Hi, my name is Cam, I am a gold Katarina one-trick with 1 million mastery points on Katarina. I started playing league in 2018 maining Katarina (even following severe nerfs) which quickly turned to dropping all other champions in my champ pool for Katarina about halfway through season 8. I have been spamming Katarina up until this current season.

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Katarina is both a weak and a powerful champion encouraging a feast or famine playstyle. This playstyle can be seen in champions such as Master Yi, he’s either going to steamroll the enemy team or he will be utterly useless. Both champions have one thing in common, they both only provide damage for your team. Katarina does lack in areas such as providing cc or a solid frontline for your team. This terrible champion does have a flip side. Katarina on the other hand has a ridiculous amount of damage in her kit that is AOE plus she is able to get resets every time you get a kill or an assist within 3 seconds of damaging them. This is probably why people love playing Katarina

It is no doubt that over the years this champion has become one of the most popular and hated champions leading up to season 11. Over the past few seasons, Katarina has become a very powerful champion without receiving any direct buffs. Some may remember old Katarina with Conqueror or when Kraken Slayer was introduced along with her rework. Katarina has so many items that can be built this season ranging from tank/bruiser, ad Katarina, hybrid and the traditional ap style.

Aatrox - Skill Matchup (Slight disadvantage)
In Lane:
Aatrox is generally a top laner with a lot of sustain. Heck, his whole lore and champion design revolve around life steal. Fortunately, he is very killable in lane as you have ignite to counter his healing along with your ultimate. He should never hit you or trap you due to your mobility making it very easy to kill him. Every time Aatrox goes for a Q he effectively stuns himself. Although he is Aatrox, keep in mind that his consistent damage is much much higher than yours and is able to burst you faster as you’re much squishier than he is. So how do you beat him? You should treat this lane as if you are a ranged champion. Aatrox is able to hold his cooldown on his Q by not using his 3rd Q. To trade with him there must be 2 factors you need to consider before fighting him, he has no passive, and he is using his 3rd Q (jump on him as he uses it because he is locked in place and cannot move without using his E). To combo Aatrox, it is safest to use a short trade such as Combo B. You can use Combo A if you are sure that you can kill him. Note that you also need to be 100% sure that the jungler is not there as he is tankier than your average mid laner. Which can cause things to go south quickly.

Skirmishes:
As far as skirmishes go, they can go either way. The skirmish fights with this laner as your opponent is very dependent on what sort of jungler you have, health bars, all sorts. Dark harvest>>unlikely to win, Electrocute>>jungler dependant fight, Conqueror>>likely win if enemies are at a disadvantage. Generally, I will avoid a skirmish against Aatrox as he is quite the snowball champ meaning that the game could become a mess very quickly. You do not want to side lane into Aatrox mid-game and should always look to fight the enemy + force objectives. Alternatively, you could pick him off in the side lane before forcing. Just don’t fight him mid-game.

Ahri - Skill Matchup (slight advantage)
In Lane:
The lane matchup against Ahri is in your favour however, at the end of the day she is a ranged champion against a melee one with the same if not more burst potential. What gives you the edge over Ahri is the ability to dodge her whole combo rotation most of the time. Ahri is a squishy champion meaning that if you already have a lead you could quite possibly 1v2 if the enemy jungler shows up (depends on the enemy jungler). You should look to use Combo C in lane Gainey Ahri to dodge her charm or use your shunpo to jump over her charm. There are so many ways you can kill her in lane. Note that you should always try to get first blood with Conqueror into Ahri else you’re kinda trolling a little.

Skirmishes:
You should almost always take skirmishes into Ahri as she too does not have any form of consistent damage. You always win this fight as long as you don’t die before your jungler (need the reset). You basically do her job but better. You kill faster, you have next to no skill shots, and you have resets.

Akali - Skill Matchup/Counter (in her favour)
In Lane:
Do not fight Akali in lane as you do not win ever. The only window you have where the fight is fair is when she has used her smoke. Otherwise, just try to farm and out scale her with the scaling build (unless you really have to go Conqueror due to team comp). She beats you because of her mobility, healing, dashes, it’s just not worth it bro trust me. However, if you manage to get fed for some reason, it’s very hard for her to beat you as you can still hit her with your ult in her shroud. Remember that your abilities are semi-skill shots. Akali is very good at 1v1s and 1v2s but she sucks in larger fights compared to you if you both went even in lane.

Skirmishes:
As for skirmishes you can win sometimes, very jungler dependent and what the current game state is (your health bar vs hers and the other players in the skirmish). Remember that if it looks good, always fight!

