Today I'm here to, hopefully, teach you guys a little about Katarina - The Sinister Blade.
You're free to upvote or downvote the guide, but I would really like to hear why,
so I can work on making this guide (even) better.

I will be updating the guide every so often,
So I make sure to keep up with the changes to;
+ The champion Katarina
+ Mid lane champions (for the match-up section)
+ Items
To keep my guide as informative as I possibly can.
If you see things I forgot to mention, spelling mistakes or mistakes of any kind,
Please send me a message or comment on the guide so I can update it!

Please keep in mind that this is a guide about how I play Katarina,
not a guide about how I think everyone should play her.

Katarina is a champion that really relies on cooldowns so getting extra cooldown reduction is great.

This is a great way to amplify your damage in lane, and most importantly; in team fights.

Getting 3 points in here will get you 16 extra Ability Power at level 18.

An extra 6 Ability Power, which will help you in the early game as well.

Increases damage dealt to champions by 5% when they're at 50% health or lower.

Putting 3 points in here increases your Ability Power by 5%.

Killing a champion will give you back 5% of your missing health.

Putting 3 points in here will give you 6% Magic Penetration.

Basic attacks will do 5% of your ability power as bonus magic damage.

This will increase all of your damage by 3%.



This will help you with auto attack harass a little bit, mainly got a point here so I can get to juggernaut.

This will help your health regen a little bit inbetween pokes.

This is good to have cause it increases your bonus armor and MR by 5%.

Gives you 36 extra health so you're not as vulnerable, especially early-game.

Increases your max HP by 3%, also making you a lot less vulnerable.






Katarina is a champion that really relies on cooldowns so getting extra cooldown reduction is great.

This is a great way to amplify your damage in lane, and most importantly; in team fights.

Getting 3 points in here will get you 16 extra Ability Power at level 18.

An extra 6 Ability Power, which will help you in the early game as well.



This will help you with auto attack harass a little bit.

This will help your health regen a little bit inbetween pokes.

This is good to have cause it increases your bonus armor and MR by 5%.

This will help you with all damage just a little bit.

Gives you 36 extra health so you're not as vulnerable, especially early-game.

Increases your max HP by 3%, also making you a lot less vulnerable.

Gives you 5 armor so you're a little bit tankier.

Gives you 5 MR so you're a little bit tankier.

Regenerates 3% of your missing health every 5 seconds.

Increases self-healing, Health Regen, Lifesteal, and Spellvamp by 10% when below 25% Health.

Note: These are my main AP mastery pages, if you like using other masteries, feel free to do so.
Note: This is just an example, really :3.

Greater Marks of Magic Penetration
Since I always play Katarina AP it's great to have the Magic Penetration at both early and late game, it will reduce the effectiveness of your opponent's Magic Resist.

Greater Seals of Armor
I mainly pick these seals because mid players often harass with auto attacks, aside from that they also reduce the damage you receive from minions.

Greater Glyphs of Scaling Magic Resist
Scaling Magic Resist Glyphs give an advantage over flat Magic Resist Runes after level 6, since you hit 6 on mid in no-time, these will probably help a lot more in your lane, and most importantly; team fights.

Greater Quintessences of Ability Power
And of course we need some extra Ability Power, these Quints give you 15 AP from the start, so they're great for that extra early-game harassment.



Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist
These give an awesome advantage when playing mid, since most mid champions are AP they'll deal less magic damage to you, you can get these if you will have trouble against your mid champion in your early laning phase.

Greater Glyphs of Ability Power
These give you even more AP, but you should have enough AP from your Masteries, other Runes and Items, so I'd rather go with the Magic Resist so I don't have to buy a lot of Items to get my Magic Resist up.

Greater Glyphs of Cooldown Reduction
Since Kat's cooldowns are a big deal almost throughout the entire game you could go for Cooldown Reduction runes, but if you know how to position yourself in team fights and know when to jump in, you won't really have a need for these. Just ask your jungler for a blue buff.

Greater Quintessences of Movement Speed
These will give you an easier time roaming, but I personally prefer the Ability Power Quints.

Note: These are the runes that I think are the best choice, but since everyone plays differently,
Note: you can use whatever works best for you :3.

