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Katarina Build Guide by I Do Not Flame

Middle [9.18] Katarina, the Mid Queen [In depth guide]

Middle [9.18] Katarina, the Mid Queen [In depth guide]

Updated on September 17, 2019
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League of Legends Build Guide Author I Do Not Flame Build Guide By I Do Not Flame 19 5 68,392 Views 12 Comments
19 5 68,392 Views 12 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author I Do Not Flame Katarina Build Guide By I Do Not Flame Updated on September 17, 2019
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Katarina
    The Queen is here to rock you.
  • LoL Champion: Katarina
    Katarina behind is YET Useful.
  • LoL Champion: Katarina
    Lethalty Kata
  • LoL Champion: Katarina
    Top Tanky Oneshoot Katarina

Runes: Usual and +risky+damage

1 2 3 4
Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Sudden Impact
Ravenous Hunter
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction


Hey there every one! I am a player that just play for fun and I found Katarina one of the funniest champs to play. High risk = High reward.

Katarina is an very funny burst AP assasin that can solo carry a lot of games when you know what to do with her.

I'm a Katarina main since I started playing LoL three years ago, and I really love the mechanics that she has. I'm here to try to help all the players that wanna try out Katarina this new season, so let's begin with the runes.

Finally I want to apologize myself for my bad english, because I haven't grow up in an english language country. Feel free to ask me anything in spanish, english or german :)

Guide under construction.
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Pros / Cons

PROS
    -Good early
    -New runes gave her a not bad late game
    -12/10 movility
    -Deletes queen
    -She can snowball very easily
    -She can escape from the ganks with the E
    -Amazing wave clear.
CONS
    -Can be deleted if his positioning is bad
    -You need to know when is a good moment to fight
    -No CC ability
    -Requires time to master a proper Katarina mechanics
    -To dodge abilities in lane is more important that other champs because she has no sustain in early
    -If you play against tanky team, you're kinda useless.
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Spells

FLASH

We all know why this is a must pick with all the champs. U can use your E + Flash to hard disengage or to flee away from a fight you cannot win.
IGNITE

Very useful in early to win 1v1 fights and also it helps you out against champs that heal herself like Vladimir. Every one know that this is amazing.

CLEANSE

Another option, I don't use it so much, but it gives you the opportunity to take away the enemy CC and keep fighting. For example, Lissandra's stuns are hateful, and she can destroy you due to his extreme damage and continue poke.
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Runes


Use this to run damage in early game, use CONQUEROR page if u prefer to be useful in late.

The difference? You need to choose if your team is full late game (go early damage) or early (go conqueror)


ELECTROCUTE

This key rune gaves u an extra damage by a thunder every time u hit 3 times in a row an enemy (AA, abilities...). Before season 8 it was Thunder Lord. It's so useful because of his perma extra damage all across the game, and the burst with Kata is better.
SUDDEN IMPACT

It gaves you an extra lethalty or magic penetration when you dash, and the E works very well with it.
EYEBALL COLLECTION

It gaves you more AP or AD by killing or having an assist in each enemy champ. That means more damage after you help your team by roaming them.
RAVENOUS HUNTER

You heal an % of the damage that you deal with your abilities and the passive, so yes, it's an amazing amount of heal with the gunblade
TRIUMPH

This rune is from the Precision page and gaves you extra gold per kill and assist and also heals you a bit. It's also useful in team fights.
COUP DE GRACE

This rune haves you an extra damage while the enemies have less than 40% health. Very useful to win 1v1 in early game after you poke the enemy midlaner.

NULLIFYING ORB
This is useful against AP laners that can poke you down or AP assasins (against Garen is also a good option, it totally counter his R if you'r not the "Villain" and receive the true damage bonus)
WATERWALKING

His name say it. You will be faster in the river, so you can roam faster. That means more pressure in botlane, likely more kills, first tower... Extra gold and good team work win games.

Another rune page setup that can work well with her:

Why this adc runes? Because you earn more tenacity for late and an extra substain in early.



If you want to perma ROAM and got an extra def. againts AP enemies:
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Skills


Pasive - Voracity


Whenever an enemy champion dies that Katarina has damaged in the last 3 seconds, her ability cooldowns are reduced by 15 seconds.

If Katarina picks up a Dagger, she uses it to slash through all nearby enemies, dealing magic damage.

Katarina throws a Dagger at the target that then bounces to nearby enemies before ricocheting onto the ground.


Q - Bouncing Blade


Katarina throws a Dagger, dealing 75/105/135/165/195 (+30% Ability Power) magic damage to the target and 2 nearby enemies. The dagger then ricochets onto the ground behind the primary target.The dagger always lands 350 units on the opposite side from where it struck the first target, getting there in the same amount of time regardless of how many times it bounces.

This is your main ability. You can poke, you can farm, you can jump to it, you can also got a job... It's perfect.
W - Preparation


Katarina gains a burst of movement speed, tossing a Dagger into the air directly above herself.

Katarina tosses a Dagger into the air and gains 50/60/70/80/90% decaying movement speed over 1.25 seconds.


It's better to save this ability for escape a gank or all in. It resets your E (shunpo), wich is your only way to escape (or Flash). Also the MS can help you to reach the enemies or your minions to dash away the fight.
E- Shunpo

Katarina blinks to the target, striking it if its an enemy, or striking the nearest enemy otherwise.

Katarina dashes in the blink of an eye to the target ally, enemy, or Dagger. If it is an enemy, Katarina strikes for 15/30/45/60/75 (+50% Attack Damage) (+25% Ability Power) magic damage - otherwise she strikes the nearest enemy in range. Picking up a Dagger will reduce Shunpo's cooldown by 0 seconds (85% aprox). Katarina can blink to any location near the target.

