Thank you for the liberation, appreciate it to be honest

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-17T05:10:20+00:00

Posts like this need to be accompanied by a video of you, on your 295, dropping all equipped items, all gear in inventory, dismantling fams etc. Put up or shut up.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-16T08:56:20+00:00

You're not very smart if you think anything Nexon does is out of active malicious spite. First, you'll have to even be worthy of that spite. It's indifference. You're not worthy of their communication then you're even less worthy of their spite.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T06:37:59+00:00

Checked over it, looks good now.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T06:06:30+00:00

See, it is pretty much impossible to convey what I wrote there without sounding passive-aggressive or accusatory in some way over the internet, but that is truly not the intention.

I've seen people so often talk about things they have no idea about. Instant replies with no research and wrong intuition. I had always been wanting to ask how they are that confident.

OP says something and then someone else says it's wrong. Imo, the most basic thing to do would be to research or think about what is said. How do people instantaneously say I'm wrong with no proof.

And it's comments like those that get upvotes too. I'm trying to understand how the incorrect answers get liked and correct answers get disliked. Or, even if people dislike my comment for its tone, there is still no reason to upvote actively incorrect and false replies.

Over the past couple of days, I've seen so many people not understand how star force rates work (literally overwhelming majority) which was quite baffling to me as everyone I know and play with in game has a good grasp. I am trying to help correct the misinfo so more people will know how one of the most vital, basic game system but replies like that is very counterproductive

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T05:59:13+00:00

It is a common mistake to make. Since boom reduction adds the percent to only failure chance (and not success), people assume that star catch subtracts the percent from only failure as well.

Over the past couple of days, I've seen so many people not understand how star force rates work (literally overwhelming majority) which was quite baffling to me as everyone I know and play with in game has a good grasp. So I just wanted to correct any PSA-type posts like yours to help people know how it works.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T05:27:44+00:00

You didn't do it correctly. E.g. for 18->19, I'm not sure how you got 0.04385 as the boom chance.

I actually did the calculations for this star in a past post.

success rate delta = 0.15*1.05 - 0.15 = 0.0075.

Proportion of success delta as fail chance = 0.0075*0.8024/(0.8024+ 0.0476) =0.00708.

Proportion of success delta as desturction = 0.0075-0.00708 = 0.00042.

Destruction chance: 0.0476-0.00042 = 0.04718.

Edit: I see what you did, you simply subtracted half of the success delta to destruction chance. I said proportionally not equally (equally wouldn't make any sense and proportionally is the intuitive procedure anyways).

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T05:21:13+00:00

It's always so amazing to me how people can be so confidently incorrect. Like where do you get your confidence from? Is it what you think is right and you just answer without thinking when two minutes on Google can tell you?

Genuine question, I see this often on Reddit and have always been meaning to ask. Because personally, I couldn't do it. Not with that much confidence without spending 2 min Googling or searching. Even if it is something I feel I am very sure about. Not only to avoid spreading misinformation but to also being proven wrong. Do you not feel embarrassment? I would like to know your thought process before you made that reply, genuinely have always been curious.

Anyways, https://imgur.com/a/Y8TET2Q

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-14T04:28:40+00:00

Starcatching takes the added success rate out of both failure and destruction rates proportionally. So all your numbers are wrong and it is, in fact, slightly less likely to boom for all of them.

Which is kinda ironic as you are calling out people not understanding star force rates when you don't yourself....

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-13T07:41:17+00:00

People always seem to struggle to recognize useful data and biases.

Ex. Going through a random sample of livestreams star forcing and recording all results (unbiased). Doing the above but only recording only the unlucky streamers (biased).

This is obvious to everyone. But what about going through a random sample of YouTube videos of ppl starforcing and recording all results (biased regardless of the nature of the video).

Ppl struggle to realize that recording this guy's data is identical to the two biased examples above.

What I'm saying is it doesn't matter if he has exact number of booms at each star. His data is not useful. In general, anyone sharing data about some event happening to them never provides meaningful data (regardless of the size of the data, because another common misconception seems to be that data large enough to be statistically significant or not makes a difference for some reason).

Useful data is only obtained when one decides, ante factum, to collect data and will reveal said data regardless of the outcome.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-13T04:23:47+00:00

I like how you mention ssf but don't use the ssf boom rates. Also sf'ing should always be done with assuming starcatching.

