Kassadin is a melee AP caster, a very strong roamer and assassin due to his ability to blink very often. He is a sort of anti-caster with Void Stone and Null Sphere, which is why he goes middle lane - to lane against other casters. With his high mobility, ganks will naturally happen while laning. Your aim as Kassadin is to be able to disrupt the enemy team - especially the AP and AD carries - with your high burst and long silence/slow. While he is not played much competitively, he is still a great solo queue champion because of his strong roaming and snowball potential. Also, Season 3 has completely changed the meta and that's made Kassadin's life a little bit easier by reducing early jungle pressure.

He also looks cool and is the only Void-related champion that isn't trying to destroy the world. In lore, he is the leader of a group called The Preservers of Valoran, warriors that have devoted their lives to stopping the Void invasion.

I'm writing this guide because a lot of people in solo queue ask how I decide what to do in certain matchups and team fights, and more importantly why on earth I build so much health. (Translated version: warmogs kass troll pls report) I believe that Kassadin is more effective as a bruiser caster with an emphasis on AP and health than an all-in "glass cannon" assassin.


I tried to sum up Kassadin in one clip, and here it is. This really showcases his burst and ability to get away from extremely risky situations.

My IGN is "Rathalos Hater", formerly "Best Kassadin NA" and "DarkRathalosH8R". I've been playing LoL for a couple years now. I ended Season 2 at 17xx and have 1000+ games played as Kassadin. I also am known for playing Mordekaiser and Zed. I used to be a big part of the Monster Hunter community (Why you don't need a Paintball to tell you where a Rathalos is? BECAUSE HE'S ALWAYS FLYING.) as well as the WoW theorycrafting site Elitist Jerks. I even played WoW professionally for a while! Currently residing in Orlando, FL, working as a freelance web admin/graphic designer to put myself through school.

Not much to say here. Offensive masteries emphasize late-game power. Spellsword, Executioner, and Archmage scale incredibly well. If you know you're going to be in a matchup that's not hard to farm against, definitely use these.






The main benefit of this setup is the extra potion (Biscuiteer) and superior mobility it provides. Combined with Movement Speed Quintessences, you'll start the game faster than all ranged champions with their tier 1 boots. The extra gold and experience gain will help you stay ahead of the competition and reach level 6 faster, which is Kassadin's biggest power spike. CDR is also very strong for any caster. All in all, Utility masteries help a little bit for the entire game.






My final mastery setup I seldom use. The Defense tree mainly helps early-game. Use this if you are going to be under constant harass in your lane. These masteries can potentially turn a lane that would normally be impossible into a farm lane.

Magic Penetration Marks: Magic Penetration exponentially increases your damage. Against a target with 30 MR, increases damage by 6.1%. Against a target with 50 MR, increases damage by 5.3%.

Armor Seals: Physical damage is Kassadin's biggest weakness. Even if you're against a caster like Swain you still get harassed quite a bit with auto-attacks. At level 1, this will double your Armor, decreasing physical damage taken by an additional 11.4%.

Ability Power Glyphs: 11 Ability Power will increase the damage of Null Sphere and Force Pulse by 8. That might not seem like much, but that's a 10% increase at level 1. This will help your pre-6 laning significantly.

Movement Speed Quintessences: Having 3 of these gives you 15 bonus movement speed. Using Utility masteries, you'll start the game with 365 Movement Speed, faster than every ranged champion with their tier 1 boots. Even if you aren't running 21 Utility (or your opponent is) you're still faster than Anivia, Ahri, Heimerdinger, Lux, Orianna, Twisted Fate, Ziggs, and Zyra.





Magic Penetration Marks: Magic Penetration exponentially increases your damage. Against a target with 30 MR, increases damage by 6.1%. Against a target with 50 MR, increases damage by 5.3%.

Armor Seals: Physical damage is Kassadin's biggest weakness. Even if you're against a caster like Swain you still get harassed quite a bit with auto-attacks. At level 1, this will double your Armor, decreasing physical damage taken by an additional 11.4%.

Scaling Ability Power Glyphs: This gives you a lot of free damage late game. When combined with Deathcap, you're looking at a 35 AP bonus.

Ability Power Quintessences: Flat Ability Power will help your pre-6 laning significantly. With this setup you'll start with 18 AP, increasing Null Sphere/Force Pulse damage from 80 to 93.






Magic Penetration Marks: Magic Penetration exponentially increases your damage. Against a target with 30 MR, increases damage by 6.1%. Against a target with 50 MR, increases damage by 5.3%.

Armor Seals: Physical damage is Kassadin's biggest weakness. Even if you're against a caster like Swain you still get harassed quite a bit with auto-attacks. At level 1, this will double your Armor, decreasing physical damage taken by an additional 11.4%.

Scaling Magic Resist Glyphs: Your lane opponent will probably have more farm and EXP than you in very hard matchups, so you can't rely on your passive to mitigate their harass. These Glyphs double your natural Magic Resist gain per level.

Health Regeneration Quintessences: In very hard matchups, you will be under constant auto-attack harass. Using HP5 Quintessences will help you stay in lane by giving you free sustain, which Kassadin innately lacks. How much exactly? 8.1 HP5 translates to 97.2 health per minute. Therefore, these runes will regenerate the equivalent of one Health Potion every 90 seconds. This is like having a level 3 Nidalee spamming her Primal Surge on you constantly, assuming she has base mana regen.

IS THIS GUY FOR REAL WTF BARRIER LOL? is usually the reaction I get when I run this. However, it's not too crazy. On Kassadin, a well-timed Barrier will save you just as effectively as a well-timed Flash. Aside from the obvious defensive use, Barrier has more of an effect than Ignite in a straight up 1v1 and synergizes with Void Stone very well. As you'll read later in the guide, Void Stone increases the value of health/shields by 17% and gives them an offensive use. At level 18, Barrier shields you for 545, which will give you 96% Attack Speed.




Ignite gives you enough damage to insta-gib most laners by around level 8. When auto-attacks can't quite finish someone off, there's Ignite. When a tower dive is a bit too risky, there's Ignite. Soraka? Ignite. You get the point.




The reason everyone uses this is for the element of surprise. Helps you avoid skillshots, take advantage of poor positioning, and adjust your own position. I personally prefer Barrier/Ignite because a Barrier can save you just as well as a Flash, but I digress. If you're a Flash addict and use it on everyone, go ahead! It's still good and will always be good.

• is my choice in most situations.
• for enemy teams with crucial skillshots, like and .
• a very defensive setup, great for when your team already has good cleanup potential.
• for when you don't need to dominate your lane, instead focusing on pressuring side lanes with counter-ganks.

• Giving your entire team 50% of their mana is nice, but not as useful as other spells.
• The best spell for mobility during fights. Fortunately, Kassadin has Riftwalk, so this isn't needed.
• Great for baiting and applies to your allies, but with the huge drawback of getting cut in half by Grievous Wounds.
• revive lets you go really fast
• while smite lets you kill fast
• I used to run this a lot, and I feel Barrier is more useful.
• Great anti-carry spell, but your team should have at least 1 of these already.
• This spell doesn't scale at all. Leave it to the support, if anything.

Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage (applied after magic resist) and transforms this damage into bonus attack speed.

Every 1 point of damage mitigated converts to 1% attack speed. For example, if a spell is fired at you for 280 damage, the damage is reduced to 238 and you gain 42% attack speed. If you itemize for health rather than magic resist, you'll have a much easier time utilizing this passive. This is what ties together Kassadin's kit, and it pains me that so many people overlook it.


This greatly increases the defensive value of health (~17.6% increase) as well as giving health an offensive use. For every 100 damage you take, you will gain 17.6% attack speed. So, at level 18, Kassadin will need 229.1% bonus attack speed to reach the cap. This requires him to take 1300 magic damage.

Effects and items like Spellsword, Thornmail, and Sunfire Cape actually end up helping Kassadin because they refresh Void Stone on every hit. Always take into account how much attack speed you currently have and if it would be safe to turn around and auto-attack.

Kassadin fires a void bolt dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and silencing the target for 1/1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6 seconds.

Cooldown: 9 seconds

Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana

Range: 650


Main harass nuke. Hold the ~ key to make it easier to land on champions that stand near minions. Don't forget that the silence will interrupt and prevent champion abilities and from being cast. Unlike Force Pulse, this ability will draw minion aggro.

Passive: Kassadin's melee attacks draw energy from the void, restoring 8/11/14/17/20 mana each hit. If this effect is triggered from attacking a champion the amount of mana restored is tripled to 24/33/42/51/60.

Active: Kassadin charges his nether blade, gaining 30/45/60/75/90 (+30% of ability power) bonus magic damage dealt on hit for 5 seconds.

