where you go is open to interpretation. However, heed to this warning. Stay out of the enemy jungle unless there is a big fight happening there or you can guarantee your safe escape (Say, the enemy jungler is AFK).

The Spirit of the Ancient Golem should be rushed as well as the Boots of Swiftness because it provides source of gold income, especially when you accumulate more Conservation stacks from ganking or covering lane. Also, if you don't use Feast in any ganks, feel free to use it on the lane minions or monsters. You need to progress to at least 4 Feast stacks soon if you want to be tanky.

One good way to utilize Feast whether you are jungling or not is to secure big objectives like the Dragon or the Baron Nashor. It doesn't matter who gets the kill because the whole team will reap the same reward, so this is where Feast comes handy, because it helps secure neutral monster buffs and the river objectives.

Cho'Gath is a difficult champion to build. Lots of other guides advertise items like Rabadon's Deathcap or the Deathfire Grasp. These items are not effective because what people need to understand is Cho'Gath is not a damage dealer. His primary purpose is to bruise enemy champions, or tank hits for his team. Another thing that needs to be understood is that in order to be useful, Cho'Gath needs to provide utility for his team. Building full AP is not good because he won't be tanky. Magic Penetration is more appropriate on Cho'Gath because it highlights the AP scaling he has. It also opens up items like the Wit's End or Liandry's Torment which provide him lots of utility. Health stacking is good because it will counter ADCs who like buying a Last Whisper. However, this doesn't excuse not building any Armor or Magic Resist.

Typically, people, including some pros, give Cho'Gath Mercury's Treads or the Ninja Tabi. However, another thing about Cho'Gath needs to be considered; the fact that he has no real escape. Being locked down in the middle of a fight means you can't do anything to help your team. Another thing to consider is that you are not a full tank. Even with Feast stacks, you are just stacking health and you may not have the items you want yet. The Boots of Swiftness allow you to reduce the chance of being locked down in the fight. If you want to look menacing, you might as well be moving towards them!

When jungling as Cho'Gath, this item can be particularly important. It gives a source of gold revenue that will continue to stack, even when you are ganking or covering a lane. If you are not playing jungle Cho'Gath, I would advise against getting it because Cho'Gath doesn't need the extra gold.

This item is commonly bought on Cho'Gath and understandably so. Grants massive amounts of Ability Power, Mana, and Health. So why not buy it? It increases your sustain, bruiser potential, and makes you more tanky the longer the game goes on.

Everything that Liandry's has benefits Cho'Gath. Because the side effect is more potent against slowed champions, this makes it particularly powerful, because it procs on Rupture. This also procs on Vorpal Spikes, which make Cho'Gath's basic attacks very lethal. In addition to this, it gives Cho'Gath the much coveted Health and Magic Penetration.

This item not only grants Magic Resist and Ability Power, but it also gives Cho'Gath and his allies additional Magic Penetration. Because it grants Ability Power and Magic Resist, it grants him more tankiness and bruiser capability. However, if someone else on your team already has this item, don't build it, because the auras don't stack.

This item is particularly useful, because it steals Magic Resist from your auto-attack target and gives it to you. In addition, it gives you Magic Resist and Attack Speed, which allow you to get more basic attacks off in a shorter time.

The Void Staff just simply grants more Magic Penetration and hard AP. This allows you to deal more damage, but is only really helpful after you have gotten some Magic Penetration already.

This item has quite a bit of utility attached to it. You get Ability Power, Health, and slow on every bit of spell damage. This is effect is 1/3 as effective on Rupture, but this is still 100% strong on his other abilities, including Vorpal Spikes.

The Frozen Heart is key to ending Cho'Gath's Mana starvation. It provides a ton of Mana, Armor, CDR, and an aura that reduces the Attack Speed of everyone around him. The Mana and the CDR allow him to spam his abilities more frequently and more survivability against champions who are reliant on their auto-attacks and benefiting his team's at the same time.

This item is a must-have. It provides CDR, Armor, Health, and magic shield defend your team in fights. Use this in big fights, because it increases your team's survival and grants Magic Resist and Health Regen. to your allies.

Self-explanatory. It just makes Cho'Gath tanky.

As well as reflecting basic attack damage, it also makes them slowed when they do use a basic attack on you. Try to stand near your teammates, because your size will incline enemy champions to attack you because you are bigger. The active is powerful because you will slow them severely with all the Armor and Magic Resist you have already.

Because of your big size, this allows you stand in front of your team and take hits. The Banshee's Veil allows you to do that for longer with the spell shield. It can also deflect Ashe's ultimate and Blitzcrank grabs.
This item can be good against AD top lanes. Gives you a buttload of Armor and Health and inflicts damage to everyone around you. These make it one of Dyrus’ items of choice on Cho’Gath.

