Hello, I'm Tyler "ecco" Spesick and I'm the former mid player for former LCS teams "Team MRN" and "Team Velocity eSports."

I'm writing this guide about one of my favorite champions, Kha'Zix! He has recently fallen out of flavor ever since the end of the Spring Split when they changed him up quite a bit. Although he is weaker now than he was before, quite frankly he was completely broken before, I think that after the recent nerfs to the top-tier assassins that were in flavor he has once again risen to the top! Keep reading to learn how to obliterate the competition with everyone's favorite bug!

Pros

1. Snowballs insanely hard.
2. Is great at cleaning up team-fights.
3. Decent poke/wave-clear post 6.
4. Great roam.
5. Follows-up well with ganks in lane.
6. Good at almost all stages of the game.
7. Very slippery.
8. Extremely fun.
   

Cons

1. Weak early game against ranged champions.
2. Fragile/Squishy.
3. Weak to hard cc.

Kha'Zix is a very universal champion that works with almost everything because of how broad his kit is. He has poke, assassination potential, follow-up to engage, and some of the best dueling in the game which allows him to split push incredibly well.

Even though Kha'Zix can work in a straight up team-fighting comp, he excels in very chaotic games. Chaotic meaning a lot of things going on at once all over the map. Lots of split pushing and aggressive denying of vision will give Kha'Zix opportunities to catch targets in rotations/places that they shouldn't be. To make this work to the best of its ability, champions on your team need to be every strong on their own and able to split push. A composition could comprise of Tryndamere, Nocturne, Corki, and Fiddlesticks. All of them are very strong on paper, good at split pushing, strong duelists, and also good at catching/chasing opponents.

Ignite and Flash are what I run on Kha'Zix in 100% of my games. In my eyes there really are no other choices. Ignite helps your dueling power scale well in addition to giving you the most damage possible early which help how allow you to snowball.

9x 9x 5x 4x 3x

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

I recently switched up my runes to add in a little bit of mana-regeneration in my glyphs. This will help your early-game sustain and overall laning. The only downside to this is that you are missing out on a few points of magic resist which do make you weaker to AP champions. I feel that since you have to be playing passive early levels anyway to avoid getting harassed to death that it is a good trade-off.

Everything else besides the glyphs are very standard. Flat ad reds, flat armor yellows, and flat ad quints are all the most efficient things for me to take for an ad assassin. The only thing I could change out of these would be to put a couple of life-steal quints in place of ad but with the sustain gained from Void Spike I don't think it is necessary at all.

Lastly, if I'm laning against another ad champion, such as Zed, I will forgo taking any magic resist in my glyphs and just take only flat mana-regen.

I've gone back and forth a little bit on whether or not to run 9 into defense or utility but with the changes recently done to the mastery trees I definitely think that defense in the way to go. The points into offense are fairly self explanatory. You get a lot of damage from it and that's about it. The points into defense are there to help you through your terrible early game (where kha'zix is by far at his weakest point.

My skill sequence never changes on Kha'Zix except sometimes what I put the first point into. Typically I put it into Taste Their Fear because it helps with last hitting and also gives the strongest potential trading and most damage. If I was in a really tough match-up and I got to lane late for some reason, then I would put my first point into Void Spike instead so I could farm safely from afar.

The reasoning for skilling my abilities in the order that I do is fairly simple. Void Spike gets maxed first because it is my only ranged ability and form of harass. It also gives a stupid amount of sustain in lane so I really so no reason to level anything else first. Then I max Taste Their Fear for the most damage possible. Leap comes last because it is by far the longest cool-down of all of Kha'Zix' standard abilities and typically can't be used more than once in a fight (unless it is evolved).

Finally, it comes down to evolving order. Although it is most popular since his small re-work to evolve Taste Their Fear first, I level up Void Spike first because I play him exactly like I used to before the changes. It is the best for laning and also gives him poking as one of his characteristics so it is more than worth it. Secondly, I evolve Leap to greatly strengthen his team-fighting as well as roaming. The reset as well as the extended range is just phenomenal and is crucial to your mid-game strength. I then close out my evolutions by evolving Taste Their Fear. Since the small rework it is just an insanely strong evolution and I feel it overshadows evolving Void Assault because it gives you /so/ much more damage.

Unseen Threat (Passive) Unseen Threat is a much weaker passive than it used to be ever since his changes. It now only procs on his auto-attack as opposed to evolved Void Spike as well. With this said, it is still a really strong passive that helps greatly with chasing and a nice little mix-in of magic damage. Small tricks that you can do to help reset this ability in mid-lane is to walk behind the torches and the walls attached to them to be out of vision of your opponent. Otherwise, typically walking into brushes will reset it as well. If you walk into what typically would be out vision, such as a brush, and it doesn't reset your passive that means it is warded! You can use this knowledge to check if line brushes are warded in lane.