Cooldown: 12

Cost: 25 mana


Helps you sustain your mana all game, also you hit surprisingly hard with this on. I skill this once and leave it there until late game.

Utilizing Nether Blade/Void Stone correctly is what separates the good Kassadins from the great Kassadins.



...Ahem. Gauge the amount of damage your Nether Blade does and how much Void Stone attack speed you have, and considering auto-attacking in a trade. Sometimes it will be beneficial to all-in after eating a couple spells. This sense can only be attained by playing Kassadin a lot.

PROTIP: If you are out of mana and just need a bit more for Riftwalk, turn around and melee a couple times to get your mana back.

Kassadin draws energy from spells cast in his vicinity, gaining a charge whenever a spell is cast near him. Upon reaching 6 charges, Kassadin can use Force Pulse to deal 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and slow enemies by 30/35/40/45/50% in a cone in front of him for 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 6 seconds

Cost: 80 mana

Range: 650


Low cooldown. Unlike Null Sphere, this does not draw minion aggro. There are a few matchups in which I would recommend maxing this after you put two points in Q. More info in the matchups section. The damage and slow this spell does is amazing for single target, but when you land it on multiple targets it goes from good to great. Make sure you spam this often in fights, hitting as many people as possible.

PROTIP: Most people will only expect you to combo while you have max stacks. Keep in mind that your own spells DO contribute to the 6 spell count, meaning you can do a full combo with only 3 stacks. (Riftwalk, Null Sphere, Nether Blade = 3 spells, 6 stacks, use Force Pulse.) It's also possible to pull off a combo with only 2 stacks if you anticipate the enemy will retaliate with a spell before you silence them.

PROTIP #2: If neither you or the enemy laner has casted a spell and you gain a stack of Force Pulse, the enemy jungler is near. Especially useful against Skarner, as he will usually cast Crystalline Exoskeleton before coming into a gank.

Kassadin teleports to a nearby location dealing 60/70/80 (+80% of ability power) magic damage to surrounding enemy units. Additionally, each subsequent Riftwalk in the next 8 seconds costs 100 additional mana and deals 60/70/80 additional damage.

Cooldown: 7/6/5 seconds

Cost: 100 mana

Range: 700


Disregard walls, acquire currency.

This does very high damage for such a low cooldown, but using this spell for damage puts you in melee range. Only use Riftwalk for damage when being in melee range is safe, or when you have a method of escape. Also, this spell gives Kassadin a very brief period of immunity, similiar to Shaco's ultimate, that allows experienced players to dodge otherwise unavoidable spells.

Be careful with your stacks on this, you really don't want to run out of mana. Stay hidden from the enemy team as much as possible and use terrain to your advantage. This makes Kassadin near impossible to catch up to or get away from.

Remember, you can go over walls with this, even ones that seem too thick. As long as the center of Riftwalk's targeting reticle passes more than halfway through terrain, you will teleport all the way through to the other side.

PROTIP: If you are tower diving a champion, using Riftwalk will drop tower aggro from you IF there is another champion or minion attacking your target.



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This video demonstrates, at half speed, a Kassadin completely avoiding Final Spark by Riftwalking through it. Although Kassadin was in Final Spark's hitbox, Riftwalk gives him a very brief period of immunity.

There are two skill orders I use. One maxing Null Sphere, and one maxing Force Pulse. In general you'll want to max Null Sphere first, but there are some matchups in which Force Pulse can be more useful.




Pros:

• Longer range
• More reliable
• Longer silence cripples casters

Pros:

• Doesn't draw minion aggro
• More DPS than Null Sphere if you're able to build charges easily
• Easier wave clear
• More useful against enemies that don't care about silence

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In either of the above skill builds, you need to decide between Force Pulse or Nether Blade at level 2.

Pros:

• Enables you to last hit caster minions at tower (Very important)
• Insane mana regeneration (An extra 50 mana per wave)

Pros:

• Easier to escape and enable jungler ganks
• More burst damage

I take Force Pulse at level 2 if my opponent has started with less potions or otherwise has less health sustain than I do OR against early gankers like . If the enemy laner is pushing against me I stick with Nether Blade as it allows for easier last hitting under tower.

If you cast a spell with a cast time before crowd control is applied, you will have a short window in which you can still issue commands as though your champion hasn't been CCed. This is called a Buffered Input Command or BIC for short.

Confused? Here's an example from an MLG event.

-Cho'Gath casts Rupture on an Ezreal and he is knocked up, and the knockup animation starts.
-Ezreal casts Arcane Shift away while knocked up so that it will happen immediately once the knockup has ended.
-Cho'Gath casts Feral Scream and silences Ezreal during the knockup animation and the "Silenced!" text is shown.
-The knockup animation ends.
-Even though Ezreal has clearly been silenced, his Arcane Shift spell still goes off because he buffered it BEFORE he was silenced during the knockup.


Kassadin can utilize this effectively using his Riftwalk. If you cast Riftwalk right before a stun hits, you will successfully cast Riftwalk and be able to auto-attack/cast your other abilities for a short time. Another example of this is when you see a crowd control travelling to you (like a Morgana/Lux snare or Taric stun) you can Riftwalk through it and start attacking. You will get hit by the CC but it won't really matter. Keep in mind this tactic is very advanced and the timing requires a lot of practice.

• This item is great all game because it refills every time you go back. Every drink you take gives you 49g worth of potions, so it pays for itself after 7 uses. Don't forget to use this in team fights - 360 health and 180 mana over 36 seconds is nothing to scoff at.

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• Magic Penetration exponentially increases your damage. Kassadin is all about annoying squishy carries, and damage is usually the best way to do so. This item will, under optimal conditions, increase your damage by 15%.

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• This item is extremely efficient and has all the stats Kassadin wants. When fully stacked, this item gives 650 Health/Mana and 80 AP. That's a plus 65% of a and .

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• Tear is a really unique item. It drastically increases your roaming and late-game presence at the cost of 700g. It's a bad 1v1 laning item, but gets better and better as time goes on, eventually evolving into the god-like Seraph's Embrace. But, as with most items, there are situations in which you should skip it, like when you're getting stomped in lane by just a little bit and a Blasting Wand would swing the lane in your favor. If you're already winning the lane (and 700g won't hurt that) OR losing so hard that a Blasting Wand won't swing the lane in your favor, then I would say go for Tear of the Goddess.

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• The passive gives you an additional 30 AP from the mana it gives you. gives you another 19 or so AP, and your base mana gives you another 30 AP at level 18. Remember that the active works off of current mana, not maximum, so it will be less effective if you're low on mana. Combining this with Barrier is pretty funny. Synergizes with Void Stone very well and lets you fulfill your role as diving-melee-assassin much easier.

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• Getting this item is a huge power spike for any AP champion, and Kassadin is no exception. Buying this will just about double your AP. No build should ever be without this. Your job is to deal damage, after all!

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• With Sorcerer's Shoes, you'll have 8%+38 Magic Penetration. That means you'll be dealing True damage to anyone with 42 MR or less - precisely the amount most ranged characters have. The extra Health and AP are very nice as well.

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• A very cost-effective choice for both AP and Armor - and it upgrades into Zhonya's Hourglass! If you're doing well against an AD lane then you can rush this. Otherwise you'll probably be wanting this item at some point in the game to help defend against the ADC and jungler.

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• 1000 Health is a ton. The magic number for Kassadin is 1300 magic damage taken to max out Void Stone, and this gets you really close while giving you a lot of sustain. Only buy this after you get your or else you won't be doing enough damage to be a threat.

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• Generally it's a good idea to buy these over if the enemy team has 3 or more hard CC/silence.
• You will lack Magic Penetration if you buy these, so remember to pick up .

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• Rush these against heavy auto-attackers like or any other AD that you might end up laning against.
• You will lack Magic Penetration if you buy these, so remember to pick up .

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• This will help you chunk down an enemy team with heavy MR. Sell your for this late game. 43%+23 Magic Penetration still deals True damage to any opponent with 40 MR and under.

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• Great for an enemy team that heavily relies on one champion for damage. The Active is the main reason you're buying this. Always open your combo with DFG to deal bonus damage to your assassination target.

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• Still a very strong item even after all the nerfs. The range is short, but long enough for all of Kassadin's abilities to be affected. Keep in mind that because this item has a lot of MR, you'll have a hard time stacking up Void Stone.
• I highly recommend buying this - or at least the - if your lane opponent has a Magic Penetration build or %-HP based abilities like .

