My Taka guide has been given a lot of updates, and I've decided to make a guide for one of my other favorite Assassins, Koshka.
To those who have seen my Taka guide, we are going to touch base with some rather familiar concepts, such as Psychological Warfare, health, defense, etc.

To those new to me I'm an VG player who has been around since the release of Taka, which is long before Season 0.
I also obviously enjoy Assassins, and employ stealthy maneuvers on the Fold; if you didn't guess that already.

Well, let's get started!

Notes:
Some might even recognize the CP Defensive Assassin build as the one from Taka's old CP Defense build, if you've been here for that long, thank you for helping me along the way!
This guide still has bad humor and redundancy.
It might also be obsolete with that new Rework I keep getting rumors of.

As with Taka, getting defense first allows you to survive most, if not all, fights in the jungle.
Once you visit that jungle shop for the other half of the L.Armor/Shield Combo, you'll get an instant and insane +50 Armor and Shield at Level 2 on top of your base stats. This makes you even tank-ier than most roams who are most likely getting more utility oriented items, and lessens the severity of her low escape. Couple that with Koshka's early game damage and speed, you get a monster that ruthlessly dominates the JG as the enemies flee on the sight of you. (Ah, the memories.)

Take my Taka guide for example, his early game load-out is absolute carnage vs late-game heroes who already do low damage. Not only that, but defense also solves Koshka's squish level immediately, especially if you start snowballing. Once that snowball starts, you deprive enemies of their farm due to her high-speed JG clearing, making you even more goddess-like, you get the idea. (Cuz' Koshka's a gal. *redundant level intensifies*)

Her early game is hell for late game heroes, completely dominant against most, even eliminating Krul if she kites correctly.
(She can do that now, yes!)
Once her L. Armor and Shield combo is complete, she is able to win/survive most fights, even more so if she completes the early double crystal bit and has a few potions on hand.

Aftershock
CP: +35
Cooldown: +25%
Energy Regen: +2.5
Passive: After each Ability use, a proc appears, which does 15% of Target Max Health and has 50% Lifesteal. It has a cooldown of 1.5 seconds.

Notes: This gives her the big burst of damage that is essential to most Assassins. This will even electrify most Roams if you time the 1.5 seconds correctly.

Broken Myth
CP: +70
Shield Pierce: +10%
Passive: For every second you do CP damage to an enemy Hero, your Crystal Power will receive a boost in the form of stacks. Each Stack happens once per second going up to a max of five. Said stacks increase you CP by a 7% ratio, up to a 35%.

Notes: Bypasses a good amount of enemy shield. Letting you do more damage to people who are building shield. If the enemy team is not building shield, take a Frostburn instead to slow enemies or even better, a Shatterglass for raw CP.

Frostburn
CP: +100
Passive: Slow enemies for 10%. Additional CP gives more slow, 1% for every extra 10 CP. Max Slow of 35%.

Notes: This lets you slow down enemies. THIS IS EXTREMELY VITAL BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE BOOTS. You are 100% Relying upon your Perk and this Slow from F.Burn to take down your opposition and give chase. C.Work will also let you close the gap more often.

Clockwork
Cooldown Reduction: +40%
Energy Regeneration: +7.5
Max Energy: +250
Passive: Amplify RAW Crystal Power only.
Notes: Basically Ms. Koshka's new boots.
Let's her close the gap more,
It's amazing, the new passive.
Like the old-times, I speak.
WHY?????
Since A.Attacks no longer reduce her cooldown, C.Work was bound to appear.
Heck, I even did this to my Taka.

I know, I know.
Why WP?
Well. Everyone has to try it at one point.
Once you do, you kill stuff.
Simple as that.
WP Koshka is for the people who want to completely blitz, gap-close more than Taka, have a little more AOE than Taka, and most importantly; stun.

Tyrant's Monocle
WP: +50
Crit Chance: +40%
Crit Damage: +20%

Notes: Really nice. It's somewhat of a Jack of All Trades. It gives decent WP, can do the T.Bow-esque poke, and can do it over and over.
What's not to like?

Breaking Point
WP: +55
Attack Speed: +35%
Passive: Wreck all scrubs at max stacks.
Ok, not really. Doing 125 Damage to an enemy means a stack is given, up to a max of 25.
Each stack grants 10 WP. Each stack also requires an additional 125 + (5*# of Current Stacks.) Decays after 2 seconds of no-stacking. Only applies toward Enemy Heroes.

Notes: One heck of a passive. If you manage to get full stacks, you'll receive 250 WP. You basically get two unhappy-Blades (Sorrowblades) and a Blazing Salvo to mess with. Combine this with T.Monocle and you get stacks very quickly, even against lightly armored enemies. All you need now is some armor pierce really.

