Kog'Maw and Lulu, a Hjarnan story

Vitality's AD Carry, Hjarnan, has some strong opinions about Kog'Maw on Patch 6.3. Coming off a win against the Unicorns of Love, he spoke about how the Mouth of the Abyss is a powerful late game ally, especially if you've got a Lulu on your team. 

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Thanks to the changes made in Patch 6.3, where Kog'Maw's Q passive, which grants additional attack speed, has moved to his W, he's suddenly a much more powerful pick. As long as you can get him to his three-item power spike, that is. "Now his Q passive is on the W instead, you pretty much don't even need to take a point in Q for attack speed anymore," Hjarnan says. "It's as simple as that. If you have three items, if you have Guinsoo's stacks, Hurricane and Blade or whatever, you have like five autos per second if you stand still. So in eight seconds you have 40 autos flying out. There's no-one who can survive that, you know? And there's no other AD Carry who can actually do that to anyone. So it's good against tanks, it's good against squishies. It's good against everything, almost."

So how can you play against that? "You need to one-shot him, or you need to make him not be able to use autos," Hjarnan says. Easier said than done. Kog'Maw becomes an intimidating prospect for any team comp in the late game, moreso even than popular marksmen like Corki and Lucian. "If you're against a Malphite for example, and you play as Lucian, you can pretty much not kill him. It would take you a day or two, you know? But, as Kog'Maw it's easier." 

But Kog'Maw's rampage over Summoner's Rift won't go uninterrupted, Hjarnan reasons. "I think people will figure out the way to play around it in like maybe one or two weeks. Maybe next week people will know the best counter to it, but right now people don't experiment much against it in scrims so they don't know exactly what is the best against it. That's why it's so effective right now." 

This probably won't be the case for players who take Kog'Maw into dynamic queue, however. "I don't think you should take Kog'Maw if you're alone in solo queue, actually! You will tilt yourself. A lot of people, when they see a Kog'Maw, they just want to kill him. If I saw Kog'Maw and I was in top lane I would TP on him when he's super weak, because he would be useless if he doesn't get a lot of kills or farm." If you're good at playing the champion, however, you might be able to survive the lane with a support like Tahm Kench or Thresh, but that's a big 'if'. 

Lulu, every AD Carry's best friend

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Hjarnan feels that the AD Carry meta is a pretty fun place to be right now, especially if you're playing on a team with Lulu. "With the Lulu, the enemy AD Carry cannot do anything to you, because if you get the shield, the Pix does extra damage for every auto you do," he says. "So let's say you are a Caitlyn into Kog'Maw late game, that Caitlyn will still win against the Kog'Maw because you've got the Lulu shield and the Lulu Pix. As long as you have the Lulu in your team, you will always win the trades, so the team who has Lulu usually has the edge in the AD Carry meta."

So why are we more likely to see Lulu top or mid than support, if she's such a great help to her AD Carry buddies? "It's just because in top or mid, the more AP you get, the more movement speed you get, the more shield you get, right? So if you get equally fed as the enemy top laner with Lulu and then you group, you will have such a huge shield and the extra damage with Pix as well," Hjarnan explains. "It's such a good pick, because top lane can usually survive against a Malphite when it's Lulu, so it's not like he's going to get super super fat for it. Lulu can even win some match ups top as well, so I think it's a really really good pick overall."

It's no wonder then that Vitality found victory against the Unicorns of Love using the Kog'Maw / Lulu combo, then. Your mileage may vary taking this duo into dynamic queue but who knows, it could be worth a shot.