Try to pick a dagger always when you use E, but remember that it also deals a great damage, so feel free to use it to start the fight and then Q or W to reset the cd.
R - Death Lotus

Katarina becomes a flurry of blades, rapidly throwing knives at the three nearest enemy champions, dealing 25/37.5/50 (+22% bonus Attack Damage) (+19% Ability Power) magic damage per knife.
Total over 2.5 seconds to each enemy: 300% bonus Attack Damage (+0) (+0) magic damage.Applies Grievous Wounds to all enemies struck, reducing their healing and regeneration by 40%.

Spam it. Low CD and kills or assists reduce it, so...
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Farming


How to farm with Katarina?

This is a very good champ to farm, because she got 2 abilities that have an incredible amount of zone damage. You must be careful about the enemy champs an his long range abilities or AA, but if you are able to dodge them or have a doran shield, you shouldn't have troubles in early.

First of all, you can Q 2 times before the second wave arrives, so you can try to poke the enemy champ, or do last hit if u're against a mage or your opponent is zoning you well.

After you reach level 2 and max E, you can jump to your blades and activate the pasive. That makes a damage around you and is a good way to hit all the enemies around. Don't be so aggressive against champs with cc or charms because u will end dead faster than them if you cannot fight back. Just try to poke with Q + E and then E back.

Be careful with his extreme powerful wave clear, because you will do so much pressure, so you're gonna be ganked or camped. That means that you can call for a level 2 gank and go all in there. Don't be afraid of using Flash to pick a dagger in this all in, because it restores the E cooldown and you can deal more damage then, more probabilities to win the fight.
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Combos







Coming soon, but this guide from KatLive is pretty useful :) He explains how it works pretty well.








Another good video explaining every thing is also this one: (LoL Slow Motion)





An Example of how you should focus the dangerous enemies for Katarina (supports with a lot of shields or cc) (this clip has a few months, second acc)
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Team Work - Team Fighting


TEAM WORK
Katarina's wave clear is so good, and she is an amazing duelist if she fed enought, so you can try to split push in late, but always try to ward. You can escape by using your E ability, so you can do it more safely.

TEAM FIGHT
You are an assasin, not a tank or a engager, so don't go in the first one or you will be deleted veery easily.

1. All togheter TF
You need to wait ´till the enemy team waste some CC abilities (don't go in to late or your tanks can die before you'r damage arrives). Use your Q first and then jump in your blade, use your W + Gunblade + R and profit.

If someone enemy dies there, your CD will be restored (15 secs, that means every ability but R). Then you can Q and enemy and start again your combo


2. Normal TF
Try to reach the enemy back line and go all in against his adc or apc (most of times, the midlaner).
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Ranked Play



So you want to try Katarina in ranked...

If the enemy team has to much tanks, don't play Katarina, pls. Just saying. New meta is strange af and u can easily lost LP due to this "different" gamemode xD

Early game

First of all, you need to play safe in early levels if you are playing against some champ that can poke you and then finish with a gank or just a ignite + abilites combo.

If you'r enemy is not the best one, like he don't farm properly, he fail skillshots, etc. you can try to earn the lead there, by farm, and a early kill if you feel confortable to do an all in and win.
Also you can ask for a gank in this situation, maybe you'll lose some farm, but you can easily recover if you got the kill, or the summs (new gank or more posibilities to kill the enemy champ next time).

You can ask your jungler to gank you when u reach level 2, 4 or 6 (level 2 damage is enought to win a 2v1, level 4 is also a power spike with your level 2 in Q or E (Q is more damage, E is faster CD). At level 6 with a gank you can E + Q + R (then the jungler engages), then you pick your dagger, E again + W and Ignite and the enemy should be dead.


Mid game

Well, now is the time to see if we have the lead or not.

If we have the lead in lane, we can do some roams to the botlane. Try to push your cannon wave to their tower and then go bot. You should look the map before, to see if they're pushed or not (not a lot of gold players do that...).

Also you can try to roam if you cannot win your lane (defensive enemy laner, counters or also roamers like A. Sol or Taliyah). If your enemy is not in your lane when you reach 6, try to gank botlane with your jungler to secure the kills and maybe the tower. They usually will be level 4-5, so you got the level adventage.

Late game

This is a moment where you can be behind and you are kinda useless (try to kill the adc in team fight fast, or wait for them to waste every thing)

Also you can be nice in the match, is not neccesary to have the lead to oneshoot the adc, but you can use this in your pourpouse. Look at the TF chapter and this is what you should do most of the time.

Try to be useful for your team always, don't waste your life trying to 2v1 if you are not sure to kill them both or no vision.
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When KATARINA is behind...

Not every one is perfect, so we all lose lanes and games. But every one can be useful at least for the team.

First of all, try to buy wards (blue one is good if you are behind, red one is better if u can face check and win the fight or scape).


Look the Build in the top of the Guide called (Katarina's Behind is YET Useful). It contains tips and tricks to reach a good and helpful core for your team :) Read the notes please.

You should go a bit tanky and still in the game if you help your team as one more engager (not the first one) or trying to protect your ADC.

Rylai's is amazing item to slow the enemies when u go all in and R (3 enemies hit, 3 enemies slowed, your team can catch them and win).

Liandry's gives your team an extra dps damage as you R + Rylai's the enemies will lose more HP than they expect.

Zhonias is, as always, a good item to go all in (with the Rylai's and Liandry's damage and slow for dps) and then use it. The enemies will attack and try to destroy you, but they will fail.
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Hope you have learn something with this guide! :)

See you in the Rift!


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