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Kha'Zix Build Guide by KhaZix Mains

Jungle [Season 13] r/KhaZixMains COMPLETE Guide to Kha'Zix

Jungle [Season 13] r/KhaZixMains COMPLETE Guide to Kha'Zix

Updated on July 16, 2023
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League of Legends Build Guide Author KhaZix Mains Build Guide By KhaZix Mains 1340 46 2,140,676 Views 38 Comments
1340 46 2,140,676 Views 38 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author KhaZix Mains Kha'Zix Build Guide By KhaZix Mains Updated on July 16, 2023
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Runes: Standard Domination

1 2 3 4
Domination
Electrocute
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection
Ingenious Hunter

Sorcery
Absolute Focus
Gathering Storm
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2
Standard
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

Hello! We hope this guide can teach you all the fundamentals you need to know while playing Kha’Zix as well as give you all the tools needed to carry in your games!

Please check out our Subreddit, Discord, and YouTube to stay up to date with all things Kha’Zix.
Kha’Zix Mains Community:
We are a community of Kha’Zix Mains who have been helping others learn the nuances of Kha’Zix for over 2 years now. We have a dedicated community on Reddit, Discord, and YouTube which focus on bringing the best content possible.
Those who helped put this guide together include:
While the writers of this guide might not all be Challenger, most of the information and data included is taken from Diamond-Challenger Kha’Zix Mains and OTPs across all regions!
Why you should play Kha’Zix
Assassination Tools: Offers you the highest individual carry potential so you can get leads from punishing other’s mispositioning. Easy to snowball leads and close out games. One of the best Solo Q junglers.

Versatility: Fills many roles for your team with varying playstyles.

Rewarding Kit: He has a fun kit with insane burst potential and fancy mechanics
There are a lot of rune setups that can be run on Kha’Zix, but they all share the similar themes of burst damage and mobility. We’ll go over a basic outline of how runes can change Kha’Zix’s playstyle and what rune choices you can make to best suit you.
Primary Domination
The Domination tree offers Kha’Zix a lot of raw damage, which translates to carry potential. This tree also offers burst, vision, scaling, healing and mobility based off your preference. You can pair the Domination tree with Sorcery, Precision, or Inspiration Secondary Trees.
Electrocute
Basic attacks and abilities generate stacks on enemy champions hit, up to one per attack or cast. Applying 3 stacks to a target within a 3 second period causes them to be struck by lightning, dealing them 30 - 180 (based on level) (+ 40% bonus AD) (+ 25% AP) Adaptive damage. Cooldown: 25-20 (based on level) seconds.
Keystone Option
Electrocute

Predator

Dark Harvest

Hail of Blades

Electrocute has always been regarded as the safer and more consistent option when considering a keystone compared to its counterparts. Electrocute not only gives consistent damage, but it's more reliable - specifically at early stages in the game or when playing from behind. For Kha’Zix, the keystone is extremely easy to proc due to his kit and it’s damage is relevant at all stages in the game.

Electrocute doesn't have many weaknesses, but it’s alternatives do shine more in certain areas, whether it be Dark Harvest’s reset potential during teamfights, or Phase Rush’s sticking power. The cooldown can feel lengthy at times, where a 20 second cooldown means you might only proc it once during the fight. This means you’ll need to ensure that you make it count otherwise your burst potential is slightly more limited. In conclusion, Electrocute has a lot of consistent, reliable upsides and not many downsides, which makes it the go-to for beginner Kha'Zix players who don't want to take risks and even pros who value a safer/consistent playstyle.
Dark Harvest
PASSIVE: Damaging a champion below 50% of their maximum health deals 20 − 60 (based on level) (+ 5 per Soul) (+ 25% bonus AD) bonus Adaptive damage and reaps 1 Soul. This cannot happen again for 45 seconds, resetting to 1.5 seconds on champion Damage rating takedown. While not on cooldown, the soul is also taken upon getting the kill credit of a champion killed by minions, turrets or monsters.

Cooldown: 45 seconds
Keystone Option

Electrocute

Predator
Dark Harvest

Hail of Blades

This is a keystone that is synonymous with high upsides as well as insane snowballing potential. The only drawback is that you’re going to need around 10-20 stacks before it really comes online. You should aim to be proactively seeking champions in order to collect as many stacks as possible, whether it’s ganks or invades, always be looking for your next target.

One of the biggest strengths DH has over Electrocute is the cooldown. While you might not massively outdamage Electrocute just looking at the proc damage until late-game, you have to factor in that Electrocute has a much longer cooldown in comparison as it can’t reset during a teamfight and you will proc it only once in most fights. The upside of having DH is you can proc it multiple times in a fight somewhat consistently. Your overall teamfight damage will skyrocket because you'll be able to chain together kills with each takedown. There's many possibilities to get at least 2-4 procs a fight if you play it correctly. Also it should be noted that a synergy between DH and your evolved wings develops mid/late due to your jump resets typically occurring at the same time as you get a DH reset. The trade-offs should be clear now, when you opt for DH you’re trading some reliability for more teamfighting presence and stronger late-game if you’re stacking well.
Sudden Impact
PASSIVE: Going in combat by affecting an enemy champion within 3 seconds of using a dash, blink or Teleport, or exiting from invisibility or camouflage, grants 7 Lethality and 6 Magic Penetration for the next 5 seconds.
If the triggering effect deals damage it will also benefit from the penetration.

Cooldown: 4 (on expiration) seconds

Rune Tier 1 Option

Cheap Shot

Taste of Blood
Sudden Impact

There's not as much to say for this one. For the moment it is by far the best option in this path because of the lethality it gives as well as how easily it is to proc due to Kha'Zix's leap and ultimate.
Eyeball Collection
PASSIVE: Collect 1 Eyeball per champion takedown, up to 10.

Gain 1.2 bonus Attack Damage or 2 Ability Power (Adaptive) per Eyeball collected, up to 12 bonus Attack Damage or 20 Ability Power (Adaptive). Completing your collection awards an additional 6 bonus Attack Damage or 10 Ability Power (Adaptive).

Rune Tier 2 Option

Zombie Ward

Ghost Poro
Eyeball Collection
This rune emphasizes a more snowball-oriented playstyle where you will rely on kills to stack it. There is the obvious downside: if you're set behind and unable to get any kills for most or all of the game, it'll be as if you didn't have a rune at all. Collecting maximum stacks gives you 18 Flat AD. Take this if you value the high risk - high reward playstyle.
Zombie Ward
PASSIVE: Scoring Damage rating takedown on an enemy ward summons a friendly Zombie Ward in its place (10 second assist timer). If the brush where you killed the enemy ward already contains an allied ward, you instead gain a Zombie Ward in your Trinket Slot that can be placed at any location within the next 30 seconds. Gain 1.2 bonus Attack Damage or 2 Ability Power (Adaptive) for every Zombie Ward spawned, up to 10, for a maximum of 12 bonus Attack Damage or 20 Ability Power (Adaptive). After spawning 10 Zombie Wards, gain an additional 6 bonus Attack Damage or 10 Ability Power (Adaptive).

Zombie Wards grant sight over 1100 units, are visible to the enemy team, have 1 health, last for 120 seconds and don't count towards your ward limit.

Killing a Zombie Ward will grant 1 gold.

Rune Tier 2 Option
Zombie Ward

Ghost Poro

Eyeball Collection

This is especially valuable if you like to pick up a Sweeper, multiple control wards or Umbral Glaive. The benefit to taking zombie ward is that it’s much easier to stack just by clearing wards than relying on kills.
Ghost Poro
PASSIVE: When your wards expire, they leave behind a Ghost Poro, which grants sight over a 450-unit area for 60 seconds. Wards killed by enemies don't spawn Ghost Poros.

Nearby enemy champions scare the Ghost Poro away.

Gain 1.2 bonus Attack Damage or 2 Ability Power (Adaptive) for every Ghost Poro spawned and when your Ghost Poro spots an enemy champion, up to 10 stacks, for a maximum of 12 bonus Attack Damage or 20 Ability Power (Adaptive). After reaching 10 stacks, additionally gain 6 bonus Attack Damage or 10 Ability Power (Adaptive).

Rune Tier 2 Option

Zombie Ward
Ghost Poro

Eyeball Collection

Not a bad choice if you’re placing a lot of wards but you will need to keep in mind that it may take until lategame to fully stack it. Additionally, it grants 2 adaptive force when a Ghost Poro spots an enemy so keep that in mind during your early-midgame.
Ravenous Hunter
Gain 1.2% omnivamp per Bounty Hunter stack, up to 6% at 5 stacks

Earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion.

Healing reduced to one third on area of effect abilities.

Rune Tier 3 Option
Ravenous Hunter

Ingenious Hunter

Relentless Hunter

Ultimate Hunter

With the S11 nerfs, this item has fallen out of favor but is a solid secondary option if you are oppose to Ingenious or Relentless. You’ll find greater success with this rune when you take Ravenous Hunter in conjunction with a more dueling focused playstyle, such as Q evolve. Ravenous Hunter also has a greater synergy with Death's Dance/Maw than Relentless Hunter does. You lose out on a bit of map presence, but you gain a lot more power in terms of dueling and teamfights, and it's better against tanky opponents. It should be noted you will heal from all damage sources, not just abilities or auto attacks. There will be so many times where you'll be ignited, but with a stacked ravenous hunter you'll have access to 14% healing on abilities which could save your life if you Q an isolated minion or a jungle monster.
Ingenious Hunter
PASSIVE: Gain 20 (+ 6 per Bounty Hunter stack) item haste, up to 50 at 5 stacks.

Earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion.

Rune Tier 3 Option

Ravenous Hunter
Ingenious Hunter

Relentless Hunter

Ultimate Hunter

Highly recommended after the S11 Buffs alongside the Ravenous Nerfs due to how many benefits Kha'Zix receives with his standard itemization. Using this rune in conjunction with Prowler's Claw, Eclipse, Muramana, Edge of Night, Umbral Glaive, Youmuu's Ghostblade and more for more, making it the best rune in this tree for most scenarios. It should be noted if opting for Duskblade, it may not have as much benefit with Duskblade's effect compared to other mythic.
Relentless Hunter
PASSIVE: Gain 10 − 55 (based on Bounty Hunter stacks) out-of-combat movement speed.

Earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion.

