My name is Matt Magill. I'm a 22 year old from New Jersey who enjoys reading, video games, comedy, long walks on the Jersey shore (lol), driving wherever my car takes me, and generic wildin' out.
I generally enjoy most types of video games. I'm a huge classic RPG fan and am the biggest Dragon Warrior/Quest fan that I know; I consider myself a 'competitive' FPS player with several console games; and I enjoy PC games of strategy such as Command and Conquer, Age of Mythology, and of course League of Legends.

On with what actually matters.

Kog'Maw - The Mouth of the Abyss

Kog'Maw, Kog, Koggy, a champ by many nicknames. And also important to note, a champ with many playstyles.

I am a firm believer that League of Legends is best taken as a game of strategy, and not as a game of pure combat. I developed this feeling on the game due to about 90% of the approx. 500 games I've played were spent tanking (Amumu, Shen, Galio [pre-nerfhammer], and to some extent Singed and Alistair [hey, he was 450IP, I was low level...we all make mistakes!] ). I had to learn how to best tank for the team, initiate, and win. The successful way it often NOT the simple 'waddle straight down the lane, Ult, and have the team mop up' strategy. While that CAN work (indeed ANY strategy can work on occasion, one could argue), usually the way that works best will be to use a more intense form of strategy, consisting of sneaking through the jungle behind enemy lines, patient bush camping, knowing when to give up the chase without overextending, or low-health baiting.

Think about it - How much time in an average game (30 minutes, to put a number on it) are you ACTUALLY in combat with enemy champions? Considering laning phase as a generally passive time of last hitting and mild harassment that you could dish out in your sleep, and the time spent backtracking to push back creeps on your side lanes, getting jungle buffs, dragoning, and the occasional time spent dead, you are maybe in INTENSE champion combat for half of that 30 minute game. The time spent not fighting, or rather in-between fights, is what I believe makes or breaks a player in this game.

That time you spend not fighting should be spent THINKING. Thinking about what you have done that works, what doesn't work, who's building what items, who is getting fed, what towers need defending, what tower needs to be destroyed next, how much gold until your next item, your personal and your opponent's summoner skill cooldowns.... a whole mess of situations. THINKING is what will help you win the game - not the 'Kill, Kill, Kill' mindset of many current players. This build is geared towards helping you gear around a intelligent, THOUGHTFUL mindset.

This Kog'Maw build is designed around being different (and in my opinion, better) then standard Kog'Maw builds. It is certainly powerful to build the Attack Speed/Damage Koggy - it can certainly shred through some champions earlier then some other builds through pumping of . Also, the popular AP Kog build is effective - your is a powerful champion harasser/borderline nuke, and can become monstrous in complete builds.

The main issue I have with these standard builds are that they are just that - standard. The game evolves over time, not just because of patches, but because the meta itself changes. When people run standard generic builds on certain champions, over time eventually all players are going to realize that champion's gimmick. If a certain champion's only build was to build, say, attack speed - it can be countered through a Thornmail. Just like that, through one item purchase, your build has been countered. This is only one example, but you get the idea of a counter.

I am here to stress the need to evolve the game of LoL by bringing something unexpected to the table.

Some people will consider this build to be, at it's core, a hybrid build. I prefer to call it a counter counter: A build designed to keep you as the dangerous ranged carry you are, as well as a build that shrugs off counter-build attempts against you by staying one item ahead of your opponents plans to keep you down - a true counter-counter.

Recommended

- This spell will help you with your 'think' time I have been preaching. It can be used offensively to quickly join a fight you weren't initially in to surprise the enemy team, or could be used defensively to jump in and defend against a big creep wave pushing a tower that your team has neglected too long. Make a mistake in the lane and take too much damage? Head back to base right away, heal up, and Teleport right back to avoid missing out on experience or letting your tower receive a scratch.

- Sometimes your just gonna get rushed through the front lines by the enemy team at the start of the fight [Standard business for . Sometimes, you just can't bear to let that or get away, but they have a slow or speed boost you can't handle. This spell will help you bridge that gap between life and death (for you or your quarry) several times per game if used right.

Acceptable

- If you don't have the mana/5 runes, or if you are lower level and don't have the few points in mana regen masteries, you might just be too strapped for mana. You could perhaps drop the Teleport for this if you really need but keep in mind - Clarity is useful for the early game, while the one I recommend are useful for the whole game.

- I have to admit, having this skill has helped me get a kill earlier then I normally would, since it will give me a powerful and reliable slow before I get the Frozen Mallet off the ground. If this suits your play-style, you could consider it an option for some early ganks, but also realize that between Frozen Mallet and Void Ooze, you will have more than enough slow to go around.

