Number 1 super hap py fun (kinda long, but there's a short version at the end) guide to playing the MFing Cho'Gath.
I: Introduction
To start, there are plenty of different ways to play each hero, and you have to find the right hero/build for your own playstyle. If you play aggresive and with little to no reservation, this is the Cho'Gath for you. This is not A Cho'Gath. This is not "rack up kills and runaway" Cho'Gath. This is not AP Cho'Gath. This is the MFing Cho'Gath. You wont be a carry, and you probably wont even have the best KD. You will however cause the enemy team to shit their pants repeatedly and more likely than not win the game.
II: The Pre-Game
Runes and masteries should, in short, lean towards being as difficult to kill as possible, with cooldown reduction coming secondary, and AP left to the sidelines.
Don't worry too much about it, to be honest, whatever you have set already for a melee character will probably do just fine.
If you're playing the MFing Cho'Gath, it's good to pick out your teams carry and make nicey nice. You have the power to force feed them kills all game. You can fit the MFing Cho'Gath into any team set up, but he really shines when he's the only fat bastard kicking around.
Summoner spells to love:
Teleport: Everyone loves teleport. Mid-Late game you will be running around causing fear and feasting on the lamentations of the enemies women.
Flash: Blink feast? Pants-shitting terror. Blink scream? Turns the tide of a clusterfuck. If you're being chased, run to a long forest wall (you can last long enough, don't worry) and blink over. No one can kill the MFin Cho'Gath.
Ghost: A sometimes skill. The only thing scarier than the MFing Cho'Gath is the MFing Cho'Gath running out of the FoW and coming at you like a fear guided missile.
Exhaust: Another sometimes Skill. Good for early kills and combos well with Rupture, but you'll soon find that Flash is much more versatile.
Summoner spells to avoid:
Ignite: If you're not last hitting, you're not worried about the kill in the first place.
Heal/Clarity: If you arent killing enough creep to keep rupture rolling, or you're low on life, you shouldn't be playing the MFing Cho'Gath. Go back to Ashe.
Clense: You are the Mfing Cho'Gath. You need not cleanse. Just keep running.
III: Gears, lol.
"But Condon! Where is the AP? Where does the sweet deeps come from?!?!?!" you may be asking in a couple paragraphs.
To the first: Don't be a woman. There is no room for fancy sticks and jewlery when you are the MFing Cho'Gath.
To the second: The Cho'Gath, much like the Chuck Norris, kills through sheer bed-wetting terror. He doesn't need to go out of his way to murder people.
First item: Regrowth pendant. This, mixed with your passive, means you can stand on the front line and suck up more harassment and rack up more minion kills than a two man lane all by your lonesome, and keep close enough to harass with vorpal spikes to boot.
Now, you SHOULD be able to stay in lane long enough to rack up a few thousand gold, picking up your boots and Warmogs all in one go. For boots, choose between the swiftness and mercury treads depending on what the other team looks like. Worry more about stuns than slows, as a slow just means they have to chase you longer before your allies come and feed them their teeth.
After that, you really have to size up the competition. If they're casty or AP heavy, pick up a guardian angel first, and a force of nature then fill up on either sunfire cloak or a rylias scepter depending on how much CC your team runs with (Note that the scepter slows when rupture starts, not when the spikes proc)
If they're all stabby and physical stacked, get yourself another warmogs and a guardian angel, skill the force of nature and get some sunfire cloaks, with a chance of thornmail if theres a warrick and you want to be cute.
Really, after the angel you can do what you like, shoot from the hip. Just get fat, and get sassy.
IV: Skills
Fuck scream.
No, you shut up.
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Feast
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Rupture
Feast
Rupture
Blah blah blah
Seriously, Fuck scream. "But Condon! It's soooo much deeeeeeps, and you can get killllzzzzzz and sillllence!" No, fuck you. You are saying this because you are not playing the MFing Cho'Gath. You are playing the girly "Rape me and give me your manseed please" Cho'Gath. If you know how to use rupture, you will do more damage, and cause more urine streaked freak-outs.
