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Cho'Gath Build Guide by Hijitori

Top [14.6] Addition to Balori's Cho'God - Threats & Tips!

Top [14.6] Addition to Balori's Cho'God - Threats & Tips!

Updated on March 26, 2024
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Hijitori Build Guide By Hijitori 95 20 444,675 Views 5 Comments
95 20 444,675 Views 5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Hijitori Cho'Gath Build Guide By Hijitori Updated on March 26, 2024
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Runes: Cho'God #1 standard (mid lane)

1 2
Sorcery
Arcane Comet
Nimbus Cloak
Transcendence
Scorch

Inspiration
Magical Footwear
Approach Velocity
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

Standard
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

[14.6] Addition to Balori's Cho'God - Threats & Tips!

By Hijitori
About Me
My nickname is Hijitori and I began my adventure on Summoner's Rift in season 4. I peaked in Diamond as #30 Cho'gath EUNE. Right now I have over 800 000 Maestry Points and 70% win rate on Cho'Gath and I still love playing the Cho'God style!

Screenshot is a bit out of date but shows the whereabouts*


"Remember that you got the power to overpower them all. As long as you play with focus and to try to play as good as you can, you are going to always be victorious in the end." - Balori

Introduction
Why I created this guide? It's simple. I love Cho'gath - especially Balori's style. After learning his strategy and playing many games with his build (and gamestyle) I decided to write down tips I found and those that also Balori didn't mention in his Mobafire guide but did in his videos etc. I also study replays to understand how different champions work with or against Cho'God, what to do and not to do in games and I share it here as a passionate Cho'God fan.

MP = magic penetration.


Link to Balori's Guide - https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/full-magic-penetration-build-by-top-1-chogath-in-the-world-470949

Note: I got Balori's permissions to create this guide.

"Just by using the information, the fog of war and overall the better gameplay, you're going to make sure that they are going to be absolutely useless."

Other builds (Luden's/Everfrost/Tank)

Which build then?

It depends mostly on your team comp and enemy champions and on what you feel like playing with.


Cho'God :

* Good Against low-mobility champions and not tricky ones (f.e. )
* When you have at least one tank in your team
* When you feel like doing tons of damage!
* I stick to this build 99% of games!


Cho'Frost :

* Good Against high-mobility or tricky champions (f.e. )
* When you have at least one tank in your team
* When you feel like you could use an additional safety / attack stun and some tankiness!


Cho'Tank :

* Good Against 4+ ad/ap enemy champions
* When you lack tank/frontline in your team
* When you feel like doing a lot of crowd control!




"You want me to play Immortal build on Cho that is not designed to use it at all and most importantly its FAR FAR FAR WEAKER than our Max Pen Cho that either way making us Immortal with 6000+ hp.
I don't know about you, but I prefer 1000+Dmg Q, 800+Dmg W, 500+Dmg per E and 1400 Dmg R while having 6000hp, instead of 50Dmg Q/W, 20 Dmg E and 1000 Dmg R while having the very same 6000 HP and literally 3 seconds more sustain if they focus you.
Cho doesn't have defensive mechanisms, only HP, no armor/mr bonuses, no shields, no heals, not even HP ratios except your R, yet people keep asking for the most weak way to play this champion."

Top lane vs mid lane
Top lane:
+ usually easier matchups (f.e. less mobility champs like Leblanc/Yasuo and champs hard to reach like Xerath/Anivia on mid)
+ Easier Q hits thanks to bushes' fog of war hiding your animation and sound
- possible lack of tank in team (unless jungler or support takes it)
? more likely to get abused by toxic players, "troll build" etc (shouldn't be a problem)

Mid lane:
+ good control of Void Grubs, Dragons and Herold with feast
- low mobility to roam compared to other mid laners and a bit vulnerable to ganks


"We need to always focus on farming. No matter what, no matter against who you are playing, you're always going to focus on farming."

