Hey! My name is PrestigeGalaxy and I'm a Katarina OTP! I've played Katarina for almost 4 years and have accumulated 3M+ Mastery Points being one of the most played Katarinas in the world (top 20). I've been getting Diamond with her consistently since season 7 and I reached Master in season 11. I've been playing League of Legends since season 2. Katarina is the only champion in League of Legends that I can honestly say I enjoy no matter the circumstance. Her aggressive/snowballing playstyle matches my gameplay perfectly. I've been streaming my journey at twitch.tv/prestigegalaxy for around 3 years and have been trying to create a community out of it as well! If you enjoyed my guide or found it useful in any way, consider upvoting it and leaving a comment!

PASSIVE - VORACITY

Scoring a Damage takedown against an enemy champion within 3 seconds of damaging them reduces the current cooldown reduction cooldowns of Katarina's abilities by 15 seconds.

Whenever Katarina retrieves a Dagger, she uses it to slash around herself, dealing 68 − 240 (based on level) (+ 75% bonus AD) (+ 55 / 66 / 77 / 88% (based on level) AP) magic damage to nearby enemies and applying on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness to enemy champions hit, as well as reducing Shunpo's total cooldown by 78 / 84 / 90 / 96% (based on level).

Daggers will disappear after being on the ground for 4 seconds.

Q - Bouncing Blade

Katarina throws a Dagger at the target enemy that upon arrival bounces to another nearby enemy up to 2 times, dealing magic damage to each. The Dagger then lands onto the ground after 1 second, roughly 350 units opposite from where it struck its first target. The Dagger bounces to targets regardless of having Sight icon.png sight of them or not.

W - Preparation

Katarina tosses a Dagger into the air above her current location and gains bonus movement speed that decays until it lands after 1.25 seconds as well as ghosting for the same duration.

E - Shunpo

Katarina blinks to the target location around the target unit or Dagger, dealing magic damage to the nearest enemy in range and applying on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness. Shunpo resets Katarina's basic attack timer. Upon blinking, Katarina remains unable to act via a cast time for 0.15 seconds.

R - Death Lotus

Katarina channels for up to 2.5 seconds, rapidly spinning in place to throw a dagger every 0.166 seconds to up to 3 of the closest nearby enemy champions, revealing herself in the process. Each dagger deals physical damage and magic damage, applies on-attack and on-hit (without applying life steal) effects, and inflicts 60% Grievous Wounds on the target for 3 seconds. An enemy champion within 500 units is required to cast this ability, and targets do not have to be visible to be thrown at.

Pros

+ High snowball potential
+ Insane Burst
+ Really good for low elo
+ Very fun playstyle
+ Great for punishing enemies
+ Really good for roaming

Cons

- Weak laning phase
- Extremely vulnerable to CC (Crowd Control)
- Squishy
- Bad in high elo (people know how to play vs her)
- Can be useless when behind

ELECTROCUTE PASSIVE: Damaging basic attacks, abilities, item effects, and summoner spells, as well as the application of crowd control and damage over time effects, generate stacks against enemy champions, up to one per attack or cast per champion. Applying 3 stacks to a target within a 3 second period causes them to be struck by lightning after a 0.25-second delay, dealing them 30 − 180 (based on level) (+ 40% bonus AD) (+ 25% AP) Adaptive damage.

Why Electrocute?

Electrocute is the standard keystone for Katarina. It's affective in doing short trades in lane and bursting low health targets. Katarina wants to trade quickly and efficiently when in lane to avoid taking damage from the enemy while also lowering their HP to setup for a potential kill. If the enemy laner is squishy and you think you need that extra bit of burst damage in order to trade efficiently, take Electrocute.

Full Gameplay video showing how to use Electrocute:

Play Video

Dark Harvest PASSIVE: Damaging basic attacks and ability damage against enemy champions below 50% of their maximum health deal 20 − 60 (based on level) (+ 5 per Soul) (+ 25% bonus AD) (+ 15% AP) bonus Adaptive damage and, after a 1.75-second delay, reap 1 Soul. This cannot occur again for 45 seconds, resetting to 1.5 seconds upon scoring a takedown against an enemy champion. While not on cooldown, the soul is also taken upon receiving the kill credit of a champion killed by minions, turrets or monsters.

