Kog'Maw is usually played in the Bottom Lane, as he is most vulnerable on his own. With the help of a support, he can more easily make it to late game with his item power spikes.

With Mid Lane Kog'Maw however, you have the advantage of Range.

With his (R) Ability, Living Artillery, instead of his (W) Ability, Bio-Arcane Barrage, Kog'Maw becomes a much more Safe champion. Kog'Maw is still very easy to kill once the gap is closed, however that opportunity becomes less frequent.

Kog'Maw's Range with his Living Artillery is a big reason as to why AP Builds can still work on him. If you position correctly, nobody can lay a finger on you, and you'll be dishing out surprising amounts of damage.

Using Quick Cast with Indicator for Living Artillery is one of the biggest recommendations I can give for your gameplay.

Accuracy is more important than Speed

Being able to chain your Living Artillery into multiple hits is a major asset, and easily acquiring targets, as well as leading your shots will massively boost your performance. At distance especially, it is difficult to understand where your shot will actually land, so having an indicator is a massive help.

The delay might seem daunting at first, however try not to focus on that. Instead, focus on how amazing your Accuracy is becoming. Once you get the feel for the delay between casts, you will hardly notice that there was even a delay to begin with.

Kog'Maw has a very straight forward combo in his kit, actually, his entire kit is extremely straight forward. It is important however to combo his moves correctly.

Your primary combo will be as follows:

Void Ooze[E]+ Caustic Spittle[Q]+ Living Artillery[R]

This seems fairly easy, and that would be correct.

When you use your E, Void Ooze, you can quickly press your Q key to use Caustic Spittle at the same time.

This is called

Buffering

Caustic Spittle is slightly faster than Void Ooze, meaning that when you buffer both inputs, the Q will connect to the target first, and apply the maximum amount of damage that is possible.

Continuing on with your abilities, your R, Living Artillery can also be buffered together with these 2 abilities as well, making this a surprisingly simple, yet powerful combo tool.

Kog'Maw is one to play around with many different items in this form, and has surprising flexibility. For the most consistent items, I would recommend these 3 items to start

Key Items: Liandry's Anguish Manamune/Muramana Rylai's Crystal Scepter

These 3 items in conjunction can work wonders for Kog'Maw. It offers him:

Mana

Added Sustained Damage

Slows to help stay on target

Mixed Damage

Tank Management

Kog'Maw excels with Sustained Damage gained from Liandry's Anguish . You don't want to focus as much on how much initial damage you can do, more so, your damage comes from consecutive hits on your target, and the damage continues to stack on as the poking and fighting continues on.

This is not to say that Kog'Maw lacks any sort of burst options either. This is where Muramana comes in.

This item gives you a pretty nice powerspike. You are allowed to use your abilities a lot more freely thanks to the massive pool of mana you have just gained, however most of it's value comes from it's passives.

Both Your (R), Living Artillery and Basic Attacks value greatly from this item. Your Living Artillery specifically gains some extra damage from 2 different passives, that add straight Attack Damage, and bonus Physical Damage to abilities. People may overlook this item for Seraph's Embrace however, in testing I found the item to do less damage than the Muramana counterpart.

One last note would also be that your basic attacks do still hold value with this champion, especially since your W, Bio-Arcane Barrage provides some extra max health damage. Muramana will also deal extra basic Attack Damage based on maximum Mana. If you find yourself in a predicament that makes it hard to land Living Artillery, or if your cooldowns are up, using Bio-Arcane Barrage or just your basic attacks can be a good last ditch option.

Lastly, Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a fairly safe and reliable option as a third item. It offers a decent amount of Ability Power, some health for those sticky situations, but best of all, it offers a zero cooldown slow on all of your abilities. Kog'Maw especially benefits well with this item as he's able to trigger the slow, and have enough time to land the next slow without the slow running out.

More Slows = More Hits

More Hits = More Slows

Alternative Mythic Options:

Luden's Tempest

and

Everfrost

These two items are both strong options on Kog'Maw, however they are a more situational buy. It comes down to a matter of opinion in this case, but Liandry's Anguish is a more consistent item in most games.

Luden's Tempest is a very, very good item for Kog'Maw into any Squishy team compositions. With a poke based Rune such as Arcane Comet or even Summon Aery, as well as good use from the earlier mentioned Buffer Combo, the amount of burst damage you can do is enough to consistently chunk their health to half or below.

Everfrost is definitely the more "situational" item of the 3 choices, but it offers the most in Utility. This item unfortunately provides the least amount of damage output of the other 2, however, in conjunction with 2 utility based Spells like Exhaust and Flash, and an item such as a Cosmic Drive , which provides even more escape and kiting potential, this can be a very safe choice to go.

