This guide claims to be Fresh, but I still see DFG in the suggested items.

Kassadin's harrass is now better with Q at rank 5 (especially if you're against a ranged opponent). You also get more MP back with W maxed second, since you will be leaping onto people with Riftwalk post-6. If you max W second, you will also get much more damage out with Lich Bane for the melee trades, since they both work rather well together. In fact, W deals more damage with Lich Bane than your Q and E combined.

Also, RoA gives you that survivability in laning phase and mid/late-game. Instead of having to rush Zhonya's or use your HP pots every time you get hit, you can just tank the smaller damage with your higher HP. Since your Q shields you as well, that HP helps you a lot. Tear of the Goddess is DECENT at best because it gives no AP without upgrading it to Seraph's Embrace (which is now fairly expensive to build). With RoA and Lich Bane as items 1 and 2, you already get a good amount of MP to spam Riftwalk. What I do for laning phase is just farm a lot and Q-poke/W-regen while building Catalyst/Sheen for the dual HP/MP. Depending on the circumstance and laning opponent, I typically get Catalyst first and then build Lich Bane for the early damage spike.

I hit 6 rather quickly when I'm focused on farming, and since I can spam Q without ever getting low on MP I just bully other AP champs out of the lane. Meanwhile, they're busy wasting MP to try to poke me out of the lane. After 6, I Riftwalk onto my opponent and then hit them with a W + Spellblade to burst them down. Those two spells combined tend to take my opponent down from 100 to 50 (unless they're building HP), effectively forcing them to heal as soon as they get back to the lane.

Glad you're doing well with it! :D

Well thanks for the build...lol
https://i.imgur.com/8jBrLEE.png

You're welcome. I think going ROA straight after Archangels makes your late game super strong because of the stacks you get. But because you need a ton of AP to start scaling, it'll take longer to actually DO any damage. But if you're sure that the game you're playing is going to hit the 40+ min mark, then ROA is best. Because whilst you dont get Rylai's slow, you're basically getting an extra riftwalk instead.

As for maxing W against Akali. The thing is, you're gonna be going in for CS when your Q is down. And her damage output pre-6 you can literally ignore. If she goes in up close to deal damage, one W is enough to trade efficiently. When poking with Q, since the damage isn't that great overall, its not the best way to go at times. At least with W you lose no mana, its a free skill and the shorter the CD the better. The good thing about the changes to Kass is, whilst he isn't as powerful as he used to be, his pre-6 laning is better than it was. If you're afraid of losing an up close trade with Akali then Q first to get the shield up, then W.

Still, great job with the guide! I think people are downvoting it because they don't see the different options >.> But yeah, keep up the good work. If I had to add anymore suggestions, maybe if you had the time make a lane opponents section. Just give feedback as to who you should watch out for and stuff, since the rework has made it easier to deal with some opponents, but not so much with others.

Thanks for the feedback and the +1! You are definitely right about maxing W first, I've tried it a few times, I've even tried going top lane maxing it first, and it's definitely ruthless, afterall, it has the best base damage scaling out of all of your abilities, and I've tried maxing it against both Akali and even Zed, however laning against Akali, you don't want to get in melee range, that's where she gets all of her damage, I would still prefer maxing Q against Akali for the ranged harass, you can max W if you want, you'll have better all ins, but lose your ability to poke, but it definitely works. As for Rod of Ages, grabbing it late game over Rylai's has its perks, but also its drawbacks. With Rylai's late game, you make it extremely easy to catch people out, and nearly impossible for adc's to disengage if your team is ahead, afterall, it gives your Q a 35% slow, but you're definitely right, I should at least mention it. Again, thanks for the feedback!

This is a great guide! Nice job! I actually stopped playing Kass after the rework, but after reading your guide I decided to give it a try last Saturday, and it WORKS :D :D :D I like the build path you've outlined, especially going with Archangels staff first.

I would like to suggest two things to add to your guide, just things I've picked out.
1. Perhaps add a ROA as a suggested item in your build. Though it doesnt give you the passive, its much more useful lategame than a Rylai's because it gives more health, mana, and AP making it much more cost efficient. I notice that you're significantly weaker if you choose to go for ROA early game because you delay your damage output, but in certain cases I think its worth the investment. Especially if the enemy team can lock you down/burst you down easily.

