I'm curious, why is jungle Chogath so under-used?

darkdill·May 6, 2015·4 votes·1,151 views

Early invade vulnerability? Lack of gank power? Outperformed by Sejuani?

I personally find jungle Chogath to be pretty damn strong. He might have some trouble ganking because it entirely depends on him landing Rupture, but ganks aren't the only thing a jungler can do. Chogath, for instance, is one of the only good Poaching Smite users because of Feast, and he also has good objective control because he can deal a 1k true damage nuke to Dragon and Baron. Plus Cinderhulk (which will be nerfed next patch so it's for junglers only) synergizes so well with Feast.

But I'm sure there's downsides to it, probably in terms of being unable to beat back early invaders (i.e. Lee Sin) and having no mobility. I just wonder what it is that stops Chogath from being popular as a jungler.

18 Comments

LucentileMay 6, 20154 votes

Because Sejuani, Amumu and Vi exist, among others. He's not terrible, but if other options are available, I'd feel like I was hurting my team by picking him if I was equally as good with a more powerful jungler.

TransgressorMay 6, 20154 votes

No reliable gap close(actually no mobility whatsoever), very unreliable ganking tools, his objective control is not nearly as good as a Nunu Q(it does 1k, but the cooldown :/ especialy early) without blue he is unable to do anything usefull until he gets mana items, he can't compete pre-6 with anyone, ridiculusly vulnerable to counter jungling if he doesn't have his nomnom up, severe lack of consistency, he can become underwhelming to play if behind thus affecting your game psychologicaly as well, he looks outdated and unapealing(he could be worse).

DurzakaMay 7, 20154 votes

{quoted}

Chogath, for instance, is one of the only good Poaching Smite users because of Feast,

NO.

just no.

No one should be using poaching smite. Not even Nunu. The reward is fucking terrible. Get chilling smite instead and counter jungle, you still deny the enemy gold, and actually have a useful smite item.

shalecMay 6, 20152 votes

I think it's mostly because he's outperformed by other tanks. He's also a better laner than jungler.

Best Aatrox NAMay 6, 20152 votes

Attack Speed Jungle Cho. Is. The. Shit.

TotalJerkMay 7, 20152 votes

Because he's requires you to think in a way most League players don't like thinking.

Blue Collar BearMay 6, 20151 votes

I only play him in response to a Nunu jungle, because he's the only jungler who can out smite him.

The reason why he's so underused (or at least why I do not) is because his ganks are subpar to current junglers. He's also vulnerable as balls pre-6, and I feel he takes more coordination than he is worth (like Gragas).

thinking manMay 6, 20151 votes

because you can lane with him and just spam w on your opponent to win lane rather than farming the jungle

QuintasticMay 6, 20151 votes

I've been using Cho'Gath mid he does great things for me. Hell I just did Cho Support and we still won the game. lol. I love Cho.

WashuMay 6, 20151 votes

must not be in silver. thats ALL i see when he isn't banned.

HellpyreMay 6, 20151 votes

He's more or less been gradually pushed out of jungle by changes to what junglers need to have. He was very popular when a champion needed innate sustain to reasonable stick in the jungle, but now that junglers generally need to either scale off of heavy farm or else be able to gank early. Cho'Gath scales only moderately well with items, has a somewhat difficult time getting in range to use his engage tools, and doesn't get his full Level-6 spike until he starts building stacks.

In short, he does a lot of things that are useful in the jungle, but he isn't extremely good at any specific jungle niche at the moment. And so people who have a specific goal for their jungling experience tend to shy away from him and use a more narrowly-focused champion.

SleepyLionCubMay 7, 20151 votes

he was really popular until one day some guy decided to take him mid. Now nobody can handle the cho mids.

FantasySniperMay 7, 20151 votes

He feels really slow, and his only way to gank is to land a good rupture and combo off that.

Other options are safer LeeSin and Nidalee have Sejuani multiple Nautilus methods of Zac hard-CC.

All-in-all, his kit feels practically designed to jungle and farms extremely well, it's just that he's not picked purely out of tunnel vision from the meta.

JoquanMay 7, 20151 votes

why would you pick chogath when we have nunu.

even when nunu isn't available, there are other tons of better junglers as others have mentioned ( vi/sej/amumu/naut/j4/etc)

He's a very, very low tier jungler if you ask me.

Dunkrius2gMay 7, 20151 votes

His ganks purely and i mean purely Hitting a Q. If you get a Q off, then you win that trade by taking away his flash or even killing him. BUT if you miss that Q, then you gotta go back.

DEADLIFEMay 7, 20151 votes

Unreliable ganks, no mobility, scales badly as a tank. It can work, but gets less and less reliable the higher you climb.

Teridax68May 7, 20151 votes

I have a feeling it mostly has to do with Chogath being extremely slow in everything that he does. He has really good clear and gank potential if he lands a Q, along with some of the best objective control in the game and great synergy with jungle enchantments, so I think he might actually be secretly very strong. I wouldn't really recommend item 3711 on anyone, but I do agree Cho can be a fantastic counterjungler. All in all, it may be a blessing in disguise that he isn't a highly visible pick, because that means you can surprise people with how strong he can be. :P