Rune Tier 3 Option

Ravenous Hunter

Ingenious Hunter
Relentless Hunter

Ultimate Hunter

An alternative option to Ingenious Hunter if you value the agency you get moving faster across the map. Even if you can't measure it's impact with a number like Ravenous, the mobility shouldn't be under valued. Relentless Hunter also feels great alongside Water Walking, Ghostblade and Cloud Drakes. While the mobility can be nice, it can also be less effective later on in the game: in situations where you're against a team with tanks and peel your rune won't have as much impact as Ravenous. Even without the combinations, this rune can be a decent option depending on your playstyle.
Primary Precision
The Precision tree provides unrivaled dueling capabilities through Conqueror and opens up many options for bruiser or utility focused playstyles.
Conqueror
PASSIVE: Basic attacks on-hit grant 2 stacks. Abilities that deal damage to an enemy champion always grant 2 stacks.

Each stack of Conqueror grants 1.2 − 2.7(based on level) bonus Attack Damage for 5 seconds, stacking up to 12 times, for a maximum of 14.4 − 32.4 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage. When fully stacked, melee champions heal for 9% of post mitigation damage. The buffs refresh upon dealing damage to enemy champions with attacks or abilities.


Keystone Option

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Fleet Footwork
Conqueror

Conqueror is the only viable keystone option in the precision tree and it's no surprise once you understand what makes it so strong. Opting for Conqueror increases not only your dueling potency but also your survivability in extended skirmishes and trades throughout the game. Conqueror not only shines in the early game during elongated trades but also throughout the later stages in the game after you acquire more your core items. Conqueror's value only increases as the game progresses and you hit your evolution and Duskblade/Cleaver powerspikes. Unlike many of Kha'Zix's other keystones, it won't go on cooldown after you proc it, it stays in effect for the duration of the fight until your stacks expire. Therefore, playing around your stacks becomes a clear priority for the Conqueror playstyle.

One of the bigger strengths when taking Conqueror is that it opens the door for more bruiser or utility focused options that are often overlooked when using other keystones. Having Conqueror's bonus damage passive synergizes greatly with Cleaver's armor reduction in a similar fashion to the healing that is complimented by items such as Death's Dance. This also broadens your playstyle options to not having to only reply on assassinating squishy targets but also peel, shred tanks and provide utility for your team.

Overall, the value of Conqueror cannot be stated enough especially in meta-games where bruisers and tanky team compositions that possess a lot of CC are abundant.
Triumph
PASSIVE: Champion takedowns, after a 1-second delay, restore 12% of your missing health and grant an additional Gold 20.


Rune Tier 1 Option

Overheal
Triumph

Presence of Mind

Triumph is fairly straightforward in terms of how it functions and synergizes with champions like Kha'Zix. As Kha'Zix, you'll find a lot of scenarios where you'll be in 1v2's, 2v2's, 5v5's etc and need the extra healing + mana to survive a close fight. Taking this allows you to play more aggressively and turn disadvantageous fights more in your favor especially with multiple uses.


Legend: Alacrity
PASSIVE: Gain 3% (+ 1.5% per Legend stack) bonus attack speed, up to 18% with 10 stacks.

LEGEND: Gain Legend stacks for every 100 points earned, up to 10:
100 points for champion Damage rating takedowns
100 points for epic monster Damage rating takedowns
25 points for large monster kills
4 points for minion kills

Rune Tier 2 Option
Legend: Alacrity

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Bloodline

The standard Tier 2 option for Precision due to how useful it is in any situation. Contrary to what many will say, Kha'Zix benefits from attack speed almost as much as he does from attack damage. This is due to his passive auto being sped up the more attack speed you have, thus increasing your all-in combo. It also helps throughout the game by speeding up your jungle clear and offering more DPS in any trades you take.
Legend: Tenacity
PASSIVE: Gain 5% (+ 2.5% per Legend stack) Tenacity, up to 30% with 10 stacks.

LEGEND: Gain Legend stacks for every 100 points earned, up to 10:
100 points for champion Damage rating takedowns
100 points for epic monster Damage rating takedowns
25 points for large monster kills
4 points for minion kills

Rune Tier 2 Option

Legend: Alacrity
Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Bloodline

A great option if the enemy team has a substantial amount of CC such as Sejuani, Leona or Nautilus. This also can free your boot slot if the enemy is lacking in AP threats and prefer to build Tabi while still having some form of Tenacity. Take this situationally.
Coup de Grace
PASSIVE: Deal 8% increased damage to champions below 40% maximum health.

Rune Tier 3 Option
Coup de Grace

Cut Down

Last Stand

Coup de Grace is often seen as the go-to but it's not so black and white. Coup has a clear weakness of not being as effective if you can already assassinate them fast enough to not make a difference. It's still the optimal choice for the assassin playstyle.
Last Stand
PASSIVE: Deal 5% increased damage to champions while below 60% maximum health. This increases based on your missing health, up to 11% increased damage while below 30% maximum health.

Rune Tier 3 Option

Coup de Grace

Cut Down
Last Stand

Last Stand is often overlooked by Coup but it's still a viable option especially when taken in a bruiser setup. It will deal comparable damage to Coup de Grace in most situations but it shines in situations where you're fighting with lower HP thresholds for sustained periods. The damage trade-off can be seen as a risk due to coming online once you're low on HP but the risk can be mitigated when used alongside things like Conqueror, Ravenous Hunter, Death's Dance, Black Cleaver and HP items in general.

Primary Sorcery
It's only recommended in a dedicated Phase Rush setup that prioritizes mobility and sticking power.
Phase Rush
PASSIVE: Basic attacks and abilities generate stacks on enemy champions hit, up to one per attack or cast. Applying 3 stacks to a target within a 4 second period grants you 40% - 60% (based on level) movement speed and 75% Slow immune icon slow resist for 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 15 seconds

Keystone Option

Summon Aery

Arcane Comet
Phase Rush

Firstly, with the addition of Prowler's and Ghostblade being so prevalent in addition to Ingenious increasing their uptime, Phase Rush setups aren't recommended in S12 except situationally into specific matchups. It's recommended that you only take Phase Rush with a dedicated Phase Rush page so that you can fully utilize the keystone's potential. It's a must to run in conjunction with Nimbus Cloak because of the synergy, this can be amplified even more with Stalker's Blade. Waterwalking is a general bonus to movement speed and map presence but you can opt for Gathering Storm if you plan to scale at the cost of some rune synergy. There is a threshold of movement speed past 415 where a softcap* will be placed on any exceeding movement speed which you can see the formulas for here so it's not always needed to take Mobility Boots or Relentless Hunter as much as the other runes outlined earlier.

*meaning that any bonus above that point is significantly reduced

Finally there's also added synergy with Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Cloud Soul to add more mobility around the map. Generally, you can evolve depending on your playstyle, but having this setup will give R evolution more value if you choose to take that at some point.

The first thing you might ask yourself is why should you take Phase Rush over things like Electrocute or Dark Harvest. First of all, it's extremely easy to proc Phase Rush as Kha'Zix as you can get it within 1 standard ability rotation and it's always available. Secondly the cooldown is only 15 seconds flat, while Electrocute will be 25 seconds at level 1 and scale to 20, making Phase Rush much more available to you if you plan to take many skirmishes in a short period of time or for extended fights. A smaller reason which should still be noted is that it also gives 75% slow resist for 3 seconds at all levels, meaning it would be extra effective against comps with many slows.

Now that we've outlined some of its capabilities, let's talk about what it can offer you in a practical sense, and what strengths it provides to your setup. It's important to understand that this keystone is on par with Electrocute in terms of earlygame reliability, as well as having decent scaling (60% movement speed at level 18) for later. So that means a majority of the earlygame, due to its short cooldown, you'll have a lot more agency to take trades and fights with the enemy jungler without worrying about your keystone's cooldown.

Only this setup if you want to be proactive earlygame and if you value mobility as well as maneuverability into matchups where this matters(Kindred/Taliyah). This rune will give room for more outplay potential to dodge skillshots and stay on very mobile targets. You would not want to take this if you value raw damage over mobility, or if you put more emphasis on scaling damage rather than early mobility and sticking power.
Nimbus Cloak
PASSIVE: Casting a summoner spell grants ghosting and 5% − 35% (based on summoner spell cooldown) bonus movement speed for 2 seconds.


Rune Tier 1 Option

Nullifying Orb

Manaflow Band
Nimbus Cloak

The best rune in this tier for Kha’Zix would be Nimbus Cloak since having more sticking power with Kha'Zix is never a bad thing. A key detail to note is that if you’re not evolving Leap, this rune might be more valuable to you to compensate for the lack of mobility. It’s a decent alternative to the Slot 3 runes if you plan to take Sorcery secondary and a must if it’s your primary tree.
Absolute Focus
PASSIVE: Gain 1 − 18 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 3 − 30 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive) while above 70% of your maximum health.

ADAPTIVE: Grants bonuses based on which stat you already have the most bonuses for. Defaults to the first listed.

Rune Tier 2 Option

Transcendence

Celerity
Absolute Focus

Absolute Focus is one of the best runes in the sorcery tree for Kha'Zix because of his burst-heavy nature. This overall helps you assassinate targets faster and more consistently. There's not too much to say besides it's a solid choice and a high priority if you're going into the sorcery tree.
Transcendence
PASSIVE: Gain bonuses upon reaching the following levels:

Level 5: +5 ability haste.
Level 8: +5 ability haste.
Level 11: On champion Damage rating.png takedowns, reduce the remaining cooldowns of your basic abilities by 20%.


Rune Tier 2 Option

Transcendence
Transcendence

Absolute Focus

Another solid Slot 2 option to consider if you're not running Absolute Focus. It will do with other ability haste items throughout your build giving you more relevance through to the late-game.
Waterwalking
PASSIVE: While in the river, you gain 25 bonus movement speed and 3 − 18 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 5 − 30 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive).

Rune Tier 3 Option

Scorch
Waterwalking

Gathering Storm

It's a decent pick when you want to prioritize mobility and having more agency across the map. Take this if you value mobility and map presence.
Gathering Storm
PASSIVE: Every 10 minutes, gain (1 per 10 Minutes) stacks of Gathering Storm. Each stack grants 4.8 bonus Attack Damage or 8 Ability Power (Adaptive).

This stacks with no upper limit, for a total of 4.8 − ∞ (based on Minutes) AD or 8 − ∞ (based on Minutes) AP at 10 − ∞ (based on Stacks) minutes.

ADAPTIVE: Grants bonuses based on which stat you already have the most bonuses for. Defaults to the first listed.

