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

Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide

I didn't like this Guide




Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
-
AP Kog'Maw
-
On Hit/Attack Speed
-
AD
Recommended Items
Spells:
Heal
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Icathian Surprise (PASSIVE)
Kog'Maw Passive Ability
Table of Contents
Introduction

First off...
Alright, so this guide has been around a while and I haven't done a whole lot to spruce it up but I do hope you enjoy it for what it is. It doesn't take itself too seriously because I don't take guides in general too seriously... probably because they're guides. I can't tell you every nuisance of how to play AP Kog, but what I can tell are the basics and I hope this guide has and will continue to give people a good general idea of what they're in store for when playing AP Kog. Hope you enjoy :)
By reading the above statement you have hear by agreed to sell your soul to the sole owner, (pun legally intended), KEEPITSIMPLE and will not sue said KEEPITSIMPLE for the small print trickery he used in order to steal your soul from you. Side effects of soul lossage may include sadistic torture of animals, devil worshiping and listening to heavy metal with spontaneously long hair.
Hi there. I'm KEEPITSIMPLE and I've written this guide for YOU because I want to share with YOU the power of AP

You may have noticed that



But seriously,




No, AP


And now I present to you...

No, not that!
![]() |
KEEPITSIMPLE'S
WATCH THE SKIES AP KOG'MAW GUIDE |
![]() |
Pros and Cons
+ Can farm great with ![]() + Has burst & DPS + True dmg suicide passive + Strong Harass + Has a massive AOE slow + Tons of AOE + SUPER ADORABLE! |
![]() |
|
- Has no escape - Can be mana hungry - Squishy - Can't get away - Dies easily - Has lots of escape - Wait, what? - No, he really can't escape |
Starting Items
![]() ![]() |
|
A popular start is ![]() ![]() |
|
The ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Okay bucko enough with the small talk. Let's just get straight to the point. The
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Are you feeling bored? Is your attention span waring thin? Then how about I stimulate your brain with...
BIG, COLORFUL AND EXCITING LETTERS!
![]() |
At first I was reluctant to admit to the
![]() ![]() I really, really, really, (x50) don't like stacking the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
For the longest time the
![]() Regardless, the reality is that a void staff is quite a complimentary item on any AP caster. Additionally, those pesky high damage dealers sometimes like to build magic resist items like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() |
There are NO alternative items because my build is utterly perfect in each and every way. There isn't a single thing anyone, not even Hawkings could do to make my build any better than it already is... However, if I was someone silly enough to think that there were any items that could be apart of this build these are the items I'd use. (Btw, don't read this OH COME ON!)
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
I don't like building the
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
When you're pumping out 50 megatons of raw, acidic
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
This is the item that eats its lunch in the bathroom because none of the cool kids like it and always pick on it. Just about the only champs you'll see using it are
![]() ![]() ![]() This item gives a fair chunk of AP, but it will offer less damage to your ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Back when I first made this guide the
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The

I use

Or if you're more concerned about mana you can get

Glyphs are where you really decide what you want your early game play style to be; thrust it deep or skim the surface. Why are you looking at me like that? WHAT!? **** it, so the

The

The

Lastly, the

Please don't make me explain these to you. The runes were hard enough. Pleeeeease... fine. Riot likes to make you thing that you're a grand master of mastery point allotment but the reality is there's really very little you can do to deviate from what everyone else is picking.
The only real decision making to be done with masteries is whether you want to be,
But no seriously, I take the little b1tch masteries because if you don't play like a b1tch you'll become the b1tch. At least, that's my experience when it comes to

