Tips for playing Chogath top

Epicmaster1234·1/11/2015, 5:54:37 PM·1 votes·2,113 views

I'm a bronze 2 player who recently started playing ranked. My favorite lane right now is top, and mechanically speaking, I'm pretty decent. I've decided my favorite top lane champ is Chogath, because of his good sustain, strong wave clear, and high damage combined with good tank stats (Plus my friend mystery gifted me the battlecast skin :D). So my question is, does anyone have any advice regarding playing Chogath, or with top lane in general e.g. Who to pick chogath against, what runes to take on him, good build paths vs. different kinds of champs, what team comps he can be picked into, and general laning advice playing Cho. Thanks in advance for the help :D

15 Comments

ChexMex1/11/2015, 6:40:50 PM1 votes

Pick cho gath in a sustain lane or against champions that absolutely require their abilities to do damage. Ahri Fiora Pantheon MonkeyKing

My advice for cho gath : W before you Q, this way they can't hop out of your range.

Disable E sometimes so you don't push , if you're not sure when to push just say so and i'll reply again.

Make sure you focus on eating minions, not always champions.

Balance out your mana usage and health bar. If you're 80% mana and 20% health, blow some mana to get the sustain from minions to get 60% mana and 40% health. If you're at 20% mana and 80% health, conserve mana and just farm with E.

You can farm the very back minions with your E passive with timing.

Your goal is to catch as many people as possible in your cone of silence while ulting a super tanky person for massive true damage, or ult their adc.

Sohleks1/12/2015, 2:56:46 AM1 votes

I find E the most effective skill to level first on Cho'gath, at least versus melee champions. It's actually a very powerful buff to your auto attacks plus it's free... When you auto minions spikes fly out and can hit your opponent. You want to try to hit your opponent with these spikes when farming or slow pushing.

Back in the day when I tried to play Cho'Gath I'd max W first but I wasn't very effective as Cho'gath. I've been playing him more lately and he's quite fun; I love eating people.

In lane Cho'Gath is more of a passive aggressive champion. You want to outsustain with your regeneration by last hitting as best you can while wearing your opponent's hp down. But you have very potent crowd control should your jungle come and lock him down first. It's easy to land your Q then.

You should use Q sparingly in lane, use mostly E and W for poke. Use Q as a way to peel enemies off you, or use Q aggressively when they go for a last hit (you can watch the minions hp and predict if they go for it) then auto them

Yeah, so to summerize I probably could have just said take and max E first, use autos for damage. Use W and Q mostly to mess with their ability to fight back.

Herdis Leah1/12/2015, 4:46:12 AM1 votes

Look into the "legend of zephyr' cho build. Even if you dont build zephyr, that rod of ages is such a noob trap that gives you a super weak lane until real late, when the laning phase is ending. I highly, highly recommend investing in early boots/boots 2, and Frozen Heart/Spirit Visage depending on your opponent. Your base damages (and I use 2 AP quints) are all you really need, if you learn his base damage.

Faith Breaker1/12/2015, 6:01:46 AM1 votes

Due to Cho Gath's high AP ratios (I'm looking at you, Rupture) and the true dmg on his ult, you can go with magic pen and cooldown masteries with 150+ flat hp runes. Any AP you buy will be almost completely used, his q has a 90% ratio IIRC. His full q+aa+w+aa+r combo 100-0 alot of champs. Chogath's e causes his auto attacks to proc Rylai's scepter, a great item for him with amazing Synergy. The magic pen comes close to turning Cho's high ratio ap dmg into true dmg. Watch the mana costs on his q, and use his ult on minions (until you stack it to lvl6) At this point don't always hold the ult for an execute, at 6 stacks it's perfectly fine to knock someone up and ult them immediately, the burst dmg is insane and you almost garuntee the next attack (from an ally most likely) will finish them off.

Also, try to conserve your q when vs champs with Gap closers like Irelia, Xin, or Lee sin. You can place the q either directly ontop of yourself or just in front of you, so as the enemy closes into melee range you peel for yourself. This is invaluable in surviving ganks as Top lane cho, able to sometimes even knock both his lane opponent and the enemy jungler. You can retaliate with a W and if the situation permits, eat and execute one of them, send the other scurrying, push the wave, recall. And say "I'm so Cho"