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Kha'Zix Build Guide by Khannuuuuur

Jungle In-Depth Jungle Kha'Zix Guide

Jungle In-Depth Jungle Kha'Zix Guide

Updated on February 3, 2018
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Khannuuuuur Build Guide By Khannuuuuur 3 4 275,936 Views 6 Comments
3 4 275,936 Views 6 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Khannuuuuur Kha'Zix Build Guide By Khannuuuuur Updated on February 3, 2018
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Runes:

Domination
Dark Harvest
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection
Ravenous Hunter

Precision
Coup de Grace
Triumph

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Smite

Smite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hi, I am Khannuuuuur, a Kha'Zix main. Since Kha'Zix is a very popular jungler and many people aspire to become better Kha'Zix players, I thought why not make a guide.

My goal is to teach you how to play Kha'Zix to an exceptional degree even if you are still relatively new to the champion. Not only that, I hope that you will be able to take something you learned from this guide and apply it to other champions.
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About Kha'Zix

Kha'Zix is a melee assassin with a unique evolution mechanic which allows him to adapt to the many situations that the game may throw at him. He also has a unique isolation mechanic that gives him combat advantages when fighting alone enemies.

Out of all the assassins, I would say that Kha'Zix would be one of the easiest assassins to pull off. Now I am not trying belittle the efforts of the many Kha'Zix mains out there... because all assassins are damn hard to pull off consistently. Just by being a strong assassin player, you deserve some respect, but anyway...

Kha'Zix requires the least amount of mechanical skill out of all assassins, except for maybe Akali. Good prediction is not necessary on Kha'Zix unlike assassins like Ekko or Shaco. Being on point with your skill shots is not as important on him than on champions like Zed or LeBlanc. And unlike champions such as Rengar, Kha'Zix does not have high cooldown spells that determine his ability to do his job.

In fact, in Kha'Zix's quotes, he tells you how to play him:

"Isolate and Devour"

You wait for an isolated target and then you kick their ***. His isolation passive even tells you if a target is isolated so you should know when to go in. So if you are new to assassins, Kha'Zix is the champion for you.

However, just because he is the easiest assassin, does not mean he is ineffective, Kha'Zix is easily one the top 3 strongest assassins in the game because he is the most versatile. He can outplay, duel, better sustained DPS than all other assassins(with his evolved Q), he is great at split pushing, and he can even get pretty easy pentakills. Assassin characteristics aside, he can also be a decent front liner if you build tanky, he can play a supportive role with his large AoE slow on his evolved W, and he has strong sustain with his W. Most assassins would be lucky to have 1-2 of all these traits.

Since Kha'Zix is so versatile, he can pretty much adapt to most situations. You will never find yourself in a really hard match up if you are a great Kha'Zix player. I assume you are now convinced that this champion is worth learning. Let's begin.
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Pros & Cons of Kha'Zix

Pros:
- High mobility.
- One of the best champions for solo carrying games.
- One of the best duelists in the game.
- Has huge snow ball potential.
- Strong at all stages in the game.
- Has outplay potential with Void Assault.
- Decent at split pushing.
- Can quickly and easily capitalize on even the smallest mistakes due to your almost instant burst and mobility.
- You are difficult to outplay since you have no important skill shots.
- Decent wave clear(however only when close up with W, especially when it is evolved.


Cons:
- No hard CC
- Gets boned by hard CC
- Very squishy
- Has mana issues (of varying degrees) at all stages of the game; take a blue buff whenever you can
- Difficult to play when your team is being pushed in.
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Summoner Spells

This chapter is for those of you newer to League of Legends.

Smite: If you don't have this spell, you cannot buy the jungle items. Without jungle items, it becomes incredibly difficult to clear jungle camps, so much so that taking any other spell instead of Smite is not worth the trouble. Not only that, but not having smite makes your team lose control over very important objectives such Dragon and Baron Nashor.

Flash: This spell is an escape, outplay tool, and gap closer. It can be used offensively and defensively. No other summoner spell offers all of these things. On top of that, every champion in the game (with a few exceptions) will take Flash all the time; taking flash yourself will allow you to be competent with them. For example, if you try to kill someone in game, and he or she flashes away, if you brought flash yourself you could also flash to keep up with them.
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Runes

Here I will explain my rune choices

Dark Harvest: Once you get comfortable on Kha'Zix, this is the rune you should be taking all the time. It further boosts your snow ball potential and damage because of how it resets on every kill, which helps with your assassination potential on multiple targets. Keep in mind that in order to stack this fast, you got to get kills and the earlier you get them the better. You can't just farm all game and expect to get to 150 stacks; a mistake I made the first few games I used this keystone.

