This is my first guide, so I apologize for any shortfalls. I've loved Kog'Maw ever since the first time I played him. He is a very strong ranged carry with insane range and potentially very high damage. In my opinion, he's also one of the best ranged carries in Dominion these days. Before you downrate this guide, try it, and I think you'll find that you are dominating dominion as well.

Here's a copy of of my recent fight history, so you can see I'm no noob with Kog'Maw. Even in the matches I lost, I took 1st place, I just wasn't able to carry a team full of morons or once when some one rage quit half way through.

Pros:
- Super long range attacks with Bio-Arcane Barrage and Living Artillery
- Very high damage mid to late game
- A decent AoE slow with Void Ooze
- Built in penetration with Caustic Spittle
- A great revenge attack upon death with Icathian Surprise

Cons:
- Squishy
- Slow
- Lacks escape moves
- Highly focused in team fights (if they can reach you)

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: More magic penetration equals more damage from Bio-Arcane Barrage and Kitae's Bloodrazor, as well as all you other abilities.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Same as above

Greater Seal of Replenishment: Although Kog'Maw isn't nearly the most mana hungry champion in the game, he does consume a fair amount. These runse will help mitigate that problem.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Because every little bit of magic resistance helps.

If you dont like these runes, Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Desolation are also good. They seem to make for a slightly stronger early game and slightly weaker end game. Any of the Hybrid Penetraion Runes are also great, if you can afford them.

Ghost helps you get to important points as critical times, to kill an enemy champion or capture a tower. In dominion Ghost is your best friend.


Exhaust is a great offensive or defensive tool to shut down an enemy champion for a few crutial seconds. I generally use it to gain the upper hand when a melee fighter tries to get in my face. It can also be used to prevent a runner from escaping you.


Surge, a good option if you dont like Exhaust. It's a good self buff early game, but late game you just aren't going to feel it's effects as much. I find it to be better than Exhaust early game but worse late game.

With the new mastery trees there are many more options and viable combinations than there were before. I'll only mention a few key masteries and why I chose them, the others could probably be tweaked with little if any damage to your playability.

Alacrity : Attack speed is your key combat stat., the more the better.

Weapon Expertise : You will deal both physical and magical damage, and you want every possible point to get past their armor.

Arcane Knowledge : As above, but even more so.

Sunder : I'm sure you can see that pattern.

Deadliness and Lethality : Crits do not multiply your bonus magic damage (which is the majority of the damage you will be inflicting), avoid these two.

My item selection has been a very big facor in my success. I'll now go over each of my items and why.

Mobility Boots This is the first item I get every game. Out of combat, it'll give you a speed of 431. With that kind of speed you can get to key battles and capture towers much faster. I've tried Berserker's Greaves and Sorcerer's Shoes, but I always end up being too slow.

Kitae's Bloodrazor Yeah, I know its expensive but the 2.5% magic damage, coupled with Bio-Arcane Barrage, will be the biggest source of your damage.

The Lightbringer It's pretty cheap, it adds a little damage and alot of attack speed. I've also found it's passive to be extremely useful in dominion. Not only is it great against Akali, but it'll keep you targeted on your victim when they dip into a bush or around a corner to try and escape. I cannot stress enough, how much I like this item's passive.

Malady Again, its pretty cheap, it adds a little damage and alot of attack speed. The bonus AP and magic penetration is also useful.

Frozen Mallet This item will make you much less squishy, and more importantly, slow your victim with every attack. Paired with The Lightbringer, enemies will never escape you without using a teleport.

After this point the game is almost done. There isnt going to be more than a few minutes left in the match and our core build is done, so just grab whatever you feel like. I often grab a Vampiric Scepter and make a Sanguine Blade if I have time.

Many Kog'Maw players I see dont seem to understand it fine points of his skills and how to properly use them, so I'll try to explain them in detail.


Caustic Spittle: A decent ability with duel purposes; first it gives passive attack speed that doesnt get lost while on its cooldown, like some similar powers that other champs have. Second; it fires a damaging shot that lowers your victim's armor and magic resistance for 4 seconds. It's damage and range are a bit lower than I like, so I dont generally use it unless I'm forced to fight at close range.


Bio-Arcane Barrage: This ability will inflict the bulk of your damage and give you some very long range auto attacks. Get it, use it, love it. During team fights use this ability to stay as far away as possible from the enemies. If you get close they will focus hard on you.


Void Ooze: Like Caustic Spittle, it's damage is pretty low (unless you build for AP), but it drops a long strip of slowing mud that enemies hate touching. It can be used to prevent an enemy escape, sometimes, but it's much better for keeping enemies from getting up to you.


Living Artillery: This super long range attack basically replaces your ulti as a 4th regular power. At its second and third levels its great for finishing off runners. It also lets you see the target for several seconds, if it hits, so its good for hitting guys who are hiding in bushes. It's a skill shot to hit with, so practise up with it, but it's awesome in dominion. It's exellent to hit guys trying to capture your towers, from long range.

Here are a few tips for playing Kog'Maw that I've found;

If I havent driven the point home yet, stay at range. Use Living Artillery, Bio-Arcane Barrage, and Void Ooze (often in that order) to keep melee fighters off you.

If you do end up in melee dont just run. You will die. Unless you fire a Void Ooze in the direction you want to run, then follow it with a Flash or Ghost, you are going to die if you run. You are best off standing and fighting. Use (in this order of priority) Exhaust, Bio-Arcane Barrage, Living Artillery, Caustic Spittle, and Living Artillery, again. With any luck, you'll kill them first and even if you dont you'll have a good chance of finishing them with Icathian Surprise.

Dont start fights with more than one enemy champion unless you have support. You are squishy and will just end up getting killed. Harassing with Living Artillery is generally pretty safe, just beware of getting ganked if you stay put for too long.



The bushes above the top tower are a great hiding place for Kog'Maw. With Living Artillery you can disrupt any attempts to capture the tower and get a free hit. Then they have to come after you by either walking around to you or with a teleport. You should be able to hit them mutiple times before they get to you. I can almost always kill one champ at a time this way. Against two or three, your probably going to die, but will likely kill at least one of them and buy more time for you team to come help.

Thanks for taking the time to read my guide, and good luck to all of you.