Talk:Kassadin/@comment-77.236.25.91-20120612170414/@comment-88.186.19.90-20120613083804

Kassa is a hard counter to almost all AP mids, and APs in general, so you'll have a hard time anyway. If you are playing an AP, the best solution is to send someone else mid, probably the AD carry because he can freefarm and really harass the hell out of Kass with AAs alone, but Talon, Olaf, GP, Yi, Wukong and most bruisers either work pretty well or just outright rape him in lane. The person who switches with you doesn't even really need to know the matchup if they are bruiserish enough and don't play stupidly. If you want to counter him while playing AP mid, then play Galio or Zilean; Swain, Ziggs, Fizz and Cassiopea fare pretty well until a turning point (usually level 6).

If you are facing Kassa mid with an AP, you must deny him as much as you can until level 6; denying doesn't necessarily mean pushing, it just means preventing from lasthitting minions. You need to zone Kassa and hit him with a spell/AA everytime he attempts to last-hit; he is melee, so his positioning should be predicatble and you should be able to even land skillshots pretty easily. If Kass makes the mistake of pushing his lane, freeze it near your turret, prevent him from even approaching the wave, and call for ganks. Pre 6, Kassadin has no escapes and measly damage, so if you see an opportunity for a gank, you can take it safely without fearing of dying in a trade. If you get an advantage, press it as hard as you can: trade harasses and force him to retreat as many times as possible, buy a little MR just to piss him off, whatever is necessary as long as he remains underfarmed: an underfarmed Kassa is much less dangerous than another underfarmed AP mid. Most Kassa players rapidly learn to suck it up and grab what gold they can pre-6, so don't be surprised if zoning him doesn't look as effective as it should.

If you don't have a good advantage when he reaches level 6, you are probably screwed; you can't gank him (don't even try), shouldn't be able to (if you can, then great, just play normaly) trade with him and can't prevent him from leaving the lane. Start powerfarming safely without feeding him kills, and everytime he leaves, push your lane as hard as you can. If you can't even farm properly (it happens with champs like Veigar who just become helpless after level 6), consider you lost your lane and do what this man advises: depush wave, gank bot lane, go to base, depush wave, gank top lane, go to base, depush wave, gank bot lane...etc.

Remember to always call SS once Kass has reached level 6.