I said however, that you should take this keystone when you are comfortable with Kha'Zix.

Electrocute: This is what you should be taking as you are learning Kha'Zix. It has reliable damage at all stages of the game so you won't have to compensate for the weaker early game if you took Dark Harvest as you are learning the basics of Kha'Zix.

Sudden Impact: You almost always lead in your combos with your Leap or your Void Assault(especially if you have R evolved). Having that extra lethality going along with your burst offers more damage than the other options in this row.

Eyeball Collection: If you are going for maximizing damage this is the best option in this branch, but if you enjoy the vision benefits of the other options, take those. The choices in this branch are all good on Kha'Zix.

Ravenous Hunter/ Ingenious Hunter/ Relentless Hunter: All of these are completely viable in certain situations and play styles.

Ravenous Hunter when fully stacked gives healing equivalent to a Death's Dance. You could either skip out on a Death's Dance or buy it and have insane healing. You could probably solo baron with this rune + a Death's Dance.

Ingenious Hunter is very situational. What is cool about this is that it can go up to 40% active item CD reduction which is pretty insane especially for items like quick silversash and Edge of Night. I could only see it useful against CC heavy teams where you need your QSS to be up as much as possible.

Relentless Hunter is very fun to use especially if you are evolving your ultimate and using Mobility Boots. You can easily sneak around every all the while picking off targets all around the map. It is very fun however it is not the best option.

Triumph: This can help you get away in surviving early game duels and taking on multiple targets one after the other.

Coup de Grace: This helps you secure kills better. Other options in this row are better however depending on the matchup.
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Abilities

Here I will talk about the uses and tricks for Kha'Zix's abilities. I recommend that you throughly read his abilities before reading this portion of the guide.



Passive: Unseen Threat

You can take advantage of this ability in duels by going in and and out of brushes to constantly refresh your passive.

You can also check if a brush is warded using this passive. Suppose you use your passive on a champion and walk into a brush, if you gain your passive, that brush is not warded. However if you do not gain your passive, the brush is warded.



Q: Taste Their Fear

This ability is your main damage source.

The way this ability marks isolated targets makes Kha'Zix quite a good noob friendly assassin. If an enemy is not marked as isolated, do not fight, if an enemy is marked as isolated, fight.

Just to let you know, like auto attacks, your Q will cancel if your target goes out of sight. Like if you are in a duel and you cast your Q on your enemy and the target walks in a brush while doing so, your damage will not go through, but your Q cooldown and mana will be refunded.

It is also a worthy mention that you can use your Q over walls even when it has not been evolved. And when it is evolved, you can cast it over some pretty thick walls like the dragon/baron pit.

You can also cast your Q on a target out of range and flash right next to your target to quickly Q them and close a gap, giving your target minimal time to react.

You always max this ability first.





W: Void Spike

This ability has multiple uses. It can be used for sustain, poke, checking brushes, and wave clear, however most of the time you will be using it right as you get right next to someone.

The evolved version makes this ability very good for checking large brushes, peeling for your team, and chasing down escaping enemies.

It is also handy to note that the evolved W gives vision of all enemy champions hit by it making it great for getting vision over walls such as the dragon or baron pit.

You can cast your W and flash to fire your W in the place you flashed to. This is generally only used to stop people from pulling off close escapes.

You always max this ability second.





E: Leap

This ability is fantastic for escaping, and catching up to your targets. However, you do not want to waste this ability in fights. If you waste it in the middle of a fight, you could potentially lose your only form of escape and die or allow multiple enemies get away from fights on a sliver of health. If you use this ability correctly though, and if you have it evolved, you can easily clean up entire team fights much like pre-rework Katarina.

You also should never use this ability just for its damage, as the damage is pretty much nonexistent when compared to your Q, for example. Even in the most butt clenching duels, do not use it for damage. Use your E to get away instead.

Something also worth mentioning is that if you use your flash mid leap, it will cancel your leap and put you in the spot you flashed to. So for closing large gaps between enemies, try to flash --> leap instead of leap --> flash because you may cancel your E.

You always max this ability third.





