not actual

+1 for another fan of tanky Karthus

Glad to see another tanky Karthus fan :)

I run a similar build on Karthus, though I don't take warmog's. I opt for abyssal scepter/zhonya's hourglass depending on who's dishing out the most damage on the enemy team. I also go 9/21/0 rather than all defensive so I get a little extra AP, a bit of CDR, and most importantly the 10% mpen. I opt for merc treads over sorcerer shoes, since the tenacity and MR I find to be overall more handy with going the tanky route. I run flat mpen marks, health/lvl seals, AP/lvl glyphs, and flat AP quints.

Typically my build goes RoA, merc treads, rylai's, deathcap, will of the ancients, and then end with either guardian angel (if i want more overall tankiness) or abyssal/zhonya's if i want more AP with a bit more tankiness against one damage type.

Taking GA gives me an effective 7900 health vs melee and 6300 vs magic, and I still squeeze out 554 AP.

My basis of the whole build was to utilize defile for the bulk of my damage in team fights/skirmishes. As such, in order for the build to really work you need to hog the blue buff whenever you can. I find it to work surprisingly well, though you don't pick up as many easy kills from your ult as you do just stacking nothing but AP/mpen, but I find this build much more fun to play while still being effective.

You're spot on in that outside of ranked, people rarely invest in much mpen/apen or even stack much MR if they aren't a tank/offtank, most everyone builds raw damage.

And to the poster above: "tanky" =/= tank. Karthus will never be a tank. But virtually any champ can be "tanky" in that with the right items they can soak up a fair amount of damage before going down. Builds such as this allow them to also keep dishing out respectable damage while doing so.

Karthus is not a tank.

I will try this guide tommorrow :) then i will post again

Duly noted, and I have done that in the past. I recall stating to start with a Giant's Belt, and then consider your options, possibly getting Rylai's Crystal Scepter instead, for AP first.

I will be adding gameplay videos / editing previous videos from my livestream, eventually.



It DOES make you tanky. So, people build madred's JUST to take down a Karthus? Well, in that case I'm honored. But, besides that, there is the defense masteries, which do quite a lot. Do recall that damage is reduced 1.5% each attack, so it isn't nearly as much as it would be otherwise, and honestly.. everything has a counter, why worry?

If it wasn't that, it'd be a lot of MResist. Thankfully, not EVERYONE is getting Madred's, and I have a team to help me take care of them. If they are up close and personal and DO kill me? Defile + Lay Waste + Wall of Pain + Requiem. Have a nice day.



I appreciate the input, however, I disagree. Karthus is a very offensive person as it is. Many people outside of ranked games do not buy MResist. In this case the 20 I get from Sorcerer's Shoes is more than enough. For the ones that do buy it, there is Void Staff. Also, keep in mind that Wall of Pain lowers Armor and Magic Resistance. Dropping that on someone, in combination with boots, can negate up to 55 MR at level 18.

No one likes smite on Karthus, but most don't give it a shot. I HAVE actually jungled as Karthus before, it was an interesting experience. Wall of Pain does wonders. Clarity isn't bad, but unless keeping Defile on all the time, more than necessary, it really isn't that useful. If Karthus didn't get mana back from killing minions and such, then it would definitely be more viable, I agree. However, he does, and I feel that it doesn't suit him. Meanwhile, Smite gives more gold, and can also steal a neutral monster from the enemy.

I agree however, it is a preference, and as I stated before, there are certainly other options.

Hey, good start but It needs some work on items, if you want to be tanky you want either Zhonya's hourglass or Absyall sceptor depending on whether or not you need armor or mr. Also full defensive tree is not a good idea, (go up to the magic pen in offensive). Finally, I really dont like smite for Karthus mid, if you want to jungle with him(it is very possible), then you can take smite. I would recomened Heal and Clarity as your main 2 spells. but again its kind of preferance so not judging to heavly on the summoner spells.

Having stacked health doesn't make you tanky, it only makes you a easy target to madred's bloodrazor and kogmaw.

The reason you're getting downvoted is because people are downvoting to keep you from getting high rated or because they are closed minded to this concept. Turn comment to vote on, it protects you until you're build has been properly voted up. IMO it's a great idea, I recently played against a Karthus who was pretty tanky. You might want to add sections on gameplay, other items that work and so on. I like the concept, and most of the build. However, I suggest building the root items for Warmogs, and then building some more AP. All in all nice build.