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"Some things must remain buried."

Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice. Because of this, the League of Legends Wiki has decided to retire strategy pages and would recommend using other platforms (such as YouTube) to find guides. For more information visit this thread.

  • This page continues to exist for archive purposes.

Champion Spotlight[]

Recommended Items[]

Summoner's Rift
Starting Doran's Shield item Health Potion item Warding Totem item
Early Boots of Speed item Catalyst of Aeons item Blasting Wand item
Essential Rod of Ages item Frozen Heart item Mercury's Treads item
Defensive Dead Man's Plate item Abyssal Mask item Gargoyle Stoneplate item
Situational Rylai's Crystal Scepter item Rabadon's Deathcap item Banshee's Veil item
Consumables Health Potion item Control Ward item Elixir of Iron item
Summoner's Rift (Jungler)
Starting Hunter's Talisman item Refillable Potion item Warding Totem item
Early Boots of Speed item Stalker's Blade item Bami's Cinder item
Essential Mercury's Treads item Stalker's Blade (Cinderhulk) item Frozen Heart item
Defensive Dead Man's Plate item Abyssal Mask item Gargoyle Stoneplate item
Situational Rylai's Crystal Scepter item Rabadon's Deathcap item Banshee's Veil item
Consumables Health Potion item Control Ward item Elixir of Iron item
Twisted Treeline
Starting Doran's Ring item Health Potion item3 Boots of Speed item
Early Rod of Ages item Glacial Shroud item Mercury's Treads item
Essential Frozen Heart item Rylai's Crystal Scepter item Wooglet's Witchcap item
Defensive Randuin's Omen item Banshee's Veil item Thornmail item
Situational Righteous Glory item Abyssal Mask item Luden's Echo item
Consumables Health Potion item Elixir of Iron item
Twisted Treeline (Jungler)
Starting Hunter's Machete item Hunter's Talisman item Refillable Potion item
Early Stalker's Blade (Cinderhulk) item Glacial Shroud item Boots of Mobility item
Essential Frozen Heart item Rylai's Crystal Scepter item Wooglet's Witchcap item
Defensive Randuin's Omen item Banshee's Veil item Thornmail item
Situational Righteous Glory item Abyssal Mask item Luden's Echo item
Consumables Health Potion item Elixir of Iron item
Howling Abyss
Starting Catalyst of Aeons item Boots of Speed item
Essential Frozen Heart item Rod of Ages item Mercury's Treads item
Offensive Rabadon's Deathcap item Banshee's Veil item Void Staff item
Defensive Dead Man's Plate item Spirit Visage item Abyssal Mask item
Consumables Oracle's Extract item Health Potion item Elixir of Sorcery item

Tips[]

Playing As Cho'Gath Cho'Gath
  • Try to line up your attacks with Vorpal Spikes Vorpal Spikes so that they kill minions and harass enemy champions at the same time.
  • If you're having difficulty Feast Feasting upon champions, try eating minions until you're larger.
  • Using Rupture Rupture on creeps in combination with Carnivore Carnivore is a good way to gain Health and Mana.
Playing Against Cho'Gath Cho'Gath
  • Purchasing a few HP items decreases the chances of Cho'Gath killing you quickly.
  • Focus on preventing Cho'Gath from getting too many stacks getting too many stacks.
  • Rupture Rupture has a smoke cloud indicating the area it will strike. Try to watch out for it to prevent Cho'Gath from being able to combo his abilities.

Tricks[]