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• 20% Cooldown reduction means you have max CDR with Blue Buff, which is great for increasing the disruption you put out. However, this item is very expensive for the low amount of AP it gives you. This is more of a utility item that you buy for said CDR and the mana on kill effect is awesome for cleaning up fights. Great against double AP comps for the extra Magic Resist and silence uptime.

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• With all the Magic Penetration you're stacking, this should deal close to True damage, effectively giving your enemies -30% Life Steal. 100 Armor means 100% more effective health against physical damage. Great against auto-attackers, not optimal against more spell-based physical damage dealers like .

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• More expensive than , but gives you more utility through the Cooldown Reduction and Mana. This will end up mitigating more damage than Thornmail due to the 20% Attack Speed debuff.

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• Buy this if you're dying to burst damage. Riftwalk in, burst, Zhonya's, Riftwalk out. Also gives you a substantial amount of AP.

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• This hard counters or any champion that has a difficult-to-avoid hard CC. Upgrade this into last to make melees hurt that much more and give you a nice speed boost.

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• This item should make the enemy team less inclined to focusing you, which may be good or bad depending on your team comp. Very useful for overextending and baiting. It's almost impossible to die if you have this item because it gives you enough time and mana to Riftwalk away safely.

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• The Passive is very effective against or any team with critical initiating abilities. Keep in mind the MR on this item will make it harder to stack up Void Stone.

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• This gives way more damage than but less utility. Good if you are very ahead and want to 100-0 someone.

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• 20% CDR is huge. This item will increase your utility and survivability, but doesn't have much AP. If you deal any magic damage (even the tiny bit from Spellsword) to a target below 40% HP, you inflict Grievous Wounds, cutting their healing taken in half. The main reason you would want this is for helping you team in finishing off multiple targets with heal effects. Usually it is better off left to the support to buy this as any small amount of magic damage will apply its passive, but if your team is feeling the lack of Grievous Wounds against a healing team then go for it.

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• It's a decent overall item but now that Seeker's Armguard exists there really isn't a reason to buy this. Still useful against easily kited enemy teams, but very VERY situational.

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• This item isn't incredibly effective on Kassadin and is better off left to a bruiser to pick up. The reasoning behind this is it scales off of current health (and not AP), and by the time you apply your your target should already be low.
• If you want an upgrade to , do yourself a favor and buy instead. 35% MPen will help much more than Liandry's passive.

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• Unless the game you're playing is a complete stomp, steer clear of this item. It penalizes you greatly for dying even once, which is usually inevitable. 1235g is a lot of gold to dump on pure AP early on, not counting the fact that you would require at least 5 stacks to break-even with a .
• In my experience, buying a or will still help you snowball without dumping gold into something that isn't a piece of a core item.

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• This gives Null Sphere and Nether Blade a 35% slow, and Force Pulse and Riftwalk a 15% slow. While Rylai's does give you AP and health, the passive is largely wasted on Kassadin because he has a slow anyway. If your team has a bad comp and you are the only CC, consider buying instead, as this will also give you CDR to help catch up and slow enemies.

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• The reason I dislike this item is because the active effect is extremely unreliable outside of laning due to the fact that in team fights people tend to cluster up. This item is really only effective if you rush it, which Kassadin can't do because of his inflexible early budget.

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• All of these items give attack speed - which does synergize with Nether Blade - but because they are so expensive, buying these will make you very squishy. There are certain stats other than attack speed that may seem like they might be attractive to Kassadin, but I assure you the amount of defense or burst you are giving up to utilize attack speed items is simply not worth it. If you want attack speed, I would strongly recommend buying instead. Buying attack speed caps the benefit of Void Stone directly, while health gives you more survivability and allows you to utilize Kassadin's wonderful passive more easily.
• For more math on this subject, please see the next chapter, "But RathalosHater, why do you build Health instead of more AP late game?"

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• This item used to be decent with a more defensive mana-heavy build, but it's not good anymore because it was changed to deal physical damage.

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Full AP Kassadin has its uses, but there gets to be a point where the AD carry you're trying to assassinate gets stronger than you. You might be able to get them to 20% health, but if they turn around and auto-attack you to death in 3 seconds flat, you're no good. Building Kassadin like a semi-bruiser gives you the ability to burst more often and be more disruptive in team fights. What's that? You think health is too expensive to waste money on? It has no offensive benefits for an assassin? While that's normally true, you must take into account our friend Void Stone.

Normal value of 1 health: 2.17g
Value of 1 health adjusted for Void Stone mitigation: 2.55g
Normal value of 1% attack speed: 32.1g
Every 85 HP (216.7g) gives you 15% attack speed (481.5g), attack speed value per health: 5.66g
TOTAL value of health: 7.83g

For example, if you buy a Warmog's Armor, that's 1000 bonus health. Adjust for Void Stone and that's 1176 EHP. So, taking 1000 magic damage gives you 176% attack speed - 5649g worth - for 5 seconds.

Have your support ward the bush next to enemy wraiths, and when that ward expires (or if they didn't place one) put down your starting ward there. Kassadin is extremely weak until he gets Riftwalk, so your main goal while laning is to survive to level 6 and hopefully get a good amount of farm on the way.

Use your Null Sphere and Force Pulse to harass as often as possible, but be careful as this does draw creep aggro. That being said, try to harass mostly in between waves if minions are eating you up. Look at the HP of your own minions and use that to gauge when your opponent will come in for a last hit - this is the best time to harass. If you get pushed to your tower, here's a reminder on how much damage towers deal. 2 tower shots + 1 auto kills a melee minion, and 1 tower shot + 1 Nether Blade auto kills a ranged minion. If Nether Blade isn't available, try and hit caster minions twice.

Remember that blue buff will spawn about 7:20 and every 5 minutes thereafter. Coordinate with your team to make sure your blue buff doesn't get taken by the enemy.



Long Range Harass: -> ->

• Use this when you want to harass from a very long range.
• However, this combo will cost more mana and leave you without Riftwalk for a few seconds.
• Consider using this combo while you're only at 4 Force Pulse stacks. Your opponent might not expect it.
• Use Nether Blade to utilize this combo at only 3 Force Pulse stacks!

Combo Breaker: -> -> -> -> Auto Attack

• Kassadin's main all-in combo.
• This combo puts you in melee range of a silenced and slowed enemy to allow for Nether Blade auto attacks.
• Use Riftwalk on top of your target if you want damage, or behind them if they have an escape method.

The Ganker: -> -> -> -> -> Auto Attack

• Use this combo for roaming or when your jungler comes to gank.
• The silence is delayed a bit in this combo, but you get the Force Pulse slow out earlier which is generally more useful when roaming.

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Here's a clip of me laning against a Twisted Fate, showcasing one of the main combos you use as Kassadin - the Combo Breaker. As soon as I saw Twisted Fate moving in for a Gold Card, I used Riftwalk right on top of him for the damage and to close the gap. I silenced him with Null Sphere while stunned using a Buffered Input Command, used Force Pulse, and finished off the trade with a few Nether Blade auto attacks. Because of the lengthy silence offered by Null Sphere, Twisted Fate was unable to finish his combo and unable to retaliate until he was already at a big disadvantage.

Make sure the enemy wraiths bush stays warded, this is a very important ward for both the jungler and mid laner as wraiths are a large source of income for the jungler; they will be there often.

Coordinate ganks and objectives with your team. If you team won't group, ask nicely in chat. Communicate timers with your team. Red/Blue spawn 5 minutes after death, Dragon spawns 6 minutes after, and Baron Nashor spawns 7 minutes after. To make recording timers a bit easier, you can turn chat timestamps on by pressing Escape -> More Options -> Show Timestamps. Keep harassing and pressuring the enemy laner while you're waiting for your team to group - this should be a bit easier now that you have Riftwalk.

Priority list for mid-game objectives: Baron Nashor > Middle Inner Turret > Dragon > Middle Outer Turret > Top/Bot Inner Turret > Bot Outer Turret > Top Outer Turret > Buffs

Middle towers are extremely important due to the vision and defense they provide. Without a middle tower to fall back on, the entire jungle - and by proxy the entire map - becomes considerably more dangerous for that team.

Dragon is marked by the large skull in the bottom river, and grants its slayer 190 global gold. His attacks slow the attack speed of whoever they hit and deal true damage over time, so be mindful of your health. Move out of melee range if you get low on HP - he attacks whoever is closest to him. Remember to stop DPS at ~1000 HP - this makes it easy for your jungler to secure the Dragon kill with . Never attempt Dragon without your jungler when the enemy team is present.

Make sure your team keeps Dragon warded and consider invading the enemy jungle to steal their buffs. If you see the enemy mid laner and jungler are going top, consider gathering your team and taking Dragon - your team will win a 4v2. A common move to pull off mid-game is to gank a member of the enemy team - so they are at a disadvantage - then immediately head to Dragon. If you're going to gank bottom lane, here's how I would recommend doing so.

