Katarina Build Guide by Pachaaa
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Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Introduction to the guide
Welcome everyone!
If you started playing Katarina or wish to improve your gamestyle, this is where you will get help.Why am I writing this guide? Because for the last few months I have seen most of the Katarinas doing not as good as they could, finishing with stats like 2/4/7.So, here we go :).
What is Katarina there for?
First of all, this champion serves to do Major damage to multiple enemies at once.However, she cannot do that much before level 6, so we should focus on gaining experience in early game.You may as well harrass enemy champions with Bouncing Blade to make them go back to their base :).More details will be given in the next few chapters.
Runes
Now the runes. Katarina is an AP champion (possible hybrid or ad, however not as effective as a pure AP), so people might think of giving her LOADS and LOADS and again LOADS of magic penetration. Not necessary there guys! Her spells already do decent damage even without a huge number of magic penetration.Early game, 30 magic penetration is good and you can easily get that with
sorcerer's shoes :).
My runes include a combination of magic penetration,health and cooldown reduction.Health will help you survive the very early game so that you can keep gaining experience and gold on minions.The cooldown reduction is there to help you chase down people with shunpo and reduce the cooldown of your ulti(unless you manage to kill someone thanks to Kata's passive).
Masteries and summoner spells
I dont need to explain much on masteries. 9/0/21 for a classic caster.
So the summoner spells hmm....I think
ignite and
teleport is the best choice for Katarina.Sure there is also a combination of ignite:flash or Ignite:ghost, but to be honest, teleport serves best ;).
Ignite:Healing reduction plus damage to those who are low on hp.Use ignite when you first use your ulti on enemy champions(because surely they will try to back off from you, and Death Lotus doesnt have a range of 500000 km).
Example: Im on mid against let's say lux.I have harrassed her with my bouncing blade to 50 % hp. I let her push a little bit and then i shunpo her.Activate your ulti. while you throw the daggers you can ignite her without stopping the channel. This will make her heal spell worse(if she has one of course) and she will hardly survive that. Don't forget to throw your bouncing blade when she is at the end of q spell range to ensure additional damage :).
Why teleport? Teleport will get you back to your lane in 3.5 seconds, so there is a lesser chance that an enemy will come back earlier and push your lane. Also you do not waste any experience lost just because you weren't there :).
Similar choices:
You can choose flash instead of teleport,but you will not be as mobile as you can be.Good when you chase down and your shunpo is on cooldown.
Guides, tips and hints and....items
Just before we get to tips and hints stuff:
An ordinary Katarina starts the game with an amplifying tome and 2 hp potions so that she may quickly build a hextech which will give her a spell vamp. Yay :D!
Wrong!
Many times I saw people buying the tome to get the hextech gunblade.Gah, men you have a better item to start with!
So what I start with you say? Hmm let me think....hmm.....just a bit.....Oh yeah!.It's a Doran's shield.
A doran's shield is the item that will give you a decent hp,armor and what's more important, a hp regen for early game.You might think "Why hp over ability power?" but just 1-2 games with dorans as a start item will prove.
If you have health, you survive for longer. If you have hp regen, you don't even think about surviving. If you have ap item for start,you deal a little bit more damage while still being vulnerable to your enemies.
So survi = being longer on your line/mid = gaining exp faster than your opponent(harrass him,he goes back to base, and you keep exping) = You kill your opponent with ease.
Ok now. The skills and what they are meant to do:
Voracity: This is Katarina's passive ability.Easy to understand, you get 15 sec. cooldown reduction on your spells for a kill/assist
Bouncing Blade: First to max skill.Use this to last hit minions on mid and to harrass enemy champion. Don't forget to combine it with killing instinct to ensure max dmg :).The blades will hit the target and jump on to other targets depending on skill level. adds 30% ability power + 50% additional attack damage from items.
Killer instincts: this is to be used with Q and E.With the blades, they will do max damage to all targets(otherwise the damage will be lowered every time it hits.) and in combination with shunpo, you receive 15-35% reduced damage for 3 seconds.This makes a good combination with W+E+R+Q (q if they are escaping too far or you forgot/cannot cast ignite)
Shunpo: teleports Katarina to a target minion/champ/ward.If it is an enemy,shunpo will deal damage (plus 75% of your ability power).
Death Lotus: Katarina's main weapon.Katarina will be throwing High-Damage knives at 3 closest enemy champions for 3 seconds.However this spell is channeled, which means that any stun/taunt/silence will stop your ulti immediatly.BUT DON'T WORRY!YOU CAN EASILY AVOID YOUR ULTI INTERUPTANCE WITH JUST WAITING FOR THE ENEMY TO STUN YOU.Once you have been stunned the enemy will probably be stupid enough to attack you. Activate your ulti,cast ignite,and look at your enemies' health going down extremely fast :).Don't forget, while you channel your ulti,click q and see when enemy is trying to escape. Once the target is at the very end of the range,cast the q spell to ensure he dies. The ulti gains 30% ability power bonus + 55% bonus attack damage from items.
That's it :).Now, on to the tips hints and guides:
You start a game.You choose 
Katarina as soon as possible.You order yourself a mid line as soon as possible and you refuse to go top/bottom as soon as possible.Don't even ask why yet.
Once you are summoned to the Field of Justice, buy yourself a Doran's shield and take Bouncing Blades.You are a katarina so champions like:
-
Lux
-
Orianna
-
Malzahar
-
Twisted Fate
-
Ashe
-
Caitlyn
-
Anivia
-
Miss Fortune
are nothing against you.Whether they like it or not,without a jungler or anyone to help them they are just a few minutes before being killed by you.
Wait for minions to spawn and keep behind.Until lvl 6 just keep throwing a bouncing blade at the minions with low hp.At higher levels you may use that to do both last hitting minions and harrasing the opponent champion as well :).
Do not push too far though before level 6 especially if the opponent team has stealth guys like
Twitch,
Evelynn, etc. because they might gank you easily and we don't really want that do we?
Right, you gained lvl 6.What now?
1.The mid enemy is well pushed and I have 1100 gold = back to base and buy sorcerer's shoes + teleport back to mid.
2.I have killed the mid enemy and I have 1100 gold = buy sorcerer's shoes and teleport to bot/top.Yes, it's time to hunt down those low level champions ;).
3.I killed/made my enemy go back to base but I dont have 1100 gold= stay at your lane and don't back. Buying just the boots of speed is a waste of time.
Woah! You have already read this much of the guide! You can rest now for a while, you possess most of the knowledge you need, and we're close to the summary :).
Right, so you have level 6-8,you already killed the mid champion,and killed the 2 champions on
top/bottom. What you are meant to do now, is you have to pay attention to your health again.Buy a 
Giant's Belt which will go into 
Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Additional health + slowing spells? Yes Please!
From now on, you will concentrate on ganking top/bottom and making sure the mid is not being pushed.If it is, you are a little bit in trouble, though you may fix that with continuing with the killing stuff you are meant to do.And later, you will start doing team fights, pushing the lanes and finally destroying their nexus.Other than that, there is nothing more to say.
The Summary
Thanks for reading this guide, and I hope it helps you in your Katarina gamestyle.I'm sure to update this if you find anything not right.
Please do vote and comment, Thank you :).
Pachaaa.
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