Kog is not defined so much by “early, mid, late” as many other champs as far as their role is concerned. Rather, Kog’s power and presence is dictated by the rank of Living Artillery.





Rank 0 - Feeble Mortar Mimicry

Before you have your ult, your laning phase should consist of using your spells at maximum range to farm the waves.



Unless your opponent screws up, you will not win in CS



Without potions or Dorans, Kog's effective gold is higher than the CS implies.



Survival is the name of the game



Don’t bother pushing hard. Autoattacks are like butter slapping a brick.



If you die, you weren’t playing carefully enough



Poke to farm

Farm with Void Ooze: Void Ooze is the most useful one for this task, as it has longer range than any of your other spells and its AOE is able to take out minions decently. Use the tip of its 1,200 range to farm many of the minions.



Don't Bother Trading: It doesn’t matter if they’re melee, if they have less range, or even if they’re out of mana. Every spell, every auto should be focused on trying to farm above all else. Your kill potential is fairly nonexistent pre-6. If you think you can kill them by hitting them enough? That's precisely when everything will start going wrong.



Land Incidental Damage: You may not be trying to poke opponents down, but incidental damage is always nice. Try to position yourself to hit both the minion and the opponent at the same time.



Beware the Enemy Jungler: Kog is such an easy target for the jungler to jump on. This is the biggest reason why even poking is fruitless; a competent jungler will take advantage of your vulnerability even if you’re only a quarter of the way down the lane.



Beware Your Own Jungler: Survival is your primary priority. Unless you have a jungler with a mixture of heavy CC and heavy damage, consider informing your jungler to not even gank for you. Kills rarely result unless the jungler has red and you can land a well-timed void ooze or exhaust. But even this opens up the fight to a countergank that is easy to lose.



Go Back Instead of Pushing: Your pushing power is stupidly weak. Even two uncontested minion waves won’t bring the tower to half health. It’s not worth the risk unless their jungler is in a different lane. Aim to rush the Triple Rubies for even more survival.



Get a Control Ward Against Flanks: Get an early control ward and set it up to protect from a jungler tower-dive ambush.



Always Improve at Surviving: Every death is preventable. It means you were too far without wards, you were trying to trade, you didn’t dodge enough, or you got surprised by burst damage. Take every death as a learning experience of what to expect for the future and avoid repeating the same mistake.



Use Unsealed Spellbook to Stall Longer: The two best spells to swap to early on Unsealed Spellbook are Clarity Teleport







Void Ooze is the most useful one for this task, as it has longer range than any of your other spells and its AOE is able to take out minions decently. Use the tip of its 1,200 range to farm many of the minions.It doesn’t matter if they’re melee, if they have less range, or even if they’re out of mana. Every spell, every auto should be focused on trying to farm above all else. Your kill potential is fairly nonexistent pre-6. If you think you can kill them by hitting them enough? That's precisely when everything will start going wrong.You may not be trying to poke opponents down, but incidental damage is always nice. Try to position yourself to hit both the minion and the opponent at the same time.Kog is such an easy target for the jungler to jump on. This is the biggest reason why even poking is fruitless; a competent jungler will take advantage of your vulnerability even if you’re only a quarter of the way down the lane.Survival is your primary priority. Unless you have a jungler with a mixture of heavy CC and heavy damage, consider informing your jungler to not even gank for you. Kills rarely result unless the jungler has red and you can land a well-timed void ooze or exhaust. But even this opens up the fight to a countergank that is easy to lose.Your pushing power is stupidly weak. Even two uncontested minion waves won’t bring the tower to half health. It’s not worth the risk unless their jungler is in a different lane. Aim to rush the Triple Rubies for even more survival.Get an early control ward and set it up to protect from a jungler tower-dive ambush.Every death is preventable. It means you were too far without wards, you were trying to trade, you didn’t dodge enough, or you got surprised by burst damage. Take every death as a learning experience of what to expect for the future and avoid repeating the same mistake.The two best spells to swap to early on Unsealed Spellbook areand. The first to stay even longer in lane before recalling, the second to double-dip refill on health + mana or to try countering a roaming foe.

Rank 1 - Obnoxious Spittle Tickler

The first rank of the ult is your first major power spike, immediately doubling your power. Upon receiving it, your Barrage Limit starts at 1.



Prevent opponents from roaming



Be cautious about roaming; it's often better to refill on mana



Force squishy targets back with powerful ooze-ult combos



If you die during laning, you weren’t playing carefully enough.



Use your basic spells primarily for their utility



Poke to deter

Avoid Ulting Twice In a Row: Shooting even 2 bullets in a row is an easy way to use up your whole mana bar very fast, so carefully consider every time you even want to shoot just twice.



Ward the Enemy's Half of the Lane: Your opponent will likely have their ult at this point as well and will often begin roaming, as Kog lacks the pushing power to take advantage of their disappearance. Putting wards on their side of the lane will ensure that if they begin roaming, you can warn which direction they go so your team will have heavy advance notice to get away.



Be Careful When Following Roams: You may sometimes want to chase after roaming opponents, but be aware that they may easily be hiding around a corner or in a bush in ambush, waiting to take advantage of your still-weak power. Alert your team, and be extremely cautious of ambushes if you choose to follow them.



