Hello and welcome to my guide for proper building attack damage Katarina.
In this guide I will explain you how AD works on Katarina and explain items, runes and mastery page that I'm using while playing with her.

Play Video Go to 01:00

Enjoy reading, feel free to vote and comment.

Katarina has one of the best basic attack animations in the game, so using her basic attack to deal tons of damage is not a bad idea. She also has Shunpo which we won't use to deal damage with since it's not scaling with AD, we will use it to jump on the enemy carry and beat the **** out of him using both abilities and basic attacks! So when your abilities are on cooldown don't be scared to fight with your basic attacks.
Katarina's Bouncing Blades and Death Lotus are scaling great with AD so this makes this style of playing with her actually viable.
Bouncing Blades - +0.8 of bonus AD.
Death Lotus - +0.5 of bonus AD.

I don't say that it's better than buying AP, I believe it's also better.
So if you want to hear about classic AP Katarina go here - Your AP Katarina Du Couteau Resource

Greater Mark of Strength
It's a really good boost to your abilities and helps in last hitting minions.
0.95 x 9 = 8.55 AD

Greater Seal of Resilience
Some more resistances is not bad especially if you want to try top lane.
1.41 x 9 = 13 Armor

Greater Glyph of Warding
Since the best lane for Katarina is mid, it will help you against AP carries.
1.34 x 8 = 12 Magic Resist

Greater Glyph of Strength
Gives you 1 AD since you have that 0.75 left from quints!
0.25 AD

Greater Quintessence of Strength
Boosting your abilities some more and making your basic attacks stronger.
2.25 x 3 = 6.75 AD

STARTING ITEMS:

Boots of Speed
This is a great starting item if you're playing against champions that uses skill shots to deal some damage to you, like Kennen or Lux.
Also good against champions that can't deal damage to you if they are not right next to you like Garen and Nasus. Also if you get this item buy 3 Health Potions!


Doran's Blade
You can start with this item if you want to play offensive early, but it's not providing you any sustain in lane so it's maybe smart to pick Teleport to run to base when you're low. Also buy some Health Potions too if you don't have money for either Bilgewater Cutlass, Hextech Revolver or even early Hextech Gunblade!

CORE ITEMS:

Hextech Gunblade
Massive boost to Katarina's Bouncing Blades and Death Lotus!
It gives you every single offensive thing: Spell vamp, Life steal, AD, AP and Active (dealing 300 magic damage and slows the target champion by 50% for 3sec, 700 range and 60sec CD). Since we are not picking Exhaust as summoner spell when you turn your ultimate on, use active from Hextech Gunblade to slow down the target so it can't run away while you are preforming your Death Lotus.
I GOT A TEN MINUTE GUNBLADE AIMED AT YOUR HEAD !


Mercury's Treads
Basically I choose these because of Tenacity (reduces duration of stuns, slows, snares...), because people al and it gives you some magic resistance, but that is less important.


Infinity Edge
So you can deal tons of damage!
This is your main damage dealing item in the build, it provides you 100AD and 20% life steal with full stacks. When you buy this item farm as much as you can, because that is how you are getting stacks on it.


Frozen Mallet
Gives you huge health bar, a little bit of damage and 100% slow on your basic attacks.
So you can simply Shunpo on the enemy champion and basic attack him to death.

FINISHING ITEMS:

Guardian Angel
As finishing item because you are Katarina and you are always focused in fights.
Gives you tons of armor and some magic resistance, and great passive!


Quicksilver Sash
Buy this item when you have Mordekaiser, Vladimir, Nasus, Malzahar... in enemy team to counter their abilities. Activate item when they throw some of their abilities on ya. It provides a lot of magic resistance too.


Atma's Impaler
On the end get this for more damage, armor and critical chance. Also you get AD from 1.5% of your maximum health! That is only if you are bigger level than everyone from their team.

SITUATIONAL ITEMS:

Sorcerer's Shoes
For dealing more damage with your abilities and if their team is lacking crowd control.
Almost any boots works on Katarina but Mercury's Treads and Sorcerer's Shoes are the best.
Instead of Mercury's Treads.


Rylai's Crystal Scepter
If you prefer damage over health and like slow on abilities more than slow on basic attacks.
Instead of Frozen Mallet.

This is one of the best passive abilities in the game, it makes you a great tower diver since your Shunpo is refreshed when you kill the enemy. Also in the team fights if a lot enemies died and you are still alive, you will probably be able to throw one Death Lotus on the start and on on the end of the fight!



Use this ability to last hit minions and poke the enemy champion. We will max this first early since those two things are really important until you get your ultimate. It scales with both AD and AP, gains a little bit more from AD.



This is the ability that will give a decent boost to your Bouncing Blades, Shunpo, Death Lotus and basic attacks.
Healing reduction for 5 seconds on Buncing Blade will counter a lot of champions like Swain, Dr. Mundo, Warwick and you can throw it whenever someone uses Health Potion. Other effects like damage reduction and increased damage are not that important.



This is the best ability in your set! It allows you to jump on champions, minions, monsters and wards. It's like a free Flash, so it's sometimes smart to have a ward in your pocket so you can set a ward over a wall and jump on it while enemy is chasing you. It also deals nice damage but it scales only from AP. This is the second thing you want to max because of CD reduction and increased damage.



This is what makes Katarina so powerful! She goes into "eat face" mode for 3 seconds while she is throwing daggers and ripping your head off. Well it's similar to that...
Only bad thing about this ultimate is that it can be stopped by simple stun, knock back or knock up! So in the fights wait for the enemy to use their CC and then jump in with your Shunpo and turn on your Preparation and then Death Lotus. That will probably ace enemy team.