Game length
When you get Luden's, Boots and Void Staff (maybe Mejai's Soulstealer as well) usually this is the moment when you reach your power spike. This is might be the best time to put maximum pressure on the enemy team, bully enemy jungler etc. and help the rest of your team get ahead too. Play around objectives and kill the most important targets.
Later on it usually gets more tough for Cho, because you will be vulnerable to many carries, kiters, mobile champs etc. (f.e. Vayne, Jhin, Kayle) that's why with Cho you want to finish the game around 20-30 min.

"It is up to you to focus on doing your job, poke and kill as many targets as possible, with 3 sec CD on your Q even if you cannot kill them with one combo you will do it with two or three."

Basic info, pros & cons of Cho'God
* MP Cho'God is like an assassin mage with lots of burst damage in mid game and a poking mage in late game.

+ Can be more fun and influential in the right hands than tank Cho.
+ Acts fine as top/mid/jungle/adc build however I wouldn't recommend playing apc cho on ranked :) Also in my experience MP is not a great base for support build, as you lack damage due to no farm and "leaving" kills.
+ Fights 1v2 pretty well - useful f.e. when getting ganked from enemy (especially on top lane with bushes) (example videos below).
+ Extremely effective around your jungler - your Q and W makes wonders for junglers when they need YOUR help and want to get some kill participation :D
+ Great AoE damage with Q and W with potential team fight group damage.
+ Great wave control (great way to full push is to pass the minions to stack them, video example below).
+ One shots carries and champions with < 3000 hp.
+ Good poke with Q and W.
+ Great sustain with passive.
+ A lot of health for a mage which kinda negates your mistakes if you get hit f.e.
+ A lot of mana allows you to farm safely with Q while keeping distance if the enemy is too fed or dangerous to get closer.

- Can be harder than standard tank Cho because you need to care about where you move when trying to hit Q.
- Being squishy. Even if you have around 5000 HP don't fall for the illusion of tankiness.
- Depending a lot on your Q accuracy / predictions. Missed Q will often bring you a sore penalty, whether it's during laning phase or late game team fights. You're not a fighter like Aatrox, you rely on each used Q and so do your team mates.
- Low mobility makes you an easy target to hit especially with your growing size and hit box (video below).
- Relying on Q and W cooldowns in late game team fights - often with cds on Q and W you are useless in team fight.

"If you can't handle the toxicity from your teammates, just mute them and focus on playing. If you can sustain their toxicity just leave this like that and try to calm them down."

Enemies, counterpicks

1) USE-(W)-FERAL-SCREAM-BEFORE-(Q)-RUPTURE (TRICKY ONES)


These enemies can cancel/dodge Cho's Q with their kit.
F.e.


2) MOST-LIKELY-FOOD


WHAT ARE THOOOSEEE you may say?
F.e.


"And of course we're not going to be able to use our W fast enough... If I could hit my W before his R, I could kill him there."

Phases in Cho'God's life as I see it

LANING PHASE


All here comes with careful strategy, focusing on farming, using passive to sustain, hitting Rupture and knowing your and your opponent's champ. My experience based on early levels:
Lvl 1 - pure, vulnerable with only Q which you can easily miss. Try not to lose half of hp by just overstepping against any stronger early champ
Lvl 2 - now you get your first blood potential with Q and E. The damage of E is underestimated so get your ignite ready
Lvl 3 - not changing much since level 2 - W costs a lot of mana, so if it isn't required to guarantee you safety against tricky champion - you can pretty much omit W and take Q again just for the sake of more poke damage / better farming
Lvl 6 - another power spike after lvl 2, around 360 true damage on your ult is a money-maker

MID GAME


Around 2 full items, which should always be first; Luden's Tempest and Sorcerer's Shoes. Cho'God becomes a powerful assassin mage at this point. You can one-shot almost anyone, while "tanks" at this stage require maybe only 2/3 Q W combos to poke down to kill. You should look for occassions to get free kills and to do that use Fog of War and Oracle Lens for this.