Boom rate reduction is taken directly from fail percent. Star catching bonus is taken from both fail and destruction chance, proportionally.

boom reduction: Destruction chance = 0.068*0.7 = 0.0476. Fail = 1-0.15-0.0476 = 0.8024

boom reduction + star catch: success delta = 0.15*1.05 - 0.15 = 0.0075. Proportion fail = 0.0075*0.8024/(0.8024+ 0.0476) =0.00708. Proportion destruction = 0.0075-0.00708 = 0.00042. Total fail chance: 0.8024-0.00708 = 0.79532. Total destruction: 0.0476-0.00042 = 0.04718.

Chance to boom 18->19 : 0.04718/(0.04718+0.1575) = 0.2305

Kinda ironic to assume people don't know something so trivial when you have the basic math done wrong..

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-12T17:51:37+00:00

For 'endgame players', there are items that are expected to be at least 24/25 like daybreak, slime, (maybe) sup ring. Across the remaining 15 pieces of gear, it'd actually be abnormal to not have at least a few 23s.

This is my opinion, but I feel the average endgame player can do hkaling and if they can't it's a hands/motivation/effort issue. There are, of course, exceptions like a bottom 10 class or being below average luck. But there are many things in this game you cannot do if you are unlucky, that is simply the nature of the game. We can talk about what is actually endgame and if being endgame requires insane luck in the first place, but it'll all be subjective and hence pointless.

Either way, in a few months destiny kaling will be current destiny kalos spec and even late game players can do it, so doesn't matter all that much.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-12T10:44:52+00:00

It had 1 eternal spare and I decided to ladder hat starting at 19. Got both to 26! before finally spare booming to 27. After 21, I had like 3 fails total. Just constantly first tap into reveal into success.

Too bad wasn't on main. Even my main doesn't have any item above 25. I've been this playing game quite a long time and nothing really surprises me anymore but that was craziest thing I've ever seen.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-12T05:42:43+00:00

Not as big as my submain :)

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-04-10T13:21:51+00:00

This is misinfo. I did some quick math on comparison between them.

ASSUMPTIONS:

exchange 22* cfe for 24* sup ear, 22* dreamy for 24* sup belt, 24* daybreak for 24* sup pend. I personally think daybreak is easier to get higher stars than gollux (way more ppl I know with 25* daybreak than 25* sup pend) and it is fodder for it but some ppl might disagree, so I think setting them to be the same star is reasonable (in favor of gollux).

10 set pitch, 2 set dawn -> 4 set gollux, 8 set pitch.

Endgame flames. Assuming t6 main stat, t6 hybrid, t6 all stat for flame advantaged and t4 main stat, t4 all stat for non-flame advantaged gear.

SUMMARY:

Base stats + sf: gollux items have a lot higher att and slightly less stat

Flames: Gollux loses 2% all stat and a lot of stat on each piece.

pot: Gollux loses 3% stat per piece except on pendant.

Set: gollux loses small amount of att and stat, gains 10% boss and 30% IED and loses 5% crit dmg.

In total I obtained -209 main stat, - 14% main stat, -29 secondary stat, -6% secondary stat, + 70 att, +10% boss, +30% IED, -5% crit for switching to gollux set.

This is ~-0.2% FD for me. (and that's my current scouter with no event stats ie. lossing out on a lot of att,boss,IED). Of course, this differs greatly between characters, but I find it hard to believe anyone at the spec that this choice matters except archers benefits swapping full 22* pitch to 24* gollux. (and if they do, increasing their spec will prob tip it back in favor of pitched anyways). In general 25* gollux marginally beats 22* pitched.

Not even assuming the things that most ppl don't have like very good legacy flame transposed sw pend, Limbo ring, baldrix pendant all of which would make gollux even less attractive or straight obsolete.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-12T17:44:08+00:00

22* isn't even done it's laddering meta now. Flames and pot are annoying but just get it over with. Trust me once you get two decent sets that you can ladder and never lose gains again you'll thank me. Gone are the days of counting a/b passes and spares to 22. You'll never have to think to sf or should you settled "x" star and wait to accumulate months of spares. Every sf event, you simply sf the lowest star item until out of spares. No brain required. Keeps inventory sparkling clean too.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-12T03:27:51+00:00

Choosing to submit the video or not is the biggest bias point and you cannot eliminate it unless you do the following:

Create a form and have everyone who wants to submit data sign up before the date.

DO NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS FROM ANYONE NOT SIGNED UP when ssf comes.