Why Dark Harvest?

Dark Harvest is a keystone that is very powerful when ahead. Take this when you're against mostly squishies (still recommend electrocute over this). When you're smurfing thsi runes can be especially useful.

Full Gameplay video showing how to use Dark Harvest:

Play Video

Predator PASSIVE: Boots gain the active effect PREDATOR. ACTIVE - PREDATOR: After a 0.25-second cast time, gain bonus movement speed for 10 seconds, ramping up to 45% over 1.5 seconds, while moving toward enemy champions within 3000 units. After ramping up, your next damaging basic attack or ability against an enemy champion deals 40 − 120 (based on level) (+ 20% bonus AD) (+ 10% AP) bonus Adaptive damage after a 0.25-second delay and ends the effect.

Why Predator?

Predator is a good keystone that helps when you want to gank a lane without them being able to react in time. Take this when you're playing Katarina jungle.

Full Gameplay video showing how to use Predator:

Play Video

Sudden Impact PASSIVE: Dealing damage to an enemy champion within 4 seconds of using a dash or blink, or exiting from stealth, grants 7 Lethality (4.36 − 7 (based on level) armor penetration) and 6 Magic Penetration for the next 5 seconds.

Why Sudden Impact?

Sudden Impact is especially good on a champion like Katarina due to the large amount of dashes she has.

Taste of Blood PASSIVE: Damaging an enemy champion heals you for 18 − 35 (based on level) (+ 20% bonus AD) (+ 10% AP).

Why Taste of Blood?

Taste of Blood is sometimes useful when you're getting poked or traded with a lot. It's a good way of keeping your HP total at a good state.

Eyeball Collection PASSIVE: Collect 1 Eyeball whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion, up to 10. Gain 1.2 bonus Attack Damage or 2 Ability Power (Adaptive) per Eyeball collected, up to 12 bonus Attack Damage or 20 Ability Power (Adaptive). Completing your collection awards an additional 6 bonus Attack Damage or 10 Ability Power (Adaptive).

Why Eyeball Collection?

When getting multiple kills this will help you snowball harder giving you more damage.

Relentless Hunter PASSIVE: Gain 5 (+ 8 per Bounty Hunter stack) out-of-combat movement speed, up to 45 at 5 stacks. Earn a Bounty Hunter stack whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion, up to one per unique champion.

Why Relentless Hunter?

When getting kills this will increase your movement speed allowing you to pull roams off easier.

Treasure Hunter Gain 70 Gold (+ 20 Gold per Bounty Hunter stack) per unique takedown, up to 550 Gold at 5 unique takedowns.

Why Treasure Hunter?

With Ravenous Hunter being removed, Treasure Hunter is by far the best "hunter" rune to take. It helps you snowball even harder and helps you colkplete your items faster!

Ingenious Hunter PASSIVE: Gain 20 (+ 6 per Bounty Hunter stack) item haste, up to 50 at 5 stacks. Earn a Bounty Hunter stack whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion, up to one per unique champion.

Why Ingenious Hunter?

Have your item uses up more often! Really good with items such as Divine Sunderer.

Conqueror PASSIVE: Basic attacks on-damage against enemy champions grant stacks of Conqueror. Abilities, spells and item actives on-damage will grant 2 stacks. Each stack of Conqueror grants 1.2 − 2.7 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 2 − 4.5 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive) for 5 seconds, stacking up to 12 times, for a maximum of 14.4 − 32.4 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 24 − 54 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive). While fully stacked, you heal for (Melee 9% / Ranged 6%) of the post-mitigation damage from any attack you deal to enemy champions, and the stacks refresh upon dealing damage to enemy champions with attacks or abilities.

Why Conqueror?