STUFF NOT TO GET:

This item is okay. Providing CDR, Health, and increased healing effects, which means Carnivore is more potent. However, it's only 20%. Yes, that's a lot, but how much does Carnivore really heal? At level 18, it will make Carnivore heal a little more than 71 Health and 7.75 Mana. In my mind, you could be buying better items than this one on Cho'Gath.

This item stirred up some controversy. What was the point of buying this of Cho'Gath?? It activates when you use Rupture, but wait, you aren't build full AP, and haven't you forgotten about Vorpal Spikes? They deal a good amount of damage already. Besides, you also need to budget whether or not you get to autoattack them, and sometimes, it just doesn't happen, especially in ARAM.

While he may be easily dealt with in the early game, he'll come to punish you later. Aatrox can stick to you and make sure you'll never get away, then auto-attack you to death and there's nothing you can do about it. When he ganks you or tries to initiate on you, you need to make Blades of Torment and Dark Flight miss. Aiming Dark Flight is just like aiming a Rupture so sometimes, all it takes is to go the way he least expects to dodge it. Then when uses Blades of Torment, be aware that the skillshot gets shorter as it travels, so the simple way to avoid this is to walk diagonally away from it. In big fights, if you notice that he is using Blood Well, count the seconds. As soon as you reach 3, use Rupture and your team has secured a kill on him. Positioning and playing against him requires not being caught out or out-dueling by him, watch out! Difficulty: 4/5
Ahri can be a pain. She's the safest carry in the League, has insane damage, and can pull you into a fight you don't want. Facing her can be suicide, especially in a solo lane, where she can harass you for days. However, ganking her is easy. Most Ahri players tend to use Spirit Rush when they want to move in aggressively. Pay attention to this, so you can aim a good Rupture on her. This will prevent her from using the rest of her charges and her other abilities after you have used Feral Scream and just stick to her. When she gets out, you better hope you have Rupture back and that it hits, because if it doesn't, she's escaped. Difficulty: 4/5
Unless Akali gets fed, she's not an issue. When she dashes onto you or your teammates, Rupture her, then they can turn around the fight. If she uses Twilight Shroud, just Rupture in the middle, and she'll be immobilized until the duration is over. Difficulty: 2/5
Alistar is tanky and practically invincible after the early game. But this doesn't mean he's hard to play against. In fights, just ignore him. Killing him will do your team no good, so just avoid him and go for the squishy targets. Save Rupture because his crowd control is an issue, but if his team starts to move in, Rupture them as they come in to turn the fight. If he knocks you away from them, they have already disengaged and only members of your team that haven't been afflicted by it can chase him. Difficulty: 2/5
Amumu is pathetic in the early game, though he can lock anyone down very quickly in the late game. By all means, counter-jungle him. Sure, he can Bandage Toss on you if he catches you can a camp and start to throw a Tantrum, but otherwise, you can steal his farm, or even score a kill on him because Vorpal Spikes has a good damage in the early game, but be decisive. Don't pick a fight that you can't win. Difficulty: 2/5
Anivia can be tricky and times, but easier than some. She has no escape and if she uses her wall in the wrong way, there's nothing stopping you between you and her except her ultimate. Also, when you come in to gank or when trading, be wary of Flash Frost. This projectile must be dodged because it can also be detonated. Another thing to keep in mind is that Eggnivia can still be Feasted. If you can't kill her, count the seconds since she went into stasis. After you reach 6, use Rupture on the spot and pick up the kill.Difficulty: 2.5/5
Annie can be a pest. In lane, she can harass for days and stun you with her passive. If you try to gank her, she may just pop a Molten Shield, activate her passive, stun you, and walk away. However, she does have no escapes, so provided you have a buddy to help, she can killed. Difficulty: 3/5
Ashe has no built in escape, making her an ideal Feast target. She's squishy, not a lot of health, and can't really stop you by slowing you. Even though she has Enchanted Crystal Arrow, it's her ultimate and she's shouldn't use it on you unless she can guaranteed her escape. Difficulty: 2/5
Blitzcrank shouldn't be too much of an issue, for you at least. Blitzcrank is heavily reliant on Rocket Grab. Hmm. Big model, can only grab one thing, why not make it you? By all means, get grabbed by Blitzcrank unless it can be avoided. He can't do much to you, but he can to your team, and it's up to you to defend them. Difficulty: 2/5
Brand has no built in escape, so he can be easily be secured, even solo. However, you still need to be careful, because being hit by his spells means you are taking at least 8% of your health as damage. He can also stun you and flee before you can do anything, so even more caution is required. You won't be unscathed in the end, but easy prey. Difficulty: 1.5/5
