Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Cho'Gath Build Guide by MattieG

Middle Maximum Cho'gath - Dominating mid lane

Middle Maximum Cho'gath - Dominating mid lane

Updated on May 8, 2018
9.8
59
Votes
4
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author MattieG Build Guide By MattieG 59 4 2,004,736 Views 12 Comments
59 4 2,004,736 Views 12 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author MattieG Cho'Gath Build Guide By MattieG Updated on May 8, 2018
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Runes:

Sorcery
Arcane Comet
The Ultimate Hat
Celerity
Gathering Storm

Precision
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity

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


Hey there and welcome to my first ever guide on Mobafire!

This guide is quite in-depth and will require some reading, I promise you it's worth the time.

The build I wrote is a bruiser/carry AP midlaner Cho'Gath, this means you can take quite some damage from the enemy team but are able to put out quite some damage yourself.

Please do remember that this is my first guide ever, any supportive commentary is welcome at any time! If you think something is missing in this guide don't hesitate to send me a message.
Back to Top

Pros / Cons

Pros
  • Very tanky
  • Good cc (slow +silence)
  • Deals (a lot of) true damage
  • Rarely focused due to high HP
  • Extra magic damage on basic attacks

Cons
  • Very dependable on landing his Rupture to apply other means of damage.
  • Sensitive to ranged poke, especially early game.
  • No massive burst besides ult.
  • Can be kited, has no real escape.
Back to Top

Summoner Spells



In my opinion there are 3 viable spells for Cho:

Flash

Best spell to have in your pocket at any time, great for chasing enemies over brushes or just in lane and ideal for making a quick escape.

Teleport

Very viable if you like to gank a lot or want to split-push but be able to join your team when needed, communicate with your team to have wards in the lane bushes for you to teleport in. WARDS WIN GAMES!! Especially with the new trinkets most players will have a ward set up in their inventory.

Ignite

I like the extra damage coming from this item, it's aggresive and is very powerfull when used on proper targets. In teamfights putting ignite on the enemy ADC will make his lifesteal a lot less usefull, making it easier to burst him down ASAP.
Back to Top

Items

Now this is were it gets interesting, the items displayed are my favorite choice when playing Cho'Gath midlane. The reason I picked these items is because they are a mix of tankyness and strong AP. Buying smart will mean you'll be able to get at least 20% CDR, combining with a blue buff to 30% ezpz.

Doran's ring

This item works like a charm on Cho, combined with his passive Carnivore this will give you the mana you need begin game, additionally it will give you some extra HP for sustain and some AP for harassment.

Health potion
Since the patch update Doran's ring has become a bit cheaper, giving us the opportunity to gain even more sustain by bringing along 2 health pots. You could go with mana potions if you're scared of losing a lot of mana or are confident enough you will win with enough poke but I won't recommend it.

Catalyst the protectorCatalyst the Protector
This is thé to get when playing Cho'gath and should be rushed ASAP. It gives you a chunk of health and mana and will heal you for spending mana. It's also the first step towards Rod of Ages

Sorcerer's shoes
Now I've had a lot of discussion about getting these boots, most find that Cho has more use when using Magic Resistance boots due to both the MR and the tenacity. When playing mid I much prefer magic pen boots. The extra magic penentration received from these boots will make your abilities quite a bit more frightning. If you find yourself to be versus a very CC heavy team you could go Mercury's treads instead.

Rod of Ages
Next up: Rod of ages, this is the main item that Cho thrives on due to the extra health, mana and ability power you get every minute (capped at 10 minutes). The sooner you get this the sooner you benefit from it's passives.


Rabadon's Deathcap

Damage inbound! This item is insane on Cho'gath (or any AP champion) when it comes down to damage, all your abilities benefit from it and will greatly enhance your damage output.




Dueling items




Nashor's tooth
Nashor's tooth is a great item when it comes down to more duels vs 1 player rather then complete teamfights. When fighting in a duel it will take more time to take down an enemy then when you fight in teamfights, where all combo's are massed at one point on the map. When dueling Nashor's tooth is your item by choice for sure. Due to the attack speed you gain from it your Vorpal spikes will start to do some pretty sick damage when a fight last for a bit longer. Your basic attacks already benefit from your E's passive when it comes to dealing magic damage, when using Nashor's tooth this will be enhanced even further. Combining this item with your E pretty much lets you do constant extra magic damage whilst waiting for your destructive abilities to come of cooldown.

