Hi! I am Noodles912! In this guide, I will show you how to become a master at Kassadin. Before we start, I want to inform you that the way I learned kassadin was watching Youtube replays. This champion requires tons of practice until you are an unstopable machine. If you want to take a youtube approach, check out "Challenger Replays" and "DomisumReplay". They upload challenger games from all reigons and matchups.

Kassadin is really fun to play. He is currently in the S tier for mid lane, as his carry potential is crazy. At level 16, you get a flash on a 1-2 second cooldown that does more damage for every time you use it. This is a great way to snowball your damage. Late game, kassadin nukes squishies, and can every duel bruisers and juggernauts sometimes. This also helps you practice playing scaling champs with weak early games, such as Vladimir, Veigar, Nasus, and Twitch.

For me, I fed a lot as kassadin when I was trying to learn him. I found out his early game was terrible, and was a hard time for me to get over, since I'm an assassin main, and assassins have relatively strong early power. At about 60K mastery points, I finally learned to play kassadin at a real high level, to the point where I can win matchups such as Zed, Talon, Yasuo, and etc. This champion just requires Macro, Patience, Practice, and knowledge in a nutshell.

Kassadin has a few key combos to master. His W is an AA reset, so all combos would contain AA+W. The basic one involves your 3 basic abilities. E+AA+W+Q. If you are against an AP champ, you can switch Q with AA+W. At level 6, you can do the same thing, but ult at the start. R + E + AA + W + Q

The second combo is R + Flash. This is my favorite combo, as you get an insane dash that is brutal. All you do is R, and press Flash right away. This will make your R go twice the range, which oftenly catches players off guard, as they think they are safe from your R.

The last combo is done by sitting at the enemy tower with a big wave. If the enemy is low, you can ult on top of yourself, and the enemy may flash away as they saw the ult animation, but you didnt move at all. This is effective especially in mid elo, as players get used to flashing when an animation occurs. This a great way to bait a free flash!

This is the worst phase for kassadin throughout the entire game. You have the lowest base armor out of all champions in the game (True fact), you have no mobility, and your E cannot stack up fast. You are at the strength of a minion. To get over this, you need to avoid making the mistake many low elo kassadin players make: poking champions with Q. Q is your main source of range, and should be used to secure last hits, as AA to last hit is a huge risk. You should prioritize hitting those minions with Q to get some form of efficient income. You should look to base before level 5, as your R will drain your mana. You should look to base when you can get a tear, tier 2 boots, or a seekers armguard. Avoid all-ins at all costs (usually). Your R should be used as an escape tool or farming tool. If you took Fleet Footwork, you should be able to get health sustain while in lane.

If you can farm through this hard time, you will make it to mid game, where you can start playing differently.

This is when you change your game style. At this time, you should have some more items to keep healthy and sustain yourself. Farm a bit more till you are level 11 if you have to. At this time, you should enter a side lane, as a bot turret has probably fallen, which means the bot laners and supports will start rotating mid. You will most likely swap to bot lane, where you can have an easier time farming. Proceed with farming until you are ready to become a teamfighting monster. This should occur at level 16 or when you got 3-4 items.

Note: If you team is fighting, you need to chose to rotate or farm. If you think your team can survive and contest, tell them to play it slow and safe, and proceed by shoving in the wave, possibly taking a tower or drawing an enemy to pick up the wave and save the tower. You are in control. You have TP and a low CD ult, and can rotate if you have to.

This is where the Macro comes into play. Since kassadin has mobility, TP, and possible dueling potential, Kassadin can enter a side lane and start pressuring, while continuously farm up to become a monster. When you are sidelaning, you need to look at ceratin factors:

- Is the enemy top/mid laner good in a side lane
- Can I win a 1v1 against them
- Do I have vision

With these 3 key points, you can decide if you can side lane. You always need vision if you want to enter a sidelane, as not doing so can cause you to get collapsed on. If you have vision in the jungle closest to the lane you want to side lane in, now you need to know if the threats are away from you, and not MIA. For example, if the enemy has a leona, rakan, or blitzcrank, you want to make sure they wont be there to stop you. Oftenly, threats are duelists/bruisers, and cc champions (Supports).

