Cho'Gath/Strategy

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Skill Usage

• Carnivore allows Cho'Gath to maintain his health and mana, making him a great solo laner. Note, however, that the mana restored is fairly low - it takes about 4 full minion waves to pay for 1 cast of Rupture.
  • Killing Yorick's' ghouls or Heimerdinger's' turrets will proc Carnivore.
  • Carnivore can save you from Ignite if there are enemy minions at low health nearby, even with the healing reduction effect. If you have enough AP, ignited and probably nothing to lose, you might try killing lesser jungle monsters with Rupture.
• Rupture's powerful disruption and the fact that none of Cho'Gath's skills have reduced cooldowns as they are leveled makes cooldown reduction very valuable. Place Rupture in the path of any moving enemies, as it is a delayed ability.
  • Its delayed nature and the hard CC can be used to your advantage as it can interrupt otherwise deadly suppression ultimates like Infinite Duress and Nether Grasp, provided that you can anticipate when they are going to be used. This is especially powerful against Infinite Duress as it is a common gank initiator and is more predictable, so you can interrupt it by casting Rupture under yourself.
  • Remember however, that when saving a teammate instead of yourself, Feral Scream is faster and more efficient.
  • Feral Scream also has a short cast time that is only interruptable by death. This means it is possible to cast it, get suppressed and immediately breaks the suppression by the silence in a short time window. This is somewhat easier than it sounds, since casting Feral Scream will cause you to briefly stop moving, often allowing your opponent to come into range for their suppression.
• Because of Rupture, Cho'Gath is at his most powerful if he can bait the enemy into chasing in a disadvantageous situation or intimidate them into fleeing.
• Feral Scream is a strong AoE damage/silence ability, especially in conjunction with Rupture. Due to his basic attacks being melee, you can first use Rupture to knock up your target, then close the gap sufficiently within the time to silence them with Feral Scream, preventing effective escaping or retaliation. Due to the strong slow applied by Rupture, it is unlikely they will be out of melee range before the silence expires, allowing you to finish them off with Feast if possible.
• Note that if you attempt to fire Feral Scream in the opposite direction of your movement, it would often be launched in the wrong angle and become counterproductive.
• Getting at least one rank of Vorpal Spikes is a good way to farm minions. Because of the linear-splash damage with each auto-attack, this is good for triggering Carnivore. This can also deal some damage to enemy champions standing behind minions without drawing minion aggro or spending mana, as well as poking down Yasuo's shield before engaging.
• Both Rupture and Feral Scream will go through Wind Wall. Ironically, Rupture also makes Cho'Gath a strong ally for Yasuo due to the frequent and decent sized knock up.
• Vorpal Spikes and Carnivore allows Cho'Gath to jungle. Cho'Gath's farming ability increases at level 6 as Feast deals a large amount of true damage to monsters. However, he is generally a very poor duelist especially when ambushed.
• It can sometimes be a good idea to toggle off Vorpal Spikes to prevent yourself from pushing the lane too far and thereby opening yourself up to ganks. If you don't toggle it off when attacking a turret, an enemy champion can stand near the tower where you will hit them due to Vorpal Spikes' area of effect damage, causing the turret to attack you. On the other hand, the increased damage would often make last hitting easier (as well as possibly doing some damage to enemy champions behind minions).
• If you're having difficulty Feasting upon champions, try eating minions until you're larger, as the true damage you deal exceeds the health of most minions. It is advisable to gain 6 stacks first by Feasting on minions and using it to last hit enemy champions that are too close, since the damage to minions is significantly larger (particularly in early-mid game, since Feast has a base damage of 1000 against minions, regardless of Feast's level).
  • This allows Cho'Gath to kill the Blue Sentinel very quickly once he hits level 6. If he manages to secure the blue buff, he can be practically immovable from the lane, as it allows him to constantly spam Rupture.