Wit's end
If you (somehow) let your opponent get fed on a lot of kills and/or cs this will be your item to ensure you won't be bursted down when you finally get to engage on him. The 40% attack speed will work pretty much the same as the attack speed gained when using Nashor's tooth. The key to this item is the flat magic resistance you gain (+40) and the extra 30 magic resistance you steal from your opponent. This means that as the fight is progressing your opponent will be come weaker as you become more resilient against his abilities. Combined with the +42 magic damage per basic attack will allow you to put your enemy AP carry to an end.

NOTE: Current meta isn't doing much for this item on melee, only buy this if their team is 4/5 melee.



Tank items


Abyssal Mask
When I find myself in times of fed ability power users, Abyssal Mask comes to me, Aura's words of wisdom, L2P. Kidding aside, if you find that the enemy has a lot of magic damage this item is great for more survivability. It als works wonders if you have an AP top and/or jungler. You're a big guy and you get into some pretty close combat during the game. The aura this item gives will enhance all magic damage to nearby opponents by 10%. Imagine Veigar's ultimate doing 2.000.000 damage end game, with your help he easily does 200.000 damage more just cause you happend to be near the target! I would advise building this item ór Rod of Ages, not both since the UNIQUE passive that they share.

Frozen heart
Right then, onto some more tankyness to make it almost impossible to kill you! This item is mainly your counter vs the adc of the other team. If there is any defensive item vs AD champs for Cho it's this one.
Frozen heart gives all the stats you could need with Cho, the 100 armor gives you an immense sustain vs adc and and junglers. Secondly it will give you 20% cooldown reduction which will give you the opportunity to cast your Q and W even more for extra crowd control. The +400 mana received will expand your mana pool even more combined with Rod of Ages.

Randuin's Omen
If you find yourself being kited a lot by your enemy adc (kiting means he is able to poke you, run away from you and repeat that while you try to get close) this item is really your best friend. It blocks 20% of all crit damage done to you with basic attacks. Whenever an enemy hits you with a basic attack their attack speed will also drop by 15%. The active on this item slows everyone near you for 55%, using this item when they are trying to move away or trying to catch up on you and your team is essential. If you find yourself against a team with more than 1 critdealer this item will be a great value to get.

Spirit Visage
This item is all about sustain for Cho'gath, this item has everything a Cho who needs more tankyness in his build. The most powerfull thing about this item (besides it giving HP, CDR, Regen and MR) is that it increases all your healing and regen effects, meaning that your passive Carnivore will heal for 20% more, combined with the extra health regen this will make it very hard for the enemy team to poke you down and force you to back off.

Note: I do not recommend building this item on AP cho,Abyssal Mask provides similar defenses with more damage output.

Warmog's armor
Anyone who has every played a tank has come along this item, it's very simple: 800 HP extra, which is a insane load of HP when combined with your stacks from Feast. Other than that this item regenerates 2,5% of your maximum HP each 0,5 second when you have 3000+ HP. This means that after you had an encounter you can stick around and heal back to full health in no time.

NOTE: Get this item if you find yourself sieging or being sieged against a high poke composition team. This way you will be able to heal back a lot of the damage from the poke.



Situational


Liandry's torment

If you find that the opposing team is stacking a lot of HP and is hard to be burned down by just using plain ability damage this item will come in handy. Every time you hit an enemy with one of your abilties (Q,W,E,R) it applies a DOT (Damage Over Time) that burns enemies for 6% of their current Health as magic damage over 3 seconds, dealing 1% of their current Health as magic damage every .5 seconds. If the target has a movement impairement on him they take double the damage.

Zhonya's hourglass
If you find yourself being the victim of burst damage focused on you this is a great item to save yourself from destruction. The active from this item will make you invulnerable and untargetable for 2.5 seconds. This should stop high burst abilities like Zed using his Death Mark or Veigar using his Primordial burst. Besides all that it give you a nice bit of armor against AD champions.

Back to Top

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18


Onto the skill sequence, which will termain how you will play our beloved Cho in midlane.


Carnivore

Carnivore is Cho'gaths passive and is what gives him his great sustainability in lane. Whenever Cho'Gath kills a unit, he recovers 20 - 71 (+2.83 each level) health and 3.5 - 7.75 mana (+0.25 each level), meaning he gains a minimum of 120 hp and 21 mp per wave is last hitted properly.
Thanks to these recoveries Cho is able to stay in lane much longer then most other champions.

