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Considering Playing Kassadin; Need Advice!

Umbral Regent··3 votes·654 views

As someone who's bought most of the Champions in the game (barring eight, if my memory serves), I've found myself wanting to reach Mastery Rank 7 on several Champions, usually those with unique, appealing thematics (such as Jhin or Yorick), playstyles that resonate with me (Yorick or Leona), or those with a relatively high difficulty curve and higher skill ceiling (Azir and Jhin). However, I've thought about breaking out of my comfort zone of high-skill curve Casters, or Tanks and Juggernauts sometime in the near future.

And with thinking about such a thing, it became quickly obvious that if I wanted to break out of my comfort zone, I needed to go all-out with someone who has ostensibly one of the weirder kits in League of Legends, especially for an Assassin - Kassadin, the Void Walker. I've played him a few times before in bot matches, but never found them rightly representative of his actual gameplay, and with all the Champions I currently play...Well, it's probably clear that I often don't care to wait for level six to hit my power spike.

While I do know enough about Kassadin roughly to get started, I would actually love to know more so I can try to start off on the right foot. So, here's what I'd like to ask you all:

  • Recommended Mastery Set-Up (or Keystone specifically, either works, but the more thorough the better)
  • Recommended Ability Max Priorities
  • Recommended Item Builds (whether this includes only core and mid-game items or everything from starting gear to conditional buy-ins)
  • Rough description of who counters him (like what sort of ability sets to watch out for)
  • Rough description of who he counters (in the off-chance that I wind up not as first-pick mid)
  • Basic advice to get started off playing him better
  • Advanced tips to fine-tune play once the basics are down
  • Anything else you guys might think would help

I understand that I'm asking for a lot, and some might not best be able to answer all at once, but as someone who has yet to play Kassadin in earnest, I have to learn as much of it as I can before I hit the Rift with him. I thank you all for reading, and I thank further any who offer their advice.

7 Comments

z63XnLCMwX3 votes

He's a situational pick. Weak against AD champs such as Yasuo, Panth, and Talon. Core is RoA + Lich Bane. Thunder Lord should be your keystone. Use Q to mitigate damage in trades unless they have a channeler, which you save it for the channel.

Combos are E - R - W - AA - Q - AA/R - Enemy has been slain

or

W - R - E - AA - Q - Enemy has been slain

Kassadin doesn't really hit his powerspike until level 11 where his ult cd becomes reasonable. I find the level 6 ult a bit too long for going in and out of fights.

Edit: To be clear his level 6 is a power hop while his level 11 is a power spike and his level 16 is a power surge.

Umbral Regent2 votes

Thanks for the advice! I'll do my best to memorize the combos, though it'll likely take me some time.

Also, thinking about Thunderlord's Decree, I played a Custom Match recently and found out something interesting; it takes only two hits for him to proc its effect - one Auto-Attack, and then his Nether Blade. Seems it might count as both the passive bonus damage and the active bonus damage all at once, though I don't think I'll be able to use that finding to much a great degree.

Again, though, you have my thanks!

TeemoXNidalee3 votes

Mastery and runes: Go to some site like lolalytics and look for the best setup. Usually DFT is the best keystone.

Max q first then w or e whatever. If you're vsing a spammy champion like yasuo you can max E (definitively vs yasuo because of wind wall).

Lane: Spam Q every time it's off cooldown. If the opponent is melee save W to use on him if he jumps on you, if not then use it on cooldown to restore mana.

Post-6: Spam Q, if the enemy is low health, jump on him to kill. If they're tower hugging, push the wave and go gank other lanes.

Teamfights: Combo kill-range enemies or the enemy your team is focusing. Don't jump on a squishy target if they're not in kill range as you will just die unless you have hourglass. Watch out for R mana cost and save a cast to escape.

What counters him: Hard harass or champions that can force him to fight pre-6 and win the fight. What he counters: Anything that can't out trade your Q spam.

Combo: Mash RQE. If you're in range you can autoattack then W to reset the attack timer and land another attack to do more damage. If not in range, you W before jumping as it gives more range to the attack.

doodlebob6662 votes

Recommended Mastery Set-Up (or Keystone specifically, either works, but the more thorough the better)

somepeople like thunderlords but i think deathfire is better because then you can get points in the resolve tree since he is vulnerable in lane phase, and you want to get the damage buffs from the ferocity tree

Recommended Ability Max Priorities

e max gives the most damage but q helps you survive laning better, its a toss up for which is better, but i like getting 3 points in q then switching over to an e max since that helps me survive but i can also get to the damage spikes of e quicker

Recommended Item Builds (whether this includes only core and mid-game items or everything from starting gear to conditional buy-ins)

i like getting the hextech GLP but most people get rod lichbane second is better if you want to play like an assassin and get kills mid game but tear into seraphs is also pretty strong if you want to invest more into late game, i like getting the darkseal and then backing early to getting a corrupting pot so i can sustain well in lane but starting with corupting pot is also good, not sure about doran's ring could work but i feel like its a bit risky

Rough description of who counters him (like what sort of ability sets to watch out for)

ad midlaners absolutely shit on him especially the ones how bully lane like jayce and talon, since his passive is useless and the shield on q as well, other than that champs like anivia with alot of early damage push potential and safety can be difficult

Rough description of who he counters (in the off-chance that I wind up not as first-pick mid)

take tp and just try to farm to six, in team fights wait for most of the cc to have come down or for the enemy frontline to be distracted before going in, remember you don't have much wave clear so don't try to hold turrets if your being seiged since its pretty easy for people to dive you if your alone

Advanced tips to fine-tune play once the basics are down

do you know how lee sins have this style in team fights where they go in do damage then get out before reingaging thats what you should do because every time you do that you get more damage on your ult, split pushing is pretty strong if you'r map awareness is good, remember though that your goal isn't to take the turret its to draw someone away so you can go start a 4v5 since your ult lets you get to your team before they can,

FooDang2 votes

Personally I like Thunderlords better on Kassadin. Hard to proc early game but lvl 6 kill potential is higher coupled with Ignite. DFT doesnt do much early anyways so why take it since your gonna build scaling items first item 3027

doodlebob6662 votes

im a pretty week laner so the extra 50 health works wonders for me and nothing besides thunderlords and the magic pen is really that good in the cunning tree, besides odds are that people are going to get some magic resist since maw, and banshee's are so good right now, so the percent pen i feel is pretty strong, Deathfire i take more for the masteries to get their and the options i get with going down the path itself,

shicky972 votes

I don't want to post a wall of text repeating what the others have already said, but if you need expert advice, ask on https://www.reddit.com/r/KassadinMains/

There's a subreddit for mains of every champion in League of Legends, and they mostly know what they're talking about.

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