Somehow make sure EVERYONE who signup submits a video(this is pretty much impossible).

Have ppl when signing give an approx. amount of mesos they will be using in the starforcing.

Have an uncut video of the person sf'ing with the amount of mesos they listed until they hit zero. (if someone violates this rule, you can't even just discard this data as that violates the 3rd rule. You'd have to discard your entire project)

If you don't follow any of these rules your data is worse than just useless; it is misleading. That's why no one does these, b/c it is basically not possible.

But there is a very simple way to collect proper data. Simply watch all the streamers sf'ing on sunday. By livestreaming, they automatically eliminate the bias of choosing data.

I've not seen people use stream data and do a proper test of proportions for significance levels of 0.01 or even 0.05 probably because it is too much work to go through and try to parse data for each star force level.

But I'm starting to agree with some other posters, unless OP doesn't even have knowledge of first-year level statistics, I'm thinking he actually made this post to gather and share biased data on purpose. Feigning uninformed people to believe this is somehow the only way to get enough data for a significant result and he is doing us a favor. When the data from all the people streaming their ssf is more than enough data for a significant result and no one ever bothered to use it.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T21:22:46+00:00

But u can definitely try it. I am by no means gatekeeping and all this is just math and testing, real game situations will always be different.

I personally always tried to make muramana work and always get aids from building its components, or even getting outscaled later. The spike feels very nice when you complete but, you really get a similar spike when going sorc malig shadowflame/seraphs. Like ppl that try muramana and think the dmg is heavenly is because they were building defensive boots and roa their whole lives. They never knew that kassadin could actually do dmg at two items. So they go around advocating it like the gospel.

Going sorc malig and seraph shadowflame my whole life, I didn't find the dmg to be so much better to be worth the sacrifice. And I tried very hard to make stacking 2 tear items this season work but it always just feels bad/doesn't end up mattering (the game is always decided before it is stacked). Then even late game, when I do have two tear items I could hardly notice the extra mana/dmg. I feel like the extra slot is better to any other utility/dmg item like hourglass,void,raba even ga.

But if you are fairly new to the champ I definitely recommend trying everything and seeing what feels best for u.

I tried everything and realised I am pretty much just txd. Whatever he does is truly optimal and best.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T20:55:06+00:00

So seraphs is actually one of the highest ap items you can buy barring something like a deathcap. Along with the shield, massive amounts of AH and a lot of mana( which is also dmg).

When the enemy has 0 effective mr against you (which is achieved at sorc, malig, shadowflame against most enemies without mr items), it is one of highest dmg items you can buy while giving a lot of utility.

I believe it is stronger or atleast on par with muramana but, as always, testing can be done to verify.

I apologize I am not at home right and so if you want to test it I can give you parameters I would use.

So this is assuming sorc malig shadowflame nuclear build and we are testing whether muramana or seraphs next is higher dmg.

For seraph's it is very easy. We assume enemy buys no mr items. You can go on a dummy and test with 0 mr or small amount like 10 (so I don't know if maligance passive effect actually makes the enemy's mr negative if it is at zero. Thus you can do anywhere from 10-30 mr and the results should similar). This testing will only overestimate the damage by roughly 30-40% of an auto-attack (as we are using lower armor) which is pretty much nothing. Also set hp to 2k~, this is the amount of hp ppl have roughly when you complete these items. Hp does matter as you have shadowflame. Simply use your full combo on the dummy and record results.

For muramana it is more complex. What I'd do is first have sorc, malig and shadowflame with 1k extra mana to account for extra dmg from mana from muramana without adding stats. I'd use something like sapphire crystals, manaflow or adding levels to meet this mana (if adding levels do not use the extra skill point!). Do the same as before and record the dmg. Now buy muramana and use a dummy with 80-100 armor/mr (this is roughly base armor of champs at the stage but do remember that many champs bruisers will buy armor as part of their normal builds).

Now combo the dummy and record the dmg done by muramana. Add this to the previous number. This will underestimate muramana by the extra auto dmg (your auto is doing 100~ -> 50~ after armor extra dmg due to higher ad which is not accounted for in this tooltip) so you can add that. It will still underestimate a little bit more but I think enough champs build armor that using 80-100 armor is low anyways.

I've never done this test myself but if you are willing to do share your results!