Ignite
This is great for getting kills on people that are getting away, it also reduces the healing people receive by 50%. So this is great to use in team-fights, even if you just use it so people can't get healed as much during your combo.

Exhaust
Since it reduces Physical and Magical damage it can be used to reel in that kill when things get really close. The slow can easily be used to safely get away in mid, or to catch up to an enemy.

Flash
This is an awesome Summoner Spell for every champion. Flash gives you better mobility, you can quickly catch up to or get away from an enemy. This is a great replacement for when Shunpo is on cooldown, it also gives you the ability to escape by flashing over a wall.




Barrier
If you think you'll have a really tough lane, you might want to take Barrier with you. This summoner spell gives you a shield for up to 435 health at level 18 when you activate it. It will save your life if used at the right time, just remember that the shield only lasts for 2 seconds.

Teleport
When you choose this Summoner Spell you don't have to wait until the enemy is dead or MIA for you to recall, you can just recall and Teleport back to your turret and harass the enemy with your new items. Aside from getting back to lane faster, it also gives you the opportunity to teleport to another lane when you see a teammate in trouble.

Cleanse
If you have an opponent with damage over time spells, snares, stuns or any movement impairing spells, this is a good summoner spell for you to pick. If you're close to dying, and you're poisoned, just simply use Cleanse so you make sure it doesn't kill you, instead of testing your luck. It can also get you out of a snare from Lux, so you can just side-step her combo.

Sinister SteelSinister Steel






Farming:
sinister steel

Harassing:
sinister steel

Combo of Death:
sinister steel

The early game is the part of the match where you mainly focus on getting farm. Farming is the best way to get gold in the game. For this reason, one of the most important things you have to do is practice last-hitting, and when you're done practicing, practice some more. Last hitting is different for every role, champion and match-up. Once you play a champion long enough you will learn what the best ways to farm for that champion are.

Aside from farming you also want to deny your lane opponent to get farm, so they will fall behind in gold. A good way to do this, is by harassing them every time they try to get some farm. Just by simply using your
Bouncing Blades, or even your sinister steel when they're close enough. Even better is killing them, or forcing them to recall. This way, they won't just lose gold, but experience too, which will give you an even bigger lead in your lane.

Some tips that will make your early game a little easier:
+ Try not to push your minion wave, this means you don't spam all your abilities to kill minions, but
+ just last-hit them. If they're too close to your enemy you can simply use your Bouncing Blades
+ to get the minion kills. Another plus to this is that you can harass your opponent while you're
+ really just trying to get some farm.
+ Having a safe lane for yourself is probably the most important part. This is why you buy wards.
+ If you buy wards and place them in one of the side-bushes you will be able to see the enemy jungler
+ when he tries to gank you.



The Safe Zone:
In this zone you're relatively safe because of two reasons:
- You're close to your turret
- Not many ganking abilities for the enemy team

In this zone you can pretty much take your time last-hitting minions, just watch out for minions getting too close to the turret or you won't be able to last-hit them. You can run away easily from any attacks and if the enemies get too close your homie turret will have your back. In this zone it's also really easy for your teammates to gank your enemy.


The Neutral Zone:
I call this zone the neutral zone because of numerous reasons:
- This is an easy zone to gank for both teams
- Most of the minion killing happens here
- Fights on mid lane often take place here
- You're right in between two turrets, yours and the enemies'
- Still relatively easy to escape a fight

This will be the zone you'll spend the most time in on mid, as long as you have some wards up you should be able to see ganks coming from a mile away. It's also really easy to ask your jungler for a gank in this zone if you want to secure a kill. When you end up getting in a fight you can't win you can just Shunpo to a minion to get away and finish your journey to the turret and recall if you're too beat up.


The Danger Zone:
This is not a good place to be in because:
- There is a lot of ganking ability for the enemy team
- You can run into the turret range if you're not careful
- It's a long way from your own turret so it's hard to get away from a gank or regular fight.

If you're smart you won't spend too much time here, even if you just killed your enemy mid-laner, other enemy Champions are bound to come and get you if you stay while you're at low health from your fight. Just recall and get some items while you have time since it will take a while for the enemy to respawn.