Taste Their Fear Taste Their Fear is a very strong ability and it is also the staple of Kha'Zix burst. It is a very low-range ability that can be used to cancel the auto-attack animation for one clean-sweep of burst when timed properly. The very moment your auto-attack hits the enemy press Q on them as well. It will cancel the closing animation from the auto-attack and start up with the animation of Taste Their Fear. I /highly/ suggest that you smart-cast this ability for the most efficiency possible. There isn't a lot to say about this ability except that it does a ton of a damage on an extremely low cool-down.

Void Spike Void Spike is a very unique ability because it is a very strong, AoE poke (once evolved) and it causes Kha'Zix to be pretty much the only assassin in the game that has poke and ranged wave clear. Since the changes where they took off evolved Void Spike activating Unseen Threat, they added on a constant slow to the ability (which was just buffed to 30% from 20%). It is a really strong slow for it being AoE which really helps Kha'Zix chase down his prey so that he can finish them off. The really unique thing about this ability is that it heals you when you are in range of the explosion. This causes you to have a lot of sustain in lane as well as having a very decent heal in a dueling situation. On the flip side, it is also makes it that much more punishing when you miss it because not only are you missing out on damage but you are also losing healing. When using this ability in lane, make sure to be healing with it as much as you can because it is your only built in form of sustain.

Leap Leap is a what really brings Kha'Zix' kit altogether. It is his form of engage and disengage that is on an /extremely/ long cool-down. Because the cool-down is so long, be very careful about using this ability aggressively. In lane, if you use this preemptively/aggressively without knowing where their jungler is and you get ganked then you will most likely be a dead bug. If you /do/ ever use it in lane aggressively and the laning ends up evening out again while it is still on cooldown, play SUPER safe until it is back off cool-down (especially if your flash is down). Once evolved, you can be much more aggressive with it because if you end up killing or getting an assist on one of your targets the cool-down will reset allowing you to take a seamless escape.

Void Assault Void Assault is a very strong ability. It causes you go to invisible for 1 second as well giving you a pretty decent movement speed buff as well. Another thing to note is that unless they have vision of you (whether through a pink ward, oracle, Nidalee trap, etc) then this will also reset Unseen Threat. This gives you a nice boost of damage as well as another slow which greatly allows you to stick onto your prey. Besides using it to chase down your target and reset Unseen Threat, you can also use it to change the enemy's focus and/or avoid damage. An example would be if a Vi is charging at you with her Cease and Desist you can use your ult right before it hits to make yourself invisible so she can't combo you with her auto-attacks and Relentless Force.

When starting on Kha'Zix, I suggest going with the old standard of a faerie charm, 1 mana pot, 5 health pots and a ward. It will give you a lot of sustain through the early levels as well as a nice little bit of extra mana-regeneration which allows you to get off a couple more spells during your first stage of the laning phase.



My very first pick-up is going to be a Tear of the Goddess because it has such great synergy with Kha'Zix. Taste Their Fear is great at stacking it quickly because it is low cool-down and it only costs 21 mana after the 4 mana that is added back into your mana pool after Tear obtains a stack! Then I will pick up a Boots to give me more mobility to dodge skill-shots, escape from ganks, and to also add a little bit of roaming potential.

Then, I build a The Brutalizer for a lot of up-front damage with some armor-penetration and cool-down reduction. Brutalizer has become core on pretty much all ad assassins because the stats it gives you are extremely cost efficient and strong early game. If I were up against a heavy AP-mid, such as Ahri, I would consider getting a Hexdrinker either prior to or after brutalizer to help making my laner safer and stronger.

Following this up, I will pick up a Bloodthirster to give me a giant spike in damage for mid-game. It also adds a nice bit of life-steal which is amazing for dueling and in general so there is no reason not to pick this up. I follow it up with even more damage with Last Whisper. Last Whisper is essential for ad champions' damage to scale well into the later stages of mid-game into the late game.



Once my core is completed, I will then go back and upgrade my boots. If there isn't a lot of hard cc on the other team, I'll get Ionian Boots of Lucidity. CDR scales amazingly well on Kha'Zix and this will also cause him to reach the 40% cap of CDR when he has blue buff! Infinite poke from Void Spike as well as lowered cool-downs during engages. I will change my boots to Mercury's Treads if they have a lot of hard cc (such as Fiddlesticks or Lulu). Both of those are /extremely/ good at shutting down Kha'Zix when he jumps in and Mercury's Treads will help you deal with them and their cc.

