Now then, you have just bought her, you played a couple of games and you fed the entire enemy team. Now your wondering "how does everyone else do it???" because at some point in your LoL career you must have been absolutely destroyed by her.... Well if you carry on reading, soon you will no longer be the most op support in the game, after this (hopefully) you will be able to totally carry games.

I should mention before hand that this is my first guide so please excuse me if it seems... mediocre. I really appreciate the feedback from people. What I will be intending to do is keep it straight forward and tell you as much as I know as possible.

Also I must make it clear not to get disheartened if you fail the next time you play Katarina, like every champion it takes time to get used to it and learn to do well. I can assure you that I once felt worthless with this champion, but I dedicated all my games into perfecting her, and in time I started to get better and better to the point that I almost always get fed.

Despite this though, that is no reason to say that it definitely will help you in the long run, if this fails then experiment a little. Adapt the build to your playstyle. This guide is a guide it is meant to guide you on how to play Katarina. It's purpose is to show you some things that can help you play her well, not to instruct you to always use it and never change it.

Lastly I would recommend that you pay attention to any mistakes you make. Mistakes are probably the best things that can happen to you (in LoL AND in real life) because they teach you on how to avoid them, if your having trouble spotting them then I would suggest downloading LoLReplay, You leave it open in the background while playing then after you just watch the game.
If you want to download it then click here

That all said, it is time I start explaining on how to get better at Katarina...

Like every champion,to be good with Kat you have to understand her. Katarina is an assassin who really shines when the team break up. If you get left behind and Katarina is on your tail then unless your extremely lucky and/or the katarina happens to be drunk then you are basicallly
Katarina can also flourish in team fights- if it wasn't obvious, her ultimate is basically made for it but you cant really do it yourself unless you are really fed... That is why you should (like any adc) stay behind your team, Katarina is extremely squishy and isn't going to be any use for her team dead. Avoid being at the front because you will most likely be focused (especially if you have a few too many kills the enemy team aren't too happy about)

Don't get the idea that she isn't good for ganking though! If your playing Katarina then gank as much as you can! You have a good escape mechanism and you can easily take out the enemy if you need to.

In this case this Katarina was able to 1v5 them and...well you will see the results... Play Video
Notice how she uses her q before hand, it hit the majority of the team. She then e'd into the middle of them to make sure they are all in range of her ult.

Also never forget about your q, it increases the damage to your basic attack and skills. Like all ofspells, it has a pretty short cooldown so if the target manages to slip away and your just out of melee range then use it to hopefully get the kill.

These are what I use and they work well. Don't be afraid to experiment though if you feel unsatisfied by the results.

What I use

Magic Penetration marks
These are pretty much what you should pick for every caster, being most effective.
Armour seals
Your pretty easy to kill, the armour will be pretty useful. Especially early game, imagine being ganked byIt's the same story for magic resist glyphs, scaling armour is useless in most cases because you can easily just buy an item such as zhonya's and be good in terms of defence for a while, plus the fact that the item gives you a whopping 120+ ap

magic resist glyphs
Now I know there may be a debate about whether to go with scaling or flat. The answer is simple really depending on what champion you are using, and in Katarina's case, flat mr is the way to go. Yes you can get more mr later if you go with scaling but is that worth it? By then either you are fed or they are fed so in my opinion it would just be a waste, later game you can easily buy a item that gives you more then enough mr. Flat mr would be more useful to you considering at early game you wont have much options of defence against your lane.I have tried both and honestly I find myself dying more with scaling.
Ability Power quintessence
15 ability at lv 1. Not really any other quint to choose that would go well with Katarina in my opinion.

Other choices

vs
Flat health quintessence vs Scaling health quintessence.
If you haven't gotten the idea yet, Flat wins. +200 health at the beginning can really make a difference. It is your choice though on which to choose, the most practical one though would be flat clearly in my opinion.

Ability power glyph

If your wanting a little extra damage at the start then you can go with these. 10.71 extra ap can possibly make the difference between killing the enemy or not. Not much ap though but at least it's a better option then ability power seals which only give you up to 5.31 ap.

Quintessence of Movement Speed

This is a great choice if you feel as if your unable to catch up to your enemies. Definitely my second choice for quints. I love the damage though and reaching enemies is usually not a problem so I don't use them.

Offence tree

Sorcery;Although cooldowns are pretty low it does help a lot to make them lower ^^

The lower the cooldowns the better because relies on only her abilities to deal damage. Her basic doesn't really do much at all and plus it is really slow so its usually not worth it. Her main damage output is her abilities alone so if she can use them constantly that would make her a killing machine.