The goal is to have them run and scream and fear you all game. The more time they spend running, the less time they spend last hitting while you're running up the lane eating their creep like jumbo shrimp at red lobster. You will be on the front line auto attacking all game, meaning if they stick around long enough to get those last hits in, you have them ruptured and are nailing them with spikes the whole time. This adds up, they cry, and start to run like a motherfucker whenever they see the ground shake.
The fear begins. The healthy, acceptable fear of the MFing Cho'Gath. Scream is fine later, for the silence more than the burst. As I've said, it works well with flash for a ball-clenching turnaround in team battles, but early game it's just draining your sweet sweet rupture mana.
Feast is not a sometimes skill. Until you have 6 stacks, use it whenever the cooldown is up. After that, don't bother waiting for a last hit to use it. Cocky carry? Open with a feast. They will drop a brick when they hit half health, and your team will pounce on them. You don't need the gold, you need your carry to get the gold.
V: Game is being go!
Try for a solo mid. You can accomplish quite a lot here, and quickly establish a healthy sense of "OH MAN FUCK MAN JESUS FUCK ITS THE MFING CHO'GATH." This is a good thing. Let me explain.
There are three possible laning scenarios: You are facing a ranged carry, an ashe or a trist, a veigar or a karthas. This is delicious. They are teeny tiny, and most likely favor mana regen items early game to get their farm on. This is when you scream and gnash and rupture them until they bleed from the arse and run home to mommy. Keep the pressure on, kill all the creep, and push right up to their tower. They will have so much trouble last hitting they will be gimped all game unless they get support.
Protip: Throw ruptures down next to their tower while they are trying to sneak last hits in between tower shots. If they're trying to avoid spikey doom, they aren't making duckets.
Let it be clear: After you get enough for a warmogs, you don't give a shit about duckets. You are the MFing Cho'Gath. If they aren't getting Duckets, you are fine not getting any either. You will still be the MFing Cho'Gath as a poor bastard, and they will still be food unless they can farm.
Now, you have their carry on the run, you're fat and sassy because of your passive and vorpal spikes, and the enemy team has already seen a couple shots of your ugly mug eatinating their precious carry. It's time they sent in the B team.
This, much like the two man scenario, is perfectly okay. You are auto attacking creep, your vorpal spikes aren't drawing hate from their mobs or tower, and you regen like a motherfucker. Until they put three men in that lane against you, you're laughing, because you sir, are the MFing Cho'Gath. Even better, if you manage to eat one of the douchebags you have just advertised to everyone in the game that you are the MFing Cho'Gath, and you will eat who you please. Nothing kills morale like losing a 2v1 fight. From this point on, you are a force to be feared, and they will turn and burn unless they know they can press the advantage, or they are self mutilating feeders.
Scenario two: 2v1
This usually happens when the enemy team can't agree on who should mid, or they have some devious sneaky plan to try to kill your teams carry early on. Either way, you are laughing.
A well played MFing Cho'Gath can hold his own against two men without too much trouble. Just pretend one of them is a more annoying caster minion. Keep one low as you can, and pick on him the whole time. Either his ally will get a god complex and do something stupid, or you will be down to a one man lane soon. In either case, one of your allied lanes has an easy time pushing, and lets those two heroes run around ganking asap.
The only thing to really watch for here is early double stun. You don't want to let them kill you before you get huge, it will make them think they can beat you. We can't have that. You must be the MFing Cho'Gath at all times. They have to prefer self mutilation to attacking you, because you are an unstoppable force of nature fueled by fear and orphans tears. Survive till feast and eat the weak one whole, preferably with flash for effect.
Fear is key here, you don't want them realizing you're just another hero.
Scenario three: Jungling support.
This is quite possibly the best scenario for a MFing Cho'Gath. This means they have two solo lanes, and one in the jungle, probably nunu or warrick.
"But Condon, that means you have to be careful and that they will have three high level characters!" Go back to the home grandma, you don't know shit.
