Ban this every game, if she's good you are unable to play the game and will be punished for every minion, if she's bad then you can never get a lead and have to coinflip that the rest of your team wins. USE HAIL OF BLADES IF YOU REALLY HAVE TO LANE VS HER.
Nautilus
Kog's antichrist, ask support to ban him or dodge. His ult makes it impossible to 1v9 a game.
Ashe
Frustrating because of how hard it is to get a lead against her, meaning you have to coinflip your team winning. UNFLINCHING IS OVERPOWERED AGAINST HER. Cleanse is useful if she has a CC support.
Senna
Blatantly overpowered champ, smart senna players will completely cuck you every teamfight with shroud. Buy tabi if she has a traditional adc. If you don't have an enchanter then you should dodge.
Aphelios
Absolute joke of a champion outside of competitive.
Draven
Surprisingly easy to beat because of your range advantage, but I have him as a major threat as he is nearly guaranteed to have a hyper-aggressive support. Tabi is useful but not necessary.
Ezreal
Skill matchup. Dodge his stuff, all in when he uses E. Ghost is really nice here.
Kai'Sa
RUN EXHAUST. Range advantage means you win. Don't let her auto you.
Samira
Only a threat when she has flash. Be aware of timing your exhaust if you decide to bring it, most samira players will run cleanse and you don't want her to cleanse multiple things at once.
Jinx
Extreme threat if she has an enchanter, otherwise you are basically just the better champion. Stay out of her normal auto range, you win if shes using rockets. Highly recommend ghost.
Karthus
Run ghost and he's not a champion anymore. Don't ever fight him at level 1/2!
Annie
Stupid champ. Go cleanse and double MR runes if you don't plan on fitting a QSS into your build later.
Graves
425 auto range vs one of the longest range champions in the game.
Tristana
If your exhaust/barrier is up, then she's a free kill at pretty much every stage of the game. LANDING YOUR Q IS VERY IMPORTANT HERE. SHE WILL OUT DPS YOU IF YOU MISS.
Lucian
RUN EXHAUST. Only use it if he burns his dash, then run him down. Extreme threat if he has a nami or a yuumi. An early wardensmail or steelcaps are really potent against him.
Karma
Empowered Q slow is your worst nightmare as it's unavoidable if she is aiming properly. BRING MAGIC RESIST RUNE OR LOSE.
Janna
Spit in her mouth. It's hot.
Seraphine
Celerity/nimbus page makes you forget she's even in the match.
Sivir
Annoying because you can't kill her if she's smart.
Kalista
Run exhaust and she isn't a champion. Max E first or second if she gets an early lead.
Kindred
Don't get killed before your first recall and it's free.
Xayah
Lethality build is annoying to deal with early, but its free past your first item.
Yuumi
Get 1 item and shred anyone she sits on. USE PTA USE PTA USE PTA
Miss Fortune
Unflinching page means you kite her past first recall. If she goes E max build its a bit harder, if she goes Q max then its really free.
Varus
Stupid champ that is only considered weak due to player skill. You can't ever kill him, don't even try. You're much more useful in a teamfight. Cleanse is highly recommended for his ult.
Jhin
Caitlyn 2. A good Jhin player will never let you take a long trade or hard engage with proper trap placement, while a bad one will generally sit back and safely farm with q. Consider buying oracle early, it helps a lot.
Jarvan IV
Absolute nightmare because of his ult. Otherwise basically useless.
Lulu
Range counters lulu. You have range. Try to pick her up as your duo after the game if you carry!
Teemo
Run cleanse and it's free.
Ziggs
Run ghost and the nimbus + celerity page.
Alistar
Kite kite kite.
Morgana
Dodge root and run second wind. Try to time your engages when spellshield is down, as it does block a decent chunk of your damage.
Lux
Unflinching + second wind makes her not a champion anymore, dodge root. If high elo she will rush ionians and try to flash q you every time its up, worth a cleanse if the enemy adc has a strong earlygame.
Leona
If she misses E then run straight at her, try and stay out of her flash Q range.
Thresh
Kinda useless if he misses hook, you have more than enough range to deal with him.
Taric
Kite to win.
Blitzcrank
Useless champ.
Heimerdinger
Don't get hit by his E and you just win everything. Kill turrets with your W!
Nocturne
Pre durability patch, he made a lot of matches unwinnable if he got ahead. Not so much anymore, ult is still annoying since you can't fully utilize your range.
