Build Guide
Discussion (1047)
LoL Champion: Katarina
| Health | 2563.96 |
| Health Regen | 16.85 |
| Mana | 0 |
| Mana Regen | 0 |
| Armor | 136.75 |
| Magic Resist | 52.5 |
| Dodge | 0 |
| Tenacity | 0 |
| Movement Speed | 395 |
| Gold Bonus | 0 |
| Attack Damage | 150.6 |
| Attack Speed | 0.965 |
| Crit Chance | 0%S |
| Crit Damage | 0% |
| Ability Power | 474.85 |
| Life Steal | 15% |
| Spell Vamp | 20 |
| Armor Penetration | 0 |
| Magic Penetration | 8.55 |
| Cooldown Reduction | 28.95% |
Recommended Runes
Purchase Order
Ability Sequence
Masteries
Katarina ~ The Sinister Blade
Abbreviations Throughout the Guide
CC = Crowd Control (Stun, fear, slow, snare, etc)
AP = Ability Power
AD = Attack Damage
MPen = Magic Penetration
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
OOM = Out of Mana
HP = Health/Health Points/Hit Points
Pros and Cons
-NO MANA!
-Ridiculous cooldowns
-Shunpo - Most Versatile Ability in the GAME
-Multi-Target Ultimate
-Amazing chaser
-Not hard to learn
-Amazing mid-late game farmer
-Terrific Ganker
-French and Sexy
-Not a great EARLY game farmer
-Tends to get CCed and focused A LOT if not careful
AP vs Hybrid vs AD
Although AD is viable for the larger bonus damage ratio on your Bouncing Blade and ulti, Shunpo in my opinion is a much worthier ability to improve. Also, think of this: With a full build for Kat, AP vs AD, you can get around double the amount of AP than AD for a similar gold cost.
Here's the math to that. I took my build, total gold cost around 17000 (everything minus the pots), which, including masteries, runes, and blue pot, puts you at about 675 AP.
Then I took a full on AD build for Kat, courtesy of HeAt (Katarina - Attack Damage Style). Since stacking items are not very reliable, I replaced his Sword of the Occult with a more stable item, another Bloodthirster. Not including pots, the total gold cost is around 17200. Without the masteries, around 400 bonus AD is gained with full Bloodthirster bonus AD (max 40 per Bloodthirster). This is, keeping in mind, you can keep ALL of those stacks up.
That's almost double the amount of AP than AD for slightly less gold, and the AP:AD bonus damage ratio for both Bouncing Blade and her ulti is 1:2 (double the amount of bonus damage from total AD than from total AP) (exception for Bouncing Blades, AD adds slightly more than double AP: 0.35:0.8) (+0.35 of total AP and +0.8 of total AD for Bouncing Blade and +0.25 of total AP and +0.5 of total AD for Death Lotus). This means that in the same amount of time, since one unit of AP is cheaper than one unit of AD, you will get around the same bonus damage add-on with both your Bouncing Blade and ulti. So, although people think AD will make your Bouncing Blade and ulti more powerful than AP, in essence, you are gaining the same amount of bonus damage, only difference being your standard attack and only a little less damage on your Bouncing Blades. Think about it: with 700 AP it would deal +245 damage, with 400 AD +320. That means you are ditching Shunpo's nuking ability for around 75 more damage on the INITIAL hit of the Bouncing Blade, which has a higher cooldown than Shunpo and less range. Cmon. Also, keep in mind, that those AD values are based on stacking items that you have to keep up and lose upon death, whereas the AP items grant you what they say they do from the start, and don't reset upon death; if you were to get, say, a 
Mejai's Soulstealer, the numbers would be even more extreme.
Which leaves Shunpo . If you are building Kat AD, you are not adding any damage to your Shunpo. And, as explained above, you get around the same bonus damage on your Q and ulti in the same time frame with both AD and AP. So, why leave Shunpo all alone? Below you will find a whole section on Shunpo, one of my favorite abilites in League of Legends.
And in case you are curious as to why I am not talking about Kat's W, Killer Instincts, in this section, it is because AP and AD both have no effect on it. It only adds a base benefit, which will be described later.
Da Maths
Hey guys! I decided, since some people were challenging me, that I would show you the actual numbers that I obtained when calculating everything Katarina. What follows proves mathematically why AP > Hybrid > AD.
With my build, factoring in runes and masteries, but not including blue elixir which you should always be picking up as well as magic pen/resist,
the initial hit on your Q does: 482.5 damage.
Each Shunpo does: 742.5.
Each ultimate dagger does: 277.5 damage, meaning 2775 maximum per target up to three targets.
This is not using a Mejai's, with Mejai's the results would even be more extreme.
Now, taking the aforementioned AD build with around 400 AD, considering you ALWAYS keep up ALL Bloodthirster stacks, you would get:
Q: 520 damage on initial hit.
Shunpo: No added damage, so 240 on that...COMPLETELY neglecting your low cooldown long range NUKE.
R: 280 per dagger, 2800 per target up to 3 targets.
That is SLIGHTLY more damage on your Q and R, but not utilizing your, imo, MOST DEVASTATING AMAZING SPELL IN THE WORLD...
And hybrid is lower damage on ALL spells, the only reason it is more viable than AD is because it doesn't totally neglect Shunpo.
I did calculations to prove this as well, and here is just one of many:
With 2 gunblades, deathcap, void staff, boots, and Guardian Angel:
120 AD, 507.28 AP
Q = 473.55
E = 620.46
R = 266.82 per dagger, 2668.2 max per target.
You could of course replace the GA (not a great item for Kat) with a nice defensive item that provides good AP too, such as Zhonya's Hourglass, but then you have a build similar to mine, with slightly less AP and a little more AD, but completely neglecting a Rylai's which you NEED for the HP and slow with Kat.
No arguments, AP is the most viable and damaging way to play Kat, the other ways are just worse.