Rune Tier 3 Option

Scorch

Waterwalking
Gathering Storm

This is the scaling rune choice, and will be invaluable if your games are typically extending into the lategame. This is personal preference and playstyle oriented as well, but it does have good synergy with Dark Harvest as it shares a scaling nature with the rune. Keep in mind this rune can scale exponentially, giving 4.8 bonus AD at 10 minutes, which already outscales scorch. The downside of this rune is that if your games are ending too quickly, it will fall much shorter in comparison to other options which will be relevant at earlier points in the game, making this more for insurance if you can't close the game out. Use this rune if you want to scale.

Primary Inspiration
It's only recommended in a dedicated First Strike setup that prioritizes aggression and cost saving.
First Strike
PASSIVE: Dealing damage or applying a crowd control effect to an enemy champion within the first 0.25 seconds of champion combat, grants 5 Gold 5 and First Strike for 3 seconds, causing all of your post-mitigation damage dealt against champions to deal 10% bonus true damage. Afterwards, you are granted 100% of all bonus damage dealt within the duration as gold.

Cooldown: 25-15 seconds(Based on Level)

Keystone Option

Glacial Augment

Unsealed Book
First Strike

First Strike is a rune that will allow you to truly accerlate the game during the midgame when you're able to hit stronger item breakpoints sooner than other keystones. If you can utilize First Strike's offensive playstyle to it's fullest, by actively looking for duels and ganks, you'll be rewarded with extra gold to build a more substantial lead in the mid-game. Kha'Zix has many ways to proc first strike easily, most notably using his ultimate to attack from stealth, ensuring the proc will occur. The added true damage benefit throughout the game helps it stay relevant from early-lategame as well. When opting for this keystone, it's best to pair it with a pure lethality setup, as rushing Bruiser components won't be as impactful as Dirk items through the early-midgame.

Many of the benefits from taking First Strike aren't just with the keystone itself, but the secondary runes that further emphaize on the free gold you'll be gaining throughout the game. When paired with Future's Market, Magical Boots and Cosmic Insight, you'll have be able to allocate more of your gold to accelerating your damage instead.
Magical Footwear
PASSIVE: After 12 minutes (reduced by 45 seconds whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion), you gain Slightly Magical Boots for free. Additionally, your boots grant a bonus 10 movement speed.


Rune Tier 1 Option

Hextech Flashtrap
Magical Footwear

Perfect Timing

This is the only option in the Tier 1 tree that is worth choosing as Kha'Zix. Saving 300 gold so that you can work towards your Mythic and Dirks faster, will allow you to accelerate much faster in the early-game. One potential drawback is if the game is not going well, being stuck without boots for longer periods can be difficult.
Future's Market
PASSIVE: You can enter debt to buy items, up to 145(+5 per minute). Additionally, A 50 Gold lending fee is added onto the amount of gold you owe after leaving the shop.

Rune Tier 2 Option
Future's Market

Minion Demat

Biscuit Delivery

Future's Market is the recommended choice in this tree for most occasions due to it's synergy with the rest of your runes. It may only get 1-2 optimal uses but having a Dirk/Mythic at times where you otherwise wouldn't can be gamechanging and worth entering deppt to obtain.
Minion Dematerializer
PASSIVE: Start the game with 3 × Minion Dematerializers, which can be activated to execute the target enemy minion after a 1-second delay. Dematerializers are placed on a 180-second cooldown at the start of the game.

In addition to the gold and experience obtained from killing the minion, you also gain 6% increased damage to that type of minion for the remainder of the game. Dematerializers beyond the first used on the same type of minion increases this bonus by 3%, up to a maximum of 12% if all three are used on the same minion type.

Cooldown: 10 seocnds


Rune Tier 2 Option

Future's Market
Minion Dematerializer

Biscuit Delivery

A niche alternative to Future's Market that can come into play if you find yourself in positions after ganks where you want to shove faster for a quicker reset or return to jungle clear. This can also come into play during midgame to slow down sieges. Use at your own discretion.
Cosmic Insight
PASSIVE: Gain 18 summoner spell haste and 10 item haste

Rune Tier 3 Option
Cosmic Insight

Approach Velocity

Time Warp Tonic

The best Tier 3 Option available. Summoner Spell Haste will allow you to have better odds with securing objectives such as Dragon, Herald and Baron as well as added dueling potency from your combat smites. Also shorter flash timers shouldn't be underestimated. Item haste is also crucial as most of Kha'Zix's core items will directly benefit from having lower cooldowns.
Secondary Domination
The obvious choice is going to be Sudden Impact with either Relentless Hunter or Ravenous Hunter depending on personal preference. Since combat stats are typically more valuable than opting for the Slot 2 vision centric options, it would be better to skip those and focus purely on combat strength.
Sorcery Secondary
If you decide to opt for the sorcery tree as a secondary, you definitely want Absolute Focus or Transcendence in all of your Sorcery Secondary trees. There are a few options for secondary sorcery runes; Absolute Focus, Nimbus Cloak, Gathering Storm, Water walking, and Transcendence. You’ll also most likely want to ignore Manaflow Band completely, and only pick up Nullifying Orb situationally if against a full AP threat team. The other options come down to situation and preference.
Inspiration Secondary
This is an option if you want to go for a higher econ Jungle Style. Not only does it allow you to get free boots and spend more gold but you’ll also have access to Future's Market grant you access to your powerspikes sooner.
Secondary Precision
After frequent nerfs to Sorcery runes, Precision is considered a viable alternative to Sorcery secondary. There’s not much diversity in terms of rune choices here so you’ll want to get Triumph and Coup De Grace/Alacrity/Tenacity if you decide to take Precision Secondary. The sustain from resets due to Triumph can be a deciding factor in a teamfight, as well as the bonus damage from Coup. Last stand can also be a viable option based on your playstyle.
Offense:
9 Adaptive Force
The standard stat shard setup when jungling Kha’Zix is going to be Offensive (+9 Adaptive Force), Flex Offensive (+9 Adaptive Force), and Defense Armor (+6 Armor). Attack speed will hinder your DPS in duels and having HP/MR will affect your early clear HP too much to justify it.
Flex:
9 Adaptive Force
Defense:
6 Armor
DOMINATION
SORCERY
This is the standard page for Kha’Zix. I would recommend this rune page if you're running the Q>E>W evolution path especially. This page works best with Electrocute but Dark Harvest can be used to a similar level of success although with less consistency. The rounded carry potential will allow you to take more resources and do more with them in terms of dueling and reliability. Sorcery is the optimal choice after frequent nerfs to the precision tree with Waterwalking and a toss up between Absolute Focus, Nimbus Cloak, Nullifying Orb and Transcendence being the standard choices. Precision secondary can still work in this page if it’s your preference but if you do make sure to take Triumph + Coup/Last Stand. You can also run Inspiration secondary with Magical Footwear + Future’s Market if you prefer the free value for your builds. Take this page with any of the three secondary options if you feel like you prefer the standard and consistent approach to playing a carry jungler.
The Carry Jungler
(Electrocute + Sudden Impact + Eyeball Collection + Ingenious Hunter + Absolute Focus + Tier 3 Sorc Rune)
Electrocute

Predator

Dark Harvest

Hail of Blades

Cheap Shot

Taste of Blood
Sudden Impact

Zombie Ward

Ghost Poro
Eyeball Collection

Ravenous Hunter
Ingenious Hunter

Relentless Hunter

Ultimate Hunter
Absolute Focus
Gathering Storm
Offense:
9 Adaptive Force
Flex:
9 Adaptive Force
Defense:
6 Armor

PRECISION
DOMINATION
This is another one of the strongest rune setups that you can run on Kha'Zix. Taking Conqueror provides so much in terms of dueling power and survivability in extended skirmishes and duels compared to it's counter parts.

Typically Triumph will be the standard option here. Having Precision primary also allows you to take Legend: Alacrity/Tenacity depending on your preference and the enemy composition, as Kha'Zix can utilize both to a great degree. Similarly, when it comes to Coup de Grace vs Last Stand, you should decide based on enemy team comp and your preference. For secondary runes, the standard is Domination with Sudden Impact for added damage and Ingenious Hunter for increased uptime on items.

For evolutions, you should refer to the Evolution section of the guide for a more detailed breakdown but generally Evolved Wings becomes much less of a priority unless extremely ahead when using a Conqueror focused rune page. Itemization is a different story where you're not only still able to pick up Lethality items and carry but bruiser items such as Cleaver, Death's Dance and Sterak's Gage go up in value due to the added survivability with Conqueror and Triumph.

This is a great page if you value a more bruiser/utility focused playstyle that can still fill the role of an assassin if needed.

Not just an Assassin
(Conqueror + Triumph/POM + Coup/Last Stand + Domination or Inspiration secondary )

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Fleet Footwork
Conqueror

Overheal
Triumph

Presence of Mind
Legend: Alacrity

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Bloodline
Coup de Grace

Cut Down

Last Stand
Sudden Impact
Ingenious Hunter
Offense:
9 Adaptive Force
Flex:
9 Adaptive Force
Defense:
6 Armor


INSPIRATION
DOMINATION
This is a rune page that emphasizes on snowballing leads through aggressive play. If you can utilize First Strike's offensive playstyle to it's fullest, you'll be rewarded with extra gold to build a more substantial lead in the mid-game with the earlier item spikes. Not only does the Keystone emphasize gold income through aggressive play but the minor runes also offer's a lot in terms of free value. Opting for free boots saves you having to spend 300 gold which could have delayed a Dirk or completing your Mythic. Future's Market is self explainatory with hitting earlier item spikes, rounded off with Cosmic Insight giving you even more Haste for your Smite/Flash as well as your items.

Be sure to pair this build with a full lethality, traditional carry build as opting for rushing Bruiser components won't be as impactful as Dirk items through the early-midgame. Recommended Evolutions are that of standard assassin Evolution order to make the most of your item leads.

First Strike, First Win
(First Strike + Magical Footwear + Future's Market + Cosmic Insight + Sudden Impact + Ingenious Hunter)

Glacial Agument

Spellbook
First Strike

Hextech Flashtraption
Magical Footwear

Perfectly Good Timing
Future's Market

Minion Demat

Biscuit Delivery
Cosmic Insight

Approach Velocity

Time Warp Tonic
Sudden Impact
Ingenious Hunter
Offense:
9 Adaptive Force
Flex:
9 Adaptive Force
Defense:
6 Armor
-Skill Order-
> >
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Q W E Q Q R Q W Q W R W W E E R E E

Unseen Threat
Passive: Unseen Threat
Your passive allows you to deal bonus damage and a slow on your first auto attack. As Kha’Zix, one of your highest forms of burst is actually your passive, and it’s important to play around it as much as you can. Before going in for an assassination or duel, make sure that your passive is active. Look to go in and out of bushes to reset your passive in order to maximize your DPS. Your passive has great scaling throughout the game and is unaffected by isolation providing you with more consistent damage in fights. The slow shouldn’t be taken lightly, as it can help you stick onto targets during the early-game and help secure kills during ganks.

