Cho’gath the Terror of the Void
This guide is for people who like playing tank classes and may not be the most optimal way to play Cho’gath. I play Cho’gath fairly aggressive and I feel the build I tend to use really lends to his play style.
Skills:
Recommended Summoner Masteries: 0 Offensive, 21 Defensive, 9 Utility
Defense: This one is obvious. I put my points into whatever would give me the most health and most damage reduction. No points went into any of the summoner spell abilities.
3 resistance, 3 hardiness, 4 evasion, 2 defense mastery, 1 nimbleness, 3 harden skin, 4 veteran scars, 1 tenacity
Utility: The only one that I recommend is the health and mana regen. Then it’s up to you what you want to take. Your bread and butter is in the defense tree anyways.
3 perserverance, 1 haste, 4 awareness, 1 greed
Recommended Runes:
My rune recommendations may not be what people consider the best way to place them. However, I feel it gives Cho’gath a well rounded defense and able to take punishment from both melee, range and mage champions. I use a blend of 3 runes with both flat-rate stats and per-level stats. Rune names are as follows: Defense (armor/18), Shielding (Magic Resist/18), Vitality (hitpoints/18), Resilience (armor), Warding (magic resist), and Fortitude (health). I have it setup to use half per-level and half flat-rate runes for all 3 rune types. This is gives you quite a bit of hitpoints, armor and magic resist by level 6 but also gives you a greater increase over the remaining levels to level 18. Again, providing good stats at all levels and not just early game or late game.
Recommended Summoner spells:
I feel that summoner spells are all in the eye of the beholder and whatever fits your play style is fine. With that being said though I do have some recommendations. Most obvious would be clairvoyance. Secondly, I would choose either boost, ghost, or flash. I go with boost for the simple fact that it gets you out of stuns and snares and is just better for both chasing and retreating. Flash and ghost could be quite useful as well for getting off a feast on a fleeing champion. If you already have 3 clairvoyance I would suggest going with the latter spells (ie. Flash and ghost) in replacement for clairvoyance.
Recommended Item Build:
I build my items on a per item basis and some of my choices may seem off to people but I feel I get great results from the way I choose them. I go with boots first because I feel as a melee champion the added speed really benefits you early and helps ganking. Depending on the make-up of the opposing team and if they went a heavy magic team you could also go with a magic resist build.
HP Build
Boots of Speed --> Ninja Tabi --> Giant's Belt --> Ruby Crystal --> Warmog's Living Armor --> Frozen Mallet --> Sunfire Cape
After that go with whatever you want. I find if you get this far the games pretty much over anyway.
MR build
Regrowth Pendant --> Philosophers Stone + Boots of Speed --> BootsEH3 + Regrowth Pendant --> Regrowth Pendant + Negatron Cloak --> Force of Nature > Sunfire Cape
Suggested ability guide:
Level 1 – Spikes (1)
Level 2 – Rupture (1)
Level 3 – Spikes (2)
Level 4 – Rupture (2)
Level 5 – Spikes (3)
Level 6 – Feast (1)
Level 7 – Scream (1)
Level 8 – rupture (3)
Level 9 – spikes (4)
Level 10 – Rupture (4)
Level 11 – Feast ( 2)
Level 12 – Spikes (5)
Level 13 – Rupture (5)
Level 14 – Scream (2)
Level 15 – Scream (3)
Level 16 – Feast (3)
Level 17 – Scream (4)
Level 18 – Scream (5)
Why this build works:
I feel this build works well because Cho’gath is a huge health whore. At early levels and especially (and I mean especially) once you get feast coupled with items you get a huge amount of health and you can really take a beating and still be at half health by the end of it. Spikes is a great creep farmer and with Cho’gath’s passive giving him back hp’s on kills he does not need an early regrowth pendant. This allows him to push well early game. I recommend with this build to not be afraid of running to the front of the creeps and harassing the other champions. You have a decent amount of hps for a level 1 and can take a nice few hits. Just be sure not to get too cocky and over extend and get ganked early.
