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Hi all, I’m Pentakai!Welcome to my guide. I am an avid Tankadin player and have had some good experience on him.

I was introduced to LoL near the end of Season 8 by some good friends of mine. In Season 9, I decided to really grind Ranked since I missed out on the previous Victorious skin. I placed in Bronze 2 and finished the season in Platinum 4.

I’m looking forward to Season 10 because my goal is to reach Diamond. I still have a lot to learn game-sense wise and mechanically, but I’ll keep improving.

Kassadin is currently one of the strongest champions in the midlane meta. This guide was made to share my favorite way to play him. That is, building tank items and still melting squishies.

Not Just Conqueror??

Yes, Tankadin CAN use other runes. As someone who used to spam nothing but Conqueror on Kass, I quickly realized how bad it felt in certain matchups. Runes are important on Kassadin to help him SURVIVE and WIN laning phase. Kassadin has a terrible early game, and Conqueror does nothing to help that. Sometimes it's better to use a different rune that will have more impact earlier than Conqueror.

Is It Necessary?

When I tried out Fleet and Electrocute on Tankadin, I was happy to see it worked. The survivability Fleet gives you is insane, and it scales surprisingly well. Lane bullies become less dominating. Electrocute allows you to literally 1-shot that enemy Katarina at LEVEL 6. That's insane for a champion that people expect to do 0 damage that early. Here's what gave me the idea; the Koreans started the Tankadin build a while ago. However, they went toplane and took Unsealed Spellbook. I do not use their exact build or dare go toplane, but I realized that the Koreans proved something: Tankadin doesn't NEED Conqueror.

When To Take It

I'm not saying Conqueror is BAD, rather it's situational. It's great into matchups who prefer extended trades, very tanky enemy teams, or matchups where you're confident you will easily survive early game. To sum it up: Taking FF/Electro rather than Conqueror makes your early game much more comfortable. You still have a very strong late game, but you're slightly weaker in teamfights. Conqueror makes your early game feel much weaker, but strengthens your late game power more than any other rune. But if you fall behind or don't make it to late game, it's useless.

Abusing The Build

Unlike Full-AP Kassadin, you won't be so damn squishy. You'll be doing less damage, sure, but Tankadin still provides A LOT of damage anyways. How? This build exploits Archangel Staff's mana-scaling, Kassadin's R mana-scaling, Abyssal Mask's Passive, Transcendence's bonus-CDR AP, and Gathering Storm's AP scaling. These elements are what allows you to build tank items while still doing enough damage to assassinate enemies. It is important that you stack your ultimate to 800 if you want maximum damage output.

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Early Game

Kassadin's laning phase before level 6 is extremely weak. Early on you should just be looking to last hit minions and poke with Q and E while playing safe. Make sure to save Q for trades against AP enemies so you take less damage. Using E against AD melee champs is VITAL! Your main goal to POWER FARM.

If you're against an assassin then you should be keeping the wave towards your tower and/or freezing it until level 6. Your main goal should be to keep vision up for your team, survive laning phase, and getting CS and platings.

After building your first item, you can start doing damage, allowing your roams to be more powerful. HOWEVER, only roam if it benefits you and make sure not to take massive risks. Kassadin is a selfish champion early, but you'll be able to repay your team late game when you can 1v9. If your laner goes missing but you're to weak to follow, ping MIA and keep farming.

Mid Game

When laning phase ends, you should be giving mid lane up to your bot lane so they can pressure objectives better while you are splitpushing in one of the side lanes. While Baron Nashor is up, it's better if you split push in bot lane so that you draw pressure down there. If you took Teleport, do not use it selfishly during this time so you can use it if a teamfight breaks out.

If a teamfight starts, you should be using Control Wards/Oracle Lens to deny vision while moving around on the sides and waiting for an opportunity to go in. WATCH OUT FOR CC ABILITIES! If you're not able to safely access their backline, then you should regroup with your team and wait for a good engage.