Taste Their Fear
Q: Taste Their Fear
Kha’Zix’s bread and butter ability; it's a low mana cost, low cooldown ability that allows you to deal 110% bonus damage to isolated targets. This is your best tool in terms of dueling and clearing as it provides consistent damage as well as introduces you to one Kha’Zix’s core mechanics: Isolation. It’s important to learn the range and damage of this ability due to it being the source for a majority of your damage.

Void Spike
W: Void Spike
The utility of Kha'Zix’s Void Spikes is probably the second most underappreciated aspect of Kha'Zix’s kit (the first most underappreciated being his passive). It’s a straight-line projectile that detonates in a small area of effect upon hitting an enemy unit and heals you if you’re within the detonation radius. Not only does this provide excellent sustain throughout your early clears, but it also adds a great edge in 1v1s due to the healing factor that might catch your opponent off guard. It’s also important to note that it is considered an AOE so it can be used to clear minion waves or hit multiple enemy champions when grouped.

Leap
E: Leap
Another ability that truly defines Kha’Zix as a champion is his Leap. Not only does it allow you to jump over any wall in the game, but it has decent damage compared to other gap closers at a relatively low mana cost and a reset on kills or assists. Not much more needs to be said other than that it’s another solid mobility tool in Kha’Zix’s arsenal.

Void Assault
R: Void Assault
Kha’Zix’s ultimate allows him to upgrade and evolve his abilities with each rank. We’ll cover each evolution in detail later in the guide, but each point offers him some of his biggest powerspikes. The ability itself grants Kha’Zix 2 charges of invisibility lasting 1.25 seconds where he cannot be revealed by control wards. Something to be noted is that you have to wait 2 seconds after leaving your first stealth to cast the second charge. One of the lesser known things about Kha’Zix's ultimate is that you’re also granted the ability to ignore unit collision while invisible. Another important thing to consider when using your ultimate is that it will reset your passive no matter what, so using it after having your passive proc’d once is essential for maximizing DPS. Overall, Void Assault provides a lot of dueling power and outplay potential along with giving you access to your evolutions.

Basic Mechanics
Before we get into a full mechanics breakdown, here are some important mechanics to keep in mind while playing Kha’Zix: These ones are simple.
Resetting your Passive (Unseen Threat)
Kha'Zix's passive is one of the most important aspects of his kit. Inefficient usage of your passive results in you drastically lowering your DPS. In order to maximise your damage you need to be using your passive whenever possible and then resetting it with Void Assault. For example, upon entering stealth after using a combo on a target, use the second charge again later to finish off the same target or to move to another.
Buffering your Abilities
Both Void Spike and Void Assault can be buffered while in the middle of your Leap. This means they are cast slightly before landing, increasing the speed of your combo.
Active Items
You can use active items while in the middle of your Leap. This can be used in order to secure a kill, execute a combo more efficiently, or to perform a double jump. Examples of items you can use during your leap includes QSS, Youmuu’s Ghostblade, Prowler's Active and so on.
Minimizing CC
If timed correctly, Leap allows you to tank the duration of a CC effect while you’re still moving mid-air. An example of this would be if you see a Lux binding that would root you; if you cast your leap towards them you can ensure that most of the CC will occur while you’re in air, but still moving towards your target.
Optimizing Clears
Try to isolate the small jungle monsters while clearing so that you will deal bonus isolation damage to the large monster with your Q. Try to kite out your camps and weave in Q’s outside of their attack range. The best camps to kite would be Blue, Wolves, and Raptors/Red to a lesser extent. This will help with clearing substantially, increasing your speed and leaving you healthier.
Clearing Wards with Unseen Threat (Passive)
Unseen Threat will not reset until you go out of sight of the enemy map. After using your passive, going into a bush or entering the fog of war where it might be warded and if the enemy has vision in the area, your passive will not refresh as you’ll still be in vision while in a bush/fog.
Cancelling Targeted Abilities
Void Assault can be utilized to cancel targeted abilities that require vision of your opponent, such as Darius Ult or Skarner ult. This can be game changing as you can bait an enemy into you, only to cancel it as your team collapses onto him. It’s important to note that in most cases, this will not cause the ability to go on cooldown as it was never properly cast. To see this in action view the videos below.
Advanced Mechanics & Combos
For things like combo order and double jumping, please refer to the following videos as they do the best job of explaining them.
Juking with Void Assault
You can utilize your ultimate to dodge skillshots, lose enemies that are chasing, and bait out abilities if used correctly. I’ll be borrowing Tinjus’ example of how to properly juke with Void Assault.
Your goal is to time your Void Assault to avoid CC and most of the damage. Some unpredictable movements include:
1. Running towards the enemy, this will make them think they can land an easy skillshot on you.

2. Wait for the enemy to throw their skillshot at you. This requires fast reaction times.

3. Once the skillshot is out, Void Assault in a different direction, dodging the skillshot by utilizing your brief increase in movement speed.

4. Proceed to all-in your opponent, using Void Assault again as necessary to avoid damage.
Here’s a final example, courtesy of Tinjus
There are a variety of items that can be built on Kha’Zix that adhere to various playstyles. In this section we’ll focus on outlining each item’s strengths and weaknesses and then we'll give our own personal suggestions for how you should itemize while playing Kha’Zix. We’ll use data from dmg/cost breakdowns which you can view on our subreddit’s wiki page! Lastly, feel free to check out this item set link to automatically import the most optimal Kha’Zix builds.
Starting Items
Gustwalker Hatchling
Gustwalker will allow you to stick onto people and get around the map quicker and more efficiently that will synergize with the rest of Kha'Zix assassin playstyle.

Mythic Items
Duskblade of Draktharr
This is the quintessential assassin item, granting 60 AD, 18 Lethality, 20 ability haste, and a powerful 0-20% increased damage based on the target's missing health. It also grants untargetability for 1.5 seconds which will end if you perform an action. Aside from it being exactly what you'd want in terms of stats, it will give you a massive edge in terms of damage potential and survivability allowing for jukes and various outplays especially in conjunction with your ultimate. It also empowers each of your other Legendary items with 5 ability haste and 5 movement speed. You can almost never go wrong when it comes to Duskblade in traditional assassin builds.
Eclipse
A solid choice for your Mythic if you value dueling and want an answer to tanks. It grants 60 AD, 15 ability haste and +12 lethality. It has the ability to deal 6% of the enemy's maximum HP as physical damage and grants 15% bonus movement speed with a 160 flat + 35% bonus AD shield for 2 seconds whenever you hit an enemy with 2 separate attacks. It's Mythic passive grants every legendary item with 4% armor penetration.

It's a powerful item to consider if you're against many tanks that you can not easily burst down. If you think you'll be taking a lot of extended duels then this is the item for you. The passive will also offer some utility and defense in the form of the shield with MS which can be useful for staying alive against enemies with burst as well. Synergizes well with Q evolve as well as other forms of omnivamp and healing.
Youmuu's Ghostblade
A solid option for dealing with squishy targets while providing some great mobility. Outside of having 60 AD, 18 Lethality and 15 ability haste which are amazing for Kha’Zix, it also offers out-of-combat movement speed as well as an active that grants 25% movement speed for 6 seconds on a 45 second cooldown with ghostin.

This adds to the high mobility playstyle and helps you get around the map more efficiently. One weakness to bear in mind is that it might not be as effective against tankier team compositions like other lethality items, with Serylda's Grudge or Black Cleaver acting as the better alternatives in these scenarios.
Goredrinker
Goredrinker can be extremely strong if used in correct build. Not only does it offer 20 ability haste, 45 AD, and 450 HP,10% Omnivamp and a burst of 175% base AD as physical damage in a 450 radius, but you get 25% AD (+10% of your missing HP) for each enemy champion hit. It also gives your legendary items 5 ability haste with its Mythic Passive.

Goredrinker shines the most when its used in conjunction with other bruiser items or ones that grant dueling power and healing. Goredrinker should usually be paired with Conqueror and used alongside Challenging smite as well as evolving Q, R or W in the order you choose. Evolving wings won't be as high of a priority with a bruiser focused playstyle unless massively ahead. You should opt for Goredrinker if you desire a more bruiser focused playstyle and value sustained damage over burst.
Legendary Items
Edge of Night
One of the more versatile items at your disposal, providing 50 AD, 325 HP, 10 Lethality, and a Night’s Veil which creates a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability and refreshes after no damage is taken from champions after 40 seconds. This is a strong situational item that you’ll want to pick up against champions that have crucial CC abilities such as Morgana Binding, or TF’s Gold Card.

When referring to the passive, consider what options your targets have to “waste” your spell shield with low value abilities like Ezreal Q’s. An important thing to note is that you should always check to see the shield off cooldown before going for a pick. Overall, this is a preference item that can provide, at worst, additional HP and decent damage, and, at best, immunity from any key ability.
Prowler's Claw
A solid option for maximizing your burst potential. Outside of having 55 AD, 15 Lethality and 15 ability haste which are amazing for Kha’Zix, it also grants you 85 + 45% bonus AD damage on your next basic attack against a champion after using your leap or ultimate and slowing for 99% for 0.5 seconds (on a 10 second cooldown).

This is a great option in bursty, assassin focused builds, especially when there are multiple priority squishy targets.

Serylda's Grudge
A strong leader in terms of raw damage and effectiveness when dealing with tanks. It gives 45 AD as well as 30% total armor penetration, not to be confused with Lethality.

An added benefit is also its 30% slow for 1 second when dealing damage with abilities. It’s extremely effective for dealing with tanks and squishy targets alike, but the alternatives may offer more in terms of mobility and utility. Look to purchase this item depending on your playstyle and enemy team compositions.
The Black Cleaver
Another popular item that provides 50 AD, 25 ability haste and 450 HP is not only one of the better bruiser items for Kha’Zix, but it’s especially effective in dealing with tanks. This is due to the item’s passive, which reduces their armor by 4% per stack for 6 seconds stacking up to 6 times for a maximum of 24%. Dealing physical damage to a champion grants 3 bonus movement speed per stack of Carve on them for 2 seconds, up to 18. This item, in conjunction with Serylda's Grudge can be a solid answer against tank heavy compositions.