If you have a build you think can prove me wrong, message me it and I will be glad to prove YOU wrong :)
And if somehow it is better than my build with all abilities and survivability, I will be glad to make changes accordingly :)
NOTE: This math was done before the gunblade nerf...now gunblade stacking is nullified. As well, this math was done before the mastery change. The total AP in this build, as a result, has slightly changed; that change, however, is not reflected in this math.
Shunpo
Oh Shunpo, how much I love you. This ability is a blink, to both allies and enemies, as well as a nuke, all on a measly 4 second cooldown with this build. The casting range of it is larger than Bouncing Blade, and the cooldown is shorter. WHY AD BUILDERS, WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE THIS POOR ABILITY ALONE?
Anyway, enough of my drama. Shunpo is amazing. No other words could describe it. It has saved the lives of Katarina players worldwide many times, as well as get an unthinkable amount of kills.
With this build, Shunpo gets to around a 4.5 second cooldown, and deals approximately 750 damage to enemies on hit. What does this mean? This means if you are getting screwed, and you are near an ally, tell them to get in range of your Shunpo if they aren't already...and BOOM you're gone. This is if there aren't any minions nearby to Shunpo to. This is almost as annoying as Kassadin's ulti, and it deals more damage. The only difference, really, between this and Kassadin's ultimate is that Kat requires a target to blink to, and Kass's ulti has LESS range than Kat's Shunpo.
This means that you can use Shunpo through walls (if it is passable within the 700 range). You can Shunpo to teammates taking dragon or baron, and shunpo through walls if you are low health to deceive your enemies and lure them to your teammates.
Here is where the damage and chasing potential of this ability comes in. Shunpo adds 0.75 of your ability power in bonus damage. With a lot of AP, this is a lot of damage. I mean a LOT. The range on this ability, as described above, is 700; not bad. Not only is this a great damage dealer for ganking, teamfights, you name it, since it has range, you can also chase enemies who are escaping with it. So many times have I shunpo'd to a Twitch about to go into stealth with low health and take him out instantly. Is Nidalee pouncing away? Your blink is twice the range and only 1 more second cooldown. Sorry Xaioli, Katarina counters you :)
When used with Kat's W, Killer Instincts (see skills part of "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" section for more info), in conjunction with the mastery setup and item purchases, you will take a LOT less damage after you Shunpo for a few seconds as long as you activate Killer Instincts right before you Shunpo. This helps if you are getting chased (Killer Instincts + Shunpo to ally to escape and take reduced damage if you are almost dead and getting pursued), as well as for turret diving with Shunpo, chasing with Shunpo, and initiating ganks with Shunpo. See the section titled "Laning/Ganking" as well as the skills part of the "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" section to see why I learn and max out this ability first.
Shunpo to Ward Trick
This trick always comes in handy. Make sure to always carry a few sight wards with you, as long as you can (obviously with 6 full slots you can't, until Riot releases a separate ward slot soonTM). What you have to do is quite simple. Just place the ward in front of you, and shunpo to it!
Doing this can save your ***/help you get kills so much it isn't even funny. The ward acts just as a minion or champion would with Shunpo, except you can use it when you DON'T have anything near you to shunpo to! Just as mentioned previously in this section, you can shunpo to chase, to escape, etc.
Let's say you are chasing someone, but they are just out of range of your Shunpo and there is nothing near to shunpo to. Simply place down a ward as far out in front of you as you can, shunpo to it, and presto! You are now in range of them, and may proceed to make them cry.
Same thing with escaping. All alone in the jungle, 5 people following you (why would you even be alone when 5 are mia baffles me but besides the point), nothing to shunpo to? Place a ward down and you are golden.
This basically acts as a FREE FLASH. Since, as you know, flash is a short distance blink that doesn't require any target. Shunpo is basically a flash, but requires a target. But with this ward trick, you don't need a target!
Farming
Although Kat isn't the best of farmers early game, just make sure you stay back and last hit whenever possible. If a wave of minions are low on health, pop a Bouncing Blade on them to get a few last hits. Mid-late game is where you shine with farming. Whether you build AD or AP, your Q can annihilate a wave of minions. Just pop it and you will get around 150 g in last hits.
Team Work
If you have supportive teammates, they will most likely heed to your request if you ask them to get in range of your Shunpo to escape/enter a fight. So many times have my friends saved me by coming close enough to Shunpo to them when I wasn't near minions. This works too if an enemy is out of range of your Shunpo. If an ally is in front of you, minion or champion, just Shunpo to them and then to the enemy.
Something I just felt like adding: If you want to have some extra fun and play leapfrog (yes, leapfrog), try to get a
on your team. I have done this before :) Kassadin Rift Walks forward, you Shunpo to him, and it continues. If Kass has enough mana/mana regen to do this multiple times (mid-late game), you can get to where you want to go uber quickly (you don't need to be near minions). Im talking about Zilean speeding up a rolling Rammus with Ghost quickly.
Laning/Ganking
I tend to go MID with Kat. Why? Because I level up faster :)
Seriously, you should go mid with Kat. Having no mana means that you don't have to go back for being out of mana (OOM), and with a few HP pots, you can stay in lane longer than your foes. This lets you push and farm for a much longer time.
Harassing is also easy mode for Kat. How do you harass with Kat, you ask? If you have your W, save it for Shunpo. When the time is right (you can determine when, obviously not if they are turret hugging :P), Bouncing Blade them, then W and shunpo in. Early game this combo is DEVASTATING. When you get your ulti, you can use this too if you know you will be able to finish off your target. Read the rest of the guide and check out the section titled "Quick note on when to use your ulti, and when not to" for more information on when and how to use your ultimate.
All of this makes Kat a great MID laner. No mana, amazing damage output and harassing ability, and nice survivability. However, she works in side lanes too, and you can harass and nuke enemies there just as well. But, then you won't have the level advantage as well as the easy opportunity to gank when needed.