LATE GAME


Around 4-5 full item, Cho'God becomes a poking mage. I like to compare Cho here to Brand because you have similar gamestyle. You need to stand behind, poke down enemies in team fights, maybe occassionally one-shot enemy carry with R, you have similar AoE burning damage and 1 stun for safety while can get killed for making a small mistake like overstep. Many champions might overpower you at this stage of the game. The most common reasons are:
    Tanks/Fighters have now too much hp for Cho to one-shot them and between each combo you have about 4-5 sec cd (f.e. champs like Illaoi, Aatrox)
    Carries now have too much mobility so hitting your Q on them becomes almost impossible. They can just kite you down to this point, that Flash > R might be the only solution here (f.e. champs like Vayne, Kog'Maw)
Hitting Q tips - anyways remember it comes with strategy and practise!
Laning phase is rather the easy part when it comes to hitting your Q. Use Rupture when enemy wants to cs minions (it's best to do it from bushes).
Using Rupture on you is a good option when enemy tries to goes for you (even better if he's close to friendly minions) because he moves in straight line kiting you etc.
Another great way during laning phase is to full push the wave, so the enemy needs to cs minions under his turret. This way he's under the pressure to kill all the minions before turret does so, not to lose any gold and this is the perfect way to punish your enemy. Especially when it comes to Cannon around which players often become sweaty!

"How did I miss that?"

First levels / laning phase
Cho's Q is very powerful for invades or counter invades. When the game starts you have got about 110 seconds before minions begin fighting, so you have got enough time to follow your team, help with invade, counter invade or just defending your jungler's camps. Here's an example of helping your team mates in countering invade and then still having enough time to get back to your line;

Now let's follow Balori's strategies. Try to reach top lane bushes before your enemy. Get to the bush closer to your base and try to use Q to last hit the first 3 minions and hit enemy champion at the same time.
If those 3 minions seperate (bcs enemy full pushed them) - you might use your Q on enemy champion and as many minions as possible at the same time, then try to aa the rest of the minions instantly, while he's still on slow.
Your Q costs you always 50 mana and has 6 sec CD on all levels (with items it goes to about 4 sec CD in late game). Focus on finishing minions with Q that are too far for you to aa them. Try to kill minions and poke your enemy at the same time, so it saves you some mana (passive + poke).
Level 2 E ability is the moment of getting a chance for first blood if enemy underestimates you and forgets that you have got your Ignite and wave of minions near to help when he attacks you (your E damage on level 2 is amazing).

You can push waves faster by moving through minions to group them in one spot to hit all at the same time. Here's an example of full push to immediately take free plates;

"We need to always focus on farming. No matter what, no matter against who you are playing, you're always going to focus on farming."

Combos
Q > Aa > E > W > Aa > R
Optimal combo, example video:
When you ambush enemy who is at long distance you can try:
Q > W (can be as prolonged as possible) > E > R or Q > W (can be as prolonged as possible) > Aa > E > R when you have enough time or you know that your enemy can't escape you.

"Right now he thinks he's more powerful because I'm playing passive and right now I am going to kill him because of that."

Swaping with bot lane time
You can swap with your bot lane about after u get the first turret on your lane.

You are gonna need Oracle Lens on Bot lane!
Enemy support will take care of good vision in bushes etc. for the next time after this:

=== IT WORKS 99% OF THE TIME! ===


Don't let your enemies know what is coming! When you are swapping with your bot lane, try to sneak into the bot lane bushes making sure any vision wasn't on you. You have now an easy ambush, you just need to focus the right one and hit Q on your opponent!

REMEMBER TO CHECK IF THERE AREN'T ANY WARDS WITH ORACLE LENS.

Video of fighting bot lane 1v2 (especially first time on lane) example below.

Whom to focus depends on champions. It's not always adc in this scenario! (f.e. when it comes to champs like Morgana or Lulu).

"I can't believe that I died one against two. I need to practise more then."

Team fights
You are not a frontliner anymore. Don't fall for the illusion of tankiness!
Even if you have 6000 hp, you are still fragile to any damage, because you don't have armor or magic resist.
Stay behind, poke and cc the most important enemies.
Going all-in is usually worth only if you can hit multiple targets or remove enemy carries from the team fight (f.e. eat adc with Flash).
When enemies are poked down enough, you can go in and use your Ultimate on the right target.

