You can win trades in early lane, but you need to dodge charm with w move speed. With divine you no longer die.
Akali
This matchup is winnable but Akali favored. If you ever get caught with her e you lose.
Akshan
MISERY
Abusive matchup, stay healthy and cs. If you find opportunities you can win fights since he has no way of canceling your R.
Anivia
DSeal-
Jg help to break egg, can find solo kills in lane. I use my e reactively to trade whenever she throws a q. At 6 she has too many ways to stop you, so just push and roam.
Annie
I love running conqueror into her and just killing her level 3. Her stun doesn't actually save her if you can e-w on her body. You get stunned and then you just run her down, annie favored lane though.
Aurelion Sol
Pretty easy matchup, you can either farm for items or be really aggressive in lane. A sol never really has kill threat
Azir
MISERY
Just farm and roam, you never get to interact with this champion
Brand
He's annoying with his E burn/poke but he can never really kill if he can't land his stun.
Cassiopeia
MISERY
Cassio just runs you over in this lane, I recommend just going full AP into her. Make sure you're not griefing a free stun when you press r.
Corki
Katarina favored. With items you melt this champ, as long as you're not eating q's in lane it should be free.
Diana
Diana is just simply stronger in trades. You lose early lane but can outplay her with items. Shunpo out of her R and you're golden.
Ekko
This champion is just not balaned. This lane is Ekko favored but you can win early if you avoid passive procs. At 6 he just gets a free second chance and becomes fairly impossible to solo.
Fiddlesticks
Fiddle favored
Rare pick but complete counter. He doesn't have as much kill threat as the other champs in this tier but you can never accomplish anything against him in lane.
Fizz
Volatile. If Fizz ever kills you you lose. If you kill fizz 3 times then you win. I like electrocute in this lane. Ping your jg because he can dive you whenever he wants if you're not turbo fed.
Galio
Pretty easy lane with Conq->Bork rush, just be wary of his early passive damage.
Gangplank
He's easy to deal with early as you can delete his barrels with shunpo resets, but he still outtrades you with passive+q. If you dodge barrels and go full ap he can't do much to stop you later.
Gragas
18 abilities on a 2 second cooldown to stop you later in the game. You shouldn't die in this lane and you can find solos early with conq.
Heimerdinger
This lane is just boring, just go full ap and roam and don't interact.
Irelia
MISERY
Just play with bounced waves and hope she ints, you don't win at any point of the game
Ivern
OP Champ shields make you sad.
Jayce
Winnable but Jayce favored. Dodge q and get some good trades in. Be careful not to get caught with no shunpo after he smacks you backwards.
K'Sante
Go Bork and this lane really doesn't feel horrible. I'd say its a pure skill matchup. At 6 he can kill you for free with a good r.
Karma
Shields, Heals, but winnable. She's hard to kill but she can't do much to stop you from pushing and roaming.
Karthus
He can't stop you from walking all over him. They normally take ex so just be aware of that and you shouldn't have many issues.
Kassadin
Kat favored, just go ad and be careful of his early trading burst. He has decent damage if hes running electrocute/fs.
Kled
MISERY
Just like Irelia, play bounced waves and hope he screws up. You lose for the whole game.
LeBlanc
First kill wins, definitely Leblanc favored but you can win. Make sure you're dodging chain and you can try and shunpo to a minion to dodge w damage,
Lissandra
Cleanse lane. She has heavy lockdown and you can't trade well into her. Look to use cleanse effectively if she ults you and you can win.
Lucian
Lucian favored. Farm up and wait for him to screw up. After he e's you can get a full R off.
Lux
A good lux is very oppressive. If you can get onto her with items you can kill her, but in lane shes just going to zone you off everything. Her W shield makes killing her in lane pretty hard.
Malzahar
I rush divine into QSS and he is just useless the rest of the game.
Naafiri
Haven't played this lane too much yet. Seems like If you dodge q2 you can outtrade her.
Neeko
MISERY
This champion has absurd damage. She's very hard to kill unless she makes multiple mistakes. Make sure you're dodging E's and playing the counting minigame.
Orianna
Orianna isn't too bad. Her early poke is the only advantage she gets in lane and can be very annoying but she can't stop you once you get going.
Pantheon
This lane is tricky. Take ignite and look for a solo kill level 2-4. After he gets items it's much harder but you can actually win this lane.
Qiyana
Both champs have a weak early, you should be able to look for an all in early. At 6 if she's ahead there isn't much counterplay to her 1 shot insta combo.
Rumble
MISERY
This champ gets perma pressure and good rumbles are very hard to deal with. You also need to have a good understanding of Rumble's passive in order to win this lane. He's killable, but in general this is rough.
