Hopefully using some of the information from this guide I can prove to my friends that Karthus isn't useless

Seems like it was fixed. Guide looks decent now.

My biggest complaint is that you don't explain in the guide when to buy Tear of the Goddess and when to upgrade it.


It is one of the most important items to buy, so much so that Tear of the Goddess is basically always the item to go for on your first back.

After that you start building other items while charging the Tear of the Goddess ( Rod of Ages or Rylai's). Buy Archangel's Staff when the it is almost fully charged.


It's not always the second full item since it's often not worth upgrading over getting Needlessly Large Rod for Rabadon's Deathcap later or other items if it won't turn into Seraph's Embrace upon purchase.


As the charge on Tear of the Goddess varies between games this needs to be noted, otherwise you have people either buying Tear of the Goddess after completing the first major item (A mistake) or always getting Archangel's Staff 2nd over other items even when it isn't even near charged.



Also, while champions like Fizz are very strong against Karthus, it's not because they can dodge Requiem. It's because Fizz has a lot of kill pressure on Karthus. You will almost never kill a Fizz in lane unless they make a huge mistake. Hitting him with Lay Waste is difficult and Fizz can very easily turn on you if you try to go in for anything.

All you can do is farm and poke by turret and shove the lane when Fizz roams. Any small mistake you make can kill you on the spot.

Karthus mid just wants to farm up for late game and roam for kills with Wall of Pain and Requiem. Keeping a farm lane going vs Zed, Fizz, Akali, etc... is difficult and there's little past shoving the lane Karthus can do to deter those champions from roaming and snowballing off other lanes without jungle support, which would be better used elsewhere in most cases.

The items section contains some wrong information, i.e. states that none of Karthus's abilities apply the full Rylai's passive while Lay Waste can.

It is the only AoE ability that is considered to be single-target when it hits only one enemy.


This is important for his itemization since this distinction makes spellvamp runes and Rylai's viable options.

I've never heard anything more wrong.


Rylai's is a fine item on Karthus. Replace Rod of Ages with it as the item after Tear of the Goddess if you decide to build it. It gives the same amount of AP roughly with the Seraph's Embrace passive added in on Rod of Ages, no mana, and less health.

Buying both delays other important items and they both do a similar job, so I don't consider that to be an option.

So more or less you sacrifice some tankiness later on and Defile uptime for the slow.


The slow not only isn't "little," ( Lay Waste applies the full 35% slow if it hits only one target) but is worth even more on Karthus than it normally would be on other casters.

The slow makes it more difficult to juke Lay Waste and allows Karthus to keep up with targets while casting it. Most of Karthus's single target damage comes from Lay Waste and it has incredibly low accuracy vs high movespeed enemies. Once the slow is applied it makes further applications of it easier as well. Part of the reason Exhaust is so highly valued on him is because of the slow component.


This item gives you a lot of 1v1 potential and pick potential since you are able to more consistently land Lay Waste and run down slowed opponents. Even in teamfights it makes focusing carries simpler.

Saying that there is no place for Rylai's on this champion is just wrong. Challenger Karthus players would say the same.

Hmmm, this guide had a sudden spike in popularity recently. How strange. Anyways, I think I'm gonna change Exhaust to the core one, by many people's suggestions, especially with the increase in viability of mid lane assassins of late (other than Kassadin). However, Seraph's Embrace is definitely remaining a core/rush item (I started off with it not, but I changed my mind), because of the huge ap boost it gives in addition to your Rod of Ages and your insane mana costs. I'll add a tip in the leveling order section for not leveling w early, that's a good idea. And I have been trying out interchanging Expose Weakness with Feast myself, and I think they're both perfectly good options. Since you will often be hitting every member of the enemy team, %1 increased damage from every single member of your team against every member of the enemy team can stack up quickly. I will mention in the msteries section though that Feast could be taken instead, and if I end up changing my masteries myself, I might change it to Feast being the regular one.

Exhaust is far better than Heal on someone like Karthus

Seraph's Embrace isn't really core against any kind of an opponent

I don't think that you need W that early against many matchups. I'd only pick it if I am afraid of their jungler and the enemy mid

Feast > Expose Weakness anyday. It improves your sustain by far

I rather enjoy this build with post-input. Good collaboration.

Wow nice build. Really help me.

Since Vyn basically did the second half, I got the first.


Heal is decent on Karthus but Im more of a TP anyways
Defenses on Karthus were never to prioritized first anyways due to how squishy he is
Exhaust is never useless picking up kills under tower and chasing.
I really cant say anything else because Vyn does everything else like an annoying ***** xD

Lol that really makes no sense at all. Karthus is one of the best TP gankers in the game which means you have a lot more pressure all over the map even when losing lane. It's for a reason that the two most common summoners on karth (besides flash) are exh and tp.

I somewhat incorrectly phrased 'defensive'. I meant more like, it allows you to do more even in bad matchups (roam, farm and stuff all without risk).



I cannot imagine a single situation in which I'd value that little slow over any of the other items available. The Hp really isn't necessary since you'll be buying seraphs and RoA as first items and should also be getting zhonyas somewhat soon into the game. That means 3 item slots are gone. Then you need void and dcap for damage and at that point you're fully built. Abyssal could be considered but I personally don't see a place for rylais.



It's not worth to sacrifice a way more useful item for only this reason.



Yes, but as karthus you're not prioritizing Mundo. You're just being an AoE damage monster. You also don't have a slow to permanently apply. Again, there are just way more useful items.



Yes, but there's a margin in which he can adapt. In 90% of the games there is one set build that will deal the most damage overall and that is:



You tell me what item you'd want to swap out in exchange for whatever you're suggesting above ^^ I'd perhaps swap in abyssal for zhonya's / void when running double AP vs double AP but that's it for me.

I also removed some of the situationals, after looking at them more closely.

OK fine I'll switch abyssal and seraph's. I see your point, the ap is huge, I guess I was just too focused on getting some magic resist against ap mids. Personally, I really like heal on karthus. exhaust is almost worthless against any kind of ranged opponent, and these days usually supports take it for late game teamfights, so it isn't that important against an enemy jungler or top laner. TP is only good for getting back into lane after backing, and I've never found it that necessary, since you apply almost all of your global pressure with your ult, which doesn't require you to travel, and you obviously don't want to split push, and how can it be defensive at all? In terms of the situationals, they're exactly what they say they are ... situational. First of all, a lot of people actually really like rylai's on Karthus, mostly for the additional health to help in teamfights, but also more CC can be very helpful in some situations. Nomicon can be an important item to get against a team with a lot of heals or regeneration, if your team doesn't have any grievous wounds. Liandry's is good against health stackers, like mundo. I'll probably remove athene's, honestly. I'm sorry that you didn't like the guide. :( I agree with archangels, but I feel like some people feel like karthus has this extremely static build, when, just like any other champion, he should be changed to the situation. Thanks for your input, anyways.