Now, to ganking. How do you initiate a gank? When you get to your enemies, you generally want to wait for them to push a little. Then, when you think the time is right (again, up to the discretion of you and your teammates, you WILL know when the time is right), use your W for the reduced damage taken once you Shunpo, shunpo in, Bouncing Blade, and repeat. As I said earlier, use your ulti when you know you can do work with it. If you have not done so already, please read through the rest of the guide as well as the section about Kat's ulti to learn when to ulti, and how to do so effectively.
No mana also means easier ganking. You can just keep spamming all you got on your foes without worrying about going OOM. Simple enough concept, right? This allows you to also constantly gank without, once again, having to recall for mana.
Besides having no mana, Kat also makes an amazing ganker because of her damage output throughout the game. Even early game, her Shunpo, Bouncing Blade, and ulti have a low cooldown and a massive damage output. You can catch runners when ganking with your Shunpo (explained above in the "Shunpo" section), and your ulti is multi-target, and as such can hurt...get this...multiple targets at a time.
Ganking with Kat = Super Happy Fun Time.
So, where does Shunpo fall into all of this? Why do I learn and max out Shunpo first, when it is easier to just stay back and harass with your Bouncing Blade and watch it pop from enemy to enemy? Here's why:
If you haven't already, please read the "Shunpo" section. If you have, you know the damage, escaping, chasing, and cooldown potentials of Shunpo. And since this is a guide for AP Kat, you also know that Shunpo deals more damage than Bouncing Blade. As well, you know that Shunpo + Killer Instincts reduces the damage that you take for a few seconds after you Shunpo.
So, back to the question, why do I learn this first? Well, I basically already answered it. It is your core damage dealer, and deals a lot of damage even early game. It is especially important to learn it first, not only for the damage but in case you get early game ganked or you are early game ganking or just dominating your lane (as you will with Kat), you can Shunpo out of a situation or chase using your Shunpo respectively. Remember: you can Shunpo to non-neutral minions. If you are getting CC'ed early game, and are almost dead, Shunpo away. Once you learn Killer Instincts at level 4, you can tie this in with your Shunpo to take reduced damage if you are running from a situation/chasing someone who is almost dead.
You wouldn't be able to do all of this if you learned Bouncing Blade and maxed it out first early game, now would you? Also consider the long cooldown of Killer Instincts early game. With that, Bouncing Blade deals equal damage to each target it hits. However, if you learn Bouncing Blade first thing, the damage is just too weak, especially with the subsequent bounces, early game, if you aren't using your Killer Instincts. Plus, you won't have the damage dealing/escaping/chasing/ganking benefits of early game Shunpo mentioned earlier in this section that you would if you learned and maxed out Shunpo first.
Runes
Greater Mark of Insight
: All of her abilities are dealt as magic damage, and as such you want magic penetration.Greater Seal of Vitality
: With these, it is quite an easy choice. Besides these being half the price of the flat Seals of Fortitude, they give around 4 times as much health at level 18. Scaling Seals of Vitality also have a larger amount of total HP per rune turnover once you hit level 5, which, since I mid, I hit quickly, and even side-laning you hit quickly. Flat HP seals are only really helpful for jungling, since they only grant more HP really early game, and we are not jungling with Kat in this guide :)You want health seals to make her a little less squishy. In total, 9 of these seals give around 180 extra health at 18, which helps a lot considering you don't have to spend any gold in-game to get the extra HP.
You can take dodge runes, but I just prefer having a stat that you KNOW you will have (HP), whereas dodge is a random chance; it may be there when you need it, it may not, it may happen 5 times in a row, it might not for 100 hits. You just don't know.
As well, the reason I take HP over armor and MRes is because you don't know the enemy team comp; they could be magic or physical damage heavy, but HP works for any enemy. And, in Kat's case, more HP in combination with
Killer Instincts acts as both more effective armor and MRes, since it grants reduced damage from ALL sources.Greater Glyphs of Celerity or Focus
: This is a little different than the Seals. Use scaling if mid, since the turnover on these is at level 13 which is hit pretty quickly if mid. I prefer to mid with Kat, so I usually take these, but if you choose to side lane, take flats, since you will not hit level 13 nearly as quickly.You want cooldown reduction glyphs on Kat since, in conjunction with Ionian Boots of Lucidity, if you get a Mejai's, all 20 stacks, random blue elixirs, masteries, and blue buff, they allow you to Shunpo almost instantly after you just did. The CDR also lets you farm with your Q more often, use your additional effect on your abilities from your W more often, and spin in circles more often. This is especially helpful for your ulti if you aren't killing and assisting as much as you thought you would (passive reduces all cooldowns by 15 seconds every time Kat gets a kill or assist), as you can still be able to spam your ulti basically whenever you feel like it.
Greater Quintessence of Potency
: These quints are great. Right off the bat you start with 15 AP, which adds around 11 more damage to your Shunpo and 5 to your Bouncing Blade. This is nice for early game harass, and lets you farm a little bit easier as well. These quints have more of a drastic effect early game, when the extra damage from your AP will really show in ganks and harassing, but through late game, in conjunction with masteries and Deathcap's passive, it will turn in to around 20 extra AP. And, going into a game with free AP, without having to spend a single gold coin, who DOESN'T want that?I get these over the AP per level
Greater Quintessence of Force because those only give, together, around 9 more AP. And the extra AP gained from them does not pay off until level 12. Now, if you are mid, you might think "oh, well he said the other per level runes were okay if you are mid," well these are different. Their early game effect is SO drastic, and this also lets you get boots instead of an Amplifying Tome first thing (see "Items" section for more on this), that you want to get flats.
Masteries
You want the extra AP from Mental Force. Since you will be taking Exhaust, upgrading that with Summoner's Wrath would be useful (that is, IF you decide to take exhaust, which I highly recommend, as explained below; however, this point also upgrades Ignite and Ghost and Surge if you choose to take those). Then, you want to take the CDR so we can get to the magic pen mastery (since we don't need attack speed, and CDR is always helpful), and then the extra magic pen for obvious reasons. Everything following that gives you more AP and damage overall.