![]() |
I wish this spell just didn't exist. I hate taking it, but I HAVE TO! I HAVE TO BECAUSE IT'S SO THUMB NUMBINGLY BROKEN! (yes, thumb numbingly). Hey look at me, I'm a jungler being Mr. Nice Guy for my team and ganking OOOO WAIT THEY HAVE
![]() |
![]() |
Ironically, this spell requires shoving a sci-fi force shield generator up your champion's a$$ in order to save its a$$. Given
![]() |
Okay now before I get sued for copyright infringement let's continue
![]() |
Jungle kog...now that's got me thinking. I'm going to try that. (Literally 57 minutes later). Okay, bad idea. Don't do that. DON'T JUNGLE KOG!
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
It's fun to heal bait, but it only works if your opponent isn't overly passive. Ignite works whether they're playing aggressive or sissy britches and halves the effect of this spell. Nevertheless, what makes this spell is the movement speed they added making it much more potent as an escape mechanism which is what
![]() |
![]() |
Contemptable Summoner Spells
These spells aren't even worthy of an elaboration of my already stated opinion. Tisk tisk.
So I might not be the sharpest sharp thing on whatever that thing is that the not so sharpest thing is on but when it comes to League of Legends my sheer talent slices through summoner's rift like something soft and easily slicable. And that's saying something whether you ask me or not.
Void Ooze
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Bio-Arcane Barrage
![]() |
But wait, there's more! For 928 easy payments of $9.99 a month you can get
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Caustic Spittle
![]() |
Level
![]() |
Living Artillery
![]() |
Level up
![]() ![]() For realz though. Don't forget though that every time you subsequently cast ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Kog'Maw's passive
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I mean save for a flash or a really big dash people can't escape that sh1t unless you have poor reaction time or bad net. Now there's two ways you can go about addressing both problems. ![]() Whichever path you choose don't sweat it man, because when ![]() |
You're probably thinking, WTF!? KEEPITSIMPLE would never build something as girly as this! And you sir are CORRECT! I would never, ever and most importantly NEVER, (did I mention never ever?), in my entire ball busting life partake in a high elo build as prissy, sissy and downright eufilatious as this!
You see, I'm not one of those upper class 'oh well my my, here here, quite quite' high elo folk that like to spend 45 minute games farming up for the first 40 minutes then winning a single baron fight only to then win the game because they're too chicken sh1t to get their hands dirty right off the get go. NO WAY! I'm one of you fellow blue collar workers shoveling sh1t in the coal mines and lifting crates at the docks. I'm a lower class all American boy, (Canadian actually shhh), who knows that if you want to make it big in this game you've got to risk it all to get to the top!

Did you know that some of League of Legends highest elo players had to die over a million times to get to where they are today? THAT'S RIGHT! You need to fail multiple times before you succeed! Unless you're the big cheese over at Riot Games who made it big on his first try, but uh... well ... FAILURE = SUCCESS! Get it? Got it? Good!
![]() |
WTF!? How does this build work!? Well you see my fine sir, in high elo the League of Legends is little more than the League of cotton pickers and farmers. The epic plays eliciting uproars from the crowd during tournaments are really just the players ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING AFTER 40 MINUTES OF FARMING! Well, that and the destruction of wards. Seriously, when you hear the outcry of applause when a ward gets destroyed it makes you wonder if a riot would break out if multiple wards were being destroyed at once. Anyways, you need mana to farm and you can't waste gold on items that don't build into EPIC GAME CHANGERS! So build the
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Here's a trick question. If I was some hoity toity upper elo citizen and I wanted an item that had MR to suicide my
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
WHAT HAPPENED!? Why is the game still going? After a clutch rotation during your farm fest you were supposed to have won at the baron fight. This is troubling. Very troubling. So troubling that I need to take a dump.
... ??? ... ??? ... ??? ... ??? ... ??? ...
Jesus H. Christ I think I blew my O-ring. Anyways, since you've spent the entire game farming you should probably build some damage now so get to it and one day you'll be up there with the big shots. You're gonna go far, kid. I can feel it in my bones OMG I HAVE BONE CANCER!
Why no attack speed items? Where's the on-hit effect? The minion's army of MEXICAN CHILD LABORERS STOLE THEM ALL! No, they didn't. But I wish they had because I've dabbled with on-hit effect/attack speed builds and have never had a whole lot of success.
The reason for this is that Riot is prejudice against on-hit effect and hybrid items. There's a few AP items that offer HP and the


But the fat cats at RIOT HQ don't care much for on hit effect & hybrid items. They'd much rather work on their plots to RULE THE WORLD and make OP AP items like the

*cough* Moving along then, let's get serious for a second a'ight. Riot did make some notable changes to the on-hit effect scene by combining the





The main dilemma with a lack of survivability is that you're essentially building a magic damage auto attack build with no lifesteal or crits. This means poor late game scaling and no life steal, (which is what keeps ranged carries alive). In the end, all of these items just leave



