Kassadin
Matchup Summary
Kassadin is a very free match up for Renekton, as Renekton can completely zone him off the minion wave and force any kills at will. Renekton raw damage completely destroys Kassadin's attempts at being able to play safe, allowing Renekton to always freeze the wave to deny Kassadin any attempts of being able to scale. Once Kassadin reaches level 6, Renekton can still hard abuse his 6 sec CD R with his 2 dashes, allowing him to go for one shots and punish Kassadin for aggressive posturing. All Kassadin can do is look for free kills out of roams, or lane swap to help him farm in side lane. Try to always ping his whereabouts on the map if he tries to roam, as well as asking to swap with your other laner if you want to keep putting Kassadin behind. Within the later stages, Kassadin will scale into a beast at level 16, however Renekton's W lock down is enough to always force Kassadin into terrible circumstances.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Level 1 Q or E Start - As mentioned through other notes, playing off Q and E both require different plays, however in this match up you can essentially do either of them and have pretty good success. With that said, play around the strengths of level 1 and look for a level 2 kill.
- 02
Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once you chunk out Kassadin you're most likely able to kill him with your W, Dash or Flash up. Look to shove the wave around your kill timer, so you're able to make Kassadin lose a lot more.
- 03
Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.
- 04
Heavy Trades - Being that Renekton carries a lot of high damage, Renekton is able to just jump on his target nearly at will. Whenever your laners present you with the ability to jump on them, simply take the opportunity to burst them as much as you can. If you didn't kill them already from that, use your options of freezing or your tower diving ability to help you finish off your opponent.
- 05
Abuse Renekton's Early Game - In this match up Renekton is essentially able to do whatever he simply wants. With that said, really hone into your strong early to mid game strengths to help you dominate and win the game. Play to deny your enemy of gold and xp, play to proxy and generally lead any top side skirmishes with your insane lane advantage.
- 06
Ping Kassadin Roams - Kassadin can’t really do anything towards Renekton within the laning phase, so try to actively ping Kassadin’s attempts to roam as that’s his only win condition in being able to snowball kills. When pinging Kassadin’s roams, try to abuse your wave clear and try to take plates while he isn’t in the lane.
- 07
3 Points Q > W Max - This playstyle allows you to constantly have W’s to help you stay onto Kassadin while abusing your high damage ratios, allowing you to easily snowball and permanently shutdown Kassadin within all stages of the game. Make sure to put 3 points into your early wave clear and poke, then look to max W throughout the rest of your points. Once completed, max your E for additional mobility to help enable your up close stun abusing playstyle.
- 08
Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver, Stridebreaker or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.
- 09
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Typically within this match up, Kassadin should already be giga behind within the game, as his overall laning ability is far too weak to be able to safely play within the early game. Kassadin’s overall job within the mid game, is trying to farm up in side lane with the objective of farming towards his core level 16 powerspike, on top of his core burst and mana heavy items. Within this stage, you should try to abuse your lead by spreading it across the map and trying hard to end the game as fast as possible. Attempt to be at every objective, tower secure, skirmish and look to abuse your lead within teamfights. If you throw any gold or grief your timer in the game, Kassadin will slowly come back and eventually hard snowball out of control. When it comes to side lane, Renekton can easily handle Kassadin within the side lane as his overall power and items are simply too much for Kassadin to handle. Try to look for isolated kills on Kassadin, then look to hard split or join up for teamfights. When teamfighting, you can essentially ignore Kassadin if he’s weak and just focus on his team’s main carries, as once they’re out of the game Kassadin will most likely not be able to do anything. If Kassadin is fed, try to look for a stun on Kassadin’s R engage, as that is always enough to completely shut down Kassadin within a fight.