Cutting a burning swath through the darkest places of the world, Kassadin knows his days are numbered. Though once a notorious adventurer, he had chosen to live anonymously and raise a family among the nomad tribes of Shurima—until the day his daughter was claimed by the Void. Kassadin vowed to bring her back, combining a number of arcane artifacts and forbidden technologies for the struggle ahead. His precautions were not enough, however, and these devices now only serve to slow the insidious corruption that ravages his body... but he will gladly pay that price, if only he can save her...

Hi, I'm Faded, a 16 years old player that's been playing since mid season 2. During that time I've hit Master tier as a mid lane main in season 7, as a jungle main in season 8, and Grandmaster in season 9 playing a mix of mid jungle and support. I can play every role to a very high level and have a very good understanding of the general aspects of the game on top of that. You can watch me streaming every day at https://www.twitch.tv/fadedreformd .

I made a very easy guide that everyone can follow and climb with. I'll add more and more details as time flows + update the guide for you guys.

Kassadin is like the mage version of a hypercarry: while many think that kassadin's early game is weak im here to prove them wrong,even if you missplay early game he will progressively scale up and become one of the most broken late game champions.He is probably going to be the strongest champion on the map. His mobility from his ultimate is extremely effective for both aggression and defense, and it makes him very hard to lock down and shut down once he has enough CDR and mana. His early-game can be frustrating to get through, but the reward for it is getting to play one of the most fun champions in the game in mid-late game.

KEYSTONE Electrocute is one of the best runes to run on Kassadinsince it provides him enough damage to all in his opponents and snowball the game with his early burst damage, which is gonna scale even harder in late game making it easier to one shot these annoying enemy carries. MAJOR RUNE Taste of Blood With how weak Kassadin is pre-6 the extra healing from this rune will dramatically help him. Together with Ravenous Hunter you'll be hard to poke out early and sustain easily late.. MAJOR RUNE Eyeball Collection has been confirmed to be the best out of the three options and it's far the most optimal rune to pick when playing Kassadin.

SITUATIONAL Ravenous Hunter Just like Taste of Blood this rune will help Kassadin with his weak sustain. However this one scales into the mid-late game with a dramatic amount of healing from every single ability. With the amount of healing of your all abilities + Rod of Ages and your Riftwalk it will make you sustain longer in the fight.

Pretty Similar with the last rune page with a slight difference.

KEYSTONE Electrocute is one of the best runes to run on Kassadinsince it provides him enough damage to all in his opponents and snowball the game with his early burst damage, which is gonna scale even harder in late game making it easier to one shot these annoying enemy carries. MAJOR RUNE Taste of Blood With how weak Kassadin is pre-6 the extra healing from this rune will dramatically help him. Together with Ravenous Hunter you'll be hard to poke out early and sustain easily late.. MAJOR RUNE Eyeball Collection has been confirmed to be the best out of the three options and it's far the most optimal rune to pick when playing Kassadin.

SITUATIONAL Ultimate Hunter Is a great rune to be combined with your Riftwalk, it's mainly used against full ad teams or mainly tanks since you get to press Riftwalk every 0.78 seconds at level 16 making enemy tanks unable to get to you and spam dashing through your enemies until they have no abilities left, more often than not you are going to build Frozen Heart since enemy team will be all ad

This runepage is mainly played against ap matchups that poke a lot so you can get through out the lane without dying.

KEYSTONE Fleet Footwork All Kassadin can do in early levels is survive. Fleet Footwork is fully effective on minions as a melee champion and scales very well from ability power. Together with the domination runes you'll be harder to poke out. Take it in specific matchups that can poke you out of lane easily. MAJOR RUNE Presence of Mind scales very well with Kassadin since it adds 500 maximum mana and takedowns restore the 20% of maximum mana and we all know how well Kassadinscales with mana and how crucial it is for his kit. MAJOR RUNE Legend: Tenacity The other 2 options do nothing for Kassadin but free tenacity is very powerful against mostly any champ because there isn't a single champ that doesn't have an ability with cc..

