He also looks cool and is the only Void-related champion that isn't trying to destroy the world. In lore, he is the leader of a group called The Preservers of Valoran, warriors that have devoted their lives to stopping the Void invasion.
I'm writing this guide because a lot of people in solo queue ask how I decide what to do in certain matchups and team fights, and more importantly why on earth I build so much health. (Translated version: warmogs kass troll pls report) I believe that Kassadin can be effective both as a squishy all-in assassin and as a tanky disruptive anti-mage.
Skill Order
Level 2
In either of the skill builds, you need to decide between Force Pulse or Nether Blade at level 2.
Nether Blade
- Enables you to last hit caster minions at tower (Very important)
- Insane mana regeneration (An extra 50 mana per wave)
Force Pulse
- Easier to escape and enable jungler ganks
- More burst damage
I take Force Pulse at level 2 if my opponent has started with less potions or otherwise has less health sustain than I do OR when I know there are going to be early jungle ganks. If the enemy laner is pushing against me, I stick with Nether Blade as it allows for easier last hitting under tower.
Mid Game
Coordinate ganks and objectives with your team. If you team won't group, ask nicely in chat. Communicate timers with your team. Red/Blue spawn 5 minutes after death, Dragon spawns 6 minutes after, and Baron Nashor spawns 7 minutes after. To make recording timers a bit easier, you can turn chat timestamps on by pressing Escape -> More Options -> Show Timestamps. Keep harassing and pressuring the enemy laner while you're waiting for your team to group - this should be a bit easier now that you have Riftwalk.
Priority list for mid-game objectives: Baron Nashor > Middle Inner Turret > Dragon > Middle Outer Turret > Top/Bot Inner Turret > Bot Outer Turret > Top Outer Turret > Buffs
Middle towers are extremely important due to the vision and defense they provide. Without a middle tower to fall back on, the entire jungle - and by proxy the entire map - becomes considerably more dangerous for that team.
Dragon is marked by the large skull in the bottom river, and grants its slayer 190 global gold. His attacks slow the attack speed of whoever they hit and deal true damage over time, so be mindful of your health. Move out of melee range if you get low on HP - he attacks whoever is closest to him. Remember to stop DPS at ~1000 HP - this makes it easy for your jungler to secure the Dragon kill with Smite. Never attempt Dragon without your jungler when the enemy team is present.
Make sure your team keeps Dragon warded and consider invading the enemy jungle to steal their buffs. If you see the enemy mid laner and jungler are going top, consider gathering your team and taking Dragon - your team will win a 4v2. A common move to pull off mid-game is to gank a member of the enemy team - so they are at a disadvantage - then immediately head to Dragon. If you're going to gank bottom lane, here's how I would recommend doing so.
Passive: Void Stone
Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage (applied after magic resist) and transforms this damage into bonus attack speed.
Every 1 point of damage mitigated converts to 1% attack speed. For example, if a spell is fired at you for 280 damage, the damage is reduced to 238 and you gain 42% attack speed. If you itemize for health rather than magic resist, you'll have a much easier time utilizing this passive. This is what ties together Kassadin's kit, and it pains me that so many people overlook it.
The Details:
This greatly increases the defensive value of health (~17.6% increase) as well as giving health an offensive use. For every 100 damage you take, you will gain 17.6% attack speed. So, at level 18, Kassadin will need 229.1% bonus attack speed to reach the cap. This requires him to take 1300 magic damage.
Effects and items like Arcane Blade, Thornmail, and Sunfire Cape actually end up helping Kassadin because they refresh Void Stone on every hit. Always take into account how much attack speed you currently have and if it would be safe to turn around and auto-attack.
Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage (applied after magic resist) and transforms this damage into bonus attack speed.
Every 1 point of damage mitigated converts to 1% attack speed. For example, if a spell is fired at you for 280 damage, the damage is reduced to 238 and you gain 42% attack speed. If you itemize for health rather than magic resist, you'll have a much easier time utilizing this passive. This is what ties together Kassadin's kit, and it pains me that so many people overlook it.
