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Doesn't matter if you build tanky or AP, this lane will be a Cho'Gaths worst nightmare at all stages of the game. You can't do much without him punishing you for it. You don't have any real defense or escape so don't fight him early unless you poked him down enough that you can kill him or you're close to tower to feel safe. Just do your best to poke him down for your jungler early or for yourself if you can and use your Q or W for disengage or in team fights against him so that he can't do much in team fights. If he's silenced or knocked in the air he can't heal or ult.
Fiora
True damage champs like Vayne are annoying to fight but Fiora is just as bad if not worse. Her true damage scales off max health, able to dodge your Q with hers and ignore it with her W to stun you instead if you use any kind of CC, in this case your own Q. Your best bet is to max E instead of Q seeing as how she's just gonna toss your Q away as a minor inconvenience to her. Do your best to get grasp off her and E poke her at any point. If you're gonna ult her, use your W to silence her first if you know her W Riposte is active. It's also recommended to Q her and make her use Riposte early if you know your junglers on the move to you. At every stage she's gonna be your counter so just be mindful of her at all times.
Garen
Garen has always been an issue for most toplaners, this isn't much of a chance for Cho'Gath. Early game the lane is his if you let him get too close rather you Q him or not due to his E spin removing armor after a certain hit amount. His ult also executes off missing health true damage so be mindful of that at all stages of the game. Mid-Late game you won't have to worry about him as heavily but he can still damage you, it's more about how concerning it'll be when he goes for your backline. Silence and knock him up as fast as possible to give your backline the chance to make room and escape his range.
Gwen
Never, and I mean NEVER, disrespect a good Gwen player. With 12.11, you see a nerf to her W armor and CD, and her E first hit CD is decreased to 50%. Laning phase can still be hers with good poke and timing so be heavily careful. Late game you will have a hard fight on your hands unless you catch her off guard as her passive increases her damage the more health you have, so always be mindful of being in a fight too long with her. In the late game her E is basically gonna be up constantly so a smart Gwen can just dodge your Qs easily and melt you.
Jax
Heavily good mobility to choose fights as he pleases and easily able to counter your abilities at most game stages. His Q makes yours way harder to land on him since he can jump to minions, wards and champions with it. His E also makes yours useless and stuns you, so there's no point in attacking him if he has it up and he gains magic damage and resistance with his ult. Your Ult doesn't lose any power against his ult when he has it active however, and you can always silence him if need be. Do not engage him without help as he will beat you in almost every fight at nearly every stage. He won't make himself easy to kill or to hit.
Kayle
Kayle is just ridiculous in terms of how hard she scales. Before 6 she will mostly just try to get into the safety of tower range. Once she hits 6 though is when she'll be a bully to you. Make sure you get ignite for her as well and try to kill her once you hit 6 if you can. Abuse her seriously weak early game with your jungler so she has a harder time building. Late game is gonna be hers basically all game as she will melt you down faster than you can even react. Trick her into using ult early if possible so that when she uses it she has to play safer sooner, and obviously, get grievous as her healing is nuts rather she uses W or not
Mordekaiser
Really doesn't matter what you do, he's got superior power. His Q does bonus damage if hitting an isolated target and his passive over time does more damage based off an enemies max health. Late game is iffy depending on what goes on. Be mindful of his massive shield he gets off his W before going for the execute. Wait for him to heal or lose it, damage him a bit more then go for the ult execute otherwise make sure you're careful about what you do against him.
Sett
Sett hits hard at nearly every stage, with his Q doing % max health damage and his Ws center being a true damage zone it's not too easy of a matchup. Poke him when possible but don't hard shove or he can abuse you suddenly, and don't stand in the middle of minion waves or he can just use his E to stun you instead of slow. Late game, if you get against a Sett, keep yourself in a weird position where he cant ult into your team. His ult does AOE damage based off additional health of whoever he grabbed, so he can just destroy your team if he grabs you. Honestly, ban him if you can. He abuses your health scaling with his own abilities and makes it hard to fight him.
Trundle
His ult will steal your HP, armor and MR so always be ready to get melted if he ults you. Get thornmail early to avoid his healing in a fight and adjust to what your team needs afterwards if he goes tanky. If he goes damage then heaven hope you can CC him.