Akshan - Counter (His favour)
In Lane:
This guy is just Lucian with a shield + a point and click Lucian ult, dashes, love speed, he’s also ranged. It’s just not good for you at all. Akshan is a snowball champ meaning that if you get fed he’s just like every other adc. The lane will be as easy as getting free kills without having to roam bit because he’ll just die whenever he comes into contact with you in lane. Keep in mind that he may have screwed his team comp too because he’s ad so it is best to try and out scale him. However, if you do get the opportunity to roam bot you must always take it! If you get ahead of this guy you just win almost instantly or if you get to your first item before he does. Until that time comes unfortunately you just lose lol. Farm with Q etc. Standard Katarina playing like a ***** until late game stuff.

Skirmishes:
Your damage early game should be higher than Akshan to burst the first target with your jungler before turning on him with the reset. Your runes and build do not matter in this matchup as much as others. Remember to always look at the situation and decide whether you think you win!

Alistair - Skill Matchup (Slight disadvantage)
In Lane:
First of all what! Alistair?? Both tank and ap Alistair have little to no damage just be careful of him head butting you under his tower. This lane is very dependent on where you fight him. Your side or his side.
Make sure that it’s always on your side as the enemy jungle will always be looking to assist Alistair by ganking because of his ridiculous cc. (You only lose this matchup due to Alistair’s cc in lane and his sustain is extremely high due to his passive).

Skirmish:
Bro u don’t even need to read this you just win it’s Alistair lol.

Amumu - Skill Matchup (Even)
In Lane:
Under the assumption that Amumu is going full ap he can be quite killable just don’t ult until he has used all of his cc. Amumu is able to one-shot when building full ap and is able to stun you TWICE now (thanks riot). On the other hand, his ganks and gank assistance are both quite strong. He will be very immobile and squishy when it comes to trying to avoid your damage. He is also easy to poke with q and is something that you should look to do in lane. This matchup is a skill-based one as Amumu will be able to win if he understands his champion’s strengths.

Skirmish:
You should always look to skirmish against ap Amumu regardless of what stage of the game you are at and what build you decided. However general rules apply where a conqueror rune set will almost result in you and your jungler winning the early fights (also compare your jungler to theirs and use your common sense).

Anivia - Counter/Skill Matchup (Her Favor)
In Lane:
Anivia is a very broken champion to vs as Katarina. You almost always feel useless when being this champion as her wave control is insane along with her un-killability. The only way you kill Anivia is if she misses her stun. Once you have baited her stun you can look to do any combo you like as long as she doesn’t hit you with her Q. However this is not the way this lane should be played. She does counter you at the end of the day and if you’ve experienced her insane Q + aa + E combo at level 2 then you know what I’m talking about. Call for jungle assistance and just farm with Q (don’t poke her it’s just too risky). The only way Anivia kills you in this lane is if you get tanked or if you suicide into her by trying to fight. She isn’t like other mages and assassins that can outright kill you when they are fed but rely on you attempting to jump on her. Please I beg… just… don’t…
Note that once you’re fed she will just die over and over as she has no way to dash away from you without flashing.

Skirmishes:
You and Anivia go even in the early skirmish as long as she misses her stun else you and your jungler lose (also jungle dependent obviously). Dark harvest = even fight, electrocute = even fight, conqueror = fight in your favor. Post 6 it gets a lot trickier and it comes down to who is the most mechanical and who is ahead.

Annie - Hard Counter (Her Favor)
In Lane:
Against Annie, you have to kill her early with the conqueror first blood strategy. Your other option is to play safe and do your best to out scale her. Annie can easily spiral out of control. Regardless of her rune page most of the time she will one-shot you at level 6. Similar to your shunpo+flash buffer she will ult+flash to stun lock you and one-shot. Be sure to stay out of range of this. You do not win this lane and most of the time you must try and desync your lane to win the game.

Skirmishes:
Fortunately for you, you actually win these skirmishes against her. Pre 6 Annie actually only has 1 ability that she can’t miss (being her Q). Even if she lands her stun this fight is still very much in your favour. You should definitely consider taking this early fight unless her health is double yours and the enemy jungler is significantly stronger than yours early i.e your Kayn vs their Jarvan. Post 6 u can win but let someone else tank her combo for you xD (seriously if she combos someone else she effectively has killed herself).

Aurelion Sol - Skill Matchup (Your Favor)
In Lane:
Against Sol in a 1 vs 1 fight you are almost guaranteed to win. Post level 2 you should be able to dominate the lane as he only has 2 abilities that can be used to fight you. Once you are level 3 you basically have an extra ability. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to fight him if you had already taken a lot of poke. Only look to trade with this guy if he uses his q as you are able to shunpo over it (any combo will do). A good Sol player will look to poke you with auto-attacks as his base attack damage is op. In saying this sol will usually opt-in for attack speed runes along with magic resist + health and NOT adaptive force making him tankier than what you’re expecting at early levels. He will look to try and outshove you and roam which he can do both much better than you. (When he returns from his roam you should look to control ward/sweep a bush he will walk through back to lane and kill him when he face checks, (this will work most of the time as long as you don’t give it away)).

Skirmishes:
This could go either way unless you take conq which should secure any fights that you decide to have early unless you misplay big time.