Blue Side:


Purple Side:


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After Darius and I stole red buff, Evelynn and I collapsed on Lux in middle lane. I waited over the ledge and out of enemy minion vision range to stay hidden but present. Lux knew I was MIA, so she went in to ward - this was our opening. I Riftwalked on top of Lux to make it harder for her to snare me before bursting her, but she ended up landing it. Evelynn and I finish off the kill pretty easily thanks to Force Pulse being charged by Evelynn's Hate Spike. After this gank, our team got a free Dragon kill.

Travel with your team and make your presence known to the enemy while taking objectives. Sometimes LoL can be a war of attrition, where simply showing up is enough to make the enemy retreat. Being on the front line will certainly threaten and push the enemy carries back, but be careful not to get initiated on. Use Riftwalk over walls to safely harass, escape, or catch stragglers.

Just like mid game, you want to abuse your mobility and burst. Buy wards so you can catch stragglers and not get caught yourself. Stick with your team and get towers/inhibitors. If you want to tower dive while sieging, you can position yourself over the wall the tower is next to and surprise the enemy team when you Riftwalk over and burst someone down.

Baron Nashor and inhibitors are a big part of late game. Baron Nashor is marked by the red skull on the map. Make sure your team has a Vision Ward or Oracle's to ensure the enemy team does not have vision of is lair. Baron is one tough cookie, so be mindful of your health while fighting him. Dodge green bubbles on the ground, and move out of melee range if you get low on HP - he attacks whoever is closest to him. Likewise, move closer if you have HP to spare. Hold the ~ key while trying to maneuver around Baron, this makes your clicks ignore minions. Remember to stop DPS at ~1500 HP - this makes it easy for your jungler to secure the Baron kill with . Never attempt Baron without your jungler when the enemy team is present.

Baron Nashor gives 300 global gold and a buff to the team who slays him. Baron Buff gives you health regen, mana regen, AD, and AP, giving whoever has it a clear advantage while sieging. Even if a team with Baron Buff is getting outpoked by the tower they're trying to take, the team with Baron will have the advantage because of the insane regen bonus.

Killing an enemy inhibitor will not only cause your team to spawn super minions, but gives the rest of your minions 100 extra HP. This stacks up to 3 times, once for each inhibitor down. A lane with no inhibitor with naturally push very fast, and even the lanes with inhibitors up will push - albeit slowly - because of the HP bonus your minions have. This gives your team map control because super minions can quickly overwhelm the Nexus if left unchecked. If your team kills the bottom inhibitor, consider killing the top inhibitor. Aside from being the farthest away (and thus hardest to defend) this will split turret aggro between the two lanes if your super minions reach the Nexus towers.

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In this clip, I waited over a wall for the opportunity to jump the enemy carries. The moment the enemy team moved in on Darius, I Riftwalked over the wall and bursted Soraka down. With the enemy team severely damaged after that fight, our team picked up a tower.

Kassadin's role is that of an assassin. Your job is to disrupt the enemy carries, by harassing them, silencing them, slowing them, zoning them, and of course killing them. But make sure you don't chase too far away from your own team if they can't fight without you. If you stay on the front lines, you should be able to threaten the enemy carries with your presence, and if they overstep their boundaries, punish them for it.

Often it is beneficial to hang near the back lines, then once a few spells have been blown, wait until the enemy carry is left open to attack, then you strike.
One of two things happens:
1) The enemy front line retreats, focusing you instead of your AD carry, allowing the rest of your team to take out the retreating enemies. Victory!
2) The enemy front line ignores you, continuing to pressure your carry. The enemy carry is likely very low or dead from your damage, causing them to retreat. Victory!

If you are squishy, try just walking up to an enemy (rather than Riftwalking) comboing them, and finally Riftwalk away. This won't deal as much damage, but you'll live to throw out another combo.

Constantly be aware of the magic damage you have taken and what cooldowns the enemy has up. Don't activate Nether Blade until you have a good amount of attack speed from Void Stone, or if you need it to clean up a kill.



Miss Fortune and myself were the major players in this game. Our Evelynn ended up dying trying to clear a Baron ward (oops!) which gave our team a disadvantage. I waited off-screen to the right for an opportunity to go in. The enemy team started to chase Darius, and Sona ended up giving her life trying to save him. Because of this chase, however, the enemy carries were completely unprotected, so I immediately jumped on Miss Fortune, kiling her and Lux. At the end Olaf ends up finding me, so I headed for a wall to Riftwalk over. Olaf could have easily chased me if he hit an Undertow, so I used Force Pulse to slow him down without vision.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

You should win this matchup. As long as you avoid Charm, she has literally no killing potential as you can just silence her if she tries to ult on you. Late game, make sure you use Null Sphere to stop her from ulting your team. Her one biggest chance to kill you is when she hits 6. If you don't have Riftwalk yet you will probably die, so try to hit level 6 before her - sap jungle XP (with permission of course) on their first camp.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Akali can follow you very easily using her ultimate, so she does have kill potential on you. However, most Akalis build squishy, so it can really go either way. She has superior sustain that requires some spell spam, which is why I recommend maxing Force Pulse. This will force her to be out of energy constantly from countering your push, and Force Pulse will be able to damage her through her Twilight Shroud. Always have a Vision Ward on hand in case you have an opportunity to kill her. Drop it on her Twilight Shroud and you will be able to see her.

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Difficulty: 3/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Early on this is a very annoying matchup. Avoid Flash Frosts and get as many minions as possible. Once you hit 6 you should be able to pop her egg, perhaps killing her or at the very least forcing her back. Anivia is a utility carry that wants to farm up for team fights, so make sure you are punishing her for trying to farm in your lane.

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Difficulty: 3/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Annie has a very long auto-attack range and a low-cooldown harass, so this lane is hard at first. Try not to get stunned. You can tell when she has her stun up by looking for a smoke effect on Annie, it looks like a white Force Pulse. When she hits 6 she will most likely try and kill you, so stay healthy. Once you have Null Sphere maxed you start to dominate this matchup. Annie is a squishy caster, you are Kassadin the tanky anti-caster. Tibbers' persistent AoE and Annie's Molten Shield will make it easy for you to charge Void Stone.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Most Brand combos consist of Conflagration, Sear to stun, then Pillar of Flame. As long as you avoid Sear and Pillar of Flame and this is an easy matchup. Brand's passive makes it easy for you to charge Void Stone, but scales with your max HP. If he gets out of hand, consider buying Magic Resist.

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Difficulty: 10/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

A good Cassiopeia is one of the hardest counters to Kassadin. Even though you can maintain your Void Stone with ease because of all her DoT effects, her all-in is still stronger than yours. Even though you can burst her down, she can harass you more effectively. She will try and use Noxious Blast on minions you're trying to last hit, which makes your laning phase hell. You'll need a lot of potions for this matchup - rush ASAP! If you think Cassiopeia is going to ult you, make sure you face away or Riftwalk behind her so you don't get stunned.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Cho'Gath has incredible amounts of sustain, is naturally tanky, and has a longer silence than you do. He simply can't lose lane to you. My recommendation for this matchup would be to simply survive until you can get kills from roaming, because there's a very small chance of you winning against Cho'Gath.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Diana is very similar to Kassadin in that she is a melee AP caster. Diana generally wants to build tanky items like to be able to survive her heavy dives. Crescent Strike is hard to dodge and punishes melee champions, but try dodging to the right if you're on blue side, or to the left if you're on purple side. Be careful with her ultimate as it has a longer range than yours and is refreshed if her target was hit with Crescent Strike. Avoid fighting her in an all-in 1v1, instead try and harass her down with long range combos and roam to pick up some kills.

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Difficulty: 8/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Elise has great harass with Neurotoxin. You can avoid her Cocoon easily once you get Riftwalk. If you try to escape or chase her, she can use Rappel to jump to you or your allies, but this is on a lengthy 26s cooldown. The key here is that her all-in is way stronger than yours, so stay healthy, avoid 1v1ing her, and try to survive to roam to other lanes. She will usually build something like which will negate your MR. Her spells scale off of your max HP so buy an early instead of stacking health.

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Difficulty: 2/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Evelynn is an AP assassin that is weak until she gets her ultimate - just like Kassadin. She is an easy matchup because of this fact. Harass her like you would most champions, but stay healthy as her burst is very strong. Evelynn turns invisible after being out of combat for a while, so consider pink warding in the middle of your lane to see which lane she is roaming to.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Fiddlesticks doesn't have enough damage to 1v1 you, but too much sustain for you to beat him. Once you hit 6, start pushing him to tower and roam for kills. He can't really push back without blowing his ultimate. Your Null Sphere interrupts his Drain and Crowstorm as they are both channeled abilities, so make sure you pay attention to him in fights if he becomes a problem.

