Kassadin/Strategy

Skill usage

 * Against enemy mages, is an effective harassment tool that is unblockable by creep waves.
 * is expensive at its first tier. Its mana cost is lower per level in terms of damage dealt as points are spent on it; level it if you intend to use it for poking enemy laners.
 * and can be used dually for quick and efficient farming.
 * ’s passive ability restores mana outside of combat with every autoattack and the restoration triples for autoattacks against champions.
 * A risky way to deal a lot of burst damage to enemies is to constantly cast at the summoner pool. This will stack the damage on  while the summoner pool regenerates your mana. Using this method with summoner spell  can inflict devastating damage.
 * is fairly easy to kill if he can't away. When engaging the enemy, consider whether it'd be better to  in, cast your spells, and walk out, or to walk in, cast your spells, and  out.
 * You shouldn't in unless you are certain you can either kill your opponent or that they won't retaliate much. Casters will usually not be able to react quickly enough before the  lands, but AD dps are normally unaffected by your silence.
 * into a team fight will probably draw attention to you, something you want to avoid. As such, walking into a team fight and teleporting out can help you avoid retaliation.
 * Unless it is urgent, when traveling with wait until your last  counter has expired before using it again as  can deplete your mana very quickly.
 * is great for laning with or against champions with spammable spells such as and  as it ensures that  is always charged.
 * lanes extremely well with for multiple reasons:
 * is a spammable skill and can easily charge your.
 * , at full rank, can easily restore your mana even with the stacks of . It can also be used to silence your opponent after the silence from expires.
 * is a melee mage champion. In other words, he needs to get into melee range to deal damage. The bonus armor and heal from can help  greatly.
 * abilities have high ability power ratios and low cooldowns, so a high amount of AP enables him to deal immense damage in short time intervals.
 * The, , and combo is especially powerful against casters, as it silences and heavily damages them before they can react to it. Make sure you have at least 4 charges in  before doing this combo, as  and  will let you gain the remaining 2 charges needed to cast it. (alternatively you can perform this combo with 3 stacks provided you activate )
 * can be used to jump over walls, and essentially acts like the summoner spell Flash.
 * On Twisted Treeline, you can from the wall behind your nexus to the nearby Shadow Altar or vice-versa. This is extremely useful if you need to escape after locking an altar.
 * As an assassin, excels at ganking. Also, he is best at focusing alone or weak targets, or even targets like casters or low-MR enemies. With all of this in mind,  performs best entering in-progress team fights, either slaying a carry quickly and jumping out or moving in once an enemy carry has been slain and the enemy team is beginning to disperse or retreat, to pick off injured champions.

Build Usage

 * can be built as a high-mobility mage or as an ambush assassin, and his prime statistics are ability power and mana (as both his damage and  mana restore scale in mana).
 * In a similar vein like, can be effectively built tanky since most mana items often grant defensive stats like health and armor.  In fact, it's actually beneficial to build a bit tanky on Kassadin with a mixture of defensive items that grant mana and AP since he needs to get close to eliminate enemies.
 * A is a good item to build on  thanks to the large amount of mana the item gives, the cooldown reduction, and the high armor.  It also allows  for more offensive plays and the attack speed grants him strong teamfight potential when he gets into range.
 * Since building AP and having high AD, along with gap closers and short cooldowns, is especially usefully in most offensive builds. It also provides him with more movement speed and mana with his bonus damage.
 * If the team lacks any strong crowd control, it's also a good idea to build an, as this item provides mana, cooldown reduction, and defensive stats. In addition,  can apply a powerful slow with an autoattack after using  or.
 * With his passive and active, it is possible to build  as Magical DPS, though due to the rarity of the build and lack of proper testing, the effectiveness of this build is questionable.
 * If attempting such a build, or, along with  and high AP is a near must; while not neglecting some (other) form of defense.
 * Considering 's high base AD and AS at lv. 18 this build is quite possible.
 * can help deal with his high mana costs.
 * While / seems to be an interesting item to build, the passive will only proc from his autoattacks and and does not proc from his other abilities (in addition, it only does physical damage), thus making this item a more gimmicky offensive for AD or hybrid builds on . An  is a better option since it not only provides ability power scaled based on mana, but he also gain a defensive shield that expends a percentage of mana once it's upgraded to a, which synergizes well with .  However, like , it doesn't hurt to build two  for both items at the expense of building both Tears longer.
 * A and/or  gives  the survivability he needs when using  to a group of enemies. It also gives him some ability power to help him deal more damage.
 * When built as an Anti-Mage with magic resistance, a is a must.
 * Getting the increases mana regen greatly. The magic resistance is also a nice plus, considering his passive and his anti-squishy role.
 * and /or together with  and/or  will let you escape even the deadliest ganks.
 * A and/or a  are essential for damage as you progress into the late game
 * When playing as an anti-mage, is an excellent choice as, despite his ranged abilities, Kassadin is a melee Champion.
 * can be used to bait enemies into wasting valuable spells on after using  to enter a fight. It is also an excellent item against strong counters like  and . Even anti-mage or assassin Kass needs armor due to the close range he has to get to deal some of his damage.

Countering

 * is a fearsome anti-mage due to his passive, and his . Since he specializes in counter AP-champions, an AD mid is a good counter in laning phase.
 * mostly deals magic damage; therefore, stacking magic resistance will mitigate his damage.
 * Buying magic penetration to face is not recommended, as his passive doesn't give him magic resistance; the way  works is by reducing 15% of the Magic Damage taken after applying resistances, so magic penetration will only affect him partially.
 * can only be activated if he has enough stacks. Engaging him when he has no stacks can help kill him faster.
 * In the laning phase, especially on a solo lane, it can be very hard for to keep stacks on his, so casting spells sparingly can greatly reduce his damage output. Manually detonating a two-part spell such as  or  adds an extra charge to , so it may be beneficial to let these spells expire on their own.
 * has trouble killing minions waves quickly in the early game, as is not always available, leaving him with only melee attacks and the long-cooldown . Playing a champion with strong AoE spells can allow you to push your minions to 's turret, which will force him to either lose gold income when the turret kills your minions, or stay in melee range of your minions, leaving him vulnerable to your ranged spells and attacks from outside the turret's range.
 * can deal well with 's spells due to his naturally high magic resistance, wave clear potential, and the shield provided by . The AoE provided by and  can farm minions quickly and deny 's roam, risking to lose a turret if he leaves the lane.
 * Predicting movement can be greatly effective in countering him, as his harass combo involves mostly  into range, and dropping a.
 * Such example could be, by casting and  at the correct position and timing, you can instead damage and stun  during his attempt to harass you.
 * The travel time of is noticeably slow - if you have your own crowd control that can be cast onto Kassadin before it lands and after he uses  to approach you, you can punish him and favourably trade.
 * As a melee assassin, must close the gap to begin fighting, and, more importantly, must initiate the fight to do all of his practical damage. With this in mind, being able to close in before he can  or even applying your crowd control first will considerably buff your chances of slaying or at least defeating him.
 * Do not use to get away from  because of his  can still be used to teleport to a new area. Because of the mobility offered by, chasing  is not always a viable choice.
 * is known for dominating Kassadin early game due to his constant pressure and killing potential. Also,  can be utilized to lock down  and assist ganks from the jungler.
 * can use his form to harass and bully  out of lane early. Most ranged AD champions can pose huge threat for  as  only protects from magic damage.
 * While unconventional, facing a 2v1 lane can be extremely detrimental to, especially if he goes for the +  build path focused on late game.