Talk:Kassadin/@comment-152.121.20.251-20130226113952/@comment-37.128.215.240-20130226131932

Personally, I go for Sorc/RoA/RBD/Void/Zohnya's/Archangel  - in no specific order. This will net you the maximum amount of AP (capping at almost 800) while still granting you utility and survivability.

I usually start off with boots, going into a Tear, then finishing up my ROA and the Sorcs Shoes. Those are pretty much the only essential items he needs before building anything else, I'd say.

Archangel is a very good item to have at your service, because the Tear will rid you of your early-game mana problems, and the increased manapool will allow you to enter far more skirmishes, team fights, and farming without risking going out of mana mid-way through. Once it upgrades, the mana-shield will just grant you even more fight-sustain. Furthermore, the passive will net you about 100+ AP once you reach the end-game build.

I'll assume your enemies are slightly competent, because if they are, they'll be building a fair amount of mres - the Void Staff cancels out that mres and allows you to deal substantially more damage against all those who attempt to counter you, or happen to be tanky by nature.

Lich Bane is a very niche item for him, I'd say. You're very unlikely to be allowed to auto attack any champ in an all-out team fight, without risking getting instant-focused and dying horribly. I suggest you play him as a mobile spell-caster, rather than a balls-deep assassin. Building all-out AP will allow you to one-shot most squishies with your abilities alone; The Spellblade proc is rather unnecessary.

Another alternative to consider is Abyssal. It's a must-have if you're up against similar high-burst assassins like LeBlanc and whatnot. Otherwise, I wouldn't go for it, though.

Rylai's is borderline useless. I'd never buy it.

To sum up, the 3 items that are definite must-haves are:

- Sorc. Shoes

- Rod of Ages

- RBD

Items you should consider afterwards are:

- Archangel; very useful for laning and nets you the best late-game AP count (Rush Tear early)

- Zohnya's, to counter ad-assassins and for the activation

- Void Staff, to negate high mres

- Abyssal to counter high magic damage

- Lich Bane, if you feel safe enough to dive enemies

And that's about it, I'd say.