In this tree, we get some extra defenses (spec into MR more than armor since we will be vs. another AP mid most likely) and some more health. This extra beefiness is nice on Kat, since she is always in the middle of things, and as such needs any way possible to survive longer.
Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo
Voracity
: This passive is crazy good. If you get fed as Kat (as you will), this not only gives you more gold to buy your items sooner, but also reduces your cooldowns by 15 seconds per kill or assist. This CDR is great for teamfights and ganks. If you use your ulti, and get a few kills or assists, you will have it back instantly. Which means you can use it again. And again. And again. Until you get too dizzy :SBouncing Blade
: I talk about this skill above in the "Farming" section. It is amazing for popping on a wave of minions to get last hits on. Late game it is terrific for teamfights, as it deals a ton of damage and bounces to multiple enemies. And of course, it has a pretty low cooldown. I max this out second, since it is the second most damaging ability with AP Kat. And Kat is all about damage :)HOWEVER, if you are against an enemy that can easily punish you for coming into Shunpo range, you can max this spell first for safer harass.
Killer Instincts
: This ability is great, but I find it not necessary to max out early game. It adds a bonus effect to both your Shunpo and Bouncing Blade when activated, as well as adding damage to your abilities and melee attacks passively. For your Shunpo, you take less damage (increased % of reduced damage as you level the skill up) once you Shunpo for 3 seconds. For your Bouncing Blade, it deals the same amount of damage each hit, and applies 50% healing reduction for 10 seconds. Yes, this ability is nice and very helpful, but I tend to max it out last. Why? Because it adds an effect to your other abilities. But it isn't a direct damage output ability on its own. Your Bouncing Blade and Shunpo are the main cheese :) I do learn it once early game, however, since it is nice to have with your Bouncing Blade so it deals full damage each hit (more last hits when you pop it on a minion wave) and applies a healing reduction debuff to each enemy it hits. The slight reduction in damage taken when Shunpo-ing for a few seconds is nice too. Late game, when this gets maxed out, the reduction in damage taken after using Shunpo is much more, which I find more helpful late game since the damage being dealt by the enemies will increase.Shunpo
: I already discussed this ability in the section titled "Shunpo" (what are the odds of that?) as well as the section titled "Laning/Ganking", and if you have not read those sections I would recommend doing so. Shunpo is your awesomesauce flash/nuke ability on a ridiculous cooldown that is terrific for chasing/ganking and reducing damage with your W. For these reasons as well as the reasons discussed in the two aforementioned sections, I max this ability first as well as learn it first. This is your core damage dealer in addition to your ultimate when you can use it (almost always).Death Lotus
: This is the ultimate where you see Kat spin in circles while shooting out blades. How she does not get dizzy, I don't know. But, what I do know is that it deals crazy damage and has an extremely low cooldown. And, if you get kills or assists with it, it lowers by 15 seconds each kill/assist thanks to her passive (see above).It throws up to 30 daggers, maximum that can hit a single champion who stays in range is 10. As such, it can deal damage to up to 3 champs at once. Wow. And if you kill all of them with it or get assists on each of the three champions who your ulti targets, you get it back. Instantly.
Learn this ability whenever possible. (6, 11, 16)
Skill Combo
This is how you should approach your attacks with Katarina, assuming that your keybind is QWER for your abilities in that order:
W --> E --> Q --> E --> and so on. W when you can. And, if your enemies are low enough and near you, or you are dealing with multiple enemies, flash in (if you need to and you use flash - see below), Shunpo (E) in, and then Q and ulti. Once you have your Rylai's Scepter, the Bouncing Blade and Shunpo will slow the enemies it hits, so that you can get closer to them when you pop your ulti, and then your ulti will slow them as well, which will keep them in range of it to get the most damage dealt to them possible. Also, if you are targeting a single enemy with your ulti, make sure to use Shunpo on them first, as it will let you get closer to them and will slow that person by 35% (vs. 15% for Bouncing Blade and Death Lotus since they are multi-target spells) for 1.5 seconds, allowing them to be slowed even more -- a guarantee to land all of your Death Lotus blades on them. Try to also shunpo in even if you are going to target multple enemies with your ulti, as the one that you shunpo will DEFINITELY stay in range of you for the duration.
Ability Range Screenshots
Tanks? Enemy Heals? NP
I just thought I would add a little pointer here, thanks to Jebus McAzn for reminding me of this.
Having all of the MPen that this build provides to slice through the tankiest of tanks, your W + Q can do some amazing things. You know the little ability known as Sadism
, from none other than Dr. Mundo
himself? Well, you can do something that would devastate this purple dude. As you should know if you have read through the guide so far, your W (Killer Instincts) applies 50% healing reduction for 10 seconds when used with your Bouncing Blade. If you pop this on a Mundo who is using Sadism, his heart will drop (or whatever that is inside of him >.>). You will see the little debuff symbol above his head, and he will heal...for...less. :O This is great in teamfights, if someone is healing/getting away; it also applies the debuff to EVERYONE it hits. This means if, somehow, you have a Taric healing, a Soraka healing, a Mundo Sadisming, a Janna healing, and a Sona healing (4 support team FTW) all next to each other, and your Bouncing Blade is a high enough level to hit all of them, and it DOES hit all of them, they will ALL have 50% reduced healing for 10 seconds. CRAAAZY good, can turn the fight around instantly. Remember, this works for ANYONE who heals.
Quick note on when to use your ulti, and when not to.
I am not going to spend too much time on this, as it is mostly self-explanatory. You need SOME common sense to know when to ultimate. Remember, you are not GODZILLA, even if you ARE playing Kat. Many times have I seen Katarinas go alone into a group of full HP enemies and ulti, and wind up dying without getting any kills from the situation. Although you are Kat, and Kat is able to pull off some crazy stunts, try not to get too cocky. Unless they are really squishy, or you calculate ahead of time that the damage output from your ulti will guarantee all of them dead, especially early game, I would NOT recommend this. Later game this might be more viable, but espeically early-mid game, when you are still somewhat squishy, try to keep from using your ulti unless in teamfights, ganks, 1v1 situations, or situations where you can guarantee dealing enough damage to kill your target(s).
