I just tried 
for the first time today (bots) and now I'm reading some guides.
Question: Does anyone build 
? If not, how come? I just feel like it works with him. And Follow-up question, would you ever build LifeSteal on him?
Thanks for any advice you can give me.
AccountaBilabudy1 votesits good on him but youd be sacrificing other good options as well.
its kind of like nashors on fizz. its a really good item because of CDR + on-hit effect that works with fizz's Q but no one builds it because lich bane + zhonyas is too op.
AccountaBilabudy1 votesalso lifesteal is not good. as kassadin you dont want to auto attack very often because youre pretty squishy. you R in, Q + W + E and then R out
Arczer1 votesNashor and Lifesteal don't do anything for him.
You need to build AP since you're an assassin, you need high amounts of it. Nashors costs too much since it gives ASPD and CDR, and the passive, which are generally useless stats on Kassadin
Since you're not building AD, you don't need Lifesteal Lifesteal scales with physical damage, not magical damage.
You need survivability since when you go to engage on someone, you're going to need to survive for more than 2 seconds so you can escape
Try this build, in order, for the most part:
Start> Flask + 3 HP Pots (These help you survive the early laning phase, since Kassadin is generally very weak and prone to harass here) 1st Item> Rod of Ages (Core) - Kassadin needs Damage and survivability, as well as some mana to be mobile. This is the perfect item. Boots> Sorc Shoes or Mercury Treads (but almost always Sorc Shoes, Mercury Treads in a few exceptions where teams have an abnormal amount of magic damage and cc) 2nd Item> Zhonya's Hourglass (Core) - Kassadin is already resilient to magic damage because of his passive and his Q, therefor the armor here makes him a little tankier when being focused by ADs, and the active of Zhonya's is one of the best actives in the entire game. Voidstaff - Blows through magic resist, pretty good item. Deathcap - Blows through champions, pretty good item. Guardian Angel - Just in case, 6 item Kassadin already does a ton of damage and usually if the enemy team sees a 6 item Kassadin with a GA, sometimes they don't even want to focus you, but they have to, because you're a 6 item Kassadin, obviously.
I'm a D1/Master mid laner and this is the build I personally use on Kassadin
Drunk Rummate1 votestheres no reason to build it over lich bane if you're looking for an on hit item. more AP and more burst and more mana. kassadin doesnt need CDR once he gets a couple ranks in ult.
kass generally cant afford it in his build tho. you'd have to be ridiculously far ahead to consider it probably.
A Corny Name1 votesNah, you don't to be standing around in melee range too long on kass, so you shouldn't really build attack speed, it's just wasted on him
TeemoHunter13371 voteskassadin is a high cost build champion.
by the time ull make your rod of ages , boots, zhonyas, and voidstaff itll be 30 minutes into the game. and so nashors is useless for a late game burst assassin becuz if u do ur combo u wont chase and keep autoing em. ull essentially be wasting nashors passive and only getting 60 ap worth which isnt that much. so no dont build nashors or lifesteal.
youll want rod of ages. zhonyas.sorcerer shoes.deathcap.voidstaff.lich bane.
no other items can replace any of those except for maybe the lich bane if u really want a Guardian Angel or Banshees Viel instead.
Teridax681 votes on : he's a bursty AP caster, which means your focus should be on providing him with as much raw instant damage as possible, for example with 
or 
or 
(and perhaps a 
early on to get a bit of much-needed health and mana). Nashor's Tooth is purely oriented towards DPS: no matter how much cooldown reduction you build, Kassadin is not going to want to stay within combat range for very long after using up all of his abilities, and will absolutely not want to continue basic attacking his target unless they're about to die.
's Steel Tempest, for example). It only becomes significant on champions who build AD, and AD Kassadin doesn't really work, since he's primarily a spellcaster, and the bonus to his attacks deals magic damage.