Conqueror is an extremely strong keystone for Katarina. Not only is it really strong in laning phase by surprising your opponent with how much damage it can scale up to but also in teamfights where it is fairly easy to stack up. Conqueror is on par with Electrocute in terms of strength. It scales really well with items such as Nashor's Tooth and Riftmaker.

Full Gameplay video showing how to use Conqueror:

Play Video

Triumph PASSIVE: Scoring a takedown against an enemy champion heals you for 12% of your missing health and grants you an additional 20 Gold 20 after a 1-second delay.

Why Truimph?

Triumph is the only rune in the "heroism" tree that is viable on Katarina. Is is especially effective when getting multiple kills thus keeping you alive in teamfights for longer. Triumph can also keep you alive in laning phase after you've killed an enemy while being ignited. ( Ignite will make Triumph less effective!

Legend: Alacrity PASSIVE: Gain 3% (+ 1.5% per Legend stack) bonus attack speed, up to 18% with 10 stacks. LEGEND: Gain Legend stacks for every 100 points earned, up to 10: 100 points for champion takedowns 100 points for epic monster takedowns 25 points for large monster kills 4 points for minion kills

Why Legend: Alacrity?

When building AD Katarina and the enemies don't have much CC (crowd control) take this!

Legend: Tenacity PASSIVE: Gain 5% (+ 2.5% per Legend stack) tenacity, up to 30% with 10 stacks. LEGEND: Gain Legend stacks for every 100 points earned, up to 10: 100 points for champion takedowns 100 points for epic monster takedowns 25 points for large monster kills 4 points for minion kills

Why Legend: Tenacity?

If the enemy has CC take this! (This is usually what you take when running Conqueror due to the enemy almost always having CC.

Coup de Grace PASSIVE: Deal 8% increased damage (except true damage) to champions below 40% maximum health.

Why Coup de Grace?

This is extremely useful on champions such as Katarina. Dealing extra damage when enemies are low grants you a higher chance of getting a kill followed by a reset in your abilities.

Cut Down PASSIVE: Deal 5% to 15% increased damage (except true damage) to champions, based on how much more maximum health they have than you. Bonus damage scales up linearly against enemies with 10% to 100% more maximum health than you.

Why Cut Down?

This is really useful when the enemy team pick tanky champions. Synergizes really well with Conqueror.

Last Stand PASSIVE: Deal 5% increased damage (except true damage) to champions while below 60% maximum health. This increases based on your missing health, up to 11% increased damage while below 30% maximum health.

Why Last Stand?

This is especially good when picking Conqueror. It takes a while to proc Conqueror in a teamfight which will result in you being below full HP anyways. Pick this when there aren't that many squishy champions on the enemy team.

Grasp of the Undying PASSIVE: Entering combat generates 1 stack every second for the next 3 seconds. Additional stacks may be generated by re-entering combat after 2 seconds. After reaching 4 stacks, your next basic attack on-hit within 6 seconds against an enemy champion consumes all stacks to deal (Melee 4% / Ranged 2.4%) of your maximum health as bonus magic damage, heal for (Melee 2% / Ranged 1.2%) of your maximum health, and permanently grant (Melee 5 / Ranged 3) bonus health. The empowered attack duration refreshes whenever going in combat.

Why Grasp of the Undying?

When you're unfortunate enough to be filled toplane and your midlaner won't swap with you, you can play this tanky version of Katarina with grasp. You'll be tanky as well as deal a decent amount of damage since the keystone converts your HP into damage!

Full Gameplay video showing how to use Grasp:

Play Video

Demolish PASSIVE: You generate stacks every 0.5 seconds on enemy turrets within 600 units, up to 6 after 3 seconds. Your next basic attack against a turret with 6 stacks deals 100 (+ 35% of your maximum health) bonus physical damage.

Why Demolish?

When running Grasp of the Undying you can go demolish to deal more damage to towers thus giving you more gold from plates. Really good when side-laning!

Conditioning PASSIVE: After 12 minutes, gain 9 bonus armor and 9 bonus magic resistance and your total armor and total magic resistance are increased by 5%.

Why Conditioning?