Summoner Spells
RECOMMENDED:
Why flash, you ask? Why would you use flash, wRAth, when you already have a crazy flash ability known as Shunpo that has MORE range than the flash? This is why.
There is a place known as the jungle. Now, what might happen is you are strolling around...and OH NO 5 people come to try to screw you up. No ally or enemy units nearby...but you have flash. Flash away, and if you happen to flash in range of a friendly or enemy unit, you can shunpo to them. Happiness!
There are a few people turret hugging that you wanna screw over so bad. They are JUST out of range of your Shunpo and there aren't any minions nearby. Flash in, shunpo to them to get closer if need be, and spin to win. =D
Flash can also be used to escape with your teammates, if you happen to be the laggard and your teammates don't have a soul to stop moving for one second so you can shunpo to them, flash near them and then shunpo.
You can also pull off a classic Fiddlesticks ulti kinda thing. Hide in a bush or somewhere in the enemy's fog of war, and if nothing is in range of your shunpo, flash in, shunpo if need be, and just like in the turret hugging example, spin to win.
So yea, flash helps. A lot.
Well, if there is someone escaping you, and they seem to be faster than you, Shunpo, Exhaust, and then let your frenzy begin. Keep shunpo-ing to them, use your ulti, whatever you want to do to assure that they have a bad day.
Similarly, this is great to keep people in your ulti. Pop it on someone you think might get out of range when you spin in a teamfight or if you are ganking or even just picking someone off, and then you can spin with a relaxed state of mind knowing that they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
PLAUSIBLE:
Getting CCed? Cleanse and Shunpo away.
Great for finishing off enemies who you don't feel like shunpo-ing to to finish off (if you are both low health and they are escaping to a tower, early game when a tower can two-hit you, if you don't want to leave a teamfight, etc.)
MEH:
This might be OKAY if you aren't taking flash, so you can get in range of someone to shunpo to, but if you have flash, don't take this too -- you can just flash --> shunpo to someone who would otherwise be out of range.
DON'T TAKE:
Why? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...idk.
Oh yea...Kat doesn't have mana!
Items
NOTE: Try to buy Elixirs of Brilliance
whenever you recall right before you know a teamfight is going to happen and you have the extra gold, or if you just built or bought an item and have some gold to spend. You can even buy one of these elixirs if you recall and don't have enough gold for any other items that you want to get yet (just don't go overboard on the elixirs, as you still need enough gold to buy your main items). The elixir gives you some more AP and some CDR, which, for a measly 250 gold, doesn't hurt at all. This is especially helpful early game, where that 25 or so AP plus the CDR has a huge effect, when your AP is low and CDR is measly.Early Game
vs.
This is a good question that many of you are probably wondering. Why not get a tome first to build later into your Hextech Revolver and have that extra 20 AP from the start? Because, think of this. You will be bringing AP quints right into the game, which give around 5 less AP than a tome would. So, you still have some nice AP for early game harass. With that in mind, and also remember that you will be recalling soon to get a tome anyway, if not a Hextech Revolver, I would much rather prefer to take boots of speed for the 50 extra movement speed for the first few minutes of laning to get around much quicker. As well, getting the boots lets you get 2 more health pots than if you get the tome, which means you can heal for 300 more health. Since you have no mana, these extra 2 pots allow you to stay in whichever lane you are in MUCH longer before recalling, and once you recall, then you can get your tome ^_^. If you want to get a tome first it wouldn't be BAD, but also considering that both boots of speed and amplifying tome build into something that you will be purchasing later on, I would recommend:
Hextech Revolver
: This item is cheap and gives nice early game AP as well as spell vamp. What is spell vamp you ask? Spell vamp is lifesteal from your abilities. You WILL be using your abilities (obviously), and spell vamp heals you for that. The Hextech Revolver grants 15% spell vamp, meaning that you will heal for 15% of the damage done by your abilities. So, if you get your Shunpo to deal, say, 600 damage, you will heal for 90 each time you Shunpo an enemy unit or champ. Niiiice. Remember, you have no mana, so if you take damage from your enemies, just cast some stuff, whether on the enemy champs or minions, and you will heal up quickly. Also keep in mind your abilities have low cooldowns, so you can continue to cast and heal at a fairly quick rate.NOTE: Multiple target abilities (Bouncing Blade and Death Lotus) grant 1/3 spell vamp, 5% with the revolver, 7% with the gunblade mentioned later. Thanks to Rhaegar14 for mentioning this to me.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
: As stated many times previously throughout the guide, cooldown is vital for Kat. These boots, along with the CDR glyphs, if you get a Mejai's, 20 stacks, random blue elixirs, masteries, and blue buff, allow you to do whatever you want whenever you want. And of course, right when you Shunpo, you can virtually Shunpo again -- terrific for chasing and escaping.Why not
Sorcerer's Shoes? Because, with your MPen marks, Arcane Knowledge mastery point, AND Void Staff, you have a lot of magic pen already. Plus, combining the flat MPen from the Sorc Shoes with the % MPen from the Void Staff result in a LOWERED effect from the Void Staff, which would result in doing less damage to beefy enemies/enemies with a lot of MRes, which of course you don't want :).Mid Game
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
: This item is great. It gives you a great amount of AP and HP, both needed for Kat, as well as its passive. Whenever you cast a spell on someone, it slows them by 35% for 1.5 seconds (or 15% for a multi-target spell such as Bouncing Blade and Death Lotus). What does this mean? It means that if you Bouncing Blade a group of enemy champs, they will all slow down (not much, but it's something). This slow helps you to escape or chase enemies, as well as help with your ulti. How? If you are chasing someone, when you Shunpo to them, they will get slowed, and by the time the slow wears off you will have your Shunpo back in around 1 second. This means that from that inital Shunpo-slow, they will be guaranteed to stay in range of your next Shunpos until you kill them. You can also use a Bouncing Blade on them to slow them again when your Shunpo isn't up. As for escaping, you can pop a quick Bouncing Blade on a pursuer to slow them for a bit, which can be just enough time to Shunpo or flash out of the situation. How does this all tie in with your ultimate? The slow of the ultimate will keep the enemies you are targeting in range of it the whole time. See the "Skill Combo" section of "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" for more information on Rylai's with your ultimate.Rabadon's Deathcap
: This item is just amazing. It adds 140 AP plus 30% of your total AP. So, by the end of the build, this item grants a total of about 285 AP, not including masteries.CRAAAZY, right?
