Kassadin is one of the strongest mage/assassins in the game. He takes a bit of time to ramp up but once he gets there, there’s just no stopping him. In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started playing the Void Walker.

Every champion has different times where they reach their power spikes. Kassadin reaches his as soon as he completes his first Mythic item which, if you’re doing well enough, should be around the 10 minute mark. This can be tricky to pull off since Kassadin’s early game is rather weak. But once you get past the early game, Kassadin will turn into an absolute beast. His burst gets stronger, his roams get more dangerous, and most of all, his ganks will almost always net a kill. Under the right hands, this champion can effortlessly take over a game. 

Champion Abilities

Kassadin’s kit is all about dealing damage. Dealing burst damage to be exact. He’s the perfect counter to mages since he would kind of use their own strength against them.

Passive – Void Stone 

Kassadin takes 10% reduced magic damage and ignores unit collisions.

Kassadin’s passive is pretty basic and straightforward yet it is a very important part of his kit. This makes him resistant to magic damage which further buys into his ability to be an anti-mage mage. Ignoring unit collision also lets him seamlessly walk up to an enemy to poke them in the laning stage.

Q – Null Sphere

Kassadin fires an orb of void energy that deals magic damage and interrupts channels.

The excess energy forms around himself, granting a shield that absorbs magic damage for 1.5 seconds.

Null Sphere is Kassadin’s bread and butter ability. You’ll be using this primarily to deal damage. This is his most consistent source of damage and is fairly spammable. It also gives him a magic absorbent shield which can be useful when trading against mages in the mid lane. While it doesn’t deal any sort of crowd control, it can be used to interrupt channeling spells like Lucian’s The Culling or Malzahar’s Nether Grasp.

W – Nether Blade

Passive: Kassadin’s melee attacks deal 20 (+10%) bonus magic damage.

Active: Kassadin charges his Nether Blade, causing his next basic attack to deal bonus magic damage and restore his missing Mana (quintupled against champions).

A lot of new players tend to underestimate the strength of this ability. Aside from its really cool name, Nether Blade deals absurdly strong damage in the early game. Especially when you take into account that you’ll mostly be going up against squishy mages. The passive is really nice and can be great for last hitting minions. The active, on the other hand, is useful for trading and offers a bit of sustain thanks to the Mana restoration. Additionally, it works as an auto attack reset so when you time it right, you can actually double the damage you deal in a split second.

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 magic damage and slow enemies for 1 second in a cone in front of him.

Force Pulse can be a tricky ability to use. In the early game, this can be difficult to have up all the time since you and your opponent won’t be able to easily spam your spells. But come the late game or in team fights, you’ll usually draw enough charges to have Force Pulse up all the time. Use this to deal decent burst damage and to slow enemies so that you can stick to them more efficiently.

R – Riftwalk

Kassadin teleports to a nearby location dealing magic damage to surrounding enemy units. Each subsequent Riftwalk within the next 15 seconds doubles the Mana cost and deals additional magic damage per stack, stacking up to 4 times.

Riftwalk is Kassadin’s signature ability. This is what will make your power spikes even stronger. Once you have this ability, Kassadin’s mobility will increase by tenfold. It opens up a lot of opportunities for you to secure leads. Be it through ganking or just simply bursting down opponents. It goes without saying, but this ability isn’t just used offensively. You can use this ability to easily dodge abilities and outplay your opponents.

Runes and Item Builds

For items, you’ll mostly be focused on increasing Kassadin’s ability power while also making him durable enough to survive when he dives the enemy’s backline.

Starting Items

Kassadin has a variety of options when it comes to his starting items. The safest choice would always be Doran’s Ring and a couple of Health Potions. Doran’s Ring gives him health and ability power to help him in the early stages of the game. It also has a passive that increases his mana regeneration whenever he damages an enemy. If you’re looking to play a bit more aggressive then you should go with Corrupting Potion which restores health and mana while adding a burn effect to your basic attacks when you use it. If you’re looking to get a headstart on some of your core items, then go ahead and go for Tear of the Goddess right off the bat. Having it early means you’ll have a quicker time to have it fully stacked.  What starting items you choose largely depend on your preference. If you’re unsure or just starting out, Doran’s Ring is your best bet.