Trundle
His pillar makes him an extreme threat early, but generally useless as the game progresses on. Worth buying boots of swiftness against him.
Kog'Maw
Playing kog in s12 LMFAO? If you somehow find yourself in a mirror matchup, whoever lands q wins, just be better than him.
Nami
Annoying early, just don't trade until you have an item.
Soraka
Starting boots means you can dodge every q easily. Ask your support to buy grevious early.
Yasuo
Windwall is a stupid ability. Worth putting a few points into E to deal with him dashing through the wave on you, as slows effect his dash speed.
Maokai
His flash means you die. Useless beyond that, but you can lose a game to a single button.
Bard
He won't even be in lane most of the time, meaning you can farm freely.
Pantheon
Bone plating hard counters him, worth going cleanse as well. Don't die early!
Vayne
Champ is severely overrated she can't win unless you massively screw up, and even then you still will outscale quickly.
Twitch
It's a skill matchup if he uses tempo, twitch sided if he uses pta. You need to be able to survive his all in, he is forced to build full glass cannon meanwhile you have the luxury of going defensive items. Shieldbow is a necessity, tabi if he's fed. Other armor items don't really do much against him since he is long range as well. Barrier is good here!
Sett
Impossible to lane against early, don't get shoved under turret.
Akshan
Run exhaust or lose the game later when he can burst you. His laning is horrendous but it doesn't take much for him to start snowballing out of control.
Nilah
I recommend cosmic insight to flash her ults, champ is a joke vs kogmaw at every stage.
Syndra
Run ghost and double mr runes. Sustain goes a long way here.
Zeri
You could be afk for the first 5 minutes of a match and still probably win lane vs her. Probably your easiest matchup.
Vladimir
BUY MAGIC RESIST. I DON'T CARE HOW HARD YOU STOMP HIM. BUY IT OR LOSE. If he gets any sort of lead on you, he WILL one shot you with a flash combo if you do not purchase magic resist.
Neeko
Her w is annoying because it means taking long trades is hard. If you run PTA you can easily tell which is the clone, though.
Cassiopeia
Her E has 700 range at level 1. Your W at max level has only 710. It's a hard matchup. Dodge Qs and be prepared to turn around on her ult, it's really not that hard to do.
Pyke
Run bone plating or lose.
Braum
Really awful in lane, but he can soak a huge amount of damage later. He somewhat forces you to go a full damage build.
Twisted Fate
Run cleanse.
Viktor
He actually smashes you at every stage of the game until you have sustain, magic resist, and movespeed. It's really stupid. Ban him if you're playing midlane kogmaw.
Ivern
Surprisingly annoying to deal with after moonstone, his ult adds a 6th champion to his team. Forces you to build full damage, similar to braum but he offers a significant amount of vision denial, which adcs hate dealing with.
Aatrox
I've been personally spamming a lot of kogmaw toplane recently while riot deals with balancing durability patch, and I really don't think there is a single bad matchup for him up there. I have not struggled laning vs a single champion, even with jungle presence. You are a fantastic duelist, and with ghost or exhaust you can cheese your way to victory even while being camped. Try it out, it's actually really unfair. Ban a traditional adc if you really want to confuse the enemy in champ select. Run PTA if you're struggling at all.
Lulu
Find a good lulu and then marry her. Or chain her to a computer in your basement. Or both.
Yuumi
Take heavy trades and let her heal you back up, fantastic in low elo as nobody knows how to fight her.
Rell
Kog/Rell is ridiculously underrated. Peel machine.
Kayle
Possibly even better than lulu. Kayle needs to know how to play aggressively without inting, though. Get a lead and you are completely unstoppable. Ridiculously rare to find, always a treat!
Nami
Slows them down, speeds you up. The perfect support for newbie kog players as she makes trades very forgiving. I love hail of blades with her a lot.
Vex
Surprisingly a strong support for you. Decent peel, and a constant threat to the enemy backline. The best mage support.
Gragas
CEO of peel. A good tank gragas player makes you borderline invincible against dive.
Zilean
Blatantly overpowered champ. Slows them down, speeds you up, while also being a damage threat. Oh, and free GA.
Tahm Kench
Your new best friend vs melee champs.
Braum
It's hard to find a good braum player, but he's very strong into certain enemy comps. Hail of blades is nice here.
