Hio guys :)
my name is Daques and currently i am in gold division 4
I wanted to make this guide because i dont think the other guides are explaining katarina very well. So here is how i play her and how u can win games very easy (unless u are playing drunk :D slowbroooo reaction inc)

It will be a huge chunk of text since it is my first guide and i have to figure out how to edit a guide ;) so keep that in mind
I would really like some help to improve my guide! gameplay video and tutorial is following

Why pick her? When do u pick her?

U pick her because she can snowball easy and decide a teamfight in a blink of an eye (even when ur team is horribly behind in kills/objectives), often i dont even know what i was doing there but i played her often in normals and recently i pick her in ranked (forgot how good i was with katarina :D) so her mechanics are well known and i would like to share my knowledge

if i could play mid everytime i want, i would probably pick her 90% of the games :D
But for beginners i recommend picking her when the enemy has low cc (means something that can interrupt her ult (silence, knockback/up, stun etc) or when u have ur own cc heavy team (to secure ur ult) or someone that can force their cc to go off so that u can follow into the fight after its used

Wall of text inc (if u really want to know how to play her, read it!!)

I play kata top or mid it is actually totally leeroy (he doesnt give a shi* :D)

But it is important to remember a few things!!

- at lvl1 harass and lasthit with q lasthit > harass
- at lvl2 if u can harass with q+w (only if u can get in range without taking to much dmg) dont use w or q (senseless) alone at this point make sure u hit q and hit with w to proc the q
-> if u cant harass him without taking to much dmg wait for lvl4 and go on lasthitting/farming with abilities
- at lvl3 skill shunpo (read ability notes when to skill what first w or e at lvl2) dont use shunpo to farm unless u want to push out
- at lvl4 this is where i start to be a pain in the *** ur w is starting to hurt (u should have w on rank2 right now) and u get a decent movementspeed bonus
-> harass with q+w combo and escape with e back to minions or q+e+w and run behind a minion or up/downwards not somehow straight back or something, "up or downwards!"! the enemy is either missing his skillshots (or it gets blocked when u shunpo back u will always be behind a minion when u use shunpo) avoiding skillshots in general is a matter of training and observing the opponent (every game is different, every enemy is more likely to aim downwards/upwards or straight when he gets suddenly attacked, observe his behaviour when u harass him and use that to ur advantage)
- at lvl5 another point in w go on harass / avoiding damage
- at lvl6 often i have the situation that i am first lvl6 and we both are low health take the point in ur ult instantly and engage / force a flash, escape skill usually he has to back or dies from ignite / ultimate (u can use ignite during ult -> recommended!)
-> champions with escapes or engages are a bit tricky for example when i have kha zix as an opponent or talon i usually wait for at least one ability before i aim for a kill that means less dmg u take (even more less when they use their skills when u shunpo to them) and u have a higher chance of winning the trade (kata is one of the strongest 1v1 actually if u know how to)
when i played against kha zix i wait for him to jump on me (i shunpo away to a minion in front so that my position is behind him) and i ult he either takes insane dmg from ult with me dodging some dmg cause he has to run a bit or he goes towards ur turret and waits (takes minion dmg) usually u can finish him then (except for luck and enemy jungler appears sigh*) against talon u wait for him to drop his harass combo (the silence at least) then u run after him and drop ur combo if he isnt dead, he has to back
- lvl 6to9 farming / harassing avoiding dmg/ganks (avoiding ganks or unwilled trades with trinket ward + shunpo)
lvl 9 i often start to roam unless i think i should rather farm (for example enemies have nice escapes or ur teammate has to low health to take a bit of dmg (kata ganks are more powerful when ur mate engages and take some skills/escapes/a stun) almost a guaranteed flash/kill if they used it on him
- lvl6-18 since u passivly buy wards for escape mechanics make sure objectives are warded to and try to force teamfights! kata is very strong in at this point of the game! she makes or breaks or at least takes all the ults and ur team cleans up ;)

Easy.

Ur team either engages and u wait until u figured out they dont have any cc left or ur team can secure ur ult when u jump afterwards another method is to wait and let them engage, u stay behind and observe when u see 1 enemy dropping low (or heavy cc is used / one of ur teammates is focused hard) join the fight use q+w+e+r, get the resets and use q+w+e again to finish another one who dropped low in that time (happens very often) so u got a second kill and can often clean the rest up with getting another kill+ ur ult again
if they fast switch on u just cancel ur ult and use hourglass (usually my first big item just because of the target switch) while they are a bit confused of what to do now ur teammates should be able to get a kill so u get resets (assists give resets too) and u can shunpo out or go for another kill and resets of ur skills

Guardian Angel is a must have item and probably the best defensiv item in game and for katarina (beside hourglass)
I just had it recently (happens very often actually) that hourglass doesnt give enough time for your team to pick up a kill (bring some1 very low)
So when u come out of stasis from hourglass they **** on u again and guardian angel proccs now ur team has another few seconds to make u get resets (by killing some1 during ur reviving phase) or bring someone to low health for u to finish and get resets
The reason why this item is so strong especially in soloqueue is, that i or maybe u too ;) are mostly very well farmed or even fed! and the enemy cant afford letting u do even one combo so the enemy is focusing u so hard that ur team can catch up every teamfight since they can focus targets and gain kills ( u will get resets which is why i very often have stats at the end of laningphase with 4/0/0 or 5/2/0 or 2/0/0 and a huge amount of creeps and at the end of the game i have 8/8/22 because u are such a huge threat that they cant afford u to do anything which is the time of ur teammates to come back (when they were losing fights)

U carry games by either aim for the backline by flash+e to backlind and q+w+r to kill them or by waiting for the enemy frontline to engage/blowing skills( ur own frontline to engage force enemy skills) and then it is the time to kill them really quick (if they dont have magic resist but health, ur ult will always deal enough dmg unless they are like hyperhyperfed ;)) otherwise u should tell ur team they shall focus them so u can gain resets and go for the backline afterwards!) communication is important as kata
u will never engage as katarina!
there are a few exceptions though (doing it really often)
when ur enemy adc/apc/suishy bruiser (not much health) has like 50-60% health(or u are fed/farmed and u can get some1 within 2secs from 100% to 0%), no cc left/flash or something similiar u just dive him real quick and shunpo back our (or even kill 2 or 3) remember ur shunpo reduces dmg taken so whenever u use it again u gain the buff which means as long as u get resets and have targets u could kills with ur combo u can go on killing them and shunpo or flash+shunpo out again looks amazing and is soooooo much fun :D trust me

I hope u try katarina she is really worth to learn and so much fun to play!
And of course there is something missing ( alot of mechanics, decision making, what to buy when and so on ) but it is 0am right now and i think this is enough right now :P but i will catch up to it later and improve the guide, just give me a bit of time

Currently i am 23 wins and 8 loss in ranked (loss mostly because of someone leaving/dcing and 2games because i was hella drunk :D) there are like 1-2 games where i admit that i just missplayed but that happens to everyone

I will also upload a full game or scenes of me playing katarina and link it, so make sure to stay updated!

PS: i am not a native speaker but i can take the spelling flame, and i will correct it :P