R: Void Assault

Use this to dodge skill shots(preferably hard CC), juke your enemies(like walk in one direction, go invisible, and walk in a different direction) or to surprise enemies.

The evolved version allows you to traverse the map quicker and surprise enemies in the jungle.

When you are starting out on Kha'Zix, you probably will not see too many opportunities to use this ability effectively. Most new players just use it to chase enemies.

Keep in mind that this ability has a very short cool down(relative to other ultimate abilities) so do not be afraid to use it.

Some handy things to note:
  • Unlike Shaco's Deceive , enemies cannot see the entering stealth particle effect if you are in their fog of war.
  • Void Assault can be used after being hit by hard CC to avoid being bursted down.
  • Void Assault can be used to dodge some targeted abilities like Garen's ultimate and Darius's ultimate.
  • If you have this ability evolved and you run into a brush, get the passive invisibility, and then use the active Void Assault while you are still invisible, your enemies will be able to see the entering stealth particle effect if they have vision in the area your are in.

If you did not understand what I just said in that last bullet, here is a scenario that will explain it:

- You want to gank an enemy mid.
- You have your R evolved.
- You run into mid lane from the side brushes and the get invisibility passive.
- If you cast Void Assault while invisible, the enemy you want to gank will see the "going in invisibile" particle effect/animation.

Take a point in this ability whenever you can.

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Evolutions

Kha'Zix has all sorts of evolution paths viable after preseason 7. You basically choose your evolution based on the current situation.

Evolved Q:
- Good for dueling more bruisers or duelists champions, especially champions like Vi, or Fiora.
- Keep in mind that it is not as effective against squishy champions since you can easily kill them without your Q evolved.
- Makes taking important monsters such as the mountain dragon, infernal dragon, Rift Herald, and Baron very quick. For example if the first dragon is infernal you can evolve Q and sneak it very easily and quickly.
- Something very underrated about this evolution is that your AA and Q range is increased. This helps with getting double jump kills and securing kills in desperate situations.
- Good for farming while behind or invading a lot.

Evolved W:
- Very strong slow against isolated targets which allow Kha'Zix to chase down his targets.
- Decent peel potential with its large AoE slow, but nowhere near competent when compared to Janna's peel or other support's peeling capabilities.
- Professionals tend to take this a lot mainly because it is the best utility evolution and since kills are rare in pro games, Kha'Zix's other evolutions (that specialize in getting kills) aren't that handy.

Evolved E:
- THIS IS WHY YOU PLAY KHAZIX: EVOLVE THIS ABILITY SOME TIME DURING THE MATCH
- Gives Kha'Zix his ability to clean up team fights
- Extra leap range helps in many various situations
- Allows early game tower dives
- Makes you almost impossible to catch.

Evolved R:
- Increases map mobility
- Fun to use and offers a very different play style.
- Allows you to stealthily sneak up on people and get in position to catch people out.
- Good for making cheeky picks especially in the red side jungle.
- AWESOME FOR LANE GANKING. Your lane ganks become unparalleled allowing you to be unknown to the enemy right until you are in melee range. Evelynn would be jealous.
- I rarely see people take this but it is straight awesome and highly underrated. If you know how to utilize it well you will have times where you don't have R evolved but you will see a carry alone in the jungle and you will think to yourself "Ah only if I evolved R".

I highly suggest you experiment with all kind of evolution orders and try to find an evolution path that suits you. Don't be hesitant about choosing evolutions. There is never a situation where there is a "wrong" evolution. The only thing that changes is your play style.

As for me, I like to try to evolve E first, because it allows me to pull off early game tower dives super easily. But if there is an infernal dragon I would evolve Q first and focus on securing that first. From then on I generally evolve depending on the game but I always try to squeeze in an R evolution because it is the most fun evolution second to E.
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Items

In this section, I will be covering Kha'Zix's pool of items and talking about in what situations they are good in.

Core/Standard Items


These are core items. Buy these every game if you are playing assassin Kha'Zix


Enchantment: Warrior
This is a 2625 gold investment with great value. You should be buying this every single game as one of your first items.


Boots
You should always be being Boots. They make you go fast, and fast is good. I am the kind of guy who likes to always rush (no pun intended) tier 1 boots on my first back, however you may buy them almost anytime during the early and mid game.

The final boot you upgrade to does not make much difference, so buy whichever one tickles your fancy. However there are a couple guidelines.