Vorpal Spikes

I usually start of with leveling my E, this is because it will make last hitting the minions early game a lot easier for you. Another bonus you get from this is that you will also hit any minions or champions that are in a line behind your current target giving you some early poke. Vorpal spike is getting dangerous when you get your knock up and silence on the road aswell, trying to get as many basic hits on him as you can will help you poke the enemy very well. I take Vorpal Spikes at level 1 and max it first

Feral Scream

This is probably the most ideal spell to annoy your opponent with, you will both damage and silence your target at the same time, preventing him or her doing a quick counter attack. Patch over patch Riot has been removing silences from the game (Kassadin's Q, Leblanc Q + mimic). At the moment Cho'Gath's silence in probably is best, it is AoE which is quit wide in range and also deals damage. This skill can make a teamfight swing heavily into your favor when you silence half their team for 2,5 seconds.
I take this skill at level 2 and max it second

Rupture

Rupture is the only skillshot Cho'gath has and takes some practice to succesfully land on your opponent. When casting your rupture you have to be either sure that your opponent isn't moving or be sure he is moving to the place where you are casting it (in front of him in the direction he is running). When it lands they will be knocked up, take magic damage and are slowed by 60% for the next 3 seconds. Landing this ability followed up with a silence from Feral Scream will give you some nice poke without your opponent being able to do much due to the slow and the silence. Do be warned, if you stay too long in range after you cast your silence the enemy will try to poke you back with all the abilities they have. I take this skill at level 3 and max it last (due to high mana cost and it mostly being used for cc)

Feast

Feast is your ultimate ability, dealing massive true damage and granting additional health on each stack gained. This is what makes or brakes a tanky Cho'Gath, building up stacks with your ult grant you bonus health depending on your level. Late game maxing these stacks will give you a big chunk of health for anyone to deal with (besides your sick ap + true damage of course!).
Because of this extra hp it is important to build stacks as fast as you can, don't hold out on using it because you maybe might kill your opponent. Feast on minions and build up stacks for extra sustain. When you have your stacks up to 6 you will no longer have the need to feast on minions and can use this to harrass squishy champions or focus on building stacks via rift herald/baron/dragon. DO NOT use this ability on your oponents tank, focus on either the AP carry or AD carry to ensure that the damage dealers on the enemy team are taken out swiftly. Lastly your stacks build up attack range, 8.3 range per stack to be precise. This means that as you grow in hp and range you will also be able to do damage with your Vorpal Spikes, which do 0,5% of your opponents maximum hp on hit per stack,from a further distance.



Poking your opponent



To really scare your opponent in lane you have to continuously try to poke them. When playing Cho there is a pretty simple way of poking:

Early game you will use your Feral Scream to poke your enemy as much as you can. I prefer using the feral scream rather then Rupture due to the high mana cost and chance of missing, waisting 90 valuable manapoints. Another advantage Feral Scream has is that it doesn't have a precast like Rupture(0,5 seconds) so can be cast out of the blue when in range of your opponent.
If you find that your opponent is one who likes to go more melee basic attacks on you (Udyr for example) you will find that your Vorpal Spikes
will be your best option, giving you extra damage on every basic attack.

After getting your Catalyst the Protector Catalyst the Protector you will be able to do some more serious poke and getting some skills. You now have a lot more mana as your disposal which will allow you to poke with your Q and W on a more regular basis. When going in for a hard poke try to hit your Rupture first, knocking up the enemy, dealing damage and slowing him for 3 seconds. Right after the knock up walk up to your opponent and hit him with your W. If he decides to go into the offense anyway be sure to poke him with some basic attacks with your E toggled on.





Claiming the Kill


With all this poking and landing skillhots we should be about ready to kill our ignorant opponent. When going for the kill there are a few things you have to be aware of:
  • Make sure you know where their jungler is, you don't want to dive in and then face a 2v1
  • Check the CD on your abilities, make sure they are off CD to ensure you have enough cc to keep your opponent close
  • Use the right ability sequence to ensure most damage output
  • Be aware of how much damage you will do, don't waste your long cooldowns if you can't take the kill
With these things in mind we should be ready to make a serious try in killing our opponent. I usually have a very basic way of ensuring I get maximum damage on my opponent:

  • Rupture him, dealing damage, knocking him up and slowing him down
  • Hit him with 1-2 basic attacks for extra damage from your Vorpal Spikes
  • Silence him with Feral scream, dealing damage and preventing him from using any abilities
  • Hit him again with 1 basic attack if there is time
  • Rupture him again, follow up quickly by the next step
  • Repeat these steps and try to get as many auto attacks on him as you can. Once he is low enough take the last step
  • Ignite quickly followed up by Feast
Now, most champions you will be facing will know that when you use your ult you are pretty much going to chop them up. Dealing the true damage will help you take a big chunk of health from your opponent leaving him very vunerable very fast. At this point he will most likely try to flash away from you, leaving him with the DOT from your ignite. Should you get the feeling the damage from ignite just won't cut it you can always flash after him and use your Rupture to ensure the kill.