Urgot
Hellish of a lane and late game. He has such high burst that even poking him is too risky, so do your best not to get caught out if you wanna go for pokes. Lane phase will be his so just play it out till your jungler can help or you reach mid-late game. If he can't snowball he won't hit as hard but will still be a challenge to go up against. His shotgun legs do max health damage off of you so be mindful when he grabs you, and late game his W will never have to shut off so he can keep pouring damage on you or a squishy. Do your best to CC him and keep him off your team and body block his ult if you can since he needs to mow you down ALOT to get you into execute range
Vayne
You will never, EVER, have a good time against her rather shes in botlane or toplane. Her W is just a passive granting max health true damage. Dont push the lane in the laning phase or she can just punish you and keep you away from the CS to lower your CS and exp gain and get help from your jungler when possible. If your jungler won't come or refuse, just soak up exp and avoid giving her snowball kills. Do your best to silence and knock her up with Q late game and she'll be an easy immobile target. She's squishy, so demonic embrace will make her executable at half health.
Wukong
Wukong received a pretty decent early game CD on his W which is usually leveled last, making him have to use his W more sparingly in the lane phase. However just be mindful of his poke power and ability to dodge you if he has to. His W and E are good dodge tools if used right. His Ult also does max health damage so be cautious of that, and remember his Q shreds armor. He might be more manageable late game if you can CC him to death so he can't do anything but run.
Quinn
Very. Annoying. Her Q blinds which is painful enough but most Quinns will just poke you as much as possible. If you attempt to get into melee range once you Q her, she's gonna E vault you and get out of your range then poke you down over it. Later in the game she's just another ADC to you with tons of roam potential. Poking her won't exactly be easy so just be mindful at all times of the fact she can keep you where she wants if you aren't careful.
Akali
It's not a matter of fighting YOU, but what she can do to your team later in the game. Take Dorans or Corrupt since she's gonna try to poke you down, but you'll be decently ok since you have good sustain. She is insanely hard to pin down with her mobility putting her all over the place. Once you get beefy enough she won't be an issue, it'll mostly be the issue of having to handle her when she goes for your backline. It's all skill based in the lane phase and who has better reactions
Camille
She's a pain to deal with early game since her W gives a bit of sustain and her Q will do heavy true damage most stages of the game. once you get into your more tanky phase in the mid-late game it won't be too easy to kill you. During Lane phase if you're close enough to her when she E's onto a wall, try to W before she can recast so she'll just fall off of it. She'll do her best to stop you from farming.
Dr. Mundo
During the lane phase he's gonna be an issue. His Q scales off your HP if it lands so always keep that in mind at all times and that you cant knock him up the first time you Q him due to his passive. Mid-Late game make sure you have grievous to make his ult useless and you can basically kill him. Taking ignite is also a smart option too so his ult is basically worthless.
Graves
Haven't seen him toplane much anymore, but in the rare cases he is, be cautious. His damage is annoying and he has a good mobility usage to get out of your Q zones. Just respect his early damage and by mid-late game you should be able to beat him a bit easier seeing as how you'll be able to tank him and body block his autos so he cant hit your team behind you unless he purposely avoids you.
Illaoi
Do not disrespect Illaoi. Early game she will just do her best to poke you with Q and E and rely on corrupting to top off her mana and health. Mid-Late game you need to respect not only her splitpush power, but also her ult power. Her tentacles INSANELY hurt and spawn more the more people her ult hits. Just make sure to poke her down and keep her behind. Once she gets to splitpushing get some help cause she won't be easy to fight, and make sure you have grievous.
Singed
Obvious Rule: Don't chase him. Early game he'll try his best to displace you for jungle ganks or to poison you, so be careful around then. He can outspeed you too so unless you can land a good Q and you're about to kill him, don't chase or he'll just kill you. Late game is about the same, he'll do his best to rush to the backline and toss someone squishy for a kill so silence him if he does and Q him making him have to be punished if he really wants to grab someone. If he grabs you then you're doing your job as a tank when the enemy team focuses you.
Teemo
His blind will stop your E and autos but he has no defense against your Q. Just mind his poke and you'll be ok. Late game he'll do his best to blind your ADC so focus him down as you'll be able to early execute him at this stage. He's more of a threat to your team than you yourself.
Tryndamere
12.11 will see an increase in aggressive Tryn player as his Q heal has increased and his ult has a lower CD by 10 seconds. Be mindful that the major threat only applies to lane phase. Get grievous early and take ignite. He'll always attempt to tower dive you if you're half or low. Knock him up and ignite him halfway through his ult. Bait out his ult if possible with yours if you have to remove it early. Late game he's usually squishy so unless he prematurely ults, you can execute him at nearly half health. He's more of a backline danger if anything.
Volibear
His chain lightning makes for good poke and he can outdamage you in the early game. Do your best to poke him and if he's low enough, execute him as long as his shield from his E won't land before then. Late game it'll depend on who's smarter and who can react faster to each other, just don't forget that he can ult towers and deactivate them so if you're low during lane phase or even at all, he's gonna more than likely tower dive.