Xerath
No.
Bard
Check your support before every match to see who they play, and if they play bard and aren't hovering yet, ban it.
Annie
If she rushes ardent or moonstone then it's a fantastic support. If she builds traditional ap items it's okay I guess.
Senna
Senna means that there are two major threats that the enemy has to deal with. They kill you, she kills them, and vice versa. Very unfun to play with, and completely trash if the senna doesn't know how to play properly.
Alistar
If he plays to peel you it's strong, if he plays to dive backline then its weak.
Thresh
He's thresh.
Leona
Bad peel, but can completely deny a yuumi from playing the game.
Nautilus
Leona 2.0
Seraphine
Everything you could want all in one little squishy, easily killable package. She will have a harder time surviving lane than you will. Use that to your advantage.
Blitzcrank
Better than xerath, I guess. Still useless.
Vel'Koz
Potent slows, that's about it.
Karma
Shield is relatively unreliable compared to other enchanters, but still very useful into shorter range enemies. TELL HER TO BUILD MOONSTONE.
Janna
Lulu but worse in pretty much every way. She's a necessity against certain team comps, though. Can't complain.
Zac
Peel machine if you manage to make it past laning phase, good luck getting to that point though.
Orianna
Moonstone E max orianna is actually very powerful vs assassins. Completely useless before first recall and vs high range, but can be a potent counterpick.
Morgana
She's okay, I guess. Bonus points if she builds moonstone. The worst enchantress for you, still an enchantress though.
Soraka
Makes you a tank. Build even tankier to make yourself a god.
Rakan
Rakan needs CC to engage off and combo with, but if he just plays back and peels he is great antidive.
Sona
Since the durability patch, she's fantastic. Everything you could ever want, you balance out her weak earlygame with how easily you can apply her q procs. Comparable in strength to lulu.
Galio
It's like a peel support if they had worse peel and were even more useless vs range. Ult can be nice though I guess.
Taric
Unbelievably overpowered if picked into the right teams. Hardest enchanter in the game to pilot correctly, though, so it can be a bit iffy sometimes.
Ivern
Ivern is weird. He falls somewhere around the lowest tier of enchanter for kog, but also one of the best peel champions. I haven't played much with him as a support yet, but I don't think it's that bad.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Lulu
Find a good lulu and then marry her. Or chain her to a computer in your basement. Or both.
Yuumi
Take heavy trades and let her heal you back up, fantastic in low elo as nobody knows how to fight her.
Rell
Kog/Rell is ridiculously underrated. Peel machine.
Kayle
Possibly even better than lulu. Kayle needs to know how to play aggressively without inting, though. Get a lead and you are completely unstoppable. Ridiculously rare to find, always a treat!
Nami
Slows them down, speeds you up. The perfect support for newbie kog players as she makes trades very forgiving. I love hail of blades with her a lot.
Vex
Surprisingly a strong support for you. Decent peel, and a constant threat to the enemy backline. The best mage support.
Gragas
CEO of peel. A good tank gragas player makes you borderline invincible against dive.
Zilean
Blatantly overpowered champ. Slows them down, speeds you up, while also being a damage threat. Oh, and free GA.
Tahm Kench
Your new best friend vs melee champs.
Braum
It's hard to find a good braum player, but he's very strong into certain enemy comps. Hail of blades is nice here.
Xerath
No.
Bard
Check your support before every match to see who they play, and if they play bard and aren't hovering yet, ban it.
Annie
If she rushes ardent or moonstone then it's a fantastic support. If she builds traditional ap items it's okay I guess.
Senna
Senna means that there are two major threats that the enemy has to deal with. They kill you, she kills them, and vice versa. Very unfun to play with, and completely trash if the senna doesn't know how to play properly.
Alistar
If he plays to peel you it's strong, if he plays to dive backline then its weak.
Thresh
He's thresh.
Leona
Bad peel, but can completely deny a yuumi from playing the game.
Nautilus
Leona 2.0
Seraphine
Everything you could want all in one little squishy, easily killable package. She will have a harder time surviving lane than you will. Use that to your advantage.
Blitzcrank
Better than xerath, I guess. Still useless.
Vel'Koz
Potent slows, that's about it.
Karma
Shield is relatively unreliable compared to other enchanters, but still very useful into shorter range enemies. TELL HER TO BUILD MOONSTONE.