Another huge benefit from purchasing this item is the synergy with evolving Void Spikes, as you’ll apply the carve stacks to each enemy hit with your AOE. One of the potential downsides to this item is that it may not provide as much carry potential compared to the others due to its lack of raw damage output. Overall, this is a solid purchase all around that you'll want to get if you need to deal with tanks or if you value more defensive/bruiser capabilities. A higher priority item if you're opting for Conqueror with evolved Void Spikes.
Chempunk Chainsword
This is an item that can be described as more of a utility purchase. By purchasing this item you’re getting 55 AD, 25 ability haste, 250 HP and most importantly the ability to inflict 40% Grievous Wounds on enemy champions for 3 seconds, which can increase to 60% if the target is below 50% maximum HP. It should be noted that you can pick up Executioner’s Calling and wait before fully upgrading to a Champunk Chainsword so that you can have the passive earlier without delaying your core items.

Alternatively, you can call for an ally to build Morellonomicon, Mortal Reminder or Chempunk Chainsword so you can build non-utility items instead. One benefit that Kha’Zix has when building this item is how easily he can apply the Grievous Wounds effect with his evolved W onto multiple targets.
Serpent's Fang
A situational assassin item that offers 60 AD and 12 Lethality. It grants you Shield Reaver where Dealing damage to an enemy injects them with venom for 3 seconds, reducing any shields they would gain by 50% and if they were not already afflicted by the venom, reducing all of their active shields by the same amount. It is extremely cheap considering the amount of lethality it gives and overall damage which makes it a solid niche item. You should consider this against team compositions with a multiple shields or one or two major threats who have shields or are utilizing items such as Immortal Shieldbow or Locket which gives shielding.

You should consider picking it up any point after your Mythic item.
Muramana
A situational item that excels in one area, raw damage. If you don't need utility elsewhere in your build and want to maximize pure carry potential, this is the item you should consider. You should ONLY purchase this item in conjunction with Ingenious Hunter so that you can stack it faster and finish it when your spike matter most. It should be noted, deciding when to pick up tear will make a big difference when it comes to getting the most out of this item. For example, if you back with 1100 gold or more, you should still first hack and purchase a Dirk to not forgo one of your largest component spikes and instead get Tear on the next back (Unless you have 1500 or more)

If you have less than 1100 gold on first back, purchasing a tear here can work as well. This item will allow you to have lategame insurance and should be considered if you don't need as much utility and your team is lacking other damage threats.

You should consider upgrading after your Mythic item.
Guardian Angel
This item provides excellent defensive and offensive capabilities, being especially effective against AD threats. It offers 45 AD and 40 Armor and the first thing to note is the build path: having a large damage spike with B.F. Sword as well as the playmaking capabilities of stopwatch makes this a solid option before it’s even completed.

Aside from the stats, the real value is in the passive which revives you upon death after a brief stasis, effectively giving you two lives in a teamfight. One downside to the item is the particularly long cooldown, meaning once you’ve used the passive you’ll have to wait 300 seconds for it to return. Due to this, many players will sell it once it’s used and purchase an alternative item. Lastly, you should consider the psychological element to the item, where enemies might be hesitant to focus you due to the extra revive, allowing you to play with more aggression. Overall, this is a solid defensive purchase against AD threats with a game changing passive but consider Death's Dance as an alternative if there's a lot of physical damage burst.
Hexdrinker & Maw Of Malmortius
Buying this item will essentially remove AP threats from your game. Hexdrinker can serve as an early answer to AP carries while Maw is unrivaled when it comes to dealing with AP threats, especially those with high burst potential. Maw will give you 65 AD and 50 MR, as well as a passive magic shield that absorbs 200(+20% maximum HP) magic damage until you go out of combat.

While offering more than most items in terms of stat buffs, the real strength is in its ability to nullify AP threats due to the MR and magic absorbing shield. Overall, this is an item that you purchase situationally if there’s a fed AP target or if you’re vs a team composition that’s mostly AP.
Death's Dance
Death’s Dance can offer a lot if the situation calls for it. Whether it’s the 55 AD, 45 Armor, 15 ability haste, or either of it’s insane passives, this item should not be underestimated. The first of the passives allows you store 35% of all post-mitigation physical damage received then deals 1/3rd of the stored damage as a true damage DoT to you. It also gives removes the ongoing DoT effect then heals you for 15% of your maximum HP over the duration.

This provides a lot of value in terms of dueling potency and defense against AD, allowing you to survive many 1v1s with ease, especially in conjunction with other dueling items and effects. The defense and passives can effectively turn Kha’Zix into a pseudo-tank, where the value of Death’s Dance depends on how much physical damage you'd be receiving and if you can properly make use of the takedown passive.

One of the potential drawbacks to this item is the damage bleed can cause you to shimmer during your ultimate, revealing your position, so it’s important to be aware of the bleed effect before using Void Assault but if you can get a takedown the bleed will be removed. This item can be purchased as early as 3rd or 4th but it should be noted that you’ll get more value later in the game as enemies will have more physical burst. Overall this can be a great item that gives Kha’Zix everything he needs in terms of dueling and survivability if the criteria is met to justify the purchase.
Umbral Glaive
Umbral is an underrated Kha'Zix item offers 50 AD, 15 ability haste and 10 lethality that can be picked up at any point in the game if you have a high priority on vision control. It will lose some value later on as it will take up an item slot that could be used for more impactful items. This can open up opportunities for picks in the enemy jungle or fog of war. The trade-off to it's cheap price is you don't get as many stats compared to other lethality items which might offer more carry potential. Overall a decent value option depending on how much you want to control vision.
Quicksilver Sash & Silvermere Dawn
QSS is a decent situational item with the ability to remove all crowd control debuffs which is game-changing if used correctly. It provides 30 MR on its own with Silvermere Dawn giving 35 AD, 200 HP, an additional 35 MR, and on activation provides 40% slow resistance and 40% tenacity for 3 second on a 90 second cooldown.

One of the potential drawbacks to completing to Silvermere Dawn is the amount of stats that Kha'Zix doesn't prioritize such as HP and MR with only 35 AD. Edge of Night is often considered to be the better choice due to the stats and passive so you should only look to get QSS against enemies with suppression and not upgrade to Silvermere Dawn until last item.
Sterak's Gage
This is a solid defensive item against targets that possess a lot of high burst potential. It offers 400 HP, 50% bonus AD equal to your base AD and reduce you below 30% of your maximum health, gain a shield equal to 80% of bonus health that decays over 4.5 seconds as well as 25% increased size and 30% tenacity for 8 seconds

You should only build this item situationally in bruiser focused builds alongside keystones like Conqueror with Goredrinker. If you opt for the bruiser build look to pick this up against fed champions like Kayn's Shadow Form or teams with multiple burst assassins.
The Collector
Only viable if you get it while you're snowballing and ahead. This item offers 55 AD, 20% critical strike chance and 18 Lethality. Its passive allows you to cash in 25 extra gold on kills and if you deal post-mitigation damage that would leave a champion below 5% of their maximum HP it executes them.

Despite the stats, this item is not as recommended as there are more viable options such as Edge for utility, Prowlers for burst or Seryldas for armor penetration.
Ravenous Hydra
A solid item to consider due to its high base stats of 65 AD, 20 ability haste and 10% lifesteal. Its passive allows you to deal 60-12% (based on distance) to other enemies near the target hit with your basic attacks or abilities.

This item will shine when used with other forms physical/omni vamp as well as Ravenous Hunter so your healing will be even more substantial when taking duels. This can be considered at any point after you Mythic and can work in both bruiser and assassin builds equally. The passive can also be helpful for speeding up your jungle clears as well due to the AOE. One trade-off to this item is that it offers no utility that you may find in other items so take this if you only seek raw damage and sustain from duels.
Example Build Paths
Build #1
(Standard Lethality)
A standard Kha’Zix build that maximizes on efficiency and overall damage output. It won't provide as much beefiness and utility as some other builds but if your team needs you to be a high damage threat then this is a solid build to consider. Many of the items can be interchanged such as Serylda's Grudge for Ghostblade, Serpent's Fang for Umbral Glaive, or even Death's Dance for GA. Prowler's Claw can be replaced with Duskblade depending on the situation.

Recommended Evolution Path: Q>E>W
Build #2
(Standard Bruiser vs AD)
A great build if pure damage isn't your only priority. It will provide survivability as well as utility to your team while still maintaining the ability to duel effectively. You can interchange these items as well as including more lethality options depending on how ahead you are as well as the enemy's armor values. You may also consider Serlyda's if the enemy has no excess healing, Maw if the enemy is stacking AP instead of AD, or Guardian Angel. Eclipse can be replaced with Goredrinker depending on the situation.

Recommended Evolve Path: Q>W/R or Q>R/W with lower priority on Evolved Wings
Build #3
(Alternate Assassin)
A solid build for multi-target assassinations and getting out effectively. Umbral Glaive can be a solid option if you value controlling visions and securing more opportunities with picks but can be replaced with other lethality items depending on the situation. Choose your lethality items situationally.

Recommended Evolve Order: Q>E>R or Q>R>E
Build #4
(Alternative Bruiser Utility)
Popularized by Agurin, this build will emphasize on your maximum capabilities as a Bruiser and doesn't place as much priority on burst damage. This build can be used against most team compositions and you may choose to opt for a lethality item or sitting on Executioner's Calling early on in your build depending on the situation.

Recommended Evolution Path: Q>W>R
Introduction
Let me start off by saying that Kha'Zix is an incredibly versatile champion in that he can adapt to the game based on the state of it as well as what he needs. Yes, as with most things, there will be several 'most optimal' builds and evolution orders are no exception, but the players that utilize his variety of different evolution orders will end up becoming more familiar with the champion and as a result will thrive as opposed to the ones that are stuck in the mindset which claims that there's only one or two good evolution orders. This section of the guide will be going over the evolutions and the situations in which they can be used, as well as how to tie them into practical effective evolution orders.

This section will be assuming that you know how Kha'Zix's abilities function, so if you're completely new to Kha'Zix and don't know how his kit works, take a look at his abilities first then come back to this section.
Evolution Overview: Evolved Reaper Claws
Kha'Zix gains increased range on his auto attacks and Taste Their Fear. It will also refund 45% of Taste Their Fear's cooldown if it is used on an isolated target.

