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Karthus Build Guide by

Jungle Karthus - The Forgotten Role

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21 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author UNSTEALTHYN1NJA

Karthus Build Guide By Updated on

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Choose Champion Build:

Jungle Karthus
Mid Karthus

Spells:

Smite

Flash

Items

Start

Rush

Early Game

Essential

Defensive Options

Offensive Options

Average Build

TONS OF DAMAGE

Ability Order

Karthus Passive Ability

More Karthus Counters

Introduction

Lore

Pros/Cons

Runes

Masteries

Items

Abilities

Gameplay Jungling

Gameplay Ganking

Gameplay Teamfights

Advanced Tactics

Champion Matchups

Summary

Hey Guys and welcome to my first ever Mobafire guide:
Jungle Karthus - The Forgotten Role

First of all I would like to say thankyou guys so much for voting the guide as the #4 guide on mobafire!

Now before I get down to the nity grity, if you want tips on being a better player and positively impacting the League of Legends community, check this out.

This guide mainly outlines in the jungle, however most of the information provided in the guide will also apply to in other lanes.

Karthus has got to be one of my favorite Champions to play, and when played well, will carry games. Jungle Karthus is hugely underrated and underestimated, and is one of the strongest choices in the current meta. Combining a nice slow with crazy amounts of damage, he has strong ganking potential, and his makes his clear speed amazingly fast.

Jungle Karthus was first played by Saintvicious from team Curse back in S2, and he believes it would be a viable pick in professional play.
Watch this is you want to have a look at his gameplay...

Spoiler: Click to view

Feel free to leave constructive comments if you have any suggestions, or if you find any mistakes in the guide (:

Finally, I present to you an In-Depth guide to

' tale of darkness and death...

Spoiler: Click to view

Karthus is a terrible creature who was once a mortal so obsessed with death that he eagerly embraced the gift of undeath. Now in his unlife as a lich, Karthus is closer to his beloved grave than he ever imagined. He commands magic with oblivion as its source, and seeks to bring his grim truth to the rest of the world: only in death does life gain clarity and purpose.

Even as a boy, Karthus was different. There was a darkness within him that could not be denied. The young child clung to the shadows and shunned the company of others. He snuck into the funerals of strangers, and spoke to their tombstones in the cemetery. He sought out corpses of animals to preserve and memorialize them, creating a grim collection of morbid art. Karthus volunteered to tend to the sick and dying, though his intentions were not to help, but to closely witness the passing of those who were beyond help. Ultimately, he went so far as to elaborately stage his death, and he secretly observed his own funeral with intense fascination. When others discovered what Karthus had done, they were so shocked and disturbed that, in a way, he became truly dead to them. Karthus found himself fully rejected by the living.

His isolation only served to fuel his obsession. Karthus delved further into his exploration of death, and became fascinated by the legends of the Shadow Isles. There, it was said, the specters of the deceased continued on in unlife everlasting. Possessed by these tales, he knew he had to discover for himself if they were true. Journeying to those dreaded isles, Karthus soon found himself wandering through the mist, overcome by the surreal beauty of the place. He felt as if he had finally come home. He had always chased the elusive purity of the moment of death, when life passed and in a single instant achieved meaning. Karthus saw that undeath was like that moment, preserved in dread stillness forever. He had discovered his destiny, to cross over the veil and leave the living behind for eternity. Something awoke in the Shadow Isles that day, when Karthus did something no other creature had ever done: he willingly gave his life over to undeath. When he reentered the world, Karthus had become the embodiment of his own obsession. An undying lich with the keys to life and death, he seeks to bring his dark requiem to the world.

''There is no sweeter song than the last breath of the dying.''
-- Karthus

Like every champion, has Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Insane Damage
Great Zoning
Good AOE slow
Fast Jungle speed
Global Ult
Very Fun to Play

Weak early game
Very squishy
Requires good positioning
Must die to use his passive
Needs lots of gold
Annoying to play against </3

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

I take pretty generic AP jungle runes, with flat AP quints, scaling AP Reds/Blues, and armor yellows.

I take these to help out the early jungle speed, and increase the damage from your ganks.
Can be swapped for , or

These work along with your to give you a steady transition into late game, and may be swapped for if you would rather the early game power. Note that jungle monsters do not have any MR, so this renders useless.

Almost a necessity for surviving in the jungle. These will prevent you from taking to much damage, leaving you with more health for ganks.
Experienced junglers may wish to swap these out for or

Again, works with your to boost your power late game.
Other viable choices include or

Pretty normal AP jungle masteries, taking 21 points in the ability side of offense, and 9 points in the health/neutral damage reduction.

