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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Teleport
Flash
Ability Order
Carnivore (PASSIVE)
Cho'Gath Passive Ability
Introduction

My first build focuses on making an off-tank/tanky DPS mage, which really lets him open up on his damage potential without neglecting his natural tendency to become durable.
My second build is a pure tank build, which focuses on trading some offensive power for pure defensive might. This will let you be the main tank on the team capable of hard CC and engagements.
Picking a Lane

Mid Lane: The large range on


Solo Top: Tanky character, lots of damage output, plenty of sustain from


Bot Lane: Only pick this lane when you are playing as a pure tank. In this lane, it's very easy to stand in the bushes and launch CC at the enemy anytime they try and pester your AD carry. This lets your carry get fed with minions and with your damage output early game, get lots of kills and drive the enemy out of the lane.
Lanes Won and Lanes Countered






































Umm... Can I have lane swap please?:






















*


**These champions are only really dangerous if they have somebody else like a carry helping them deal damage.
Boots are a staple in every single build in every single situation for every single game, however every single one of them has a bonus stat to them that give you a little extra. So, here's a list of some of the better boots to get and when to get them.
These work best when your main objective is to deal as much damage as possible. With these, anybody who hasn't invested in magic resistance or who hasn't built for it in the metagame will be taking true damage from your
Rupture and
Feral Scream.
Cooldown reduction is necessary for any mage. So if you want to increase the rate of your attacks instead of your power necessarily, get these. It also means your
Feast will be up more, so more nuking power for you!!
The rework on this item makes it the perfect counter to AD carries of any kind. Get these when dealing with mostly AD champions or champions who rely on their basic attacks to deliver or deal damage.
These give cheap early game magic resistance, which makes them the perfect counter to AP champions of any sort. They also come with tenacity, so CC is much less likely to affect you as much. Get these when laning against an heavy AP team or a team who stacks a lot of CC.
These don't really give you anything super cool with them, but they are the most consistent source of quick movement speed available. Get these when speed is more of a priority than anything else.








Runes
I take






Masteries
Offensive Tree:I take










Defensive Tree:
Relatively straight forward, I take every damage reducing mastery while maxing out






Utility Tree:
Both of my Summoner Spells fall under the utility tree, so one point in

Summoner Spells
![]() This is for extra mobility and map control. As ![]() |
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![]() I like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Skill Sequence
I start the game with 


After that, I alternate ranking up



Advance

This skill up order is to keep a variety of attack options open to me while keeping my DPS and utility as high as possible.
I base my skill-ups around getting both utility and damage.
Obviously, the more you invest in


My next argument is that until you have a firm grasp on your mana pool,

So, to sum up my arguments, ranking up


Now let's look at a run-down of the potential scenarios for each rank up.
- At rank 5 of
Rupture, you deal 305 points of damage and at rank 1 of
Feral Scream, you deal 75 points. So, in a one-two combo, you can dish out 380 points of damage at level 8.
This equates to the highest damage output, with a 2 second silence.
- Now if you max
Feral Scream first, you deal 275 points at rank 5 and 80 points with
Rupture, equating to a total of 355 points of damage at level 8. This is by far the lowest damage output, but effectively lets you shut down mages with a 3 second silence.
- Finally, let's look at my build. With this setup, you have a rank 3
Rupture which deals 190 points of damage and a rank 3
Feral Scream which deals 175 points of damage, meaning that you deal a total of 365 points of damage. So, with this level up order, you deal 15 points less damage than if you were to level up
Rupture first, while maintaining a 2.5 second silence, effectively eliminating any hope of magical reprisal for your attacks.
Runes
Marks:



Seals:
If you are having trouble in the early game with keeping up with your mana, get greater seal of replenishment. Now, if your main concern is not building up resistances, but health, than I would advice getting

Glyphs:
As a mage,



Quintessences:
I have 3 different quintessences, so a viable option is always to prefer one stat over the other and dedicate all 3 slots to it.

