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Katarina Build Guide by

(14.7) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]

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Katarina Build Guide By Updated on

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Runes: CONSISTENCY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Domination

Electrocute

Sudden Impact

Eyeball Collection

Relentless Hunter

Inspiration

Magical Footwear

Minion Dematerializer

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4 5 6

FLASH+TP

Flash

Teleport

Items

STARTERS

•HIGH SUSTAINED DAMAGE - LESS LANE SUSTAIN

•HIGH SUSTAIN IN LANE (reccomended with *second wind* in the runes)

•SNOWBALL POTENTIAL + LANE SUSTAIN

•SUSTAINED DAMAGE + LANE SUSTAIN

BOOTS ARE IMPORTANT!

•VS SQUISHY / RUNNING BURST-BUILDS

•VS HEAVY AUTO-BASED CHAMPS

•VS LOTS OF CCs & AP-DMG

BEST BUILDS ATM - Check notes for more infos

•DONT FORGET TO BUY IT FIRST BACK

•MUST WHEN SNOWBALLING

•FULL BURST - CONQ/ELC/DH

•AD - BRUISER FRONT

•BRUISER/ASSASIN - CONQ ONLY

•AD BURST

DONT FORGET!

•VS LOTS OF MAGIC RESIST ITEMS

•CAN BE GAMECHANGER

Ability Order E MAX WHEN PLAYING WITH AD ITEMS AS STARTERS/PATHING AD BUILD

1 2

Katarina Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Fizz

Extreme

Fizz is a very hard matchup. He deals way more damage than Katarina does, and his laningphase is more consistent. He has a big escape as well so its also hard for junglers to help you out. DO NOT PUSH LANE EARLY LEVELS! Best option is to not trade him BEFORE LV3 and the optimal buildpath is ELECRTO+BONEPLATING+DOUBLEMR OR CONQUEROR+BONEPLATING+OVERGROWTH , starting DSWORD and trying to get advantage level 3

Braum

Ideal

ANY FRONTLINE ENGAGE CHAMP IS THE BEST SYNERGY FOR KATARINA, ALL YOU NEED IS SETUPS IN FIGHTS! Also Braum's passive works very nicely with Katarina. Katarina after season 11 Updates is incentred on ON-HIT DAMAGE. Every on-hit can proc Braum's passive. Ideally Braum is the best ally to play around with Katarina, If you ult on an enemy with Braum's passive mark applied you will instantly stun him! Same goes for Shunpo, wich also deals on-hit damage!

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Braum

Ideal

Champion Build Guide

Hello and Welcome to my " KATARINA GUIDE". Im an Italian Master main.
I started playing in middle Season9 and peaked Diamond I in early Season10.
I know it sounds weird but, hold on, it wasnt my first experience on MOBA games.
I played DOTA 2 for years! So when switching to League of Legends I was still in my environment.

As I said , I come from Dota2, and in Dota details and game knowledge is a MUST.
That's why I decided to make a guide, I really like to speculate on the game details and share with you guys my experiences and knowledge.I really hope this guide will help you out and answer some of the questions that playing Katarina raised in your minds.

So, with all that being said, hope you enjoyed the guide, I will do my best to keep it updated and make sure noone will be missing out on new builds and playstyles.

Thanks for passing by, and enjoy the guide! 🔥

PROS

🟢 Extremely fun to play
🟢 Good scaling
🟢 Insane mobility
🟢 High mechanical skill-roof
🟢 Rewarding when played correctly
🟢 Insanely strong while snow-balling

CONS

🔴 Very hard to master mechanically
🔴 Has barely any winning matchups
🔴 Sensible to burst-damage
🔴 Sensible to Crowd Controls
🔴 Her mistakes are easily punishable
🔴 Hard to get consistent high CS/m

𝙀𝙇𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙐𝙏𝙀
is a good and consistent keystone for and it's the best one for short-trade matchups or while versing squishy champions. It makes some matchups way easier, like or matchup, thanks to the short-trading potential given by the Q+E+W+E FAST TRADE COMBO in lane. It's also very good if our aim is just to kill a sensibile target in fights with a burst of damage on a grounded dagger in teamfights.

𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙍𝙊𝙍
is a very versatile and consistent key-stone for , it can be used both on BRUISER BUILDS, FULL AP BUILDS , AND HYBRID BUILDS. This makes one of the strongest options depending on the situation, wich also allows us access to solo-kills in lane while going for or as first items.

𝙁𝙄𝙍𝙎𝙏 𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙄𝙆𝙀
is a very situational key-stone and becomes very usefull if the match-up we face is really impossible to kill, and it's not even worth risking your entire laning-phase just to try a trade or a solo-kill. Why would you still go if you can just play safe with any other rune? Well, allows you to REACH YOUR 3 ITEM SPIKE WAY FASTER AND MORE CONSISTENTLY. Just to be clear, if the match-up is playable, is always better to go or .

𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙉𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍
is perfect if we play with or need a lot in fights. will lower the 's passive down to 0.8s and lower cooldown for 30-40s, wich is very usefull in specific games.

𝙍𝙀𝙇𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙇𝙀𝙎𝙎 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍
is the option when we don't need and we wanna ROAM AND FLANK FIGHTS PROPERLY INSTEAD, the out of combat movement speed might seem weak, but in reality allows you to gap-close way better on picks or flanks, while also allowing you to better catch waves on sidelane and follow up schermiseh or teamfights.

𝙎𝙐𝘿𝘿𝙀𝙉 𝙄𝙈𝙋𝘼𝘾𝙏
is the best one while running trees, the bonus Lethality and Magic Penetration play a foundamental role into building our damage out-put. Make sure to always have it if you are running tree as secondary or primary.

𝘽𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂
is very usefull if we are facing BURST BASED MATCHUPS like or . Combined with we can safely take short-trades while the effect is up and even if the enemy trades back, we will still have some form of protection.

𝙎𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙉𝘿 𝙒𝙄𝙉𝘿
is very usefull if we are facing POKE BASED MATCHUPS like or . Combined with it will allow us to have a WAY MORE HEALTHY LANING-PHASE and be able to witstand all the poke we need to take in order to not miss all the minions.

𝙊𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙂𝙍𝙊𝙒𝙏𝙃
perfect in the games where we need to be A BIT MORE TANKY and we don't need the extra tenacity from

𝙐𝙉𝙁𝙇𝙄𝙉𝘾𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂
very usefull while playing against ENEMY COMPS WITH A LOT OF STUNS/SLOWS and has a perfect sinergy with .

𝙋𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙊𝙉𝘼𝙇 𝙏𝙄𝙋
The best tip I can give you in order to learn her is PLAY HER A LOT and also WATCH A LOT OF STREAMS/VIDEO
Watching streams and videos allows you to experience situations even if you didnt had the opportunity to play them yourself. I know is weird but for me, watching others really helped me out on gaining confidence on the champion and knowing what to do in almost any situation.

𝙒𝘼𝙇𝙇 𝙅𝙐𝙈𝙋
You can walljump with without any target on the other side of the wall. The wall doesnt have to be thick.
The trick can be executed by placing to the edge of the wall and before the Dagger drops you can on the very edge of the dagger, even if you dont see it you can still jump over it.

𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙂 𝙍𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙋𝙊
I use it mostly to surpise the enemy thanks to the very LONG RANGE, its basically instant if you do it in the correct way.
The trick is simply pressing both and and the same time on the target, it will automatically use both of the abilities and both their max range of usage. Trust me, noone will expect that much range of engage

𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙃 𝘿𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙉𝙂𝘼𝙂𝙀
Consists in using on a Q landed into a teamfight and instanly out , while leaving a W on the ground.
As a result, you picked up the Q resetting your E and you still have your W in the middle of the fight ready to be picked up!
In that way you can bait some CC/SET UP SOME DAMAGE on the first jump you make and then you can go back in on the W and START MAKING BLADES DANCE with

𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙊 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂
Katarina's can be used as an auto-reset.
We can maximixe our damage out-put by resetting our basics with and taking off-guard enemy laners in the early schermishes
Auto-resettig is important in order to deal proper damage expecially in the laning-phase while we are playing with

𝙁𝘼𝙎𝙏 𝙂𝘼𝙋-𝘾𝙇𝙊𝙎𝙀 𝙆𝙄𝙇𝙇
This is an insane combo , designed to take off-guard enemies when they are very low hps.
If done correctly you will give the enemy literally 0 reaction-time since is too fast to react.
The combo consists in using your and instantly casting your , when the cast-animation is completed proceed to + AUTO as fast as you can! I reccomend to try this combo in practice tool several times before using it in-game

𝙆𝙉𝙊𝙒𝙇𝙀𝘿𝙂𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙀𝙓𝙋𝙀𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀
Knowing how to lane into all the matchups is exactly whay you need to make sure you will be able to have an IMPACT IN EVERY GAME YOU PLAY. is known for her weak laningphase , but if you wanna become a Katarina master you will have to adapt and manage to play around any matchup. You can check the champion threats , I explained overall how the matchups should be played (the hardest ones).