Aatrox
He's not an impossible matchup, but one of the few I'm skeptic of overall. Get bramble early and take ignite against him. Later in the game he can't damage you too easily and will rely on his healing to beat you. Just ignite him in that case that he ults to fight you and you'll for the most part win since you'll be too beefy.
Cho'Gath
Who's better at landing abilities and gonna get eaten first for not landing them on their opponent.
Gangplank
Early game GP is more annoying than Mid-Late game with his poke from his Q and barrels, but your sustain should keep you in the lane and the fact you can poke him just as much and sustain back better than he can. Dorans Shield or Corrupting are good options in this matchup to help with the sustain. Once you hit your tank stride he shouldn't really be much of a problem. Just be mindful his W removes CC and heals him so make sure that's down if you go for an ult execute.
Gnar
His only saving grace is his E to jump away from you or engage you. His Mini form is annoying so take dorans shield or corrupting in this matchup since he'll rely on poke before going in with his mega form. Lane phase just be mindful that even against tanks like you his Ult+W+Q combo hurts like hell and will melt you. Stay away from walls if you know he's gonna engage. Mid-Late game you can handle him much better once you tank up.
Irelia
Irelia is mostly going to be making the lane hers in the early stage. Her stacks give her more damage and attack speed which she will try to abuse on you once she gets 3-4 stacks and use you to get her last one. Just stay near tower and respect what she can do early. Later in the game she'll try harder to kill your squishies than she will try with you. Get Grievous early and ignite for her as her lifesteal will not be lacking at every stage. Catch her away from your minion wave and she's an easier to hit target, otherwise she'll just Q out of the zone.
Kennen
I would only call him annoying early game because of his poke. His E lets him choose to run in or out of a fight. If he's dumb enough to use it to dodge your Q, punish him for it. He'll try to CC you but without his E he has no real escape. Later in the game you can easily kill him as most Kennens even with magic pen don't do much to you.
Nasus
You easily outsustain him in the early phase of the game and ignite makes his ult pretty useless. Just be mindful he will get more aggressive once he hits 6 due to his ults power. He has the power to infinitely scale due to his Q so his main focus will be to splitpush to feed his Q. If he splitpushes at a bad time, make sure you punish him with your team either killing him or taking major objectives his team needed.
Olaf
Pretty common toplane choice lately after his rework. Just be cautious of his Q as he can slow you with it, shred armor now and can spam it if he picks up his axe again. Respect the early 1v1s and take ignite since he can easily lifesteal everything back the lower he is. Poke him down and execute him quickly before he can get everything back, and get bramble early. Late game is basically the same as lane phase, just make sure you ignite him if he chooses to attack you so he has no lifesteal power and just dies.
Riven
Respect her early damage, trust me it hurts against a good Riven. Just do your best to poke her down and be mindful of her E dash that she can use to dodge your Q. Her own Q isn't gonna be fast enough to get her out of your Q unless she's on its edge. Her ult increases damage and executes off missing health so watch for that. Later in the game the most she's gonna attempt to do is CC you but she can't beat you due to how beefy you are.
Sion
Inting Sion has officially been killed due to hullbreaker nerfs and his passive doing a ton less damage to structures. He's still a threat though. He'll build prowlers to gap close and get a kill in his passive if possible, then build full tank after. Do your best to silence him if you notice him charging his Q and tank his ult if he charges in. He can't kill you himself so he can mostly just CC you.
Tahm Kench
12.11 sees an increase to his passive damage, and gives him more sustain thanks to his Q giving more healing power if landing on you. If you can out poke him in lane phase you can normally win. Just be careful not to start a full fight with him as he has more overall damage in the early game so without a gank, he will beat you. If he's about to run while low, silence him or knock him up with Q to stop it. You have a good kit to stop his escapes and engages.
Yorick
He'll be going for the splitpush tactic as all Yoricks do so just be mindful of that late game. Early game do your best to poke him but get grievous since his Q can heal alot off of you. Dodge his E as best as you can and be careful of him trapping you in his W once he hits 6 as that's a signal he wants to all in you. Late game you'll do better as a tank but he'll have alot of damage. Just watch how he splitpushes and punish him if he picks to push at a bad time.
Ornn
Early game respect his damage, trust me you'll regret it if you don't. He's beefy and hurts in the early stages. Poke him down if possible but don't stand near walls or his Q since he'll try to knock you up if he sees an opening and combo you. Late game you're the better tank, just be mindful he has alot of CC to help his team get into position.