The Details:
This greatly increases the defensive value of health (~17.6% increase) as well as giving health an offensive use. For every 100 damage you take, you will gain 17.6% attack speed. So, at level 18, Kassadin will need 229.1% bonus attack speed to reach the cap. This requires him to take 1300 magic damage.
Effects and items like Arcane Blade, Thornmail, and Sunfire Cape actually end up helping Kassadin because they refresh Void Stone on every hit. Always take into account how much attack speed you currently have and if it would be safe to turn around and auto-attack.
Q: Null Sphere
Kassadin fires a void bolt dealing 80/115/150/185/220 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and silencing the target for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds.
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana
Range: 650
Explanation:
Main harass nuke. Hold the ~ key to make it easier to land on champions that stand near minions. Don't forget that the silence will interrupt and prevent champion abilities and from being cast. Unlike Force Pulse, this ability will draw minion aggro.
Kassadin fires a void bolt dealing 80/115/150/185/220 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and silencing the target for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds.
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana
Range: 650
Explanation:
Main harass nuke. Hold the ~ key to make it easier to land on champions that stand near minions. Don't forget that the silence will interrupt and prevent champion abilities and from being cast. Unlike Force Pulse, this ability will draw minion aggro.
W: Nether Blade
Passive: Kassadin's melee attacks draw energy from the void, restoring 8/11/14/17/20 mana each hit. If this effect is triggered from attacking a champion the amount of mana restored is tripled to 24/33/42/51/60.
Active: Kassadin charges his nether blade, gaining 30/45/60/75/90 (+30% of ability power) bonus magic damage dealt on hit for 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 12
Cost: 25 mana
Explanation:
Helps you sustain your mana all game, also you hit surprisingly hard with this on. I skill this once and leave it there until late game.
Utilizing Nether Blade/Void Stone correctly is what separates the good Kassadins from the great Kassadins.
Passive: Kassadin's melee attacks draw energy from the void, restoring 8/11/14/17/20 mana each hit. If this effect is triggered from attacking a champion the amount of mana restored is tripled to 24/33/42/51/60.
Active: Kassadin charges his nether blade, gaining 30/45/60/75/90 (+30% of ability power) bonus magic damage dealt on hit for 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 12
Cost: 25 mana
Explanation:
Helps you sustain your mana all game, also you hit surprisingly hard with this on. I skill this once and leave it there until late game.
Utilizing Nether Blade/Void Stone correctly is what separates the good Kassadins from the great Kassadins.
E: Force Pulse
Kassadin draws energy from spells cast in his vicinity, gaining a charge whenever a spell is cast near him. Upon reaching 6 charges, Kassadin can use Force Pulse to deal 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and slow enemies by 30/35/40/45/50% in a cone in front of him for 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Cost: 80 mana
Range: 650
Explanation:
Low cooldown. Unlike Null Sphere, this does not draw minion aggro. There are a few matchups in which I would recommend maxing this after you put two points in Q. More info in the matchups section. The damage and slow this spell does is amazing for single target, but when you land it on multiple targets it goes from good to great. Make sure you spam this often in fights, hitting as many people as possible.
PROTIP: Most people will only expect you to combo while you have max stacks. Keep in mind that your own spells DO contribute to the 6 spell count, meaning you can do a full combo with only 3 stacks. (Riftwalk, Null Sphere, Nether Blade = 3 spells, 6 stacks, use Force Pulse.) It's also possible to pull off a combo with only 2 stacks if you anticipate the enemy will retaliate with a spell before you silence them.
PROTIP #2: If neither you or the enemy laner has casted a spell and you gain a stack of Force Pulse, the enemy jungler is near. Especially useful against junglers that cast spells before coming into a gank, like Vi, Udyr, Shaco, and Skarner.