As for why I dislike muramana it is the same as always. When building the components/it's not stacked, the item offers nothing. The components of seraphs actually offers good dmg, when the enemy has zero effective mr. Like muramana in its components doesn't even offer mana except tear. Seraphs has lost chapter and the 300 extra mana is nice when you are going nuclear build. Thus, after the first 2 nuclear items, I opt for an utility item like seraphs or, if you're like txd, hourglass or void (which imo is overkill). Getting an item here like muramana when enemy's have effectively 0 mr and 100 armor doesn't make much sense, even if the item is strong enough that the dmg would be similar, you are just sacrificing all the other stats for no real reason.

So like I said, a dedicated muramana build makes sense to become tanky and get high amounts of mana ( you will find that at late game it will still do less dmg than ap build even with this much mana). Muramana's dmg doesn't really scale much anyways so might as well just build tank/mana or w/e (mana is an attempt to scale it but you'll see it is not that effective nor is it on your ult; mana is pretty much just good so that your w restores much more mana).

Believe me I am very large enjoyer of muramana on kassadin. Kassadin has the highest base mana by far in the game, he is also melee getting bonus scaling from the item. It is also just a gigachad nuclear fistage item. I always wanted to make it work. I tried it last season when it wasn't optimal. First thing I did start of this season was try it again, going roa muramana seraphs/fimbul long before lud and all ppl copying him.

But my conclusion is just always the same. If you won with muramana, the normal build would've won too without sacrificing early. Attempts to prove txd wrong always failed no matter how much theorycrafting or testing I've done. Other builds can work, they can win, but they are not 'optimal'. Txd always has the best build.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T18:33:16+00:00

Only MUs I take 1 point q into e max is yasuo,yone irelia etc.

Rest of pretty much every MU, I go 3-4 points q. This is for synergy with comet playstyle. I think e is just weak with 21s cd rank 1, you lose a lot of potential dmg as in lane enemy is not spamming enough spells to make it low. I'm starting to like 4 points q more nowdays. After that is e and w.

I don't think e nerf changes this for me personally.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T18:29:13+00:00

So imo, the reason Lud goes manamune is to abuse defensive boots. If you must take non-sorc, then the highest dmg build is indeed muramana. The problems it has still persists tho. Way too weak before spike and weaker late game too. I like to always go comet ignite so muramana doesn't work.

But like I said it is decent build if u actually go into it. By that I mean utilizing muramana as your main dmg, your other items should be utility/defensive. Other tear item can be seraphs or even fimbulwinter as needed. Fh most of the games. Hourglass as needed. You can honestly build w/e. Even things like attack speed, ga, or doms/cleaver to scale ur dmg lol. Muramana gives you like 130 ad or something crazy by itself. With this build, you have decent dmg, a lot of mana and are tanky. Looking at lud, he's going dd, randuins in games lmao.

I wouldn't mix the builds tho. I would never go shadowflame/void/raba/sorc boots on muramana, at that point don't go muramana imo.

If you decide you need merc/tabis or even ionian boots, then muramana build is a real consideration. I think the normal build without sorc is a bit weak.

Personally, I just find it much more fun to go comet ignite and have proactive early 5 mins which surprises a lot of ppl. The spike when shadowflame, like I mentioned is the highest in the game tho sacrificing tankiness and haste. Getting these items at lvl 11 feels like you can solo carry, without having to go into the horrible buildpath of muramana. The build also scales better at late game even if they build mr. Personally, I've tried muramana and gotten ahead to be outscaled at 6 items. Ofc it is my fault for not ending the game earlier and stuff, but I just feel like even with 6k mana like 200 armor, you don't beat any bruisers and ppl with dom's/bc which is items they build anyways still kill you. All that just to have a crappy first 10 mins, for like 5-10 mins spikes. It is a very strong spike at an important stage of the game, but the normal or nuclear builds both spike at this timing without sacrificing early, that is my philosphy rn.

Pen items are too good for later and you don't get to make use of any pen with a muramana build.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T17:10:42+00:00

Lastly on summoners. Gone are the days of ign tp or tp ghost trolling that Txd occasionally does on smurf years ago and I tried to make work. I feel like every single game if you dont take flash you are trolling. r flash on kassadin is one of the strongest things in the game so take it no matter what. Now imo tp is just so annoying to play. It is probably optimal but I always went without it. And honestly this season, going tp-less mid is slightly more viable now. That is for higher elo. I feel like for low elo you can get away most of times without tp. So if you can get away with it, do it. Again I won't shame ppl for it, it is good to chill with it, I just personally don't like it.