2. Against other melee mids, I would suggest maxing W instead of Q. I think it leaves for much easier laning since you can harass them as they go in for CS. Since the power has been moved to your W post rework, you may as well start levelling it first. It allows for better trades than Q, and has more use overall against a melee opponent like Akali for instance. Its quite an aggressive way to lane, but not a bad idea. The only one I can really think of that you wouldn't really do this against is maybe Zed off the top of my head.

Anyway, great job! +1

Already had, and it was an upvote :) keep it up man!

Yeah the newest patch just brought his shield strength from his Null Sphere down a lot, it gives less than half of what it used to, so you definitely have to be spot on with your actives now, but it's still very possible, and I definitely know what you mean I've tried ROA, but it just gives you no damage. Well, either way, don't forget to vote!

Hey! It's nice that you took the initiative to make a guide for the new Kassadin.

He does have some nice damage now in melee range, somewhat like a lesser Fizz. I've just tried your build out in one game and was doing fine, but it then got ugly and I felt too squishy when teamfights began.

Since most of Kassadin's damage now comes from melee attacks (hence being exposed to lots of burst damage in teamfights), I would think that building Rod of Ages may still be the way to go.

But the problem with that is that your damage output in early kind of sucks without an early Sheen. So your build is afterall quite balanced with the actives from Zhonya's Hourglass and Seraph's Embrace. They may do the trick if you time them at the right moment.

Well, personally, I rush archangels, because it's nearly impossible to roam and do anything without an absurd amount of mana, without tear if you Riftwalk 3 times in a row you're almost oom, not to mention the earlier you grab tear of the goddess, the better. And Lich Bane just goes so well with Kassadins kit that i believe the damage and utility it adds is far more valuable than rabadons. Lich Bane gives movement speed, even more mana and just about as much damage as rabadons, so the order I go almost everytime no matter who I'm laning against, is archangels, lich bane, then rabadons. I used to rush zhonyas when laning against zed or something, but i started just going the usual route against ad mids, and still do amazingly well, so it really seems like the best way to go is rush arch staff, lich bane then rabadons. The insane amount of burst damage this build has with the survivability from zhonyas, your passive, and the shield from your null sphere, and not to mention the mobility with your ult, ROA just isn't as useful anymore, it used to be possible to grab before when kassadin's base damage was absurdly high, but its just not viable to get anymore.

So, kassadins trades now are really just riftwalking on top of squishies and slowing them, getting a huge shield, slowing them, and hitting them with your nether blade active, and they're usually dead by then, sometimes you might have to hit them with one or two more aa's, but once they're dead you can just riftwalk away, and if your riftwalk is still on cooldown, zhonyas gives you more than enough time to get your riftwalk back. but overall, following this build, you will win against squishies like adc's, and most other mid laners, and most squishy junglers. I will admit you're not quite as durable as the old kassadin with ROA, but you are durable enough to take a few hits with your shield to kill people, and riftwalk out.

Hey
I really liked that some people still got hopes for kassadin after the rework (love the fact he isn't permaban anymore lol)

But i got some questions to you,
Why do you skip the Rod of Ages? The new massive damage that comes from W just asks you to use it constantly, but that means you have(must, basically) to get close with the enemy, and that means you have to go for trades because we don't have that silence anymore to avoid the them anymore. Don't you think the survivability that RoA gives us is pretty useful in the new conditions?

Personally I'm sort of completely lost with the new kassadin(what kind of items to buy i mean). The new amazing W just asks for a Lich Bane, but at the same time you need sustain(RoA) and some raw ap (Rabadon) and of course Archangel's Staff because why not. That is 4 major items all of which are very expensive and can all be bought to the start of Late game(if you were doing good). I want to hear your opinion on what do you think the priorities in those items are now. You can't skip any of them but they all are equally good.

Thanks beforehand

Glad you like it! Remember to rate if you haven't already! :D