Katarina's skill is focused around having high-reaction speeds and understanding damage potentials.

High-speed reactions means being able to shunpo out of sticky situations and following up on lockdown first before others can prepare to react. Shunpo out of sticky situations? Yep, save your shunpo to escape, not engage, unless there's a reset

Understanding damage outputs is purely experience, knowing whether you'll kill or be killed, when and for how long you have to stay back, and when and where you have to go in.

So without furtherado, welcome to my guide!

Bouncing Blades (Q):

The start of every combo EXCEPT after resetting and using the Flash-Shunpo combo. The animation is like a self root. Leave it for last in these cases.

Sinister steel

Sinister Steel (W): Range = 2 teemos. Secret power: Movement speed buff!!!!

Idk wtf a range of "375" is. But it's roughly 2 teemos.
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Shunpo (E):

Only Shunpo into a fight if its SAFE!!!! Safe means

• Some other threatening champions on your team are all going in
• you can KS (Kill Secure)
• their scary skills are down

If not, wait and act like a vulture. Stay near an Ally as you vulture, and if you get engaged on, shunpo onto them to escape. If you still can't shunpo in and you need to do something, then just Death Lotus their front line. This makes it really easy to get a full ult off, so after 2.5 seconds you'll deal TONS OF DAMAGE (sorry phreak). Shunpo out on to a ranged champion to get out at the last second, or if there is no ranged champ nearby, then cut your ult off while you still have enough HP and just use Sinister steel's movement speed to get away. People underestimate how simply surviving helps you win the fight and gives free map pressure.

Also, that doesn't work with mega-tanks like Rammus, so what you can do instead is Shunpo in when theyre low on damage abilities, tank a CC or two, then get as much of a Death Lotus as possible. Your not tanky with Rylais, but your not exactly squishy either, so try to balance how much you can take.

I know that throws out the safe rule, but your going to be forced on the front line most of the time if your aiming to carry your team.

Death Lotus (R):

Eh, if you read the Sinister Steel part where you can quickly reposition from the edge of a fight to the middle of a fight before you ult, and remember how to use Shunpo to get a good ult, then you got it.

Voracity (passive):

Same thing, every time you get a reset, always use Shunpo + Sinister Steel before using Bouncing Blades.

Baiting the CC out, dodging the skill shots

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Auto AttackSinister SteelSide step!.

The Shunpo into Auto Attack is a smooth, fluid move that just gives you an extra maybe 30 damage. Use sinister steel the moment their animation starts, not when the skill shot is released. If you don't see any skill shots, use sinister steel when you are the distance of 2 teemos from your target. After your that far away, it's also safe to use Bouncing Blades, not to mention how it reapplies the slow to escape.

Purpose 1: Enemy still has CC, and hard to Death Lotus properly.
Purpose 2: You have no Ult but want to contribute. Dodging a skill shot can easily win a fight.

Surprise! Your back line is now open to flashy engages

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Sinister Steel Reset.

New Katarinas will have a rough time doing this, but both Flash and Shunpo can be done in an instant. Used together, they can cover the distance between you and a target who's trying to stay "just out of range" for an easy pickup kill. Also rough, sinister steel and Death Lotus can both be started within the same millisecond for the extra "surprise burst" that you get from Flash-Shunpo combo.

Purpose: Catching out the enemy carries unexpectedly and getting an easy kill to win the fight.

The Ranged-Comp Kiters and I'm pretty much the butt of all aggro

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BackpedalSinister Steel out.

Tanking is up to YOU because either nobody else went tanky or nobody else can engage. Use Rylais slow to kite backwards. The slow also provides engage-material whenever your team is ready, so try to keep them slowed. Keep in mind your only a weak off-tank, the only reason your a viable definition of an off-tank is because your kiting around and not taking all the damage like a raid boss would.

Purpose 1: Teamwork with your Kite-comp
Purpose 2: "Poke" if a tank gets overextended. Remember to keep 2 teemos distance.