𝙒𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏
Do not push lane for no reason, further you are from your tower, easier is for enemy midlaner to freeze the wave and easier is for enemy jungler to kill you with ganks. Also most matchups you NEED TO NOT PUSH EARLY LEVELS to make sure you have SPACE TO ALL-IN level 3,For example:,,,

𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙏 𝙃𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂
Having perfect CS on is almost impossible, the only way you will find yourself in a position where you can CS properly is when you already snowballed on enemy midlaner , and you are the one in control of the lane-state. In my experience IS NOT WORTH TO GET HARASSED FOR EARLY MINIONS, if you get outlaned before lv3 only to get a few CS more is absolutely not worth it. MOST OF THE TIMES IS BETTER TO GIVE UP CS BUT MAKE SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO LANE PROPERLY AND DONT LOSE XP.For example: matchup , you just give up everything and you lasthit only what you can, if you manage to get lv3 with a good wave position you can easily all-in and solokill.

𝙎𝘼𝙁𝙀 𝙏𝙍𝘼𝘿𝙄𝙉𝙂
Trading in the midlane is one of the most important things.
We wanna make sure we are trading properly in every matchup in order to pull off solokills or let our gank our lane. A good way to trade properly overall is with Q+E+W+E(OUT)//(IN) , consists in landing a on the ground , picking it up and instantly dropping your , this will result in an instant DOUBLE PICKUP giving us an INSTANT RESET. We can either commit and prolong the trade or on a minion behind us and take the trade

𝙈𝘼𝙋 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙎𝙎
Having a good map awareness is crucial in order to use our roaming potential.
We have to know what is happening is side-lanes and what summoner spells they used in order to ROAM OR on the sides and take free kills! Most of 's Kills come from schermishes or side-lane kills so its important to have the habit to check sides or jungle with our cam view, and taking as much infos as possible on the current state of the game and learning how to use those informations for snowball games!

𝙇𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙇 𝟯 𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙊-𝙆𝙄𝙇𝙇𝙎
In a lot of matchups giving up early first waves CS its important. For example against , , , you won't be able to get close to the minions and last-hit them unless they have no clue of what they are doing. Losing half-health for a couple of minions of the first wave is something we need to avoid. Taking that much damage will get us too low , waste sustain and make us unable to follow up early schermishes due to our low hps. doesn't have huge kill-pressure in laning-phase and most of her kills comes from sides / jungle schermishes, this is why is important to BE ALWAYS FULL-HEALTH IN LANE IF POSSIBLE in order to give us the possibility to get some kills in the early stages of the game! Also we will be able to take solokills from level 3 , so getting there full-hp while having all pots is a good way to get solokills in lane. and matchup for example are all about getting level 3 full-hp , from there you can perma all-in them if you manage the wave properly and open up solo-kill scenarios

𝙍𝙊𝘼𝙈𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝘽𝘼𝙎𝙄𝘾𝙎
Ok, remember that waves crash in the middle of the lane every "":30 seconds , DO NOT ROAM WHEN ENEMY WAVES ARE CRASHING UNDER YOUR TOWER
There's a trick to SHOVE THE WAVE PROPERLY, you need to wait the wave to fix to a position, then place a + IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAVES, picking them up will instantly oneshot the casters and if you have enough damage the meeles as well, resulting in a 0.5 sec total shove. You will be then ready to roam and put pressure on the map! This works best with AP-Builds.If you have + + YOU WIL BE ABLE TO INSTANLY SHOVE THE WAVE WITH THE TRICK I DESCRIBED UP THERE A lot of players waste a LOT OF GOLD AND EXP foundamental in order to scale properly and snowball only becaouse they see a single kill on the map. A single kill is not worth, even if you get it, losing a whole wave is not worth 1 KILL , unless its a big shutdown of course.I cant find the exact numbers from this patch of A WHOLE WAVE OF MINION GOLD AND EXP I'll make sure to inform myself on the details and update this section.

For now all I can say is , when you are attempting a roam MAKES SURE YOU SHOVED YOUR WAVE UNDER ENEMY TOWER AND TRY TO COME BACK INTO YOUR LANE AT "":30/"":00 WHEN WAVES ARE CRASHING!(every 30 seconds) Also make sure you know the position of enemy jungler and you are aware of the position of your own jungler, I know there are a lot of factors to consider, but with time and practice all these details will become AUTOPILOTED.In my opinion when you AUTOPILOT and still manage to consider all these variations your skill level will increase exponencially!

Roaming doesn't mean we have to pull-off a sidelane gank every time MOST OF THE TIMES JUST LEAVING LANE AND PRETENDING TO ROAM GIVES YOUR SIDES ADVANTAGE you can do that by just shoving the wave and sitting in a side-bush of the midlane if you already know there is nothing you can do on the map in that exact time, becaouse enemy midlane will ping you are missing, making enemy bot play safe and give space to your botlane if they are being pressured under tower, same goes for toplane pressure or jungle pressure. Also pretending to roam can be an easy fix for the lane if enemy mid is freezing it. Since you are faking a roam, the enemy mid will more likely shove the wave to potentially follow your roams.

𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙈 𝙁𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙋𝙊𝙏𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙄𝘼𝙇
is known for her TEAMFIGHT POTENTIAL, thats why after laningphase and roaming, the TEAMFIGHT is the last but not least thing to focus on. Teamfighting as can be tricky, many meta champions have lots of stuns and crowd controls.

𝙆𝘼𝙍𝙄𝙉𝘼 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙎𝙏𝙔𝙇𝙀 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙋𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂
BASED ON WHAT YOU ARE BUILDING YOUR PLAYSTYLE IN TEAMFIGHTS HAS TO BE ADAPTED..
Exactly, what you build, makes your champion A DIFFERENT CHAMPION. If we are talking about ONESHOT-BURST builds you will focus mostly on set on the ground in teamfights and you will on them ONLY WHEN A SQUISHY CHAMP OR A PRIORITY TARGET IS IN RAGE OF IT.
NEVER ENGAGE and NEVER COINFLIP FIGHTS, be aware of what cc's they have in their pockets and start projecting and immaginating what is going to happen when you pick up that . Knowing what spells they have to stop you and considering all of them allows you to be prepared and have BETTER REACTION TIME TO SKILLSHOTS AND CC'S.

𝘽𝙍𝙐𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙍 𝘽𝙐𝙄𝙇𝘿𝙎 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙎𝙏𝙔𝙇𝙀
If we are playing instead on a BRUISER-LIKE BUILD where sustained damage is the foundament of the build, you will have to look for POKE , so daggers landed in positions that are not punishable but allow you to deal some damage before the teamfight and start stacking up your keystone/item passive (CONQ+RIFRMAKER+DEMONIC)
And you can also take a bit more risks since usually these builds allow you to build a lot of hps/resistances.

𝘼𝙉𝘼𝙇𝙔𝙕𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙐𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉
Its important in every teamfight to analize the situation and predict what is going to happen before going in as

𝙒𝘼𝙄𝙏 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝙎𝙏𝙐𝙉 𝘼𝘽𝙄𝙇𝙏𝙄𝙀𝙎 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙀𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙋𝙀𝙎
Make sure to wait out target CC's and Escapes of the enemy team for example 's or 's

𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝙎𝙀𝙇𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉
It's important to choose the best target to kill in the teamfight as expecially, if we don't get a reset in the first stages of a teamfight we will be completely useless during the rest of it. This is why is important to utilize our damage on the target that's easier to kill and has also some impact in the fight

𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙉𝙏 𝙏𝙊 𝘽𝘼𝘾𝙆
Can be applicable to 's Kit, we can throw a on the frontline and land the on the groud trying to reach the backline

𝘽𝘼𝘾𝙆 𝙏𝙊 𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙉𝙏
One of the most common options, just ignore the frontline and rush for the high priority targets , its important to have a good positioning in the teamfight in order to flank properly the backline

𝙋𝙍𝙄𝙊𝙍𝙄𝙏𝙔 𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙂𝙀𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂
If you can't kill or get a reset do not go in. Knowing your damage out-put is important. This is where experience and practice pays out, make sure that whenever you are going into a teamfight you are choosing an almost *100% resettable target*.

𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂
Positioning as is quite important. We have to make sure we are in a good spot to both join the fight easily and avoid getting instalocked from ccs or bursted down from high-damage spells. This is where movement speed is important.
Lately im running in the runes even when going
allows me to have higher movement speed while approaching a target and facilitates the flanking part of the teamfights. Its also easier to select the target thanks to the movement speed! And overall having that movement speed boost troughout the game will allow us to also get more side-lane farm and be always the highest level on the map!

𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙆𝙎 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙋𝘼𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝘽𝙔, 𝙄 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙔 𝙃𝙊𝙋𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙂𝙐𝙄𝘿𝙀 𝙐𝙎𝙀𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇, 𝙇𝙀𝙏 𝙈𝙀 𝙆𝙉𝙊𝙒 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙎 𝙒𝙃𝘼𝙏 𝘿𝙊 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙆 𝘼𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝙄𝙏 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙄𝙁 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝙔 𝘽𝙐𝙄𝙇𝘿 𝙎𝙐𝙂𝙂𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉! 𝘼𝙇𝙎𝙊 𝙁𝙀𝙀𝙇 𝙁𝙍𝙀𝙀 𝙏𝙊 𝙋𝘼𝙎𝙎 𝘽𝙔 𝙈𝙔 𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙈 𝙄𝙁 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝙔 𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎 𝙄'𝙇𝙇 𝘽𝙀 𝙂𝙇𝘼𝘿 𝙏𝙊 𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙈!