Twirly Death. Once she has stacks, she's doing 250 damage (at Ability Level 5) PER AUTO ATTACK. She doesn't need crystal damage to be viable (the modifier is a paltry .35) - that's a ton of damage on its own.
Aftershock's proc has damage that is not reliant on Crystal Power. That means you have a ton of burst damage off the bat without needing to stack Crystal. And - since you're Koshka - the proc will be going off every 2 seconds. Twirly Death and
Aftershock) to be effective. You're not Taka, where you can burst an enemy down with just his two abilities. Building tanky allows you to deploy your damage without having to run away after your
Pouncy Fun. Pouncy Fun and
Twirly Death were essentially cut in half. This allows her a lot more build flexibility - before, she had have two void batteries; now she gets by with one. That makes the tanky build even better.
This needs to be prioritized first. It's your bread a butter, and one of the main reasons why this works. Even if you expect team fights at level 1, this will allow you to scare them away sufficiently with a few hits on their carry.
Most guides will tell you to get the overdrive on
Yummy Catnip Frenzy first, but I disagree.
Yummy Catnip Frenzy's overdrive gives you 225 more damage;
Pouncy Fun gives you 170. However, you're going to be getting
Pouncy Fun off every 5 seconds or so;
Yummy Catnip Frenzy will only go off, at best, every 45 seconds. And, importantly, the utility does not change - the move stuns 2.2 seconds regardless of what happens. Your overall damage output will be much better with the overdrive on
Pouncy Fun.
Most guides will also tell you to initiate with this, but this is not always the case and, quite frankly, it's a bad habit. When you initiate with your ultimate, more often than not the enemy will pop their
Reflex Block and boots and sprint away. Even with
Pouncy Fun, you're not always going to catch up with them to get your auto attacks off. Plus, if you
Yummy Catnip Frenzy and your team isn't ready to initiate a fight, you'll get burned down regardless of your defensive items. Pouncy Fun. If they stay and fight, great - wait for them to pop cooldowns and then hit them with your ultimate. If they run, then you can
Yummy Catnip Frenzy - at that point, they've used their boots/shield, and you're on top of them with the speed from your passive.
With 1.2.0, you don't need
Energy Battery just to start the game. This item pays for itself and then some, and gives you some needed health regen early on.
Crucible is almost mandatory. You need the health to not be burst down right away, and it's a safe bet to build from your
Reflex Block if the enemy is building both Crystal and Weapon.
Atlas Pauldron is essential. You will be on the front lines, and you're able to halve the carry's damage right after your initiation. If the other team has a mage or crystal carry,
Aegis is necessary. If I don't need to build
Aegis, I go for another
Crucible, since I almost always want the ability to shield twice during a team fight.
Metal Jacket is in there for rare occasions, when the enemy has two weapon carries that focus you off the bat.
Void Battery? This should be the last item you upgrade, after you have three tier-3 defensive items. There are two choices here:
Eve of Harvest and
Clockwork. Koshka can benefit from both.
Clockwork the ability to use her first two abilities every 4-5 seconds, which is great for damage. However, I like
Eve of Harvest - Koshka has problems with health regen late game, and the 25% Crystal lifesteal is nice. To be honest, I've even sold my void battery and gone with a whopping fourth defensive item if it's late enough in the game and I'm being focused. Aftershock is necessary. So that leaves you room for one item. Again, crystal power isn't the focus - her moves don't scale THAT great from crystal. Also, since you're using your two abilities once every six seconds or so, energy becomes a worry for her - so you need a
Void Battery - that's why I go with
Clockwork or
Eve of Harvest.
Especially after they took away the +Energy, this item is really not worth it. You don't need the slow - you move faster than they do with your passive - and remember, this build does not stack Crystal Damage.
I tried this and didn't like it. I thought it would be nice because I could apply my
Twirly Death stacks quicker, but I just didn't have enough crystal power to make the proc worth it.
Even with the change, her moves don't scale well enough with the additional crystal power to make this worth it.
Koshka DOES have health regen problems late game, but this item really does not offer enough survivability for me to justify taking out one of the other core defensive items. It's an OK choice, but ideally your support will get one to help during team fights.
Adagio,
Ringo, or
SAW). I've struggled late game with team comps like
Ardan and
Celeste because we couldn't take down Kraken or turrets effectively. Twirly Death and
Aftershock make her shut down enemy laners and junglers easily. You NEED to push this advantage. However, this does NOT mean that the goal of the build is racking up as many kills as you can. That would be nice, but that mindset gets you into situations where you're chasing someone halfway across the map when the would've teleported back anyway. Your goal is to deny the enemies farm. That means a) ganking (or forcing a teleport) their laner and forcing them to miss creep kills, or b) stealing enemy jungle camps. Finally, people are still fixated on Koshka being a squishy assassin - you WILL be targeted first. This build helps against that, but you're not invulnerable. Ironguard Contract, two
Halcyon Potion, and a
Scout Trap. Head to your triangle bush or jungle shop to prepare for a level 1 fight. You're vulnerable here (you haven't built any defense yet), but your
Twirly Death packs a whallop - use it on enemies that overextend. DO NOT CHASE unless you're guaranteed a kill - the gold you get is not worth the risk, and the farm you're missing is valuable. After that, farm, farm, farm. The ideal situation is where your support allows you to take camps so you can rack up exp and gold. Then, start building toward
Crucible, prioritizing
Reflex Block first.
Sprint Boots when you can (although they're not a priority because of your passive), and get
Halcyon Potion with excess gold - you need it for energy and health regen. If you're running low on energy constantly, get
Energy Battery - you will need it eventually. Twirly Death fastest in the lane. If my jungle is clear, I will often go up to lane (even if my laner is there),
Pouncy Fun onto creeps,
Twirly Death, and run out. Getting 5 stacks of
Twirly Death is huge for farming and ganking. Crucible around level 6. Once you get
Yummy Catnip Frenzy, you should focus even more on denying farm. After that, focus on what you need most. If the team is going heavy crystal, get
Kinetic Shield; if they're going heavy weapon, go
Coat of Plates. If it's a mix, build against whatever hero is more built. For example, if level 5
Taka is crystal and level 8
Ringo is weapon, build against
Ringo. Don't save your gold for only tier 3 items - take tier 1 defensive items that you can use later. For teamfights, you don't want to overextend - remember that
Pouncy Fun puts you out of position, which isn't good even with
Crucible. Wait for an enemy to get out of position and then
Pouncy Fun in, focusing on the carry that hasn't built against crystal. If the carry starts to run, then you can
Yummy Catnip Frenzy. Make sure not to chase too far away from your team - if the enemy carry sprints away, focus on someone else, and keep an eye out to
Pouncy Fun when they try to get back so you can finish them off. Once you win the teammfight, try to rush down the turrets and push the gold advantage. Along the way, build up to your tier 2 boots. Once you finish your second defensive tier 3 item, you can build
Void Battery. Aftershock at some point to help with the fact that
Twirly Death is doing less damage when people are built. As your last item, I recommend
Eve of Harvest to upgrade your
Void Battery. The crystal lifesteal helps with sustain. However,
Clockwork works too. If you find that you're still getting burned down too quickly, you can always sell your
Void Battery and get a fourth defensive item. Prioritize upgrading to tier 3 boots last - they are too expensive for the stats, but if you have enough money you can get them. Once you're fully built, remember to sell your boots, buy
Crystal Infusion, and re-buy boots.
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