I love the design and concept of this champ, and I've been playing him (usually as jungler) and really trying hard to make him work. I've found he can be pretty good in some situations but I find he lacks versatility.

What's the best way to build and skill him? the W and E are both very tempting to evolve early, especially W, but it's always a difficult choice.

I tend to go wiggles, thirster, then tank items and a LW at some point. and I tend to evolve W then Q then the last one a toss up.

what's the best way to think about how to play him, and is triforce a good item for him?

1. Mobility boots/Ionia boots.
It's really difficult to seize opportunities without mobility boots. The window you have you gank that low hp champ after an exchange is small and these boots really get you moving from lane to lane while using the leap to scale walls.

2. EVOLVE = Q/E/R
Q is mandatory first evolve because of the huge dmg increase. Really makes 1v1's or trading with champions easy as hell. E i like 2nd because of the versatility you get with a massive sized leap. R last ofcourse for that clutch 3rd ult press although this won't always be an option due to mana issues.

3. Straight +dmg. Thirster, last whisper, etc. Squeeze a MAW into every build. The proc will ALWAYS save you atleast 3 times a game (i swear).

4. Press everything. Dont hesitate to use your ult or any other ability. This guy does so much dmg to an isolated champ its ridiculous. So if popping R to stealth + speed + E to that guy in the back nets you a 1.5 second kill: DO IT. Then bounce out and back in. This assassin can initiate like a boss because of an evolved E/R. You can 2Q any squishy by 30 mins.

5. 21/0/9. Since you're jungling and not really laning (aka trading blows with an opponent) you can go STRAIGHT UP dps runes. I like Run speed quints (godly w/mobility), + ARP red, whatever yellow, CDR blue. You're basically a caster and that cdr with a ghostblade is huge.

So to recap: BLOW EVERYTHING. E onto mid and Q his ass. Now he's at half and you PRESS R to break his target and haul a$$ past him anticipating his flash. As soon as your Q comes up again you hit his face with it and then LEAP out like a boss. Its that simple.

Bot warded? You don't give a ****. You're comin in HOT with mobility + R... BOSS LEAP onto that support whose move speed is a fraction of yours... Q/W/Q. Boss Leap out. Get angry.

This was fun to read^

Everything Banff outlined is true. Brilliant post.

It's worth mentioning that when you're ((((((NOT))))))) jungling you should deviate from this build. This is were alot of potential Kha'zix players go wrong. His end game should always be what Banff describes, but his early/mid game can be very different.

One thing that really surprises me is how much people frown upon evolving his W.

Kha'Zixs poke is his passive/AA+Q.

If you evolve W however, it'll proc your passive damage and can become your new poke. This would be useful if you're top against someone like Darius. Attempting to whittle Darius down with your AA+Q will likely get you killed. So evolving W first would force Darius to fall back and lose farm+not kill you.

Don't evolve W to farm.
Evolving Q increases your AA and Q range. Using Q to farm is more mana efficient.

So overall, if you didn't feel the need to evolve W first then don't evolve it at all.

Honestly, I could type an essay for all the different evolution openings other then Q, but 80% of the time Q's the way to go. I found the mobia guides to be really disappointing. All the guides make it sound like you should rush BT and leap/Q everything to death. It's not always that easy.

I'd recommend evolving Q always if youre jungling. I personally do not evolve his r, i dont think it offers as much as any other skill evolved

He can lane very effectively in the same way that talon can. He can be devastating mid, as his Leap + Q combo will devastate most APs. Its unusual, but if you try it, I promise you'll love it.

My build is a little weird, but I like how it works. I havnt tried it ranked yet but it usually works out in Normal. I jungle (21/9/0) and build Kha'zix with a crit build, and I tend to make everything I touch kind of "pop" its more mid to late game but it works out early game if I build a BF sword right after my Avarice Blade(first item besides boots and 3 pots) and I usually turn the BF into a IE and then I either build two phantoms so I can also add some tankiness on with Frozen Mallet and such or I pretty much build one of each main Crit item and a Bloodthirster and regardless i usually build CD boots.

But other than that evolution wise Q > W > then either E - R depending on the situation. Also dont listen to others when they say evolving W is useless. Im not saying evolving others abilities is a bad idea but the ones who say W is useless really dont know what they are talking about, it provides amazing slow for catching run aways, allows really good poke and a instant minion wave destroyer.

And on a final note I completely agree with what Banff said, if they warded it doesnt usually matter just run in there full speed and you can usually still catch one if you maneuver right, and Kha is fantastic at getting weak targets hiding under turrets, best Void champ ever

When I jungle, I start Cloth 5, and build a philo stone on first back even before boots- fixing his mana issues and gold issues at the same time.

I toss up between evolving E and W first in solo que- if my lanes are dying to crazy risks and I have to come save the tower, evolved W clears out a minion wave easilly, and slows the champ to reduce their ability to escape. Lategame, an evolved W is your main teamfight poke- Walk up, fire it off, walk away to get your passive back, and fire it off again 5 seconds later, slowing champions for your team to initiate on and killing the minions the enemy needs to push,

I have always had good success with kha'zix when building him full AD glass cannon. Focus mostly on AD since most of his damage will come from his Q.
I always evolve his E first so I can either get a kill in my lane or push my lane and go get a kill in mid easily. Q comes second for damage. R comes third to help chasing low enemies, juking, sparking passive, and avoiding damage.

I'm not exactly sure why people keep building tanky kha'zix whenever I play them. Warmogs + Atmas sucks, Frozen mallet seems unnecessary as it doesn't give much AD and you wouldn't need that health/slow anyways if you are killing your targets in a few seconds. Guardian Angel is understandable as a last item.