Caitlyn can be difficult to gank or lane against. If you try to gank her, first consider the arsenal of traps that she as all around lane. Stepping on those can mean the gank failing, even your death. Second, realize that the lane is either pushed up, or not pushed up at all. Third, Piltover Peacemaker will be difficult to dodge because of your stature and well as dodging Rupture using her net. Difficulty: 4/5
Once more, another Mage who has no disengage. Though the poison may ravage you, it could be worth the kill. Besides, the only real way of escaping she has is slithering away or using her ultimate. Be decisive when you pick a fight with her, because if you don't have any abilites up, you're more vulnerable to her damage. Difficulty: 2/5
Hmm. Another Cho'Gath. First, while the game is loading assess his role. What's he going to doing and where is he going to be? Second, what is he building? Which members of your team does he want or is he out to be purely tanky? Third, there shouldn't be a difficulty rating on him because everything he has, you do to. In the end, it will come down to individual skill and team synergy.
Corki can be either pretty devastating or easy to kill. His only means of escape is Valkyrie so if he uses that and you can't catch him, leave him be. However, despite of being all-in, Corki can throw himself into a fight that he can't win and you can turn on him. Difficulty: 3/5
Darius may appear to be menacing, but in reality, he's not. Darius can moving towards you aggressively in-lane, but this makes it easier to aim Rupture. When you think he's going to use Apprehend, use Feral Scream and back off, because he can still use auto-attacks to apply Hemorrhage. But one thing to understand is that while he may not be a threat to you, he can be to your team, so defend them from him. Difficulty: 1/5
Diana is pretty hard to face. If you try to fight her, she'll turn around the fight and kill you. Ganking her can be done, but even with a buddy, you need to play cautiously, because showing up, may be giving her a way out, by killing you. Difficulty: 4/5
Dr. Mundo is so tanky. Both in the early and late game, he's practically invincible. Once he gets his ultimate, he's only recalling to get items. He can counter-jungle and if he does meet you, he'll greet you by dueling you and forcing you to back off. Simply, in the jungle and lane, Mundo can be a pain. Difficulty: 5/5
Unless he uses Stand Aside, Draven can always escape from you. Ganking him early game can lead to your death because you don't have Health from Feast stacks, but this is sometimes worth the risk. When ganking him, pay attention to the Spinning Axe indicator and aim for that with Rupture. As you move in, use Feral Scream, so he can't use Stand Aside or Blood Rush to escape. This should provide a kill for the carry. Difficulty: 3/5
Elise counters Cho'Gath big time. She can Rappel onto you, bite you, and wreck you in every way imaginable. Elise will most likely try to gank you using [Coccoon]] and Volatile Spiderling. Because you are a melee character, it will be difficult to move out of the range of Volatile Spiderling. After she has done this, she can use Rappel and stick to you. This is your chance to turn the fight around. Pick the target that she is most likely to aim for, such as the carries, or you. Once you know who her target is, you have a split second to aim for that person. As soon as she lands, she'll land in Rupture and you need to make a quick getaway. While you are running away, watch out for Cocoon and Venomous Bite, because it will ensure that you'll never get away, unless your team provides some presence. Difficulty: 5/5
The only difficulty for playing against Evelynn is not being able to see her. When you use Rupture on her, you need to be confident in where she is moving and also be wary of times when she will try to use Dark Frenzy in order to escape. Though Evelynn may be squishy, she is not your primary target. Your primary target should be the enemy Marksman. Difficulty: 1/5
Ezreal can easily dodge Rupture using Arcane Shift so ganking him is difficult. Focusing him in the early game can't really be done well, so you are better off focusing his support. Also be aware that since you have a big character model, you can block all of his abilities, except Trueshot Barrage. Difficulty: 3/5
Fiddlesticks is a very versatile champion, so first assess the role he's playing. Mid, jungle, or support. Jungle Fiddlesticks can't counter jungle you and any way, but neither of you can afford to fail an engage on each other, so counter jungling is out of the question. However, in lane, it can be more difficult to avoid Reap and Terrify, so keep your distance. If you are not tagged by the silence, punish him for failing to do so. Difficulty: 3/5
Fiora is easily beaten by Cho'Gath unless she somehow manages to get fed. When up against Cho'Gath, turn around her engages on her. When she dashes towards you, use Rupture to prevent her from retreating. Then use Feral Scream, which will prevent Riposte and Burst of Speed. An important thing to keep in mind about Blade Waltz is that she can't escape and after she uses it, there's not much she can do. Then just Rupture her, litter her with auto-attacks, then Feast her. Difficulty: 1/5