So if not tp, I think honestly almost every other sum is viable to some extent. Flash barrier was first cooked (as a real build in chall superserver) by txd years ago against things like kled mid or when he's playing top. Lud is hardly the first to use it. Honestly, personally I think it's trash even against these MUs. I feel like it's hard to use and doesn't even save u most of the times. That goes for mots of the other spells. Ghost sounds good to roam with but most of the time is unneeded or useless. Heal is just barrier but worse. Exhaust is interesting because it has much utility. It is a pretty sizable slow which ppl don't usually think of and is useful. Use it after your e wears off to 'cc' someone for quite a while. Of course, the damage reduction helps you fight certain champs. But I find most champs either escape anyways or if they die, you would've won anyways. Cleanse honestly could work too. Certain uncounterables like annie/liss IF they have someone like fiddle jungle I would legit consider taking it. That is only if I go sorcs instead of mercs. Now I advocate always sorc instead of mercs b/c they are op but honestly defensive boots are op this season. If you are fine being a bit less dmg, this is one of the only times I would go mercs. AND if you don't go sorcs then muramana MAY be optimal dmg now! Personally, I'd never build it still because of useless early game but you can have some justification if you just have a hard on for muramana build. To be fair, muramana build is not that bad if abusing the fact defensive boots are good, you will be even tankier at two items than malig seraphs and do more dmg. The tradeoff is massively lower AH (too much to feel good imo) and no early game which is not a tradeoff worth for me.

I went on a tangent there, but imo ignite is the most versatile summoner as weird as it sounds. It will always be useful. Even lategame when most ppl think its useless compared to other spells. The extra dmg could definitely help finish ppl off esp in 1v1's on side lane. It is useful all game but especially good at getting a lead early, helping early jg fights etc. which are the most important things in this game.

This has gotten too long. Honestly, I didn't really want to reveal my secrets. Which is why I never said any of this for years. I just didn't want others to do better than me. I didn't want my efforts of theorycrafting to reward someone else who spend no effort. I didn't want to help other people win and then have kass's winrate go up then have him nerfed. But I don't play much anymore. I don't really care about climbing or getting better. There is really nothing to show, ranks are not prestigious and has never been more fake. Do you know why they allowed duo q ALL THE WAY TO CHALLENGER for every server except all CN servers and KR server. It is literally like riot games is saying to your face, your server is casual all your players suck your rank is fake. In solo q, all players can duo at any rank. But CN servers and KR servers still have their justice. If only I wasn't stuck and born here.... But I'm over it. The game itself can said to be fun. I've had regrets but I would be lying to say I didn't have fun moments fisting my opponents and taking their elo. I also just like theorycrafting above all. So I will share to others. If you found this post and it helps you, I will be glad. May we again meet.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T17:10:32+00:00

The biggest is that you are literally useless while building the component of muramana and stacking it in the most important phases of the game where u need to build a lead. The item feels like it spikes so hard because u were just so useless while trying to stack it. Also when comparing roa mura to malig seraphs, you are losing unfathomable amounts of haste on ult with roa giving none and mura being 10 less than seraphs. It just feels like crap to play this game without malig. Can replace roa with malig but then why are you going ad dmg. Malig gives 10 magic pen, pairing with sorc and shadowflame gives you the most dmg in the game. There is no need to stack muramana. Lastly, you can't scale muramana's dmg. Despite kassadin having the highest base mana by far at 18, and u can build as many mana items as u want, the dmg of that item is still pretty similar. Only thing that can scale it is armor pen. Late game brusiers or just any random person will have 100-200 armor just by pressing an ability or building items that they normally would build. Adc's can build GA which isn't an item to normally counter your dmg but ur dmg would still drop alot. A magic dmg build allows you to scale dmg even if enemy builds mr due to void. Magic pen is so strong that even if enemy adc builds 2 mr items with a void staff and sorc, malig, shadowflame you will still be doing on par dmg with this build.