This is going to be the safest, most reliable evolution that you can possibly run. Kha'Zix's Taste Their Fear is one of the most important parts of his kit and being able to use it more does wonders for you. It'll allow you to increase your clearing speed so you're able to farm faster as well as duel isolated enemies easier and take objectives faster. It's also fantastic against tanks as you can shred them down quickly with very low cooldown reduction. Ideally, you want to evolve this if you need extra dueling power, clear speed and efficiency. When behind you will usually evolve this to help you catch up. Also take this early if you don't have the most reliable laners or winning lane matchups, as you'll be less team reliant and be able to play selfishly, farm more efficiently, and build a solid lead for yourself without relying solely on ganking or enabling a lane to carry (as you would with R evolve).
Evolution Overview: Evolved Spike Racks
When evolved, Void Spike will fire 3 spikes in a cone while also slowing enemies hit by 60% and revealing them. If the target is isolated, they will be slowed by 90% instead.

This remarkable evolution makes for a fantastic team-oriented tool that will allow you to peel for your carries, disengage fights and enhance your pick potential with the strong slow. This evolution is fantastic for when you need to help out your team more in the game as it provides a lot of utility that can be used to support them. The slow is very reliable and useful in all situations, but ideally you'd only be taking W if you want to work alongside your team (maybe your AD carry is fed and needs peel). Evolve this ability if you want to achieve the things said above and play a more team-oriented supportive playstyle. Best to take at level 11 or 16 when grouping and picks are more important.
Evolution Overview:Evolved Wings
When evolved, Leap's range is increased and the cooldown is reset upon kill or assist.

This is the evolution that pretty much makes Kha'Zix what he is. The resets you get from kills and assists allow you to make incredible plays, get in and out of fights as well as clean up enemies. This is Kha'Zix's most important evolution if you are playing as an assassin, and it will open up a lot of opportunities in the game for you. It is pretty much essential as it provides Kha'Zix with an escape tool to get in and out of fights after quickly assassinating an enemy. You would ideally evolve this at level 11 as that is when most teamfights and opportunities arise for you.
Evolution Overview: Evolved Adaptive Cloaking
Kha’Zix gains an extra cast of Void Assault and his invisibility duration is increased to 2 seconds. Can be recast within a total duration of 10 seconds.

This evolution is an incredibly versatile and potent tool that is capable of being used in several ways. Its primary role as an evolution is to provide extra utility through the extra cast and longer stealth in order to increase your dueling, ganking, skirmishing and outplay potential. The longer stealth is incredible for minimizing damage taken and waiting off cooldowns during fights which can often win you a kill, and the extra cast provides you with an additional escape/combat tool to help you thrive in skirmishes. This version of evolved R can be evolved at any stage of the game, but it works best at either level 6 or 16 to make room for evolved E at level 11. R evolve works best when you’re ahead, but it is able to fulfill many purposes, even when behind, and only through experience will you be able to utilize its capabilities in every way possible.
Evolution Orders
There are a LOT of evolution orders for Kha'Zix and each one of them has their specific situation in which they thrive and are effective. I will not go into detail about every single evolution order possible but if you would like to get an idea of what a specific evolution order has to offer, then follow this simple method to judge your evolution order as you create it:
Q - Dueling power, DPS, Clearing efficiency

W - Peel, Disengage, Utility, CC, Support, Team-oriented playstyle, Pick potential.

E - Resets, Skirmish and Teamfight potential.

R - Map pressure, Mobility, Outplay potential
As you evolve your abilities, use these descriptions of the evolutions to get an idea of what they are providing for you. For example: QEW - Efficiency, DPS and dueling power with Q at level 6 to assist with getting a lead in the early game; transitions into resets, team fighting and assassination potential which allow you to use that lead with evolved E; ending with evolved W to provide utility for important teamfights and team-play later on into the game.

Example: QEW = Dueling power, DPS, Efficiency | Assassination, Resets, Skirmish and Teamfight potential | Peel, Disengage, Utility, CC, Support, Team-orientation, Pick potential |



Ideally, you would evolve your abilities at level 6, 11 and 16 based on your personal preferences as well as the state of the game. It is important to remember that Kha'Zix is very flexible, so if you like a specific evolution order don't be afraid to stick with it if you enjoy it, as all of the evolutions cater to a specific playstyle and thus may appeal to different types of players.

However, there is no denying that some evolutions are better than others at the specific levels of 6, 11 and 16. For example, the majority of players take either Q or R at level 6 as they provide much more than W or E in the early game. Q at level 6 allows you to be efficient so you can build up a lead earlier, while R at level 6 allows you to create immense map pressure which can be used to create a lead for your team. At level 11, the choice is usually between W or E as it is the time of the game where teamfights and assassination opportunities arise. A player would most likely evolve E second if they are able to assassinate effectively, as it will allow them to clean up teamfights and further their lead through plenty of opportunities that the evolution provides. If you are not able to assassinate and are required to play more team-oriented, the W evolve would be appropriate to support the team more in fights. At level 16 the choice is likely going to be whichever evolution the player didn't choose at level 11: W or E again, for essentially the same reasons.

Despite this, I cannot stress enough that you can choose whatever evolution order you want. You just have to make sure that you adapt to the specific playstyle that the evolution provides. Each evolution is unique and you can choose what to evolve based off of your personal preferences as a player; or the state of the game and what would be most ideal for the current situation. The scenario above is just an example of how you would evolve based on the state of the game. You can evolve Q at 16 or Q at 11 or E at level 6 if the situations call for it or if you enjoy doing it. It really doesn't matter too much so long as you can adapt.
Evolution Path Examples
More versatile and consistent, while giving up some early pressure and gank opportunities, you'll gain in better dueling potential, objective control, and clearing. More carry potential throughout, while gaining utility lategame.
Functions similar to QEW except you have increased skirmishing and outplay potential with R evolve at 16.
Bruiser evolution order that provides high DPS and strong utility for the mid game which can help you play more forward in fights.
Utilises high DPS and mobility mid game to catch out isolated targets with incontestable damage and stealth.
Evolved R at level 6 helps you survive big skirmishes in the early game while increasing your ganking and dueling potential. Followed up with Q at level 11 for immense dueling power and efficiency in the mid game. However, you will lack evolved E in the mid game which can increase the risk of your engages during that time.
REQ or W: A general upgrade in the early game with evolved R, increasing your dueling, ganking and skirmishing potential while transitioning into Evolved E at level 11 to help transition your lead into a victory through strong assassination potential. W for teamplay or Q for extra dueling power and objective control at level 16.
Team oriented utility evolution order that focuses on your team getting ahead and assisting them with better ganking and skirmishing potential in the early game (R evolve) and strong CC in the mid game (W evolve). E at 16 to provide a higher presence in teamfights.
EQW or R: Prioritizes early game skirmishes with evolved E to quickly gain a lead from kills and end the game early. Followed up with higher efficiency with Q and utility later on with W or better skirmishing and outplay potential with R.
Teamfight oriented evolution order that enables you to act as an assassin in teamfights and skirmishes while also being able to peel for your team in the mid game.
Choose from these if you wish to try them out or try some other evolution orders if you want, each order has a specific situation in which they are effective however your most consistent and reliable one is almost always going to be QEW.
Recommended Evolution Paths
Without a doubt, the standard evolution order for Kha'Zix is QEW, and for a good reason. Evolved Q at level 6 will give you the dueling power and efficiency to gain a lead in the early game, evolved E at level 11 will transition that lead nicely into skirmishes, assassination opportunities and making riskier plays, and evolved W at level 16 will let you teamfight effectively as well as give you some more pick potential with the 90% isolated slow. Overall it’s a great evolution order that’s consistent and reliable so if you're unsure what to evolve on Kha'Zix this will always be a classic, reliable choice for every kind of Kha'Zix player.
OR
In terms of items you’ll almost always want to opt for a Bruiser build consisting of at least Challenging smite and Black Cleaver somewhere in your build. Other decent pickups are Death’s Dance, Guardian Angel, and Mortal Reminder if needed. This path is overall great if you value the bruiser/utility, consistent playstyle without relying on being an individual carry threat to win the game.
RWQ or RWE: A solid alternative to the classic QEW path. This path requires a different playstyle so you’ll need to recognize the strengths and weaknesses that this path offers, and not play like you’re running QEW. Evolving R at level 6 will give you a lot of agency on the map to make proactive early ganks to snowball the game in your favor. You’ll need to abuse your shorter R cooldown and make the most out of it by camping a lane that has strong early snowball/carry potential. Once you reach level 11 you’ll have access to W evolve which will provide a lot of utility to your team and allow to some great pick potential through the midgame. At level 16 you can choose between either Q or E depending on personal preference and what you feel is more important at that stage of the game. If you’re fed and want to have greater teamfight impact, then take E. If you prefer to play it safe peel for your carries or have a bruiser centric build, then Q might be better for the DPS value it offers.
OR
QWR or QRW: This is the evolution path you'll want to take if you know you won't be having many reset opportunities and need to opt for a more utility focused setup to peel and secure picks for your team. Evolving Q at level 6 gives you the efficiency you need and W at 11 will give you a lot of utility which can be very noticeable when going against tank heavy team compositions. If theres 2 bruisers botlane or a generally tanky team then W second instead of E might be the best option for you. Alternatively you can take R second and W at level 16 if you value the outplay potential of having R. Overall decent if you value the efficiency that evolving Q earlygame provides, as well as the utility that W evolve provides midgame.
Summary
These are the most efficient and most common evolution paths that you would want to take for your Kha'Zix setup! While we've outlined the most optimal setups, there are some niche or less popular paths not explained, as they have been covered in the evolution overview so check there if yours isn't listed. Overall it's important to remember that Kha'Zix's identity is centered around evolving to suit the situation and your playstyle, as such you shouldn't limit yourself into one way of thinking or become close-minded towards all but one playstyle. Try some of these out and see what suits your playstyle more and see which are best used situationally.
Jungle Pathing & Routes
The current jungle meta forces many junglers to adapt and be flexible with their pathing. Your decisions must be based around your jungle matchup and lane matchups based on who has priority/kill pressure. If you want to include a scuttle in your path, be aware of the possibility of a contest with the enemy jungler. Many of the paths below are basic options for you to choose; there are more potential ways you can go, but most other routes requires you to have extensive knowledge of the enemy jungler’s starting location/patterns in order to abuse them in a unique way. If you are contesting a scuttle, you will likely want to ensure you have smite ready so you have an even chance if the enemy jungler tries to contest.
Standard Routes
A standard jungle clear for Kha’Zix starts pretty straightforward but can open up a lot of options depending on your priorities for the earlygame.



