Cho'Gath: The True Outdated King

Introduction

Cho'Gath is a very interesting champion, he represents the champs that come and go. Many champions we see nowadays are either on the new side or recently reworked. It makes sense you have to release champs that can brawl with the rest of them, which ends up leaving many champs like Cho'Gath behind. Champs that are old are mostly just not very good and if they are good like I said they are probably reworked.

I mean even champs like Trist become reworked because although she wasn't bad, she was a bad design. The new kit she has flows a lot better which is good, every champ should have a certain "flow" to it to make it fun. To that point Cho'gath has a strong flow to him and even work perfectly. Although his Vorpal Spikes might not make much sense in his kit, it's still a strong spell that helps he achieve what he is trying to do. So you might ask at this point, why play this champion, you yourself said that Cho'Gath is outdated and therefore bad. I know I did say Cho'Gath is outdated, but the truth is, he isn't bad. 

Now let's start this off by saying Cho'Gath ISN'T great, he isn't someone you want to play if you are at the TOP LEVEL, but that shouldn't shy off non-professional players to be afraid to play him.

Skills: Any of his spells are okay to max although I think Rupture isn't the greatest spell to be maxing if you are playing him top, I think you would rather max Feral Scream if you are going more for poke or Vorpal Spikes if you are trying to more or less scrape with the enemy top laner. That being said, I think for the most part Vorpal Spikes is better for the matter it doesn't use that much mana, but I perfer a scrappier Cho'Gath one that utilizes Attack Speed and tank stats to enforce his will, rather than one who uses Ability Power to enforce it.

You will want to max Rupture last if you are maxing either of these two, if you are going heavy AP I can see you maxing Rupture first, but I don't think that is the ideal way to play him. Now I will explain what each spell does more in depth.

Rupture(Q): Rupture is your main CC spell and one of the reasons I feel like Cho'Gath is outdated. It is a very strong spell that has a very powerful amount of Crowd Control. It is potentially his strongest spell and his most needed for it to be changed. The problem with it is that it is delayed, and in this League with all the mobility options that most champs have and the mobility options Cho'Gath lacks it's very hard to hit it. Although you can fix this by silencing them with your Feral Scream. It still is a pain, if you can hit this 9/10 times you are very good, and you will easily win games with Cho'Gath. That isn't super likely though.

Feral Scream(W): A pretty strong spell, we'll start with why it is outdated, it is very small range and although it can be a strong spell Cho'Gath lacks the mobility needed to hit it. You will need to hit a rupture to land it sometimes, and sometimes you need this spell to hit a rupture. Do you see why this can become problematic. What is good about this spell though, it is a silence which is a plus in itself. A lot of the silences in this game are getting removed i.e Leblanc, Fiddlesticks to an extent, this is the one champ that still has his silence at peak power. It also becomes a pretty strong poke skill in itself in the laning phase. 

Vorpal Spikes(E)- It is a pretty strong spell, it allows you to poke in lane, utilizing your passive it can also help you regain your mana and health because it helps you clear waves without using mana. It pretty simple, doesn’t do much if you expect a lot, does a lot if you expect a little. I like to max this spell as it doesn’t require mana, but like I said, I like to play a more on-hit tanky Cho’Gath rather than an AP or AP Tanky Cho’Gath.

Feast(R)- Feast is probably your strongest spell. It’s is extremely straight forward as it’s a single target TRUE DAMAGE nuke that if you kill a unit you get a stack and you can stack up to six times. Each stack will give you health and size. Size is pretty important since your Feral Scream and Vorpal spikes also become larger with size. Also if you kill a target with Feast the cooldown becomes reduced by half and you regain half the mana cost. So you want to use it to farm and get more stacks while also using it to secure kills. Once you are six stacks and late game team fights you can use it much more liberally, use it early on champions that don’t heal to chunk them early on in fights. Your goal late game is to stick to the carries while just being a nuisance, you will do more damage then they will expect if they ignore you, but not enough to warrant you being attacked. If you are attacked then you are in a good place.

Runes

I take Hybrid Pen marks to make your autos and spell damage a bit higher since you are using your autos with your vorpal spikes to harass. Secondly, you want to take armor seals to prevent you getting gimped by Gnar or something to that extent. For Glyphs you want to take Magic Resist for the same reason as armor, but you are being wary of Lissandra like this. For Quints it becomes a lot more open you can take Health Regen, Health, Movement Speed, or Ability Power. I prefer to take Movement Speed or Ability Power, but they are all fine options.

Items

I’ve said it earlier in this post, but I will say it again, I don’t build Cho’Gath with Ability Power I prefer him as a tanky Attack Speed Cho’Gath. So I build Wit’s End first or second item while getting Frozen Heart for Armor and Spirit Visage for Magic Resist. I like to finish the build with a Thornmail and an Iceborne Gauntlet. This is what your final build should look like.

Laning Phase

In Laning you want to poke while trying to sustain with farming. Use your feast when you get it on minions or for kills and just try to be a rock. TP to Dragons and ganks bottom and try to make top even or in your favor by being a rock.

Late Game

You just want to stick upon the enemy carry and try to be a nuisance. You will do enough damage to be able to kill the carry if left alone on him which will force people to peel you off. You are doing your job generating aggro like this, kill the carry or just die while being a distraction. Use Rupture to zone out the carry and if you land it try to lead that to a kill. Regardless, you are doing all you can by sticking on the carry. If you die and your team wins the team fights you are probably doing your job well.

Conclusion

Cho’Gath is a decent top lane who doesn’t see much play since he is pretty outdated. I believe that Cho’Gath is good enough to be used and even though he lacks mobility like most champs have this day, his ability to stick to carries with Feral Scream and Rupture is a gem in itself.