Levels wont help them if they can't generate gold, and you can bet your ass the jungling hero will be bitched at to come mid and shut you down if you're doing it right. Better yet, try to stay lower and play looser than you usually would, provoking gank attempts as often as possible when you have an escape planned. The more time the jungler spends trying to kill you, the less gold/level advantage he gains, and the more he nerfs the center lanes XP in your favor. Even if you get an early death or two, you should more than make up for it with your aoe mob slaughter and the pressure you're putting on mid's gold generation.
VI: Late Game
In either case, when you finally break the tower down and go back to buy your warmogs, its time to make like Charlie and force GI to go home.
Mid-Late game you want to make your presence known all over the map. Jump out of the bushes, whether or not you're going to get a kill, pop up behind people in lanes, generally take advantage of the fact that you are a large, imposing character model with early game kills and a gimped carry to face. Doesn't matter if you're getting duckets or actually accomplishing anything, just make sure you run into team battles and tank towers when needed. Your biggest role is fear-mongering. They can't do much if they're afraid to lane against you. So what if you can't nuke them down, so what if you're just going to turn and burn if they enguage, the mindset is still "Holy shit that's a huge MFing Cho'Gath, we'd be fools to try and assault him without the whole team. Douche force assemble!" Then, if all goes well, they gangfuck you.
"Wait, what? Parle vous sanity? Why would I want to get gangraped?" Don't be stupid Agnes. They take the two minutes to jump your ass, one of two things happens: Your team jumps in and pushes their testes into their throat, or your team eats one of their lanes like you eat creep. Precious time wasted running away from or towards the MFing Cho'Gath can never be returned. You should be fat enough to make a good chase, and with flash it's all the better because you might actually get away.
"So we're pushing them in all lanes, and they live in fear of the Mighty MFing Cho'Gath. What next?" Sit down and listen good, Timmy. By now, you're huge. Like, 5k+ life and a shadow the size of your E-peen huge. You are "walk into the enemy base and eat a tower/inhib unless they chase you" huge. Your team should outgold/exp them by miles at this point because you've done such a good job sewing fear and disrupting enemy farming. You can kick up your feet, autorun pretty much anywhere, and watch your team reap the rewards for your excellent early/mid game MFing Cho'Gathitude.
Congradulations on not being useless.
VII: Questions and answers
If you just lost, examine why.
Did your team take advantage of the huge open lanes and wicked rupture/feast assists you handed them?
A: Yes of course! If Im with friends they know how to play, and if I'm with pugs they are all greedy twats who will praise themselves and pretend it was all them, but I don't care, because I'm the MFing Cho'Gath.
Did you get fat enough to tank a tower all on your lonesome?
A: Indeed I did! I wasn't retarded and outpaced the enemy DPS/mobility so early on that I've got twice their HP.
Did you turn their carry into a snivelling little girly man?
A: He sent me a bill for a therapist, which I promptly ate so he could read it himself, the greedy bastard.
Did you sew so much fear and confusion that all chat turned into screams of pain and cries to various deities?
A: Of course! What little self confidence they had remaining was destroyed by my subtle yet genius taunts, and witty banter. Some of my favorites are "OM NOM NOM" and a smattering of "Immunna eachu" before a gank.
Did you end up in a side lane because of some nearsighted prick?
A: Yes, but I made up for it by absolutely skullfucking the weakest member of that lane, causing infighting and multiple lineup switches that led to even more lost time and sloppy play while my teams carry farmed up seven Bloodthirsters!
If you answered correctly, you didn't lose, your team did. Better luck next time, and if you're lying to yourself, read this guide again as pennace.
VIII: TL;DR Short Version.
Personally I have a lot of success with a really aggressive tanky Cho'Gath. I usually end up playing with at least one or two friends, mind you, so it's obviously better to balance out if you're flying solo.