At level 2 you get rupture and your harassment goes up a new level. Feel free to pop this bad boy whenever it’s up and you have mana early game. It really scares the opponent and tends to keep them honest. If you have a morgana with you all the better. Once you reach level 6 feast, feast, feast and feast some more. Feast should always be used on creeps when it is available and there is no chance of a encounter that you will need to use feast on a champion. Use your discretion and Be sure not to die (this is key). Once your feasts start kicking in your hp’s start increasing rapidly and with items you gain an insane amount of hp’s early. At this point Lead the charge! Your to going lead most of the pushes and your going to be front and center defending. With your hp’s, armor and magic resistance your gonna be hard to take down especially with support from your teammates.
How to Play:
Playing Cho’gath isn’t terribly hard. Your rupture is generally your opener followed by a scream to silence and help prevent (or at least make it harder) an escape and when the champion is low enough feast away.
One great thing about rupture is that you can use it as both as defense and offense with quite good results. Defending towers, throw one in front of the tower on a champion as one of the last couple minions are about to go down, before they retreat and you have some free tower hits on the champion that is thrown along with your own hits.
You can use this same tactic to defend a teammate if you see a melee heading towards them wait till the distance is almost closed and pop it almost on your teammate and head that way followed by a scream for what seemed to be an easy kill for the opponent to them being almost dead or dead themselves. The same tactic can be used if they are attacking you. Especially if there is more then one attacking you. Pop it right on yourself as they are reaching you and watch havoc ensue.
On offense you can also use it while you are attacking a turret. You'll have enough hitpoints at later levels to easily tank a turret, so when they come to try to stop you from destroying the turret through a rupture in their path and keep on wacking.
With regards to feast it's pretty obvious when to use it but don't be afraid to pop it on an opponent if you feel you can't get him low enough to use it as it really does do a fair amount of damage anyways and you can more then likely get the opponent to run if you get them low health after using it. People are scared of a feasting Cho'gath.
Conclusion:
Overall Cho'gath is a hitpoint beast and can take a lot of punishment. Obviously if he is focus'd fired enough he will go down but so will any other champion but don't be afraid to hang in there a bit longer then most champions. Use rupture at whims and Feast away!
Defense: This one is obvious. I put my points into whatever would give me the most health and most damage reduction. No points went into any of the summoner spell abilities.
3 resistance, 3 hardiness, 4 evasion, 2 defense mastery, 1 nimbleness, 3 harden skin, 4 veteran scars, 1 tenacity
Utility: The only one that I recommend is the health and mana regen. Then it’s up to you what you want to take. Your bread and butter is in the defense tree anyways.
3 perserverance, 1 haste, 4 awareness, 1 greed
Recommended Runes:
My rune recommendations may not be what people consider the best way to place them. However, I feel it gives Cho’gath a well rounded defense and able to take punishment from both melee, range and mage champions. I use a blend of 3 runes with both flat-rate stats and per-level stats. Rune names are as follows: Defense (armor/18), Shielding (Magic Resist/18), Vitality (hitpoints/18), Resilience (armor), Warding (magic resist), and Fortitude (health). I have it setup to use half per-level and half flat-rate runes for all 3 rune types. This is gives you quite a bit of hitpoints, armor and magic resist by level 6 but also gives you a greater increase over the remaining levels to level 18. Again, providing good stats at all levels and not just early game or late game.
Recommended Summoner spells:
I feel that summoner spells are all in the eye of the beholder and whatever fits your play style is fine. With that being said though I do have some recommendations. Most obvious would be clairvoyance. Secondly, I would choose either boost, ghost, or flash. I go with boost for the simple fact that it gets you out of stuns and snares and is just better for both chasing and retreating. Flash and ghost could be quite useful as well for getting off a feast on a fleeing champion. If you already have 3 clairvoyance I would suggest going with the latter spells (ie. Flash and ghost) in replacement for clairvoyance.