Kassadin draws energy from spells cast in his vicinity, gaining a charge whenever a spell is cast near him. Upon reaching 6 charges, Kassadin can use Force Pulse to deal 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and slow enemies by 30/35/40/45/50% in a cone in front of him for 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Cost: 80 mana
Range: 650
Explanation:
Low cooldown. Unlike Null Sphere, this does not draw minion aggro. There are a few matchups in which I would recommend maxing this after you put two points in Q. More info in the matchups section. The damage and slow this spell does is amazing for single target, but when you land it on multiple targets it goes from good to great. Make sure you spam this often in fights, hitting as many people as possible.
PROTIP: Most people will only expect you to combo while you have max stacks. Keep in mind that your own spells DO contribute to the 6 spell count, meaning you can do a full combo with only 3 stacks. (Riftwalk, Null Sphere, Nether Blade = 3 spells, 6 stacks, use Force Pulse.) It's also possible to pull off a combo with only 2 stacks if you anticipate the enemy will retaliate with a spell before you silence them.
PROTIP #2: If neither you or the enemy laner has casted a spell and you gain a stack of Force Pulse, the enemy jungler is near. Especially useful against junglers that cast spells before coming into a gank, like Vi, Udyr, Shaco, and Skarner.
R: Riftwalk
Kassadin teleports to a nearby location dealing 80/100/120 (+80% of ability power) magic damage to surrounding enemy units. Additionally, each subsequent Riftwalk in the next 8 seconds costs 100 additional mana and deals 50/55/60 (+10% of ability power) additional damage. If Riftwalk damages an enemy champion, Kassadin gains back 50% of the total mana spent on Riftwalk.
Cooldown: 7/6/5 seconds
Cost: 100 mana
Range: 700
Explanation:
Disregard walls, acquire currency.
This does very high damage for such a low cooldown, but using this spell for damage puts you in melee range. Only use Riftwalk for damage when being in melee range is safe, or when you have a method of escape. Also, this spell gives Kassadin a very brief period of immunity, similiar to Shaco's ultimate, that allows experienced players to dodge otherwise unavoidable spells.
Be careful with your stacks on this, you really don't want to run out of mana. Stay hidden from the enemy team as much as possible and use terrain to your advantage. This makes Kassadin near impossible to catch up to or get away from.
Remember, you can go over walls with this, even ones that seem too thick. As long as the center of Riftwalk's targeting reticle passes more than halfway through terrain, you will teleport all the way through to the other side.
PROTIP: If you are tower diving a champion, using Riftwalk will drop tower aggro from you IF there is another champion or minion attacking your target.
Kassadin teleports to a nearby location dealing 80/100/120 (+80% of ability power) magic damage to surrounding enemy units. Additionally, each subsequent Riftwalk in the next 8 seconds costs 100 additional mana and deals 50/55/60 (+10% of ability power) additional damage. If Riftwalk damages an enemy champion, Kassadin gains back 50% of the total mana spent on Riftwalk.
Cooldown: 7/6/5 seconds
Cost: 100 mana
Range: 700
Explanation:
Disregard walls, acquire currency.
This does very high damage for such a low cooldown, but using this spell for damage puts you in melee range. Only use Riftwalk for damage when being in melee range is safe, or when you have a method of escape. Also, this spell gives Kassadin a very brief period of immunity, similiar to Shaco's ultimate, that allows experienced players to dodge otherwise unavoidable spells.
Be careful with your stacks on this, you really don't want to run out of mana. Stay hidden from the enemy team as much as possible and use terrain to your advantage. This makes Kassadin near impossible to catch up to or get away from.
Remember, you can go over walls with this, even ones that seem too thick. As long as the center of Riftwalk's targeting reticle passes more than halfway through terrain, you will teleport all the way through to the other side.
PROTIP: If you are tower diving a champion, using Riftwalk will drop tower aggro from you IF there is another champion or minion attacking your target.
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