The basic goal is to get huge, fast, and bring pants shitting fear into the hearts of your opponents. If you can tower dive at 6 for a double kill, people will turn and burn when you show up in their lane, buying your allies valuable farming time, and making sure that even when you're back at base buying items they live in fear.
It's not because you're a ridiculous dps carry, but because you can walk up to them and soak up all the punishment they can deal while your team mates tear them a new asshole.
I like to solo mid with a regrowth pendant to start, alternating between vorpal spikes and rupture until they are maxed out, with the obvious exception of feast. Some argue that scream is better for devastating early kills, but I'm going for fear here. Even if they dodge the rupture, you're still causing them to run around like an idiot while you push them right into their own tower, costing them valuable gold and basically ensuring that whoever you lane against (Usually the carry) is poor and useless by the time your team starts ganking.
You will regen enough hp and mana through creep kills to basically ignore their minor harassment, and keep rupture rolling. The key here is not to bother trying to last hit creep, focus instead of hitting as many as you can with your spikes. This is doubly advantageous because you end up scoring lots of situational creep kills, and you keep any melee or squemish opponents away from your own creep. This is also key when you're at their tower, which should be often, as vorpal spikes don't draw tower hate.
By the time you get feast they should be low on health, mana, and morale. An early feast kill can cripple their self esteem, and cause the whole team to see you as a threat. You may even draw players away from the side lanes early on to "shut you down"
This is good. You want this. As soon as they show up, play it tight. Let them waste time trying to catch you unawares, but keep racking up creep kills. If you can mange to take one of them out, they have just lost all semblance of cohesion, and you can pretty much run down lanes with impunity, as no one will want to take you 1v1 after that.
This is where some people may tell you to run around ganking. Don't bother, unless you spot some easy kills. Farm yourself up 6 feast stacks, even if its just on regular creep in your lane. The goal here is to use the hidden bonus of your ultimate: You get MFin big. Makes you a prime target, and makes the enemy team realize how long you've gone without dying.
After that it's pretty much a free waltz around the block, considering the only thing you really need to be afraid of 1v1 is their carry, which you've either shut down in the lane, or embarrassed when they stopped jungling to meet you in the middle. Don't be cocky, initiate team fights, and make sure you keep your feasts rolling, even the sound late game will cause whoever you laned with to go into shell shock and back off a few paces.
As for items: Fuck AP. I can't stress enough how much I value being a god damned giant over doing some extra feast damage. You are not the Ashe. You are not the Teemo, you are not the Gangplank. You are the motherfucking Cho'Gath, and you can not die.
Regrowth pendant first.
By the time you need to go back again, you should have enough for a warmogs and a boots of swiftness, if not start working on those. (You can go twenty minutes or so without buying items if you last hit well and you can smell a teamfuck coming.) Third, a guardian angel. Nothing says futility like trying to kill a tanky Cho'Gath twice.
After that, size up your opponents. Lots of casters, or and AP carry? Go force of nature and a banshee veil. The actual spell shield may not do much, but the giant blue bubbled cho'gath running towards a caster will make him piddle. All melee or a physical carry? Another warmogs and some sunfire cloaks. Especially if they have a shaco or a twitch to carry them, those douchbags can burn while they try to sneak up for a gank. Mixed team, or you're unsure? Get a sunfire and then rylias. You get a good chunk of health, and the slow effect on scream and rupture, and even feast if you need it (remember, its a nuke, you dont NEED to use it to last hit if you have 6 feast stacks)
Really, after the angel you can take what you want, go with your gut. You shouldn't need mana regen, and offensive items are kind of a waste, but otherwise experiment a little. I've never had a game matter too much past my fifth item.
Last but not least, summoner spells. I can not stress enough how much I love Flash on him. Nothing sends the enemy spiraling into depression like a blink/feast when they think they've gotten away, and its great for juking away from team ganks. You can generally survive long enough to get to a forest wall and get the fuck out of dodge.
Other than that, teleport is always, always solid, otherwise I'd take exhaust for the slow, or rally for pushing. No way you need heal or clarity, if you'd need them, you're pretty fucked anyway.