Ryze
Pretty passive lane, neither of you have much kill threat. Phase rush ryze is hard to get onto and later in the game he just stacks MR.
Seraphine
You can easily find solo kills and she can never kill you. Try to stay healthy early on and look for all ins.
Sion
Most of these players will int you under your tower. Rush Bork and you can fight him. He should never land q on you.
Swain
Run him down he can't stop you.
Sylas
Conq-LS start works wonders for finding solo kills in this lane. If you can avoid his e you can find solo kills at level 3
Syndra
Annoying lane but manageable. If you shunpo onto her after she Q's she wont be able to stun. Find good angles to enter 2v2's against her so she doesn't stun both of you.
Taliyah
Just shunpo on her and you win. If she uses E she's a free kill, can use w move speed to avoid her w.
Talon
The more you can avoid his passive proc the better. If you go divine it's very hard for him to kill you, and you can all in after he ults.
Tristana
MISERY
If she messes up you can kill her, but it requires her to absolutely int. Just farm up and get to items.
Tryndamere
MISERY
If he makes a mistake under tower you can kill, and later in the game you can outplay his ulty length and kill. In lane it's pretty hard to take trades.
Twisted Fate
His gold card doesn't save him if you're on top of him. With items he can't stop you.
Veigar
Shunpo win game, he can't kill you.
Vel'Koz
Shunpo win game, he can't kill you.
Vex
A good vex never lets you kill her. Similar to fiddle, she can just shut down your engagements. If she blows passive you can look to trade.
Viktor
Viktor has a lot of poke and good self peel. Its Viktor favored but you can time your trades with his Q CD and win.
Vladimir
MISERY
You can fight him early but if you don't kill him he will just heal to full and you're doomed. Just farm up and avoid fighting, he's weak overall rn so you can take over mid game.
Xerath
As long as you're not getting hit by every ability this lane should be fairly easy.
Yasuo
MISERY
I go ex/ig and rush bork so I don't mental boom from his wind wall.
You can kill him going ap but you have to be conscious of his windwall and your q usage.
Yone
Much easier then the yasuo lane but still Yone favored. Avoid his q3 and play around his E usage
Zed
MISERY
This is my perma ban. The lane is more playable then other matchups but I hate this champ. Ex/ig and dodge his WQ.
Ziggs
Survive the early poke and this lane shouldn't be a problem. Most of them use W to get away from you, so play around that.
Zoe
Very hard lane early very easy after items. You can go cleanse but I like ig/f and just dodge her e. If she burns e you can kill her, just watch for her w spells/items.
Hello! My name's sullyyy, I'm currently a Grandmaster Katarina main and I've been playing her since this champion was good back when Hextech Gunblade existed.
This guide will cover everything you need before getting into game with Kat. Runes, builds, playstyles, etc. I recommend taking a look while in champ select to see my thoughts on the matchup, runes, or build! Keep in mind this guide is about how I play Katarina, and my thoughts on builds, runes, matchups, etc.
This guide is still a work in progress, I'll be adding more information and cleaning it up over the next few weeks.
Why Katarina?
Katarina is a fantastic champion to 1v9 games with, but she's very feast or famine. You're either going to win the game or lose the game for your team. If you like roaming and being the playmaker of the team, she's a great champ to pick up.
AP or AD?
Firstly, if you're new to Katarina or below diamond, I recommend just playing full AP every game. This build is easier to play mechanically and allows you to focus on more big picture things.
When to go AP:
I play full AP when I'm up against a team that is squishy or low CC, and I don't need Divine Sunderer in lane. If you have 1-2 targets that you need to one shot and that's your role in the game, going full AP is generally the best option.
Laning Phase: Starting item should be Doran's Shield or Dark Seal where Doran's Shield is your default. 95% of the time I go First Strike and sometimes Electrocute. Katarina is very weak early compared to most champions right now, so in lane you want to farm and look for a high quality trade at levels 2-3 with a bounced wave. Pay attention to enemy cooldowns, like when Zed uses Living Shadow you can heavy trade as he lost his main source of burst damage. Staying close or even in CS is the most important thing, as completion of Nashor's Tooth makes a huge difference against most champions.
Roaming: Roaming is what makes Katarina an oppresssive champion. I generally always play for roams and not for kills in lane, which means that map awareness and lethal thresholds are important to understand. Early, your lane opponent is either going to perma shove into you or allow you to shove and move. When sidelands are overextending or you have a really strong mid/jg 2v2, you need to move and fight. Buying an early Sweeping Lens can be really beneficial for vision control of the river. Even if you can't successfuly roam, going out of vision puts a lot of pressure on the side lanes.