I love stealing random pictures off of google image without permission
Don't get me wrong. On-hit effect/attack speed AP items can be quite potent especially during the mid-game. Yet, since they offer little survivability they're difficult to use without...dying. Unless you're







Regardless, if you're looking for more auto attack damage in your


In order to play AP


Now,

No balls is all about firing off


Balls deep is about being a man and doing things that don't make sense in the long run but satisfy your manly sense of self-worth in the moment. You don't just fire





But let's get serious for a second. There are an infinite number of digits in the sum for PIE. Do you know what that means? That means that if you decide to print off the digits for PIE during computer science class the printer will literally KEEP PRINTING! OMG IT'S SO FUNNY but immature don't do it. (Do it).
But no, really. You've probably heard it time and time again; focus the tank, don't target the carry, protect your support blah blah blah... (Did you see what I did there? Probably not because your mind is so indoctrinated). Targetting carries and ignoring tanks is all fine and dandy for coordinated team play, but in solo que it's every man for himself. That means you should probably target the guy who's ****ING KillING YOU! Don't ignore the




If somebody's trying to kill you but they aren't dealing serious damage then by all means you should ignore them. Don't just focus the ADC and AP caster because that's what the meta nazis tell you to. Check the enemy's score and taret/avoid the people who are fed! The support will almost always be a waste of time to target once they've already dealt their CC and don't target


Don't feel bad if you couldn't get to a team fight because



Now, all balls aside, your effective role isn't so much an assassin as it is being an incredibly scary poker. What's a poker? Well, webster's dictionary defines it as 'one who pokes or engages in the action of poking.' In other words, USE LIVING ARTILLERY TO F@*% THE S@*# OUT OF PEOPLE! In all excruciatingly painful honesty, AP







So Riot starts you in the gutter. You're poor, nobody loves you and it's up to you to pull your own weight and make a man out of yourself. Good news, there's an army of purple leprechauns attacking you that drop GOLD when you kill them! That's right! They hide their pots of gold at these two big pits in either side of the river. But be wary for there are big dragons on their periods guarding them! (Seriously, them dragons are b1tchy).
Farming with






If you don't get it don't feel bad. You're still the smart one. THAT'S RIGHT I'M RACIST AGAINST FARMERS!
Don't hesitate to start farming wraiths if you've pushed your wave and you've reached level 6. Those creepy little b@stards sprout up faster dem der potatoes. (That's my farmer impression DON'T JUDGE ME). Make sure to use


Evidently, I can't really speak Spanish but I do know a thing or two about strategies in League of Legends. There's two main phases that make up a game of League. The first phase is the laning phase where you tediously farm leprechauns and defend your tower. The second phase is the team fight phase. Or, it's sometimes in solo que simply the 'F*@# All and Assassinate B1tch3s' phase.
The Laning Phase
We've already covered the basics of farming creeps, (or as they preferred to be called, 'universally challenged cannon fodder'), but let's discuss what other roles they play aside from dropping gold when you kill them.
Minion lines consist of a few melee minions in the front and some caster minions in the back. On every 3rd wave there's a cannon minion as well. Melee minions don't really do jack sh1t. Don't worry too much about taking aggro from them. The caster and cannon minions on the other hand are SCARY AS H3LL. OMG, I seriously can't believe how bad@ss these guys can be. They wreck sh1t so keep them in mind! Whenever you attack your opponent it will draw nearby minion aggro. So don't get into a straight up engagements or harass your opponent too closely to them or they will WRECK YOU!

Don't underestimate these purple little freedom fighters.
You can use minions to your advantage to win engagements or trade offs. For instance, at lower levels when someone tries to attack you and your minion line is strong you can simply run away and your opponent will end up taking more damage than you did from minion fire especially if they aren't packing armor runes. Minions are more than just mindless suicide bombers. They fight for the glorious motherland of mid lane! They'll protect you at all costs, even if it means sacrificing their lives to eat turret hits. Respect your minions. At low levels they HURT!
Another common tactic to remember in the laning phase is 'roaming' or 'ganking'. Basically, abandoning your lane to go help either top or bottom. This is a lot trickier to do than most people realize. First off, you need to push the minions to their tower. This can be dangerous because the further in your lane you are the easier it is for junglers or other lanes to gank you and with


Now, if your playing against a difficult opponent then forget it. You don't want to push your lane at the cost of getting iced like a... uh ... bucket of water ... getting ... frozen? Yah, that works. Don't DIE! But if do manage to pull off pushing your lane then you need to figure out which lane, (if any), is actually gankable and which lane has the best chance of success. If the champion in the lane you want to gank has a sure fire escape, (such as jayce), then you probably shouldn't gank since a failed gank will mean losing farm and experience. Trust me, you do not want to end up in the Summoner's Ghetto. There's this guy named Frank that wears a trench coat and I'm unfortunately aware of the fact that there is NOTHING UNDER HIS TRENCH COAT!

