Counter Tips & Tricks To Beat Kassadin In League Of Legends

Counter Tips & Tricks To Beat Kassadin In LoL

Abilities

Passive:

Kassadin is permanently ghosted and takes 15% reduced Magic magic damage.

Q: Null Sphere

Kassadin fires an orb of void energy at the target enemy, dealing magic damage and Silencing the target, disrupting their ongoing Channeling channels.

Upon casting Q, Kassadin gains a Magic shield for 1.5 Seconds. The excess energy forms around Kassadin, granting him a shield that exclusively absorbs magic damage for 1.5 seconds.

Tips for playing against Q:

When your trying to poke her out in lane, try to bait out her q before going for a trade, her q blocks quite alot of magic damage and you will win your trades alot harder if you can successfully bait it out. Secondly, If your playing a champion with a channeled ability, kata for example, make sure that you ult after her q is on cooldown as she can easily cancel your ult.

W: Nether Blade

PASSIVE

Kassadin’s basic attacks deal 20 (+ 10% AP) bonus magic damage.

ACTIVE

Kassadin empowers his blade, causing his next basic attack within the next 5 seconds to become unstoppable, gain 50 bonus range, deal increased bonus magic damage, and restore mana, with the restoration amount quintupled against champions Nether Blade resets Kassadin’s basic attack timer.

Tips playing against W

If Kassadin lands her W on you, She gains a TON of mana back. When you are chasing a Kassadin and she runs out of mana, be very careful not to let her get into melee range of you. Space about a flash distance away to prevent her from being able to regain her mana and she should not be able to get away. Kassadin W also does quite alot of damage despite being maxed last. After 6, try to stay just barely out of her R-W range. It makes it really awkward for her to trade with you as she can only get her Q and E off in a trade which is really weak.

E: Force Pulse

PASSIVE:

Kassadin gains a Void Energy stack each time he or a nearby champion uses an ability, stacking up to 6 times. At 6 stacks, Kassadin gains the ability to cast Force Pulse.

ACTIVE:

Kassadin emits a pulse of void energy in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a cone and slowing them for 1 second.

Tips playing against E:

Keep in mind that your abilities also stack her E for her. This is especially relevant for champions like Yasuo and Irelia that tend to spam a lot of abilities. When you are playing these champs, try to avoid unnecessary spell casts as Kassadin will max E in those matchups and she will win a lot of trades if she gets to use her E on cooldown.;

R: Riftwalk

Blinks to the target location and deals magic damage to all nearby enemies. This ability has greatly reduced cooldown at level 16. Each subsequent Riftwalk cast within 15 seconds doubles its mana cost and increases its damage, stacking up to 4 times.

Tips playing against R:

Early game, try to trade with her when her R is stacked. Although a stacked R does more damage, It puts her in a very awkward position where she can either take the trade and go OOM(out of mana) or she is forced to trade without her ult to conserve her mana.

Quick Tips:

If you are playing an AP mage into Kassadin, the current optimal strategy is to start cull, and go attack speed runes on the first stat tree. By starting cull, you will convert your adaptive force from your runes from AP to AD. As your early game harass is largely auto attack based, It results in a TON of extra damage, and absolutely cannot be missed out on. This is largely the reason why the Kassadin Vs Control Mage matchup is slightly Control Mage favored in the current meta.

Kassadin is a champion that LOVES sidelaning after level 11 due to the additional XP that can be gotten in the sidelane. If you can’t beat her 1v1 easily, send your top laner to match Kassadin as Kassadin usually loses hard to most AD top laners. Get him to either freeze the wave so Kassadin loses XP, or push and pressure the tower hard enough that the other team will need to send 2 people to deal with your top laner, resulting in Kassadin splitting XP with the other person, and delaying her level 16.

Kassadin Counter Guide:

Kassadin is a melee range AP hyper carry. She is one of the most unique champions in the game due to her insane late game scaling. This champion is able to 1v5 any game once she gets her infamous level 16 spike. While most high elo mids play her mostly as a counter-pick to champions like Azir and Veigar, there are some high elo mids who have managed to find success with her, even as a blind pick. If you are looking to be successful on the ladder, you need to learn how to counter how as she is currently one of the most popular champions in high elo! High elo Kassadin mains are able to find farm and survive in lanes that should otherwise be unplayable, by being incredibly disciplined and having good wave management.

Your job against Kassadin is to prevent her scaling at all costs. If she falls behind early, which is quite common given her weak early game, she has a very very hard time coming back into the game. Fundamental wave management techniques need to be used, which we will cover later, that will allow you to extend your early game lead and stop Kassadin from coming back into the game.

So how should you beat Kassadin? Let’s go step by step.

Wave Management

There are 2 main fundamental techniques to be learned in order to counter Kassadin. The 2 techniques are the slow push, as well as the freeze. The former technique is mostly used early, while the latter is used as we move into the mid game.