  • Since the Rift Scuttler spawns with 800 health, Feast can instantly kill it without having to chase it all the way down the river like most other champions.
  • If you want to push your lane faster, it's better to Feast a Siege Minion for an instant minion kill since they're harder for your smaller minions to kill. However, note that as minions gain health over time. If you have 0 ability power, their maximum health would become higher than 1000 after 12 minutes into the game, preventing you from gaining a Feast stack.
• If Cho'Gath gets Feast stacks before level 11 or 16, he will be healed for the difference in the bonus health when he levels Feast.
• A red particle effect will appear underneath champions that will die from Feast.
• Building Cho'Gath as an AP burst mage is reasonably viable because of his high AP scaling, and a true damage ultimate that could easy hit over 1200 on any target with sufficient AP. His main weakness is he must go into melee range to unload Vorpal Spikes, proc Lich Bane and use Feast. However, with the 100% AP scaling on Rupture, it would be better for him to use it as often as possible, get a Feral Scream once in a while, and execute weakened enemies with the aforementioned damage sources.
• AP Cho'Gath has one of the most formidable AoE bursts in the game along with the strong cc applied. However, he is extremely reliant on landing Rupture, and Feast is best used to turn around close-quarter fights when you can't keep your opponent's at arm's reach with Rupture.
• Because Feast does a large amount of true damage, it is good for killing tanks that are stacking magic resist, like Galio. Other good targets include champions who are strongest when they are at low health like Olaf or Tryndamere, who can dish out tons of damage and heal themselves for extended periods of time otherwise. Its true damage goes through the Spirit Visage the former often builds, and the red circle indicator helps killing Tryndamere immediately before he can activate Undying Rage.
  • It's also an excellent counter to champions with abilities that temporarily give them high defences, such as Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser, Crescent Sweep, and Grandmaster's Might
  • The true damage and health gain of Feast along with the continuous damage of Vorpal Spikes allows AP Cho'Gath to fare reasonably well against tanks in general.
• Cho'Gath can be an extremely effective pusher. Use Rupture to kill the 3 melee minions, and Feral Scream to kill the 3 caster minions, then kill the siege minion with Feast if necessary. Vorpal Spikes helps by finishing off multiple minions with small slivers of health remaining. Nashor's Tooth is helpful for taking turrets down faster. Be wary however, as he is very vulnerable to ambushes deep into enemy territory.
• Cho'Gath synergizes well with a CC-heavy team; while he has respectable CC, landing them without any help or the element of surprise is quite often difficult. If his team can lock down the enemy team for just a short while, or even draw them in with the likes of Apprehend, Cho'Gath could lay down even more CC much easier and inflict heavy AoE damage in an AP build.
• Whether you should level Rupture or Feral Scream first depends on the situation. Feral Scream gains increased silence duration as it is levelled up, but it also increases the mana cost, which can be detrimental to his mana pool due to his already exorbitant costs. Rupture on the other hand has a longer range as well as both higher base and scaling damage, but has a long cast time. It may boil down to whether you can land Rupture consistently and how badly the silence affects your opponent's ability to retaliate. For example, against Nasus, who has good sustain but no mobility and tends to have a more predictable farming pattern with mediocre range and damage on his abilities, Rupture would be favorable. Against Katarina, who can easily dodge Rupture with Shunpo but has no sustain and is far more reliant on her abilities to deal damage, Feral Scream might be a better choice.
• Since Vorpal Spikes damages all targets within 500 range, it can finish off champions with very little health remaining that you are unable to reach when you other abilities are on cooldown if you hit a nearby minion.