NOTE: Try using this sequence in coöperation with your jungler, combining cc and damage will ensure a clean kill.





Team fights


When you're in a game with a lot of teamfights there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind:
  • You are one the tankier champions of your team, they will expect you or other tanks to make the first engage
  • You can silence a load of enemies in one blow with Feral Scream
  • Focus your Ultimate on either the AP or AD carry, depending on which is strongest.
  • Try to protect your own AD and AP carry by landing your rupture at players engaging your ADC or APC.

Keep in mind that Cho's ult is an immense burst damage that can't be countered with armor or magic resistance. I've seen people trying to ult the enemies tank (like mundo) leaving you with little burst left for the real damage dealers.

Now the enemy will know what you are up to after the first fight were they saw their APC or ADC dissapear in one quick NOMNOM. So they will try to keep you away from the damage dealers as much as possible. These are the moments I try to use my flash ability very offensive, flashing towards your oponents adc and quickly feast on him will either result in a quick kill or forcing the enemy to back off being unable to deal damage.
Back to Top

Farming

Farming is what makes your game powerfull or weak, high elo players will focus on farm rather than keeping focus on harassing the enemy player. The reason for this is that harassment does not ensure any gold for you to buy items from. So let's farm up with Cho!

Your usual farming skill will be your Vorpal Spikes, making your basic attacks deal bonus magic damage.

When you find that your opponent can harass you too much when getting close enough to melee the minions try using your Feral Scream for farming. You can also use this ability to farm a larger group of minions if the are all rather low at the same time.

If the farm you want is way beyond your reach of safe playing but you still want to make sure you get the gold (especially if it's a canon minion!) use your Rupture to make sure you get it. Keep in mind though that this ability costs a lot of mana, at lvl 1 casting this ability 3 times already burns up all your mana, so be sure you have enough to keep laning!

When farming top lane remember that there are other places to farm then just in your lane. Let's say you pushed out your lane and you can't really farm under his tower, this means you would be sitting in lane waiting for the lane to push back towards you. This ofcourse is a waste of time!
Whenever something like this occurs try moving towards the golem camp in the jungle, doing this will keep the experience and gold flowing and may just get you ahead in lane. Ideally you want to make sure that your Feast is up when you go for this, the golem camp is tanky and a 1000 true damage kills this camp very fast, meaning you wont take that much damage!
Back to Top

Team Work

The game obviously isn't all about teamfights and you winning every scenario. It might just so happen that the team fight didn't go quite as planned and you are forced to back off.
Even though Cho is rather slow he can still make sure others on your team will have a save retreat while you soak up some damage coming from longer range abilites such as Caitlyn with her Ace in the Hole.

Besides soaking up damage you can obviously also make sure the enemy team won't be able to get close enough to do damage when you are walking away. Landing a proper Rupture will knock them up and slow then for 60% 3 seconds long. This should give you enough time to walk away safely towards your own tower.

Should your rupture not be enough or perhaps even miss there are other options you can use.

If enemy champions are able to catch up with you it mostly means that only 1 or 2 will be close enough for an attack, such as an Akali using her Shadow dance. When this occurs and the champion charging you is rather squishy you can always turn around and go in for the kill anyway. Your teammates will see you have turned around and will try to join in at getting this cocky enemy down ASAP.

In the least favorable scenario you will be caught up with and there won't be a chance to get out of there. What I do at this point is turn around and cc them and get them to attack me as much as possible. Cho is tanky and take quite some damage before he dies, giving the rest of your team time to run back, heal and defend towers and inhibitors.
If you have a feeling this is the scenario you will be facing try to land as much abilities on the damage dealer from their team, this will force him or her to retreat back to base and preventing him or her from pushing hard.





Keeping them close



If the roles are ofcourse reversed and you are the one chasing down enemies your most potent way of ensuring they won't leave your sight is using your and your . Landing a rupture will cause them to be slowed, making it easier for you and your team to get close and secure a kill. If you have a player that can either flash away or quickly escape using an ability such as using his Deceive you want to make good use of your silence, preventing them from flashing or using any other ability to quickly sneak away.

Just remember that as long as you keep enemies close too you, you will deal most damage. Both your and are more close range then your other two abilites.
Back to Top

Champion Spotlight

Most of you will have already watched the champion spotlight featuring our chucky lizard. For those who haven't here is a quick vid (7 minutes) from Riot's Phreak explaining some of Cho's abilities, tips and tricks.




Download the Porofessor App for Windows
League of Legends Build Guide Author MattieG
MattieG Cho'Gath Guide
Vote Vote
Maximum Cho'gath - Dominating mid lane

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide