Yes, this is a jungle Cho'gath build. Now you may be thinking to yourself something along the lines of "Cho'gath sucks at jungling and is a much better laner." and I'd have to say that I'm opted to agree with you. Except for the fact that Cho'gath's one of the best jungle picks in the game. Now I will say that his laning is still better as he is one of the most dominant laners but his jungle is fairly fast and his ganks always guarantees a summoner to be popped and sometimes a death if they already blew their summoners.

Self Explanatory for the Runes:
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration : More damage against jungle creeps, and a little more damage during ganks.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist : Helps for soaking up magic damage early game.
Greater Seal of Armor : Helps you take damage early game and helps during jungle route.
Greater Quintessence of Health : Helps for Early Game and Jungle Route.
Alternatives:
Greater Mark of Scaling Ability Power : Not too crazy about this but it does give you some ap for late game.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction : Flat CD = short CDs early game making faster jungle, and earlier ganks.
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration : you can only really go with this if you have HP Quints, and it helps with mana problems.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed : Helps for general needs of speed such as chasing, running, and positioning. I would only use these with armor seals.

9/0/21
Easily best mastery page for chogath in general. since he doesn't NEED defensive masteries.

or

9/21/0
Do this if you're not too confident about jungling and need the extra defense to calm your concerns. Make sure to avoid dodge masteries and pick up all damage reduction masteries provided

or

1/21/8
Do this if you can deal with not having any CD reduction, and you want that exp buff.

Starting Items: and x5/x2 + Sight Ward

Early/Mid Game: Catalyst the Protector and if you need extra MR throw a in to your build anytime you need it.

As always: buy Sight Ward when possible and sometimes buy when you need to reduce map vision of the other team.

Since you're a jungler, you need to ward often, that is, unless, you have a roamer who will already be warding often. But make sure you buy wards whenever you can. The Oracles can help you set up ganks or limit enemy vision so that they back off, thus reducing farm and exp.

NOTE: you may want to buy: Philosopher's Stone Kage's Lucky Pick at any time if you believe that you aren't doing too well or aren't farming too well.

Core Items:

Explanation: this is just a standard balanced team build. Gives you a nice balance of Armor and Magic Resist. Not Much HP but that's why you have . You'll have about 20-37% CD Redution(depending on runes) and an aoe attack speed slow. You also have a spell shield to block one skill(probably CC). This is just your standard starting items. You'll build your next three items based on the other team. Honestly, If you're doing well, you won't even get past these core items since you'll also be warding a bunch.

Need More MR?:
or

Need More Armor?:
or

Want More Health?:
or

Tank items come first, AP later. Cho'gath's Damage is still decent without the AP.

You may be wondering why I never recommended . That's because, contrary to popular belief, you don't need AP to be a threat. It's threatening enough that you have a pop up on a 6 second CD and an AOE silence on a 8 second CD. sure you can buy this but what I'm saying is not to rush it.

Passive: Carnivore

This is probably the best sustaining passive in the game. It helps with your jungle, heals you when farming, and keeps you in the jungle a bit longer early on.

Q: Rupture

This is your CC for ganks. This skill only scales up in damage as you level it up, that's why it's second priority. It's very good during team fights so make sure you land it on important targets. This is also the reason why chogath is considered an Off-tank or Beefy AP Caster, because it's not garunteed to CC someone like a target skill would. This is also a very good farming tool.

W: Feral Scream

This is Cho'gath's most useful non-ultimate skill. An AOE 3 second silence. VERY VERY useful during team fights. This will shut down AP Casters and Severely weaken AD Casters. This is also very useful to use on tanks so that they can't CC any of your carries. This is chogath's most useful non-ultimate skill since it's very hard to miss. Like rupture, it is also a very good farming tool.

E: Vorpal Spikes

Not really useful, just helps you jungle easily at level 1 and Helps you farm a bit better. Just remember to turn it off when attacking towers with champions behind it.

R: Feast

This is what makes chogath who he is. True Damage, Health gain, extra smite; what more can a jungler ask for. This can make counter jungling easy and you can probably gimp the enemy jungler a bunch after you hit 6. And as stated above, It's an extra 1k damage smite, so, like nunu, you can finish things a bit faster with feast smiting. MAKE SURE THAT YOU KEEP THIS NEAR MAX STACKS AT ALL TIMES

Good for escapes, chasing, and positioning.


Needed for Jungling.