Blast;18 ap at lv1? Yes please. Nuff said.

Arcane Knowledge;Why not? extra damage that ignores mr is great.

HavocExtra damage is always welcome. Also it's the only useful mastery available to you so you have to get it anyway if you want to unlock mental force...

Mental ForceEven MORE ability power. If you followed the runes and masteries so far you will start with a total of 31 ap at lv1

SpellswordI know before I said Kat's basic attack is a bit useless but if your out of options this can really help make your auto do just that little more. This can become really powerful late game considering you should have a lot of ap by then.

ArchmageYes you guessed it. More ap.

ExecutionerThis can really change the course of the game. Think about it. Doing that little extra damage will change whether you will get the kill or not.

Farm

This is one of the most important aspects in the game. You need to farm A LOT. A fed Katarina is a good Katarina. Even if you end up getting no kills that doesn't matter, because if you have a lot of cs (creep score) then at least it's safe to say you were actually helping your team. Farming with Katarina is extremely easy because you can kill multiple minions at the same time. By the time you level your w to 3 you will be clearing minion waves in seconds.

Poke the enemy

When the enemy goes to last hit a minion why not punish them for that? Q them and if they are in range then give them a taste of w as well, because of that q you did more damage with your w! Keep that up and soon the enemy will be needing to recall, causing them to miss even more cs.

Going for the kill

Until you are level 6 (depending on your match up) I would recommend avoiding fights with your opponent because chances are (again, depending on your match up) you would probably lose. None the less, if your jungler is there ready to gank your lane or they are just standing there, back from an ambush and only have a little health left then unless your going to have to get yourself killed to do so, go for it. Your ultimate is probably the thing that will cause you to get most of your kills because of how much damage it does.

Gank

Ganking is important as it can very well save your team mates lives and/or towers. Also it can get you a kill or two. Katarina isn't very useful to the team if she is not ganking. When you get more experienced with her you tend to secure a lot of kills...Or how most like to put it; Kill steal so to avoid flame I would recommend giving people a hand or two....

Whenever you attack an enem(y/ies) you should use your abilities in this order.


1.This marks the enemy for 4 seconds, during this your basic attacks/spells do extra damage.

2. Close the distance between your enemy so you can use Sinister steel and Death lotus.

3.
Do more damage to the enemy before you use your ultimate. It also gives you bonus movement speed if it hits so just in case you need to get out of there quickly use it.

4.
Finisher move that will leave the enemy begging for mercy...if he/she is still alive

If that lucky bugger manages to survive that then, if not on cooldown, ignite them. Unless they are some what tanky you shouldn't have a problem taking out unsuspecting prey.

Team Fights

As mentioned before, Katarina is NOT someone you want to be having at the front of the team. Although in some cases you may find yourself getting there unintentionally...you get grabbed and the whole enemy team is on you....what do you do? e! E! E! I cannot stress that enough, you can use your shunpo to jump to any minion or champion, enemy or not you can shunpo to it!

It is so hard to chase a Katarina surrounded by minions because if you even consider getting close to her *WOOSH* she is gone. Use this to your advantage, if you have the bravery and your team has the brain capacity then you can probably bait the enemy team to engage on you, they get close then you *WOOSH* shunpo to your team mate behind you then they start whacking at them. Then the team fight commences and you q, e, w and r then the whole enemy team is
If you ever find yourself being chased and they are right behind you then w them for a temporary increase in speed.

Teamwork

Katarina's move set isn't really built to help the team, like all assassins her abilities focus on damage and mobility. That is why you should gank a lot while in the laning phase. This is why most assassins go mid, because they can easily go to either top or bot lane. Don't be afraid to gank because don't forget, assassins have great mobility in Katarina's case she can jump in and jump out with ease.

Helping your team out can really change the course of the game. If you play to win, you should be a team player. Don't get me wrong, some cases people manage to carry there're entire team by themselves, but this wont happen all the time. Unless you are super fed then it's unlikely you will win that 1v5.

Pros

Great mobility
Abilities synergies well with each other
Ultimate targets multiple people
Potential to do A LOT of damage
Short Ability cooldowns
passive basically takes all except r ability off cooldown.
No mana! You don't have to constantly recall because you ran out!

Cons

Squishy
Some what difficult at first.
Vulnerable to getting focused.
Relies on items a lot. Can only really do well if fed.