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Difficulty: 9/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

I don't have a lot of experience with this matchup, as good Fizz players are hard to come by, but it is very hard. Fizz relies on all-in capability and does a lot of damage with his auto-attacks, so Null Sphere doesn't help too much with him. Rush Catalyst ASAP as you need to stay healthy in this lane or you will end up feeding. If you get ahead, put a few extra points in Nether Blade early and you might be able to out-trade him in melee range. Rather than buying I would buy because you will end up needing the MR.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Very similar to . Galio is naturally tanky, has great sustain, and pushes hard. He wants to use his Resolute Smite on you when you go and last hit a minion, so try and feign an early last hit and blow the cooldown. Galio will usually build items like making him near impossible to kill, so just build for mid/late game and roam when you can. Remember to use Null Sphere to cancel his ultimate if you can.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

He gives you a hard time before level 6 with his Barrel Roll, but after you get your ultimate he's easy prey. Watch out for his auto-attacks, they hurt while his Drunken Rage is up. You might have a hard time killing him because of his stupid long range, so make sure to roam. However, Gragas will try to keep your lane pushed to deny you from roaming, and can follow your roam well with Body Slam, so act fast when you roam.

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Difficulty: 2/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

You will lose pre-6 like most matchups, but once you get Riftwalk this lane becomes a bloodbath. Heimerdinger will most likely look to set up camp in middle lane and get your tower early. Destroy his turrets early so they don't stack up and become hard to manage. Look out for his ultimate (the ice turrets) because he can kite you effectively with it. Never let him kite you under his turrets as they do a lot of damage over time.

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Difficulty: 2/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

You can stack Void Stone very easily in this matchup. Karthus will push and farm constantly, which involves a lot of spell spam, which means easy Force Pulse charges for you - max it first. Dodge his Lay Waste and this is a very easy lane. If you see Karthus casting his ultimate, make sure you interrupt it with Null Sphere.

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Difficulty: 3/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

New Karma still sucks. She's pretty good at kiting and punishing melee champions, but she has to push the lane to do so. You can pretty easily last hit under tower with Nether Blade so this isn't an issue for you. Try to keep up in farm and hit level 6 and you win the matchup. The only time she is even remotely dangerous is with a high-damage jungler like because she has a lot of utility. Her Focused Resolve is something to watch out for in fights - it's a tether that snares you if you stay near her for the full duration, and if she chooses to spend Mantra on it, will heal her for her missing health.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

A smart Katarina will give you a hard time in lane, but you will beat her later. Bouncing Blades are really annoying. She can chase you with Sinister Steel and Shunpo but you should be able to out-damage her with Nether Blade. Always keep an eye on her in fights and remember to silence her ultimate. If Katarina maxes Bouncing Blades first, try to melee her often. If she maxes Sinister Steel, try to stay away from long engagements and instead strategically poke with combos.

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Difficulty: 8/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Kayle's early game against melee is stupid strong, hybrid ranged damage, sustain, and slow means you will definitely get pressured hard early. This is why I prefer running HP regen quints. This matchup is mainly about surviving until mid-game when you can help your team by roaming. Stay away from your own minions while Righteous Fury is up, and move in aggressively when it expires - it has a rather lengthy cooldown before she starts picking up CDR items. Late game her ultimate will cause you a LOT of pain as it makes it virtually impossible to burst your desired target. To combat this, you can silence Kayle (splits your damage but prevents her from ulting) or try and bait out the ultimate early (risk of counter-initiation).

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Difficulty: 5/10 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Kennen is great at punishing melees with his Electrical Surge and can stop dives with his ultimate, but he is squishy before he gets items. Kennen will look to auto-attack you very often, so consider getting a on your first back. If Kennen has a lightning effect on his hands, that means his next auto-attack applies extra damage and a Mark of the Storm, so get back. Most Kennen players I play against max Thundering Shuriken, which makes this matchup significantly easier because staying behind your minions will negate most of his harass. If Kennen does max Electrical Surge, you will be under constant harass but not in danger of being killed unless you get very low. Your main opportunity to kill Kennen is after you have Riftwalk but before he has tanky items, so about level 7-10. Focus on farming so you can damage him at that time.

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Difficulty: 8/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Kha'Zix is a clean-up assassin, like an AD version of Katarina. Build early to mitigate his kill potential. He deals increased damage to you if you are alone, so stay near your minions. You can tell if you're too far from your minions when Kha'Zix has a purple aura beneath him - or a DANGER! particle on the Mecha skin. Be very careful with Kha'Zix level 2, he can easily kill you with his Leap + Taste Their Fear combo. Always have a Vision Ward on hand in case you have an opportunity to kill him, this will negate his ult's stealth.

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Difficulty: annoying/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

This is the stupidest, most annoying and frustrating matchup in the game. Both of you have great burst and a silence, so neither of you will be able to finish a combo. Respect her kill potential, stay healthy and keep her low - especially when she hits level 6. If you ever see LeBlanc miss her Ethereal Chains, Riftwalk on top of her, activate Nether Blade, and use the Combo Breaker combo. This lane can go either way and snowballs very fast. Roaming and countering LeBlanc's roaming is key to winning the game here. Remember to ward blue wraiths/river so you can see when she runs bot lane.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Lee Sin is the AD version of Kassadin. Lee Sin can very easily follow your Riftwalks with his Resonating Strike, so wait out Sonic Wave's duration if it's safe to make sure he can't follow you. As with most moderately difficult matchups, stay healthy to avoid getting killed and you can easily survive this lane.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Not surprisingly, she does well against Kassadin. She can harass with impunity and synergizes very well with ganks due to her having a slow, a gap closer, and a snare at level 3. She outranges you in every way - a good Lissandra will make your laning phase very difficult. Shoving the lane is an non-issue for Lissandra because she can poke under tower with Ice Shard and get away from ganks fairly easily. Keep in mind she can teleport to her claw via Glacial Path - you can prevent her from blinking by silencing her. In fights she is an excellent peeler, even against a Kassadin. She is one of the few champions that has a targeted ranged stun. Keep in mind she can teleport to her claw via Glacial Path - you can prevent her from blinking by silencing her.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Lux can poke and farm from a very long range, so she will give you trouble early. Once you hit 6 this lane takes a huge swing in your favor. Try to dodge her abilities with Riftwalk. She probably won't be able to kill you alone but synergizes very well with jungler ganks. If she ever uses her snare, Riftwalk on top of her and use the Combo Breaker combo. Even if the snare does hit, you will still Riftwalk.

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Difficulty: 10/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

In my opinion, the hardest matchup there is. His Seismic Shard deals similar damage to Null Sphere, he pushes lane very easily, and has a shield through his passive. Keep in mind the shield will only refresh 10 seconds after taking no damage, so if you can keep him under constant fire he won't be able to sustain himself. Most likely Malphite will build so you won't be able to kill him. Malphite can easily kite you and is very good at initiating with his ultimate. If you end up getting ahead by some miracle, when you go to assassinate someone, Malphite can ultimate the back line and insta-gib you. Just try to farm and roam.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Malzahar pushes very well against you early. If you want to harass him, make sure his Malefic Vision is on cooldown so he's unable to retaliate. The majority of his damage is avoidable - Call of the Void and Null Zone are ground effects. Malefic Visions can be cast on you, but you can stop it from spreading to you if you stay away from afflicted minions. His ult has a larger range than your silence so it will be hard to interrupt it if it's on you, but it's doable if you anticipate when he's going to ult you and fire a Null Sphere right before he gets the channel off. If he uses his ult on anyone else, make sure you silence it.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Master Yi doesn't have enough damage to 1v1 you, but too much sustain for you to beat him. This very similar to a Fiddlesticks matchup but Master Yi tends to AFK push and roam for kills. Stay healthy and silence his Meditate to stop some of his sustain.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

His shield will protect him from any harass you put down, so don't waste your mana unless his shield bar is empty. You can't beat him in lane, so get your jungler to come gank - Mordekaiser naturally pushes and has no escape making him one of the easiest to gank champions in the game. I used to play this guy all the time... Ah, the memories... huehuehue.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Playing against Morgana requires some skillful juking of Dark Binding. Like many matchups, you'll be pushed to tower early. Do your best to last-hit at tower and keep up in farm. As long as you don't get hit by a Dark Binding, she has zero kill potential. However, she synergizes incredibly well with jungler ganks. Somewhere around level 9 you should be able to kill her or force her back at the very least. Make sure to pay attention to the minimap and ward so you can counter her roaming. In a 1v1, run circles around her and juke when you're in melee range to make it hard for her to land a Dark Binding on you.