Ability Usage
  • While Rupture Rupture has a longer range, Feral Scream Feral Scream is less avoidable and can stop opponents from using movement abilities to dodge Rupture Rupture, especially against melee top lane champions with spammable movement abilities like Riven Riven (who is also vulnerable to the silence due to being combo-reliant).
  • Both Rupture Rupture and Feral Scream Feral Scream can interrupt channeled abilities; with practice and good prediction, they can even interrupt deadly suppression ultimates (Warwick's Warwick's Infinite Duress Infinite Duress, Malzahar's Malzahar's Nether Grasp Nether Grasp) being used on you by casting them right before they use those abilities, because Rupture Rupture and Feral Scream Feral Scream have a brief cast time that can only be stopped by death.
  • Generally Feral Scream Feral Scream is maxed first to increase the silence duration, however this also makes it very mana-heavy. Against toplaners like Nasus Nasus, who is immobile, less reliant on abilities with innate sustain, maxing Rupture Rupture (which does not increase its mana cost; at max rank it does 5 base damage per mana compared to Feral Scream's Feral Scream's 2.5) can be more useful to force him out of lane.
  • While Feast Feast grants a permanent health gain when it kills a champion and a true damage tank-buster, in a team fight it may be more useful to use it first, as it is Cho'Gath's Cho'Gath's only targeted ability. Prime targets are slippery melee assassins such as Zed Zed, Talon Talon or Master Yi Master Yi. The heavy damage would make them reconsider sticking around too much in the thick of battle, and their low health state can often attract your teammates' attention to quickly eliminate the threat. Also, as it is a true damage nuke, it becomes stronger if the enemy team has many magic resistance stacking (Galio Galio) or powerful damage-reducing (Garen Garen, Alistar Alistar) champions that you need to Feast Feast upon frequently.
  • Feast Feast is very useful against jungle monsters even if you are not jungling, as even at level 6 it can deal a massive 1000+ true damage in one hit, allowing you to possibly quickly take Crest of Insight Crest of Insight solo for laning. It should also be used on the Dragon Dragon as it gives a non-minion stack. Note that while it does more damage than Smite Smite (390-1000 damage) especially at lower levels, it has a cast time while Smite is instant.
Rune Usage
  • Cho'Gath Cho'Gath can be played as a tank, a mage, or anything in between.
  • For Sorcery Sorcery, Manaflow Band Manaflow Band helps him with his mana problems. It is another reason to use Feral Scream Feral Scream before Rupture Rupture, due to its higher mana cost (which is negated by the rune).
  • Phase Rush Phase Rush gives him a decent burst of movement speed but it may not be too reliable to hit all his basic abilities in the short window, especially given that both Vorpal Spikes Vorpal Spikes and Feast Feast have essentially melee range, and he has the most difficulty getting into melee range in the first place.
  • Arcane Comet Arcane Comet is good with Rupture Rupture as its knock up prevents his opponent from avoiding it.
  • For Resolve Resolve, Overgrowth Overgrowth synergizes with his health gain from Feast Feast.
  • Demolish Demolish allows Cho'Gath Cho'Gath to destroy towers extremely quickly, especially once sufficient health has been stacked.
  • Second Wind Second Wind helps him with his troubles with poke while Conditioning Conditioning helps you scale better when building armor (which is a must for Tank Cho'Gath).
  • If you feel confident you can also go with Domination Domination: Electrocute Electrocute can help him burst out enemies way easier in all stages of the game, especially for Ap builds and Predator Predator almost always guarantees a succesful roam and gives a lot less time to react than Teleport.
  • Cho'Gath can also see benefits from Legend: Tenacity Legend: Tenacity and Presence of Mind Presence of Mind but since the attack speed from Precision Precision is usually useless it's potential is limited.
    • An interesting combo is to go Domination Domination with Ultimate Hunter Ultimate Hunter along with Presence of Mind Presence of Mind because if you have 30% Cooldown Reduction, you ult somebody right at the beginning of a teamfight (and kill it if it's squishy enough) and help killing other 3 you can ult the last one if at least 28 seconds have passed (25 with 40% CDR). Which is an insane amount of damage no matter your build.
  • An unusual, but useful rune for Cho'Gath Cho'Gath is Glacial Augment Glacial Augment. Well-aimed combos of Rupture Rupture and Feral Scream Feral Scream allow for easy gapclosing to apply the autoattack slow, allowing for improved ganks and chasing, especially when jungling. Additionally, Cho'Gath Cho'Gath benefits greatly from many runes in the Inspiration Inspiration tree. Glacial Augment Glacial Augment also benefits Righteous Glory Righteous Glory's engage potential, creating multiple slowing zones and allowing your team to follow up.
Item Usage