"I made one mistake and right now our teammates will make sure that it's going to be impossible to get carried."

Jungle
You are kind of like Karthus . I recommend getting level 6 as fast as possible. For ganks I would only go for obvious and/or easy kills/ganks.
    S14 you should still get as many Void Grubs as you can before level 6.
    At lvl 6 you can invade enemy jungler etc.
I don't recommend ganking on levels 1-5 (unless it's obvious kills or ganks).
    At level 6 you can 1v1 almost anyone and eat jungle monsters before recalling / objectives a lot.
    Usually Sorcerer Boots > Luden's Tempest for additional movement speed.
Ultimate
- If you are far behind and you can't kill anybody, feast on minions 6 times to gain free stacks for extra hp.
- Don't hesitate to eat as kill stealing. The stacks make it double-gold so it is worth.
- Use your Ultimate when you think for the next 20-30 seconds you won't need it in any fight or for objectives.
- Stack gives you size, damage (on E and R) and 120 hp PERMAMENTLY, which makes it worth around additional 400 gold so it is similar to getting double kill!
- Eat creeps before recalling. There will pass about 30 seconds before you return and you will have your Ultimate almost fully back and ready to use.
- Use your Ultimate on any creep nearby when you are going to die and your team can't help you. It's an impasse, but mistakes happen to everyone.
- Remember that Cho'Gath's Ultimate has got about 0.3 seconds delay. It can be the missing split second sometimes (easy to feel later on)
- Remember that on 6th level you will deal about 1050 damage to monsters and on 16th level you will deal about 1500 damage with your Ultimate.

"Before we go back - always full push. You need to force them to lose as much gold as possible. So before you go back to your base to get your items full push the lane, force the tower to kill all the creeps and you're going to be just fine."

Specific FEAST tips about stacks
+ Summoned enemy Herold gives you permanent stack.
+ Wukong's clone gives you permanent stack.
+ Shaco's clone gives you permanent stack.
+ Le'Blanc's clone gives you permanent stack.
+ Sion during his passive gives you permanent stack.
+ Illaoi's spirit (E) gives you permanent stack.

+/- Zac's final blob doesn't give you permanent stack.
+/- Yorick's Maiden of the Mist doesn't give you permanent stack.
+/- Annie's Tibbers doesn't give you permanent stack.
+/- Ivern's Daisy doesn't give you permanent stack.

- Killing someone while one's Guardian Angel is active doesn't give you any stack.
- Killing Anivia while she turns into an egg (passive) doesn't give you any stack.
- Killing someone with Zilean's ultimate doesn't give you any stack.

"Just relax guys, just relax."

Tips
- You can use E [Vorpal Spikes] slow to make hitting your Q [Rupture] easier (slow equals to 30-50%).
- You can abuse bushes to get easier Q hits - without any vision on you, the enemy doesn't see your Q animation + he doesn't hear the "ground" sound. It makes Q almost impossible to dodge. Hiding inside a bush without getting spotted can often be a very effective way to make enemy feel safe, get free Q hit or even free kill.
- Try to hit enemy champions and kill low hp minions at the same time in one Q
- During laning phase you can use Q on enemy champion instead of low hp minion so he gets knocked-up and slowed and you can last-hit minion with aa. (enemy gets dmg as well and you get the minion)
- When you are in the base waiting for hp and mana regen, if you have 2 Doran rings already, you can leave base as soon as you have about 80% hp or 50% mana. Rings will recover your mana really fast, regen and passive will recover your hp back fast - every second counts!
- There are a lot of champions who will outscale you and kill easily in late game (f.e. ). 30 minutes+ you will be getting more vulnerable. Ending at 15-30 minutes is optimal for Cho'God, just before your FOOD catches you up.
- While trying to catch your food - don't use your Q right on it, but slightly behind the enemy champion. He might dodge that, however he'll be forced to go backwards to you.
- Your E ability resets your auto-attack. Useful in a fight, while pushing tower, destroying enemy's vision etc.
- Cho's E ability gives him 50 range for next 3 AA. This means you can use this to reach enemies sometimes with your auto-attacks even through narrow walls when you are big enough.
- Before going back to get your items try to full push the minions, so enemy will lose creeps under his turret.
- Beware that Cho's W and R have about 0.3 sec delay (animation). and there is also a way to cancel Cho's Ultimate - if enemy flashes away at the same time you use your Ultimate, it will cancel and you won't get the stack.
- When full pushing the lane, you can move through coming minions to bait them into your single Q circle and hit whole wave at once (example video in "First levels / laning phase" chapter above)
- Sometimes you can use just your IGNITE for escape if with Nimbus Cloak due to the additional extra speed and you can also use it to catch enemy champion.