Mercury's Treads are good against teams with hard CC that is hard to avoid.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are only good for getting you to that 40% CDR limit. You should really not ever need to buy these since so many of your items easily bring you up to 40% CDR.

Ninja Tabi are actually very strong right now. They are very gold efficient and give lots of defensive stats. I would recommend this against auto attack heavy, AD champions.

Mobility Boots are my favorite boots. Although they are a very niche pick up. These are for map pressure especially in the early game, however buying these hinders your ability to stick on to targets as you are super slow in combat. Buy these against low mobility carries or if you can one shot them instantly, and if you want lots of map pressure.

You would generally upgrade your Boots shortly after your Warrior Enchantment item.


Death's Dance
This item is better than any life steal item for Kha'Zix. Its passive heals you for ALL physical damage you deal, while life steal only heals you for auto attacks, making this item much better for healing Kha'Zix. This is why you do not buy Ravenous Hydra or Mercurial Scimitar for its life steal, you buy them for their utility.

This item is great in 1v1s as you take less immediate damage and heal (a lot) from dealing damage. It is also very good against heavy poke since you can just heal right up off a jungle camp or minions. And during the late game when you will often take heavy damage through team fights this item allows you to simply heal away and allow you to stick around and apply more map pressure instead of recalling. Think of this item like an assassin's Warmog's Armor.

Besides the healing, it also provides a ton of AD and CDR. I recommend that you buy this every game.


Duskblade of Draktharr
This item is great on Kha'Zix. It almost seems like it was made for Kha'Zix's ultimate and passive because of its slow and empowered auto attack that refresh from being unseen for 1 second. It also provides CDR, AD, and lethality. No reason not to get this item.

A neat trick with this item is that you can check if a brush is warded sort of like how you check a brush with your passive. You can go into a brush and if after 4 seconds, you lose the auto attack buff, that brush is warded. On the contrary, if you still have the buff after 4 seconds, that brush is not warded.

Make sure to incorporate this into your build every game. It doesn't have to be one of your first or second items as items such as Youmuu's Ghostblade are better earlier on.


Offensive Items


Youmuu's Ghostblade
This item is basically Duskblade of Draktharr but trades crazy damage for chase potential and map mobility. You will not find its active effect that helpful in most situations, but it feels great whenever they actually do help you make a clutch escape or narrowly dodge a fatal skill shot.

As a map mobility item, this item shines the most in the early/mid game when you will be ganking and roaming a lot.

Last Whisper
Sometimes the carries on the enemy team buy some armor items like Zhonya's Hourglass, Ninja Tabi, or Guardian Angel to counter you. This item is used to counter their counter.

Upgrade this to Lord Dominik's Regards against in most situations but against champions with strong healing and sustain such as Zac, Aatrox, and Soraka, Mortal Reminder is stronger because it reduces healing.

You would buy this as either your 4th or 5th item.


Tiamat
Increases jungle clear speeds. This item is generally purchased by those who enjoy having the passive and active because it makes them feel better; buying this item is personal preference. I personally buy this whenever I feel that farming and counter jungling is going to be the primary focus of the early game.

Feel free to upgrade this to the Ravenous Hydra for tons of AD and a bit of life steal. I personally rarely do this though because Death's Dance much more superior in later stages of the game and if you're split pushing, your kit's wave clear is generally good enough.

You can buy this item as you are building your core items and upgrade it to Ravenous Hydra after you buy some lethality.


Defensive Items


With the exception of [mercurial scimitar]], Edge of Night and Maw of Malmortius, only one or two of these items are built if built at all. Buy them against heavy, hard to avoid or unavoidable burst.

Edge of Night
This item's active allows you to dive into fights and potentially avoid some high damage spells or hard CC. The spell shield can also be used for jumping on enemies with easy to land hard CC like Fiddlesticks, Ahri, or Annie.

This item is especially strong in 1v1s against Vayne. Since the only spell she uses on you is her condemn, you can block it with this. This will allow you to jump her and not get stunned or kited around.

You would buy this as your 4th or 5th item.


Maw of Malmoritus
Buy this is you are having trouble with burst and/or magic damage. This is a defensive item because you would only buy it for its passive and magic resist. If you did not need its defensive stats, you could just buy a Death's Dance or Youmuu's Ghostblade.


Mercurial Scimitar
This item can act like a pseudo- Guardian Angel. Most of the time on Kha'Zix, you die due to being locked down and bursted. Since this item's Quicksilver Sash component allows you to remove all CC, you can sort of cheat death.