Janna
Lulu but worse in pretty much every way. She's a necessity against certain team comps, though. Can't complain.
Zac
Peel machine if you manage to make it past laning phase, good luck getting to that point though.
Orianna
Moonstone E max orianna is actually very powerful vs assassins. Completely useless before first recall and vs high range, but can be a potent counterpick.
Morgana
She's okay, I guess. Bonus points if she builds moonstone. The worst enchantress for you, still an enchantress though.
Soraka
Makes you a tank. Build even tankier to make yourself a god.
Rakan
Rakan needs CC to engage off and combo with, but if he just plays back and peels he is great antidive.
Sona
Since the durability patch, she's fantastic. Everything you could ever want, you balance out her weak earlygame with how easily you can apply her q procs. Comparable in strength to lulu.
Galio
It's like a peel support if they had worse peel and were even more useless vs range. Ult can be nice though I guess.
Taric
Unbelievably overpowered if picked into the right teams. Hardest enchanter in the game to pilot correctly, though, so it can be a bit iffy sometimes.
Ivern
Ivern is weird. He falls somewhere around the lowest tier of enchanter for kog, but also one of the best peel champions. I haven't played much with him as a support yet, but I don't think it's that bad.
If you land your Q, YOU WIN THE TRADE!
If you have range advantage, space properly and you will ALWAYS WIN TRADES!
If you have good communication and synergy with your support, you will ALWAYS WIN LANE! USE PINGS OFTEN!
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUILD FULL DAMAGE TO CARRY GAMES. BUILD DEFENSIVELY AND 1V9. also watch my stream hehe uwu very educational
WTF QUICKBLADE OR RAGEBLADE???
Quickblade is more useful against team comps that are centric around high-cooldown, important abilities that are hard to bait out. If you get zoned just by an enemy champion being on your screen, then it's a match for quickblades so you can auto a few times then back off before re-engaging, without your w cooldown being punished at all. Yasuo windwall, Blitzcrank hook, Diana ult, Malzahar flash+ult, Sejuani ult, etc. are all things that make quickblade viable. If the enemy is likely to build a lot of stasis, or has a lot in their kits, then it's also a good option. It's also easier for beginners!
Rageblade shines in explosive, short fights. If the enemy doesn't have an option to escape once they engage, or some way to survive until your w runs out, then rageblade will outshine any other item. After rageblade + BotRK, being able to auto throughout the entire duration of your w means you just got a pentakill.
Consider sitting on a zeal after you purchase rageblade if you want to push your lead harder.
STOP BUILDING LIKE A SHEEP
Stop going to u.gg for builds. Stop importing that build from blitz. Just because it's popular doesn't mean its good, or good into everything! Be creative with what you build, use your brain, and mix and match builds from this guide to find what is the best into each enemy team. You're playing one of the only champions that can reliably pull items from every class in the game, abuse that advantage as hard as you can!
WHO TF IS THIS GUY BAD BUILDS LMFAO XD??
I'm Caiky, I've been the rank1 kogmaw world for the last 2 seasons, peaking 550lp grandmaster. I am also a masters midlaner, even without playing AP kog there. I also sometimes offer high quality coaching for every role (besides toplane) when i'm not super busy.
I also may or may not duo lulu/yuumi players at any elo :3
WTF RESOLVE NERF?? BLOODLINE NERF??
I rarely run bloodline after the nerf that brought it down to 6% lifesteal when fully stacked. The extra 100hp it gives is nice, and more survivability is always useful, but I personally think alacrity gives more value in every elo besides d2+. Try them both out in a variety of matchups, I know some other high elo kogs personally that completely disagree with my stance on alacrity vs bloodline, it's just preference.
Resolve used to be something I would run nearly every single game, but treasure hunter just outshines it most matchups now. Resolve is still the best choice against your most difficult lanes, but once you are more confident in your ability to pilot kog then be sure to sacrifice some of the forgiving runes and items for more damage or snowball potential. Building tankiness will always be the easiest (and for most the best) way to play kog, but mastering positioning and teamfighting will always beat even the best itemization.
STOP PLAYING WITH BAD LULUS
MOST LULU PLAYERS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! If your duo plays lulu, send them to my lulu guide! Ask your random lulus to build MOONSTONE! ITS BROKEN AND BETTER THAN BATTLESONG EVEN AFTER MULTIPLE NERFS! ABUSE IT!
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