Ah. I tried some builds without DFG last night and I felt very naked without it. A lot more people escaping to dangerous areas before I could finish them off. Although the purpose of DFG was to help against tanks, it felt even more useful against low-mid HP targets because it gives you that extra oomph to kill them.

But yeah, Kassadin ultimately needs health to last outside of the base longer (and not die) and mana to do what he does best... chasing.

Hey, I've played kassadin twice before this and miserably failed. I tried this guide and went 14-1-16.. Incredible guide, it makes you THE teleporting rape machine of the game absolutely love it. Thanks haha will be playing him a lot more often. Being pretty much entirely new to Kass the only thing I found annoying was queued my e right after using blink, but before I had actually blinked I learnt pretty quickly to wait for the blink the happen to use e, but your guide definitely nailed out the items and I was solo qing at the time and the people I was playing with said I did an amazing job so props to your guide

you now have another person who loves kassadin :X

I've been watching matches on solomid.net

DOGKaiser's (top tier) build for Kass is:

Sapphire 2xHP > Catalyst
Boots
Sheen > Tri-force
Upgrade boots
Wit's end

Game usually over by then.

He runs smite and I'm not sure what other summoner skill because the vods aren't from his POV.

The reason why I post this is that every single guide I've read has said AP Kass > DPS Kass but in these high ELO games he's going DPS. Also, he AA's to kill instead of rift stacking saving rift only for catching up or to run away.

I haven't tried DPS because I prefer AP, but I've had a recent string of losses (6 in a row, ) with Kass. I just don't think he nukes hard enough to finish people off (as opposed to other AP heroes like annie or veiger which makes sense because he's traded that for mobility).

I was also thinking this was similar reasoning behind the migration away from AP Katarina to DPS; you couldn't rely on her abilities to finish off foes. http://leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=38513

Thoughts?

Loved the original guide, I'm new to Kass but it definitely got me off on the right foot. I'd have to disagree with you on only one point (and this may have changed since you wrote the original post here)... and that is this:

I find it much more costly to stack enough ability power rather than CD reduction and far less effective. With Kassadin's abilities (including riftwalk) being affected by CD reduction, you are far more effective with riftwalk and burn combos if you go for CD reduc earlier (still go for catalyst and survival of course) but save the zhonyas for after you have the 25% reduction from frozen heart.. and of course stacking mana like crazy.

I've found that if my riftwalk is sitting at a 2.4-3.8 sec CD, I can kill easily with as little as 40AP just from the sheer ability to quickly charge riftwalk and then blow my combo twice on them while riftwalking and still make it out. Clarity helps with an "oh ****" burn where you know one more riftwalk will either get you the kill, or save you from death. I know that the high AP will net you FAR more dmg/mana but the price difference between getting ~300AP and getting 25%+ CD reduc makes it, in my opinion, essentially to early/mid game kills.

Just my thoughts, I'd love to hear what you think about this because I know you're a long time and top notch Kass player. It's been suiting me very well but like I said, I just picked up Kass so I don't really know what has been changed on him since you wrote the guide.

Most useful guide I've read though.

This is a fantastically written guide -

Your rationale is extremely sound, and clear and concise logic is, here, written.

I'mma give it a shot, 'cause this feller's my next purchase.
Thank you.

Use your spells to kill creeps intead of harrassing or trying to last hit with melee. and if you're desperate take smite. If you're still having problems then you probably just suck against gragas for whatever reason and should stack some of those magic ap gold/10 second daggers instead of phylosphers. I try not to take physopher stone no matter what. Tear, catalyst, then AP.