Kled
Crazy little guy. He's only dangerous in the early game stages, once it hits late game he can't really hurt you. Just make sure you watch his passive bar when Skaarl leaves as if he gets back on him before you can ult execute in the lane phase, he's gonna win the fight.
Lillia
I don't see her played top often anymore, but she's annoying when she is. Respect her in the early stages as she'll just run up, Q you, maybe E or auto you, then run away. Her burn hurts alot so use your sustain to keep yourself in the lane phase. Once Mid-Late game hits she can't do as much to you, just be mindful that if she gets ahead of you that her Q does true damage on the outer area.
Renekton
He's more known as a snowballer if anything. He'll try to go in at level 3, poke you down with his full combo, and get out which will normally put you at or just above half health. He's hard to hit with Q since he can just dodge with his E. Pretty much just do your best not to feed him and Mid-Late game he's gonna be practically useless if he cant snowball
Jayce
Don't see often and for good reason. The most he's gonna try to do is poke you down with his Cannon form before engaging. E poke him when you can and close the gap with Q. The most he will try to do is use his Hammer form to make distance. Every stage of the game as long as you don't let him get every bit of poke he can, is gonna be yours.
Malphite
Not really much to be scared of in this kind of matchup. He's meant to counter AD champs not too much towards AP. Poke him down and be mindful that his Q slows you and speeds him up. Late game he'll be a pain especially AP Malphite as no matter if it's a tank or squishy his ult scales off 80% of his AP so he will HURT.
Poppy
The most she can attempt to do is CC you, but she's only dangerous at the early game. Respect her Q since it's off a bit of max health damage and stay away from walls. Mid-Late game she can't hurt you and even if she builds full tank, she doesn't tank as well as you do. Just be mindful of her CC and you're fine.
Shen
Early game he does alot of damage and can use his W to block your E and autos so be mindful of that. If he's gonna ult and you notice, Q him so that his ult is wasted and he can't tp to his teammates. Later in the game you're the better tank, the most he's gonna do is dash in to take aggro for a very short time and block damage, but once that's down he can't do alot.
This update gives Cho'Gath more health due to his 2 main mythic items: Frostfire and Sunfire, gaining more health overall, each increased by 100 making him a bit more beefy when you buy the items with a cheaper cost on Bami as well.
Besides those changes, the patch will not affect Cho'Gath majorly besides a couple matchups.
Why Cho'Gath
Cho'Gath is a heavy scaling and versatile champion that can be built AP damage if lacking, or built as he normally is seen, a heavy health tank that can tank the whole enemy team and take 1-2 people with him before death.
Being insanely strong in terms of tank power, AP and overall usefulness in the frontline, you'd be making a good tank choice in the hands of this monster of the void when he enters the field.
The Pros
-Good Lane Sustain: Cho'Gaths passive gives him good sustain power to stay in lane and refill his mana. Combine that with Dorans Shield and second wind, his sustain power could almost rival Garen if smartly played
-Able To OneShot Squishies: Full tank or AP, you can oneshot squishies insanely easy thanks to your ults true damage power
-Useful even behind for a carry tank: Thanks to Cho'Gaths ultimate, even being behind isn't a full setback. His ultimate keeps him scaling allowing him to still be a useful tank against enemies in the frontline and providing good CC as a backup as well for his team
-Very hard to kill and easy to use: Once the Mid-Late game hits, Cho is a monsterously hard champion to kill due to how tanky he can get. Even as an AP Cho'gath, your tank power is still there making you capable of helping your entire team have to worry less about being killed as long as you're in the frontline with your CC and beefy power.
The Cons
-Weak Early Game: Level 1 his E does alot of damage, but after using it you don't have alot to save yourself pre-6. You don't do a ton without your poke or sustain
-Enemies can kill late game if alone or don't stack: Cho'Gath NEEDS his stacks to be beefy and stay alive. Once the late game hits though while he is super beefy, without a team to back him up, he doesn't guarantee himself a win in the fights he's in meaning he could still lose a 2v1 if he isn't given help soon.
-Max Health and True Damage Champions Melt Him: Champions like Vayne, Fiora, Gwen, etc who rely on your health to do damage easily counter you in the longrun being able to get you out of a fight fast, making your tanky power near useless
-Very Weak Engage: Your Q is your only way to close gaps, but without it, items or flash you can't get into enemies faces so that just leaves you sitting there being kited without much of a way to get in the action.
