Welcome to my Kassadin guide. This is how I PLAY HIM!, and since I actually have some success playing him, I must be doing something right.

Okay, this guide revolves in Kassadin going mid or solo top because you really need an early edge on your opponents. Since Kassadin really sucks at farming, you must rely on early kills and this is what Kassadin excels at.

With this build you will get ~850 AP late game with a decent amount of survivability.

These are the runes that I roll with, mostly because they are okay with most AP champions.
You can also go with CDR and flat AP if you want, but MPen reds are highly recommended :D

Standart 9/0/21, focusing on CDR, MPen and mana regen.

Start:
.

This should last you long enough to get lvl 6 and head back and buy a.

The reason you get a Catalyst is that Kass is really squishy and the passive allows you to lane longer.


After that you should get:
because you can get stacks easily when you start ganking and that will greatly increase your AP.




Now we start getting our power items:

and turn your Tear into an.



After this you should get a ****load of AP but lacking survivability so the next items are:

(excelent active, just remember to use it when you get focused)

and turn that Catalyst into a.

DON'T FORGET:

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Other good items for Kass:
- if the other team is smart enough to buy magic resist

- if you want survivability without sacrificing AP

- Great all-around item, AP, MResist, good proc.

- If their team has hard CC and you keep getting caught.

I run Ignite and Teleport with Kass.
because it helps you get early kills, which is what Kass needs. Also great against Mundo, Swain and healthregen/lifestealing *****ees.
because it is a great all-around spell: Defend lanes, push lanes, gank lanes. Even if your opponent backs out once he sees the teleport animation, you can still get him. Noone can escape Kass, remeber that.


is also a great spell for Kassadin since he is vulnerable to CC, but I always forget to use it :D



Flash and Ghost become kinda useless once you reach lvl 6 so I wouldn't bother going with those.

You will want to get a solo lane, either mid or top.

There are 2 phases of playing Kassadin:
Pre-level 6 and PWNPHASE.

Pre-level 6

Before you get your ultimate you want to be very passive, just la****ting minions and harassing your opponent with your Q.
You don't want to push your lane because you have no way of fleeing a gank.
Towerhug if you have to but make sure you are getting last hits.

Kassadin is afraid before lvl 6. After 6 he is fearless.

PWNPHASE

After you reach lvl 6, you should start harassing your opponent hard. Spam your Q. When you think you are able to take him down, blink in, null sphere, force pulse, ignite, auto-attack him and blink again if you have to.

After you start taking control of your lane you should find other lanes to gank. Assess your opponents CC abilities and pick your targets. Do not be afraid to tower dive if you know you can get the kill. Your whole combo of Q, E and ignite will be dealing a lot of damage.

When the laning phase is over and team fights start to appear, it is your job to backreap the squishies. Just blink around the teamfight and pick them off. It's what you do, you are a backstabing ninja.
However, you have to know when to pop in because you need the element of surprise. You have to be silent and fast.
Also, your E is awesome for teamfights, it has a short cooldown and you will have 6 charges everytime so just rift in, pop your E and rift out.

Tips:

- Everytime you port back to base, riftwalk in your platform to charge up your Force Pulse.
- Buy wards and ask your teams to buy wards aswell. Your teleport spell can be used to surprise gank a lane.
- If even with Tear of Goddess/Archagel Staff you are having mana issues, you can level your W for it's passive.
- Remember that Ignite counts towards charging your E.