MAJOR RUNE Coup de Grace This is the only reliable option in this row. You'll never make great use from Cut Down as your targets will have less health than you and Last Stand is too situational.

KEYSTONE Conqueror Conqueror is mainly played against ad/tank teams, it can provide you with insane healing and damage in the later points of the game and also some very defensive stats since you are gonna be building quite a bit of armor ingame. MAJOR RUNE Presence of Mind scales very well with Kassadin since it adds 500 maximum mana and takedowns restore the 20% of maximum mana and we all know how well Kassadinscales with mana and how crucial it is for his kit. MAJOR RUNE Legend: Tenacity The other 2 options do nothing for Kassadin but free tenacity is very powerful against mostly any champ because there isn't a single champ that doesn't have an ability with cc..

MAJOR RUNE Coup de Grace This is the only reliable option in this row. You'll never make great use from Cut Down as your targets will have less health than you and Last Stand is too situational.

MAJOR RUNE Sudden Impact This rune is crucial in this build because besides the penetration, it also gives you a quite good amount of damage since you will be spamming Riftwalk all game. MAJOR RUNE Ultimate HunterIs a great rune to be combined with your Riftwalk, it's mainly used against full ad teams or mainly tanks since you get to press Riftwalk every 0.78 seconds at level 16 making enemy tanks unable to get to you and spam dashing through your enemies until they have no abilities left, more often than not you are going to build Frozen Heart since enemy team will be all ad or tanks.

MAJOR SPELL Flash is the best summoner spell in the game, almost every champion takes it and it's completely irreplaceable. It's the best defensive summoner and the best offensive summoner all at once. The fact that you see all 10 players take this in 99% of games just goes to show how strong it is. Kassadin has no escapes before level 6, and even at level 6 Riftwalk has a decent cooldown, so this is absolutely essential on him. SITUATIONAL SPELL Ignite is obviously a much more aggressive option, one that gives him some more kill potential both early-game and late-game. There are not drawback to ignite unless you are playing cringe matchup and need tp to scale for next season. Even if you're in a tough lane matchup most often than not it helps you pick an early kill and win the matchup easily. It's still strong late-game during team-fights and gives you some extra burst damage and some anti healing just in case you might need it for fight or laning. SITUATIONAL SPELL Exhaust This is one of the spells that isn't picked as much as Ignite or Teleport, but can give you an insane amount of help during the laning phase, making enemies have a hard time killing you. Some of the lanes I would pick that against is cringe burst champs that bully you all game long such as Talon Tristana Draven and pretty much ad carries. SITUATIONAL SPELL Barrier is another go to against ranged ad matchups and it's up to your preference between that and Exhaust. SITUATIONAL SPELL Teleport is the second most important summoner spell for Kassadin. Kassadin will almost always be getting shoved in and will therefore almost never be the one to get an optimal recall off (meaning while he's recalling the enemy laner can shove the next wave into tower before recalling themselves to make him miss a wave). And even when the enemy laner recalls before him, Kassadin's lack of waveclear makes it virtually impossible for him to shove a wave into the tower fast enough to avoid missing much CS himself. Teleport allows him to recall whenever necessary while being able to Teleport back into lane immediately to avoid missing large amounts of CS and falling behind. It also opens up the possibility of TP ganks on other lanes and allowing him to be a split pusher late-game(I still prefer Ignite).

That's the normal ability order for Kassadin making it easier for him to roam by Riftwalking once and then Force Pulseing to clear almost whole wave. Obviously if you are against ap matchups it would be more ideal to max Null Sphere , but Force Pulse is better for roaming and ad matchups.

Riftwalk -> Force Pulse -> Null Sphere

The combo for when you're not in range for Nether Blade after Riftwalk. This combo needs explaining because the order of the spells is important. Casting Force Pulse before Null Sphere may sound like such a tiny and pointless detail, but it can actually make a huge difference in a large number of situations. The speed of the combo is the same no matter which order you use, but you want Force Pulse to hit first because:

1. It has a smaller range than Null Sphere; if you cast Null Sphere first the enemy may not be in range for Force Pulse anymore by the time you cast it. You have a slightly more limited window to land this than Null Sphere, so you want to get it through ASAP.

