How to play Kassadin?

Question

How am I supposed to play Kassadin? I heard that Kassadin was a top pick in S2 and was a great counter to most AP MIDs. But I myself cannot play him well, and most players that I laned against played very bad too.

I read a lot of guides, but I'm not sure about the combos, if I need escape after the combo or if I should stay and auto-atack, the itemization, when can I play aggressive, when I need play defensive, and when I need stack the Riftwalk or not.

I also see a lot of surreal builds, such as stacking Rod of Ages or Deathfire Grasps, so sometimes is hard to think of what "core" items to target.

There is some VOD of a Kassadin pro player, with a great gameplay?
I'm looking for something like "Wow, it's my target, I want to play like this!"

Answer 1

There are many Playstiles for Kassadin:

1.Stacking Mana to make use of repeated Riftwalk uses.

2.Stacking pure AP to get the most Damage out of Riftwalk, Slow and Null Sphere.

3.Even Hybrid AP/AD can work.

I can only comment on #2 and my Expirience is a little bit old, but you never really want to use stacked Riftwalk unless you have to, or you have blue buff, but even then - More then 2x Riftwalk takes too much of your mana pool.

In mid Lane, you can trade good against people who try to harass you with Magic Damage because of your passive. But before lvl 6 you should limit it to only null spheres (maybe a few auto attacks if he's silenced and wont do much damage, to get some mana back).

If you're lvl 6 - The fun starts: You now have Flash on a 6 second cooldown!

You should be able to effectifly harass your enemy down by Silencing, going in, slowing and rifting out before he can cast a spell. Or the other way round: Throw a long range silence, rift in when it arrives - cast your slow, do 1-2 auto attacks and walk back out.

Do this so long until you can chase him for the kill.

Ganking is also pretty good, you can rift from the bush and slow, so your teammates can catch up.

The main point to Kassadin is: Always watch your Riftwalk buff, always watch your mana.

"Do i really have to use a stacked rift, when i can Rift 2 seconds later without higher mana cost?"

"What will i do after I riftwalk in?"

"How do i get back out?"

"Is the increased Damage worth it to waste half of my mana?"

Item Wise: Rod of Ages, Finish Boots then Standard AP Stacking. Zhonyas is very good on him because you can wait for a riftwalk to get out.

As for the boots I prefer Mercury Treads because you are a high mobile champ and stuns lock you up.

Depending on the Enemy Team, you may need more survivability like Abyssal or some HP.

In Team Fights, try to slow as many people as possible, silence a high priority spellcaster hint: Its not always their mid and then try to isolate and pursue this target.

As far as videos is concerend, i can't help you, because Kassadin was always a niche counterpick and i dont remember a particular player who was very good at him.