The mid game is the part of the match where you start working towards objectives such as; kills, turrets, inhibitors, dragon and baron. All of these objectives will put your team on the lead, which should eventually win you the game. So in this state of the game it's not only important that you try to push your own lane, but also gank other lanes so you can help your teammates get a lead on their lane. After the first few objectives are either won or lost, team fights will start occurring. Since Katarina is an AP assassin class, your most important role in team fights will be taking out the enemies carries. This should not be too hard to do since they will most likely be squishy, and you would be able to burst them down fast with your combo. Positioning yourself well in these team fights is really important.

Some tips on positioning yourself in team fights:
+ Focus on one of the carries, don't ever focus a tank.
+ You're not a tank so stay away from the early burst damage and CC's from the opposite team so
+ you have less chance your ult will get interrupted.
+ When there is a team fight, stay back and harass first, don't ever jump in first, you're not god. After most
+ people have found their target, jump in and do as much damage to the carries as possible using the
+ Combo of Death. You'll hopefully be leaving with some kills and/or assists.

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Ahri is a mobile champion with high early damage. She can charm you out of your ultimate so be very careful as to when you use it. Ahri makes a good ganker with her ult so try and follow her whenever she starts to roam. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ She's pretty mana hungry, try to make her waste it ♥ Try to dodge her skill-shots ♥ Punish her with your combo when she misses her Charm ♥ Try forcing her ult before you go in for a kill ♥ Follow her when she's roaming, you might be able to catch her ♥ off guard

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Akali is a mobile champion with the same kind of play style as Kat. Akali has a gap close just like your Shunpo, but she can only jump to enemy targets, plus she can only use it 3 times in a short period of time. INTERRUPTS: 0 SKILL SHOTS: 0 ♥ She's a better chaser since her gap close has a shorter cooldown ♥ Your marking ability can reach further since it bounces off minions, ♥ so try to poke her down with that until you can combo her to death ♥ She has more damage without skills because of her passive, so ♥ don't go into a 1v1 with her unless you can combo her to death ♥ She has more sustain because of her spell-vamp based skill set. ♥ Don't let her shroud stop you from ulting, it will still hit her ♥ even if she is invisible! ♥ She has high burst potential, so don't risk dying and just recall ♥ when you're low.

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Anivia is a champion with slows and a stun. Her passive is a big reason why you should watch your step when you turret dive Anivia, you might have killed the bird, but you might not be able to kill the egg in time. She isn't always as easy to kill as she seems, so be warned. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ She's pretty mana hungry, try to make her waste it ♥ Her Q (stun) is a pretty slow ability, the best thing is to punish ♥ her when she uses it by jumping to her and using your combo ♥ Don't try to turret dive her, she has too many ways ♥ to lock you in turret range ♥ She's really slow, so if she starts roaming just follow her and ♥ try to catch her off guard

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Annie is a mage with a short spell range, but this doesn't make the little girl a less scary champion. Her passive, gives her a stun on any 5th ability she casts. For those who don't know; when Annie has a white swirl around her she will stun with her next spell. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ Just farm up and roam early, her high burst and CC make her ♥ a really difficult champion for you to lane against. ♥ She's a slow champion so she can't quite follow you when ♥ you are roaming ♥ Wait for a gank before you fight her, ♥ you will lose a 1v1 against her

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Brand is a champion with high early damage, insane pokes and high burst. As long as you're good at dodging skill shots he shouldn't be too hard to handle. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ If you get hit by his W or E make sure you staybehind minions, ♥ so he won't be able to stun you with his Q ♥ When he ults try and stay as far away from minions and allies ♥ so it won't bounce to you multiple times ♥ Just try to dodge as many attacks as you can, once he stuns you, ♥ you're done for

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Cassiopeia is your sister, but that doesn't mean you have to hold back on her! If you want to fight her you will have to be decent at dodging skills or you'll get wrecked. It's easy to counter her ultimate by simply not facing her. However she will be able to counter your ult with hers so watch your step. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ She's pretty mana hungry, try to make her waste it ♥ Her weakness is mobility, just keep running around and she ♥ will miss most of her skills ♥ She's really scary with a blue buff, so try to stay away from ♥ her when she has one ♥ She's a slow champion so she won't really be able to follow you ♥ when you start roaming

