So i am S5 and i like to play mid but i HATE playing ap mages other than syndra. AP needs items to do any damage at all vs AD can just auto attack and win trades. 90% of AP champs can't get away from ganks assassin or mage, syndra can get away from ganks with Q-E stun and walk away or just E. I tryed playing AP kog and fed, i can't do damage i can't poke. Please help if you can, idk if i'm doing stuff wrong or playing to agro or what help me :(
I apologize for the amount of text. Hope some of it helps you!
Ap Kog
Kog'maw might just be the biggest hyper carry you can play mid lane. He scales insanely well into the later stages of the game both with high base dmg and range.
To compensate for kog's strong late game he first of all has a very weak laning phase. He has a decent ranged farming tool in his e and can be relatively safe in lane. He tends to do extremely poorly vs the likes of assassins(
) and high gank-pressure junglers (j4
) or displacement junglers(
). He is a one of the most item dependent and team dependent carries in the game, so he is not exactly ideal for soloQ. Most people try to carry by themselves until they realize that you can't solo carrie. You need your team to work with you and conversely to work with them.
To play Kog, you have to farm safely, which most low elo players can't. They always try to fight and kill their opponents and sacrifice way too much farm to get one or 2 autos on the enemy, which doesn't transition to a significant lead if you don't get the kill. A kill is generally worth around 20 cs, so if you have around 80 cs around 10 minutes into the game you are doing fine.
Champions like fizz generally focus more on exerting kill-pressure in lane because fizz has no safe farming capabilities, which is why fizz players for the most part have low cs but high kill scores.
Kog'maw
generally farms and pokes until you hit the mid game before he groups with his team and focuses on making objective based plays (aka go for dragons or siege towers).
Since you are in silver there can be any number of things that you don't do well enough to make mages work. These points all touch on essential things that some poeple simply don't know that other might take for granted, I hope some of it applies to you so you can better yourself through it :-)
I will go through how you should play Kog in most casses, some of it can be used with other mages as well.
Items and build paths
It is very important to realize that you items need to change depending on your situation. There is no build you can do that will be the most effective every game, so you need to learn through trial and error.
In most match-ups you wanna start 
+ 2x
, this starter gives you sustain, tankiness (surviving an all in) and ap to more effectively clear waves. Some match-ups are very heavily poke based 
and you wanna get yourself some extra sustain here 
.
First back: 
, so you can start stacking it.
If you have the money get wards
and pots 
.
Next you wanna work on getting 
and 
. Once you have these items and hit lvl 11 you reach your first major power spike. Now you can fight. Position yourself in the back of your team and try and hit the enemy from outside their range. Watch your mana closely! Your ult stacks shouldn't go beyond 3-4, and you should get blue buff from your jungler.
Next get 
. Kog's ap ratios are not that good but his ult's base dmg is insanely high and has a very low cool down so magic penetration is a super effective damage amplifier.
If your team can't team fight and you need to stall the game out you should buy more ap heavy items like 
or 
because these will help you clear waves more easily with your e and r.
Next depends on how the game is going - sounds familier right? - and what you are playing against - is the enemy team kite-able(juggernauts, udyr ect...) get 
, are they very tanky then get 
as well. Are you being focused a lot(
) get 
, 
or 
. Is the enemy team really squishy and do you need to kill them fast, get , and 
in whatever order you feel will help you the most.
if you just wanna focus on sustained poking then this build might be a good build for you:
Don't forget that a 
can help spike your dmg if you know you are going to teamfight.
Tips on runes, masteries and summoner spells
has to run at you, but zac
might charge his e in a brush or near a wall in order to get the jump on you. Try and think ahead of your enemy and predict these things, since you are very immobile.Kog'maw spikes at lvl 5, 6, 8, 11, 16. This is tied to his e's dmg when you lvl it up. The mana cost goes up which is not nice but the dmg becomes better to compensate. At lvl 9 your e is maxed and clearing waves should be no problem, just be careful that your lane opponent does not get the chance to go in on you after you've cleared the minion wave your e is the first skill you max so it is the most potent and when your lanes sees you using it on the minion wave they have an opening to engage unto you(
). Your ult scales in base dmg and range and becomes insane at lvl 16 here you can really start punishing ppl for if they happen to be standing still during a siege, especially if you build ludens.
Ending
I realize this a lot to read and you probably won't need all of this but I bet that some of it can prove very useful to you. I have played a lot of ap kog'maw and these baselines should help you playing him to a decent level.
I also include a lot of how he interacts with other champions to hopefully make you realize that this is something you have to realize with every single champion in the game. - you can't win auto attack trades early vs 
f. eks.
If you learn to play him well you should generally at the end of a game that didn't end 20 mins in be the one who dealt the most dmg in the entire game. So you know... you have that going for you, which is nice ^^
most mages just need to farm for the laning phase. The exceptions being stuff like ahri, tf, lux. I started out maining viktor/ahri and basic stuff that makes you instantly better would be not wasting abilities to farm. Only use abilities to push, harass, or all in, otherwise, you're just putting yourself at a disadvantage. Other than that there really isn't too much to be said, but watching ScrapComputer's guides on mid help a hell of a lot, so check them out.
high mobility burst-damage assassin. use w (very low mana cost) to do DoT to minions for easy farm. Save E (troll-pole) to get away from any gank safe and sound, or to turret dive and not get hit by tower shots. Q is gap closer and R is a high damage knock-up/slow, best mid imo. all you need to start winning trades is w and a sheen
free mana from w, q gives you a shield (even if its shitty) and R means you won't get ganked like ever, but if you do you have a shield and a slow. Best gap closer mage in game, can be surprisingly tanky
high damage output and skillshot stun. Stun does high damage and last 2 seconds, which is a long time. Passive makes farming easy and so does his E which combined with w is an amazing wave clear. Stun any incoming gankers and if 2 of them are together your ult plus e will take them to at least half health if not kill both. RoA is all you need to be a surprisingly tanky high damage mage
my favorite "off-meta" mid laners but i think you should try even though they are not AP
super tanky, super high damage, high sustain, no mana, high mobility, awesome wave clear, has a stun and AOE damage ult and a heal. Generally taken top, but very viable in mid lane and jungle as well. Any gankers that come by will turn into a double kill for you
high burst damage, good gap closing, armor shred for later team fights and good escape from ganks with clone.
also, i love AP kog mid. Max E first, stay away from everyone early game. AP kog CAN NOT DO SHIT early game. just farm up early and build RoA and rylais and you will be doing more damage and become tankier than you realize very fast. 
would complete build and destroy anyone ballsy enough to try to fight you, and even if you die hit them with passive and it was wurf
AP Kog is NOT a standard AP mage, so if you think all AP mages other than Syndra play like him, you are sadly mistaken.
has long range, high early damage, and multiple escapes.
literally defines winning early trades for free, it's almost impossible to lose lane with him.
Huge early bully power, strong trading, more slippery than most of the champs in this game.
Auto attack passive means she can CS and harass easily with or without AP for ability damage, usually wins trades because of her strong shield.
Huge base damage on top of huge AP ratios, he also bullies the lane really easily and has no trouble peeling for himself or 100-0ing any enemy with his full combo.