2. If the enemy Flashes away after the first spell, you'll have slapped them with a slow to help you chase them and possibly allow you to get close enough for Null Sphere without even having to cast an extra Riftwalk. If you're casting Null Sphere first, here's what happens instead: you Riftwalk in, cast Null Sphere, they Flash away, then you Force Pulse the air... Which isn't even a possibility with the reverse because Null Sphere is point and click, meaning it's impossible to waste a spell with that combo.

3. Slightly less important but can still potentially have a big impact in rare situations: You generally want to get Force Pulse on CD ASAP so the rest of your spells (as well as the enemy spells) begin charging it up for the next cast. If you cast Null Sphere before Force Pulse that's one charge you're guaranteed to miss out on, and you could potentially miss out on more from other champions' spells during the short time you're casting Null Sphere.
Riftwalk -> Nether Blade -> Force Pulse -> Null Sphere

The combo for when you are in range for Nether Blade after Riftwalk! Again the order is important. When I was new to Kassadin I would just spam my spells in any random order every time I went for this kind of combo, not really knowing what I was doing, but as always there's an order that's most efficient and important to follow for those occasions when it'll be the difference in getting a kill or not.

The logic for Force Pulse before Null Sphere is the same as before. The reason you want to use Nether Blade first is that it's your only melee range spell; it's the only spell that becomes impossible to immediately land if an enemy dashes or blinks away from you. Both Force Pulse and Null Sphere can often still reach an enemy that dashes/blinks away from you if you were in melee range of them. Additionally, since Nether Blade is the hardest spell to get in range for, it's important to get its damage through while you can rather than risk an enemy managing to get too far away for you to land it while you're busy casting your other spells. And finally, Nether Blade can restore you a ****load (800+) of mana; if you're going to need to Riftwalk again any number of times, it's important to be absolutely sure you land Nether Blade to ensure you can cast Riftwalk as many times as you can.
Riftwalk -> Flash

Riftwalk is one of many spells that allow you to Flash during the spell's cast time. All this basically means is that this is a harder to react to version of Flash -> Riftwalk, since if you Flash first then begin casting Riftwalk the enemy has a chance to react to it between the Flash and the Riftwalk, but if you do Riftwalk -> Flash, the Flash and the Riftwalk will occur at almost the same time, giving them much less time to react.

This is an especially important combo for when you want to burst down a far-away enemy while landing the damage of Riftwalk (and Nether Blade), rather than using it just as a gap closer for your Force Pulse and Null Sphere. A late-game Riftwalk can do up to 800+ damage, so being able to land it is a huge deal for bursting enemies down.

While we're on the topic, Force Pulse is also another spell that allows you to Flash during the cast time. This ls not as important to talk about because Flash -> Force Pulse is extremely hard to react to anyway, but once you're aware of it, there's no reason not to use Force Pulse -> Flash just to get a combo slightly harder to react to. It'll almost never make a difference, but it's worth it just for the rare occasions it does net you a kill.