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Difficulty: 10/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 3
Max:

Her auto-attack poke and innate sustain is just too much for Kassadin. Build . Doran's Shield and Defensive masteries will block 11 of her damage before Armor, but try to just focus on farming for mid-game roaming. The only real opportunity to gank Nidalee is pre-6, so abuse the fact that she has no escape while you can.

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Difficulty: 3/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1 (only if you're 100% sure she's AP, if not use Setup 3)
Max:

Way easier than AD Nidalee. If she maxes Javelin Toss first, she has no sustain and is easy to force out of lane. If she maxes Primal Surge first, she has no damage and is easy to force out of lane. Overall an easy matchup as long as you don't get poked down.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

This matchup is all about baiting out spells. If you get the first hit, she can react with Command: Protect and auto attacks. If she shields pre-emptively, wait it out to harass her. Pre-6, she is a pain with her auto-attacks and Command: Attack. Make sure you move in an erratic pattern and stay on your toes to avoid The Ball while farming. After you hit level 6, you can start to play a bit more aggressively. Bait her out and act like you're retreating. When she moves into auto attack, Riftwalk on to her and use Combo Breaker. Activate Nether Blade and start auto attacking her with your Void Stone bonus.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

This is a very snowball-oriented matchup that's hard to come back from, so be extra careful in the early levels. Build early to mitigate his kill potential. He deals double damage if you're 15% health or lower, so make sure to stay healthy. Ward the side brushes in mid lane so you can see where Pantheon is using his ultimate to gank. If you can bait out his ultimate, you have a 2 minute window in which Pantheon can't follow your roam easily.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Do not, ever, under any circumstances, trade with Riven in melee range. Riven tends to spam spells a lot, so max Force Pulse first. The increased slow will make her easier to kite. When she gets her ultimate she can 100 to 0 you very easily if you don't have Riftwalk yet, so as with most burst champions you want to stay healthy. Build to stop her from forcing you out of lane too hard.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Rumble is very good at punishing melee champions with his Flamespitter. You can't interrupt Flamespitter with your Null Sphere. His strongest phase is when he hits level 3. He will usually build something like which will negate your MR, so build lots of health and maybe yourself if he gets strong. You can juke his ultimate very easily by simply Riftwalking after he uses it.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Ryze is a late-game carry like you are, but he takes a bit longer to ramp up. You both don't do much early game, but he's ranged and you're melee so you might get denied a few minions. Once you hit level 6 you can easily damage him with Combo Breaker, just make walk up to him and Riftwalk into melee first because Rune Prison and Null Sphere have the same range. You'll continue to keep the edge over Ryze until he gets his charged up. If he buys a this lane gets very hard for you, but he won't deal as much damage as if he goes . Try and focus on roaming to other lanes, especially when Ryze gets too strong for you.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Sion is a great push-and-roam champion. If he goes in to farm minions with Death's Caress, stay away from him and make him choose between farming or hitting you with it. Before you get Force Pulse it's impossible to break through Death's Caress, but you should be able to disrupt his combo using a fast while he's running up to you. You out-range him by a tiny bit (~75) and Cryptic Gaze has a slow enough particle that you can Riftwalk out of it, so he shouldn't be able to combo you effectively. The key to this matchup is out-roaming Sion. That means keeping the river/jungle warded so you can counter his roam OR forcing him to counter-roam you instead by making the first move.

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Difficulty: 8/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Swain is a tricky opponent to face. Early on, this matchup is extremely hard because of his Torment + auto-attack harass. You do out-range his Torment and Decrepify by 25 units, but in practice because of your cast animations he will trade hits with you every time you throw a Null Sphere his way. Swain will usually build tanky items like , coupled with the sustain from his ultimate he is very hard to hurt. Once he gets blue buff, he is almost impossible to push out of lane, so try and coordinate with your team to gank Swain's blue buff at ~7:20 when it spawns. When you're fighting him later on, Riftwalk away from his Nevermove and try not to get kited by Decrepify - move away to break the tether.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Syndra harasses you extremely effectively with Dark Sphere pre-6, so if you're having a hard time, try and get as much CS as you can while it's on its short 4-second cooldown. Rush your , you will need them to move out of her abilities. Move erratically when she picks up a ball/minion with Force of Will so she can't combo you. Never let Syndra position a Dark Sphere directly between you and her, this is how she sets up her stun. Once you hit 6, this matchup becomes easier as you can dodge her spells and close the gap, but respect her burst and avoid engaging her with several Dark Spheres available when her ult is up. After laning is over make sure you disrupt her combos with Null Sphere.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Despite what many people think, Talon is not the best answer to Kassadin. As long as you keep harassing him when he goes in for CS, he won't be able to all-in you without dying. Take Nether Blade at level 2 and build ASAP to out-sustain him, make sure to ward and follow his roam to stop him from snowballing against your team. Consider buying early and turn them into after RoA. Be very mindful of his burst and kite him when you can. The reason I take an aggressive rune/mastery setup is because harassing Talon before he gets lifesteal is so incredibly important in this matchup.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 3
Max:

His auto-attack poke is godly. One auto-attack's worth of Toxic Shot will out-damage your Null Sphere. Focus on farming up to roam mid-game. Buy early. I would recommend asking your jungler to gank early, before he gets Noxious Trap at level 6. At this point he is still very squishy and immobile. Don't let Teemo kite you, just Riftwalk away if he gets a proc on you. Buy a Vision Ward to clear Noxious Traps in an area.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 1 (only if you're 100% sure he's AP, if not use Setup 3)
Max:

Just like AD Teemo, his auto-attack poke is godly. One auto-attack's worth of Toxic Shot will out-damage your Null Sphere. Unlike AD Teemo, AP Teemos tend to build very squishy, so you will be able to out-trade him eventually. Don't chase him too far unless you know Noxious Traps have been cleared. Focus on farming up to roam mid-game. I would recommend asking your jungler to gank early, before he gets Noxious Trap at level 6. Buy a Vision Ward to clear Noxious Traps in an area.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Avoiding Wild Cards is rather easy if you use the ~ key to click through minions and the S key to stop your champion from moving. Before 6, get back if you see him using Pick a Card. After 6, if you see him using Pick a Card you can easily use the Combo Breaker combo to stop him from using Wild Cards on you while you're stunned. Ward the side brushes in mid lane so you can see where he's using his ultimate to gank. If you can bait out his ultimate, you have a 2 minute window in which he can't follow your roam easily. The main goal is to force Twisted Fate to use his ultimate defensively by roaming before he gets a chance to use it. When chasing a split pushing Twisted Fate, save Null Sphere for when he starts casting Gate to ensure he doesn't get away. If you have a hard time predicting Twisted Fate's Gates, consider using . You won't be able to follow every single Gate, but it will help create pressure on Twisted Fate knowing that his roam will be followed.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Veigar is weak early, so harass him while you have the advantage. Veigar is very much a late-game champion and his goal is to farm up until he can kill you. His burst gets stronger the more AP you have, so build health to keep him from bursting you down, and disrupt his combos with Null Sphere. Wait to use your abilities - especially Riftwalk - until he has already blown Event Horizon. Press the S key to stop your champion if you're auto-pathing into the edge of his Event Horizon. If Event Horizon becomes a problem, buy or to cut the stun short.

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Difficulty: 4/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

A very uncommon pick, a good Viktor player can definitely catch you off-guard. Early on, he will harass you with Power Transfer, wait until the shield wears off to return fire. If you're getting hit by Death Ray often, try standing away from your minion line so he has to choose between farming and harassing you. Don't Riftwalk in on him until he uses his Graviton Field. If you want to use Combo Breaker, make sure Graviton Field is on cooldown. Viktor's ultimate does a surprising amount of damage over time (430/670/910 +2.23 AP!) so avoid tanking it. It moves slower the farther away Viktor is, so slow him with Force Pulse and silence him to stop him from controlling it for a short time.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 2
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Vlad is weak until about level 5, so harass him as much as you can early. Trading Qs with him is not worth it once he gets level 5 Transfusion, assuming you have equal AP. You won't be able to out-sustain him, so focus on trying to out-damage him by getting early. Once he gets his he becomes very hard to stop in lane. Never fight Vladimir with full Tides of Blood stacks - he will out-damage you easily. Vlad's main weakness is that he is a poor roamer, so exploit this and gank side lanes often.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

You won't be able to harass him before you get Riftwalk because of his ridiculous range. Try to dodge Arcanopulse by moving left and right. Avoid getting stunned by moving away when tagged with Mage Chains. Xerath is less of a poke champion and more of a ranged assassin, so if he tries to burst one of your team-mates down, disrupt his combo with a silence. Late game you can burst him down as he tends to build glass-cannon.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Zed tends to spam spells and is most effective in melee range, which is why I level Force Pulse first. If for some reason he maxes instead of I would max Null Sphere. Zed is very mobile with all of his shadows and his ultimate can follow you through Riftwalk. As long as you build and stay above 50% Zed doesn't really have kill potential on you. He can swap with his Living Shadows, but only once - pay attention to where they are and if he has swapped yet.