Summoner Spells













Skill Sequence
As mentioned in the above section, instead of alternating rank ups between


Early Game
I start the game with a
Doran's Ring because it gives everything that
Cho'Gath needs: early game health, AP, and mana regeneration all for a cheap price. From there, I take
Boots to get my speed up a little bit. Next, I start working on catalyst the protector. This gives me the mana pool to let me freely use my abilities, health to make me one of the more durable champions on the map, and a passive that sustains me in the lane for as long as I need. Finally, I upgrade to
Sorcerer's Shoes to increase my damage output and finally turn catalyst the protector into
Rod of Ages for more health, mana, and AP.





Mid Game
I get a
Negatron Cloak to build up some immunity to magic based damage. Next, I build a
Deathfire Grasp. This is extremely useful and perhaps the most important item of this build. It gives AP, cooldown reduction, and a powerful active that, when used in conjunction with
Feast, will bring all but the hardiest foes to their knees. To end this phase, I build
Negatron Cloak into
Abyssal Mask to finish off my magic resistance and increase my damage output from AP and by lowering enemy magic resistance. Now, if the enemy team doesn't have any real heavy hitting magic users but a dangerous physical carry, replace
Abyssal Mask with
Thornmail and instead of
Negatron Cloak, get a
Chain Vest.









Late Game
Considered the 









Runes
I take pretty much the exact same runes as I do whenever I play Tanky DPS Cho'Gath with the exception of my quintessences, which are flat HP to keep me beefy during the early game. The other runes increase my resistances to physical and magic based attacks while my Marks,

Masteries
Summoner Spells
![]() This is for the extra map control and mobility. As the tank, teamfights are not something that you can just 'sit one out'. You have to be present, and this will let you instantly appear at a sight ward or turret that needs protecting. |
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![]() On a tank, having a little bit of extra movement will let you get to those teamfights quickly, run the enemy team up and down the map while they try and whittle down your HP, and move fast enough to intercept dangerous abilities like ![]() ![]() |
Skill Sequence
I take pretty much the same skill up order as a tank that I do for Tanky DPS for the same reasons (for a list of those reasons, scroll up to theTanky DPS Cho'Gath Metagame under the Skill Sequence section. The only difference is, that instead of using these skills to only deal a lot of damage, you are also using them to dissuade attacks during the laning phase, or disrupt enemies during teamfights.
Runes
Marks: Just as before,


Seals: If you want more lane sustainability than defense power, than I would look at greater seal of replenishment. Another good option for those who favor HP over armor is greater seal of endurance since it synchronizes so well with

Glyphs: I prefer defense for these on a tank




Quintessences: Options for these are pretty straight forward with defense, taking either


Summoner Spells








Skill Sequence
Instead of alternating rank ups between


Notice: As a tank, the needs of the moment are going to be different for every game. So, the same items will not always be needed, and the same order will very rarely be used. I have provided suggestions that will give a pretty rounded off build, but variations will be necessary at some point.
I start the game with a
Ruby Crystal for plenty of early game tankiness when combined with the recommended rune and mastery setup. If you and your lanemate feel comfortable with it, wait at the fountain for a little longer until you spawn another 75 gold and then walk to lane with a sight ward to protect yourself from ganks from the enemy jungler (if they don't have a jungler, than it's ok to just go ahead and walk into lane). After that, I move on to buy
Boots and catalyst the protector to further my tankiness and extend my mana pool for plenty of disruptions and abilities. After that, I will normally buy
Mercury's Treads to counter magic and CC, however if your lane is AD heavy, than get a
Ninja Tabi instead. After that, I get
Rod of Ages to finish off my resources and get some power behind my attacks.
These next few items are to turn me into the monster that can not be killed.
Abyssal Mask gives me magic resistance and some AP for my own attacks as well an aura that helps out the rest of my AP teammates.
Thornmail is the ultimate anti-AD item and one of my personal favorites in the game.
Guardian Angel gives me plenty of resistances to both sources of damage as well as a passive that saves precious
Feast stacks for health. What order you buy these items in is completely arbitrary and should depend on what team you are facing and what the main threat in the game is.
Randuin's Omen is not seen very often anymore, but the active is very good and now it grants assists, making it better than ever. Combine this with the extra armor, health, and cooldown reduction and it's a very powerful item to give you and your team the edge.
Banshee's Veil is also nice for its health, mana, magic resistance, and killer passive that prevents and lowers the effectiveness of CC and magic users in general.
Early Game
I start the game with a





Mid Game
These next few items are to turn me into the monster that can not be killed.




Late Game








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