Item Usage

• Cho'Gath has 2 potential builds: tank and AP. Both make use of the massive amount of natural tankyness provided by Feast
  • Tank builds focus on stacking resistances, as Cho'Gath already gains a lot of HP with Feast. You can also build more HP items that give resistances, making Cho'Gath a durable powerhouse that is incredibly difficult to take down, especially due to his powerful CC. Cho'Gath still has decent damage with a tank build, thanks to his high base damage and true damage with his ultimate.
  • AP builds take advantage of the fact that Cho'Gath already has natural tankyness with Feast, allowing him to focus on AP. Although much easier to kill during teamfights, Cho'Gath's tankyness should not be understimated, even if he decides to build full AP. Also, with a full AP builds, his spells have insane amounts of damage, allowing Cho'Gath to one shot any champion that is not a bruiser or tank.
  • Alternatively, Cho'Gath can focus on a mix between tankyness and damage.
• Regardless of whether Cho'Gath decides to focus on damage or tankyness, Rod of Ages is a must. It gives all stats that Cho'Gath needs, with its health having synergy with Feast, while the AP allows Cho'Gath to do more damage overall. The mana also solves Cho'Gath's mana problems, as his spells cost very high amounts of mana and without this item, Cho'Gath is very likely to quickly be OOM.
• Buying a Doran's Ring along with mana regen masteries allows spamming of Rupture and Feral Scream without risk of mana starvation, in addition to allowing him to gain health with Carnivore.
• An early Catalyst the Protector will grant Cho'Gath an enormous amount of staying power in lane. Rod of Ages provides hefty mana, health, and ability power which scales well with Cho'Gath's high base damage.
• If your team has a tank already, Cho'Gath can switch to an off tank ability power build in order to do more damage. Since Feast already increases Cho'Gath's maximum health, he will still be difficult to take down.
• Buying a Guardian Angel will make Cho'Gath very hard to kill if he stacks Feast. Also, Cho'Gath's Rupture knock-up and slow will help you run after being revived.
• Getting damage mitigation (Armor and Magic resistance) instead of Health is a good idea, since Feast already grants a hefty amount of health.
  • Items such as Abyssal Scepter are excellent if you want Ability Power, as they increase resistances as well.
    • However, Rupture's range is noticeably longer than the Scepter.
• Since Cho'Gath's Feast deals true damage to champions as well as minions, a caster build on Cho'Gath can allow him to deal extreme damage to single targets and can easily execute unaware enemies especially late-game with his high amounts of AP.
  • Investing in cooldown reduction items such as Glacial Shroud (or Fiendish Codex in an AP build) early allows more frequent use of his ultimate ability to build Feast stacks quickly and/or to threaten enemy champions with its high burst damage more often.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter is not as effective as it may be, as all his basic abilities deal area of effect damage, and his longest-ranged ability, Rupture, already includes a knock-up and a large slow. However, as Vorpal Spikes is added to all his basic attacks, it could force his opponents to use their movement abilities to get out of his melee range only to be caught up by Rupture.
• Although Cho'Gath's cooldowns are somewhat high, he makes very good use of Iceborn Gauntlet due to having the highest base attack damage on the entire game. The slow will allow him to stick to this enemies easier, and Cho'Gath also makes good use of every stat Iceborn Gauntlet offers.
  • Keep in mind that toggling Vorpal Spikes will NOT activate Spellblade.
  • Lich Bane is arguably a better option than Iceborn Gauntlet on builds that focus more an AP than tankiness. Keep in mind that Lich Bane lacks both the slow and the armor from Iceborn Gauntlet; but it will do a lot more damage and will benefit from Cho'Gath's magic penetration.
• Although Feast deals true damage, Cho'Gath still benefits from building magic penetration, since his basic spells still do magic damage. Thus, items like Sorcerer's Shoes and Void Staff are good options for him.
• Attack speed items can be used, because they allow Cho'Gath to activate Vorpal Spikes a lot more times.
  • Wit's End is the best option for a tanky build, since it adds even more on-hit magic damage, and by reducing the enemy's magic resistance, Vorpal Spikes (as well as Cho'Gath's other abilities except Feast) will do more damage.
  • If you are using an AP-based build, Nashor's Tooth may be a better option.
  • However, relying on Vorpal Spikes for damage may not be the best idea, since it forces Cho'Gath to always be in melee range, and he has difficulties sticking to enemy champions, especially if he can't consistently land Rupture. This can be solved by building a Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Recommended Items

