Hello, I'm a Diamond Katarina one trick. I have 3 million mastery points on her. This champion is really fun and you should learn her.

Katarina has insane AoE and Resets like no other champion, this lets you carry super hard if you get good with her.
This winstreak is from G3-P3. She is one of the best one trick champions, even into enemy comps that do not favor her. The enemy team will always be worried about that one teamfight that Katarina magically wins.

From here on, I will link a video if you want to watch it, but I'll also summarize the the video if you prefer to read it. I recommend watching the BEGINNER'S GUIDE and BUILD

Guide is a WIP, so I will continue to make it look better :)

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This video goes over laning, some tips, and the goals of how to win a game as Katarina.

If you've never played the champion, read her abilities and try out combos in practice tool. Sounds like it isn't needed, but I'm Diamond and it helps me. Muscle memory is important for mechanical champs, so you want to get used to the inputs.

Level 1, you will get poked by ranged champs, so you need to stay back if they show they will poke you. Shove and get level 2 first if you can.

Level 2, you can look for a trade. If they aren't level 2 or if they missed an ability, use Q and instant Shunpo onto the dagger while it is still in the air or behind the opponent. Use auto attacks, pick up the dagger, the jump away to safety. Don't go in on too many minions.

Level 3-5, you can Q, wait, then see if they stay around the dagger. Jumping in to hit them with the edge while walking away is good poke.
You could Bouncing Blades > Shunpo > Preparation then see if they dodge it. If you miss it, jump out as catching 2 daggers will fully reset Shunpo. Otherwise, you might be able to all-in them

Shunpo (behind them) then Preparation works well. Especially if you dodge an ability as you're doing this. Since you're behind them, wait for them to walk away from you before Bouncing Blades. You want to position you Bouncing Blades properly to land where they are retreating. Makes sense right?

If you are interesting in early level all-ins, watch this video, it's a bit complicated to type out without seeing an in-game example. The idea is pretty much just using Shunpo right after Bouncing Blades, so you get a faster Shunpo reset because you're setting the Shunpo on cooldown quicker.

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Level 6, you don't even have to kill your opponent. Just Death Lotus them in a position where they'll take a lot of damage which will force them to back. If they don't back, then you can kill them next all-in. Shunpo > Preparation > Death Lotus (Wait) Bouncing Blades > Shunpo to follow works well.

If you can't kill, shove the wave and roam. All throughout laning phase, you want to look for skirmishes that are occurring around the map. Skirmishes are those weird fights with your side laners and jungler who are fighting over stuff. Join them and clean it up.

Watch how you use your W, it has a long cooldown.
When looking at teamfights, I usually throw my Bouncing Blades off of the frontline onto awkward postions for the enemy backline. They'll have to path all the way around them, or risk me jumping in and killing them. This is tricky. You can Bouncing Blades then go out of vision, they won't even think about you because you aren't on their screen.

You could also walk with your team who is being chased, W, continue running until the person you are looking for walks over the dagger. This is how Katarina often turns fights.

Katarina and assassins in general are opportunists, you need to look for any slip-up by opponents and punish them instantly. Push your limits, and feed to learn your limits and Kat's limits.


Try to join a lot of fights. If you can 1v2 anyone, then splitting is good too. Buy a stopwatch early and dive someone.


There are 2 options.

Sit around your team and pray for a miracle fight while you're bleeding XP and gold from lack of farm.

or

Just farm, literally afk in a sidelane and farm. You need gold.

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Hexdrinker isn't often necessary vs a lot of AP mids, but seekers pretty much always necessary vs AD assassins. They are crazy gold effective items. You dont need to upgrade them. Just buy it and sit on it then buy gunblade. You don't upgrade hexdrinker, but you could upgrade seekers later if you wanted to.

Lich Bane

is one of the best front loaded damage items that also scales really well. You get MS to move around the map early and midgame also.

Build zhonyas if you need it. Sorcs is really good vs most enemy comps. Only get tabis or merc treads if you MUST. Sorc shoes are REALLLY GOOD.

Rabadons before voidstaff will usually be more damage, even if they have MR. That sounds weird but trust me. It's because Lich and Nashoor have insane AP scalings.

If you're against a bunch of melee champions who can make MR, Then a Void Staff or Zhonya's Hourglass will probably make more sense as a 2nd or 3rd item.

Blade of the Ruined King first item sounds odd, but it's one of the best first items damage-wise, and it gives you a movement speed steal, along with some healing. Kracken and rageblade next are not debatable. Maybe rageblade but it feels bad not going it. I really don't like Banshee's Veil, just make Hexdrinker. It is cheap. Especially in the AD build. Your onhits heals arent reduced with conqueror compared to omnivamp with riftmaker, so thats a big reason why i think conq fits into the onhit build better.

I Plan to make an in-depth video soon, in the meantime, here are some general tips.


Lvl 1:

Try to avoid poke, lose farm if you need to

Lvl 2:

You can go for a Bouncing Blades + Shunpo + auto + if they used or didn’t level their cc ability.