- Sometimes, you are going to go toe to toe on mid or in your lane in a 1v1 or 2v2 early on, and you know one of them plays defensively. It can be good to pop this early to help ensure a kill on someone you know is going to run or heal. Take it if you are really struggling to get champs at very low HP, but know that you are losing a lot of mobility if you do.

- Some people swear by Flash. It has it's uses indeed (Flashing in as or or and dropping your ult sure is fun and effective =D ). However, for Koggy's case, if you need to catch someone, will help you catch better, and if you use Flash for escaping, Ghost will help you escape better (unless of course you manage one of those sexy Flash-over-a-wall-maneuvers). I recommend Ghost instead of Flash, but if you consider yourself a Flash pro, by all means use it instead.

Not Acceptable

- Ghost or even Flash could have probably saved you bro, not this. Pass.
- That's why you have Living Artillery revealing people in every bush for a paltry 40 mana. Pass.
- Leave it for one of your supports. They probably need the extra minion damage, anyway. Pass.
- Jungle Kog? I lol'd
- You've got those pots right? Problem solved.
- You serious bro?
- It's only use is to force a queue dodge, lol.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed - You need some attack speed in here somewhere, and I believe this is one place to do it. Armor Pen is nice, Magic Pen is nice, but not in the way we are designing this build.

Greater Seal of Attack Speed - Some more of the same. This was tough for me, because my usual time is spent tanking, and not having the health here made me feel too squishy. But I'm preaching mindset change in this build, so mindset change it is.

Greater Glyph of Replenishment - Extra Mana/5 will help you stay in the lane after you used that mana pot already, or if your Teleport is on cooldown. Even though these type of runes were targeted in a recent patch, I believe most of the complaints were much ado about nothing, and these runes are very much viable. If you insist on using Clarity with Kog, which I discourage but don't hate, you can sub out these Glyphs for something else your are comfortable with.

Greater Quintessence of Health - These Quints are fantastic and a welcome addition on any champion. The extra health will help give you some surprising beefiness early. I believe the recent health reduction on them was fair - before the nerf, they were the BEST Quints, in my opinion. Riot was trying to avoid there being a BEST of anything in the game - if there was a best, why use anything else? Use these, and be pleased with your health bar.

You are an offensive character, so you need to gear you masteries offensively to fit your role well.
I went with an atypical 21-0-9 Mastery set-up

Offensive

Grab the AP on the first tier, and a point in crit chance to move you up a level. Put it in Cripple if you are taking Exhaust instead.
2nd tier has some sexy stuff - grab all of it. 4 points in both.
3rd tier you'll want that point in that sexy Magic Pen. The other 3 can go in Armor Pen.
4th tier just has the extra AD, so put in 3 points, and then backtrack to tier 3 and put a point in extra minion damage - unless of course, you took Ignite, then you should grab Burning Embers instead.

Defensive

Goose egg here.

Utility

Tier 1 - If you are following this build, grab the Improved Teleport and Improved Ghost, and tack the last two into the extra regen. If you are using a different summoner skill selection, naturally put the points elsewhere in this tree.
Tier 2 - The extra experience is underrated here. Snatch it up with all 4 points.
Tier 3 - I recommend Utility Mastery, but if you are on a team where the buffs are being taken by other teammates, then go with it and put the point in extra cash money. Unless you are taking , then you should grab the improved Clarity here.

Here's where this build differs from other builds, and where it's real character comes from. If you are unsure about any of my item decisions, be sure to read the whole section, and then contemplate if it could be due to a difference in play style we have from one another.
Start
Between the attack speed runes and masteries you have (hopefully!) taken, you are getting about 1 1/2 Dagger's at Lv.1 that you had to spend a grand total of 0 Gold on. That early attack speed will really help you in your last hitting creeps on mid or in the lane. Having this built in to Kog at Lv.1 will free up your starting gold for Kog's real issue - survivability. It doesn't matter HOW much damage you can do if you are just going to get creamed in a fight.
Start with boots 1, and grab a single mana pot (because we aren't using Clarity) and spend the rest on health pots. The movement speed early will help you get in some quick harassing hits and back off without taking excessive minion aggro damage, and having the pots will help any mistakes you make with mana or damage be forgiven a little bit. Use the pots if you are even slightly considering it. Don't just wait until you are near death to use them - that's why you have Teleport to go back and heal fully. Use the pots early, because their effectiveness trails off early.

First trip - Stay in the lane or on mid until you have around 1000 gold. If your Teleport is up, then quickly head back to base, upgrade your boots to [icon=Berzerker's Greaves