Hello and welcome to my guide 'Katarina - Blades of Death', in this guide, I'll be covering how to use Katarina to her finest, farming creeps, etc. There's plenty to go through, so let's begin!

__

___

___

___

___

___

Every champion has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Katarina is not a very good initiator but a damage-dealer, she can quickly deal a very large amount of damage to multiple enemies. To start, here's Katarina's champion spotlight.





SPACING IT OUT LIKE A MOTHER FREAKING MANIACAA
SPACING IT OUT LIKE A MOTHER FREAKING MANIAC
GAP+ Can deal damage to multiple enemies.AAAAAAA AAAAAAA- Vulnerable against CC champions.
GAP+ Able to escape easily with Shunpo.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Squishy.
GAP+ Extremely useful in team fights.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Her skins are too ugly! :(

So first of all we talk about Katarina's skills and what they do, Katarina is an AP melee champion with a very low chance of sustaining in lane, but that does not mean she can't farm creeps while harassing her foe.

• Katarina's passive skill is Voracity, on kills or assists, Katarina's skills' cooldown reduce by 15 seconds and she gains 25 extra gold.

• Katarina's first skill Bouncing Blades[Q] it's a click shot where the blade hits multiple enemies dealing 10% less magic damage to each target hit.
• I recommend using Bouncing Blades to farm creeps if you're going against non-melee champions in mid.
• Remember not to spam Bouncing Blades early game, because the cooldown time is quite long.

• Katarina's second skill Preparation[W] is a buff for Bouncing Blades[Q] and shumpo[E], if applied on Bouncing Blades, targets hit will have 50% decreased life regeneration. If applied on Shunpo, target will deal 15/20/25/30/35% less damage to Katarina.
• I recommend using Preparation with Bouncing Blades in lane farming, and with Shunpo when you're harassing your foe.

• Katarina's third skill is Shunpo[E], dealing a large amount of magic damage on the selected target.
• I don't recommend using Shunpo to farm creeps as much as Bouncing Blades.

• Katarina's ultimate Death Lotus[R] does a massive amount of magic damage to the closest 3 enemies.
• I recommend to use Death Lotus in team fights after your tank charges in, so your tank will be taking most of the damage.

Since you're an AP, you should go mid and most mid is AP-range, you go for Bouncing Blades first, but max it second. I master Shunpo first because it does a great amount of damage with a short cooldown. I add Death Lotus everytime I can, because it's an ultimate. Finally, I max Preparation last, because it's just a buff for other skills.

I choose these two summoner skills, because it gives that extra finishing true damage and the distance you need for Shunpo. Just remember to use it when you're absolutely sure that you're going to kill your foe. Or else, you'll be waiting for minutes 'til the cooldown's gone.

• Allows more magic damage to be dealt to your foe.
• Gives you more magic penetration.

• I chose to have Greater Seal of Health over Greater Seal of Armor because more health is more important than armor. Katarina's a bursting champion, so more health the better.
• Benefits you early game, so you won't be as squishy as you are.

In this chapter, we'll be talking about Katarina's laning opponents and how difficult are they to Katarina and why they are so difficult. To begin, remember 5 stars is the most difficult and 1 star is the least difficult.


WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS VERY LONG, PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, MAY CAUSE BOREDOM, SLEEPINESS, URGE TO RAGE QUIT AND LASTLY MINDF***.

Knowing Your Opponent

Ahri is a late-game champion with a high bursting damage that can be harmful to you and your teammates. Ahri is very powerful in teamfights, because she has multi-targeting skills such as Orb of Deception, Fox-Fire and Spirit Rush. If you never faced a Ahri before, you can check out what she can do here.

Countering Your Opponent

Ahri has 2 skillshots, Orb of Deception and Charm. Orb of Deception can pass through minions to damage you and creeps, which is hard to dodge, while being out of range of your skills. Ways to counter? Easy, simply stay at the sides of your minion wave, then, Ahri will either choose which is more important, farming creeps or getting kills. Charm is a crowd control that causes the first target it hits to slowly move towards Ahri. Ways to counter? Stay behind a single minion and use Bouncing Blades to farm creeps.

Defeating Your Opponent

You can either defeat Ahri or lose to her in lane. There's two ways you can defeat her in lane. One, you can wait for her to use her crowd control and then burst down and harass the s*** out of her or fight her by force. Refer to "Preferred Skill Combo" for the way to harass.

Knowing Your Opponent

As for Katarina items, I prefer high sustain with bursting damage items, example such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Hextech Gunblade. Let's begin by looking at the options for starting the game items.

Preferred Start Items

As for start items, I usually go for a Boots to dodge skill shots or just to run for the heck of my life and triple Health Potion for that sustain in lane. Of course, there are other choice of start items, but I prefer to start with these two.

Alternative Start Items

You can also go for these two items if you're more of a "harassing-your-enemy" player. Amplifying Tome is good, but because Katarina is a squishy champion, I put Boots and Health Potion before Amplifying Tome

DO NOT START WITH THESE ITEMS

I NEVER go for this, because it is absolutely useless. The only thing you benefit from it is that extra health and health regeneration, which is the same as Health Potion. I don't even know why some Katarina players start with this.

Katarina is NOT a mana using champion, even though the health and ability power sounds good, do not go for this item at the start, I would rather choose Amplifying Tome than getting something that is useless.

OR

Alrght, why do we take Hextech Revolver instead of Needlessly Large Rod? Good question, because the passive of Hextech Revolver, + 12% spell vamp, what does that mean? It means, Katarina gets health from using her skills, and since Katarina does not use mana, the higher damage she deal the quickly she can recover her health. Also, Katarina's ultimate, Death Lotus, is multi-targeting, imagine how useful Hextech Revolver would be!

OR

You're probably wondering why get Hextech Gunblade when we already have Hextech Revolver. Well, Hextech Gunblade can fire a bullet dealing 300 magic damage and slowing the target by 50% for 3 seconds, you would have no idea how much time my target ran away with 100-200 health, plus, the slow gives you a open opportunity to run up and use Shunpo. Hextech Gunblade also adds attack damage, why does Katarina need attack damage? Katarina's Q, Bouncing Blades, and Katarina's ultimate, Death Lotus, benefit from it, and not just by a little.

MUST HAVES: OPTIONALS:

Katarina must have the two bursting damage items, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Void Staff, you might not think they are bursting damage items, but with the magic penetration from Void Staff and the multi-targeting slow( Rylai's Crystal Scepter), you can use Death Lotus almost whenever you want and use Shunpo for the finishing blow.

As we all know, warding is one of the most important things in League of Legends, one ward saved probably thousands of lives, so please, don't forget to buy wards. As a solo-mid, you will have to put wards at 4 different areas. The minimap below will show where do the wards go.

We have now come to the end of my guide. Throughout you should've learned many things that will help you become a better Katarina in the future, that's why don't forget to vote! No good guide is created by a single person, that's why do not hesitate to give suggestions! I'll be opened to take them in.

Screenshots

You are welcome to send in your own screenshots, make sure they look like the ones below, or else it will not be accepted, just send me a PM with the image and the next time I update the guide I'll make sure to put your photo in.

• jhoijhoi for her fantastic BBCode guide and her dividers! Which can be found here.