The reset combo!!!! Plz shunpo first, not Q!!

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. ..Sinister Steel.. Run/Auto.

Once you get a reset, trust that everyone on the enemy team knows where you are now. With that in mind, you want to be somewhere else as fast as possible, probably onto another target. Using Shunpo first before Bouncing Blades keeps you alive because they lose track of where you are for about .2 seconds. Maybe longer. And of course, every Katarina has had the moment where they get reset after reset after reset, right? If a target has that low HP, and you only need Shunpo+ Sinister steel to execute them, you save yourself .5 seconds which EVERYONE should know is quite a lot of time.

Purpose 1: Executing low health champions
Purpose 2: Surviving longer after getting a reset

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• KEEP RIGHT CLICKING. make your movement unpredictable so you can dodge all the skillshots
  
• Every time, you land shunpo, you can see I hit A, and then I left clicked to auto the target I was on. I don't trust my ability to just right click the guy, I think A-clicking to auto is a lot easier, although I think it's still an insanely hard kata mechanic

Hm, when your a kata main, it just comes to you I guess

• Step 1: Dance of the edge of their skill shots
• Step 2: Try to land a Bouncing Blades without going too far out, like under their tower
• Step 3: Get aggro of the enemy team ao they throw poke on you, then dodge it by shunpoing away.

So what you just did is basically put pressure on them. By forcing them to waste spells on you, you burned their mana, burned one of their skills that is required for them winning the early game, and saved your team from getting poked out, while avoiding a one-sided early game just because you don't *technically* do much early game

Well this is going to be obvious: just teamfight. Sometimes at this stage, the tanks aren't actually tanky enough yet, so you may be able to focus them esp if they act derp, but only if your team is willing to first focus him as well. Your only the follow up. I think that last sentence is perfect overall, so I'll repeat it

Your basically just the follow up dmg.

Items like Luden's Tempest are going to start falling off against certain champs/itemizations, or if not, your basically going to become a one-shot-god. If your items haven't fallen off yet, then start to flash engage on their backline when their front line is busy with your front line. If your falling off, then try to be a dmg threat who forces people to deal with him rather than his team. That requires a lot of teamwork and can't be explained better than that without experience.

So to reiterate: Either switch to an assassin who waits for their team to be misposition, or be a teamfighter who deals AOE damage for his team and reminds everyone he's a threat so his other threats can also deal damage.

Don't play to win. Play to learn and improve. You can lose 10 games in a row and feel depressed, or you can lose those 10 games, find ways to improve, and start your road to Challenger MMR. Who cares if your not there yet? As long as you never give up, you can never lose. If you have the attitude to get to Challenger, your half-Challenger already. The rest is just playing enough games to get the title. Don't play because you want to win, friends.

List of things people can improve:

• Reaction Speed:

  This is not something I gain from League. I choose to play Osu! every now and then to keep me training and refreshed
  

• Teamwork:

  Contribute as much as you have possible, but stay smart. Lets say your low HP: can you still force them to blow a flash to finish you off? Or support your fighters still with a final burst combo? If the fight is lost, you can probably die early so you don't like lose all your turrets waiting for your hp regen.
  

• Positive Motivation:

  Many people play for ELO, and that's a straight path to disappointment. You gotta FIGHT LIKE HELL!!!! and give every game your best shot, and you will climb as long as you keep fighting your best. But there are trolls and bad players everywhere, even in Diamond I'm pretty sure. It's a lonely road to carry yourself on, and teams will always hold you back and let you down. Expect them to let you down. You just gotta do everything you can and more to eventually start winning, use this game to get better than your last game, and you'll climb by yourself.

Hi, my name is Mirkwoodia (my parents liked the name Kappa), but my aram smurf goes by I soIo. On normal days my aram MMR is stuck around 2200, max I reached was 2700-something, and I have (or will have anyways) a few other aram guides on my fav champs

Also, message me your replays and I'll coach *kya thumbs up*