Tank Kassadin

I discovered tank kassadin early in the pre-season for season 12 and how viable it is espically with the fact games are going longer and kassadin has a higher chance to scale.

Tank kassadin is a off meta Top laner, He has a strong Mid game once he reaches 3 items and only gets stronger late game. The playstyle of Tank kassadin is very different to the playstyle to Ap Kassadin, Tank Kassadin plays more like a bruiser then an assasin and tank, being able to deal damage and front line for his team while also whiteling down the enemy for an all in. This guide will cover the basics of tank Kassadin Top lane

Pros → Strong into both Ad and Ap comps → High mobility → Strong in teamfights and sidelane → High scaling → High carry potential → Forces you to play smart

Cons → Weak Early game → Hard to comeback if fall behind → Easy to gank pre 6 → Bad against high cc → Bad against tanks early game

Enemy team comps to avoid
There are 2 main enemy team comps that you need to avoid when playing tank Kassadin.

Heavy cc team comps, cc will be the bane of tank Kassadins existance it is not as bad compared to other team comps but do note you are the front line so if you can eat up as much cc as you can(only if you know you can survive and bait) to allow your team to make plays .

Split pushing team comps[/u, Tank kassadin has to play with his team to win games and to secure objectives. This means if they have a split pushing team comp or champions with good split pushing abilities such as, Kayle, Yorick Tryndamere.Kassadin will be forced outside of his strongest point in games that being teamfights.


Enemy team comps that are wanted
There are 2 main enemy team comps you want when playing tank Kassadin .

Low cc team comps, Tank Kassadin struggels against cc so when the enemies team comp has little to no cc it allows Kassadin to be able to have a stronger front line and be able to force plays.

Low mobility team comps, Team comps with low mobility is tank Kassadins dream team comp, it allows Kassadin to stick to enemies better and be able to advoid deaths in early and mid game.



Ally team comps to avoid
There are 2 Team comps you need to aviod when playing Tank Kassadin.

Low damage team comps, Tank kassadin needs follow up when he goes in and tanks damage, He prefers hyper carry champions in his team comp and wihtout it he cant do as much as tank Kassadin could do.

Bad early game comps, Tank kassadin has a worse early game compared to Ap Kassadin but in my opion has a better late game then Ap Kassadin, tank Kassadin prefers to have a jgl that has a strong early game, Jarvan IV and Graves are best for Kassadin as they have strong early and mid games.

RESOLVE

Grasp of the Undying is the strongest rune for Kassadin as it gives him hp per stack and does extra magic damage based on percent max hp this allows his autos late game to do a load of damage while also giving sustain and hp, That is why in the early game try your best to weave in a auto here and there against your enemy opponent as it allows you to scale slightly quicker, do note if its a champion like Sett or Darius I would not recommend this as they have a pull and a strong early game,Important: playing aggressive early with Kassadin I do not recommend as it puts you at high risk, however; quick trades and if they attack first I recomend weaving a few Grasp of the Undying autos in.

The reason we go Shield Bash is due to Its syndergy with Kassadin's Q Null Sphere and its shield it gives, it also gives you more damage when you do a full combo onto a enemy plus this rune works well with the item Fimbulwinter as the use of your E Force Pulse slow gives you a shield with Fimbulwinter passive.

For secondary runes, I recommend going Bone Plating as it gives Kassadin the strongest chance of surviving early game, however, if you want to play for the late game you can also go Conditioning.

Frostfire Gauntlet

VS

Crown of the Shattered Queen

→ Good against high mobility comps → Good scaling → Strong against both ad and ap comps → Better tank → Bad build path

→ Good against high burst comps → Good ap scaling → strong passive → Weak against long fights → Worse tank