Champion Guide

Kog'Maw Guide

By LoLSuggest

ADC

Kog'Maw is a hard-scaling artillery carry: farm safely through a weak, immobile early game, then melt targets with Bio-Arcane Barrage while your team peels for you. Choose items for each game rather than copying one build.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Kog'Maw build

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

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

Our default page is Press the Attack with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Cut Down, plus Cash Back and Jack of All Trades (Bone Plating and Overgrowth into engage). Take Flash with Barrier, or Ghost, or Cleanse if you hate being stunned. Start Doran's Blade against engage, Doran's Bow against poke, or Doran's Helm against hard engage or poke. The usual AD core is Guinsoo's Rageblade, Gluttonous Greaves, Statikk Shiv and Terminus; on-hit builds add Blade of the Ruined King, Kraken Slayer and Runaan's Hurricane, crit builds Navori Flickerblade and Hexoptics C44, and AP builds go Guinsoo's into Nashor's Tooth, Stormsurge, Shadowflame and Void Staff. Rush Blade of the Ruined King into Caitlyn or Varus. Avoid Heartsteel and Jak'Sho. The mid-lane setup instead starts Tear of the Goddess and builds Blackfire Torch, Manamune and Malignance around Living Artillery.

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Strengths

Huge late-game damage from long range with Bio-Arcane Barrage.
Very flexible: AD, on-hit, crit, hybrid and AP builds all work.
Living Artillery gives long-range poke and finishing power.

Weaknesses

Immobile and very weak early; needs peel from his team.
Long-range or burst lanes like Caitlyn, Jhin, Varus or Draven are very hard, and Nautilus is a ban-or-lose matchup.
Once enemies stack magic resist, AP builds lose damage late.

Laning Phase

Farm safely: wiggle before last-hitting to dodge abilities, stay behind your minions, and poke with Q or E when the enemy walks up to farm. Against long-range lanes, scale rather than fight and ping your jungler for help. Lulu, Thresh and Zilean are ideal partners; Second Wind and extra potions help against poke supports like Karma.

Mid & Late Game

In early fights wait for the right moment, ideally after the enemy has used their abilities, and don't waste Bio-Arcane Barrage if you can't get in range — its long cooldown means no damage. Late game, only fight when Flash or your second spell is up and never face-check brush or river. Try not to let games drag past 40 minutes against hypercarries like Vayne.

Key Tips

With Zilean, press W the moment he ults you and walk forward.
Against Jinx, try to land Q when she uses Zap!.
Against Twitch, take Barrier and bait him; late game he's hard to deal with without Blade of the Ruined King.

Matchups

Matchups and synergies

Our picks for difficult opponents, favorable lanes and strong allies. Compare matchup win rates on the stats page.