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Cho'Gath is a really tough mid laner, not only is he tanky, but he is able to sustain way better in lane because of his passive. This is one of Kat's worst enemies since he has two spells that easily interrupt Kat's ult. INTERRUPTS: 2 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ He's pretty mana hungry early game, try to make him waste it ♥ He has 2 spells to easily interrupt your ultimate ♥ Avoid a 1v1 with him cause you will most likely lose ♥ Ask you jungler for a lot of early ganks so you can keep him from ♥ getting too much farm, or even stacks ♥ He's a slow champion so he won't really be able to follow you ♥ when you start roaming

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Diana is a champion with high mobility and really high burst damage. After level 6 she's going to be nearly impossible to kill for you. Just play really passively and just try to farm when you're up against her. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ She's pretty mana hungry early game, try to make her waste it ♥ She can E to stop your ultimate ♥ You might be able to keep her from farming too much before level 6, ♥ you'll really need the lead on her ♥ Ask you jungler for a lot of ganks so you can keep her from ♥ getting too much farm ♥ She's a strong ganker and she'll easily follow you whenever you ♥ start roaming so be careful

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Elise is a champion that can turn herself into a spider for which she gets 3 other spells; Venomous Bite, Skittering Frenzy and Rappel. She has really high mobility and she has quite some burst damage. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny auto attack harass ♥ She can E in human form to stop your ultimate, or switch to spider ♥ form and use E to barely receive any damage from it ♥ If she's really low and running away in spider form, you can cast ♥ bouncing blades on one of her spiderlings to hit her with it ♥ She has pretty good sustain with her Spider Form W ♥ She's a strong ganker and she can easily follow you whenever you ♥ start roaming so be careful

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Evelynn is a champion with high mobility and quite some burst damage. Her passive makes her invisible if she's out of battle long enough, and if she's far away enough from enemies. This makes it hard to report her missing and gives her great ganking abilities, even in her own lane! INTERRUPTS: 0 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Practice farming with Q to deny harass with her Q ♥ Try to report her missing as soon as she disappears from your screen, ♥ you will never know when she's actually roaming ♥ She has a pretty constant harass with her Q ♥ Be careful when to use your ult, she can easily run out of range ♥ with her W or ult you back to negate your damage with her shield ♥ She's a strong ganker and she can easily follow you whenever you ♥ start roaming so be careful

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Fiddlesticks is a champion with very low mobility but a high amount of CC that can easily get you killed. Since he's technically a jungler, immediately let everyone know when he's MIA, especially when he has his ultimate. To win this lane you must know when to go in and when not to go in. INTERRUPTS: 2 SKILL SHOTS: 0 ♥ Try to harass him whenever his CC is down ♥ Try to report him missing as soon as he disappears from your screen, ♥ he has insane ganking potential with his ult ♥ Your ult counters his drain, so he won't be able to heal too much ♥ while you use your full combo on him ♥ Before you go in on him, make sure you wasted his CC so he won't be ♥ able to stop your ultimate

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Fizz is a high mobility, high burst champion. You should be able to fight against him as Kat as long as you use your head and use your high mobility against his. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Keep harassing him with your Q at all times ♥ Harass him hard whenever his Playful Trickster and ♥ Urchin Strike are on cooldown ♥ His only CC is on his ult and on top of that it's delayed so he ♥ has low interruption chance on your own ult ♥ Don't use your ult on him unless his Playful Trickster is down ♥ It's really easy do dodge his ult with your shunpo, so try and ♥ save your shunpo for that

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Galio is known as the anti-mage. His passive really encourages him to build magic resist, which makes him really tough to play against as an AP mid. Aside from him being really tanky, he also has a great amount of poke. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 2 ♥ Harass won't really work on him so don't waste your time on it ♥ Focus on farming and roaming ♥ Try to dodge as many of his attacks as you can ♥ Try to stay out of his ult in team fights, or at least wait until it's ♥ on cooldown before you use yours

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Gragas is a tanky champion with a good amount of sustain and mobility. A good Gragas is really hard to fight for Kat so watch your step. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 3 ♥ Focus on farming and roaming ♥ Try to dodge as many of his attacks as you can ♥ Only use your ultimate on him when his ult and body slam are down ♥ In team fights you should wait for his ultimate to be on ♥ cooldown before you use yours

