Cho’Gath’s Rise Into Competitive League of Legends
Highlighting notable updates and buffs that made Cho’Gath a forced to be reckoned with.
Cho’Gath has been terrorizing both solo queue and competitive League of Legends for the past two patches, sending chills down every top laner’s or jungler’s spines. While it may seem like a recent development, Cho’Gath’s rise to the top has been a long time coming. This article will be highlighting the notable updates and buffs in chronological order that made Cho’Gath a forced to be reckoned with on the LCS stage.
7.4
All the way back on Patch 7.4, Cho’s ultimate, Feast, was given a fresh coat of paint. Previously he would lose all of his Feast stacks upon death, significantly decreasing his power and size if he couldn’t snowball. His ultimate only had an AP scaling, and wouldn’t do much damage at all, since most players built Cho’Gath as a pure tank. But as of Patch 7.4, Cho’s ult will not lose any stacks upon death, he can infinitely stack, and has a 10% bonus health ratio. Cho’Gath is now much more useful to his team built as a pure tank, as he can deal more damage and he won’t lose much power upon death.
7.5
On Patch 7.5, Stoneborn Pact replaced Bond of Stone, an underused keystone mastery that felt weak next to fellow Resolve Tree keystones Grasp of the Undying and Courage of the Colossus. The new Stoneborn Pact grants 5% of a champion’s maximum health as bonus health, and the champion’s crowd control effects mark enemy champions. Allies can attack these marked enemies to regain some health. Since Stoneborn Pact has no cooldown of its own, Cho’Gath can layer his basic abilities (all of which provide crowd control) in teamfights to heal his allies.
7.6
Later on Patch 7.6, Riot felt Cho’Gath was still weak after his changes, and two small buffs were given: Cho’Gath now gained 20 more bonus health per stack at Feast’s max rank, and he could now eat one additional minion or monster to gain a stack, raised from five maximum minion/monster stacks to six. This buff raised Cho’s tankiness, but it was nothing major.
7.9
On Patch 7.9, Gargoyle’s Stoneplate was added into the game, granting 40 armor and magic resist, and 40 bonus armor and magic resist if the item holder is in range of three or more enemies. The active ability increases the item holder’s maximum health by 40%, or 100% when around three or more enemies. However, when activated, Gargoyle’s Stoneplate limits the item holder’s damage output by 60% for four seconds. At least, that’s what it is supposed to do.
When Cho’Gath activates Gargoyle’s Stoneplate, he grows from a massive Void beast to a mountainous behemoth the size of many, many Teemos. His size blocks projectiles from hitting his teammates, and he can soak up all the damage with his increased health. But when his damage is supposed to be decreased by 60%, it is actually increased by nearly double. Since true damage cannot be reduced by armor, magic resist, or any other forms of damage reduction, Stoneplate cannot inhibit Feast’s damage output. When Cho’Gath’s health is increased by 100% around three enemies, he can one-shot an enemy ADC or mid-laner with ease. The addition of Stoneplate is probably the biggest factor in Cho’Gath’s rise to fame, and stories of 2000+ damage Cho’Gath ults aren’t rare.
Here’s a short video detailing Cho’Gath’s change in damage when using Gargoyle’s Stoneplate, based on a sample build and six stacks of Cho’s ult.
7.12
Righteous Glory is the item that will send Cho’Gath flying into the enemy team to gobble up a carry. In Patch 7.12, this item was changed to grant 400 health, 30 armor, 10% cooldown reduction, and a speed boost towards enemy champions with a slowing AoE circle once Cho’Gath reaches an enemy. This change was a sizeable buff to tanks who thrive within the enemy backline: Maokai, Olaf, Singed, and of course, Cho’Gath. Righteous Glory adds a much needed gap closer to put Cho’Gath right in the middle of the enemy team, feasting on enemy squishies and knocking up, slowing, and silencing everyone around.
7.13
For all the Cho’Gath players who want to play Cho’Gath jungle, there’s an additional buff just for you. In 7.13, the Cinderhulk jungle enchantment was made 200 gold cheaper, and traded 75 health for 5% bonus health. You can guess how this helps Cho’Gath in the jungle. More health means more damage on his ultimate, and the small magic damage AoE helps with your jungle clear.
7.14
Most recently on Patch 7.14, Cho’Gath burst onto the competitive scene with great success. All three of Cho’s basic abilities were buffed. His ‘Q’, Rupture, had a decrease in 5 damage at max rank, but a drop in 30 mana at all ranks. His ‘W’, Feral Scream, now silenced the enemy for .1 seconds more at rank one. These may sound like very insignificant changes at first, but the most drastic change was to his ‘E’, Vorpal Spikes. Instead of a toggle ability that added magic damage to his auto attacks, Cho’Gath now dealt 4% of the target’s maximum health (with an additional .5% per stack) for the next three auto attacks, in addition to a small slow, 50 extra basic attack range, and an auto attack reset. Cho’s new ‘E’ now dealt more damage and added even more crowd control to his kit.
On Patch 7.14, Cho’Gath was played in all five major regions with a combined average of a 54.86% win rate. However, this number is very skewed, as North American Cho’Gath players only won 27.8% of their games (15.4% top lane win rate, 60% jungle win rate). Neglecting North America’s win rate, Cho’Gath wins a whopping 65.4% win rate, with the most successful region being the LMS at a crazy 90.9% win rate over 11 games on Patch 7.14.
Recent Minimal Nerfs:
Riot saw what chaos Cho’Gath was causing in all levels of play, and decided to turn the Terror’s numbers down a bit in Patch 7.15. The changes were nothing major, only 60 decreased base damage on Vorpal Spikes at max level, and a 1% decrease in target’s max health damage. This change has not come close to stopping Cho’Gath from rampaging through LCS or your solo queue games. And 7.16’s 75 gold increase on Cinderhulk’s price is microscopic. Cho’Gath players will have no problem rampaging through their games.
With immense tankiness and the power to delete enemy carries with a press of your ‘R’ key, it’s no wonder why Cho’Gath leaped onto the LCS stage by storm. So pick the Terror of the Void in your next ranked game, speed towards the enemy backline with your Righteous Glory, pop your Stoneplate in the midst of battle and Feast on an enemy squishy.
I hope this rundown of Cho’Gath’s rise to power was interesting to read, and thanks for stopping by.
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