Late Game
Hextech Gunblade
: This item is terrific for Kat. It is built from the Revolver that you got earlier. It gives you some more AP and spell vamp than the revolver, as well as some more benefits. Before I discuss these extra benefits, I just want to clarify something. Yes, this is an AP Kat build. And yes, I have a whole section on why AP > AD. However, the revolver that you have purchased previously if you are following this item build can only build into two items: Will of the Ancients and Hextech Gunblade. For your sixth item in this build, you want to get the Gunblade over the Will. Why? The Will of the Ancients is only a slight buff to the revolver. It gives 40 more AP (including aura to yourself), 10% more spell vamp, and adds an aura. This is okay, but, with your remaining gold, why not spend it on something that would be more worthwhile for Kat? Not only does the Gunblade grant 30 more AP than the revolver (only 10 less AP than the Will of the Ancients), and an extra 5% spell vamp to the revolver, totaling 20%. However, it also gives 40 attack damage and 15% life steal, as well as an active that deals damage and slows the target enemy champion that has a low cooldown, great to use with your Shunpo to chase or escape enemies. But, wRAth, why would you get AD in an AP build? This is why. If you read my previous reason for buying spell vamp with the Hextech Revolver, then you know that you want spell vamp...obviously. And only 2 final, legendary items grant this spell vamp. These are: Will of the Ancients, and Hextech Gunblade. The revolver builds into both of these items, so it is not considered a final legendary item. For reasons stated above, the Gunblade helps Kat more than the Will in a wide range of fields. Going back to the previous question, then, why would you get ANYTHING that has AD? Well, as I mentioned, you want the spell vamp on her, and this is the item to choose for spell vamp. The active is also great, and the AD doesn't HURT. Remember, I am not getting this item for the AD only; it's just an *added* perk. We are getting this for the AP and spell vamp. However, the AD does add some more damage to her attacks and abilities, and paired with the AP, spell vamp, lifesteal, and active from this item, this is an all-around terrific item for Kat.NOTE: AFTER THE GUNBLADE NERF, WOTA IS A PERFECTLY VIABLE OPTION. IT DEPENDS ON YOUR INCOME; IF YOU ARE SNOWBALLING WELL, SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY AND GET THE GUNBLADE; OR ELSE SUBSTITUTE A WOTA FOR IT.
Zhonya's Hourglass
: This item is great. It adds more AP, and gives you armor as well. This armor is terrific to reduce damage you might take when channeling your ultimate, and works great with the reduced damage you take when you Shunpo using Killer Instincts. As well, the active is terrific when against enemies such as Karthus (his ultimate), especially if you might die from it, as well as AoE and CC ultimates such as Kennen's and the second burst of Morgana's ultimate (to prevent the stun). It also works great when you are using your ultimate in a big teamfight, you can pop the active once you're done if you are taking heavy damage, to let your teammates come and push them away from you. You can also use the active if you need to get away from someone, you are about to die, etc; activating the hourglass can give you the vital 2 seconds you need for a teammate to come to you to Shunpo to, whether in a teamfight or not. Great for getting out of sticky situations, and it lets you be more risky. Overall a great item for Kat :)REMEMBER: IF YOU ACTIVATE THIS ITEM WHILE CHANNELING YOUR ULTIMATE, IT WILL CANCEL, SINCE IT IS CHANNELED. WAIT UNTIL AFTER YOUR ULTIMATE HAS ENDED TO ACTIVATE YOUR HOURGLASS IF YOU NEED TO (to shunpo to an ally on the outskirts of a teamfight if you are in the middle of the fight, etc.).
Void Staff
: This item is great against all enemies, especially more tanky enemies who have a lot of MRes. It penetrates 40% of their mres, as well as grants 70 AP. The AP is great for you, obviously, and the MPen, in addition to the Marks of Insight and the Arcane Knowledge mastery point, will let your abilities slice through everyone, even tanks.Elixir of Brilliance
: This is the item to just keep spending your gold on if the game is STILL going and you have completed your item build. If you have all 6 item slots full, as you should if you are buying this item at the end, it will automatically be consumed for you. It gives some nice AP and CDR, which doesn't hurt at all. :)Why no 
Lich Bane?
Lich bane is a no. I had this question asked tons of times; it could seem good in theory, but in practice it really isn't. You don't get the mana from lich bane, so that's a waste, and also, since Kat's attack animation is so bad, you LOSE time winding up for the lich bane proc when you have a higher chance of getting the kill just by waiting to Shunpo to them, considering the cooldown on Shunpo is extremely short, especially with CDR boots, blue pot, blue buff, and/or runes. If an enemy is faster than you, and escaping, for example, if you wind up your attack animation for a lich bane proc, they may very well escape from you as you are going through your attack animation. Whereas, Shunpo has range, and is on an approximately 4 second cooldown, so by the time you Shunpo, especially once you have Rylai's and you slow your target, if you just focus on constantly Shunpoing to them, they will NOT be getting out of range.
