Let's start with why I made this build

I checked out this website and I can see billions of builds for champs, but they all are 5v5 based. Now I know that most people play 5v5, but some people prefer short games.
And being such a person I was searching for something that didn't cost that much gold and was still effective. When I couldn't find such a guide I thought of creating my own. I've been playing Cho'Gath for a while now, and usually I play 3v3.
I tried out a lot of builds overtime, but came to the conclusion that this was the best one for me. This is why I thought of sharing it with you guys. May be people have suggestions or want to comment on it?

What makes this build a good one?

It's cheap for one.
Deals pretty good damage and is a perfect ganker/nuker.
The rest will be explained throughout the guide.

Some stats when you reach lvl 18 + 6 ultimate stacks

HP: 2910
Mana: 925
Damage: 128
Attack Speed: 105%
Ability Power: 422,7
Movement: 503,01

A cheap guide!

It is quite easy to achieve the items I used in my guide. Actually the figure is just under 10k gold, which is really doable, even in a 3v3.


(I will post the rest in summary, but this is a little preview ;) Besides you get these stats with only 5 items - of which 1 very cheap -, so if the games takes longer than you expected, there's plenty of room for improvement!)

Heal and Flash

I chose these, because my Cho build hasn't got any defensive items, and greatly relies on its health stacks from your ultimate in ganks. You wouldn't want to die every time your team loses a team fight. This would result in losing stacks, which is very bad for you and your teammates. Heal will save you a lot in team fights, and if you cast it in the right area, ypu might heal your whole team, making it a lot easier to win the team fight. The second spell, Flash, is great for both offense and defense. It makes it easy to get First Blood and to chase enemy champions. Secondly it is great to save yourself with it, if you get ganked or if you are losing any kind of fight really.

I am too pro for Heal!

If you rather not have Heal, because you feel there is no need for saving allies or yourself then I suggest to get the Summoner Spell Ignite to do additional damage in teamfights, ganks or 1vs1 champion fights.

Ability Power!

4,95 x3 = 14,85
0,59 x9 = 5,31
0,17 per lvl x9 = 27,54
This means that you have 47,7 AP at lvl 18.
And at the start you'll already have a boost of ~20 AP.
Also you'll have some magic penetration, which is always nice ;)

But, why just Ability Power and Magic Penetration?

I chose AP-related runes only, because we want you to be a full nuker. Cho'Gath is already tank-orientated, so he has enough health and defense as it is (for this purpouse). You can give him some more health or defense by a Warmogs Armour or Guardian Angel in the end of the game, but I will come to that shortly.
As for mana, Nashor's Tooth and Doran's Ring will provide enough mana regain for your champ to spam skills. The amount of mana is something you can upgrade after my items, but I will come to that soon enough too ;)

Damage and Skill Cooltime Reduction

The masteries provide some extra Magic Penetration %, which adds nicely to the bit you already gained from the runes. Additionally you gained 9% Skill cooltime reduction, which is very useful for Cho'Gath AP-built, because his abilities have long cooltimes.

Movement Speed

Furthermore you'll have 3% increased movement speed, which you will love later in the game, when you start owning the opposing champions. This makes it easier to chase enemies or get away when losing a battle.

Last optional Mastery Point (Utility)

I've put my last and optional Mastery Point on Good Hands, because I don't like to be dead for a long while if I die. However you can put it anywhere in Utility. (It must be in Utility, because you want the Presence of the Master.) May be decrease the cooltime of Flash by 15% would be a good alternative.

Early game

First we start off with a Doran's Ring. This gives some hp, mana regain and ability power, being the best start for our Cho'Gath mage. In 3v3 it is normal to try and get First Blood at the start in the bottom lane. I reccomend to do so. If you take Rupture in the beginning you can knock up enemy players and you slow them. This way you and your team mates should be able to kill a champion quite easily. (Most of the times it is better to hit a champion a few times first and then use Rupture when he runs. While slowed you hit him another time or two. He'll run then, but you can use Flash to chase him and kill him. If you get hit by the other champions it is no problem, because you'll have Heal to save you and your team mates. This combination almost always leads to a fairly easy First Blood.)

