Cho'Gath, The Terror of the Void Story There is a place between dimensions, between worlds. To some it is known as the Outside, to others it is the Unknown. To most, however, it is called the Void. Cho'gath is a creature born of the Void, a thing whose true nature is so horrific most will not speak its name. Its fellows have been poking at the dimensional walls for a crack, a way into Runeterra, where they can visit their own personal paradise of horror upon the world. A way in they have found, as something dark stirs in Icathia, perverting the summoning rituals of the League to allow the presence of Cho'gath. Fortunately, the power of the summoning has chained Cho'gath to the League of Legends, where it uses its Voidborn abilities to help decide the fate of the world. It knows what it would choose, if given half the chance. Cho'gath is a horrifying opponent. It is capable of impaling not only its enemies, but those standing nearby, on vorpal spikes. It can also cause the earth beneath its foes to rupture, causing an explosion that sends them flying. It can unleash an otherworldly scream that not only harms the flesh of terrestrial creatures, but also silences them for a time. However, and perhaps most terrifying, Cho'gath not only drains the life from those it kills, it can consume them whole, growing ever larger. There are those that wonder if there is a limit to how large the beast can become.
Woe betide the day when Cho'gath grows weary of the League. Abilities [Passive] Carnivore: Whenever Cho'Gath kills a unit, he recovers 40 - 82 (based on level) Health. This is a great ability for Chogath throughout the game, but mostly during the early phases. Last hitting creeps with this early game will keep you in a lane much much longer. Rupture:Ruptures the ground at target location, popping enemy units into the air, dealing damage and slowing them. Cho's most powerful nuking spell. This ability has a 1:1 ratio for ability power. Late game this ability will be doing around 700+ damage. Aiming this can be tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't so bad. The slow is pretty effective for early ganks too. Feral Scream: Cho'Gath unleashes a terrible scream at enemies in a cone, dealing magic damage and Silencing enemies for a few seconds. This is actually another really good nuking ability. It's base damage is about the same as Rupture, but it only has a 1:.8 AP ratio. End game it won't be AS strong, but it is definitely up there. Still tho, this is primarily used for its silence effect (and slow once we get a rylais) Vorpal Spikes: Cho'gath's attacks passively release deadly spines, dealing damage to all enemy units in front of him. I love Vorpal Spikes. It has a 1:.25 AP ratio. Towards end game this will be adding a ~150 damage AoE to all of your melee attacks. This DOES affect the primary target of your attack, so keep that in mind. This is why AP Cho is still a melee threat. Very few characters can go AP and still be an auto attack threat. And even fewer deal both magic and physical damage when they attack :) Feast: Devours an enemy unit, killng champions at low health and most minions instantly. Every successful Feast increases Cho'Gath's health. Maximum 6 growths. The bread and butter. Cho's Ult has a 1:.5 AP ratio. End game this is doing over 1k damage. This is also where AP Cho will get a lot of his survivability. Keeping 6 stacks is a must! Pre-Game setup Mastery I am a firm believer in "go with what works for you." So, do what you think you would do best with. Personally I do a standard 21/0/9 build. Summoner Spells Teleport: I personally think this is a must on all characters. Helps you react to opposing pushes and gives you mapwide presence. Also makes trip back to buy short so you can stay in the lane and get more XP/gold. Exhaust: Works pretty well on Cho, especially if you have a harder time aiming rupture. You can hit them with exhaust and then plant a rupture and they'll have a much harder time escaping. Flash: As good on Cho as anyone. Great escaping move and offensive as well. Clairvoyance, Fortify, Rally, Promote. All great spells, although I feel like they are the same from hero to hero. Equally good on Chogath as anyone else. My set up is usually Teleport and Exhaust. But again, take what you think you would do best with. Runes AP. AP/Level, Cooldown, Cooldown/Level, HP Regen are all good. Again, work this around to what you feel is best for you. My set up is:
Blue Flat Cooldown Yellow Flat HP/Regen Red Flat Cooldown (whatever you like here. I think attack speed might be useful, to get the most out of vorpal spikes)
Quints XP (Again, do what you want. I like XP runes.) Abilities and Item Ability Order
Build 1 1. Vorpal Spikes 2. Rupture 3. Vorpal Spikes 4. Feral Scream 5. Vorpal Spikes 6. Feast 7. Vorpal Spikes 8. Rupture 9. Vorpal Spikes 10. Rupture 11. Feast 12. Rupture 13. Rupture 14. Feral Scream 15. Feral Scream 16. Feast 17. Feral Scream 18. Feral Scream
Justification:
This build focuses much more on a passive farming early game. It is very similar to build 2 late game, just the early game you will get far fewer kills. With this build I noticed that I get around 150-200 creep kills in a game and with the second, more aggressive, build I get probably 80-150. Late game, this build is just as big of a threat as build 2.
Build 2
1. Feral Scream
2. Rupture
3. Feral Scream
4. Rupture
5. Feral Scream
6. Feast
7. Feral Scream
8. Rupture
9. Feral Scream
10. Rupture
11. Feast
12. Rupture
13. Vorpal Spikes
14. Vorpal Spikes
15. Vorpal Spikes
16. Feast
17. Vorpal Spikes
18. Vorpal Spikes
Justification:
This is a lot more aggressive in early game. You'll find yourself able to knock a hero down a LOT of HP early game with this build and stay a pretty consistent threat throughout the game. Your Scream->Rupture->Feast combo is just as great early game as ever (Especially when you get Rylais), it will kill some heroes outright.
