Added some updates for Season 4. The new Warding Totem trinket is awesome (and free)!!


Hi! Welcome to my guide for Katarina, the Sinister Blade! This guide started out as a small and very simple guide but over time it grew, I added A LOT of stuff and it is currently one of the most highly rated Katarina guides on Mobafire thanks to you guys! Read on to learn a little bit about who Katarina is.


Katarina is an Ability Power focused Champion who excels at Assassinating high-priority targets and killing off an entire enemy team thanks to her passive. She's good at bursting squishies and damaging everyone thanks to her multi-target/AoE spells. She's also a good pubstomp champion for low rating games but you need to know what you're doing and you need to know how to carry your teammates out. Also she can be played both mid and top depending on her opponent.

Why play Katarina you ask? She has a cool personality, she looks cool and she's not that hard to play. The only thing that is hard about her is knowing when to go in and when not to.

Hopefully this guide will help you out in becoming a better Katarina player. Keep reading if you want to learn more and enjoy~!

Some information about me:
- I'm currently in Platinum Tier.
- I have a really bad PC, mouse and mouse-pad :X
- I'm 18 years old.
- I've been playing League for 3-4 years now. I guess you could say I'm a veteran.
- ******ed people piss me off >.<
- I am NOT a girl
- I watch a lot of anime
- Excluding my bad PC and mouse I often forget crucial bits of information when I'm in-game (too busy trying to focus on one thing) which is why I'm just a trashy Plat player. (Okay maybe not trashy..but I'm definitely not special in any way)
- I troll a lot when I'm the mood for it xD


If you have any questions for me ask them via:
- Skype (terminator_xp)
- PM on Mobafire
- League (Sword Art Natsu, EU West)

Pros:
+ Decent escape thanks to E
+ Multi-Target Ultimate
+ Decent Poke
+ Becomes a super strong farmer mid to late game
+ Her passive gives her huge clean-up potential

Cons:
- Somewhat weak early game
- Ultimate easily interrupted
- Squishy
- Often focused if she starts snowballing
- Melee
- Her kit has no built-in CC

Butcher -> Helps with Last Hitting/CS-ing

Sorcery -> Not that necessary but I get it anyways because CDR is never bad and you don't really have any other good choices.

Mental Force -> You need AP..duh.

Arcane Mastery -> Some more AP which is nice.

Archmage -> Increase your overall AP (which means more damage)

Executioner -> More damage to low health targets. Just take it.

Dangerous Game -> Kat actually benefits from this one quite a bit because she's a clean up champion. The more enemies she kills the more HP she gets back (the mana portion is useless on her though). This mastery could potentially save you in a team fight.

Arcane Blade -> You are melee and this mastery is somewhat decent so just take it.

Devastating Strikes -> You get this for the Magic Pen. The Armor Pen won't really help that much.

Havoc -> Damage! :O Just get it.

Block -> Pretty good mastery. Early on Ranged champions can easily poke you with their auto-attacks. This mastery combined with Doran's Shield will make you quite durable against auto-attacks.

Recovery -> Doesn't really provide that much sustain but it's better than nothing.

Unyielding -> For some extra durability.

Veteran Scars -> HP is always nice on a squishy champion.

Resistance -> If against AD champs get 1 point in Hardiness instead of this.

RUNES

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
9
Greater Seal of Scaling Health
9
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
9
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
3


Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

More Magic Pen = More Damage. Not much to say here. Always get these on Katarina.


or

Greater Seal of Scaling Health/Greater Seal of Armor

If against an AD Assassin like Kha'Zix or Zed go for the armor ones. If against an AP Champion go for Scaling HP (they also work against AD Champs but Armor Seals would make you more durable early game and we all know Kat isn't that strong early on)


or


Greater Glyph of Magic Resist/Greater Glyph of Ability Power

Your Glyphs are dependent on the match-up but in-general you should take the Flat Magic Resist ones because you can always get AP through items (you will be building damage after all) but getting magic resist through items lowers your damage and Katarina is all about killing.


Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Flat AP Quints = Almost 15 AP at lvl 1 without any items masteries or runes for AP. Can't think of any other Quints on Kat. Move Speed Quints are the only other option but you lose out on a lot of early game damage. However if the Move Speed ones work for you they are viable as well.

Flash - Helps you make plays, escape and/or position yourself for your Ultimate. This Summoner Spell is a must for Katarina

Ignite - Ignite gets you easier kills and Katarina is a champion for killing. One thing to note is that you can cast ignite while using Death Lotus so if someone barely escapes but you tag him with ignite and he escapes on really low health you'll probably grab the kill unless he gets really lucky and survives with 1-10 hp.

Alternatives:

Exhaust - Good for shutting down someone in a team fight. I don't use it a lot but it's decent on Kat. I'd most likely take it when going Top and Mid Lane against a bruiser that relies on auto-attacks ( Tryndamere, Jax, Fiora, etc)