When side laning, you need to be hyper aware of the map and objectives. If you took TP, then proceed to your farming, and use TP when a fair fight is going to break out. You don't want your team losing 4 memebers and then losing a baron, as that is a huge loss. If your team is behind, you can ping your team to give up the objective, as you trade objectives around the map. If you TP, and lose baron, then the enemy got a free baron buff. If you decide to trade during a fight that will lose, you can trade a baron for 2 turrets, and possibly an inhibitor, which is better than nothing. Essentially, you need to keep up with the state of your team with the TAB button, while also looking at the map to make sure you are safe, and to move if your team needs you. Keep side laning until you hit that sweet level 16.

Congrats! You have reached Kassadin's largest power spike: level 16 /late game!

Around now, you should have roughly 4-5 or even 6 items. This is when you bring the game on. With all the AP you have, you are now able to one shot squishies on the enemy team, while being able to play safe. Try to get a blue buff, as the CDR and mana regen make you even more deadlier, making you able to afford using max stack Rs constantly.

In a teamfight, you want to look to make a good flank into the enemy team's backline, as that is where a vast majority of their squishy champions hang out. To make sure that you manage to one shot the enemy squishy targets, you need to have enough mana, while also having your R stack to 400 or 800 mana. This will ensure your R will deal more damage, securing your kills easier. When engaging a fight, unless you can one shot the squishy with R+E, you need to assess the situation you are in. You dont want to get hit by CC that will kill you. Make sure important CC abiliities such as thresh E, Lux Q, and Sona R have been burned, as if the enemies dont have them, they cant save the key target of their team. After one shotting the enemy ADC, choosing 1 option should work:
- Kill the enemy mid laner(Mage)
- Zhonyas immediately to assess the situation
- Back off (Get to safety or save your ADC)

Either option is situational, and is all determined by your knowledge. Teamfights should be in your favor, and if you do run low on HP, remember you have flash, R, Seraph's and Zhonya's to ensure your safety.

If no one is grouping up, invading or picking a player out of position is very effective. If you can catch the enemy ADC at their red buff, you can kill them, get the red buff, and force the enemy into a numbers disadvantage. Picking is an effective strategy, but requires vision and knowledge of the enemy's positioning. This will get easier the lower your rank, as supports ditch their ADC in the late game sometimes, and no one gets vision control.

Your Team: Ornn, Lee Sin, Kassadin (You), Sivir, Nautilus
Enemy Team: Nasus, Nidalee, Vel koz, Kog maw, Thresh

Analysis: Ornn and Nasus will look to soak the damage, while the junglers protect their squishy carries. The ADCs will look to deal damage safely and kite, while the supports look to land CC for engages opportunities and peel for the ADC. Vel Koz will most likely sit with the Kog Maw to deal damage with him. Kassadin should look to assassinate the Vel koz and Kog maw sneakly.

Correct approach: Kassadin should activate his sweeper to disable the enemy team's vision control, allowing him to get into a good flanking spot. Kassadin should then make sure his ultimate is stacked to maximize his damage. He then does a Ult flash combo onto kog maw, destroying him. Kassadin instantly uses Zhonya's to avoid getting crowd controlled. After seeing kassadin, Vel koz is immediately running away, knowing kassadin will soon exit Zhonya's and hunt him. Kassadin makes use of his late game mobility, chasing Vel koz down, while nidalee looks to burst kassadin under tower. Kassadin pays the price for chasing Velkoz without hourglass, so Thresh manages to land a hook onto kassadin, while nidalee looks to burst kassadin. Kassadin knows that he will get low from nidalee, so he activates Seraph's, uses W on thresh for mana recovery, and turns the tides on nidalee. Kassadin is getting low, and his team is winning the fight. Nasus looks to hit the final blow on kassadin to finish him, which works, but with how much damage nasus soaked from Kassadin's team's backline, nautilus hooks him to force his flash. As a result, the final turnout was 3 kills, for 1, which allows kassadin's team to destroy the enemy nexus.

This was an example of how to play a teamfight as kassadin, but each teamfight has many turnouts, such as a kindred ult being involved, guardian angel, kalista ult, mordekaiser ult, and much more. Each of these can turn a teamfight's turnout in a different way, and you need to know how to turn a fight into your favor.

Thank you for reading this Kassadin guide. I hope you learned something, as well as enjoyed this guide. I look forward to posting more guides in the future. Don't forget to check out my other guides, and I wish you good luck in climbing the Ranked Ladder.

Have a good day!

-Noodles912