If a teamfight breaks out, wait for the enemies to blow their CC abilities. Since you'll be building tank, you'll be able to take some damage while dishing out a lot of damage yourself. IT IS CRUCIAL to stack up your Riftwalk before entering a fight to increase the damage output of your ultimate since this is your main form of damage. Remember, your ultimate damage scales with mana, this is why Iceborn Gauntlet and Frozen Heart work so well on Kassadin. Don't forget your W and Presence of Mind will give you a lot of mana back.

Late Game

You'll be dealing an illegal amount of damage at full build, which makes it super easy for you to assassinate squishies. You should be grouping with your team as much as you can to teamfight and take objectives. Otherwise, you should be splitpushing. Your objectives are the same as in the mid game: assassinate carries, destroy towers, and take objectives.

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Fleet Footwork

Fleet Footwork

Presence of Mind

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Alacrity

in some matchups it helps you in general with the fights. usually matchups that aren't really THAT easy but with aclarity ALOT easier. You'll notice when you do it once.

Matchups are: Azir, Fizz, orianna, Kayla and Taliyah

Why?

Because after 6 you can literally go in and attack them to death, except for fizz, i'll get back to him soon

Azir (Soldiers), Kayle (Q slow) Orianna (R) and Taliyah (W) will all have some sort of ability to you up after you go in with R so aclarity helps with the first AA to proc Fleet and AFTER that you can AA quite fast and kill them with that. It is really insane after you tried it once. OFC i know there is still going to be CC in the game but if its smth like a Maokai top and Blitzcrank Support with Xayah botlane and lets say Reksai jgl. Half of the CC you cant even Reduce anyways with tenacity (bc knockup)

For fizz now fizz is extremely annoying even in mid-late. but aclarity ALWAYS gave me the upper hand in fighting him, especially late game

Coup De Grace

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Electrocute

Presence of Mind

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Alacrity

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Fleet Footwork

Presence of Mind

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Alacrity

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Transcendence

Gathering Storm

Flash

Teleport

Ignite

Void Stone
INNATE: Kassadin is permanently ghosted and takes 15% reduced magic damage.

Kassadin doesn't have to worry about being creep blocked. Only mortals worry about such petty things. What you immediately realize, the biggest damage source late game Magic Damage is reduced by a whopping 15%. This is actually huge because on top of base MR damage reduction, you get a flat 15%.


Null Sphere
ACTIVE: Kassadin fires an orb of void energy at the target enemy, dealing (65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185 (+ 70% AP)) magic damage and interrupting channeled abilities.

The excess energy forms a shield around Kassadin, this shield exclusively absorbs (60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+ 30% AP)) magic damage for 1.5 seconds.

This ability is Kassadin's key ability. It attac, it protec, and it makah duh money. it can be used to poke, to interrupt channels, such as malzahar ulti and many other abilities if used with the right timing, and to cs (kill creeps).

A little tip with this ability, you can q auto a minion to last hit it with ease.


Nether Blade
PASSIVE: Kassadin's basic attacks deal 20 (+ 10% AP) bonus magic damage.

ACTIVE: Kassadin's next basic attack gains 50 bonus range, deals 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 80% AP) increased magic damage and restores 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8% of missing mana, with the amount quintupled against champions.


This ability is extremely strong early game, especially against melee characters. Make sure to use it as an auto reset (meaning cancel an auto animation after the damage gets off with this ability).


Force Pulse
PASSIVE: Kassadin gains a Void Energy stack each time a nearby champion, including himself, uses an ability, up to 6. At 6 stacks, Kassadin gains the ability to cast Force Pulse.

ACTIVE: Kassadin emits a pulse of void energy, dealing 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 / 180 (+ 80% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a cone in the target direction and slowing them for 1 second.

The slow and AP ratio on this ability are huge. Make sure to use w coming out of spawn to stack this up so it'll be ready by the time you get to lane.