Other Optional Situational Items
Generally, however, if you end up actually getting to a full build, and you don't know which item you should drop for one of these, drop the Void Staff if they are mostly squishy (since it won't help too much), or the Zhonya's Hourglass if they are mostly tanky (since you need Void Staff to do more damage to them, but they won't do as much to you, so you can afford to have less defenses). Although you generally want all of the items in the main build if the game goes long enough to permit.
Quicksilver Sash
: This item is good against enemies with a lot of CC (Kennen, Morgana, Lux, Vlad, etc) if you do not have cleanse with you. It is cheap and has a cleanse-like active. It removes ALL debuffs from your character. Yes, this includes things that cleanse won't remove, such as damaging debuffs like Vlad's ulti, Malz's ulti, EVERY single debuff to you. Just use the active and Shunpo out of there, flash if need be as well if you took it with you as a summoner spell. Keep in mind, if they CC/debuff you again right after you use the active, it won't have a reduced effect as it does with Cleanse. BE CAREFUL OF THAT. This item also gives a good amount of MRes, which is nice against these types of enemies.Mercury's Treads
: This item is also great against a team of CCers, just keep in mind it would supplement your ionians, so you will have slightly longer cooldowns and lose the benefit of full CDR that I mention throughout the guide. It might be worth it to have slightly higher cooldowns, however, if it means that you can get CC reduction against a team full of CC that could mess you up otherwise.Banshee's Veil
: This item can be a lifesaver against certain enemies, such as enemies with CC like Morgana and Kennen, as well as enemies who have an "inevitable ultimate", ie Vlad's ultimate and Karthus's ulti. It blocks a negative spell every 45 seconds. 'Nuff said. Getting in a sticky situation, your Banshee's might just save you enough time to Shunpo the hell outta there. This item also grants Health and mres, both helpful against these types of enemies for Katarina. It also gives some max mana, which obviously will not be useful for Kat, but the majority of the gold you are spending on this item is not put towards the mana :P.Mejai's Soulstealer
: Nothing else at this price (let alone most other items) can provide this much AP. Plus, with the deathcap, not even including the bonus % AP masteries, the total 180 AP from this item with full stacks turns into 234 total AP. And getting stacks, especially with Kat, isn't as hard as it may seem. Your abilities are so devastating early through late game that you are guaranteed to get a lot of kills and assists. And if you lose some, just get them back! Once you get full stacks, you get 15% CDR, which, with you CDR glyphs, and blue pot and blue buff when you can grab them, will allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. This includes spamming your skill combo with your ultimate.However, this is NOT the most reliable item, use at your own risk. If you are having a good game, try to pick it up early. If not, don't bother risking to lose an item slot and a lot of AP and some gold.
Blue Buff
You want to try to grab the blue buff if no one else on your team needs it. It gives you enough CDR for you to hit the cap, 40%. This lets you cast more often, which is of course helpful :)
And if you have a jungler and the enemies do not, try to grab theirs when you can, and when you know it is safe. Ward their jungle, including their blue (obviously), if this is the case. Also, going with a teammate in case of emergency can never hurt.
If you both have a jungler, you can live without the buff for a little while. Try to talk your jungler into letting you take it later game when he doesn't need it as much, and try to counter jungle the enemy as much as possible, so that maybe you can take their blue when they don't go for it, or your jungler can take theirs and you can take your team's blue.
That is as in-depth as I am going to go into jungling/counter jungling to pick up blue. If you want more info on this, I would suggest checking out Hahano's Jungling 202 Guide and/or Xenasis's Jungling 101 Guide.
Scores
If you used my guide and got a good score (which you will), feel free to post the direct link of the screenshot of your score in the comments below. I will try to get it up here ASAP. Thanks! :)
About the title of this guide...
Hey...you know solomid.net?
Summary
Want to Check Out My Other Guides?
Thanks!
Updates/Changelog
2/27/2011 4:00 AM EST -- Guide released.
2/27/2011 5:36 AM EST -- Some minor text changes made and added "Abbreviations Throughout the Guide" section.
2/27/2011 7:12 AM EST -- Added "Team 1 vs Team 2 Katarina Build" section.
2/28/2011 4:07 PM EST -- Added paragraph in green text to "Shunpo" section.
2/28/2011 4:14 PM EST -- Added "Quick note on when to use your ulti, and when not to." section.
3/1/2011 3:17 PM EST -- Changed Will of the Ancients to Hextech Gunblade in the "More Squishy Enemies Item Build" since it seems to be a more logical choice. Also edited "Items" section for this change, please read this section for the reasoning on why I chose this item. As well, changed text in the guide that referenced to the gold cost and AP granted of this item build.
3/4/2011 3:55 PM EST -- Added "Ability Range Screenshots" section.
3/4/2011 7:00 PM EST -- Added "Other Optional Situational Items" section. Added "Tanks? Enemy Heals? NP" section. Added info to "Laning/Ganking" section. Added info to "Shunpo" section. Added section titled "About the title of this guide...". Added info to "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" section. Edited "Items" section.
3/5/2011 -- 1 week anniversary of the release of the guide!
3/6/2011 2:11 AM EST -- Added some more info to Hextech Revolver part of "Items" section.
3/6/2011 1:30 PM EST -- Jebus updated the database on Kat's abilities, but the cache still has to update; when it does, I will cross out the info about the database being incorrect in the "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" section. Looking forward to it! ;D
3/7/2011 12:30 AM EST -- Added score to "Scores" section.
3/8/2011 4:30 PM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section.
3/9/2011 2:50 AM EST -- Added info to "Abbreviations Throughout the Guide" section.
3/9/2011 3:45 PM EST -- Added yet another score to the "Scores" section. Keep them coming ;)
3/10/2011 5:45 PM EST -- Another score added to the "Scores" section! :D
3/14/2011 8:00 PM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section, as well as edited some text effects in the "Pros and Cons" section.
3/16/2011 7:00 PM EST -- Added some more scores to the "Scores" section, and added "Want to Check Out My Other Guides?" section.
