We start the reading with quick important discussions detailing about and proper usage of Kog'maw. This section is pretty informal and is not organized in any particular fashion.

Why Am I Making this Guide?
Kog'maw needs more attention. He is a great ADC and AP champion. I am making this guide to give Kog'maw more recognition. Kog'maw is rarely played. As a Kog'maw main, I rarely go up against another Kog'maw. When I do have the rare occasion to go up against another Kog'maw, it usually is just me one sidely owning them in bot lane. Kog'maw has great scaling, abilities and carry potential which is a darn shame.

The Current Meta for Playing Kog'maw is all Wrong.
Every guide you read about Kog'Maw is diluted and wrong. Kog'maw's Living Artillery R is pivotal to his play style. A good Kog'maw player knows how to use the FULL potential of his R (living Artillery). I can't stress this enough. I have yet to officially utilize Kog'maw at a high level as I don't like climbing. Never really had the time nor patience to play league competitively. Kog'Maw is all about WHEN to use his W and HOW to use his R. His philosophy as a champion is his RANGE, not his attack speed or on hit effects. You should not be focusing on AS an on hit effects when buying your items. For the love of Buddha, do not build Guinsoo's Rageblade first. The build I personally doesn't even contain a Guinsoo's Rageblade. What sets Kog'Maw apart from other champions is the range on his abilities and scaling on his abilities which allow him to effectively play as both ADC and AP. It is HIS RANGE that is pivotal to his playstyle, not his attack speed. Kog'maw's range is what attracted me to this champion in the first place and led me to create my current play style with him. Given his range though, the downside is that you have to deal with his lack of peel and frailness. Final note, this guide will not detail on how to use his Living Artillery nor give hints as you as a player must figure out how to utilize this champions full potential.

Why Play Kog'maw Support
Good Poke and Kill potential. If your ADC is bad then you can ADC. Kog'maw support is hard to play. It is not for the feint of heart. You need to be good at utilizing his R. This is what separates a good Kog'maw support from a bad Kog'maw support. This is also true when playing as the ADC. The notion that Kog'maw's R is only good for revealing and poking is wrong. No, Kog'maw R is essential to his kit. You should be dealing damage. I won't reveal how to properly utilize his R as this is the difference between a good from a bad Kog'maw. Kog'maw is a power house that trumps all other ADC if used properly. I would say that I am the only player in the world that can actually play Kog'maw properly. Kog'maw is not to be approach as an on hit or an AS champion.

Kog'maw as an ADC
Kog'maw's intended role is ADC.

A run down of his abilities and their usage.

PASSIVE

FOCUS (Passive): Kog'Maw's passive turns him into a suicide bomber that does 100 +(25*level) as true damage. This is pretty good when you killed in a team fight as you can revenge kill or damage enemies for killing you. I've had teamfights where this passive turned the entire game around. A good Kog'maw elicits the entire team to focus on you.

Q

Caustic Spittle (Q): This ability increases damage taken from physical and abilities sources by percentage. Always try to engage with this ability before doing anything else to increase the damage done to any champion. Landing this ability is make or break against one vs one with other ADC. It should not just be used exclusively on tanks.

W

BIO-ARCANE BARRAGE (W): This is the ability that everyone seems to be completely fixated on and enamored with when playing Kog'Maw. Everyone seems to play Kog'maw as a on-hit AS champion because this ability does apply %health as magic damage on auto attacks. While it is important, it critical to remember that having this ability active ALSO increases his range. At level 5, Kog'maw has the ability to snipe low opponents from a far.

E

VOID OOZE (E): This ability is Kog'maw method of CC champion's to make them easier to hit, chase, kite and land with his Living Artillery. You want to use this offensively and defensively. It's hard landing his R.