"This mistake will cost us a lot of creeps. Not the death, don't worry about that. Just worry about the farm."

Items against Cho
Tiamat is a dream item for Cho to play against. It often ends up in free kills for you, no hp, no mr only wave clear, but cho still has his Q W E to clear minions faster.

Mercury's Treads - inconsistently with its purpose in fact isn't an amazing starting item against our poking Cho. It's gonna be a good item only after getting more HP for more sustain first.

Zhonya's Hourglass Enemy using Zhonya usually gives you free Q hit if you time it very good depending on enemy champion.

Guardian Angel This is a pretty annoying item against Cho, because killing enemy champion when it's active will end in you not getting any feast stack. At least you can now time your Q perfectly for the moment enemy becomes vulnerable, just like with Zhonya's Hourglass.

Null-Magic Mantle, Negatron Cloak and Spectre's Cowl - Don't forget that this is a full magic penetration build, so it's not gonna be that strong against Cho'God (especially that your ult deals true damage) especially after you build Void Staff.

Immortal Shieldbow is a good item against Cho'God. Against champions with this item trying to one-combo kill them might end in failure due to no additional major damage abilities from Cho rather than Q W R, if your enemy survives your 3 spells with his Immortal Shieldbow. Besides the risk it brings, you won't get stack as intended if this item saves enemy from your ult execution.

Hearthbound Axe and Wit's End are good items against Cho'God. It gives your enemy movement speed just like the old Phage did. Enemies like Kayle will have much more mobility to farm and punish you with it, not to mention the magic resist before you build Void Staff.

More mid-late-game related:

Edge of Night and Banshee's Veil are pretty much nightmare items against AP Cho. In late game you usually don't have time (and distance) to hit it with E, so it burns either your Q or W, which pretty much on almost any champion makes them deadly.

"He's going to play with Tiamat. The worst mistake ever and we're going to just destroy him because of that."

Types of foods - summary
Against tricky foods you need to use more brain because of their will to live and unfortunately - some abilities.


TRICKY FOODS IN SUMMARY:





MY FAVOURITE FOODS:





"Classic jungler. He's gonna make a mistake and he's gonna blame others for that."

Short video guides/examples

You can use fog of war to survive in a hard situtation with your Q, example;





Sometimes when you are low hp look for nearby low minions to heal yourself, example;




Using fog of war anywhere with walls (no bushes), example;





Try to use your aa reset on E when fighting, taking a turret or vision, example;





Optimal dealing with enemy bot lane 1v2 after top-bot swap, example; (if they are seperated try to focus and instantly delete only one player - adc or supp - depends on champs)





Using bushes for easy Q hit + double kill example;





Another example of using fog of war - but in enemy's perspective;


Demaciaaa..


Time your level up 6 to surprise your enemy when possible;





An example of combo with Alistar (one of you has to initiate);





Using Q slightly in front of your enemy and forcing him to go backwards where you want him if he dodges that;





Example of bullying your enemy by preventing him from farming etc;





Care about your huge hit box! You think growing bigger with stacks is only fun? Then watch this video what might happen;





Pushing the wave into enemy's turret is a great way of making pressure on the enemy, punishing him for farming with Q/W or even getting the kill - especially around Cannons!



I'll be adding more soon!
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League of Legends Champions:

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