Countering

• Try to zone Cho'Gath when he is low on health/mana from getting last hits, to prevent effective use of Carnivore. It may force him to push the lane because all his ranged attacks deal area of effect damage. However, if left alone he would quickly heal up. This, combined with his low mobility, encourages you to call for a gank and commit to killing him instead of harassment. Turret-diving him may be ill-advised, as the powerful CC from Rupture will prove deadly especially in early game.
  • Try not to stand close to minions at low health as it would allow him to simultaneously last hit, heal and harass you.
• If Cho'Gath is going AP, try to shut him down in early-mid game, and gank as much as possible. He is very strong at mid-game farming with a few AP items, and the assists granted from three of his AoE spells along with his ultimate that marks targets to execute, make it relatively easy to catch up even if he has a bad early game.
• Remember to keep a distance from each other especially when ganking Cho'Gath, otherwise it is asking for him to AoE CC and turn the gank on you.
  • AP Cho'Gath is one of the very few champions in mid game that could push faster than minions can move. Ganking him often would make him wary of ambushes and relive a lot of your lane pressure in mid-late game. Try to ambush him right after he uses Rupture for maximum chance of success.
  • Even super minions would have a hard time slowing him down, as his ultimate does increased damage against minions and has a short cooldown. Unlike most mages, he also has strong passive sustain when pushing thanks to Carnivore.
• Rupture is Cho'Gath's strongest non-ultimate ability, and it is critical to avoid it by watching for its animation. Before the spikes and the smoke appear, Cho'Gath stomps his foot on the ground. While Cho'Gath lacks any conventional gap closers and escapes, Rupture's knock up and slow is more than enough for him to catch up or run away.
  • There is also a red/purple circle around Rupture making it easier to spot and avoid.
  • Due to his poor mobility, Cho'Gath is very vulnerable to kiting as long as you avoid Rupture, which also has a fairly punishing mana cost. However, during mid/late game team fights, avoiding it becomes much harder, making Cho'Gath a very dangerous AoE threat if you cluster around his team's initiator.
  • Try to move towards him when he uses Rupture, as he tends to target slightly behind you, and barely escaping a Rupture can lure him into a bad position.
• Rupture has a fairly long range, but abilities like Bouncing Bomb or Wild Cards out-ranges it and may be used to effectively harass him.
  • Note however, Bouncing Bomb doesn't always go through minions; Wild Cards may not do enough damage to counter his passive, and is fairly easy to dodge.
  • All of Lux's abilities out-ranges it and Prismatic Barrier allows her to shrug off most of his harass; just be careful not to be silenced.
  • Master Yi in particular, has his Highlander which allows him to ignore Rupture's slow, given that it could even hit him with his incredible speed. As Cho'Gath grows, it is increasingly difficult to correctly aim his abilities at small-sized melee champions that can whittle him down. Due to his lack of long-ranged targeted abilities, un-targetable abilities like Alpha Strike or Blade Waltz generally give him fits.
  • Fizz has both un-targetable effects and the mobility with Playful.
  • Vladimir could match him in sustain. Also, thanks to Crimson Pact, Vladimir gains HP from building AP. This mitigates Cho'Gath's damage, especially his Feast. During late game trades, Vladimir will win thanks to his spellvamp and low cooldowns. Cho'Gath will be unable to burst down Vladimir; the only chance that Cho'Gath has is to win during early game. In fact, Cho'Gath is very good against Vlad early game, as Vladimir does not have sufficient sustain and his cooldowns are very long, and he is squishy. His chance to win against Cho'Gath is mid/late game.
    • Sanguine Pool can be used to dodge Rupture, but it is not recommended to use it very often, as it costs a lot of health. Most of time you should try to dodge it by sidestepping. This can be hard to do with Vladimir's low base movement speed, unless you use movement speed quintessences.
• Save your channeled spells until he uses his two CC spells. However, at max cooldown reduction Rupture's cooldown is only 5.4 seconds, and a Cho'Gath alternating between the two would be very difficult to channel against.
• Always try to bait Rupture before going for the offensive; as Feral Scream is a conic skillshot, abilities that transport you behind him such as Shunpo or Cutthroat can be very effective. Coincidentally, both of the mentioned abilities have a range of 700, same as Feral Scream, meaning that he shouldn't be able to prevent you from using it with his silence.
• Be wary of chasing a weakened champion into brush when Cho'Gath is around. It will make it much easier for him to land Rupture and the rest of his combo on your entire team, as well as negating his lack of a gap closer to kill you with Feast.
• Despite the fact that Feast deals true damage (and thus only building health counters it), the rest of Cho'Gath's kit is only magic damage. Also, most players do not buy Void Staff for Cho'Gath, making magic resistance a very effective option against him. Remember that most magic resistance items offer health too, thus they are still effective in countering Feast.
  • Note that his autoattack are most greatly augmented from the bonus magic damage that Vorpal Spikes provides. Items such as Spirit Visage or Warmog's Armor can greatly negate his ability to fight you one-on-one. Banshee's Veil will also make it difficult for him to initiate on you.
  • Two common anti-mage AD items both have reduced effectiveness against AP Cho'Gath. The active on Mercurial Scimitar has no effect on Rupture's knockup, the shield on Maw of Malmortius has no effect against the true damage from Feast, and it also ignores the magic resist granted by both items.

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