Avoid Roaming: It's tempting to roam yourself, but you're usually better off just being more focusing on farming up to Level 11. It may be self-centered, but it's not selfish, because it is the action that maximizes your entire team's chances of winning.



Use Ooze + Ult to Clear Minions: If you use Void Ooze on the caster minions, the execute bonus of the ultimate will proc on them, allowing an instant clear on the minions at later ranks of Void Ooze.



Deter Enemies With Ooze + Ult: Unless your opponent is very squishy, you should largely be using poke as a form of deterrence rather than a form of killing. Still, a successful ooze-ult combo on an opponent can deal substantial damage so always keep an eye out for chances to land one.



Unsealed Spellbook Provides Durability: Good swaps at this point start being Barrier Heal







Shooting even 2 bullets in a row is an easy way to use up your whole mana bar very fast, so carefully consider every time you even want to shoot just twice.Your opponent will likely have their ult at this point as well and will often begin roaming, as Kog lacks the pushing power to take advantage of their disappearance. Putting wards on their side of the lane will ensure that if they begin roaming, you can warn which direction they go so your team will have heavy advance notice to get away.You may sometimes want to chase after roaming opponents, but be aware that they may easily be hiding around a corner or in a bush in ambush, waiting to take advantage of your still-weak power. Alert your team, and be extremely cautious of ambushes if you choose to follow them.It's tempting to roam yourself, but you're usually better off just being more focusing on farming up to Level 11. It may be self-centered, but it's not selfish, because it is the action that maximizes your entire team's chances of winning.If you use Void Ooze on the caster minions, the execute bonus of the ultimate will proc on them, allowing an instant clear on the minions at later ranks of Void Ooze.Unless your opponent is very squishy, you should largely be using poke as a form of deterrence rather than a form of killing. Still, a successful ooze-ult combo on an opponent can deal substantial damage so always keep an eye out for chances to land one.Good swaps at this point start beingand, which add even further bulkiness with the Triple Ruby combo.

Rank 2 - Artillery's Apprentice

You have hit your second major power spike, doubling your power once again. Now that you are 4x more powerful, you may begin poking very offensively at the opponents.



Keep everything constantly warded



Clear waves instantly and begin pushing and grouping



Be wary of dash-combos



Poke to kill

You Probably Didn't Win in CS: This is okay. That's what you get when you play a champion with a weaker laning phase. Now is the time for the payback.



Keep Mindful the Barrage Limit: Don't go trigger happy with ultimates. While the Barrage Limit is about 2 now, be conscious of how much mana is being depleted. Running out at the wrong time can give the enemy leeway for a tower.



Use Spittle First: Caustic Spittle, Ooze, Ult, Auto. A committing target can’t avoid the Q, which will amplify the damage from the rest of the combo.



Chain Aggressively: Your teamfight presence is now massive even with few items. Rylais will be finished soon and you'll get to start chaining opponents down. Careful however; a wide variety of dash-combos can still reach you even at max range.



Scout With the Ult: Living Artillery grants vision on the location it casts on, so use it to see if the roaming mid-laner is trying to ambush you or if the opponents really are at baron.



Ult Your Feet: During duels against melee targets, keep ult’ing at the ground directly underneath yourself. This will guarantee the hit unless the target decides to disengage momentarily, buying valuable time to make distance.



Aim for the Zhonyas: Whenever you see someone has gone into Zhonya form, keep your eyes extra peeled on them and try to land an easy ult shot rightttt as the Zhonyas duration ends. Once you get good with the timing of your ult, the Zhonyas form is just a free target.



Unsealed Spellbook Provides Options: At this point, the summoners from spellbook will start rotating. Ghost Smite This is okay. That's what you get when you play a champion with a weaker laning phase. Now is the time for the payback.Don't go trigger happy with ultimates. While the Barrage Limit is about 2 now, be conscious of how much mana is being depleted. Running out at the wrong time can give the enemy leeway for a tower.Caustic Spittle, Ooze, Ult, Auto. A committing target can’t avoid the Q, which will amplify the damage from the rest of the combo.Your teamfight presence is now massive even with few items. Rylais will be finished soon and you'll get to start chaining opponents down. Careful however; a wide variety of dash-combos can still reach you even at max range.Living Artillery grants vision on the location it casts on, so use it to see if the roaming mid-laner is trying to ambush you or if the opponents really are at baron.During duels against melee targets, keep ult’ing at the ground directly underneath yourself. This will guarantee the hit unless the target decides to disengage momentarily, buying valuable time to make distance.Whenever you see someone has gone into Zhonya form, keep your eyes extra peeled on them and try to land an easy ult shot rightttt as the Zhonyas duration ends. Once you get good with the timing of your ult, the Zhonyas form is just a free target.At this point, the summoners from spellbook will start rotating.is a good replacement for Flash when it's on cooldown whilecan be used to help secure an objective, or just to add more CDR onto Spellbook. It's tricky balancing unique spells vs. more useful ones.

Rank 3 - Ruler of the Acid Reign

This is it. If you have made the game go on this long, another 2x multiplier in power. You are now 8x more powerful and boy does it feel damn good.



Stay at max range unless an engage happens



Keep a target locked on and shoot



Destroy diving opponents



Poke to win