Dark Seal Dark Seal + Refillable Potion: Almost every mage starts Doran's Ring over Dark Seal, but Kassadin is the exception since he benefits much more from straight up mana rather than mana regen. It also allows him to start Refillable Potion which saves him a lot of gold on Health Potions (which are important to get him through the weak stage of his laning phase), and gives him the option of buying a cheaper Corrupting Potion on one of his first backs if he has the gold for it. If you do have Ignite you should take 3 Health Potions instead of Refillable Potion since you can't afford to base as early as if you had Teleport. Doran's Shield Doran's Shield: Doran's Shield is a great item and is mostly played against ad matchups such as Zed Yasuo Qiyana etc. It give you the very useful passive of an additional 5 physical damage on hit to minions so even if you are pushed under tower you can last hit easily. It also gives you some regeneration after getting hit by an enemy champion which is very useful at trading early on. Rod of ages Rod of Ages: The most important item for Kassadin since it gives him all the stats he could want; most importantly the most mana of any item he'll be building. It's important to rush it before any other item as the passive gives stats that scale per minute, and it's obviously beneficial to have the most stats as early as possible. You should always go for Blasting Wandif you have the money or if you don't, just take 2 Amplifying Tome. Sorcerer's Shoes Sorcerer's Shoes: Kassadin deals all magic damage and is a burst assassin. This leaves him with only one viable boot choice which is the pen boots. You could situationally get Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads against some comps but you'll more often than not be better off getting Sorcs. You should also only finish these after you finish your Rod of Ages as you need to begin the 10 minute stacking process as soon as possible. Archangel's Staff Archangel's Staff: Although most Tear of the Goddess based champions rush tear, Kassadin is the only champion to get both this and a Rod of Ages. RoA is a lot more time gated than tear is so you should always fully finish the RoA before you buy Archangel's Staff components. You should also buy the Lost Chapter part of the item first to continue getting useful combat stats instead of just the mana pool. Once you buy the full staff you stack tear twice as fast anyway so you won't be missing out on much.You can also purchase Archangel's Staff first and skip Rod of Ages only if you are playing the Ap Assasin/Chad Build/Snowball build. Never and I say never rush tear of the godess. Lich Bane Lich Bane: Combined with Nether Blade you'll have a massive auto-attack nuke. Your spells have a low enough CD that you can frequently proc this whenever you're in auto-attack range of enemy champion, maximizing its damage output. Importantly it also gives CDR and mana, very important stats on Kassadin. You should pick this up second item if you play the ap assasin/snowball that skips Rod of Ages, I wouldn't suggest you take it on the RoA build since it's not that useful, since the enemy team would have built a bunch of magic resist by the time you take it. Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's Hourglass: As a mage/assassin that has to get into melee range to maximize his effectiveness, Kassadin is constantly in situations where he can be focused. Zhonya's Hourglass allows him to spend most of his Riftwalk cooldown untargetable, making it an absolute must-have on him. You'll always get this item as either your 3rd or 4th purchase depending on if you need the extra burst or the defence of Zhonya's Hourglass first. Or you can rush Zhonya's Hourglass against surtain situations such as a fed Talon by teammates. Void Staff Void Staff: This item is a must-have in games with magic resistance floating about, should the game last long enough for you to require it. Every game will have enemies building some form of MR, and in this situation Void Staff is the biggest spike in damage that you can get. How early you build it depends on how early they build MR and how much, so depending on the game you'll get it either or after your Lich Bane, as your 4th or item,or as your 3rd after taking Rod of Ages and Archangel's Staff. Mejai's Soulstealer Mejai's Soulstealer: If you're completely crushing the game and are snowballing hard you can buy a Mejai's Soulstealer to potentially completely take over the game. Once you're at 10 stacks this item becomes worth the gold but can potentially be one of the highest AP items in the game for less than 1500g. Morellonomicon Morellonomicon is one of the great items to build if the enemy team is highly based on health regen/healing abilities or Ocean Drake Soul. It provides with a good amount of health and also applies grievous wounds onto the enemies making them useless in fights without their huge healing abilities. frozen heart Frozen Heart is an amazing item to combine with Ultimate Hunter against heavy ad or full ad teams. With Ultimate Hunter at level 16 your Riftwalk becomes 0.78 seconds allowing you to riftwalk very quickly onto them and then get out really quick.You are also allowed to build whatever you want since Archangel's Staff combined with Frozen Heart gives you the 40% cdr spike early in the game.Consider taking Rabadon's Deathcap or Void Staff if they are taking a bunch of magic resist to close games quickly. elixir of sorcery Elixir of Sorcery is a great item to have during teamfights since it provides you with 50 ability power , mana regeneration and also deals a quite a bit of true damage. Taking it after level 9 in order to participate in a fight is a must, since it can be a really good game closer. rabadon's deathcap Rabadon's Deathcap: After your core items you can move onto Rabadon's Deathcap if the enemies don't have enough MR for you to require Void Staff yet. Rabadon's Deathcap is by far the biggest AP powerspike a mage could possibly get, so Kassadin is obviously no exception with great AP ratios on all his spells assuming again they don't have a lot of MR.