The more experienced junglers may want to take points in utility, in which case I suggest taking all mana related masteries, as well as neutral buff duration.

Starting Items

Hunter's Machete: Needed for nearly all junglers. Increases your clear speed by an insane amount.

Health Potion: Needed to heal up after your first round of jungle clearing, giving you enough health to gank a lane.

Jungle Item

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith: Essential to increase your gold income and sustainability in the jungle. The recent buffs to the regen for the AOE junglers, and the added AP stacking makes this an essential first item.

Core Items

Rod of Ages: All around this is a very cost effective item, and all stats it gives are utilized by . The health it gives you makes you significantly harder to kill, and is made more effective by the armor from . The mana it provides is needed to be able to spam your 's, and can be very useful if you get a . The AP it gives you is fairly decent as well, and getting this early combined with the accumulating AP from and your runes, you will gain decent AP by late game even if you are falling behind.

Note that if you are falling behind as jungle, then its either server lag or you're doing it wrong.

Tip: push R

Zhonya's Hourglass: An necessary item on almost all AP champions. This is what allows you to survive in teamfights, and effectively adds another 3 seconds to your passive . The armor given by this can be used to enhance the health given by , and the huge amount of AP can be enhanced by a or a .

Offensive

Void Staff: An awesome item if the enemy team is stacking MR, or even if they aren't. Buy this item after you have a tonne of AP, and it will put your damage through the roof. Consider replacing your with once you have this item.

Rabadon's Deathcap: An pretty strong item on all AP champions. This is what allows you to have 500+ AP, enough to make even scared of you. Note that the 30% bonus is calculated using AP from other items as well, giving you a huge boost.

Deathfire Grasp: Another great item for , providing 120 AP, 10% CDR, and an awesome active. The active deals 15% of the targets current health in magic damage, and then increases all magic damage taken by that champion by 20% for 4 seconds. This active is especially good if you have a second AP on your team (e.g. an AP mid), as the damage amplification also boosts the magic damage done by your allies.

Seraph's embrace: A pretty strong item for champions that have spammy abilities and require a lot of mana. The amount of AP it gives you is pretty good, and the bonus AP you get from your mana is pretty high. End game you will have about 3018 mana, this will give you a staggering bonus 91 AP!! On top of all this, it has a pretty sweet active that can provide you with a shield of up to 754 health for three seconds.

Mejai's Soulstealer: Possibly the best AP item for snowballing, granting (at max stack) 180 AP, and 15% CDR. On top of this it is fairly cheap. Grab this item if you are super fed, and know you wont die for awhile. If you ever get this item to max stacks, you will win, I can almost guarantee it. This combined with the other AP items has the potential to give you more than 690 ap!!! I do not recommend getting this item unless you are terrafed though.

Liandry's Torment: After this item was buffed, it became a viable item on AOE champs like . Grab this item if the enemy team is stacking health, and use it in conjunction with your .

Morellonomicon: Pretty good early game item if you really need the mana regen. The CDR is pretty high, and the AP is not bad for the price. Also very strong against champions that rely on healing/sustain in fights.

Defensive

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Nice way to add some more utility to your kit. The AOE slow is huge, and this will enhance the damage delt by . Great amount of AP and a huge boost to health. Grab this if you are being kited or you need to kite.

Abyssal Scepter: Awesome item on karthus. It provides quite a bit of MR, as well as some nice AP, and a pretty good passive. The passive reduces enemy champions MR in an AOE around , which is about the same size as his .

Athene's Unholy Grail: Awesome item if you are being denied blue buff by the enemy jungle, or someone on your team needs it more. Also offers a respectable amount of MR, and some good AP.

Twin Shadows: An awesome bit of CC to add to your kit, making your ganks even stronger. Comes with quite a bit of MR, and some bonus AP thrown in as well. This item is useful for chasing/retreating/scouting/frustrating the enemy ADC.

Guardian angel: Nice item if you are being burst down quickly, and need a second (third with his passive) shot at living again. The Defensive stats are pretty nice and enhance the health given by and .

Poor Choices

Lich Bane: A very popular item on many spammy AP champions, however to make full use of this item requires you to Auto Attack between spells. This is great, except for the fact that has such a low cooldown, that you will not have time to Auto Attack. Avoid getting this item.

Trinity Force: Please DO NOT GET THIS ITEM
Now I know what you might be saying, 'But it does Tons of damage!!!', True, maybe if you are Phreak, but you aren't. Just because it is the most expensive item in the game does not mean it is the right choice for your champion. More than half of the stats given by are wasted on , you may as well be stacking s...