Mid/Late Game: In the mid game you want to look for objective skirmishes. Katarina is stronger in teamfights then a lot of midlaners in the mid game, as Nashor's Tooth and resets can destroy enemy carries. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is understanding threat assessment. You need to know what cooldowns prevent you from going in. For example, Syndra Scatter the Weak or Rakan The Quickness will shut your combo down and render you as good as dead if you go in too early. Late game, look for picks on enemy carries and continue finding good angles to enter fights. You want to maintain maximum pressure throughout the game, as although AP scales well, you still don't want to be in a 40+ minute game with this champion.
AD Strategies
AD Playstyle
Laning Phase: For AD, you want to start either Long Sword or Doran's Shield based on your lane opponent. To be clear, I think starting Doran's Shield is a little grief and I never do it, as it doesn't build into your items and early item spikes with this build are massive. You also want to look for heavier extended trades in lane, ensuring that you're stacking Conqueror and weaving in as many auto attacks as possible. You can find a lot of cheesy kills because the damage from Conqueror and autos can be surprising. I will have a chart in the starting items section that shows what item I go into every champion (without considering team comps).
Roaming: The general concept of roaming is the same as mention in the previous section. However, the AD build is much stronger in the 1v1. You can look for more picks onto the enemy JG, and more 1v1's with your lane opponent which makes roaming less of a necessity.
Mid/Late Game: This build favors being in the sidelane more than grouping with your team. The biggest difference between the AD and AP version is that AP relies on your Death Lotus in teamfights and is generally bad in a 1v1. AD is the opposite. You are quite strong in the 1v1 with Divine Sunderer and especially Blade of the Ruined King, so if you can 1v1 your opponent, look to split push and CS in the sidelane. You need to play around Sheen procs and Shunpo cooldowns. In teamfights you want to pick off carries 1 at a time. Again, your teamfight is much weaker, so look to isolate the carry and play fights slower. This style can be tricky to get used to, as your pace of play completely changes and you can't just combo into Death Lotus to win fights.
Runes
Summoners
These are the standard summoner spells that you'll be taking a majority of the time. Ignite gives you more pressure in early/mid game fights, and Flash not only provides safety but also a lot of playmaking potentional with Flash Shunpo engages.
I don't take these spells often, but it's certainly viable. I generally go this more when I'm playing AD and in the sidelane more, but I also take this when I'm full AP and have no chance of killing my lane opponent, think Vladimir. Make sure you try and Teleport before 5 minutes so you have early access to Unleashed Teleport
I literally only take this combo into two matchups, Zed and Yasuo. The damage reduction with Exhaust and extra true damage with Ignite nets me a lot of early 1v1 kills. You don't have access to flash, so you need to be concoius of tracking the enemy jg, but the tradeoff is well worth it in these matchups.
This is the most rare rune page. I take this against champions like Lissandra or teams that have easy CC that guarantee my death. Other things like Zoe Sleepy Trouble Bubble as well. Generally, there needs to be more than just one lockdown CC ability that threatens me in order to take this.
I personally don't play this combo, but I know a lot of Katarina players really enjoy it. If you don't feel like you need Flash and the situation doesn't call for the other combinations, feel free to use these as your default spells.
Starting Items and Boots
Long Sword should be your starting item 95% of the time when you're going conqueror into AD. You can also take this when you're going full AP with conqueror as well, but it should be a niche pick, like the Sylas matchup.
Dark Seal is my default setup when I go full AP. Generally, it's probably better to go Doran's Shield for an easier early lane phase, but as mentioend before, I'm greedy and go this a majority of the time.
Doran's Shield is a fantastic item to help you navigate early lane phase. I'd recommend this to newer Katarina players and smart ones that want to survive in lane.
Sorcerer's Shoes are the only boots you should ever buy when you're going full AP. You may also consider buying these in the hyrbid builds if you're ahead and don't need the other stats.
Mercury's Treads are best when the biggest threats are heavy AP or if you need the extra tenacity into heavy cc teams.
General Thoughts: Just make sure you prioritze getting to Nashor's Tooth. Rushing Sorcerer's Shoes can be good for roaming, but I generally try not to make the investment if I don't have to. Also, don't waste money on pink wards. If you are roaming early just buy a Sweeping Lens to gain vision control.
Note: It's very important that you do everything in your power to recall with 700g on your first base. This means you need about 6 waves worth of gold.
General Thoughts: Prioritize getting Sheen. If you can't afford it, make sure you're putting your gold into components. Early AD items make a big difference for our 1v1 trading, coming back to lane with just Boots will feel pretty miserable.
Skin to Win
This is the 100% factual skin tier list for maximum LP gains. If you are using a skin below A tier, just ff it.
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.