When picking Conqueror and playing for teamfights especially past the laning phase point, picking a rune like Conditioning will allow you to be a little more tanky thus keeping you alive for more time.

Second Wind PASSIVE: After taking damage from an enemy champion, Health regeneration icon.png regenerate 6 (+ 4% of your missing health) health over 10 seconds.

Why Second Wind?

When you're against a lane oppenent that pokes you a lot in lane take Second Wind to keep you in lane longer.

Bone Plating PASSIVE: After taking damage from an enemy champion, for 1.5 seconds, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from the same enemy champion deal 30 − 60 (based on level) less damage (including true damage).

Why Bone Plating?

If you're against a laner that goes for short/quick trades and has a lot of burst damage pick this!

Overgrowth PASSIVE: Every 8 monsters or enemy minions that die near you permanently grants you a stack, gaining 3 bonus health. This effect can stack any number of times. After gaining 15 stacks (120 monsters or minions), you gain an additional 3.5% maximum health.

Why Overgrowth?

This will help you get a little tankier in lane thus preventing you from getting one-shot.

Revitalize Outgoing Heal power icon.png healing and outgoing shielding are increased by 10% on targets below 40% of their maximum health. Incoming healing, incoming shielding, self healing and self shielding are increased by 10% while you are below 40% of your maximum health.

Why Revitalize?

When you have healing champions in your team such as Soraka, Yuumi, Nami etc, take this!

Unflinching PASSIVE: Gain 10% − 30% (based on missing health) slow resist and tenacity.

Why Unflinching?

When the enemies have a lot of CC take this!

First Strike PASSIVE: Dealing damage or applying a crowd control effect to an enemy champion within the first 0.25 seconds of champion combat, grants 5 Gold 5 and First Strike for 3 seconds, causing all of your post-mitigation damage dealt against champions to deal 10% bonus true damage. Afterwards, you are granted (Melee 100% / Ranged 70%) of all bonus damage dealt within the duration as gold.

Why First Strike?

If you're ever in a lane matchup where you already know you will get poked a lot and there wont be much of a chance of you killing them First Strike is a great way of slowly generating extra gold to get your items faster thus getting your powerspike faster.

Full Gameplay video showing how to use First Strike:

Play Video

Magical Footwear PASSIVE: After 12 minutes (reduced by 45 seconds whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion), you gain Slightly Magical Boots Slightly Magical Boots for free Gold free. Slightly Magical Boots are identical and can be upgraded as if they were Boots Boots. If the inventory is full while receiving the boots, they will appear as soon as a slot in the inventory is available.

Why Magical Footwear?

Apart from Perfect Timing this is the rune you want to go. You get FREE boots at 12 mins (reduced by 45s per takedown, kill or assist). This allows you to build your core items faster instead of using that 300 gold on buying boots.

Perfect Timing PASSIVE: After 14 minutes (reduced by 2 minutes whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion), you receive a Perfectly Timed Stopwatch. The Perfectly Timed Stopwatch is identical to the Stopwatch, except it only contributes for a value of 250 Gold. A free cosmetic, Commencing Stopwatch occupies one of your item slots before obtaining a Perfectly Timed Stopwatch.

Why Perfect Timing?

You get a FREE stopwatch however this takes up one of your item slots until 14 mins (reduced by 2 mins per takedown). If you're building hourglass first item I guess you can take this over Magical Footwear.

Minion Dematerializer PASSIVE: Start the game with 3 Minion Dematerializers, which can be activated to execute the target enemy minion after a 1-second delay. Dematerializers are placed on a 180-second cooldown at the start of the game. In addition to the gold and experience obtained from killing the minion, you also gain 6% increased damage to that type of minion for the remainder of the game. Dematerializers beyond the first used on the same type of minion increases this bonus by 3%, up to a maximum of 12% if all three are used on the same minion type.

Why Minion Dematerializer?

The other two opetions aren't that useful. This rune can help you keep your wave in a good spot/prevent the enemy from shoving while also giving you extra permanent damage on that minion type. This will help you clear waves faster! Faster wave clear = more time to roam!