This route is one of the more risk-averse options for earlygame that focuses on a safe clear that ends around level 4 with the option to fight for crab before finishing the clear. To further break down your priorities after your first camps, you’ll generally want to path towards whichever lane has priority in order to secure leads on that side of the map. If you’re unable to gank due to poor matchups or wave state then invade to steal camps or secure vision on their camps to gain knowledge of their pathing. From there you can finish your clear near scuttle spawn and recall and look to secure your botside jungle again and play around winning lanes.

Alternatively if you’re purple side and know you want to play around top lane due to an easy early gank opportunity, then you opt for a full clear




For more on pathing, we suggest you check out our latest jungle clear guide, which should still be relevant to S12
Macro/Snowballing
It is hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer but there's several things you can do to increase your odds. You need to develop a priority system, which I will cover later. Kha'Zix with his kit is designed to get early leads because of his strong early-game compared to most junglers, and as a result, is one of the best snowball junglers in the game. On the other hand, it’s very easy to fall off and throw your lead due to the nature of the assassin playstyle. Usually you can avoid throwing by pressing your lead from setting the enemy jungler behind and enabling at least 1 lane to snowball with you while you extend pressure elsewhere on the map. Of course you'll have games where you have to play to perfection to carry despite 4 feeding teammates but sometimes that’s the price of playing a carry jungler.


Always look to trade objectives with the enemy if you can’t roam, or by extending a winning lane’s lead through their lane and pushing the enemy into a gold deficit they can't recover from. Having a priority system, or a mental flow chart of priorities across the map, will not only improve your fundamentals as a Jungler, but also as a player and I can’t stress this enough. Your priority system should include things like, Baron/Elder > Inhibitors > First Blood Tower > Dragons/ Rift Herald > Enemy Buffs > Vision > Kills. If it’s too early or risky for Baron, look to push a tower, if you can’t push a tower, look to steal enemy buffs/camps, if you can’t do that, walk up and ward their camps, and so on. Most importantly avoid blaming your teammates, as much as possible. You have the tools to carry yourself out as a Kha'Zix main due to his carry-oriented playstyle regardless of bad teammates.
Extending Individual Leads
The most important thing in early game is how much of an early lead you can generate for yourself and your team. There's a few ways to snowball a lead and it comes down to a lot of factors that you have to consider. Things like team comps and win conditions should be first to come to mind. Other factors like Dragons, Herald, Towers, Baron, splitpushing, securing vision for picks, starving the enemy jungler, camping a laner who you trust to perform well, and many more. Also to note that when you're the biggest threat on your team, you'll want to become the focus of their attention.
Shutting Down The Enemy Jungler
Another general piece of advice when snowballing is to be as oppressive as possible. Spend more time in the enemy jungle warding their camps to gather information. You’re aiming to make the enemy jungler scared to even walk into his jungle because you'll be waiting there. You also want to be mindful of enemy laners so they don't roam onto you while you're doing this and collapse onto you (assuming you aren't ahead enough to kill all of them). Try to have knowledge of the jungle timers, the plants, and minion waves. If you can only risk walking into the enemy jungle for a brief moment, just place a ward and leave instead of risking death by contesting a camp when your laners aren't reacting. By successfully nullifying the enemy jungler, it relieves a great amount of pressure off of your laners as well as putting pressure on the enemy laners because it's guaranteed that you'll win the 2v2/3v3 in a gank or skirmish. In a lot of situations, the enemy jungler may be forced to sit in a side wave and soak xp from laners, or catch crashing waves under tower. You can still use this to your advantage to pick them off and set them even more behind, or focus more on the enemy laners or objectives while they’re behind.
Proactive Jungling
One of the most important aspects of jungling is proactivity. By being proactive and controlling the pace of the game, you force your opponents to make decisions and wait to capitalize off their mistakes. Also If you have the attention of the enemy jungler, you'll be pulling them around the map and forcing them to become reactive to your plays ideally by taking a less optimal trade. Let's say for example if you're in the enemy red-side jungle, you can go top lane tier 1 turret and cut off the enemy top's escape route and/or proxy their wave. After that the enemy jungler will either be forced to come top or you dive the top laner and get the turret. If you're ahead you'll be able to force situations like this so much easier because you'll win the 2v2, so they'll have to give up the turret or die for it. You should constantly be trying to make the enemy team make difficult decisions so that you're not only wearing down their mentality but slowly suffocating them until they've reached a gold deficit they can't recover from.
Objective Control
One of the highest priorities you should have when ahead as Kha'Zix is objectives. Despite what people will say about Kha'Zix needing kills, forcing objectives will be a higher priority in most situations. With Kha'Zix you have the advantage of being able to solo most of the objectives yourself. Dragon for instance, is one of the easiest objectives you can take early-game, and at level 6 you'll be able to solo it without losing much health. This is even more efficient assuming you have Q evolve to secure it faster in conjunction with the sustain from your W healing. You'll also be able to solo Herald fairly early on, while being able to dodge some of it's damage and take it down fast with your bonus isolation damage. Another option is splitpushing since you have the ability to outduel most champions and draw attention from the enemies while having good escape potential. With most of the options you won't even need a team to set you up, you can take them yourself if the right conditions are met. You should often ask yourself, "what is the best objective for me to be pushing right now?". Create a checklist of objectives with their priority, if you don't have first blood tower, how can you push for it? Which lane is going to yield the best results if you try to push for first tower? With first blood tower gold you'll be giving a strong early lead across the entire team that can give you the momentum you need to carry through to mid-game. Always be looking for what objective to take next, especially after a kill, and what you need to do to get that objective.
Vision Control
After you have an advantage over the enemy jungler, or when counter jungling in general, you'll be able to communicate the rough location of the enemy jungler to your team. The best way to do this is to frequently purchase Control Wards to place in enemy territory or near objectives. For example if you go to the top side of their jungle, and you take the camps, and put down two wards near their jungle entrances with vision over the camp, then you'll know where the enemy jungler is until those wards expire. With that information you'll know he's in that side of the jungle or he's in the botside jungle. This can also help your laners because you'll be able to ping missing when you see the jungler is not there, and then let your teammates know it's likely that he's botside, as well as telling them not to play too far forward or aggressively. Another use of vision would be to drop a pink near an allies lane if you know he's getting ganked frequently. Finally, picking up an earlier Oracle Alteration you can do a lot with denying vision in their jungle, and setting up for ganks.
Enabling Your Laners
In most cases, you won't be able to carry the game on your own unless the right conditions are met, and often times it's a lot safer to enable at least 1 laner to snowball with you. This can come by helping the laner shove out his wave when he needs to reset, providing vision control if they're the focus of the enemy jungler, and pushing towers when the enemy laner is gone to secure early tower. If you help them, they'll also be more inclined to help you, whether that's a call to do dragon, group with your team, or coordinate a dive that could potentially shut down the enemy there. Another thing to factor in is the lane matchups, for example if you have an Ezreal-Janna lane, they can mostly be left on their own to farm so ganking for them wouldn't give you much return, so it would be best to let them scale up. With a Draven Thresh lane, you'll have a lot more potential to dive and shut down their enemy laners because of the sheer playmaking capabilities of the champion's kits. Overall having successful lanes is generally more important than setting behind the enemy jungler. If you can secure an early tower with your team, ping them to rotate and take the tier 1 tower in another lane with the team, and then repeat for the last tower until the map is opened. Don't be afraid to spam ping macro decisions that will help snowball the game for your team.
Avoiding Pitfalls When Ahead
If you aren't doing anything with your kills you're simply taking resources away from your team and wasting them. A common problem that people will run into is they will get leads, and then continue to power farm and sit in their jungle when they could be spreading that lead across the map. You can prevent this by ganking, coordinating dives, getting vision in the enemy jungle, controlling objectives, but just farming is only going to squander that lead and allow the enemy to catch up in tempo and gold. This is the fundamental aspect of “kill conversion”, which is how often your kills result in securing objectives. High elo junglers kill conversion rate can even range from 55-65% compared to lower elos where that range might be half of that. Kill conversion truly is one of the biggest stats in what separates good Junglers from great ones. The biggest problem with low elo Kha'Zix mains is they will get a kill, and immediately go back to farming their camps when they should be looking for the next objective to take off of that while the enemy is down.

When the enemy jungler is dead, it's basically an invitation to walk into their jungle and place wards and counter jungle their camps. Usually you'll also want to avoid ganking lanes that are behind as Kha'Zix, which is a general rule for many junglers, but especially for Kha'Zix. You're wasting a lot of time and resources on a lane that's already lost, for the chance to put them even again at best case scenario, when you could be ganking for a neutral or winning lane and enabling them to win even more, becoming an even bigger threat. Even if you're getting spam pinged by your 0-3 top laner, asking for help, you might invest the time to come and both of you end up dying, which basically results in a game loss. You have to ignore the pings and cries for help when a lane is already so far behind unless your team is collapsing on them together. Spend your time getting another lane ahead that can carry.
Ganking as Kha’Zix
Ganking with Kha'Zix is fairly simple, especially if you’re opting for Chilling Smite. The most important thing to consider starts with the enemy laner being "gankable" and your laner’s ability to set up the gank or ability to follow up with your initiation. The most optimal method is to try to start your gank from either behind them or to a side where they have to run towards you/towards allies, essentially cutting off their escape route. Another crucial aspect to ganking, is to save your leap for their flashes or gap closers. To give an example, you can come from behind them and Chilling Smite + Auto to apply your passive slow, save your Leap for their flash, and if your allied laner is nearby you can almost guarantee a kill barring a countergank.

Another ganking method is only for when the enemy laner is pushing far up and there's enemy vision around river/flanks. This involves jumping over certain walls in combination with your passive slow, Void Assault, and optionally Chilling Smite to secure a kill.
Understanding Wave Management & Lane Priority
Firstly, it is crucial to being a good jungler that you understand basic wave management and lane priority. This will allow you to move around the map accordingly and ensure the highest chance of success when executing on ganks or getting priority teammates ahead when they're strong.

