Talk:Kassadin/@comment-202.45.119.14-20120822010444/@comment-88.186.19.90-20120822224049

Welcome to Kassadin's world, where pre-6 consists of you making a list of the offences the opponent has commited so you can make him pay 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.

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 in that order: Never eat free harass (so either you dodge the spells your you retaliate), stay in lane as long as possible (aim for 1 recall maximum before lvl6), farm as much as you can, 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. Last-hitting with Kassadin is a mixture of mind-game, ballsy attitude, and wimpy play.

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.