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Heimer might be a natural pusher, but Kat can push just as hard when needed. He has pretty high early damage but you'll outgrow that in no time as long as you keep farming. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Constantly harass him with your Q, which is even easier to do ♥ if he keeps his turrets up ♥ He is a hard pusher early so make sure you ask for early ganks ♥ to make him pay for that ♥ His E could interrupt your ult but it's very slow and once wasted, ♥ it has a long cooldown ♥ The turrets he puts up are easy to deal with once you have some AP, ♥ just kill them as he places them so the cooldown for it stays high ♥ He doesn't have any real escapes so it should be easy to take him ♥ down with a good combo

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Karma has some decent mobility and can hurt a lot when she gets some AP. It should be easy to lane against her since her main damage ability is a skill shot, and her stun is on delay. Her heal from her R+W combo can be really easily countered with your ult. INTERRUPTS: 1 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Constantly harass her with your Q ♥ Dodge her Q to deny her main damage output ♥ If she uses her W, just simply run out of range and jump back on her ♥ as soon as you've out ranged it ♥ Her heal is kind of useless against your ult but her E might give you ♥ some trouble with finishing her off ♥ Just wait for her to be low to use your full combo on her so her E ♥ won't stop you from getting the kill

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Karthus is, hands down, the easiest champion for Katarina to fight against. He won't be able to do any damage to you unless you decide to step into every Q he puts down. The only thing you have to watch out for are his Q's and passive. INTERRUPTS: 0 SKILL SHOTS: 1 ♥ Constantly harass him with your Q ♥ Make sure you dodge his Q's ♥ After level 6 you can go full aggressive against him ♥ After killing him just simply shunpo out so his passive will be ♥ completely useless ♥ Be careful with his W since it can put you in a dangerous position ♥ When he's casting his ultimate, make sure to use shunpo so you ♥ won't take as much damage from it

Thanks for reading my guide and I hope you learned something from it.
This is my first guide ever and I would appreciate it if you guys would help me improve it by giving me some feedback in either the comment section, or my inbox.


Malakraai for being the best boyfriend ever and helping me with this guide, I love you ❤.
Eetheart for being my #1 fan!
BlueBeri for helping me with this guide a whole bunch.
JhoiJhoi for the BBCode guide, it really helped me.
Ganassa on DeviantArt for making the awesome art I used. (link)
Discussion for the awesome feedback I got in the comment section, thanks :D.

29/11/13 // Changed the Start items.
29/11/13 // Made some minor changes.
28/11/13 // Fully updated masteries.
24/11/13 // Removed Will of the Ancients from items because of the new recipe.
23/11/13 // Added Trinkets to item list and item section.
22/11/13 // Added S4 masteries in cheetsheat.
04/10/13 // Fixed some pictures again.
01/10/13 // Added 7 champions to Match Up section.
12/09/13 // Completely changed Game play section.
10/09/13 // Made massive changes in the Match Up section.
10/09/13 // Made some changes at the summoner spell section.
10/09/13 // Added enchantments in the item section.
10/09/13 // Made some major changes in the item section.
10/09/13 // Put another start option in cheatsheet, changed item section accordingly.
07/08/13 // Swapped some chapters around a little bit.
06/08/13 // Put item choices in cheatsheet rather than just in item section.
06/08/13 // Took out the Hextech Gunblade from items.
04/08/13 // Swapped flat MR runes for scaling MR runes.
12/07/13 // Made the guide look a little prettier!
11/07/13 // Made some minor changes in the Item section.
11/07/13 // Added Cleanse and Barrier to Summoners Spells.
11/07/13 // Added some extra info in the Intro section.
11/07/13 // Added 9/21 masteries for sustain Kat.
21/06/13 // Solved issues with the pictures not showing.
26/05/13 // Corrected grammar throughout the guide.
09/04/13 // Fully updated "Item" section.
08/04/13 // Added 3 more champions to the Match Up section.
08/04/13 // Changed item build a little again.
08/04/13 // Added two different Katarina builds.
31/03/13 // Changed item build.
31/03/13 // Added first part of Match Ups.
18/03/13 // Made some minor changes to tidy up the guide.
09/03/13 // Published!