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Difficulty: 5/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 1
Max:

Ziggs is great at kiting and poking from a long range, so naturally he's a huge pain pre-6. Rush ASAP to help survive the early levels. Even if you silence Ziggs, his passive will deal hefty damage to you. Once you get Riftwalk he's pretty easy to trade with considering you can dodge all of his abilities with your mobility, especially if you use Combo Breaker. If you're getting kited often, try saving Riftwalk for after he throws down Hexplosive Minefield. When chasing Ziggs, save Null Sphere for when he tries to use Satchel Charge over a wall. This will give you enough time for Riftwalk to come off cooldown.

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Difficulty: 6/10
Runes: Setup 3
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Zilean may out-range you with his Time Bomb, but try to return fire when he uses it, as Null Sphere costs significantly less mana than Time Bomb. That being said, Zilean is very annoying because of his kiting potential with Time Warp. The more crafty Zilean players will use minions to harass. Stay far away from your own low-HP minions. He can't all-in you, but he can keep himself from dying with Chrono Shift and he synergizes very well in jungler ganks. Later on, if someone on the enemy team is close to dying, use your silence on Zilean to prevent him from saving them with Chrono Shift. Likewise it might be beneficial to wait out the ultimate's duration (it looks like 3 golden hourglasses) before killing someone so they can't revive.

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Difficulty: 7/10
Runes: Setup 1
Masteries: Setup 2
Max:

Zyra vastly out-ranges you, so she will be very hard to trade with early. If you want to trade with Zyra, wait until she misses Grasping Roots and use Combo Breaker. She can't trade with your auto-attacks, but pay attention to her plants. Similar to Heimerdinger, don't chase her under her plants as they will easily kite and out-damage you. Zyra harasses you extremely effectively with Deadly Bloom pre-6, so try and get as much CS as you can while it's on cooldown. Rush your , you will need them to move out of her abilities. If you kill her, save Riftwalk for dodging her passive.

Initiators:

• These champions have a way of exploiting an enemy's poor positioning or taking immediate control of a team fight using their crowd control, allowing you to get free damage and better positioning on the enemy team.

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Divers:

• Once a team fight has started, these champions use their damage and/or crowd control to help you kill the enemy carries. Make sure to follow up with damage on the enemy when these champions dive for you.
• Communicate beforehand what champion you want to focus. Usually this is the enemy AD carry.

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Guardians:

• These champions have a way of keeping you safe on your quest to kill the enemy carries.
• Do not rely on these champions to save you in solo queue (or blame them for your death!) but make sure to follow through if they do use one of their long cooldowns on you.

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Spammers:

• These champions have to spam spells to perform, giving you easy access to Force Pulse.

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Enemies:

• These champions and items deal consistent magic damage over time, making it easy for you to keep Void Stone charged.

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• Your silence and slow make it very easy for Cho'Gath to land his silence and knockup, making for easy kills.

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• In addition to being effective assassins like Kassadin, Lee Sin and Jax can follow Kassadin over most walls that he Riftwalks over, removing the need for jump-wards.

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• Your burst makes it easier for Mordekaiser to get a Children of the Grave ghost, and his Creeping Death gives both of you bonus durability for when you dive the enemy team.

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• Your silence and slow make it easier for Skarner to close the gap to an enemy before dragging them to their doom with Impale.

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• You and Thresh both have excellent disruption and diving, giving you the potential to make quick work of anyone near you. Thresh's Dark Passage can save you from risky dives when Riftwalk is on cooldown or you're silenced.

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• Xin Zhao can completely isolate a target using his Crescent Sweep before knocking them airborne, making them very vulnerable to your burst.

• More directly based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
• Green, blue, and purple go exceptionally well together.
• Has Lovecraftian squids drawn on his war-kilt.
• Yes, it's called a war-kilt. LOOK IT UP

• What Kassadin would be like if he served the Void.
• His war-kilt isn't jagged/square.
• His weapon looks amazing, no longer looks like it was drawn in MS paint. 11/10 would cosplay. (pls do it someone)

• Similar to Classic Shaco, using this skin means you're either really good or really bad.
• Free
• Color scheme is lacking. Blue, white, and black only belong together in a joke or something.

• Winter Olympics skin, so it's rare.
• Red, green, and white color scheme belongs in a christmas display.
• I may or may not be jealous of people that have this skin.

• His back looks derpy due to the lack of ventilator.
• He's still human, yet he can use void powers. THIS ISN'T EVEN CANON WTF BLIZZ
• Glowing eyes of any color are 159% cooler than brown eyes.
• Korean pros only use this skin to inhibit their abilities, allowing them to play with mere mortals.

Diana: Moonsilver Blade damage reduced slightly. Pale Cascade shield reduced from 55/80/105/130/155 (+0.45 Ability Power) to 40/55/70/85/100 (+0.3 Ability Power) but now stacks instead of refreshing.

• Diana won't be able to shield Null Sphere as easily now, but if she has control of the minion wave she will get a bigger shield.

Twisted Fate: Blue Card now restores 50/75/100/125/150 Mana instead of 26/39/52/65/78 (+0.6 AD). Stacked Deck no longer gives Cooldown Reduction, but Attack Speed increased from 3/6/9/12/15% to 10/15/20/25/30%. Destiny cooldown increased from 150/135/120 to 180/150/120.

• Twisted Fate actually needs to manage his mana now! Less Wild Cards in the laning phase makes him less dominant before blue buff comes into play. Increased cooldown on Destiny along with the removal of his innate CDR makes his early ganking less dominant. TF will only get 2 or 3 Destiny ganks off before laning ends.

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New Champion - Lissandra: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Lissandra

• A mobile mage with good wave-clear and great utility including a targeted stun, Lissandra is a champion to keep an eye on as Kassadin.

Potions: Limited to 5 each at a time.

• An interesting bandaid fix by Riot that fails to address the root of the problem: the lack of starting item choices. This does hurt Kassadin a bit because his early laning is so bad, but other champions will have less sustain as well, making your harass actually stick. Kassadin was even shown in the patch preview video! Faerie Charm/wards/pots or Flask/pots are my preferred opening sets now.

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Akali: Mark of the Assassin initial damage reduced from 45/70/95/120/145 to 35/55/75/95/115. Mark detonation damage Ability Power ratio increased from 0.4 to 0.5.
Essence of Shadow charge rate increased from 25/20/15 to 35/25/15 seconds.

• Finally hit Akali where she needed to be hit - her base damages. Now she has base damage on her harass suitable for a melee hypercarry. The ult nerf might be a bit much, but it decreases her early-game mobility and frequency of trades.

Lux: Movement speed reduced from 340 to 330. Final Spark cooldown increased from 80/60/40 to 80/65/50 seconds.

• She can still kite and maintain great zone control and instantly clear every minion wave with blue buff + Deathcap + Morellonomicon, still a really strong champion just a tiny bit less mobile.

Morgana: Dark Binding mana cost reduced from 60/75/90/105/120 to 50/60/70/80/90. Soul Shackles mana cost reduced from 100/150/200 to 100 at all ranks.

• Mana costs are a very good way to buff a champion without affecting much. Morgana will probably see more play, if only as a support.

Muramana: Toggle damage changed to physical from magic.

• RIP Muramana build, no longer viable on Kassadin.

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Karma Rework: Completely new kit.

• She still bullies melee early, but now she kites them better and has better 1v1. Her W-ultimate is like a Fiddle's Drain that you can't interrupt. I predict she will be a moderately difficult lane opponent because her early levels are so annoying and she has good kite late-game.

Akali: Twilight Shroud bugfixes. Lingering stealth removed, stealths and unstealths quicker. Attacking from the shroud will reveal Akali earlier and delays stealth longer.

• Makes her less annoying to fight in lane, but we max E against her anyway so it's really more relevant for other champions. Remember kids, always buy pink wards against Akali.