When building this item, always buy the Quicksilver Sash component first as it is the reason why we would ever buy this item in the first place.


Dead Man's Plate
Simple armor item. The out of combat speed boost is good for roaming due to its out of combat movement speed; this also makes it go well with an evolved R.

Its passive also gives you a slow and a 200 damage auto attack buff (if 100 momentum stacks are discharged). Which is pretty nice, nothing to complain about.


Randuin's Omen
Same as Dead Man's Plate except it is better for chasing down enemies due to its active AoE slow.

Basically you would choose Dead Man's Plate for running around and picking off targets around the map while Randuin's Omen is better for teamfights where you will get more out of the slow and the extra armor and reduced critical strike damage. All in all, the choice depends on what your team and the enemy team is doing and what objectives are being prioritized.


Spirit Visage
Good item against magic damage in general. You would want to buy this if the enemy APC deals sustained magic damage like Azir or Swain.

The 15% increased healing is also really nice. Pair that up with a Death's Dance and a Ravenous Hydra and you will heal for an absolutely disgusting amount of health which will make Aatrox and Soraka mains piss their pants.


Guardian Angel
Buying this item is at your own discretion. Honestly if you know what you are doing, you will rarely die since Kha'Zix has so many escapes and when you do die it is often when you blow all your escapes and you will be dead right after you revive, making the value of this item worthless.



Other Items


Hunter's Potion
Great item for sustain and new jungle players. This item also reduces the amount of times you will need to recall, making it great for putting on more map pressure.
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Enemy Champions

As of now, there are 134 champions in League of Legends. A handful of them create very different situations for you to deal with, and dealing with some of them is not as intuitive as others. Here I will be talking about dueling and playing against certain champions.

Feel free to suggest any champions you struggle playing against.

Vayne: If you ever played a melee or duelist champion, you know how difficult Vayne is to deal with. Early-mid game, she is just any normal ADC you can kill over and over again, but in the mid/late game she is probably the best duelist in the entire game. She can kill you in about 3-4 auto attacks and easily outplay you.

Edge of Night and Oracle Lens are fantastic items for beating a late game Vayne. Since the only spell she uses on you is her Condemn, Edge of Night's spell shield will block it, avoiding her stun and being peeled away from. Oracle Lens will allow you to track her during her stealth.

Before I explain how to outplay her, I want to show you this very accurate graph I made.

As we can see, we deal bursts of damage, and deal almost no damage during cooldowns, while Vayne does consistent damage throughout a fight.

The grey line labeled as "death" represents the amount of damage each of us(since you are both equally squishy) can take before dying. It is clear that the longer we duel the more in favor the fight is in for Vayne.

So, to beat Vayne, you have to not fight her, which sounds odd at first. Basically, you got to engage on her, burst her, quickly disengage, wait for cool downs, engage/burst her again, and rinse and repeat until she is dead. The engage and disengage part can be done using your E, R and maybe a flash.

Shaco: This guy is very deceptive. He can look like a very free kill at first but then quickly turn a fight on you. He is all about juking you with his stealth and baiting you into traps with his boxes. If you don't fall for his tricks, you can easily beat him.

Remember where he places his boxes and don't be a fool to chase after him only to run into a box. It is also helpful to note that you should generally back off once he has popped his ultimate because there is usually no telling which is the real one unless the Shaco player uses some ability or item to blow his cover.

As with Vayne, Oracle Lens helps when dueling/chasing Shaco since you can track him in his stealth.

Miss Fortune, Jhin, Xerath, and Vel'Koz: These three share something, their ultimates. The moment they cast their ultimate, their team usually(but not all the time) abandons them to follow up on the damage. This is your time to shine. Since they are alone, you can usually pick them off very easily and turn a fight around.
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Initial Jungle Clear

In this section of the guide, I will be talking about one of the more important parts of playing any jungler; the first jungle clear. Kha'Zix's first clear gets him low on health and he his very vulnerable to an early invade and if you do not clear the camps right, you will probably end up being executed. I will be covering how you can stop yourself from feeding the stupid Gromp and how to stay safe from invades.



Jungle Camps Diagram



Starting Items


Hunter's Talisman is good for sustain clears and mana sustain while Hunter's Machete is good for quick clears; you can decide which one you buy. I myself tend to switch back and forth between them as it really makes little difference. Take the refillable potion if you are confident you can do a full clear or if you are going to do a full clear. Take the 3 health potions if you want to invade or gank after your clear or if you are just not confident in your clear.