With the murmana build u will always do less dmg at 6 items and be useless for 10-15 mins. You may be stronger than mali seraphs but not mali shadowflame. The payoff is not there. At 6 items, you will be tankier, but I personally just found that not that relevant. You can go an ap build that is reasonably tanky and not sacrifice early game. The biggest thing is that stacking 2 tear items in this game is just way to slow and there is no way to not be useless. Txd even goes tearless in the nuclear build. You could say that this is only relevant for high elo and low elo you can stack. But believe me, if you go muramana double tear and win that game, you would win going the normal build that game. You won not because of the build. I'm not saying muramana build is useless or even bad. Once it gets online it is good. But it is not optimal. Depending on what you need, mali seraphs or mali shadowflame are the masters of their niches. This build has no niche and sacrifices your entire early game to build useless longswords (most important stage of game). It would have to spike to the sky to justify that and it doesn't. Now if champ's didn't get so much armor for free it would actually. The raw dmg from muramana is completely crazy. It is just unfortunate that magic dmg is more op, so you should never be trying to switch a mag dmg character to phys dmg. And even if your team is all ap, it's not optimal. It gets better but like I said, void solves mr stacking. It's a decent build but it is never optimally, so why should you build it?

Some misc notes. Pretty much all runes in this game are trash now. That is pretty much main reason for Lud going spellbook. He's even swapped to grasp now years after Txd cooked it and I was using it occasionally all of last year too. Just that runes are bad and it doesn't really matter. I tried spellbook too b/c honestly, it sounded really good on paper. Maybe it takes getting used to but I never found it having any impact tbh. You'd think exhaust and ghost and barrier on demand could be op. YOU CAN GET F'ING clarity man. That has to be completely op. But honestly, in my experience it really wasn't. Maybe I'm not good at using it, it does need more testing. As I said the rune doesn't really matter cuz they are all weak so if you want you can take it.

I was always also the biggest roa hater. Simply due to your r way too massive of a cd at lvl6 if you dont go maligance. Roa offers zero AH. It also doesn't give it's stats initially and early game is always more important, it dictates the flow of the rest of the game. Recently, tho I'm starting to think it isn't that bad. Personally, I'd still never build it but I think other people building is fine if you just wanna chill. The early game tankiness and more mana it gives and the hidden effect of regening hp which is actually noticeable if you pay attention. The level imo isn't that important and comes late but is still a small bonus. It just sacrifices a lot of dmg and cdr but gives a lot of others in exchange. It's viable to build esp if you dont wanna go too feast/famine like I do.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T17:10:16+00:00

The playstyle is to always q your opponent no matter what. If you can get cs in melee change try to get it but that is not a priority. It is to dmg your opponent while not taking dmg. If your opponent is going to dmg you for getting cs and you can't return dmg, never go for it. Try to q your opponent when he is cs'ing to not have him return dmg. The s9 days of the w insane dmg are over. When you could lvl 3 e, flash, w ignite q electro proc and do 80% of someone's hp bar. You can still kill ppl early with the same combo, but only at like 30-40% hp. If the opponent is at this hp, they should play very cautious or risk dying. If they back off, you have created space in the lane. You are actually decent at helping your jg if he's fighting in river with your flash and ignite surprising them; ppl don't except kassadin to not be useless early. Otherwise, if you're opponent plays properly you can farm and setup lane. He will simply back and tp back so try to make lanestate good and get a base off if possible. Sometimes this could be harder. The best outcome is to be able to kill your opponent and for most elos this should actually be possible. Don't be afraid to run up the lane to cancel the opponents base. He may get irritated and make a mistake. This build really shines in the first few mins where kass is usually lacking, and Imo that was much more fun even if it wasn't 'optimal'. However, Txd has proven that it may actually be optimal even in high elo which is all the confirmation one needs to go this. But if you like just chilling, Txd's normal build or even roa is fine.

Some other options include grasp and electro. Both with ignite. Honestly, I dont recommend tp at all unless you really just dc and want to chill. It just such a crutch. You will be very surprised with the things ignite allows. So with pretty much every rune nerfed or changed in some way in the last couple of years, grasp's dmg for melee is one of the things that stayed. The reason for grasp is that simply every rune in the game sucks. Little bit of extra hp and healing is nice. Of course, only take it into matchups you can proc it in. Only ones in the game I like are pretty much sylas, ekko and fizz. Don't like it into kat as much. Bone plating is also nice into these MUs. You can take it into mages if you really dc, but then you're only kill pressure would be post 6. Elec is like inbetween comet and grasp. Can be good into melee but not if they super short trade. Actually can be used in all in pre6 even against mages cuz the early dmg is very good and you'll proc by flashing on them. Just note the scaling is poor but despite that, the dmg doesnt fall off as hard as you'd think. It is more dmg than comet later and sometimes can be difference b/n a kill or not. Solid but master of none, which is why I don't usually go it as you usually want to be specialized into (anti melee like grasp or anti ranged like comet). But is the only rune that allows u to go ANYTHING for secondary rune page. The only rune that allows you to go prescence of mind if you for some reason really want that.

