Welcome to my Katarina guide. First of all I play Katarina AP specced, because Shunpo is our main attack and this is based on AP not AD.

I hope you enjoy reading my guide and leave a comment/vote.

Thanks and happy fragging!

Greater Mark of Insight:
We need this Marks for additional MP. Especially in the early game this makes the difference.

Greater Seal of Potency:
As Katarina is a pure damage dealer, we of course want to max out the dealed damage. So our choice is AP Seals.

Greater Glyph of Force:
Same reason for this one as above for the seals. But in this case we will take the x per level Glyphs, because we have alraedy got enough early game power now and want to push our late game AP a little bit with these Glyphs.

Greater Quintessence of Fortitude: Finally we take some Health essences. They are pretty good for the early game survavability and also during the whole match. No HP, no KILLS.


It is up to you if you decide to be a little bit weaker in the early game and take also the x per level Seals with you. I have tried both and I felt better doing a mix like described above.
In summary I take the Seals for the early game advantage and the Glyphs (x per lvl ones) for better late game AP.

I am playing with 9/21/0.

9 in the Offensive tree to get the 15% MP Buff. Also I put one point in to Cripple to max my Exhaust which is essential for my way to play Katarina.

21 Points into the Defence tree. Why? Well, as Katarina do not use mana and her Skills already got enough CDR during the match, we do not need to put any point into the Utility tree. It would be a waste. We will take the Defence tree because it gives us some more survavability.

AS the build is focused on AP damage of course the items are chosen according to this.

I always start with Boots + 3 Health Potion. This provides us with good speed and the 3 Pots let us stay in lane long enough to reach at least level 6.

I usually stay in lane after I got enough Gold for Sorcerer's Shoes and at least the Amplifying Tome. In best case, if you already got one or two kills in the early game you should also be able to directly go for Mejai's Soulstealer.

Our next shopping tour will be for the Rylai's Crystal Scepter. This provides us with good HP and AP. Also the passive of this Items is great. We want to keep our enemies as close as possible to Katarina, so that our Ultimate Death Lotus can deal as much damage as possible. The slowing passive of Rylai's Crystal Scepter helps us here.

To give our AP a big boost we now go for Rabadon's Deathcap. It is a must for each AP build and I think you all know it. So I will skip the explanation for this one. ;-)

Abyssal Mask! Many people do not take this for Katarina. But why? Really, if you buy it in the late game and you already got a almost full stacked Mejai's Soulstealer + the other AP items, you will be a magic death mashine with this nice item. Let's take a more detailed look into Abyssal Mask.

+ 70 AP
+ 57 MR
+ 20 MP to all surrounding enemies. (!!!)

Think about the following scenario..

You use Shunpo to jump into the fight. Then you use your Ultimate Death Lotus. This attacks the champions around you (remember all got 20 MP + 20 MP from the Boots +8.55 from the Runes = 48.55 MP in total). As your Ult attacks with such a high rate, your enemies will be down within a few seconds.

Now we go for Zhonya's Hourglass. This provides us with some Armor and again 100 AP. Also the passive is pretty good in combination with our Ult because you will be unattackable for 2 seconds. Two seconds are much if you think about how fast your Ult attacks. :-)

That is all about the items. Please think about it. Try to exchange your loved Void Staff for Abyssal Mask.

I am fighting as follows:

Preparation -> Shunpo -> Bouncing Blades -> Death Lotus

Then you can decide to finish your enemy off with another Q or E. I take Q if i see there are 2-3 enemies alive but I can finish them with my Q. E if there is one running or so.

Exhaust for slowing your enemy and withthe Mastery point we spent into it, we also reduce the dealed damage of our target. So this is a pretty good choice for Katarina.

Flash for beeing able to jump into fights or escape. Also you can use Shunpo to get into or out of a fight, as you can use it at enemies and allies.