Great spot to pick up some kills!
Despite popular belief, (yes, I have the audacity to assume what popular belief is), it can often times be quite opportune to gank when your allies have pushed their minion line to the enemy's tower because you can come around the back of their lane, (which avoids wards in the river), and sneak into the bushes along the side and wait for the minions to push out a bit. This works best while humming mission impossible music. Since it takes so long to set this gank up it's wise not to get impatient and instead simply commit to sitting for a while. You'll most likely get a kill if the support face checks the bush and finds you sitting there in which case it's a matter of 'SURPRISE MOTHA FU<KA!'
Team Fight Phase/OMFG WHAT IS HAPPENING!?
So a tower or two is dead.




League of Legends has an incredible capacity for awesomely coordinated team play, but it's still a game so you're probably going to see a ton of screwing around and lots of just 4theLAWLS moments. Ranked isn't much different even in the super high elos so if you're playing solo que don't, um... over estimate the likelihood for team work among the League community, (otherwise known as complete and utter random strangers).

Now you may or may not know about this crazy f#cking dragon that just beats on people in his little corner in the river. Oh, you have heard of him? Okay, that's good. Well, believe it or not there's a reason why teams will band together to slay him other than to make jokes about killing

When you're actually playing with a coordinated team dragon is pretty simple. Somebody on the enemy team dies, now your team outnumbers their team, you take dragon. The more dead opponents the better. Often times if bot lane and the jungler manage to take out the enemy's bot lane then with the help of mid they'll 4 man gang bang dragon while the enemy mid and jungler cry 'NOOOOOOoOOOOooO!'. Dragon gives 190 gold to each and every member of your team which gives you a considerable edge, but some games neither team will even touch dragon. (Cause she's a b1tch! That's right. Dragon is a girl. How's that for a plot twist?).

She really only wants to be loved.
Then of course there's always stealing the dragon. It's not a bad play if you have to suicide in to do it, but it's pretty exciting and demoralizing to the enemy team if you can steal it and get away.



Let's say your entire team is banded together. They're ready to charge head first into battle and reclaim their right to cabbage and barley. What's the most obvious method of achieving victory? Well, hmmm, I dunno, maybe uh PUSH MID! Just you and your team march your way straight down the middle of the map and force yourselves into the enemy's base like they're your own personal fleshlite. ... ... ... I don't know why I type these things. Regardless, in order to actually gain any ground you need to have good poke to whittle them down and your



The bush of victory!
Sometimes attacking head on isn't the best approach such as when your team has gotten completely wrecked in 3 team fights already. When the enemy isn't being overly proactive with their warding and your team has managed to destroy the first tower on one of the side lanes a good tactic is to try and get one of your team mates to push while the rest of your team hides in either the blue or red buff bush to catch members of the enemy team off guard in a SUUUPWIZE B1TCH3$ engagement. It's a very simple and effective strategy, but wards will screw the plan over entirely so you might want to plant a vision ward in the bush. Also, team mates don't always listen or do anything as a team so... Best of luck. :D
Alright, now it's time to talk about BARRRRRON NASHORRRRRRR!!! Everybody who's ever watched a tournament knows that Baron is one of the most important and pivotal components of the entire game! On the other hand, everybody who's played regular non-tournament play League knows that it's kinda important and sometimes completely forgotten about.

