League of Legends - ChoGath Guide

ChoGath is a tanky caster champion with good team utility. ChoGath packs a silence, a knock-up disable and a strong single target true damage nuke. He also has a unique ultimate that makes him grow in size as he feasts on enemy minions or champions.

This ChoGath guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing ChoGath, it is recommended for people just starting to use ChoGath.

Abilities

• 
  Carnivore (Passive) ChoGath's passive is a great laning ability, allowing him to dominate a lane (particular a solo top lane), it can also be used to jungle. While the health and mana regeneration may seem small if you can effectively score last hits it can be very hard to force ChoGath from lane.
• 
  Rupture A very strong range and area of effect disable. Has a strong AP scaling and is reasonably easy to aim once you get the hang of it. This is ChoGaths bread and butter disable skill and works great in combo with Feral Scream.
• 
  Feral Scream A strong area of effect silence, that has a great duration. This spell is particularly great against any low range caster like Ryze and Annie, as you can silence them well before they can cause any damage.
• 
  Vorpal Spikes This ability helps mostly in lane to grab last hits and gives your auto-attacks a small damage boost, working especially great with ChoGath's passive.
• 
  Feast (Ultimate) A massive single target nuke that deals true damage, this skill is amazing to kill a carry or even a troublesome tank before he gets away. It also helps ChoGath to tank up.

Ability Order

Generally the best way to level your abilities is:
(Ult) > Rupture > Feral Scream > Vorpal Spikes

Rupture at level 1 is your best bet for abilities, it allows you to disable two allies quite effectively and gives you some ranged harassment, it is also a strong choice to max first as its base damage scales well and its mana cost does not change (alternatively if you have trouble landing it you can max Feral Scream first). Feral Scream is best maxed second as it also scales well and the silence duration increases. This leaves Vorpal Spikes to be left last, but a point in at level 3 is important.

Runes

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Armor // Mana Regeneration
Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance
Purple (Quintessences) - Flat Health

Magic Penetration increases the damage of all ChoGath's abilities (except his ultimate) and is thus a must have on Marks. Armor Seals and magic resistance Glyphs boost your durability. If you find yourself needing more mana regeneration you can replace Seals with mana regeneration. Flat Health on Quintessences is a solid choice to boost ChoGaths already powerful early game presence.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Flash
-Ghost

Ghost and Flash give ChoGath great maneuverability on the battlefield. This allows him to Feast and disable enemies to guarantee kills or to protect your own teammates.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Teleport
-Exhaust
-Ignite

ChoGath is not reliant on running Flash and Ghost and is thus a great champion to take a summoner spell that your team lacks. You can run Teleport to increase your teams map control while also giving yourself the freedom to return to base early without missing out on experience. Alternatively you can run Exhaust or Ignite to counter a specific champion on the other team.

Masteries

Running a 9/0/21 setup on ChoGath gives him lots of benefits, but a 9/21/0 setup can also work to improve your early game survivability (if you have problems playing ChoGath early game).

The offensive tree offers vital spell penetration, some ability power and some cooldown reduction. If you take Exhaust as a summoner spell don't forget to place a point into improved exhaust.

The utility tree gives ChoGath improved summoner spells (and cooldowns), increased mana regeneration, movement speed and reduced death timers.

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Mercury's Treads
-Rod of Ages
-Abyssal Scepter
-Banshee's Veil
-Frozen Heart
-Randuin's Omen

Steps/Reasoning:
-Start off with a Doran's Ring, to boost your health, mana regeneration and damage output.
-First trip back you want to build towards your Rod of Ages. While also building your boots, Mercury's Treads are a good standard choice.
-Your next core item is your Frozen Heart, this increases your armor and mana pool while also reducing cooldowns and providing a great aura for your team.
-From here you'll want to look at a Banshee's Veil to give you some magic resistance and the ability to block an unfriendly spell.
-Your final two items should be Abyssal Scepter and Randuin's Omen, depending on which defenses you need more.

Alternatives:
-Thornmail (If you need more armor)
-Force of Nature (Generally not needed as Abyssal & Banshee coveres magic resistance.)
-Guardian Angel (A good item for both resistances and also helps maintain Feast stacks.)
-Sunfire Cape (If you want to add to your teamfight presence)

ChoGath Tips

• Play it safe especially when you have stacks of Feast, you want to preserve your stacks as dying often can really hurt ChoGath.
• Always be on the look out for low health targets during team fights, ChoGath is a powerful finisher with Feast.
• Concentrate your crowd control skills on the enemy carries and supports, ChoGath has two very strong disables.
• Always consider what your team needs, some games you might need to build more Ability Power heavy to boost your teams damage output. Other games you may need to focus on tank items to give your squishy characters protection and some games may even call for cooldown reduction if your team needs more consistent disables.
• Don't forget to toggle Vorpal Spikes off when attacking a tower with an enemy champion nearby, this will prevent you from drawing tower attacks.

Level 1-6 Tips

• Try to grab those vital last hits to trigger your passive, this will keep your health high and replenish mana for your abilities.
• Use Rupture to harass the enemy, it is particularly effective against melee characters, preventing them from scoring last hits on minions.
• When you hit level 6 co-ordinate with your team to nuke them down and finish with Feast, if its not possible start using it on minions to boost your health.
• If the enemy in your lane is skill reliant then level up Feral Scream, this will prevent them harassing and last hitting effectively.

Level 7-12 Tips

• Start roaming the map and ganking enemies with your strong disables.
• Always be available and near your team (Teleport helps here) so that you can utilise your crowd control spells.
• Keep building up your Feasts stacks and focus on maintaining them.
• Start considering your build path based on how well your team and the enemy team is doing. If they have a fed caster for example, a Banshee's Veil would be a high priority.

Level 13-18 Tips

• By now you should know what role you are fulfilling in the current game, be it tanky disabler or strong AP damage dealer.
• Focus on landing your Rupture on enemies that overextend, saving Feral Scream for the supports and casters.
• If you see the enemy tank low on health and in range consider finishing them off with Feast, it can quickly neutralise an enemy tank due to its true damage. With the long respawn timers later on in the game this can be a good move.
• Dying and losing stacks is very costly at this stage of the game, be careful if you die and focus on getting the stacks back. 

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