Lane priority is basically how fast the laner can get to you vs the other laner and your location on the map compared to theirs. Since Riot somewhat nerfed Jungle independence with the introduction of important neutral objectives like Scuttle Crab, Rift Herald, etc, lane priority is more important than ever before. To put it simply, if you have priority mid, you pretty much can win the game early on. You can choreograph four man bot ganks, three man top dives, Scuttle secures, invading buffs and krugs which offer insane XP/Gold advantage, Drakes, Rift Herald, and more. When you have priority, you basically force the enemy midlaner to make two decisions: Firstly, arrive late to a gank and causing them to lose the skirmish because you got to the fight first, causing them to lose a lot of farm in the process. Secondly, him shoving the wave and putting damage on tower while trying to ping enough to make his botlane not die. Either way it's a win-win situation, as you get either get an uncontested dive, a buff, a Drake, or enemy mid loses a ton of farm and XP.

Another important aspect to consider is, if you force the enemy mid to lose a cannon wave, he literally just lost half a kill’s worth of gold from that. Since denial can be equivalent to gaining gold when it comes to creating a lead, you can count that as half a free kill and even more in XP. This ties into the overall understanding of lane matchups so you know who pushes in who and who generally trades better into others. By watching the lanes and their matchups you can predict future priority while reacting accordingly.

I'll link some resources that I'd recommend for learning wave management: https://mobalytics.gg/blog/league-of-legends-guide-everything-you-need-to-know-wave-management/
Late Game
The late game of Kha’Zix is unique among other assassins, as he doesn’t actually fall off, contrary to what some people may believe. Instead, he shifts from an assassin to a poke champion that can make picks and assassinate just as well as a traditional assassin. The reason for this is the W evolution. After W is evolved (generally level 16 or level 11, depending on your evolution order), Kha’Zix can consistently deal damage onto the enemy team on a low cooldown while completely safe. The added spikes from W evolution means that Kha can almost always hit a target, and if this hits an isolated target, it often can lead to getting a pick. Embracing the new playstyle at level 16 is essential to not throwing the game, as Kha’Zix will easily get bursted down if he tries to dive the enemy team like he would have at earlier levels when the gold difference was far more prevalent and enemies are grouped. By this time in the game, most CC abilities are at their max level, which means if Kha’Zix is caught out, it often spells his doom. Waiting to engage is core on all assassins, and Kha’Zix is no different.

Having evolved wings allows him to turn small picks into devastating leads for his team as he picks off the backline one by one. However, this is not always the win condition for Kha’Zix. In certain team compositions, sometimes late game team fighting is absolutely impossible. Recognizing these deadly team compositions is essential for a Kha’Zix player, leaving split-pushing as a very good way to alleviate pressure for your team. An evolved W also helps with escaping and kiting, as the hefty slow and low cooldown means self peeling is especially easy. Be sure to coordinate with your team and use pings while you are splitpushing so they do not get collapsed onto. Looking at the minimap and respecting fog of war is insanely important, and should be your number one focus while splitpushing. Placing wards in the enemy jungle is also important so that you can apply more pressure. The ideal situation for a splitpusher is one where two or three people rotate to deal with you, which lets your team 4v3 or 4v2, or pick up an important neutral objective/tower.

When setting up for baron with your team, after clearing vision you can enter the enemy jungle and wait for a pick while your team is on the baron, forcing them to react and face check into you. It’s advised to have sweeper or Duskblade passive available before doing this or you risk getting picked and losing baron or possibly the game. A final thing to consider about baron or dragon is that as neutral monsters, they’re always isolated. This means that securing or stealing these objectives can be much easier for Kha’Zix and give him an edge when it comes to these objectives. Dragon Soul is another crucial objective to focus on, as Kha'Zix should be able to secure dragons with ease with his Q's that are always isolated on neutral enemies and evolving Q makes his dragon soloing extremely efficient. One important objective to prioritize is the elder, as Kha'Zix can make use of it better than most with his burst which already nearly kills a squishy target in the later stage of the game.
There will be a lot of games where you won’t be able to snowball or create a lead for yourself in the early-game. For these situations we’ll try to outline what you can do to minimize the damage and still contribute towards a victory for your team.
You’re Behind But Your Team is Ahead
A key factor to consider is enabling the person on your team who's the biggest threat and camp for them. Whether it's a Renekton top on a large power spike, or a 4-0 botlane who are about to siege bot tower or secure turret plates, you'll need to do everything in your ability to set them up for success and funnel as many resources you can into them. You'll also want to peel for them and stay nearby for when the enemies might dive them, which will let you and your teammates take them out with ease. Playing Kha'Zix isn't always about jumping onto their backline squishies and assassinating, he can also be great for counter dives and dealing with other assassins.

Another strategy while playing from behind is to farm up and catch up in XP and gold before forcing any more plays. This becomes much easier with Q evolve as you can clear camps relatively quickly and have better uptime on your camps, whereas with R evolve, it'll be much harder to play from behind because of how focused the playstyle is on ganks. If there's not many gank opportunities due to your laners losing, snowballing through a lane can be almost impossible. Farming and staying ahead in levels will give you relevancy and allow you to be a threat later on for your team.
Itemization When Behind
When you're behind you may want more survivability and utility to be able to do as much as you can to support your team. This can vary between players, as some would make the argument that you'd need even more damage to catch up, and should focus on aggressive item choices, otherwise you'll never have a chance to catch up again. While this often comes down to preference, opting for more survivability is the safer and most consistent choice, and there's several items you can get to help. Some would think of G.A, Cleaver, Maw, or Mortal Reminder to help as much as you can while still having some assassination potency. You'll also want to evolve W at some point for the utility purposes for peeling and enabling your carries, along with it synergizing greatly with Mortal Reminder and Cleaver since the debuffs will apply to all targets hit. Evolving W will also give your team stronger kiting, and better pick potential. If you’re not building defensive, you can still build damage and prioritize squishy targets with decent results as you deal a lot of damage in one rotation even while behind. Despite this, your items shouldn't be the biggest factor to change when you're behind, it should still be your playstyle.
You will have various factors to keep in mind when playing out a skirmish or late-game teamfight. Some of these include: tracking enemy Summoner Spells & Ultimates, using your leap when it's a guaranteed kill or when they use their flash, and choosing between priority targets. If you learn best with visual examples, I highly recommend Tinjus' teamfighting breakdowns before reading this section.
Fighting Against Tanky Compositions
This is one of the most commonly asked questions, and there's no easy answer as you have very limited win conditions compared to facing squishier compositions. As Tinjus said in his video above, THE GOLDEN RULE IS DON'T JUMP WHEN THERE IS CC. When facing heavy tank comps your best bet is to push a lead very early on and minimize the mistakes you're making, and communicate with your team to take early objectives. The longer the game goes on, the less of a chance you'll have when the enemies start grouping. You should put more emphasis into snowballing as hard as possible with as many objectives as you can before late-game. If you've already fallen into the position where the game is going late, and their team is scaling, you'll need to keep a few things in mind. Some things to consider are, how ahead you are in levels, what are your item advantages over the enemies, and when your next powerspike is (Duskblade / Level 11). If you can answer these with confidence, you'll also have to consider your team composition, for example if your team composition isn't good at teamfights and theirs excels in it, then you should avoid fighting altogether and focus instead on applying pressure in a sidelane. You can tell your top or mid to split while you prepare baron with your team or set up a 1-3-1 to apply pressure across the map.

You'll generally want to peel back until you have an opportunity to go in against tank comps. A lot of the time their tanks will dive your team and you'll have the opportunity to deal damage to them while they're isolating themselves or sneak past them with your Void Assault onto the backline. When you go into a teamfight, you usually won't want to jump in unless you can guarantee a kill or assist. You can wait until they flash out of combat, with low HP or low mana and then take your chance to jump onto them after they've exhausted their resources and cooldowns.

Another useful tactic is to use your teammates as bait, and having them act as sponges to absorb the enemies CC and cooldowns before going in yourself. Kha'Zix can be seen as a "Win-more" champion, where if your team is winning a teamfight, you can easily clean up and chain kills due to your mobility and potential resets. Never use the excuse "well they used 4 ultimates on me and that's why I died", if you were out of position in the first place, that situation could have been avoided altogether. Always assume they will use their ultimates to pick you off when you're the fed assassin.

One of the most valuable tactics when playing out a teamfight is tracking enemy cooldowns. This goes hand in hand with having patience overall and knowing how to identify the right engage opportunities. If you're just being patient but you're not aware of what summoner's are being used then how will you know when to go in. Be mindful of things like the enemy support using their exhaust, the Malzahar mid using his ultimate, or the ADC flashing. Generally you'll have an exponentially higher chance at success in fights when you know what the enemy has available.Forcing the enemies cooldowns isn't always bad, it just depends on the situation and how you react. For example, if a big teamfight ultimate such as Orianna’s gets used against you unsuccessfully and you survive, that's a massive disadvantage for their team because they were forced by you to expend a crucial teamfight ability on just 1 target.
Target Priority
For this, you’ll need to be more mindful of items differences, team compositions, and other factors. For example, if you have to choose between committing to an Orianna or Caitlyn, you'd need to first press tab to see if Orianna has a Zhonya's Hourglass so you don't get baited and die. In those situations, Caitlyn would be the better option if both are caught out of position. Another thing to consider is which champion on their team is the biggest threat. You need to decide who is the most valuable member of their team and wait for an opportunity. This can be them overextending or previously expending their flash. Once you've eliminated their main threat, your team's chances at winning a teamfight increase drastically. Other items to consider before leaping in are GA/QSS/Zhonyas, and enemy abilities such as Kayle ultimate, Taric ultimate, or Tahm Kench’s Devour.
I’d like to thank you for getting this far and reading this guide to the end. Hopefully this has given you a better understanding of how to carry with Kha’Zix or how to play against him. This guide was put together by dedicated Kha’Zix mains with millions of mastery points and thousands of hours invested into the champion so we’ve tried to bring you the most comprehensive guide possible, so we hope you appreciate the time put into outlining what Kha’Zix is capable of. Free free to drop by our Subreddit for all things Kha'Zix as well as our YouTube Channel. If you would like to be part of our Discord community, please do so as it’s one of the best ways to discuss Kha’Zix.
Thank you all again for reading and we hope you enjoyed!
Special Thanks to: Tinjus, Reegal, Mabarry3, TheSilverlost, MellowRush, SKT Light, Virtuebot, Produx, Master Dinghy, Robhockey, Ezdeath, Gamergirl1, Stain, SpamKhaSpam, Jorcooly, our Discord, Subreddit, and YouTube community, as well as all of you for reading!

Special thanks to Hoppermh for gfx and code!!
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