Mythic Items

For your Mythic item, there are three great items you can choose from. Most AP Mythic items are actually viable on Kassadin and can be perfect for certain situations. These three, however, are more fit for general situations with very little drawbacks to using them. Let’s take a look at each one.

• Crown of the Shattered Queen

60 Ability Power

250 Health

600 Mana

20 Ability Haste

Divine Safeguard: You are Safeguarded, reducing incoming champion damage by 75%. Safeguard persists for 1.5 seconds after taking champion damage. (40 second cooldown).

Holy Gift: While Safeguarded and for 3 seconds after it is broken, gain 10-40 ability power.

Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 1% Move Speed and 8 Ability Power.

• Luden’s Tempest

80 Ability Power

6 Magic Penetration

600 Mana

20 ability Haste

Echo: Damaging abilities deal an additional (100 + 10% Ability Power) magic damage to the target and 3 nearby enemies while granting you 15% Move Speed for 2 seconds (10s cooldown). Dealing ability damage to champions reduces this item’s cooldown by 0.5 seconds, up to 3 seconds per spell cast. 

Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 5 Magic Penetration.

• Everfrost

70 Ability Power

250 Health

600 Mana

20 Ability Haste

Active – Glaciate: Deal (100 + 30% Ability Power) magic damage in a cone, slowing enemies by 65% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies at the center of the cone are rooted instead (30s cooldown).

Mythic Passive: Grants all other Legendary items 10 Ability Power.

All these items are great on Kassadin, however, Crown of the Shattered Queen takes the cake for being the best Mythic on this champion. It gives him everything he needs plus its safeguard passive allows him to be more aggressive when diving the enemy team’s backline.

Full Build

After purchasing your desired Mythic, you must upgrade your boots next. Always go for Sorcerer’s Shoes for the Magic Penetration. Next, you need to finish off your Archangel’s Staff for the bonus mana and ability power. You’ll need Zhonya’s Hourglass for the stasis active and even more ability power. Top off your build with Void Staff and Rabadon’s Deathcap to further increase your damage.

Other Viable Items

You could argue that most AP items are viable on Kassadin. While that is true, not all of them actually improve his effectiveness apart from giving him more ability power. These other viable items are usually for countering certain heroes or for just wanting more damage. Banshee’s Veil is great for the spell shield passive which can be useful if you’re being focused by the enemy team’s crowd control. Cosmic Drive lets you stay mobile whenever you cast abilities. Demonic Embrace is great for shredding tanks and Lich Bane is perfect for when you just want more burst. There are plenty of good items you can use on Kassadin. We encourage you to try them all out so that you can get a feel for them and decide for yourself which items you think are perfect on this champion.

Runes

For your runes, go with the Domination tree and take Electrocute as your keystone. This will increase your overall damage whenever you execute a combo as Kassadin. Next take Taste of Blood for the healing, Eyeball Collection for more damage, and Ravenous Hunter for more omnivamp. For your secondaries, take Presence of Mind and Coup De Grace from the Precision tree. These increase your mana regeneration and damage to low health targets. For rune shards, take double Adaptive Force and Armor.

Useful Tips

1. Kassadin has a weak early game so you would be better off farming and playing it safe. Try to get your Jungler to gank your lane so that you can obtain a lead and snowball your way to victory.
2. Kassadin is countered by champions like Twisted Fate, Katarina, Fizz, Sylas, and Veigar. If you see any of these champions on the enemy team, you better rethink your strategy and be more cautious on your approach.
3. For your summoner spells, you have two sets to choose from. If you’d like to play aggressive, go with Flash and Ignite. If you would want more presence around the map or would like to split push, then swap out Ignite for Teleport.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Kassadin in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!