Lvl 3-5:

Here, you can go for an all-in starting with e. The way I go about all in’s vs these champions is Shunpo + Preparation + move to the side/behind them to dodge their skillshot, then Bouncing Blades + Shunpo + auto + auto + Shunpo + auto + Ignite + kill. Almost always, they will throw their cc in front of them but you can usually dodge it this way with the Preparation movement speed (easiest with zoe/morg because cast time, hardest with anivia because her Bouncing Blades has a large hitbox ). Make sure to pick up dagger so that you still get dmg.

Lvl 6:

You win the lvl 6 all-in if they’ve used their cc ability as long as you aren't too poked out.


Most assassins beat you in the early levels. They are melee so they're easier to poke. Try to bounce Bouncing Blades off a minion then hit them so you don't aggro minions, or just Bouncing Blades them directly. Auto whatever you can and Bouncing Blades what you can't. When you Bouncing Blades to farm, try to place you dagger so you can hit them with the far edge of it then walk back and W. If they follow you, you'll have your Preparation ready to hit them. Back before 6 if you need to. Don't overstay if they will get 6 before you. I would heavily suggest rushing Hexdrinker for AP assassins and Seeker's Armguard for AD assassins.

MARKSMEN

Give up farm if you need, build defensive. You scale better of off levels. You'll kill them eventually even with a gold deficit as long as you don't die. If there is a skirmush or fight, you have the advantage. Look for opportunities.

BRUISER

A lot of bruisers you can kill level 2/3, but pretty much never after that without a big lead. Don't build defensive, no point. Build to kill their team. Play lane to farm.

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Simple

1. Shunpo > Flash.
Instant gap close. Shunpo before flash because it lets you buffer the combo to perform it instantly.

2. Shunpo on pretty much anything.
Jungle plants, camps, teammates, jarven flag, reksai tunnels, etc

3. You can choose what side you land on. Shunpo onto the far sides of opponents to land daggers more easily.

4. Double Dagger (Watch Video) 0:57

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Start at 0:50 because the first 2 tricks were removed :*(

1. Shunpo > Preparation > Flash is a great bait

2/3. Pretty just making good use of resets. You all of your abilities before they get reset and use your resets quickly. Katarina can be played very quickly and it will take a lot of practice.

4. You can double dagger into an instant Shunpo to clear waves safely.

We all love building some random stuff and popping off with it. What are some weird things that Katarina can do?

Summoner Spells

Barrier Not that bad actually, taking it vs a Fizz is so funny because he will thirst for a Kill.
Exhaust I'd rather just take Barrier
Flash I've seen a Diamond 2 Katarina that never takes Flash so I tried it out. And I really like it actually. Against hard matchups like Irelia Fizz Zed and other melee champs, taking Barrier and Ignite is so CHEESY and fun. If the enemy picks a bad ganking jungler, then I will consider taking no flash.
Teleport Good if you are newer and in a lane that you usually get poked out in. A lot of higher elo players are taking this to move around the map and counter gank. Good if you have map awareness and not heavy trading in lane.
Cleanse I used to take against Ahri, but isn't really necessary. It's really good against Zoe. Cleanse also gives you like 85% CC reduction, so it's super good into comps with crazy CC with Conqueror

KEYSTONE RUNES

Predator is actually good, but her other options are more consistent. I used to take this run into hard-to-kill matchups WHILE my sidelaners picked champs that were easy to gank. Let's say I had a Renekton Top and a Leona support and I was against an Azir I would consider Predator

Fleet Footwork Was actually seen sometimes in high korean master/challenger before S10 Conqueror. The sustain you get in lane is good, and you're supposed to use that sustain to your advantage.

Grasp and Glacial are interesting because Kat can proc them easier now, but im unsure how they fit with kat.


SECONDARY RUNES
Best secondary runes hands down are Sorcery/Precision/Domination

Honestly Katarina can take anything, but resolve is the worst. If you want sustain, go inspiration with Time Warp Tonic and Boots.

SKILL ORDER

Putting 3 points into Shunpo before maxing Q gives you a faster Shunpo reset. It isn't even off-meta tbh, a lot of Katarina do it, but not every game. Only in games where you can take advantage of it.

ITEMS

Guardian's angel was once a great pickup, but I would only get it super ultra late game now when I'm rich and need the GA to stall.
Hexdrinker kinda off-meta, a lot of people don't really know about it. Try it, REALLY GOOD.

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Catch a dagger, but catch dagger 2 right after but only after you buffered QEW onto the first dagger while you Shunpo during the second dagger catch to move the dagger?? idk just watch the video lol. Too hard

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Turn before Death Lotus to never get stunned from Cassiopeia ult.

Death Lotus has 60% grevious wounds, but oyu can refresh that 60% with a Ignite or Morellonomicon, even though those have 40% grevious wounds.

W lets you walk through units. Shunpo lets you jump inside of units.

You can jump over walls using jungle plants. Even the green one that heals you. You just need to click on the far side of it to go over the wall.

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If a dagger is in range, then you can Shunpo to any part of it. Pretty much extends the range of Shunpo.
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Minion dematerializer deals damage, so you can stack spell vamp with it for some reason. Which makes it heal you for a silly amount.

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Clones give you resets if you kill them. These include Neeko LeBlanc Wukong Shaco Illaoi and I'm sure I'm probably missing others. Will also reset Kha'Zix E and Master Yi abilities.

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My latest montage!