In either case, if you can rally your team together to do Baron, (often done with a ping or a brief 'ZOMG N00B t3am l3tz PLZ d0 B@r0n or I AFK!!!'), then it's important to have a vision ward handy to wipe out any enemy wards and placing a ward on the other side of Baron to make try and prevent the enemy team from stealing it. Like Dragon, Baron is best done when the enemy team has more dead players than yours does. Sometimes if both teams are kind of being pu$$y little b1tches you can attempt to force a baron by going to baron and luring the enemy team to it while your team waits in ambush for a 5 MAN ASSASSINATION! The guy you kill will be all like, 'n00bz it takes 5 ppl to kill me!'. And your team will be all like, 'it's a team game, bro'. And then he goes, ... ah nevermind.
So there you go. Your 101 on basic League tactics. And remember, sometimes it benefits not to be over eager to surrender until after one or two actual team fights. Even when your team is under farmed there are times your champion composition and the right positioning can make a huge difference that gives you and your team the upper hand in 5 v 5 engagements.
Okay, so maybe this doesn't have anything specifically to do with the Almighty AP

I've been to the mountain top and traveled many roads to get there. I've been places, seen things, done things and abandoned things once I found out they were pregnant. And what I have discovered after my years of travel and quiet contemplation is USE THE MUTE BUTTON!
Your greatest ally in the League of Prepubescent Teens, (translated to Fields of Justice in n3rd sp33k), is the all powerful MUUUUUTE BUTTOOOOOOOOOON! (Imagine I'm saying that through an echoing amplifier, it sounds totally epic!). Otherwise, you could become what my fellow monks of the mute button allegiance call...
A Butthurt Warrior
A Butthurt Warrior is someone who believes that when somebody sets your house on fire the best way to put out that fire is to set the other guy's house on fire. This here is a video of one of the kings of Butthurt Warriors after failing to put out his own fire by attempting to set somebody else on fire.
Now sure, when somebody fails to last hit and the Butthurt Warrior says 'NOOB EZ CAN'T FARM, GG' he might feel like he's a totally badass space mercenary belittling a silly little wannabe who's right clicking skills are inferior to his, but really he's just a sad teen who's so easily irritated by insignificant events that he has to try and irritate other people to make himself feel better. <--- WOOOAH this **** just got Freudianly SERIOUS!
--- WARNING --- IF YOU'RE A BUTTHURT WARRIOR THIS PARAGRAPH MAY BUTTHURT YOU!
*Stands on top of a nearby over turned milk crate* The fact of the matter is, (a fact proven by NASA), there is never a just reason for belittling someone over a video game. (And no, mocking someone doesn't count as constructive criticism). Video games are meant to be fun. But, given the competitive nature of League of Legends somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Losing for the most part isn't pleasant, but poor skill or bad tactics on your team mates part is never a sensible reason to start verbally abusing your fellow players. (Unless you're a cranky old video gamer who's too set in his ways).

Yes, hurting somebody's butt might make your butt feel a little better at the time, but regardless of how good butt vengeance may momentarily feel a Butthurt Warrior is only hurting him/
So the next time a Butthurt Warrior starts to verbally abuse you DON'T try and out intellectualize them or one up them with your gamer skills, weight lift capacity or number of girls you've banged with your outrageously massive reproductive organ. Just hit the MUUUTE BUTTOOOON!
So in case you absolutely insist on playing petty little AD

![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
When you're critting for over 9000 the last thing you want is to get assassinated by THE FED
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I'm tired. After working at the coal mine for 29 hours a day, (they use space time continuum warp technology to get more hours out of a day), and 7 days a week I'm exhausted and quite likely on the verge of death so I'm going to keep this section short and sweet. (Like a candy covered white basketball player).
![]() |
You probably don't see this item a whole lot and that's because it's simply outclassed by that stuck up
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Wow KeepItSimple, this isn't an orthodox AD carry item. Are you high? Why yes I am! But that's asides the point. The point is... ****, I hate when I forget what I'm pointing at. Anyways, this item isn't none too shabby on
![]() |
![]() |
The
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
What's this for you ask? Why I'll tell you. It's a little statistic called attack speed and critical strike. They do waaay damage when combined with AD. A similar item is the
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
I don't love the
![]() |



Yes, kow'maw, (I'm just going to leave that typo because I laughed at it for over 20 minutes), has no escape or hard CC and for an AP caster that can be incredibly keyboard-smashingly frustrating. But what




But hey, if balls deep isn't your style don't hesitate, (I'm lying), to surrender your manhood, (seriously don't do it), and play it no balls. Between



Now have fun and remember to...
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.