After you made the First Blood you go up solo. Cho'Gath really is a nice champion to solo lane with. You have Rupture to continuously annoy your opponents with, or to get away from ganks. Furthermore you have Feral Scream for when someone tries to attack you when you are on low health. When you are on low health, just last hit some minions with Rupture or normal attack and you are back in business in no-time!. Soon you'll find out that if you want to spam skills your mana keeps running out or low. Therefore we buy a Meki Pendant. This boosts your mana regeneration. Then we buy Boots of Speed.

Starting to grow

By now you should have turned lvl 6 and I recommend to use your ultimate on the large minions, making it easy to push lanes, gaining money and health from stacks. Remember, you are still kind of weak now, so don't start ganking yet.
We now buy Fiendish Codex. After this you have some Abilty Power, some mana regeneration and you can start killing some enemies. I would recommend to buy Boots of Swiftness before you start ganking, though. After a while you become lvl 11 and your feast will be lvl 2. You should have Nashor's Tooth by now, which means you have good mana regeneration, medium Ability Power and 25% skill cooltime reduction +9% from your Mastery Points.

Your owning starts

With your fast mana regeneration (10 per 5s from Nashor's Tooth, 3 per 5s from Mastery Points and 5 per 5s from Doran's Ring) and your fast skills (34% cooltime reduction) you are a nice damage dealer. It's Definitely best to now get the grey and the green buff. Use your ultimate on the first, so you get another stack. After you killed the second one, you are probably a little low on health. I usually recall and then rush back to kill the dragon. (you can easily solo it, but it might be nice to use a health potion. The dragon gives 25+280=305 gold, so 35 from the potion is no problem. Use your ultimate to kill it.) Now you are fully stacked on buffs, ultimate health stacks and you have nice Ability Power.

Complete rampage

I suggest that you gank/kill some champs now to gain more gold. Now you buy Needlessly Large Rod, Blasting Wand and ultimately Rabadon's Deathcap. This will improve your magic damage dramatically!

The last item is may be a strange one to a lot of people. First take the Dagger, next a Zeal and then a Phantom Dancer. The reason for this, is that your base attack Magic Damage does. And with a good amount of Ability Power, you actually do a lot of damage with your normal attack. The Phantom Dancer increases your attack speed a lot, reassuring you that even when your skills are on cooltime, you do huge amounts of dps. Additionally you gain 15% movement speed, which is seriously amazing for Cho, because you can now chase enemies even easier, or get away from sticky situations. The extra Critical Rate gained is also quite nice. Now the last thing you do is getting the red buff, then the dragon buff, then the green, and last but certainly not least, the grey buff. (In any way take the grey buff last, so you have full advantage of its 30% movement speed.)

You are completely overpowered now, superfast, dealing high amounts of damage and stacked with a good amount of health!

All you have to do now is enjoy your strenght and kill champions, minions, towers in no-time!

The last 2/3 items

The items above are mostly as far as you'll get before the end of the game or the surrender of your opponents ;)
However, it occurs that this is not the case. Throughout the rest of the game you will receive more gold, but .. what to spend it on? This depends greatly on a few aspects, being:
-Your opponents
-Your teammates
-Your preference

Opponents

If your opponents are feeded a lot, and you keep dying, losing stacks, or keep having to run for their superdamage I suggest to go for defense. Observe your opponents closely, so that you know if you need pure armour or magic resistance. A nice item would be a Guardian Angel, giving both and a great passive, namely reviving on death, gaining 750 health and some mana. If it is a dps champion you are against a Frozen Heart might be the solution. 99 armour is very nice and 500 mana is always a pleasure! Additionally you gain the passive of 20% skill cooltime reduction, which is really useful for Cho. If you are playing against Ability power based enemies you can still use the Guardian Angel very well, but Force of Nature might be a good solution too, giving magic resistance and a fairly high health regeneration. Another alternative to prevent yourself from dying is a Warmog's Armour. This gives health and health regeneration, which is always welcome for a champ like Cho'Gath.

If the opposing team is having somewhat the same stats I suggest to buy more ability power. If the team has quite high damage overall I suggest a Rod of Ages as a 5th item. This gives extra health, mana and ability power which will increase overtime. You can also buy a Zhonya's Hourglass. This will give you defense and greatly boost your damage. Also it has an active which can save you in nasty situations. Last, but not least there is the possibility of a Hextech Gunblade, giving both Spell Vamp and Life Steal, making it easier to survive. Also it provides some Ability Power.