Summoner Spells for Kog'Maw are pretty straight forward for the most part, However, there is always strategy to be made in these kinds of choices. For the most part, you will want to focus mostly on your utility. Anything that can keep you alive will be key to a successful setup. Here are a few spells I would recommend:

Flash

The big elephant in the room for this character would most likely be his lack of mobility. Positioning is a key component to winning almost any fight, and especially when you are playing any kind of ranged carry, it is important for you to stay away from anybody who can lock you down. Flash is one of the most important things to have in your kit. Whether it would be a Flash behind a wall to avoid the frontline of a fight, a Flash to the side to dodge a stun, or a Flash towards a running opponent to land that one last, max range Living Artillery, this is the only part of his kit that I would never recommend to change.

Exhaust

The rest of Kog'Maw's spell options can be changed depending on what matchup you have, but in most cases I recommend Exhaust. With the same idea as Flash, this spell will serve a very similar purpose of safety and repositioning. When an opponent gets too close to you, having Exhaust, Flash, and/or both is going to be a big help. Especially when a melee character gets onto you, not only will they have trouble staying onto you, but their damage will be reduced as well. This spell also has the added utility of helping lock down any overextended opponents, and can actually make a significant difference in fights. If I were to choose one Summoner Spell that is a good, all-around consistent choice, this would be it.

[Cleanse

Cleanse is something I would highly recommend into any hard crowd control team compositions, or any lane matchups with long lasting, stuns, snares, roots, etc. I specifically like to take this spell into matchups such as Zoe, as her sleep spell can absolutely ruin your day, or if the enemy jungler locks you down with any crowd control, such as a Morgana, this spell can get you out of these sticky situations. This Summoner Spell is of course a bit situational, but in those times you may need it, it may just save your life.

Barrier

Both Barrier and Exhaust fill very similar roles, and can be very interchangeable. Barrier is a key spell in dealing with Burst damage threats. such as Zed, Fizz, and LeBlanc. All of these champions are designed to kill you in one combo, so being able to absorb that damage can be the difference between life and death.

AP Kog'Maw has surprisingly good flexibility with his Rune Pages, and can be heavily experimented with, however I've managed to narrow my options down to 3 selections for this guide in question:

The Sorcery Tree offers the best options overall for Kog'Maw. It mixes damage output with a bit of cooldown and mana sustainability. Using Arcane Comet with Scorch can help Kog'maw keep a good distance between himself and his opponents, while at the same time, provide some nice extra damage in any fights you engage into. Presence of Mind mixes well with Manaflow Band and the extra damage from Coup de Grace can be a nice extra to your executing Living Artillery.

Fleet Footwork is a great rune to be used for safety and sustain, and the rest of the rune page is meant to give Kog'Maw a little more poke. Manaflow Band and Presence of Mind give him a nice bonus of Mana to help him stay in a lane and in fights just a little bit longer. Kog'Maw has a very weak laning phase but his scaling and item choices make it easier to opt for more early game oriented rune pages, This Rune Page focuses mostly on being able safely farm, and being able to hold your own until the later parts of the game. Kog'maw benefits a lot from his items, So try to stay as healthy in lane as possible. Those items will eventually be worth it.

This Rune Page follows the same trend as the main ones I have listed, and can honestly be a Go-To for you as well. Phase Rush is really nice for most fights since it offers a nice escape. Kog'Maw is able to quickly proc this Rune, however it's reliability is down to how well you can hit your skillshots. Transcendence is an odd one for some but I believe that you should never focus on just using your R, Living Artillery, and this applies to the other Runes listed, if you can apply it to them. Kog'Maw offers a ton of burst with his other abilities and added Ability Haste can go a long way, Especially since you still use your (W), Bio-Arcane Barrage a lot in engagements where it may be hard to hit your other abilities. having it on a low cooldown means you aren't a sitting duck all the time when you're missing your abilities.

Side Note - Secondary Rune Pages

With all of these Runes being listed, I would like to point out that both the Resolve Tree and Inspiration Tree have very useful options. I haven't explicitly put either of these in my preferred Rune choices, however the sustain, utility, and defensive choices they offer are hard to ignore. Biscuit Delivery alone makes the Inspiration Tree a good secondary choice, and the added resistances and health from both Conditioning and Overgrowth make a great difference in a lot of matchups. Experimentation is a key reason as to why I love this character so much, and I encourage you to take some time experimenting with other Runes with not only Kog'Maw, but other champions as well.

This build is in my eyes, a good pick into most poke mage matchups as expected. At the end of the day, Kog'Maw still has some really bad weaknesses, and you have to make some compromises to counteract them. His strengths however, are on the extreme opposite of his cons.

Kog'Maw to me is a Fun champion.

If you enjoy a challenge of accuracy, with a high risk, high reward play style, I would very much recommend Kog'Maw to you.

I should also state that this guide in question was inspired by Acid Reign, another AP Kog'maw guide by Aqua Dragon. Check him out if you would like more information on this specific role and character, as he goes into further detail and expresses his own opinions on the characters strengths and weaknesses.

If there is anything you think I should add, change, or remove from this guide, please feel free to let me know. This guide is a first for me, and I would very much appreciate any advice that I could receive.