Recommended Item Build:
I build my items on a per item basis and some of my choices may seem off to people but I feel I get great results from the way I choose them. I go with boots first because I feel as a melee champion the added speed really benefits you early and helps ganking. Depending on the make-up of the opposing team and if they went a heavy magic team you could also go with a magic resist build.
HP Build
Boots of Speed --> Ninja Tabi --> Giant's Belt --> Ruby Crystal --> Warmog's Living Armor --> Frozen Mallet --> Sunfire Cape
After that go with whatever you want. I find if you get this far the games pretty much over anyway.
MR build
Regrowth Pendant --> Philosophers Stone + Boots of Speed --> BootsEH3 + Regrowth Pendant --> Regrowth Pendant + Negatron Cloak --> Force of Nature > Sunfire Cape
Suggested ability guide:
Level 1 – Spikes (1)
Level 2 – Rupture (1)
Level 3 – Spikes (2)
Level 4 – Rupture (2)
Level 5 – Spikes (3)
Level 6 – Feast (1)
Level 7 – Scream (1)
Level 8 – rupture (3)
Level 9 – spikes (4)
Level 10 – Rupture (4)
Level 11 – Feast ( 2)
Level 12 – Spikes (5)
Level 13 – Rupture (5)
Level 14 – Scream (2)
Level 15 – Scream (3)
Level 16 – Feast (3)
Level 17 – Scream (4)
Level 18 – Scream (5)
Why this build works:
I feel this build works well because Cho’gath is a huge health whore. At early levels and especially (and I mean especially) once you get feast coupled with items you get a huge amount of health and you can really take a beating and still be at half health by the end of it. Spikes is a great creep farmer and with Cho’gath’s passive giving him back hp’s on kills he does not need an early regrowth pendant. This allows him to push well early game. I recommend with this build to not be afraid of running to the front of the creeps and harassing the other champions. You have a decent amount of hps for a level 1 and can take a nice few hits. Just be sure not to get too cocky and over extend and get ganked early.
At level 2 you get rupture and your harassment goes up a new level. Feel free to pop this bad boy whenever it’s up and you have mana early game. It really scares the opponent and tends to keep them honest. If you have a morgana with you all the better. Once you reach level 6 feast, feast, feast and feast some more. Feast should always be used on creeps when it is available and there is no chance of a encounter that you will need to use feast on a champion. Use your discretion and Be sure not to die (this is key). Once your feasts start kicking in your hp’s start increasing rapidly and with items you gain an insane amount of hp’s early. At this point Lead the charge! Your to going lead most of the pushes and your going to be front and center defending. With your hp’s, armor and magic resistance your gonna be hard to take down especially with support from your teammates.
How to Play:
Playing Cho’gath isn’t terribly hard. Your rupture is generally your opener followed by a scream to silence and help prevent (or at least make it harder) an escape and when the champion is low enough feast away.
One great thing about rupture is that you can use it as both as defense and offense with quite good results. Defending towers, throw one in front of the tower on a champion as one of the last couple minions are about to go down, before they retreat and you have some free tower hits on the champion that is thrown along with your own hits.
You can use this same tactic to defend a teammate if you see a melee heading towards them wait till the distance is almost closed and pop it almost on your teammate and head that way followed by a scream for what seemed to be an easy kill for the opponent to them being almost dead or dead themselves. The same tactic can be used if they are attacking you. Especially if there is more then one attacking you. Pop it right on yourself as they are reaching you and watch havoc ensue.
On offense you can also use it while you are attacking a turret. You'll have enough hitpoints at later levels to easily tank a turret, so when they come to try to stop you from destroying the turret through a rupture in their path and keep on wacking.
With regards to feast it's pretty obvious when to use it but don't be afraid to pop it on an opponent if you feel you can't get him low enough to use it as it really does do a fair amount of damage anyways and you can more then likely get the opponent to run if you get them low health after using it. People are scared of a feasting Cho'gath.
Conclusion:
Overall Cho'gath is a hitpoint beast and can take a lot of punishment. Obviously if he is focus'd fired enough he will go down but so will any other champion but don't be afraid to hang in there a bit longer then most champions. Use rupture at whims and Feast away!