Cosmic Insight PASSIVE: Gain 18 summoner spell haste and 10 item haste.

Why Cosmic Insight?

pretty simple, less cd on your summoner spells/active items!

Absolute Focus PASSIVE: Gain 1.8 − 18 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 3 − 30 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive) while above 70% of your maximum health.

Why Absolute Focus?

When running aggresisve rune pages/items, going sorcery second and running Absolute Focus can help you burst enemies a lot faster than they expect you to.

Gathering Storm PASSIVE: Gain increasing Adaptive Force every 10 minutes that grants a total 0 / 4.8 / 14.4 / 28.8 / 48 / ∞ (based on minutes) bonus Attack Damage or 0 / 8 / 24 / 48 / 80 / ∞ (based on minutes) Ability Power (Adaptive).

Why Gathering Storm?

As the game goes on you deal more damage!

Before the minions spawn make sure you stand in bushes close to your junglers blue/red buff in order to check if the enemy will invade or not. Make sure you trach what lane leashes the enemy jungler so that you have a rough idea of his pathing.

If you know what buff he will take second ward that side of the lane at approximately 2:30-3:00 mins and play/hover around the other side to avoid potential ganks. When the laning phase begins make sure to stay out of AA and spell range to keep your HP up and ready for future trades.

Level 1 is the weakest Katarina is in the entire game so make sure you hit level 2 asap. At level 2 you unlock your E ability Shunpo. With this you can go for potential trades as well as go for the kill if the enemy is low enough. Shunpo allows you to blink to your Bouncing Blades Q dagger. This however can be fatal since you do not have an instant Shunpo reset from your W Preparation. Once you hit level 3 you will be able to trade effieciently by using your Q Bouncing Blades onto either a minion or the enemy, followed by using E Shunpo onto the dagger, using one AA, using your W Preparation as soon as your champion is on the Bouncing Blades dagger and then using E Shunpo on an allied minion to get back to safety without recieving any poke back. You can repeat this combo several times until the enemy is close to lethal HP. The other combo you can do is using E Shunpo first, followed by W Preparation, followed by Q Bouncing Blades, followed by E Shunpo on your Bouncing Blades dagger.

Make sure not to die much in the laning phase because the further behind Katarina gets the lower the chance of her snowballing thus winning the game is. Once you hit level 6 you can start roaming to other lanes/the jungle for potential kills. You can roam before level 6 as well however you will have a much lower chance of getting a kill into a reset. If you're lane opponent roams and leaves the lane there are three options for Katarina. You can either freeze the lane causing them to miss gold/xp, shove the wave under their tower giving you the same result with the addition of tower plates or you can just follow them and roam the the lane they are heading towards. Once first tower falls is usually when mid game starts.

This part of the game is where Katarina excels the most. The later the game goes the lower chance (statistically) Katarina has to win the game. Bot lane will rotate mid lane most of the times which means you have to go side-lane bot lane.

Staying mid lane with your bot laners will reduce your gold and xp income and will make you weaker if anything. Don't play this coinflip playstyle of "all mid (aram)". If your team is fighting you can rotate back otherwise just stay in your solo lane and keep getting stronger/building items.

Group with your team when dragon and rift herald spawn. Contesting these objectives are a great way for you to get resets and make yourself strong enough to end the game.

If you have not ended the game before 25-30 mins you have reached late game. You should have most of your items by now and should be looking to end the game via objectives/turrets. Make sure you don't get caught out/play too aggressive causing your team to play a 4v5 while contesting for objectives.

Be patient with how and when you initiate and make sure you wait until most if not all CC has been already used. Remember, one stun can lose Katarina the game, especially late game where death timers are really high.

In conclusion Katarina is a high burst/snowball assassin with an incredibly fun playstyle. I hope you found this guide useful and I wish you the best of luck on the rift! If you learned something or enjoyed reading this guide and want to help me out leave a like rating and a comment! In addition I will be updating this guide regularly! If you want to contact me go to the following links:


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