R

LIVING ARTILLERY (R): Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco Predator laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Kog'maw being played as a support is very mana hungry and all early items aim to deal with this flaw of Kog'maw. Kog'maw has great AP scaling on all of his abilities making him viable as AP and ADC. This section focuses on his role as being played as a long range support. Kog'maw support plays very similarly to support Lux albeit much more aggressively, but is much harder. The biggest advantage he has is that if your ADC is bad, then you can just replace your ADC by switching to an ADC build. Back to his role as AP support, what makes Kog'maw such a great champion to use is his R ability, Living Artillery. Being able to land and use this ability while managing your mana is crucial to playing Kog'maw support effectively.

Laning Phase
With support Kog'maw, we start the laning phase with Spelltheifs Edge. The primary aim is complete the quest on your spell thiefs to have wards as early as possible. Early game, Kog'maw has 3 methods of poking and procing his spell theifs; hitting his Q, auto attacking with W active and oozing his E. Utilizing his entire kit requires a lot of mana. This is solved by buying 3-4 faerie charm and building them into chalice of harmony and and tear of the goddess mid game. It is essential to have as much mana regen as possible to poke and proc your spell theifs charges as this build is very money hungry. Of course if you poke and harass hard enough, you can earn kills to help fund your early mana issues. As long as you are vigilant, accurate and aggressive with your abilities, you shouldnt need boots as kogmaws E can be used to CC junglers and your lane opponents. Basically, you play ap support Kog'maw just as you would play Lux support.

Pre-6 Combo Explanation
Here we discuss Kog'maw pre level 6 mechanics. Q is primarily used for reducing single target armor and magic resist. This also has a passive effect of increasing your attack speed. It should have 1 point by level 3 to increase the overall effectiveness of your harass. Kog'maw W increases his range and damage of his auto attack via doing % health as magic damage. His E creates a straight long line of slowing. His early game combo is to land his Q to shred their tankyness, E to slow and deal some damage and follow up with auto-attacks with W active. This is important to stay away from creeps. Its actually quite easy to secure kills if your opponents are not careful.

Level 6 - Raining on Them
Here we discuss Kog'maw early game mechanics. Q is primarily used for reducing single target armor and magic resist. This also has a passive effect of increasing your attack speed. It should have 1 point by level 3 to increase the overall effectiveness of your harass. Kog'maw W increases his range and damage of his auto attack via doing % health as magic damage. His E creates a straight long line of slowing. His early game combo is to land his Q to shred their tankyness, E to slow and deal some damage and follow up with auto-attacks with W active. This is important to stay away from creeps. Its actually quite easy to secure kills if your opponents are not careful.


Mid Game
Either take turrets and objectives or protect your ADC. Don't run around to much after taking your tower. Your primary role is to stand in lane and punish anyone that tries to engage on you while you try to take a turret. Personally, mid game would best be used to push to take towers down in bot or mid lane. By doing this, you can force your opponents to engage you. You need to have your Spellthief's upgraded so you can start warding. Most supports would ward the jungle, HOWEVER you will ward to provide vision so you can punish anyone that tries to engage on your push.

Late game - End Game
By now, you should have your core so you can just follow your teammates and poke people to death. I wont explain or teach how to play late game as I don't want to reveal the full potential and all my secrets of Kog'maw. What separates the advance players from the regular players is how you utilize your R and how you manage your mana. Basically get good at using you ULT, the core ability of this build. It's hard to master Kog'maw's R both as ADC and Support.

At the expense of sounding like a broken record, all other guides will tell you that Kog'maw is an attack speed champion and that you should focus on on-hit effects and items. This is COMPLETELY wrong. The proper way to approach this mechanic of Kog'maw is to consider his W on hit as being complementary to his play style. What matters the most is his range increase with his W active. Attack speed is important but it is not everything. With the runes reforged, I see a lot of players stacking attack speed early game for those all in potentials. That is not how you play bot lane. Bot lane is about minion control, ward control, harass, and CSing. You primary job is to safely obtain your full build as early as possible. Note the safely part. You don't want to feed the enemy bot or jungle alright or give free dragons away?

I won't be teaching anyone how to properly play Kog'maw yet. I know you people love to watch me play Kog'maw but I know you people wont figure out my secrets just as you people couldn't figure out my secrets to mistweaver healing in WoW.