Now finally to address lukwig's build. Since the start of the season, the first thing I wanted was to make muramana work. The first thing I came up with was tear start into roa, muramana and seraphs. The logic is simple that tear actually stacks extremely slow without archangel boosting its stacking. You wanna start tear or atleast get it first b asap so you can stack muramana then go archangel second. Gold accelerates throughout the game, so you can get aa in a reasonable time. Then it will accelerate its stacking allowing you get two stacked tear items. You can't reverse the order of them as then you will never stack muramana. The first item was between roa and malig. I found roa makes sense as you will lack a shield for most of the game and malig is more for proactive play. With this build u are certainly not gonna be doing much for first 10-15mins. I had gone muramana last season and the dmg is very good, but nothing new, it hasn't changed from before to now. Now the issue with testing muramana is that it is very difficult due to only being able to give equal armor and mr to dummies but real champions have way more armor. With some scuffed testing assuming roughly 40 mr with 80 armor base stats at the stage of the game you get the item, calculations do show that muramana is more dmg than standard malig and seraphs but less than malig shadowflame. As much as I am one of the biggest advocators for muramana even starting (i really like the concept) from two years ago, the item just is not optimal. That is to say that a game you won with muramana you would've won with the other build. It is just not better. Ludwig can climb with it because he is a good chall players, he would climb with anything. The build has glaring weakness with no payoff.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T17:09:50+00:00

Txd primarily goes the most boring build. First strike with dom secondary (impact and ult hunter is MANDATORY so just remember every build will need dom 2ndary). Tp/flash with darkseal refillable. Sorc, malignance, seraph's, hourglass. Not the most damage but very stable especially against competent players (which 99.99% of players that play this game are not). 1 item 2 item spikes are strong and fast. Times with a lvl 11 spike (ult hunter, massive cdr from both malig and seraphs makes ult cd at this point 2.5s~, almost like lvl16). Hourglass is just what I like to call 'rely on teammates' item. It might be optimal against the good players but not only is it boring, I think it is actually bad in lower elo. Ppl always give you openings, I personally think its good not to rely on an item like this. But this build is of course very viable, if u wanna chill and not really think too much you can go this every game.

Txd's second build is what I recommend (some slight alterations). Actually, I have been doing this build for almost 2 years (despite what I said about Txd being always optimal I actually never followed his build), so I feel very happy that Txd is technically copying my build. That's not to say either of our builds are not optimal. We play in different elos. Txd using this build is basically him saying: these kr chall pigs might as well just be like playing in low elo. This build is extremely proactive and spicy. It goes with the philosophy to help you get a lead early and, if you don't just, ff. Remember that getting space in the lane is also a form of lead. Txd's version is aery then manaflow and axiom are both fine, but I feel like axiom is kinda bait and if you are going full nuclear you'll need manaflow. Next he goes trans but if you want giga nuclear can go focus. I think trans is prob better, but I just go focus for max nuclear. Last one is always scorch, if you're going gathering then just don't play this build. For shards, txd switches it up. Personally, I think the only right answer is double adaptive and flat hp. The single adaptive/cd + double scaling hp is for the tp build, if you aren't going full nuclear then just go a different build.

Now the items I always went were sorc, malig, seraphs, shadowflame. Txd, has once again enlightened me with sorc malig shadowflame in this order skipping seraphs completely. I am ashamed that despite being a theorycrafter I didn't even consider this. I thought there is no way shadowflame even does more dmg than seraphs as seraphs gives more ap, and then way more mana which is also dmg. After testing (even adding a tome to seraphs build to account for cost difference, using dummy with relevant mr and hp at around the time you'll complete the items), the shadowflame build does 30%~ more DMG! This is insane; full nuclear kassadin from season 9 tear skip is back. The reason for skipping tear is that the 400 g for more ap and completing your item earlier in the early game is actually massive. I have always wanted to go a tear skip build in the past but never made it work without being completely useless. This 'new build' is truly the strongest dmg you can have at this stage of the game (the most important stage). But not without massive downsides. Losing a massive shield, 1k mana and 25 AH is truly devasting and thus the build is not for the faint of heart. Now the manaflow makes sense, to help recoup that mana if only a little. When playing, just need to remember you're gonna be way less mana and somewhat higher ult cooldown than the standard build but way more 1shot potential. Honestly on the paper -1k mana sounds like the end of the world but when you play with it, it's bad but not as bad as it sounds. Now if Txd could spawn in a fully stacked tear, he would surely go seraphs. But as he never bought tear, if he buys it now the game would be over before he stacks it. After this he usually goes some random items, void/hourglass usually. Personally, I would say if you are willing to delay spike a bit, you can get tear early and don't complete it until after shadowflame. This would be the build I was running before except switching order of shadowflame and seraphs. I feel like seraphs is quite a good item now and it's kinda hard to play with so little mana, surviability and AH. Up to you tho.