  • Rod of Ages Rod of Ages is often regarded as Cho'Gath's Cho'Gath's core item as it gives him a healthy amount of AP, health and mana (since he is quite mana hungry even with his passive). An early Catalyst of Aeons Catalyst of Aeons can mitigate his mana problems. If going for a pure tank build, Abyssal Mask Abyssal Mask can grant similar mana sustain and increased tankiness at the cost of damage.
  • He can use all the stats on Hextech Protobelt-01 Hextech Protobelt-01 well and its active gives him some mobility that he desperately lacks.
  • Both Rupture Rupture and Vorpal Spikes Vorpal Spikes doubles the Torment damage from Liandry's Torment Liandry's Torment. With the doubled % max health burn, Madness increasing his sustained damage, Vorpal Spikes' Vorpal Spikes' % max health damage, and Feast's Feast's large chunk of true damage, Cho'Gath Cho'Gath can be a deadly tank shredder. Note that Madness does NOT amplify his ultimate damage.
  • When going for a tank build, Gargoyle Stoneplate Gargoyle Stoneplate is an amazing teamfighting item. Because it grants only resistance stats, it is extremely efficient with the health stacking from Feast Feast. Additionally, the bonus health granted by it's active scales Feast Feast's true damage. With enough health, and the buffed active, a single Feast Feast can potentially instantly kill a champion from full health, making Cho'Gath Cho'Gath a deadly threat and forcing the enemy team to focus him or lose a carry.
  • Cho'Gath Cho'Gath is the champion that can build Warmog's Armor Warmog's Armor the soonest since his Ult can give him quickly enough health to get the passive going.
  • If you are ahead and want to build a single Tank Item, Zz'Rot Portal Zz'Rot Portal will give you all the resistances you need, a nice amount of Movement Speed near Turrets and an Active that will splitpush for you.
  • For AP builds Spellbinder Spellbinder can be a suitable replacement for Righteous Glory Righteous Glory if you can't reach enemies.
  • If you are not sure if an AP build is appropriate for the game, going Arcane Comet Arcane Comet and Demolish Demolish secondary while building Rod of Ages Rod of Ages, Banshee's Veil Banshee's Veil, and Zhonya's Zhonya's is a nice balance between ability power and tankiness.
  • Alternatively, Cho'Gath Cho'Gath can abuse his ability to stack health, his autoattack reset with Vorpal Spikes Vorpal Spikes and his high base AD by going for an AD bruiser build. Typically, this build would take items like Trinity Force Trinity Force to take advantage of his high base AD, Titanic Hydra Titanic Hydra to improve his sustained area of effect damage in teamfights along with another autoattack reset, and possibly even Sterak's Gage Sterak's Gage, as it's shield scales off of his bonus health. When abusing such a build, going jungle and building Cinderhulk Cinderhulk can be a great buy, as it amplifies the health gain from all your items and ultimate stacks. The build would generally finish by building tank items that favor magic resistance or armor - however, note that Gargoyle Stoneplate Gargoyle Stoneplate is not recommended for this kind of build, as the active reduces his sustained autoattack damage. Builds like this can put out a surprising amount of burst, especially on squishies, provided Cho'Gath Cho'Gath can close the distance.
Countering
  • Cho'Gath Cho'Gath is one of the few, if not the only champion, commonly regarded as a tank, to entirely lack any sort of mobility, and his large size makes it extra difficult for him to dodge skillshots. Poke champions like Lux Lux or Xerath Xerath can give him a hard time. As he lacks an escape, ganking him often especially pre-6 can leave him crippled.
  • As he generally stacks a lot of health, abilities that deal a percentage of health is very effective against him, such as Vayne's Vayne's Silver Bolts Silver Bolts (and her Tumble Tumble also helps evading Rupture Rupture).
  • Both Rupture Rupture and Feral Scream Feral Scream have noticeable cast times with no travel time. If you cannot outrange him, agile champions such as Master Yi Master Yi or Fizz Fizz can close the gap and engage him at close range.
    • Feral Scream Feral Scream in particular is a conical ability cast from the edge of his hitbox, which means it is very difficult or even impossible for him to hit you with it if you are right on top of him.
  • Feast Feast, while a targeted ability, also has a noticeable cast time; if Cho'Gath Cho'Gath loses sight of you during the animation (e.g. if you walk into brush that he has no sight of), it will not damage you.
  • Cho'Gath Cho'Gath has two abilities that interrupt channels in an area. Avoid using champions who are reliant on channels. Clustering in general is a terrible idea; if Rupture Rupture hits multiple champions, and he would likely follow up with a nearly unavoidable Feral Scream Feral Scream, it would put your team in a huge disadvantage.
  • Do not underestimate the reach of Rupture Rupture, as it does not have a travel time (i.e. it is just as fast at max range).
    • It has a lengthy warning period - he first stomps the ground, then a warning zone appears briefly before the spikes appear. However, if you do not have vision of him, you cannot see the first part and thus the time you can react to it is much more limited. Be wary of him ambushing you from brush, or even from an adjacent jungle path.
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