3/18/2011 11:30 PM EST -- Added some info to the "Items" section.
3/20/2011 6:40 AM EST -- Changed duration of Banshee's Veil shield cooldown from 30 to 45 seconds in the section titlted "Other Optional Situational Items". Also edited some info in the "Runes" section.
3/21/2011 5:00 PM EST -- Changed some info in the "Want to Check Out My Other Guides?" section.
3/24/2011 5:20 PM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section.
3/25/2011 4:30 PM EST -- Added yet another score to the "Scores" section. Also changed some information in the section titled "Want to Check Out My Other Guides?".
3/30/2011 6:30 AM EST -- Added some more scores to the "Scores" section.
4/1/2011 6:00 AM EST -- Added more scores to the "Scores" section.
4/1/2011 8:30 PM EST -- Changed intro banner.
4/2/2011 3:30 PM EST -- Changed both intro and end banners.
4/2/2011 4:45 PM EST -- Added "Go to top!" link below.
4/5/2011 3:35 PM EST -- Added some info about Will of the Ancients in the "Items" section.
4/5/2011 6:35 PM EST -- Added the term "Teleport" to the section titled, "Abbreviations Throughout the Guide"; also changed justification of some text.
4/5/2011 7:00 PM EST -- Removed stating in "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" that the MOBAFire database info was incorrect, it is now correct. :)
4/5/2011 8:00 PM EST -- Added "Hey...you know solomid.net?" section.
4/6/2011 5:30 PM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section.
4/16/2011 3:45 PM EST -- Added some more scores to the "Scores" section.
4/17/2011 11:00 PM EST -- Added more scores to the "Scores" section.
4/24/2011 12:40 AM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section.
4/26/2011 8:20 PM EST -- Added some more scores to the "Scores" section.
5/6/2011 2:00 AM EST -- Added another score to the "Scores" section.
5/8/2011 1:45 PM EST -- Added another score to the "scores" section.
5/9/2011 1:30 AM EST -- Added another score.
5/18/2011 12:30 AM EST -- Added another score.
5/22/2011 10:00 PM EST -- Added another score.
5/27/2011 12:30 PM EST -- Added some more scores.
5/30/2011 7:00 PM EST -- Edited "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" and "Items" sections to the spell vamp % changes, as well as adding that Rylai's gives 35% slow on Death Lotus.
6/1/2011 3:25 AM EST -- Added another score.
6/5/2011 6:20 PM EST -- Added some more scores.
6/10/2011 11:50 PM EST -- Added another score.
6/12/2011 5:30 AM EST -- Major revamp that we were all waiting for. Both builds combined, Quints changed to Potency, Mejai's made Optional item, blue pot info added, blue buff section added, and all related text fixed to accommodate these changes. Also added to "Cons" list that she gets CCed and focused a lot if not careful :)
6/12/2011 6:00 AM EST -- Added channeling info to Zhonya's Hourglass section. Also changed some things in the "Want to Check Out My Other Guides?" section.
6/22/2011 3:45 PM EST -- Hextech Revolver spell vamp granted reduced to 15% from 20%, and wards cannot be targeted by Shunpo anymore. Changes in guide made according.
6/27/2011 12:00 AM EST -- Yay, my birthday! :D Added "Da Maths" subsection to the AP vs AD section.
7/2/2011 10:00 AM EST -- Moved sections around and edited some text ^^
7/5/2011 12:40 PM EST -- Changed "AP vs AD" section title to "AP vs Hybrid vs AD".
7/11/2011 1:00 AM EST -- Added "Shunpo to Ward Trick" subsection to "Shunpo" section. Also fixed all math and descriptions relating to Rabadon's Deathcap for the change from 155 to 140 base AP. As well, updated "Offense Masteries" and "Defense Masteries" subsections of "Masteries" section to explain my point choices more in-depth. Also uncentered many sections.
8/13/2011 9:45 PM EST -- Added info to why I take Seals of Vitality in the Runes section.
8/17/2011 4:45 AM EST -- Added "Why no Lich Bane?" subsection to "Items" section, as well as more info to the "Other Optional Situational Items" section.
9/1/2011 4:45 PM EST -- Added info to the "Skills, Skill Sequence, and Skill Combo" section about maxing Bouncing Blade first.
9/15/2011 10:00 PM EST -- Added more info about HP seals in the "Runes" section.
10/4/2011 7:30 PM EST -- Rylai's no longer (or maybe never?) does 35% slow on her ulti, corresponding info fixed.
10/19/2011 4:15 PM EST -- Made changes to info using Hextech Gunblade to accommodate the recent nerf.
11/16/2011 2:25 AM EST -- Big changes. Masteries, and Shunpo with Killer Instincts now places you behind your target. All changes to the guide made to correspond with the reworks.
11/26/2011 4:20 AM EST -- Made some tiny adjustments to top part of the "AP vs Hybrid vs AD" section.
11/29/2011 12:50 AM EST -- Removed Killer Instincts move behind target info.
3/4/2012 3:55 AM EST -- Changed masteries and "Masteries" section.
|
|
|
|
Your AP Katarina Du... | 92% |
|
|
ilke994 feat TiensiNoA***a... | 92% |
|
|
Katarina - Harass From Afar | 77% |
|
|
How to be OP Kat | 72% |
|
|
Katarina, the black widow... | 68% |
This Week's Free Champions
wRAthoFVuLK's LoL Build Guides
MOBAFire News
|
New Skins and Lord Darius Bundle in the Upcoming Patch New Skins and Lord Darius Bundle in the Upcoming Patch Posted by NeeksNaman on Wed, 2012-05-23...more |
|
Visual Upgrade - Ashe, the Frost Archer Visual Upgrade - Ashe, the Frost Archer Posted by NeeksNaman on Wed, 2012-05-23 Summoners!...more |
Sponsored News
| Limited RotT Content Keys now available on OmekaPrime! May 15, 2012 |
