Talk:Kassadin/@comment-202.152.85.141-20120731033407/@comment-88.186.19.90-20120801062312

Welcome to Kassadin's world, where pre-6 consists of you making a list of offences the opponent has commited so you can make him play tenfold once you get riftwalk. As you start out you'll really suffer with Kass, you'll be so far behind you'll be completely useless and knowing the community flaming might go your way. It doesn't matter, keep practicing and over the course of 15 games or so you'll get a good notion of when you should go-in for the last hit, when you should silence, when you should use Q to last-hit, when you should back etc... Those are things we can't really teach you, you have to get the knack by yourself.

I'll say it straight away: never use clarity. Ever. Unless you are playing a specific comp, designed for a specific strategy, NEVER take it; learn to manage you mana, if you want to spam, ward enemy blue buff and steal it with your jungler. If you want something unusual, take Clairvoyance, at least you can scout for your team. Cleanse is a very good idea on Kassadin, because stuns usually mean your death; Flash is never bad, though it is slightly redundant with your Riftwalk; Ignite is also a secure choice; teleport is also a possibility, Surge synergises well with your kit, but I don't use it personnaly. Ghost isn't though, because you don't really need a sustained boost of speed. I run Cleanse+Teleport, but if you don't like it stick with Flash+Ignite, and as you get more experience replace Flash with Cleanse.

If you are starting out, build him like so: boots+3 pots, catalyst, sorc boots, RoA, Rabadon, Zhonia/Rylai, Lich's Bane, freeform. I personally build him boots, Tear of the Goddess, finish sorc boots, AA staff, Rabadon, Zhonia, Nashor's, Lich's Bane; but that build is squishy, not really optimised, and doesn't leave room for error. Remember to adapt your build if necessary: go for an abyssal if you can't tank the magic damage, build Rylai, earlier if you need to be tanky, etc.... Many different build work, fosued around many different things(mana, CDR, tanky DPS, sustain, etc..), but Kassadin MUST build AP to be useful in all cases)

Pre 6, try to focus on achieving the following objectives: Never eat free harass, farm as much as you can, stay in lane as long as possible (aim for 1 recall maximum), don't feed kills to your opponent. XP is more important than gold: as long as both you and your opponent are at equal farm even if it's 2 CS, you'll win the lane. Drag the opponent into 1 spells mud-fights, with your superior mana sustain and resistance boost, you'll be able to stay on par.

At level 1, use your Q to retaliate against an opponent: every time they cast a spell at you, cast yours; push the lane by autoattacking as much as you can and try not to miss any last-hit. At level 2, I suggest putting a point in W: it will give you a very nice mana regen boost that will almost allow you to spam Q everytime it's on cooldown. The lane should be pushed to the opponent's tower (or close to it), continue last-hitting to the best of your ability. The status-quo is now broken: your opponent clearly has the advantage if you both duke it out, so force a harass battle. Everytime you don't need Q to last-hit a minion, use it on the opponent. If Q is unavailable and they chase to hit you with their spell, flee like a pussy until your cooldowns resets: they'll loose last-hit too and your health bars will remain identical. At level 3, take a point in E. Your opponent should have a definite superior pushing power and damage by now. Continue to focus on last-hits and try to freeze the lane near your tower. Keep your E to depush if the wave is becoming too big and threatening to reach your tower or to give an extra "oomph" when you trade damage. You should start having the ability to harass without retaliation if you cast Q+E and run, so if the lane resets, jump on the occasion and QE double-tap the opponent before minions arrive. Level 3 is the where junglers usually gank, so don't be scared to let your lane be pushed so they can gank, even if it reaches the tower; because the active on W allows you to farm much better than most APs under the tower. At level 4-5, put a point in Q, then. It's the same deal as with level 3, but worse because they hit harder and you don't. Beware of ganks, recall if you are low-life, continue farming and trading spells one at at time, but don't hesistate to use Q and E to last-hit instead of harassing. With your W, you should be able to outsustain the opponent in mana if you cast enough Qs at him. Keep your lane pushed to your side even if it means you loose a couple last-hits.

Once you reach level 6, your combo is as follow: ult to close the gap between you and your opponent, Q+E, flee like a pussy back to the minion wave to last-hit. If you are confident, riftwalk on them rather than to close the gap; if you feel uneasy, walk into range and use riftwalk as an escape tool. Repeat that pattern every time your spells are up and E has the necessary charges. Use W to charge up your E, it costs next to nothing. The more confident you are, the more Qs you can throw in between combos. If you want to autoattack, then autoattack ONCE before fleeing, and ONLY if you riftwalk on them: you are so squishy that you'll die if you tank their burst. Kassadin is a DPB champion: Damage Per Burst whose strength relies on the fact that the opponent can't retaliate with equal damage and can't avoid the damage. Autoattack the minions as much as possible to regain your mana and to push the wave as much as possible. If the opponent is low life after a combo, feel free to activate W and to autoattack to secure the kill. After your 3rd combo, you should be full life, mid-mana and your opponnent will be forced to retreat; push the lane as much as you can and to gank top or bot lane (or farm some more if top and bot lanes are pushed). GG you just managed to survive the first 6 levels, proceed to dominate the game.

If you are behind, do what every AP mid does: build damage exclusively, push your lane to the tower, gank top, recall, depush mid (that will probably have been pushed by the opponent), gank bot, recall, depush mid, gank top, recall... as long as you don't loose your mid tower it will help your team. Your jungler will also thank you for it because he'll be able to farm your lane from time to time. If the lanes are warded, ninja gank, if you can't ninja gank, buy a pin ward and de-ward a lane to put pressure on them.

Other rules of playing Kassadin: 1. NEVER stack riftwalks on purpose, don't spam it either unless in an emergency/necessity. The mana-to-damage ratio is absolutely horrendous anyway. When ganking, use it to bypass wards, not to get to the lane faster 2. NEVER get more than 3 stacks on riftwalk unless it's to secure a kill or to flee. Wait for the 7 seconds. 3 stacked riftwalks cost a total of 600 mana, that's the equivalent of 6 riftwalks without stacks, and your mana pool probably doesn't allow you to cast a 4th one if you ever get caught. Don't do it 3. NEVER autoattack a champion unless you know you can secure the kill/the opponent will flee. You are as squishy as Leblanc; if you are at melee range, the opponent isn't silenced and you don't have riftwalk up, you are dead. Period.

In teamfights, you do the same thing as you do in lane, except that you wait on the sidelines until both teams have initiated, then you burst either the AD or AP carry, retreat behind the tank and bruiser, then autoattack someone that isn't targetting you while spamming E everytime it's charged. If someone is low-life and fleeing, run after them and finish them off.