I: Introduction
To start, there are plenty of different ways to play each hero, and you have to find the right hero/build for your own playstyle. If you play aggresive and with little to no reservation, this is the Cho'Gath for you. This is not A Cho'Gath. This is not "rack up kills and runaway" Cho'Gath. This is not AP Cho'Gath. This is the MFing Cho'Gath. You wont be a carry, and you probably wont even have the best KD. You will however cause the enemy team to shit their pants repeatedly and more likely than not win the game.
II: The Pre-Game
Runes and masteries should, in short, lean towards being as difficult to kill as possible, with cooldown reduction coming secondary, and AP left to the sidelines.
Don't worry too much about it, to be honest, whatever you have set already for a melee character will probably do just fine.
If you're playing the MFing Cho'Gath, it's good to pick out your teams carry and make nicey nice. You have the power to force feed them kills all game. You can fit the MFing Cho'Gath into any team set up, but he really shines when he's the only fat bastard kicking around.
Summoner spells to love:
Teleport: Everyone loves teleport. Mid-Late game you will be running around causing fear and feasting on the lamentations of the enemies women.
Flash: Blink feast? Pants-shitting terror. Blink scream? Turns the tide of a clusterfuck. If you're being chased, run to a long forest wall (you can last long enough, don't worry) and blink over. No one can kill the MFin Cho'Gath.
Ghost: A sometimes skill. The only thing scarier than the MFing Cho'Gath is the MFing Cho'Gath running out of the FoW and coming at you like a fear guided missile.
Exhaust: Another sometimes Skill. Good for early kills and combos well with Rupture, but you'll soon find that Flash is much more versatile.
Summoner spells to avoid:
Ignite: If you're not last hitting, you're not worried about the kill in the first place.
Heal/Clarity: If you arent killing enough creep to keep rupture rolling, or you're low on life, you shouldn't be playing the MFing Cho'Gath. Go back to Ashe.
Clense: You are the Mfing Cho'Gath. You need not cleanse. Just keep running.
III: Gears, lol.
"But Condon! Where is the AP? Where does the sweet deeps come from?!?!?!" you may be asking in a couple paragraphs.
To the first: Don't be a woman. There is no room for fancy sticks and jewlery when you are the MFing Cho'Gath.
To the second: The Cho'Gath, much like the Chuck Norris, kills through sheer bed-wetting terror. He doesn't need to go out of his way to murder people.
First item: Regrowth pendant. This, mixed with your passive, means you can stand on the front line and suck up more harassment and rack up more minion kills than a two man lane all by your lonesome, and keep close enough to harass with vorpal spikes to boot.
Now, you SHOULD be able to stay in lane long enough to rack up a few thousand gold, picking up your boots and Warmogs all in one go. For boots, choose between the swiftness and mercury treads depending on what the other team looks like. Worry more about stuns than slows, as a slow just means they have to chase you longer before your allies come and feed them their teeth.
After that, you really have to size up the competition. If they're casty or AP heavy, pick up a guardian angel first, and a force of nature then fill up on either sunfire cloak or a rylias scepter depending on how much CC your team runs with (Note that the scepter slows when rupture starts, not when the spikes proc)
If they're all stabby and physical stacked, get yourself another warmogs and a guardian angel, skill the force of nature and get some sunfire cloaks, with a chance of thornmail if theres a warrick and you want to be cute.
Really, after the angel you can do what you like, shoot from the hip. Just get fat, and get sassy.
IV: Skills
Fuck scream.
No, you shut up.
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Feast
Vorpal
Rupture
Vorpal
Rupture
Feast
Rupture
Blah blah blah
Seriously, Fuck scream. "But Condon! It's soooo much deeeeeeps, and you can get killllzzzzzz and sillllence!" No, fuck you. You are saying this because you are not playing the MFing Cho'Gath. You are playing the girly "Rape me and give me your manseed please" Cho'Gath. If you know how to use rupture, you will do more damage, and cause more urine streaked freak-outs.
