I've just picked up Kog'Maw because I like his theme. I've recently found out Kog'Maw's early game is really weak, and I find that my opponents get the better of me and my support, get fed and snowball the game from there. I find that I can never get to late-game Kog'Maw and the times that I do win as Kog'Maw, someone else is carrying. Are there any tips for Kog'Maw's early game?
It's actually not that bad, keep your distance at all times and trade with W on. You mostly just wanna farm early, take as much creeps as possible. You could either go for 
or 
in your first back and then complete into trinity. These items will give you a not too shabby power spike, specially if you've hit 6, you can pretty much chunk someone very hard with R+E+W+AA combo, specially with sheen. Keep farming and just overall try not to die. You'll start to be impactful once you have
. You could then build an 
or a 
if the enemy teams is building a lot of armor. You should be doing a lot of damage by then. I hope this helps you. My ability max order is: R,W,E,Q.
I'm an average player at best, but Kog has become my favorite adc, and I've figured out a few tricks that help when you first start playing him.
First, Kog'maw doesn't belong in every game. He tends to be very reliant on the rest of his team. Try and see what your support is going to play before you lock in Kog. He needs to be protected, or at the very least, not be paired with a super aggressive support. You're going to lose early duels if you get into them. Is your support playing Blitzcrank? DON'T PLAY KOG'MAW. He's just going to pull the enemy Nautilus into you and get you killed. This will happen every time.
Second, as was stated earlier, you will lose early duels. DON'T GET INTO THEM. You are slow as dirt, barely have cc (if you count your slow as cc), and will lose every single fight, barring huge mistakes on the enemies' part. Avoid them if at all possible. You can trade early with your W, but don't try and all-in them, unless you are 100% for sure going to get your kills.
Third, stay on your half of the lane. Your turret is your best friend. You don't have to sit under it the whole time, but don't put yourself in a position that you can't get back to it. Try to focus on just last hitting minions. Don't push the lane. If the lane gets pushed, let it push back to you. There is absolutely no reason for you to be closer to the enemy turret than your own.
Fourth, have patience. You're not going to be doing anything until you have and/or . It's fine, your kills will come eventually. So what if someone else on your team gets out to a 5 kill lead and is carrying early? Once you hit your spikes, you will be evaporating people while they focus on that guy.
Oh and don't be afraid to take ghost and flash. Having the second escape tool can be a big deal. Heal is nice too, but I've found ghost can fix a lot of mistakes (like you suddenly find yourself no where near your turret).
EDIT: I also forgot. You're a back line, long-ranged, acid-spitting, biological murder machine. You don't have to be close to the enemy to kill them. Stay behind the front line. You have no business walking in front of the rest of your team.
Didn't read through the comments to see if anyone already said this so I apologize if I repeat anything here.
I mainly play Kog mid lane when I do (so much more rewarding to me than ADC). Most matchups mid lane are a similar story. Most mid laners can out trade Kog early and make laning tough. The key is stay safe and use your W to out range your opponents. There are very few champs early game with AA ranges longer than what Kog's W makes it. It is great for poke, good for last hitting and, because it has no mana cost, easy to spam all laning phase. If you have to just farm under turret, do it. There is no harm in doing that as long as you can last hit most of them.
Kog'Maw works best with a disengage Support/Jungler combo. (Braum is awesome, Janna is great, Gragas is sweet.) However, that is necessarily required. If you do not have that type of disengage take Cleanse, especially if faced against a CC heavy team. I can't tell you how many times Cleanse into Void Ooze saved my life in lane. He will be a riskier pick if you don't have the disengage but if you play it well, it can work.
Keep in mind that I play him Mid lane so this may be different. Until I get my Luden's Echo (Probably Tri-Force or Bork for ADC), I play safe, I don't chase, I don't engage, I'll poke a bit but nothing more. Poke, disengage, last hit, repeat. That's my pattern. Once I get that first item, it's a huge power spike and the same can be said for ADC Kog. That's when I can start really bullying people out of lane, zoning them off of CS, maybe even killing them. Most recently I played against a LeBlanc who poked me out a couple times early, blew my flash, she took some solid poke too, but I was not strong enough to win the duels yet. As soon as I got my first item (which I did without dying thankfully), that was when the tides turned.
Otherwise, Kog's a hypercarry. If you can get to the late game at least being tied with the enemy carry or even only slightly behind, you will be stronger (unless its a Vayne because, well...Vayne.) And then the risk and the struggle of the laning phase really begins to pay off.
the problem is that he has very little damage output until he gets his first item. I think it comes down to having a support that is more about protection and disengage so you can just farm up in the early game.