Clear Routes


Clear routes are very simple on Kha'Zix.

Full Clear: Blue Buff > Gromp > Wolves > Raptors > Red Buff > Krugs

**You should learn to do the full clear with the refillable potion and without taking scuttle crab**

Since smite buffs have been removed, you generally want to just save your smite if you get low on health and for the hard camps like the raptors and krugs.

Generally do the full clear if the enemy jungler does not typically invade. However, if the enemy jungle is on a champion that typically invades- Shaco, Rengar, or Lee Sin-you should just clear your buffs first. This throws off the timing of their invade and it also ensures that they cannot steal your buffs.

Clearing Tactics for Each Camp


IN GENERAL: Do not use you Leap to kill the camps as you could use it to kite the camp or escape. Use your Q and W when ever you can. Make sure you hit all the monsters with your W and make sure you are close enough to get the sustain.

Blue Buff, Red Buff, Gromp: Single monster camps... piss easy for you to take. Kite these to your next jungle camp for faster clear speeds.

Wolves: Focus the smaller wolves before killing the two-headed one. You may kite the camp towards your Raptors.

Raptors: Save your smite for this camp. Q+Smite+AA the large raptor first. You will one shot it. Hit all of the small raptors with your W. Auto attack or Q every raptor while kiting the camp until your W is off cooldown. This camp can be very difficult if not done right, make sure to follow this method.

Krugs: Kill the small Krug, then start focusing the large Krug. Once you kill the large Krug, just focus which ever Krug is the biggest. Be sure to hit all of the krugs with your W.
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Early Game

Early game starts as soon as the minions spawn and ends right about when people stop going into their assigned lanes and begin grouping up.

This part of the game is very important for Kha'Zix because your performance heavily changes what you will be doing in the mid game. You should be really focusing on one thing:

GETTING A LEAD

It does not matter how you acquire this lead, but it is usually from killing other players and out farming the enemy. Keep in mind that getting this lead is not easy. Your early game is OK, but not as good as someone like Shaco or Lee Sin.

In and ideal game, you should have at least 3 kills and be 1 or 2 levels ahead of the enemy before the early game ends. You need this lead because when it allows you to snowball and carry games.

So... how to get this lead. Well from the moment you finish your first clear or recall for the first time, you should be looking for kills and farm.

Farming


When you're not ganking, you should be farming. Don't be one of those people who run up and down the river just waiting for a gank opportunity, don't be one of those people who hide in a warded brush thinking the enemy will push. That's wasting your time.

As an assassin jungler, you really have to farm hard to stay relevant. In between ganks or moving around the map, you should be taking whatever jungle camp is closest to you.

You may also take the enemy jungler's farm. If they show up someplace on the map that is quite far from you, if you are quick, you can take their camps for free. Just make sure when doing this you are safe. Ward areas that people trying to stop you may go through you that you know when danger is coming.

If one of your laners backs, you can go to their lane and farm there, especially if the enemy laner is at the tower. Just remember not to push their lane too much otherwise you may have an angry teammate.

Also do not be afraid to just walk into the enemy jungle. You can duel a majority of junglers early on if they are not too fed. If you find some camps to take, drop a ward somewhere to make sure that the enemy jungler is not coming and farm away.

Ganking


While farming, you want to constantly be looking for ganks in the lanes as it is a key part of getting kills. When you look for ganks, you want to find the lanes that are the easiest to gank. In general, laners that, are Pushed up, have low mobility, have low CC, have low 1v2 and outplay potential (e.g Darius, Singed, Yasuo), are at low health
are easier to gank. (Keep in mind that a gankable lane does not have to have all of these characteristics)

Consider all these factors before ganking. It will take time to learn what lanes you can or cannot gank, but I will not go over this because you can only learn this through many games of experience.

Also keep in mind that you do not always have to gank for a kill. It is OK to just force the laner to back, burn a flash, or even just give your laner the health advantage.

Now that you know how to find ganks, here is a step-by-step guide on how to gank:
  1. Make sure that there is not a new minion wave coming in. Very important to avoid minion aggro and get off your isolation damage.
  2. SPAM THE On My Way! PING IN THE LANE TO MAKE SURE YOUR LANER FOLLOWS UP
  3. Walk into the lane behind the enemy. If you come in from their side, they can easily run away for free.
  4. Q, W and auto attack them until they die. Use your leap only if they use their escape.
  5. If you end up tower diving, make sure that whoever has more health is the one tanking the tower. DO NOT TOWER DIVE IF YOU ARE BOTH LOW ON HEALTH OR IF THE ENEMY HAS LOTS OF HEALTH especially in the early game.