The goal is to have them run and scream and fear you all game. The more time they spend running, the less time they spend last hitting while you're running up the lane eating their creep like jumbo shrimp at red lobster. You will be on the front line auto attacking all game, meaning if they stick around long enough to get those last hits in, you have them ruptured and are nailing them with spikes the whole time. This adds up, they cry, and start to run like a motherfucker whenever they see the ground shake.
The fear begins. The healthy, acceptable fear of the MFing Cho'Gath. Scream is fine later, for the silence more than the burst. As I've said, it works well with flash for a ball-clenching turnaround in team battles, but early game it's just draining your sweet sweet rupture mana.
Feast is not a sometimes skill. Until you have 6 stacks, use it whenever the cooldown is up. After that, don't bother waiting for a last hit to use it. Cocky carry? Open with a feast. They will drop a brick when they hit half health, and your team will pounce on them. You don't need the gold, you need your carry to get the gold.
V: Game is being go!
Try for a solo mid. You can accomplish quite a lot here, and quickly establish a healthy sense of "OH MAN FUCK MAN JESUS FUCK ITS THE MFING CHO'GATH." This is a good thing. Let me explain.
There are three possible laning scenarios: You are facing a ranged carry, an ashe or a trist, a veigar or a karthas. This is delicious. They are teeny tiny, and most likely favor mana regen items early game to get their farm on. This is when you scream and gnash and rupture them until they bleed from the arse and run home to mommy. Keep the pressure on, kill all the creep, and push right up to their tower. They will have so much trouble last hitting they will be gimped all game unless they get support.
Protip: Throw ruptures down next to their tower while they are trying to sneak last hits in between tower shots. If they're trying to avoid spikey doom, they aren't making duckets.
Let it be clear: After you get enough for a warmogs, you don't give a shit about duckets. You are the MFing Cho'Gath. If they aren't getting Duckets, you are fine not getting any either. You will still be the MFing Cho'Gath as a poor bastard, and they will still be food unless they can farm.
Now, you have their carry on the run, you're fat and sassy because of your passive and vorpal spikes, and the enemy team has already seen a couple shots of your ugly mug eatinating their precious carry. It's time they sent in the B team.
This, much like the two man scenario, is perfectly okay. You are auto attacking creep, your vorpal spikes aren't drawing hate from their mobs or tower, and you regen like a motherfucker. Until they put three men in that lane against you, you're laughing, because you sir, are the MFing Cho'Gath. Even better, if you manage to eat one of the douchebags you have just advertised to everyone in the game that you are the MFing Cho'Gath, and you will eat who you please. Nothing kills morale like losing a 2v1 fight. From this point on, you are a force to be feared, and they will turn and burn unless they know they can press the advantage, or they are self mutilating feeders.
Scenario two: 2v1
This usually happens when the enemy team can't agree on who should mid, or they have some devious sneaky plan to try to kill your teams carry early on. Either way, you are laughing.
A well played MFing Cho'Gath can hold his own against two men without too much trouble. Just pretend one of them is a more annoying caster minion. Keep one low as you can, and pick on him the whole time. Either his ally will get a god complex and do something stupid, or you will be down to a one man lane soon. In either case, one of your allied lanes has an easy time pushing, and lets those two heroes run around ganking asap.
The only thing to really watch for here is early double stun. You don't want to let them kill you before you get huge, it will make them think they can beat you. We can't have that. You must be the MFing Cho'Gath at all times. They have to prefer self mutilation to attacking you, because you are an unstoppable force of nature fueled by fear and orphans tears. Survive till feast and eat the weak one whole, preferably with flash for effect.
Fear is key here, you don't want them realizing you're just another hero.
Scenario three: Jungling support.
This is quite possibly the best scenario for a MFing Cho'Gath. This means they have two solo lanes, and one in the jungle, probably nunu or warrick.
"But Condon, that means you have to be careful and that they will have three high level characters!" Go back to the home grandma, you don't know shit.