Item Build
Build 1 1. Regrowth Pendant 2. (Build) Philosopher's Stone 3. Sorc shoes 4. Rylai's Scepter 5. Rod of Ages (all at once, or in whatever order you would like)
6. Glacial Shroud
7. Lich Bane (I usually build sheen first)
8. (Build) Frozen Heart
9. Zhonya's (Sell the philo) Justification: Regrowth + Carinvore can keep you in a lane early game for a very VERY long time. This can be substituted with a meki pendant if you would prefer to spam abilities more early on.
6. Glacial Shroud
7. Lich Bane (I usually build sheen first)
8. (Build) Frozen Heart
9. Zhonya's (Sell the philo) Justification: Regrowth + Carinvore can keep you in a lane early game for a very VERY long time. This can be substituted with a meki pendant if you would prefer to spam abilities more early on.
Rylais- This is important to know!!! Once you have a rylais pay attention to how it works with rupture! Rylais will apply the slow effect immediately after casting, NOT after the rupture goes off. (If they move into the rupture radius before it goes off, they won't be slowed, but they'll get hit by rupture, so it is still good :) This helps immensely because by this time everyone in the game has boots and it makes it that much harder to hit them. Any slow in that time period helps. Rylai's doesn't work on passives or toggles, so no vorpal slow spikes :(
Build 2 (Still working on this)
1. Fiendish Codex
2. Sorc shoes
3. Rylais Scepter
4. Banshee's Veil
5. Upgrade codex to Nashor's Tooth
6. Abyssal Scepter
7. Zhonya's
Justification:
This is still a work in progress. This worked pretty well in the games I tried the Build 2 skill order. But I was also against casters in those. Banshees veil is always a good item to have in any situation. Nashor's tooth can be pushed back a little more if you want to get more AP faster.
Gameplay Early Game (1-6)
Build 1 This is very much an passive-early game playstyle. Cho'gath CAN lane solo, but I prefer to use a partner. Any high dps char works, or a stunner, or support... really, you can lane with anyone. If you are laning against melee, then just get up there and start taking out creeps, Vorpal Spikes will prevent them from getting gold. If they are ranged, try to last hit. Use rupture on the ranged creeps so it will threaten the other champ too. For the most part though, just chill until level 6 or so.
Build 2
Scream. Rupture. Feast. This is a more aggressive early game than build 1. If you are against a melee champ, then use feral scream a lot to keep them away from your creeps while killing theirs. If you are against a ranged, then use rupture to get their ranged creeps along with them. Keep the ranged person moving around at least. You want to make it as difficult as possible to last hit. Take note that while rupture can miss, feral scream cannot. At around level 9 or so the strategies for these 2 builds became similar enough that you can use the rest of this guide for both builds.
Mid Game (7-12) NOTE: Don't be afraid to use Feast on creeps. It is a kill, and it gives you charges. You don't need to start saving feast for champs until you have 6 charges of it.
NOTE 2: When Rupture gets to level 3 or 4 you can start wiping the ranged creeps with it (think Veigar's Dark Matter ability). This is a great way to farm more gold, and also instantly gives you 3 heals off of Carnivore. This is where you will start to be noticed in the game, hopefully you are fairly far along in your build (almost done or done with rylais) and have some ability power to start eating people. Set up ganks with other people, if you see someone that wants to engage another champion then come up from behind and eat them as they are running back to base. Champions will avoid you at low health at all cost, so it pays to be sneaky and/or quick (try switching up to swiftness boots and speed quints). Late Game (13-18)
Towards the end of the game you are going to start getting pretty beefy. At level 18 you will have at least 4k health (with 6 feasts) and somewhere around 380-400 AP (or more). You are a giant force to be reckoned with. You should pretty easily solo gank people with the build. You can unleash a tremendous amount of burst damage (700 rupture, 600ish Feral scream, 1k Feast) and have slows that will allow you to finish the job. You can freely roam the map and gank or push lanes very effectively with vorpal spikes. If you haven't finsihed your build, just push or defend lanes and get some gold, it will come pretty quickly through your spikes and rupture on the rear mobs. You are an effective tower tank if need be, although your damage on towers will be low because vorpal strikes aren't applied (Which makes up for more than half of your melee damage at this point), so you can group rush towers... just dont try to solo one. The enemy champs will get there before you can finish it off.
Important Things to Remember
In team fights lay down ruptures and silences in the area, you can easily incapacitate half of their team with these 2 abilities. Eat anyone that gets low.
If you are within tower range be careful how you attack the mobs, watch your vorpal spikes! If they hit a defending champion then the tower will focus you. If you are level 10 with 6 Feasts then you hit 11 and get Feast rank 2. Your health WILL go up. The tool tip wont change until you feast on another target, but the buff will level up as you level up the ability. Remember, you aren't Jesus. You may have 4.5 k health and essentially be a sherman tank, but you are still killable. Running into 3 enemy champs at full health that are even moderately farmed is a BAD IDEA on any hero. Don't do it. Death is a much bigger problem on Cho than most other champs. Losing a full feast stack is a very painful experience. Once your feast gets high, make sure you are thinking before you go into a fight. If you know you won't live, make sure its a HIGH benefit to your team before you die for it (At least an inhib...)
Special thanks to:
Goldenpineapple
Spudboy
PiousFlea