This trickster can be the most annoying champion to lane against as almost anyone. Using Rupture on him is pointless because he'll use Playful/Trickster and dodge it. At that point, he'll dash onto you or one of your teammates and activate Seastone Trident, dealing damage over time. Further more, Nimble Fighter makes auto-attacks useless, so using Vorpal Spikes on him is out of the question. The only thing stopping him from killing you is tankiness, so you better hope you have some before you're next. Difficulty: 5/5
Though Galio isn't played often, he still plays strong against many Mages. The way Cho'Gath's abilities are set makes him practically a Mage, so proceed with caution, but this does not make him unbeatable. More of Galio's abilites are geared towards stacking Magic Resist, so Magic Penetration is ideal on Cho'Gath. Additionally, you still need to at least be tanky, so use items like the Abyssal Mask or the Banshee's Veil to increase your durability against him. Difficulty: 3/5
Gangplank may seem threatening by having a ranged auto-attack, but it isn't good until he's started to itemize. Even when he starts to itemize, unless he gets a kill, he's not that good because Cho'Gath has a better selection of items. His Remove Scurvy isn't helpful against Cho'Gath because it doesn't remove knock-ups. He can use it to remove his silence, but even so, what's the advantage in doing so? He can only use Parrrley and Cannon Barrage at that point. Raise Morale shouldn't help him outduel you in any way, so it shouldn't be too much of a worry, but it does give a bonus to his team, so be careful of them. Difficulty: 2/5
This guy is easy to beat. Play really passively around him because one thing to understand is that he has no resources, so he is only limited by cooldown. When Garen moves into the brush, you now know where he is. If he doesn't show up to take creep score, assume he recalled and do so as well. Facechecking the brush is a bad idea is this scenario and be mindful of when Garen uses Decisive Strike. When he does, Rupture him and walk away. If it can't be avoided, use Feral Scream to prevent him from using Judgment. After walking away from a fight, be careful of when he uses Demacian Justice because it deals a percentage of his missing health to the same percentage of your health, so be careful. Difficulty: 1/5
Drunky here can outduel you. Unless you pack a lot of a mobility, he can use Explosive Cask to keep you in the fight. You also have to be careful and observant of when he uses Body Slam, so you know where to aim when you use Rupture. The thing that will keep you from getting close, is his poke, so be careful because you can't sustain his damage for long in laning phase. Difficulty: 3/5
Graves is designed to out-duel people. Not only can Quickdraw to secure his escape, but he can also use Smoke Screen in order to prevent you from knowing where he's going. Though he can be tricky with these abilities, try and predict what he's going to do next and he won't be able to escape. Difficulty: 2/5
Believe it or not, Cho'Gath plays strong against Hecarim. Because Hecarim is reliant of his mobility to gank, try not to let the lane push up because he can only gank you if the lane is pushed up. Second, because his ultimate is his only dash, you shouldn't worry too much about him dodging Rupture unless you miscalculate. When he runs towards you or your team, use Rupture and prevent him from doing so, then tell your team to back off. Difficulty: 2/5 Now that this guy actually got better, he’s more of a threat than ever. He can harass you for days with his Hextech Micro-Rockets and just hide behind turrets all laning phase, rendering it impossible for you to get close. Difficulty: 5/5 Irelia is very aggressive. Because of the date of her release, she and Xin Zhao were completely overpowered in the jungle and top lane. This also means that she plays very strong against Cho’Gath. She will dash on you and stick to you until you die. But keep in mind, while she may be doing this in laning phase, this doesn’t mean she will do so in big fights. Pay attention to who her target is, then move in or retreat, based on the circumstances. But know that once she’s stuck to you, you have a slim chance of escaping. Difficulty: 5/5 Janna's tornado can be annoying because you become easier to hit the more larger your model gets. However, other than the tornado, she has no mobility or escapes, but dodge the tornado or else you won't be able to catch her. Difficulty: 1.5/5

More coming soon...

While individual skill and teamwork is exceptionally good in the Fields of Justice, a true Gentleman will understand that certain elements of the game have been implemented to allow you to interact with the other players, such as the voice system.

Classic Cho'Gath

• When an enemy is idling, use your joke.
• When an enemy is hiding in the bushes or fleeing from you, use your taunt.
• When an enemy fails to hit a skillshot, laugh at them.

Gentleman Cho'Gath

• When an enemy is idling, use your joke.
• When an enemy is hiding in the bushes or fleeing from you, use your taunt.
• When an enemy fails to hit a skillshot, laugh at them.

Battlecast Prime Cho'Gath

• When an enemy is idling, use your joke.
• When an enemy is hiding in the bushes or fleeing from you, use your taunt. Because Battlecast Prime Cho'Gath has particularly short taunts, taunt them after you Rupture them then taunt them again when you use Feral Scream and they have started to flee.
• When an enemy fails to hit a skillshot, laugh at them.