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Locke vs Cho'Gath

Mid Lane Matchup

Locke vs Cho'Gath MID matchup tips: who wins, how to trade, wave control and common mistakes.

You

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Who Wins

Pre-6, you lose extended trades against Cho'Gath because his Q knockup and W silence shut down your combo window before you can stack nails and cash in with E — play for short poke trades with Q and disengage immediately rather than committing to a full all-in.
Post-6, your R's execution threshold becomes a real kill threat if you've been landing Q stacks consistently, but Cho'Gath's passive sustain and stacking HP mean the threshold climbs slowly, so you need to have chipped him down significantly before your R becomes decisive.

Your best trading pattern is to land two or three Q stacks from range, wait for his Q and W cooldowns to be spent or baited out on minions, then immediately E in and activate W to tank his retaliation while dealing burst — recast W before he can stack more damage on you and retreat with the heal.
Never initiate the trade without Q stacks already on him, because without that setup your E-W all-in deals far less damage and you'll take his full CC combo with no payoff.

Push the wave early to deny Cho'Gath his passive healing on minion kills, forcing him to last-hit under pressure rather than freely sustaining — your on-hit passive scales with missing health, so a poked-down Cho'Gath is significantly more vulnerable to your burst.
Avoid letting the wave sit in the middle where he can freely farm and heal; either crash it and roam or freeze near your tower to bait him into overextending for CS.

Do not use E as a gap-closer into Cho'Gath when he has Q available — his knockup will interrupt your follow-up attack dash and waste your E reset window entirely, leaving you in melee range with no escape and no damage.
Patience in this matchup is mandatory; snapping into an all-in because you have three Q stacks on him while he still has his CC up is the most common way to throw a winning position.

Created on 07/24/2026

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