Cho'Gath/Strategy

Skill usage

 * allows Cho'Gath to maintain its health and mana, making it a great solo laner. Note, however, that the mana restore is fairly low - it takes about 4 full minion waves to pay for 1 cast of.
 * Killing ghouls or  turrets will proc.
 * can save you from 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 Wraiths with.
 * '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 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 and, provided that you can anticipate when they are going to be used. This is especially powerful against  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, is faster and more efficient.
 * Because of, Cho'Gath is at his most powerful if he can bait the enemy into chasing in a disadvantageous situation or intimate them into fleeing.
 * is a strong AoE damage/silence ability, especially in conjunction with . 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 if possible.
 * Note that if you attempt to fire 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 is a good way to farm minions. Because of the linear-splash damage with each auto-attack, this is good for triggering.
 * and allow  to jungle.
 * It can sometimes be a good idea to toggle off 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  area of effect damage, causing the turret to attack you.
 * If you're having difficulty 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  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  has a base damage of 1000 against minions, regardless of  level).
 * This allows Cho'Gath to kill the Ancient Golem very quickly once he hits level 6. If he manages to secure the blue buff, he would be practically immovable from the lane due to it allowing him to constantly spam.
 * If you want to push your lane faster, it's better to 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 gets  stacks before level 11 or 16, he will be healed for the difference in the bonus health when he levels.
 * A red particle effect will appear underneath champions that will die from.
 * Building as an AP burst mage is reasonably viable because of his high AP scalings, 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, proc Lich Bane and use . However, with the 100% AP scaling on , it would be better for him to use it as often as possible, get a  once in a while, and execute weakened enemies with the aforementioned damage sources.
 * AP has one of the most formidable AoE bursts in the game along with the strong cc applied. However, he is extremely reliant on landing, and  is best used to turn around close-quarter fights when you can't keep your opponent's at arm's reach with.
 * Because does a large amount of true damage, it is good for killing tanks that naturally stacks magic resist, like . Other good targets include champions who are strongest when they are at low health like  or, who can dish out tons of damage and heal themselves for extended periods of time otherwise. It's true damage goes through the  the former often builds, and the red circle indicator helps killing Tryndamere immediately before he can activate.
 * AP is very strong at mid-game farming. This, along with the assists granted from three of his AoE spells and his ultimate that marks targets to execute, make it relatively easy to catch up even if he has a bad early game.
 * can be an extremely effective pusher. Use to kill the 3 melee minions, and  to kill the 3 caster minions, then kill the siege minion with  if necessary.  helps by finishing off multiple minions with small slivers of health remaining. Be wary however, as he is very vulnerable to ambushes deep into enemy territory.
 * has a fairly long range and reveals a large area around it. Use it to check for enemies, but mind the high mana cost early game.

Build usage

 * Buying a along with mana regen masteries allows spamming of  and  without risk of mana starvation, in addition to allowing him to gain health with.
 * Another good starting item is a allowing  to stay in lane along with.
 * An early will grant  an enormous amount of staying power in lane.  provides hefty mana, health, and ability power which scales well with  high base damage.
 * If your team has a tank already, can switch to an offtank ability power build in order to do more damage. Since  already increases  maximum health, he will still be difficult to take down.
 * Buying a will make  very hard to kill if he stacks . Also, 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 already grants a hefty amount of health.
 * Items such as are excellent if you want Ability Power, as they increase resistances as well.
 * Since deals true damage to champions as well as minions, a caster build on  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 early allows more frequent use of his ultimate ability to build  stacks quickly and/or to threaten enemy champions with its high burst damage more often.
 * is not as effective as it may be, as all his basic abilities deal area of effect damage, and his longest-ranged ability,, already includes a knock-up and a large slow. However, as 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.

Skilling
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Countering

 * Try to zone when he is low on health/mana from getting last hits, to prevent effective use of . 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  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.
 * 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 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 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.
 * has a fairly long range, but abilities like, or  out-ranges it and may be used to effectively harass him.
 * Due to its delay, mobile champions like and  would also help against him.
 * in particular, as his 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.
 * could match him in sustain, his will zone him better than he could do in return, and also has the mobility with.
 * 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.
 * Build magic resistance to mitigate his damage, but know that deals true damage, not magic damage, and building health helps against true damage.
 * Also note that practically all of his abilities deal magic damage, and that his autoattacks are most greatly augmented from the bonus magic damage that provides. Items such as  or  can greatly negate his ability to fight you one-on-one.  will also make it difficult for him to initiate on you.

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Cho'Gath/Strategy