Rumble: The Equalizer no longer deals initial impact damage but the area burn damage now starts immediately instead of after a 0.5 second delay. Burn damage per second increased from 100/140/180 (+0.2 AP) to 130/185/240 (+0.3 AP) (total damage dealt across the full duration is unchanged)

• Basically a huge nerf to Rumble unless you stand in his ultimate for 2 seconds, which is never going to happen. This makes it harder for Rumble to snipe kills with the impact damage. The way to counter this is saving Riftwalk until he casts his ultimate to make sure you get out of it ASAP.

Udyr: Armor/MR increase on passive replaced by Movement Speed increase. Bear Stance grants more movement speed over a shorter duration and, while the movement speed bonus is active, Udyr ignores unit collision and performs a short dash toward his target on stunning attacks. First attack after activating Phoenix Stance now immediately procs the fire cone in addition to every 3rd attack.

• Udyr's early game is pretty stupid now, if you're against him always buy a ward and avoid pushing. His Bear Stance changes allow him to catch you very quick, and his Phoenix Stance changes allow him to deal way more burst damage.

Turrets: Now deal more damage to champions, with consecutive attacks dealing even more damage than before. Siege minions take more damage and deal less damage to turrets. Super minions take more damage from turrets.

• This makes clearing a siege wave at your turret less daunting, and (hopefully) deters early tower dives.

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Iceborn Gauntlet: Armor increased from 60 to 70 and Ability Power reduced from 40 to 30.

• Now that Seeker's Armguard exists, there really isn't a point to this item unless you have a really bad team comp (no CC) and are against an easily kited team. It's a very situational item now.

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Nothing really relevant for this patch.



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Athene's Unholy Grail: Cooldown reduction increased to from 15% to 20%.

• This item plus 20% from Blue Buff puts you at the CDR cap. I still don't like this item very much, but I can't deny the fact that it's awesome against double AP comps. More MR and more silence uptime.

Deathfire Grasp: Total cost reduced from 3300 to 3100, Cooldown reduction reduced to from 15% to 10%.

• Riot basically hit the nail on the head with this change. You don't buy DFG for the CDR, you buy it for the active - and now we're getting it 200g earlier.

Rabadon's Deathcap: Total cost increased from 3200 to 3300. Ability power bonus increased from 25% to 30%.

• Ah, old deathcap. This is a small bonus if you just have RoA and Deathcap, but it pans out to be huge when you have a full build. Deathcap has always been core on mages, and now our full build has a lot more power.

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Elise: Neurotoxin mana cost increased to 80/85/90/95/100 from 60.

• This makes laning against Elise a little easier. Now she will run out of mana if she rushes spell pen, or her build will be delayed 700g if she buys Tear of the Goddess.

Deathfire Grasp: Recipe changed: Fiendish Codex + Needlessly Large Rod + 880 gold = 3300 gold (from 3000). Ability power increased to 120 from 100.

• More late-game AP and a better buildup makes your mid to late-game better.

Doran's Shield: Health regen per 5 seconds increased to 8 from 5.

• I'll have to test this out, but I feel starting potions and flask is still a better option against auto-attackers.

New Item - Seeker's Armguard: Recipe: Cloth Armor + Cloth Armor + Amplifying Tome + 125 gold = 1160 gold. Stats: +30 Armor +25 Ability Power UNIQUE Passive: Kills grant 0.5 bonus Armor and Ability Power. This bonus stacks up to 30 times.

• A great item to buy against AD mids, this justifies buying 2 Cloth Armor early. It's a relatively cheap source of Armor and AP making it a great mid-game item against heavy AD comps. Builds into Zhonya's Hourglass instead of Chain Vest.

Zhonya's Hourglass: Recipe changed: Seeker's Armguard + Needlessly Large Rod + 650 gold = 3410 gold (from 3100). Ability Power increased to 120 from 100.

• Increases your late-game AP and gives you a balanced mid-game option against physical damage.

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Diana: Lunar Rush cast range increased to 825 from 750.

• This just means she can follow you a lot easier and is harder to kite, also the range matches Crescent Strike.

Evelynn: Agony's Embrace damage changed to 15/20/25% of the target's current health from 15/20/25% of their max health. Cooldown increased to 150/120/90 seconds from 120/90/60. Cast range reduced to 650 from 800.

• A well-deserved nerf in the correct area. The scaling change on Agony's Embrace will weaken Evelynn's ability to finish off enemies from range, which means most Evelynn players will use this for initiation.

Kassadin: Fixed an issue where Force Pulse would sometimes fire backward after using Riftwalk.

• LOL YEAH RIGHT RIOT seriously they've "fixed" this like 9 times, but we'll see.
• WOW THEY ACTUALLY FIXED IT 10/10 RIOT HOW DO YOU DO THAT THING YOU DO WITH THE PATCHES.

Kha'Zix: Unseen Threat damage reduced at later levels. Slow reduced to 25% from 35%. Taste Their Fear bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 1.5 from 1.6, isolation bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 2.0 from 2.4.

• Reducing the scaling on Taste Their Fear by 7% (17% for isolation) won't affect much at all until late game and even then it's a small nerf. Honestly I feel Evolved Wings would be a better place to nerf him. Doesn't really change anything.

Talon: Cutthroat now amplifies damage done to the target. (bugfix) Noxian Diplomacy bleed damage reduced. Shadow Assault damage reduced from 120/170/220 to 120/190/260. Bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 0.75 from 0.9.

• Cut his AoE damage a little bit but overall increased his late game single target burst.

Banner of Command: Now grants 10 less Ability Power. Added 10% Cooldown Reduction.

• I'll have to experiment with this, but I might consider rushing against AD mids and later upgrading it to Banner. We'll see.

Crystalline Flask: Costs 345g, up from 225g. Restores 120 Health and 60 Mana over 12 seconds,
changed from 100 Health and 40 Mana over 10 seconds.

• This seemingly minor change actually affects the meta in quite a drastic way. It reduces sustain before the first back, and decreases the likelihood of opening with a ward - now players have to choose between 1 pot and 1 ward OR 3 pots.
• The cost change means our starting build is going to be Flask and 3 pots. We will lose our ward and 240 HP of sustain, but the sustain will even out on the 4th back.
• Each charge of flask used to be worth 37.3g, making it "worth it" after the 6th charge. After the patch, each charge is worth 49g, making it "worth it" after the 7th charge.

Iceborn Gauntlet: Duration of slow field reduced to 2 seconds from 3. Slow percentage reduced to 30% from 35%.

• IBG Ezreal will still be really annoying and this is still a great item. Giving this the Frozen Mallet treatment (less slow on ranged champions) would be better IMO.

Will of the Ancients: Cost increased by 50g, builds out of Kage's Lucky Pick.

• Basically every support will buy this because the other upgrades for Kage's aren't great aside from . From a metagame standpoint this will make increase late-game sustain, making sieging harder, which I don't really like.

May 21st, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.7. Added Rejuvenation Bead as a starting item.

April 30th, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.6. Changed starting items and core items to include Tear of the Goddess/Seraph's Embrace. It's really strong on Kassadin! Added Karma matchup (finally played against more than one lol) and Lissandra matchup.

April 10th, 2013 - One million views, wow. Thanks guys & girls. Updated for Patch 3.5 balance update. (These patch names are so inconsistent, riot pls.) Moved Muramana to the do not build section.

March 28th, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.5, will add Karma matchup in the next few days.

March 25th, 2013 - Added skin tier list.

March 20th, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.04. Changed the guide to better reflect how amazing Seeker's Armguard is. Playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate entirely too much.

March 3rd, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.03. Added Kayle matchup (sorry this took so long!) and added more info about Teleport to Twisted Fate matchup.

February 14th, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.02. Added Athene's Unholy Grail. Happy Valentine's Day!

January 31st, 2013 - Updated for Patch 3.01. Added synergy with Thresh. (He's fun!) Added Seeker's Armguard to items. Updated some matchups to reflect recent item changes. Happy birthday Gordon!

January 17th, 2013 - Riot actually fixed Reverse Pulse! Removed that chapter because it's outdated now.

January 15th, 2013 - Updated for Preseason Balance Update 2.

January 10th, 2013 - Added a new chapter, Voidwalker's Patch Notes. I will break down and analyze PBE and Live changes to the game relevant to Kassadin.

January 7th, 2013 - Updated matchups.

January 6th, 2013 - GUIDE APPROVED! Added a few more items to the "do not buy list."

January 3rd, 2013 - Fleshing out the items section a bit, adding a "do not buy list" and more explanation for certain items.

January 2nd, 2013 - Guide released!

Thanks for reading! I hope I've helped you better understand the Voidwalker.
If you have something to say, please remember to drop a comment below!