If you are winning, but having difficulties really butchering enemy champions it is probably useful to buy a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. This will slow your enemies when you hit them, making them easier to wipe out. If it is pure damage that you miss a Void Staff can do wonders, since it has 40% Magic Penetration, and of course 70 Ability Power; boosting your damage.

If the game really takesong you can combine items, or even sell your Doran's Ring. A good combination would be buying Rod of Ages, then Rylai's Crystal Scepter and last Zhonya's Hourglass.

Teammates

Your last items will probably depend on your allies too. If your team has another tank already, for instance Amumu or Sion it might be best not to buy defense or health. Just make sure your ally tank takes the first few hits and knock up your enemies before you throw yourself in team fights. Then use Feral Scream and there shouldn't be a problem. If your team is full of assassins, for example Katharina or Twisted Fate it might be nice for them to have some more support. You can buy some defensive items, so that you can take the first hits before you and your team kill the opposing champions.

If your allies are complete noobs, because you chose a random game I suggest to buy a Rod of Ages first and then some defensive item, making sure you are safe yourself.

Your preference

Obviously your own playing style helps you decide what's best for you in late game. The items I posted above are just examples of what would be smart in different situations, but really the last 2/3 items are ultimately up to you. May be ypu want to kill towers to end the game quickly, and it might be nice to get another Phantom Dancer or possibly Trinity Force. If you purely want to gank enemies I suggest to buy a Rylai's Crystal Scepter to galling more Ability Power and slowing enemies.

Personally I play my Cho like this:

First I hit someone from distance with Rupture, dealing high damage and slowing him. Then I rush to him and I silence him with Feral Scream. Now I do some normal attacks, but due to my fast attacks and high Ability Power I damage him quite hard. Next he'll try to run away, but fear not! You have Rupture again, because of the 34% skill cooltime reduction. So you place Rupture in his walking path. He'll get slowed again and you can finish him off with Feast. If he has a lot of health you can of course hit him a few times more or cast another Feral Scream, but usually this is not required.

If he does not run nor dies fast enough for your liking, you can do two things:
-Either you have enough health still to fight on, and you cast another Rupture to knock him up. Then again Feral Scream and a few normal attacks. You can also cast Feast before you would kill him with it. This will greatly injure the opponent causing him to run away 9 out of 10 times. Then you can kill him with Rupture, or use Flash and Feral Scream.
-If you do not have enough health to kill him or have medium health, because he is feeded or has an ally, while you don't (anymore?) it's smart to run. He'll probably chase you, which is completely in your advantage. We want him to do this, because while running you cast another Rupture right behind you. He will run right into it, causing him to slow. Now you can safely get away, or as would I do; Silence him and finish him off with Feast. (if you haven't used it already)

Item choice

Well first you buy the Doran's Ring for First Blood and an easy start. Then you buy Meki Pendant and Boots of Speed. Now you can hit some more often and you don't have to go back to base for mana. After a while you buy Fiendish Codex and Boots of Swiftness. You can start killing some enemies now. Next you buy Nashor's Tooth to get even more mana regeneration and some Attack Speed and Ability Power. You are now strong enough to take down the dragon and feed your Cho with feast on various jungle monsters. Also, you can help out in team fights and/or gank. This way you gain gold quite fast and stacks. Build up to your Rabadon's Deathcap, and after that to a Phantom Dancer to enhance your speed and killing abilities! After you've got these items, there are many ways to go on. The last items are completely dependant on the situation of you and your team. (Personally, I like the Rylai's Crystal Scepter a lot, but it is up to you)

Stats on lvl 18 with 6 ultimate stacks

Health: 2910
Mana: 925
Health per 5: 22.8
Mana per 5: 37.45
Armour: 84
Magic Resistance: 30
Damage: 128
Critical Chance: 48.08%
Critical Damage: 200.00%
Cooltime Reduction: 34.0%
Ability Power: 422.7
Attack Speed: 105%
Magic Penetration: 8.55
Movement: 503,01
Reduced Death time: 6.66%

The cost

This build is reletavely cheap, but nevertheless very effective.
Here is the sum of the items in gold:

Doran's Ring: 475
Boots of Swiftness: 1000
Nashor's Tooth: 2465
Rabadon's Deathcap: 3600
Phantom Dancer: 2845
______________________ +
= 9485,-

Your comments are welcome!

I dare you all to comment on my guide!
No, really, please post your opinions about my guide. May be any of you have suggestions for inprovement regarding tactics, jungling or items?


Kind Regards,
Q