Tension Bow
WP: +45
Armor Pierce: +10%
Passive: Every 6 seconds, a basic attack is empowered, doing 180 extra Weapon Damage. Once the proc is used up, it takes another 6 seconds to recharge.

Notes: Well. That explanation was redundant.
We got this little item since it does great burst damage. Burst damage which does quite well with T.Monocle crits and stacks up B.Point even higher and faster.
The big plus is the Armor Pierce.

Carries are instantly disintegrated, letting you stack up B.Point so you can take on Roamers easier.

I think the armor pierce works differently than how we would think.
Instead of going through 10% of enemy armor, 10% of your damage goes through to the enemy as true damage.
As confusing as that sounds I'll just show the math instead.

Or maybe not, cuz I'm lazy. Lmao.

If you look up on VG Fire, there is a guide made by a being of great intellectual power and prowess.
I forgot his name. (Edit: BlueBadger)
Uh, but it's kinda called something along the lines of "VG Hidden Mechanics" or something.
It's in the General Guides section for sure, and will show you VG's behind the scenes mechanics and stuff. Really great stuff for the curious people and for people making guides.
That Guide I was talking about. Very outdated, but still very useful.

My last one was "somewhat garbage."
It was bad, bad build was very bad.

So after some thinking in and daydreaming in class, I realized something completely obvious.

Koshka is a bursty get in your face assassin- filled with great potential to spam abilities- she utilizes these ablities to not only do damage and buff herself, but to also reset basic attacks.

What's the point?

Well. We normally think of WP of sustained damage, yeah? But with Lance's appearance on the fold, it just snapped to the front of my mind that someone like Koshka could easily run around and play kinda like him.

Those basic attack resets on her abilities are the key, add in a WP Infusion and enemies will be resting in pepperoni faster than most can even react.

Substituting items for there counter part was easy.

Shatterglass to Sorrowblade.
Aftershock/Broken Myth to Tension Bow
Broken Myth to Tyrant's Monocle.

Easy to see why they're the counterparts right?

Sorrowblade gives out the raw stat, Tension Bow adds necessary Armor Pierce and burst, not unlike Aftershock, and two Tyrants Monocle gives you insane burst.

Couple this with a Twirly Death attack buff and you're on your way to domination; her new update even allows you to move and actually stutter step!

Escape Routes???

Unlike the other Assassin types, Koshka doesn't have a really reliable escape.
She can sure as heck get into fights though.
Granted, your perk will help you fly out of most team-fights/fights in general, this is very useful for catching enemies, or retreating. A quick Pouncy Fun through the wall is generally sufficient as a means of escape, so carrying flares or placing a scout trap next to JG creeps are usually beneficial as a means of vision and as a last-resort escape.

Can I facecheck brush?

Yes and no.
In the early game, you sure as heck can, you are probably one of the strongest forces on the Fold, next to Taka, and other early game people damage wise.
Most will not want to mess with you due to how much damage you can dish out if they are experienced with Koshka, but will poke at you to try to convince you to flee or generally leave their side of the JG alone.
If they aren't experienced with Koshka, they will try to ambush you even with your Roamer nearby, this generally leads to their imminent demise with a quick Twirly Death and some A.Attacks along with the occasional Pouncy Fun.
I still have yet to see any Koshkas in the Standard Ranked game mode.

Once mid-game starts to roll around you'll have to be more careful, especially if they start building items against you. The defense items you got at the start are now more useful than you would have thought, this is where you start to lean more towards the usual hit-and-run playstyle, unless you've upgraded the correct T1 Defense item.

Late game is where Koshka falls off.
To make sure you aren't on the receiving end of CC (Crowd Control) and other debilitating effects, allow your Roamer to face-check most things when possible. Protect your Laner as best as you can by using Y.C.Frenzy when an enemy carry gets too close or when they seem to be launching something horribly debilitating. (i.e Ringo H.F.Brew)


As for her abilities, Koshka gets a basic attack resets on her A and B, after all that's what my WP Koshka is based off of.

Keep in mind you can move after usage of a Twirly Death buff attack, so stutter stepping is highly possible.

WIP
I'm still working on this guide.
Heck, even this chapter is still being worked on.
I'm trying to get Koshka to be more in the current Ranked meta, which is rather difficult since Lyra is rather prevalent and her barrier is 10/10 annoying. Even more difficult is the fact that people who delete others instantly with a few shots or spells are the current thing.

Have fun on the Fold!

7/29/16

1.20

Changes according to 1.20.
A.Current is pretty much out of business now.
Replaced it with F.Burn, H.Chargers have been replaced with C.Work.
CP notes are being updated as we speak.
Oh, and this Chapter was made!

8/5/16

Not much

Well, we all know how much "not much" quickly snowballs into a whole 'nother guide whenever I say that.
Or do we?
Yeah it escalated pretty quickly.

9/28/16

Here and there type editing.
WP Koshka has been improved immensely.