The following process is what you should aim for when playing against Kassadin.

Wave 1 – 3 (Level 1-3)

On the first 3 waves, you want to do something similar to a cheater recall. You can learn about a cheater recall here

Essentially, you want to slightly push the first wave, such that you get level 2 before your opponent. From here, zone Kassadin off the wave as you have a level advantage and start to push at a speed such that the last minion from the 2nd wave will die just as first minion from the 3rd wave arrives in lane.(watch the video if this confuses you) If you did this correctly, on the 3rd wave, you should have 9-10 minions stacked up against their cannon wave. From here, hard shove the wave as fast as possible to crash a big wave under her tower.

However, Instead of recalling once the 3rd wave crashes, you want to abuse Kassadin under her tower by auto attacking her every time she goes for a CS, especially when she goes for the range minions. You can see a video of the world’s best mid “Knight” doing this on Lucian vs Talon. Try to emulate what he is doing as you can see that the talon in the video is getting destroyed and this is what you need to do against Kassadin early game.

While Knight went for a crash on wave 2, a crash on wave 3 is optimal as you will have priority when the scuttle crab spawns which will help your jungler secure crab and get an advantage. Keep doing this until you decide to take your first reset. After your first reset, especially if you’re an AD champion, perma freeze the wave so that Kassadin is denied farm as she can’t walk up. From here, she has only two options. Either she stays in lane and just tries to soak XP without taking any CS, or she will call her jungler over to try to break the freeze for her.

Both of these situations are quite good for you as either she will be starved of farm for a long period, in many cases getting only 20-30 farm in the span of 10 minutes of getting frozen on, or she will be forced to split XP with her jungler as they try to break the freeze. Stunting her XP growth is really effective due to her reliance of hitting level 16 to be a strong champion. An example of a freeze being executed well can be seen here.

Champ Select

Firstly, the absolute best way to counter Kassadin is to beat her at champ select. While she is rarely blind picked, if you do find yourself in a situation where the enemy does blind pick kassadin, there are a myriad of champions that can be picked to beat her. Kassadin does quite well into most AP matchups due to her Passive and Q, But is quite terrible against most of the AD mids. Counter pick her by taking champions such as Zed, Yasuo, Lucian who can completely stop Kassadin from being able farm at all early, as well as force her to itemize Seekers/Tabi, greatly slowing down her scaling

I especially recommend picking Lucian into Kassadin, who, when played correctly, should be able to generate CS leads of up to 70 at 10 mins. Especially if your jungler is helping you to put her behind.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not always bad to pick an AP control mage into Kassadin, as such a pick can be good in certain situations. However, in general, it is not advisable to take the following picks into Kassadin as they have a bad time punishing her early game and get outscaled as early as level 12-13. Examples of bad picks are Leblanc, Azir, Ziggs, Veigar, Kata. If you do need an AP pick due to team comps, examples of acceptable Control mages are Syndra, Orianna, Vladimir, Cassiopeia. While these picks are not necessarily winning, they can somewhat punish Kassadin early and can scale quite well themselves, resulting in an approximately 50-50 matchup.

Matchups

Kassadin vs Katarina

Kassadin is one of kata’s hardest counters. As it’s almost impossible to outtrade her or try to kill her, do your best to roam and snowball the game before she’s able to scale. Mid-game, look to constantly force fights to get yourself fed and look to stack dragons with your team to enable a soul win condition.

Kassadin vs Leblanc

Kassadin hard counters leblanc. As leblanc, you need to try to bully her early game and get a big lead. Do the cull start strat as detailed above and you should destroy her early game. Your early game gank set-up is also really strong so try to freeze the wave pre-6 and get your jungler to gank her as she’s overextending for cs. Transition your lead to the other laners or you will get outscaled.

Kassadin vs Ekko

Kasssadin hard counters ekko. As ekko, your early roaming is really strong. Try to continuously push the wave early and help your jungler with invades as kassadin is useless in a 2v2 situation. When scuttle first spawns on wave 3, get a double scuttle for your team by camping the scuttle that your jungler isn’t taking, so that you can secure 2 scuttles. Play like a second jungler and just keep pressuring the other lanes as after 6, you can’t win kassadin in a 1v1 anymore.

Kassadin vs Talon

In this matchup, Talon should largely ignore Kassadin and go with his normal gameplan, which is to continually shove the wave and look for roams with his insane mobility. Although freezing is usually good against kassadin, its not really optimal in this matchup as talon gets most of his value by roaming around.

Kassadin vs Syndra

Syndra should start cull in this matchup and go TP. TP gives her a lot more options when it comes to punishing Kassadin and the cull is just the best item for mages to take into kassadin. Try to bully her the same way a champion like lucian or yasuo would. Once you run out of mana, get a reset and TP back with as many mana items as you can, usually the best items for this will be Corrupting+Dark Seal or Ring+Dark Seal. Then come back and abuse her.