Just remember that you should only take what is safe to take. Suppose if the enemy burns his or her flash and gets away, that is fine because you can just come back in another minute or so and get the kill.

Minion Tax


If you burned the enemy's flash or if you guys get a kill, don't be afraid to tax your laner. However this does not mean you can be a ****head and take the next wave, just take like 2-3 minions at most. If you do not get the kill, you should feel free to take 1-2 more minions or smite a cannon minion on top of the normal tax.
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Mid and Late Game

Mid game is the phase of the game can be horrible or the time you go ham. If you stayed on top of farming and you might have gotten a lead, that's great, but if you are maybe 2 levels behind and you have died a couple times... it's going to be a rough ride.

But no matter what happened early game, you should be prioritizing objectives and this includes taking them and defending them. If your team is behind just try to defend, push minion waves, and try not to die. If your team is ahead by all means, go for those towers and dragons. Do not forget about the Rift Herald too. You may give it to a split pusher or to yourself if you are fed.

If your team has good wave clear champions(e.g Azir, Anivia, Caitlyn) and is ahead, you can group up and take towers everywhere. However this is usually not the case especially in solo queue.

If you have fallen behind, just start building tank. You may start building damage items if you have caught up in levels.

If you did manage to keep up in levels and gold, you want to get as many objectives as possible and possibly end the game. As an assassin, the way you would usually take objectives is by assassinating key targets and then forcing objectives with a numbers advantage. Now just remember: Objectives > Kills. I have seen some people go ham mid game but do not get any objectives and then when late game comes, they get stomped.


Late game is the same as the mid game. The only difference is that you are now prioritizing baron and you should be grouping with your team more often.

It is also very important to note that your damage has slightly fallen off. Keep in mind this power loss and you should be fine.
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Team Fights and Skirmishes

In team fights, you generally sit around the side of the fight(preferably out of enemy vision) and wait for people to get low so you can get leap resets. Against teams with strong, unavoidable lock down or peel(e.g Alistar's Headbutt or Annie's stun, you generally want to wait for those spells to be used.

If you have the time, watch the video below by ScrapComputer. It covers when you should enter fights as an assassin in much detail and depth.

Skirmishes are similar to team fights except you have more chances to enter the fight. Since people are generally more spread out and there are generally fewer people, you will rarely get blown up the second you join a fight. CC and being kited must still be factored in though.
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Split Pushing

Split pushing is when a champion diverges from the team to push lanes and towers(typically side lanes) in hope of either:
- Distracting multiple enemies so your team can take objectives
- Taking towers
- Distracting one key member of the enemy team for a long time

Generally split pushers have these characteristics:
- Can take towers fast
- Can 1v1 most champions on the enemy team (this means that a good split pushing champion is based on match-up)
- Decent waveclear
- Many escapes and/or is tanky.

Kha’Zix has decent wave clear and takes towers fast, he can 1v1 most champions in the game and can take on 2 or more people if your enemy has bad positioning. He also is very mobile, but he is not tanky. If you get bursted down and/or if the enemy team can lock you down, you’re dead.

To prevent dying, make sure that there is no one sneaking up on your to kill you. As you push your lane, drop some wards in paths people may take to flank you.

Make sure to tell your team(via pings or chat) to take objectives when you have drawn attention from multiple people on the enemy team.
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Practicing and Improving

Kha'Zix is no brain dead jungler like Vi or Ivern that you can just first-time in ranked and do well. You got to practice him a lot and make sure you are always impacting and being helpful (e.g putting lane pressure or taking objectives) in your games.


One of the ways I have improved at playing Kha'Zix is by simply watching people play the champion. Notice how people use Kha'Zix's abilities to outplay people and when they enter fights. Doing this allows you to get an idea of what is possible on the champion.

These two montages are particularly good at showing off Kha'Zix. I recommend watching them.
(Yes, these are pre-rework Kha'Zix videos, however many of the things he can do today are still possible)

However, while watching other people play Kha'Zix is good and all, the most effective way of improving is simply playing Kha'Zix. Get out there are start playing.
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Teamfight Tactics Guide