Tank Runes
Grasp Of The Undying is what makes Tank Cho'Gath get his tank power up even more. Giving you 5 health permanently once you hit an enemy as the charge is ready, your health will keep scaling throughout the game. Demolish scales off your max HP when the charges are full and you attack a tower. By the time Late game hits, you're gonna be one shotting towers as you'll at late game be between 6k-8k health, so you'll be getting rid of towers insanely fast Conditioning helps with your tanky power giving you Armor and MR after 12 minutes, so you have more tank power with this. Second Wind is a good alternative against heavy poke champions as it will provide you with more sustain, giving you plenty of chances to heal up even more than with the sustain you'd already have passively OverGrowth is another tank rune that helps you gain more health along with grasp and your ult as time goes on, giving you more HP in the longrun and raising your health to make you much tankier Cheap Shothelps you do more damage in the early and later stages of the game, letting you do true damage to anyone with impaired movements. Your Q knockup and slow and your E slow will help proc this for increased damage Ultimate Hunter is a heavily good and viable option for Cho'Gath. It lowers his ults CD by 25% when all stacks are collected, making your ult come up faster and more frequently for fights and executing faster.
Alternative Secondary Runes Presence Of Mind can be a good mana sustain alternative if you'd prefer not to go domination, as it will keep your mana topped off along with your passive to make sure you run out of mana much slower Tenacity is always useful for tanks to keep moving and providing cover for your teammates, in this case, it will make sure Cho'Gath can get in for the executes, stay stunned less, and keep his CC going for his teammates. Manaflow Band helps to raise Cho'Gaths mana bar, seeing as how he has a low mana pool with high mana cost abilities, so he'd have more in the longrun late game for himself to keep his abilities up. Transendence is just a very good way to give your already short CDs even shorter ones so that you can keep spamming your abilities, and even lowers your ult CD slightly as well
AP Runes
Arcane Comet scales slightly off AP and provides poke with your Q and E, giving you more poke damage overall Manaflow band is good for giving you mana overtime, and gives your mana pool even more to work with at a lower risk of running out sooner Transendence will provide your abilities with faster cooldowns for faster output of damage and your abilties wont be down as long Gathering Storm will give you scaling damage as the game goes on, making you hit much harder if the game continues to go on as long as it does, making your scaling better Cheap Shot makes you do true damage against anyone who's impaired, so knocking them up with Q or landing your E on them will make them take much more damage than they would before hand with your AP abilities Ultimate Hunter lowers your ults CD by 25% at full stacks collected and will let you stack it much faster along with CD items and transendence
Alternative Runes Nimbus Cloak will give you ghosting and movement speed for 2 seconds, making it easier to close the gap on enemies you hit, or at the very least lets you keep up if they seem to be faster Scorchis good for extra poke damage based off level, igniting someone for a very brief period and giving extra damage poke
Ability Rundown
Carnivore is Cho'Gaths passive that is the reason his sustain is so good especially for lane phase, as it grants him 20 - 71 (+2.83 each level) Health and 3.5 - 7.75 Mana (+0.25 each level) making his sustain get better as you level Rupture is Cho'Gaths Q, and his main gap closing/CC ability that you'll end up using the most out of his kit. It can deal 80-300 damage scaling off 100% AP making it his strongest AP build ability and one of the most annoying things to handle about Cho'Gath, as it also acts as 1 of his 2 slows Feral Scream is Cho'Gaths second best CC ability next to Rupture. Silencing the enemy between 1.6-2 seconds off level also dealing 75-275 damage scaling off 70% AP, it isn't his most damaging ability but arguably is his best CC ability with his knockup Vorpal Spikes is another CC and damage ability Cho'Gath has, dealing 22-70 damage +30% AP adding 0.5% per feast stack to the damage, it can scale easily well with Cho'Gath as well as he scales in general. Each spike attack also slows enemies by 30-50% decaying over 1.5 seconds and increases his attack range slightly as it travels through enemies. Feast is Cho'Gaths main scaling tool through the entire game. Dealing 300 / 475 / 650 (+50% of ability power) (+0.1 per bonus health) true damage to enemies, it scales off his health and his AP insanely well, making it constantly scaling with his own health and power. Each stack he gains off of Feast gives 80/120/160 max health off level. Only 6 stacks can be gained from minions and non-epic jungle monsters however, but is unlimited off champions and epic monsters like dragons, rift and baron
Conclusion
Cho'Gath is an excellent scaling Tank and AP champion. Even though he has some downsides like every champion, the mid-late game makes up for that with how powerful he can become with time and effort being put into his kit and learning him.
He's easy to learn, easy to master and one of the most underrated and best tanks the game has to offer.
Hopefully after reading this, you have a better grasp of Cho'Gath and understand what he can bring to your team and the game itself.
Thanks For Reading!
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