Cho Gath is one of the strongest characters in League of Legends. His passive is giving you insane sustain in you early laning phase and your tankiness combined with your high early game damages are gonna make you one of the strongest mid that has no real counter for mid lane.

The runes I have chosen for Cho'Gath are based on the runes I spent some IP in. Probably that people might have some viable combinations of runes but I think the one I putter in this build are great. The marks of magic penetration are giving you some damages all over the game. The Quintessences of Ability Power are giving you great early game damage. You should be able to take your ennemy down at level 4 with your Rupture strong damage. The scaling ability power glyph are in option. Some people may take some magic resist glyphs but I like the damage and the kills opportunity that these runes give all game long. Finally, the flat armor seals are some great runes for any tank.

For the masteries, I chose a 9/21/0 combination. Grabbing some cooldown reduction, magic penetration and ability power bonus in offense. For the defensive part,took some hp masteries combined with some magic resist obviously (you are playing mid 90% of time against AP) some armor because end game you will have no choice to face some AD and MOSTLY do not forget to get the "Safeguard" mastery. I will explain further why it is really important to grab this.

For the first item, I always pick Doran's Ring. The reason is simple, Cho Gath does not need health potions early game, his passive is strong enough to give you a long laning phase before your first back. Plus, Doran's Ring is giving you HP which is great because you are a tank, mana regeneration if you cannot farm properly with your auto-attacks and ability power that will give you some strong early game damages. At your first back, you should buy the Boots of Speed and a Ruby Crystal to get some more HP so you can stay longer in your lane. Obviously, if you have enough money for your Catalyst buy it now! It will just make you stronger. When you have your Catalyst, it is time to be agressive. Each level that you will get will give you your HP and you Mana back. Plus, with the tankyness that your Catalyst is giving you, you will have the opportunity of getting some kills right now! After this startup comes your first decision. You may get Mercury's Treads because it gives some Tenacity and also because you are facing an AP in your lane. Or, you can buy Ninja Tabi which is cheaper and will be useful if some AD or fed on the other team. Do not forget, as Cho Gath, you are a tank so do not buy some offensive boots, early game will be fun with these but endgame, your boots will be useless because you will not have enough resistance to stay alive! Then you can build your Glacial Shroud that will be giving you Armor, cooldown reduction and Mana, 3 important things as an offtank AP. After that, finish your Rod of Ages to get some more damages, HP and Mana. After that grab Negatron Cloak for some more Magic Resist, at this point, you will be very tanky. Your enemies will have a lot of difficulty to take you down. Transform your Negatron into Abyssal Scepter. You are gonna be in the middle of the fight so take down all the enemy team's Magic Resist down. Then, morph your Glacial Shroud into Frozen Heart for the exact same reasons that you took Abyssal. You are gonna slow all the enemy team's Attack Speed! Finally to be literally invulnerable, grab Guardian Angel just to make sure that the enemy team will have to take you down twice.

Start by maxing Rupture, this is a high damage spell which is scaling with 100% of your Ability Power. At your level 2, grab Vorpal Spikes. The only thing you have to do is keep it activated (the only moment you should deactivate it is when you try to take down a tower ignoring the enemy champion. Vorpal Spikes would make you get the tower aggro and giving the advantage to your enemy.). This spell will make your farming easier, it adds tons of damages to your auto-attacks and damages the minions behind the one you are attacking. At your level 3, grab Feral Scream that will be your principal CC. At level 6, be sure to grab your Feast. This will be your main source of tankyness and of damages. As Cho Gath, your Feast will be very useful to take down dragons (it is dealing 1000 true damage to minions +(0.7 AP), to steal enemy's blue Buff or Baron. You wanna have your 6 stacks of Feast as soon as possible. Try to eat the Siege Minions in your lane every time you can. It will insure you to get the extra gold and you will become more and more tanky. The only moments you should not use your Feast on minions to get bigger is: 1. You feel you are gonna be tower dived. 2. You are gonna be able to get a kill with it (kills on champions also give stacks). 3. You have your 6 stacks filled up (you would not wanna miss a kill because you used it when you did not have any reason to do it.


How to get a kill in laning phase:
1. Keep harassing the more as you can with Rupture, it deals tons of damage and you will see how squishies are AP mid.
2. Follow you Rupture with a Feral Scream when you can do it without being hit (just silences the enemy and deals a bit more damages).
3. When the target is below 500 hp, get your combo ready: As soon as you land your Rupture correctly, it is time to your use Flash, Feral Scream to make sure your target won't do anything to you and that it wont flash away, continue with Ignite to make sure your target is not gonna get away and then finally, destroy it with Feast! In 95% of the cases, if the target is below 500 hp, it will just disappear and give you a free kill. Do not be afraid to tower dive, you are a tank and the Safeguard I mentioned above in your masteries is gonna help you not to take too much damage.

The Spells that I always take as mid Cho Gath are Flash and Ignite for the simple reason I explained above. This Summoner Spells combination will give you laning kills and Flash will make you able to escape some dangerous situations since Cho Gath does not own an escape skill.

In summary, Cho Gath is a strong mid that is able to get kills but you must not be greedy. Always remember that you are the tank. It is fun to get kills, but it is ever more fun to win games. Try to give the kills to your ADC, 2 of you spells are good CCs. Use Rupture to engage fights or to protect your ADC from dangerous bruisers as Darius or Garen. Of course, you will be able to carry some games as a very aggressive Cho Gath but when you are gonna play against strongest teams, you will understand that your principal role is to protect your team. When your Feast is fully stacked and level 3, you will be able to hide half of your team. People will be attacking you because they cannot see your ADC. Just do your job, tank the team and it should be enough to win the game. Of course, someone gotta carry in your team. A tank is useless if he has nobody to tank for.