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Karthus Build Guide by

Embody death itself! (1k AP) (Mid and Top)

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29 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author CaptianMike

Karthus Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (29) More Karthus Guides

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This build is NOT for 10.23 as the Rod of Ages and Catalyst of Aeons is no longer in the game

(5) |

Have those items been removed now? I thought refreshing my guide would remove those items. They should be gone now.

The core principals of how to play the champion should still be the same while I figure out a good build

Yop, do you think he is still viable Top or Mid ?

(5) |

Karthus is a VERY niche pick for top lane, and you need to be in a good matchup for Karthus to be good mid. I think Karthus is a situational pick at the moment

Hm ok thanks I take note!

(5) |

Pretty good build. Helped me get into the champion and allowed me to actually move up in ranked, which is always a great thing! Thanks for a great guide and the new champion! Although, I do hope to experiment with builds myself. Any tips on that?

(5) |

Aw thanks, I appreciate your comment!
When experimenting with builds, look at the enemy team composition. Are they full AD based? or AP? If so, build a random item to counter that like . Since that item has a lot of mana, maybe skip tear. Or if you want, think of your own creative ideas- like maybe and for a healing type build. This is call theorycrafting! Collab with friends or go on a discord server and think of fun ideas! Think about synergies with different items and your kit.
Hope this helps :)

(5) |

It does help! Thanks for taking the time to write up a nice reply and I wish you well. :P

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(5) |

My pleasure! Thank you for reading <3

how popular is he played top?

(5) |

He's not popular top really. It's more of a situational pick. He's very susceptible to ganks. I would pick him top if you're against a tank and you know how to avoid ganks really well (proper warding and wave management) but again, it's hard.

alright, thanks for the help. great guide too!

So I have a lot of issues with this guide. Firstly, why would you put spellbinder into the "Example full build" section but not put it into the "1k AP" section? It has double the ap of rod of ages, both at base and max (yes I understand that rod of ages has more sustain, but if you are truly going for 1k ap, sustain should be an afterthought). Secondly, your 1k ap doesn't get 1k ap until 40 min. Thirdly, cdr Karthus has lost chapter despite not having a completed item using it. Fourthly, top lane Karthus is nowhere near complete. And finally, there is no reason to have a top lane Karthus in your guide if you say he isn't good on top lane.

(5) |

1k AP probably isn't the most viable build as it is anyways, so I didn't put in much effort into making the 1k ap build the best possible. I honestly forgot about the CDR Karthus section so I promptly removed it. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Top lane Karthus, while it is a niche pick, it can be really effective, especially in any elo below diamond.

Sure your q outdamage's Cassiopeia's.. That's not her main damaging ability though Im pretty sure an equally fed Cass will out damage karthu's QQQQQQ with her QEEEEEEEEE..

(5) |

Valid point. I updated the guide accordingly. Thanks for the feedback!

But overall, with karthus' wall of intensive pain. As long as he dodges the cass ult he should win. But just comparing the qqqq and the qeeee I think cass does more damage.

How do u think the new runes will affect the play style of this build?

(5) |

With regards to this build, in particular, everything feels very lackluster. I don't feel there is a good keystone that synergizes with this build as well as death fire touch did. Honestly, Karthus as a whole just doesn't feel as powerful in this meta. I could be wrong, but so far I've been looking to play other champs for wins. It makes me sad :(

(3) |

Decent guide!Honestly i find magical footwear useless.Thoughts?

(5) |

Firstly, Thank you!
Magic Footwear is really just saving gold in favor of buying other items sooner. There is also the small permanent speed boost of 10ms even when the boots are upgraded. Other than that, you're right- it doesn't do much. Other viable options are approach velocity or comic insight. To be honest, I'm still experimenting with all of the new runes, and I will update as I see fit. I'd say take approach velocity if you have a more aggressive playstyle, as after you W you will move faster to your target. Hope this helps!

(2) |

Your guide was somewhat educational for me. But I beg to disagree about the cons, the snowballing part. Karthus doesn't really need crazy ap-ratios stats to snowball. The fact that the damage doubles on his Q on solo target, that's huge. Even for low-ap-ratio skillshot. But his ultimate has a high ap-ratio. 250/400/550 BASIC damage in combination with a 60% ap-ratio. I am pretty sure you can oneshot the enemy ad carry with an ult as soon as you're a little bit ahead.
That's the only thing I disagreed with ^^.

And a few faults I've seen in your guide that you can correct/edit:

Threat list: Annie = 2x on the threat list. Was that intented?
Threat list: Fizz - "always use W" should be "always use E". It is the ability Playful / trickster that blocks your ultimate, not Seastone Trident.
Threat list: Akali - should be "let her proc her Q on you."
Keep up the guide though. I liked it :P

EDIT: your video is also down.

(5) |

First, thank you! I'm glad you took the time to read my guide. I can see where you are coming from on the snowballing part. Perhaps I should be more specific: He cannot snowball nearly as well as other mid laners. A Fizz or Le Blanc with 4 kills is extremely dangerous and can easily one-shot anyone on your team. Karthus can't do that. He isn't as much as a threat not only due to low AP ratios, but low mobility as well. That's not to say he can't snowball though- I've had my fun basically 2 shotting squishies with my Qs :P

Thanks for the catches! You're right about Annie and Fizz. I actually did mean "lest she proc her Q". Lest means "to avoid the risk of". It's old English though and maybe I should update it.

I'll remove the old video. Basically, I got a Penta kill after death in a ranked game and I was proud.
Again, thank you! It's an honor to have you review my guide. Congrats on having the #1 guide!

(2) |

And something extra, CDR is actually usefull for Karthus...
Everybody knows that CDR is amazing on his high cooldown ultimate but what a lot of people don't know is that his Q also scales with CDR...
The more CDR you have, the faster you can cast your Q. Your damage in teamfights while having %40-45 CDR is a lot more than when you're going full AP since you can cast more Q's. Also more Q's equals higher chance to hit them ^^

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(5) |

I guess since CDR doesn't scale with E I always ignored it, but i'll give it a try! It was foolish of me to not even give it a try. After a good sample of games prove CDR is good ill update the guide :P thanks for the recommendation.