Kassadin vs Yasuo

This is quite a horrible matchup for Kassadin. As Yasuo, you should be able to easily all-in her and kill her. As yasuo is quite a weak roaming champion, freezing is especially strong against kassadin to get a massive cs lead.

Kassadin vs Ahri

As Ahri, start cull and try to abuse her early. Once you hit 6, focus entirely on roaming and snowballing the game as Ahri is one of the best roaming champs in the game due to her R. Look for picks in the enemy jg with your team and largely just ignore Kassadin. You won’t be able to stop her from scaling so you have to get advantages elsewhere.

Kassadin vs Akali

This is a skill matchup that favours akali quite heavily. While the early laning is quite even, once you hit level 6, try to look for roams and snowball side lanes as your 2v2 is really strong. During all-in’s, try to save your E2 for after her R so that you can follow her and kill her.

Kassadin vs Orianna

Orianna into Kassadin should be a matchup that slightly favours Orianna. Do the Cull start strat as before and harass her as much as possible. On your first base, Look for mana items over damage so that you can consistently harass her without going OOM. Try to aim for perfect CS as much as possible as there is really no real reason you should be losing farm in this matchup.

Kassadin vs Lux

Kassadin does quite well into Lux. As lux, your greatest strength is really strong early harass that Kassadin cannot effectively deal with. You want to be constantly forcing Kassadin to reset at suboptimal times early game by actively attacking her health. As you are very hard to gank, do not be afraid to push Kassadin in so that you can punish her. Do not AFK farm against her.

Kassadin vs Zed

Zed, especially with the new items, does really well into Kassadin. The only thing you need to watch out for is Kassadin’s W damage as it does a ton of damage early game, Especially if she gets to AA>W for the auto reset. Once you hit 6, the best way to kill her is to ult, then keep autoing her until she uses her R to run. Once she R’s away, finish her off with a W>E>Q>W>AA>Ignite. Most Kassadin’s wont react to this and it should be a free kill.

Kassadin vs Malzahar

In this matchup, be very careful of ulting Kassadin as she can self cancel your ult with her Q. Do not make your R’s too predictable as good Kassadin’s can and will cancel your ult. Farm until 6 and then look for ganks with your jungler. Kassadin is quite squishy early game and you can usually get a free kill on her after 6, especially if your playing damage junglers like Lee Sin, Graves, Ect.

Diana vs Kassadin

This is quite an even matchup. However, it is quite volatile as whoever gets the first kill will be able to hard snowball the lane. Try to call your jungler to gank her early while she is vulnerable to try to generate a lead for yourself. If you do fall behind, getting Mercury Treads early will help a lot in surviving her burst.

Kassadin vs Fizz

While this is traditionally an amazing matchup for Kassadin, Fizz does win out in the current season due largely to the new items favouring fizz greatly. You will still have a hard time killing Kassadin due to her Q shield and her passive. Hence, focus your efforts on roaming and getting advantages elsewhere. One of Fizz’s biggest strengths is the ability to dive bot lane. Pay attention to your bot lane and look at when they have a large wave pushing in. Use this chance to roam and dive the enemy bot to get a big lead.

Kassadin vs Azir

Early game, harass her as much as possible with your autos as it does quite alot of damage. As you won’t be using mana much in this lane, skip your doran’s item and go either cull or doran’s blade. Doran’s blade seems bad on an AP mage but in this matchup specifically an acceptable item to start. Otherwise, just go Cull and

Ryze vs Kassadin

Ryze is a champion that can somewhat match Kassadin’s scaling, especially in season 11. This matchup is perfect for Ryze to play like a second jungler. Past level 6, Constantly push the wave and look for either your camps or the enemy camps to farm. Your job is to simply keep farming until you have 14-15 CS per minute. At this point, you will become an unkillable hypercarry that is difficult to deal with.

Annie vs Kassadin

Annie has quite a good time punishing Kassadin’s early game. As she has the highest base attack range in the game, it is really easy to harass Kassadin. Maintain 10 CS per minute and do your best to match her later in the game.

Kassadin vs Cassiopeia

This matchup is almost entirely dependent on whether Cassiopeia lands her Q.Try to hold Q until you’re confident you can land it. If you need help, Consider dropping W on top of Kassadin to slow her and stop her from ulting.

Conclusion

While Kassadin’s late game is absolutely disgusting, her early game is one of the weakest in the game. Early game, she is a melee champ with no mobility, and has trouble farming due to the long q cooldown. That being said, she needs to be hard punished in the early game and be denied the tools she needs to scale into her late game. The expected CS lead for the lane at 10 mins should be anywhere between 30 to as high as 60, depending on the matchup.

That said, you should have all the tools you need to beat Kassadin. Good Luck!