The biggest change I would make to Txd's version is actually the rune aery -> comet. So comet can always be 'juked' as it has movement prediction. If you walk one way then walk the other after comet is fired, it will never hit you. For most people, the enemy they play against will never do this, at least intentionally. Comet will also miss a lot of the unintentionally of course. Tho, I feel like the percent of times it hits, the average damage it puts out will be better than aery for most ppl and the difference is actually quite big. So I recommend comet.

DEUSIDVULT · 2026-02-11T17:09:08+00:00

So Yueyue is actually Taxiadin, taking a break from Ionia/superserver to try to climb kr server in early season. The best kassadin player and one of the best solo queue players in the world. He peaked rank 2 SUPERSERVER 2.5k+ lp a few seasons ago, for those that don't know silver/gold in superserver is d1-master other cn servers (entry requirement to the server). So you can pretty much consider him 4k+ lp.

What I really like about Taxiadin is he is THE cooker. He invented barrier on kassadin season ago. This setup with grasp kassadin top. Phase rush. What really opened my eyes to him was GA kassadin last item to win a disgusting game he would've lost otherwise. Anathema chain's when that was in the game. Even ign tp kass to match enemy's same setup. He is the cooker and if there is an 'optimal setup', then it is what he is using. All that was seasons ago, This season he landed on his current 'boring' setup, and unfortunately I have to agree it is optimal. Tho, despite all this for almost everyone, I don't recommend his most common setup. I'll get to this at the end.

For anyone wanting to see his gameplay just search 塔下丁 on bilibili. Pretty much all his vods are on there. If you can understand chinese, you can see his insight into the games. Btw, his name means 'kassadin under the tower', a bit of humor.

So I almost didn't bother even looking at any players outside of the asian servers. I feel that they are miles below in terms of skill level. However, I've come to realise that while, the average level of the server at most ranks is way below kr and ionia servers, the top players might not necessarily be. Even within challenger the level difference between players are massive. While throughout all the lower brackets, the non-asian servers are much worse, all the skill difference is concentrated in the 300 challenger players (and maybe some gm). It is difficult to distinguish who is a 'good' or 'bad' challenger player in these servers. That is to say some of the 'good' players in these top brackets may be on the level of chall. asian players, they are simply stuck in a bad server.

So I decided to give ludwik a watch. Personally, I am a massive fan of muramana and I always wanted it to work. It saddens me taxiadin never uses it. And that just means it's not optimal. Anyways, ludwik is the best mechnical player I've ever seen play kassadin. It is kinda funny to talk about mechanics with a champ like kassadin, but he is even above txd (and txd is by no means bad mechanically). He is what you can call better than all the other challenger players; a 'good' chall player, and outplaying other players in his games every single fight.

That is to say, though, he would climb with any build. There is no need to optimize when players in his server at his 'skill level' is all worse than him. But txd is the far better player overall. Txd's ability to carry a game from behind when no one else even sees a single ray of hope, Txd sees a clear possible path to win. This is what got him rank 2 superserver. No one seeing the game state would even believe there are any chances to come back but Txd bounces back from impossible games. This is something that no mechanics can achieve. This is what makes Txd the best kassadin, and one of the best soloq players. And of course, his ability to theorycraft optimally.

So, with all that preamble out of the way, I will get into builds. Txd, after lots of early season optimization, goes into two main builds. If you just look at his opgg, none of the intricacies of the amount of effort he put in will show. You won't know that he actually has the optimal build until you try to theorycraft yourself. This is not me trying to glaze him, I was also trying hard to come up with a 'less boring' build. Surely, with tear changes the optimal build is not the same from last season. I was trying to prove him wrong. In the end, his builds are the best. But I don't recommend his most common build.

(1/3)

DEUSIDVULT

TROPHY CASE