Alternatives:


Another escape/positioning/chasing mechanism but better for escapes that ghost. I personally think that ghost is much more reliable but that's just my personal preferance.


It's a nice spell for ganks, pushing, and helping out lanes.


good for shutting down carries during team fights and for ganks.

Jungle Route

Start at wolf camp and kill all three wolves. It should be fast enough with so that you can kill all three without losing time.

Next head over to Blue Buff and have your mid or top solo pull it for you and kill it. make sure you pot after the pull since you should be missing some health from wolves.

Head over to wraiths and use Q whenever it's up and focus the big wraith first.

Head over to golems, and kill them without smite, unless you plan on going back afterwards

whether you went back or not, you should go back to either kill red buff and keep it for yourself for ganks or give it to your ranged carry.

You can kill whatever camps are up afterward.

After your starting route is done, help any lanes in need of help with wards, ganks, or lane watching WHILE jungling. You must do your job as a jungler and provide good lane presence; causing the other team to lose farm or exp by zoning them out or killing them in ganks.

It is ALWAYS good to time when buffs and dragon respawn so you can be ready to take them.
Red and Blue Buff have a 5 minute respawn timers.
Dragon has a 6 minute respawn timer.
Small Camps have 3 minute respawn timers.

Counter Jungling

If at anytime you feel that you can reach a camp before the other team's jungler can, you can probably steal the camp and cause him to lose exp. Sometimes, for certain camps, leaving something behind can still hurt them even if they still get exp, like leaving a small wraith can still leave him with little exp and he has to wait on the Respawn, while if you kill the camp and he gets there when they respawn, you didn't do much other than get a bit of extra gold. With your mainly AOE skills you can probably kill camps pre-6 but don't take any unnecessary risks. At level 6, you can probably steal main buffs with feast smite but again, don't take unnecessary risks, make sure you have your flank warded so that you can escape before you get ganked.

Dragon

Always try to coordinate dragon kills. Make sure you have major parts of their jungle warded to keep an eye on when they may be coming, and Make sure you know why certain champions are missing to prevent deaths. You'll generally be coordinating with bottom lane and sometimes mid lane, so forcing bottom lane go back or getting successful ganks can possibly ensure a free dragon. If you see 3 people pushing top, make sure to take dragon since the majority of the enemy team aren't close to dragon area.

Level 1

Level 1, you'll probably want to just have your team check the surrounding area for any possible counter jungling. Most teams will travel as a group so be aware of the mini map. If you yourself are in a level 1 counter jungle, your probably going to want to buy that ward instead of the 3 HP Pots to help with map vision and control. Chogath is a very strong level 1 champion, but this means you'll need rupture. It will slow down your jungle a bit, but it does get the job done if your team pulls for you. If stealing one of their buffs at level 1, and you have rupture, have someone pull and have another one tank. You won't get max exp from this but you do deny the enemy jungler their buffs and exp gimping them severely. Just remember to time respawns.

Team fights

I may have mentioned it above but mainly, you need to land Rupture during team fights on vital enemy carries. You need to use Feral Scream on any Casters, AD or AP, and you can try to feast anyone below 700 HP but make sure that you keep spamming your Q and W as much as possible since they'll both be on fairly short CDs.

Laning Phase

Coordinate your ganks with your team, a simple ping is all they need to know that you want to start something. Ward. If your team knows what's coming, they'll be able to back off when they see a gank coming and having vision of vital rotation spots, buffs, and dragon can easily help to get your team ahead. Be sure to take over lanes that need to back and to push lanes that you gank to maximize the usefulness of the gank.

This should work very well in ranked. Makes sure your team helps you early on and make sure you do many of the important jungle activites often such as warding, providing lane presence, and ganks. Also Counter jungling can really make or break the entire game. As stated above don't take unnecessary risks.

Pros:

Good ganks
Strong counter jungle
very good team fighter
feast-smite

Cons:

Fairly slow start
bad 1v1 early game
he es hav en 2 meny arms
i am in cant land Q on guy on enemy teem
Morde es #1 so i no wahnt 2 pley meny arm monster man

other than those 2 serious cons, can't think of anything else, he's just a very good jungler.

I'll probably add a video later on, if at all but if needed, stonewall008 has the same jungle route, but nothing in terms of actual jungle responsibilities.

I hope whoever actually looks at this guide enjoys it. I also hope whoever read this guide learned something about Cho'gath as well as jungling as it is one of the most important parts of a team.