Katarina Build Guide by Vysil

Introduction

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I have recently gotten a new interest in kat since the re-work. I liked her before but the re-work increases her early game by alot. I main kat, and use her in ranked whenever possible. I will cover techniques, abilities & tricks, and such.

Pros/Cons

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Masteries

This mastery setup gives you some AP, aswell as nice cooldown reduction and damage, while also providing some health and MR.

Runes

These runes give some nice early AP and MR, aswell as the late game advantage of more MP.

Summoner Spells

The 101 uses spell. Lets you initiate, finish someone off, escape, hop over a wall, etc.

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Kat's counter is CC, this pretty much removes that with a few tricks.

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If they have near no CC, then take this or exhaust instead.

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Ignite or exhaust are personal preference. Whichever you want.

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No. You do not need this.

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No. You do not need this either.

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FFS!

Abilities

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voracity:

• This is what makes katarina katarina. Allows her to go 1v5 and get pentakills. Remember your refresh!
• When you go in to towerdive, after you get the kill immediately shunpo out on a minion so you take less tower shots!

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bouncing blade:

• Allows you to farm early game and harass at the same time from a distance. Use this with your W to farm minion waves
• USE THIS BEFORE YOU GO INTO A FIGHT!

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sinister steelsinister steel

• The ability kat got from the rework. It's an AOE damage ability that synergises perfectly with her Q.
• When you bouncing blade and shunpo into the fight, use this before ulting for extra damage. It has no cast time!

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shunpo:

• Escape, initiate, destroy wards, what can't this do?
• Use this to destoy wards by shunpoing on the ward when placed to reveal it for 3 seconds.

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death lotus:

• This makes you the ultimate 1v5 champion. This is literally an instant penta when used correctly.
• It has a low CD so use it alot!
• Remember the refresh. 3 kills after using this will get this refreshed, so use it again!

Skill Sequence

Take your Q first for farming and harass from a distance, then take shunpo for easy escaping or skillshot dodging. Next, take another point in your Q to increase the damage, then get a point in you W. From there, this should be your skill priority:


> > sinister steel >

Items

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Gives some much needed movement speed aswell as health potions for if you make a mistake.

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The magic pen and extra movement speed helps alot, along with the AP and Spell Vamp from the revolver, so you don't need to go back as often.

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This is going to supercharge your AP to near 300-500 at this point. The gunblade is also a huge help when bursting down that last bit of an enemies health, or slowing down an enemy to keep up with them when chasing.

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Zhonya's Hourglass gives you some nice armor, AP, aswell as an extremely effective active. If the enemy team has alot of cc, go in with all of your abilities except your ult, then zhonya's. They will blow their CC and allow your team to damage them. Then ult them after it's finished.

The Void Staff gives you a bit more AP and also some extremely nice MP. You can get either one first depending on how much MR they have and how much CC they have.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a great end-game item when the enemy has a lot of damage. This gives you that extra health for when if you could have been alive for 1 more second you could have had that kill. This also synergises with all of your abilities. When you use your Bouncing Blades first, it will hit all of them to slow them all, then your sinister steel will slow them again while giving you a speed boost. Then comes the best part. When you ult, the slow will keep them in range the whole time, so they sit in it the full length, allowing you to get more damage in and be a massive utility to your team if you die.

Situational Items

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Now i know many people think Mejai's Soulstealer is not the most reliable item, and the truth is, it's not. However, on Katarina this is amazing. When she starts getting kills, she doesn't stop, and this just rewards her massively for that. No other item that you could get would give you more ability power than this.

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The Abyssal Mask is a great item to have if your team has a lot of AP, as it reduces their MR. However, a Void Staff is much better to have, since you're not always going to be close enough to enemies where the range reaches them because you will be in the back of the fight at almost all times.

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Deathfire Grasp. Now this item is a good item, don't get me wrong, but this item just doesn't work that well anymore since the CDR got nerfed on it. In the Season 3 Patch this item is getting completely reworked, so there isn't a need to have this item right now. It's not worth it over other items you could have.

Laning Phase

Farm with your Q whenever possible aswell as harassing them in the process. Stay far away to avoid damage unless going in to W. You should be fine during this phase.

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Try to avoid ganks by shunpoing to minions and such. If the enemy is out of lane, either gank or push the tower ONLY when their jungler is not mia or if there is a wave of your minions coming so you can shunpo to them.

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Wither your opponent down to about half health, then go in on him with all your abilities (after you hit 6, of course). Get a gank from your jungler if needed.

Team Fights

Stay in the back of your team all the time. Stay out of the range of sight of enemies so they think you are mia. Your main job is to clean up, not fight the teamfight head on.


When the enemies are about half health to 3 quarters health (depending on how fed you are), wait until they've blown all their CC, then unleash hell on them. Once your ult is finished you should have a kill or two.


Use the refresh on the lowest target (preferably not the tank), and keep QEW'ing. Once you have your ult refreshed (3 kills) use it to finish them off. Behold your pentakill.

Enemy Matchups

Coming soon!

Final Comments and Credits

CREDIT TO jhoijhoi FOR THE SETUP!

If you like this guide, it helped you become better, or you're just awesome, please vote this up!

Enjoy! :)