Champion Guide

Kassadin Guide

By LoLSuggest

Mid

Kassadin is a mobile mage-assassin who rewards patience: survive a lane with limited priority, play around your level and item spikes — you don't have to wait for level 16 — and then use Riftwalk to pressure side lanes, find picks and flank carries.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Kassadin build

Our recommended runes, summoner spells and items. Compare build win rates on the stats page.

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

Electrocute with Sudden Impact, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter, plus Second Wind and Overgrowth, is the default; First Strike, Deathfire Touch and Conqueror pages suit other games. Take Flash with Teleport, Ignite to snowball after 6, or Exhaust or Barrier against burst assassins. Start Dark Seal into low-poke lanes, Doran's Shield into poke and Doran's Helm into burst. The standard core is Rod of Ages into Archangel's Staff with Sorcerer's Shoes, then Malignance, Zhonya's Hourglass and Rabadon's Deathcap. Go Manamune second against very tanky teams, or Malignance into Shadowflame for a glass-cannon one-shot build. Rush Plated Steelcaps against AD lanes. Max E, then W, then Q.

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Skill Max Order

Strengths

Strong scaling with earlier spikes than many expect.
Highly mobile with excellent side-lane pressure and rotations.
Strong into AP-heavy teams, with high carry and snowball potential.

Weaknesses

Vulnerable to early dives and has limited early lane priority.
Squishy with damage builds, with limited crowd control.
Punishing matchups: ranged AD like Akshan, Tristana or Lucian and divers like Irelia or Zed.

Laning Phase

Protect your early game: let dangerous melee laners push to you, give up unsafe CS and stay in XP range. Auto then press Nether Blade to reset your attack, and before 6 trade with Force Pulse, auto, Nether Blade and Null Sphere when the enemy misplays. Against poke mages put three early points in Q for a stronger magic shield. Your first-recall Blasting Wand plus level 6 Riftwalk is your first real kill window.

Mid & Late Game

Use Riftwalk to pressure side lanes, look for picks and rotate to fights; level 11 and 16 lower its cooldown further. Rod of Ages plus Archangel's Staff gives the durability for consistent mid-game fights, and Seraph's shield makes committing safer. Kassadin struggles to teamfight without a frontline, so flank onto carries rather than leading, and always keep mana for your next Riftwalk.

Key Tips

Flash during Riftwalk to extend your engage range.
You can activate Nether Blade during Zhonya's stasis to prepare an empowered auto.
Save Null Sphere to interrupt key channels when that matters more than damage.
Use Exhaust as an assassin commits — e.g. Zed's Death Mark — then Riftwalk away or turn the fight.

Matchups