Also, you can use this ability, and if you time it correctly, flash before it goes off for extra range and unexpected effect. This is most useful in the early game because it just gives you more damage and less counterplay in a flash combo.


Riftwalk
ACTIVE: After a small delay, Kassadin blinks to the target location, dealing 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 40% AP)(+ 2% maximum mana) magic damage to all nearby enemies on arrival.

Each subsequent Riftwalk within 15 seconds doubles its mana cost and increases its damage, stacking up to 4 times (extra damage per stack) 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 10% AP) (+ 1% maximum mana).

This Ability is where Kassadin Really steps into those big shoes he needs to fill. At max rank and max stacks you're dealing over 1000 damage every 2 seconds; which, with this build, is reduced to .6 seconds (45% CDR, 25% Ult CDR)

A special tip about this ability not everyone knows, you can R flash like E flash with ahri, It is infinitely faster than flash r and hits the same area.

Kassadin started life as a lowly offcast, walking the harsh sands of the Great Sai alongside merchant caravans to draw predators away from their more valuable goods. He survived many of these treks across the desert, and began to serve less as bait, and more as a guide.

The foreign tongues that sought his talents, “Kas sai a dyn?” or “whom does the desert know?” often slurred their Shuriman, and so he became fondly known as Kassadin in the back alleys and markets of Bel’zhun. He spent many years exploring the ancient ruins of his homeland, making his employers exceedingly wealthy, but it wasn’t until a dig near Zirima that he found a treasure of his own—he fell in love with a woman from one of the desert tribes.

With his wife and newborn daughter, Kassadin settled in a small village in the rocky canyons to the south. He was on the road often, his work sometimes requiring him to accompany particularly valuable relics to some faraway sponsor. But, no matter where his travels took him, Kassadin would always return with exciting tales from the world beyond.

Journeying home from distant Piltover, Kassadin and his fellow caravaneers were watering their beasts at an oasis when they encountered the first terrified survivors stumbling out of the desert. They spoke of the disaster that had claimed their homes, as if the maw of the underworld itself had opened up to devour them. They had barely escaped with their lives.

Fearing for his own family’s safety, Kassadin left the others behind, riding hard, driving his mount almost to exhaustion. When he finally reached the place where his village had once stood, he found only shifting sand and rubble. He clawed at the debris until his hands bled, screaming out his wife and daughter’s names, though no answer came. Days later, Kassadin’s companions caught up to him, now just a broken and empty man weeping beneath the scorching sun.

They dragged him back to Zirima, but Kassadin would go no further. For years, he tried to drown his grief, reduced to little more than a vagrant… until word reached town of “the Prophet.”

Whispers of unspeakable horrors that dwelt beneath the earth, and of sacrifices made in their name, chilled Kassadin to the bone. He knew well the legends of old Icathia, and the fate that befell that accursed place—if the Void had been deliberately drawn toward Shurima once more, then it had likely been the death of his entire village, and countless more besides. He also knew there were few, if any, who could stand against it.

In that moment, Kassadin swore that he would avenge his wife and daughter, by destroying this insidious Prophet, and the source of his abyssal power. He was a man who had made his living by finding safe paths through the most dangerous places, and resolved to arm himself with the most arcane and esoteric weapons ever known in Valoran, fused with Zaunite ingenuity, and blessed by Ionian spirit-healers. He called in every favor he could, from scholars of antiquities to common smugglers, for their help in… acquiring what he sought. Many called him a madman, believing this the last time they would ever see their old friend alive—Kassadin merely thanked them for their concern, and bid them farewell. He would face the Void alone.

Last of all, he stole the infamous Nether Blade of Horok, the sword that had slain a thousand deceivers in the latter days of the empire. He could feel the cold pull of oblivion in its edge, but no longer had any regard for his own mortality, and nothing of his old life left to lose.

Disguised in the robes of a pilgrim, more than a decade since he had last set foot anywhere near that desolate land, Kassadin made his way into Icathia. He would go where no man was ever meant to walk.

He would have his vengeance, even if it killed him.