Levels wont help them if they can't generate gold, and you can bet your ass the jungling hero will be bitched at to come mid and shut you down if you're doing it right. Better yet, try to stay lower and play looser than you usually would, provoking gank attempts as often as possible when you have an escape planned. The more time the jungler spends trying to kill you, the less gold/level advantage he gains, and the more he nerfs the center lanes XP in your favor. Even if you get an early death or two, you should more than make up for it with your aoe mob slaughter and the pressure you're putting on mid's gold generation.
VI: Late Game
In either case, when you finally break the tower down and go back to buy your warmogs, its time to make like Charlie and force GI to go home.
Mid-Late game you want to make your presence known all over the map. Jump out of the bushes, whether or not you're going to get a kill, pop up behind people in lanes, generally take advantage of the fact that you are a large, imposing character model with early game kills and a gimped carry to face. Doesn't matter if you're getting duckets or actually accomplishing anything, just make sure you run into team battles and tank towers when needed. Your biggest role is fear-mongering. They can't do much if they're afraid to lane against you. So what if you can't nuke them down, so what if you're just going to turn and burn if they enguage, the mindset is still "Holy shit that's a huge MFing Cho'Gath, we'd be fools to try and assault him without the whole team. Douche force assemble!" Then, if all goes well, they gangfuck you.
"Wait, what? Parle vous sanity? Why would I want to get gangraped?" Don't be stupid Agnes. They take the two minutes to jump your ass, one of two things happens: Your team jumps in and pushes their testes into their throat, or your team eats one of their lanes like you eat creep. Precious time wasted running away from or towards the MFing Cho'Gath can never be returned. You should be fat enough to make a good chase, and with flash it's all the better because you might actually get away.
"So we're pushing them in all lanes, and they live in fear of the Mighty MFing Cho'Gath. What next?" Sit down and listen good, Timmy. By now, you're huge. Like, 5k+ life and a shadow the size of your E-peen huge. You are "walk into the enemy base and eat a tower/inhib unless they chase you" huge. Your team should outgold/exp them by miles at this point because you've done such a good job sewing fear and disrupting enemy farming. You can kick up your feet, autorun pretty much anywhere, and watch your team reap the rewards for your excellent early/mid game MFing Cho'Gathitude.
Congradulations on not being useless.
VII: Questions and answers
If you just lost, examine why.
Did your team take advantage of the huge open lanes and wicked rupture/feast assists you handed them?
A: Yes of course! If Im with friends they know how to play, and if I'm with pugs they are all greedy twats who will praise themselves and pretend it was all them, but I don't care, because I'm the MFing Cho'Gath.
Did you get fat enough to tank a tower all on your lonesome?
A: Indeed I did! I wasn't retarded and outpaced the enemy DPS/mobility so early on that I've got twice their HP.
Did you turn their carry into a snivelling little girly man?
A: He sent me a bill for a therapist, which I promptly ate so he could read it himself, the greedy bastard.
Did you sew so much fear and confusion that all chat turned into screams of pain and cries to various deities?
A: Of course! What little self confidence they had remaining was destroyed by my subtle yet genius taunts, and witty banter. Some of my favorites are "OM NOM NOM" and a smattering of "Immunna eachu" before a gank.
Did you end up in a side lane because of some nearsighted prick?
A: Yes, but I made up for it by absolutely skullfucking the weakest member of that lane, causing infighting and multiple lineup switches that led to even more lost time and sloppy play while my teams carry farmed up seven Bloodthirsters!
If you answered correctly, you didn't lose, your team did. Better luck next time, and if you're lying to yourself, read this guide again as pennace.
VIII: TL;DR Short Version.
Personally I have a lot of success with a really aggressive tanky Cho'Gath. I usually end up playing with at least one or two friends, mind you, so it's obviously better to balance out if you're flying solo.
The basic goal is to get huge, fast, and bring pants shitting fear into the hearts of your opponents. If you can tower dive at 6 for a double kill, people will turn and burn when you show up in their lane, buying your allies valuable farming time, and making sure that even when you're back at base buying items they live in fear.