Next, I complete my tear into what will immediately be a Muramana. This gives /insane/ single target dps and will put your assassinating powers through the roof. Because it is a toggle and most players have trouble remembering to keep toggle it on prior to fighting enemy champions, I have a trick to help make it easier. What I do is that I keep it toggled on all the time except when I'm farming. That way, it is on by default when I go to fight people!

I then upgrade my Brutalizer into Black Cleaver for more damage, health, and armor penetration. It's a great ad assassin item because it gives you everything you need. Lastly, I will either upgrade Hexdrinker into Maw of Malmortius or pick up a Guardian Angel for higher survivability. If the enemy team is all ad or has very low AP, I consider getting a Randuin's Omen instead of a Guardian Angel because you have an AoE slow, a ton of armor, 500 health as well as a slow for people that hit you so it is phenomenal for chasing.

Kha'Zix has a few unfavorable match-ups in mid as well as a lot of skill-matchups as well. The match-ups that aren't very good for Kha'Zix are long-range, poke-heavy champions who have a lot of control of their lanes. I'll list a couple of them below.

Orianna: What a surprise to see her again! She has annoyingly strong harass, high resistances (with her shield on her), a shield, strong wave-clear and a disengage. Your best bet in this match-up is to have an aggressive jungler to help you out and just kill her. Otherwise you will slowly get dwindled down until she overextends and you jump on her.

Anivia: Although Anivia isn't seen much anymore, she was always my go-to pick against Kha'Zix. She has really strong auto-attack harass, good wave clear and also bursts. She punishes Kha'Zix very well for jumping in when he shouldn't and is just overall a massive bully to him in lane.

Syndra: Pretty much the same as the others with her strong auto-attacks, good wave clear, overall strong poke and heavy burst. Be careful.

Something to note is that regardless of the match-up, there is /always/ potential for Kha'Zix to snowball if something good happens early (like a successful gank from your jungler or roam).

Depending on what kind of match-up Kha'Zix is in will greatly influence how your laning will play out. If you are in one of the lesser match-ups (such as explained in the above section) then for the majority of the time you will be playing very passive while getting pushed under tower. Do your best to farm to the best of your ability so you don't get too far behind in that aspect. do your best not to die or put yourself in a situation where you are sitting under tower with < 300 health or there is a very high chance their jungler will dive you and you will die. Call for ganks if you are being pressured under tower as you have great jungler synergy with Kha'Zix due to your passive, slow from Void Spike and also damage from Taste Their Fear.

If in a more even, skill match-up (such as Gragas or Ahri) then you can be much more aggressive and have more chances to be aggressive in lane and roam. Trade with melee champions such as Gragas when they have spells on cooldown (such as Barrel Roll) and do your best to refresh Unseen Threat when it is okay to.

Once you are past lvl 6 you can start poking your enemy and wave clearing a lot safer. You can position your spikes to where two of them are hitting the minions and the last one can hit your opponent so try and do things like this to widdle them down. Once they get poked down a bit, you can look for an all-in opportunity. When forcing an all-in, typically flashing onto your opponent rather and /then/ jumping on them to chase their flash is better than the other way around because it gives them less time to react.


Once you are past level 9 your laning is extremely safe and you have a lot of wave-clear. Look for opportunities to roam when the time presents itself (such as when you have your lane pushed out very quickly and there are weak champions in the side-lanes).

Like mentioned previously, you should have a very individually strong composition that focuses a lot on split-pushing, forcing aggressive denial of vision, and picking. Spread your team out in their respective lanes and looks for opportunities to catch champions in their rotations or when attempting to get vision in a place that it isn't safe to. Because Kha'Zix clears so quickly, clear your wave asap and then look for a place to roam to. You can easily collapse onto other lanes for easy picks (even if it's a dive) and get towers/objectives from these picks.

If a straight-up team-fight does occur, don't go in immediately. Poke with your Void Spike during the initial stages of the engagement until there is an opportunity to either jump on a greatly weakened target for a free reset or if one of their priority targets are isolated from the pack. Do your best to keep track of hard cc that the enemy team possesses as they can spell certain doom for you. Use Void Assault to lose focus on yourself and buy time for a reset or your cool-downs to be back up. Once that reset hits, jump around like a crazy bug from one low target to the next!

Kha'Zix also kills objectives extremely quickly with Taste Their Fear because they are all isolated so remember that you can burst them very quickly.


Late game isn't really any different from mid-game. You and your team wants to be forcing a lot of things all over the map and looking for picks. Through this you can gain towers and objectives which will eventually snowball into a victory. Through the aggressive denial of vision it is very possible to sneak a baron in while having a split-pusher be a diversion. If you are denying vision for a great amount of the game, then it will be harder for them to sniff out when you're doing baron and when something could be being baited.