I have tried alot of different kathus builds before and i have noticed alot of gaps and small problems in between. This is MY way of playing karthus, if you are sucessful (most likely yes) you can acheive pentakills.

Pros
- Great farmer.
- Good harrasser.
- Awesome passive, which will grant you kills after you are dead.
- He can win teamfights, because he can do massive damage, even when dead.
- His ulti is op
- When he has his wall ready he can be hard to gank
Cons
- Very squishee and bad survivability
- He is often focused in teamfights
- Item dependant - If he lacks item, he will not do that big a difference in teamfights.

Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form allowing him to continue casting spells while dead for 8 seconds.

This is an awesome passive, it is realyl useful in team battles as you can pick off noobs which stick around your dead body after the think you are "dead". The best thing to do is spam lay waste and use requiem to pick off enemie champions which have low health


Creates a delayed blast at Karthus' cursor position. After 0.5 seconds, deals 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+30% of ability power) magic damage to each nearby enemy, this deals double damage if it hits only a single unit.

Cooldown 1 seconds | Cost 20 / 28 / 36 / 44 / 52 mana | Range 875

This ability is really useful to farm minions and harass enemie champions becuase it deals alot of damage. This is your main farming capability because some champs may enjoy harassing you.


Creates a 800 / 900 / 1000 / 1100 / 1200 distance wide wall through target point. Reduces enemy armor and magic resistance by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 and reduces movement speed by up to 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80%; debuff lasts 5 seconds. The wall lasts 7 seconds.

Cooldown 22 seconds | Cost 100 mana | Range 1000

This is extremely useful in team battles and ganking/ killing. as long as you can get an enemy champ to walk past it, that will get owned by your lay waste and defile because their Magic resist has been decreased.


Toggle Off: When Karthus kills a unit, he restores 20 / 27 / 34 / 41 / 48 mana.

Toggle On: Drains 30 / 42 / 54 / 66 / 78 Mana to deal 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+25% of ability power) damage to nearby enemies each second.

Your main damage output will come from this skill late game. BECAREFUL not to keep it too long because you will run out of mana. In early game, try not to use this alot because it drains your mana quite quickly.


After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals 250 / 400 / 550 (+70% of ability power) magic damage to all enemy champions (regardless of distance).

Cooldown 180 / 150 / 120 seconds | Cost 200 / 300 / 400 mana | Range 10000

Last but not least.....REQUIEM, this is an awesome skill to annoy enemy champs. every time you see a champ that has low health, you can fry them with your ult. MAKE SURE you can kill them, look at their magic resist and calculate how much it can deal.

This is a really useful skill whn you are being CCed


I also prefer this over other summoner spells. It gives good map control and you can get back to your lane fast, after you've shopped. good for protecting towers when 2 of your teamates are away.


- This is also a great summoner spell for Karthus, since he is kinda slow. It will benefit you in teamfights, when Defile is on. You can catch up with the other team, when you are harrasing them.


- I dont really like this summoner spell because there is no need to ignite someone, you can finish other people off with your lay waste or your ult


- VERY useful earlygame when you have no mana when there is a dps character laning against you at mid.


I have seen some karthuses use this before and it was really annoying. it is useful when you cant use requiem in time or u have been killed late game.

Masteries (9-0-21)
Offense
I take 9 in offense, mainly to get that extra spell penetration from Archaic Knowledge.

Utility
I go with 21 in utility to get:
- Mana regeneration & mana
- Extra xp
- Lower cooldowns on my summoner spells
- Lower cooldowns on my abilities.

Marks
9x
- These are simply to make your spells hurt more. Spell penetration is a typical choice in marks, when you play a caster. They benefit your Lay Waste nicely in early game.

Seals
9x

- This will help you earn kills more easily early game and get FB

Glyphs
9x
- These will give you some extra damage Late game, which will grant you more Champion kills and a better harrassing capability.

Quintessences
3x
Just to give you a bigger damage output early game. Same reasons as with the glyphs. You can also exchange this for a AP/per lvl rune, but I would recommend this.

Mejais Soulstealer
This is an optional item if there are noobs in the opponent team that can feed you and give you stacks. If the oppenent team is good and it is going to be a close game, i do not suggest it.


Only buy this if there are heavy casters and alot of disables in the opponent team because you need as much AP as you can get.


This is a good item and is very useful when there are heavy tankers in the oppenent team that you team can not kill.

Guardians angel
Sick of getting killed too much? this item, i believe not that useful because after you die, the opponent team will just camp at your dead body. it can be use with [*] ability.


This item can give alot of ap and mana if you buy it early game, especially when have Lay Waste for you to spam

How You Start
Buy your starter items and go to your lane - mid. Either harras your enemy champion with bubbles or hug your tower and wait for minions. If you want to harras the enemy, care for ganks, because you will have to go far away from your tower to harras.
When minions arrive, your farming starts.

How You Farm
Spam Lay Waste on the ranged minions - Timed right, this should give you at least 2/3 of the ranged minions. When the ranged minions are dead, try to last-hit the melee minions with Lay Waste or standard attacks. Later in the game, when your mana pool is bigger, you can use Defile to kills minion wave after minion wave, in a matter of seconds. You can also go two the creeps in the jungle and kills them with Lay Waste.

How You Brawl
Karthus uses spells. Harras your opponent with Lay Waste, if necessary. If not, simply outfarm them - Get more creep-fed than him/her. Don't get too close, since their damage output will be more than you can manage early game, sinc it requires your Lay Waste to hit 90% of the times. If you get attacked, spawn your wall on the opponent and spam Lay Waste on his/her ***. This should get them off your back. When you are level 6, wait for enemies to be nearly dead, and finish them off with ulti. Make sure that your teammates tell you when to use it. This should get you really fed.

How Karthus gets really hated
If the enemy team has a jungler, try and ward the dragon. They will probably go low on hp, so when they are almost done, use your ulti. Afterwards be ready to steal the dragon, if they die. Just don't get ganked, so have flash ready.

Karthus can be a tricky champions in teamfights. It can be hard to place yourself right, either, stand at the side and kill the enemy champions or jump into the centre of the team battle and activate your zhonyas houglass effect when you are getting ganged. If you get killed, SPAM your lay waste onto enemy champs

NOTE: only use ulti, if it can grant your team kills. Do not waste it on nothing.

Slow the opponents before a fight. You can do some damage before the fight even starts. Karthus can change a teamfight, but if played wrong he can also be kinda useless in teamfights. After a teamfight you might be able to finish them off.

This build is completely ownage if you use it in the right way.

Good luck and Have fun using my build!!
:)
It would be nice if you commented and tell me how to improve this build
This is Silenton
If you have any questions, please ask down here (comments section)
And if u do vote down (which i hope u wont) PLEASE GIVE A REASON FOR VOTING DOWN. DONT JUST GO LIKE "I Dont Like it" or "does not work"
TY :D

4/2/11: Will of the Ancients > Morello's Evil Tome
4/2/11: Photo and icon update