It's not because you're a ridiculous dps carry, but because you can walk up to them and soak up all the punishment they can deal while your team mates tear them a new asshole.
I like to solo mid with a regrowth pendant to start, alternating between vorpal spikes and rupture until they are maxed out, with the obvious exception of feast. Some argue that scream is better for devastating early kills, but I'm going for fear here. Even if they dodge the rupture, you're still causing them to run around like an idiot while you push them right into their own tower, costing them valuable gold and basically ensuring that whoever you lane against (Usually the carry) is poor and useless by the time your team starts ganking.
You will regen enough hp and mana through creep kills to basically ignore their minor harassment, and keep rupture rolling. The key here is not to bother trying to last hit creep, focus instead of hitting as many as you can with your spikes. This is doubly advantageous because you end up scoring lots of situational creep kills, and you keep any melee or squemish opponents away from your own creep. This is also key when you're at their tower, which should be often, as vorpal spikes don't draw tower hate.
By the time you get feast they should be low on health, mana, and morale. An early feast kill can cripple their self esteem, and cause the whole team to see you as a threat. You may even draw players away from the side lanes early on to "shut you down"
This is good. You want this. As soon as they show up, play it tight. Let them waste time trying to catch you unawares, but keep racking up creep kills. If you can mange to take one of them out, they have just lost all semblance of cohesion, and you can pretty much run down lanes with impunity, as no one will want to take you 1v1 after that.
This is where some people may tell you to run around ganking. Don't bother, unless you spot some easy kills. Farm yourself up 6 feast stacks, even if its just on regular creep in your lane. The goal here is to use the hidden bonus of your ultimate: You get MFin big. Makes you a prime target, and makes the enemy team realize how long you've gone without dying.
After that it's pretty much a free waltz around the block, considering the only thing you really need to be afraid of 1v1 is their carry, which you've either shut down in the lane, or embarrassed when they stopped jungling to meet you in the middle. Don't be cocky, initiate team fights, and make sure you keep your feasts rolling, even the sound late game will cause whoever you laned with to go into shell shock and back off a few paces.
As for items: Fuck AP. I can't stress enough how much I value being a god damned giant over doing some extra feast damage. You are not the Ashe. You are not the Teemo, you are not the Gangplank. You are the motherfucking Cho'Gath, and you can not die.
Regrowth pendant first.
By the time you need to go back again, you should have enough for a warmogs and a boots of swiftness, if not start working on those. (You can go twenty minutes or so without buying items if you last hit well and you can smell a teamfuck coming.) Third, a guardian angel. Nothing says futility like trying to kill a tanky Cho'Gath twice.
After that, size up your opponents. Lots of casters, or and AP carry? Go force of nature and a banshee veil. The actual spell shield may not do much, but the giant blue bubbled cho'gath running towards a caster will make him piddle. All melee or a physical carry? Another warmogs and some sunfire cloaks. Especially if they have a shaco or a twitch to carry them, those douchbags can burn while they try to sneak up for a gank. Mixed team, or you're unsure? Get a sunfire and then rylias. You get a good chunk of health, and the slow effect on scream and rupture, and even feast if you need it (remember, its a nuke, you dont NEED to use it to last hit if you have 6 feast stacks)
Really, after the angel you can take what you want, go with your gut. You shouldn't need mana regen, and offensive items are kind of a waste, but otherwise experiment a little. I've never had a game matter too much past my fifth item.
Last but not least, summoner spells. I can not stress enough how much I love Flash on him. Nothing sends the enemy spiraling into depression like a blink/feast when they think they've gotten away, and its great for juking away from team ganks. You can generally survive long enough to get to a forest wall and get the fuck out of dodge.
Other than that, teleport is always, always solid, otherwise I'd take exhaust for the slow, or rally for pushing. No way you need heal or clarity, if you'd need them, you're pretty fucked anyway.
