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Katarina - Spinnin' For The Win (AP)
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Spells:
Ghost
Flash
Ability Order
Voracity (PASSIVE)
Katarina Passive Ability
Introduction

Recommended:
This is one ability that I personally like a lot. It can be used to get to a teamfight faster, to sprint to another lane to gank before they even know you are gone, to escape a really bad situation, or just to get a little boost to get into
Shunpo range. The possibilites are (almost) endless.
This is another great ability with all different kinds of uses. You can use it to escape over a treeline, close the gap between you and a target for a
Shunpo, or whatever else you might want to do with a blink.
Alternative:
Some people like to use this ability to get some kills early game, and to apply the healing debuff as well as some extra damage late game, but I don't like it. I'm not saying this is a bad summoner spell, it just doesn't fit my playstyle. You have the same healing debuff from your
Bouncing Blade, and getting a final hit on someone is usually not a problem with Kat. This is by no means a bad choice as a summoner spell, but just remember that if you do take this, do NOT get the mastery for it, instead put one of the points from the utility tree (whichever spell you decide to not use) into Greed for a little extra money.
This is another option for Kat. If you are afraid of getting stunned/silenced to death, this is a great summoner spell. It lets you clear everything and
Shunpo /
Flash out of danger.
Some people like to take Exhaust with Kat, but I am strongly against it. The problem I have with it is that once you get your
Rylai's Crystal Scepter, I feel like it becomes an almost useless summoner spell.




Alternative:







Looking at each of the different "types" of runes, you can see that each one gives a higher yield depending on the stat/rune combination. Basically, each rune "type" is itemized better for certain stats. This sounds confusing even as I am writing it, so allow me to explain with some examples.
Ex. 1: Marks give .95 Magic Pen, but Glyphs only give .57
Ex. 2: Glyphs give 3.06 Ability Power but Marks only give 1.8
So when you are trying to get the most out of your runes, try to pick ones that are itemized for the specific rune type. Some good ones to choose from are Magic/Armor Pen for Marks, Health/Armor for Seals, and Cooldown Reduction/Ability Power for Glyphs.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: All of your attacks, including Bouncing Blade and Death Lotus, deal magic damage. This should be the only Mark you use.
Greater Seal of Vitality: This is the Seal that I prefer because I am not a big fan of dodge since it doesn't work on spells, and the health boost is just all around good.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: I only get one of these because with the
Ionian Boots of Lucidity,
Mejai's Soulstealer, and your masteries, this will put you at 39.9% Cooldown Reduction at level 18, assuming you have full stacks. Of course you could just get another Ability Power Glyph, but .9% Cooldown Reduction is better than 3 Ability power in my opinion (although it probably wont make a difference either way lol)
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: This is pretty straight forward, you want to max your damage and this gives you more damage.
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: I choose magic pen quints because this starts you off with around 14 Magic Pen, which is enough to put the hurt on enemy heroes even before you get you
Void Staff
Ex. 1: Marks give .95 Magic Pen, but Glyphs only give .57
Ex. 2: Glyphs give 3.06 Ability Power but Marks only give 1.8
So when you are trying to get the most out of your runes, try to pick ones that are itemized for the specific rune type. Some good ones to choose from are Magic/Armor Pen for Marks, Health/Armor for Seals, and Cooldown Reduction/Ability Power for Glyphs.

Greater Seal of Vitality: This is the Seal that I prefer because I am not a big fan of dodge since it doesn't work on spells, and the health boost is just all around good.



















The reason I get


I also tend to not get







































Most people go into the defense tree because Kat is a squishy character, but this is how I see it. If the enemy wants to focus you down, having 4% less damage taken and a little bit more dodge will NOT save you from dying. However, having a shorter flash cooldown, some extra runspeed, shorter cooldowns (Shunpo away from trouble), and some good judgement WILL save you. Also this lets you get the extra experience, a faster and longer ghost, longer neutral buffs, and less time dead.
First of all, you are going to want to grab middle. Kat gets much much stronger when she levels quickly because all of your abilities start to tie together and your runes start to kick in.
Early Game:
Always throw a
Bouncing Blade to help your jungler when the game starts, and then go to the middle and start last-hitting creeps with your
Bouncing Blade. Getting the last hit is important enough where you should risk getting hit by a few melee's or spell's, but don't overdo it. You are going to need this gold from the last hits if you want to pull ahead. I dont even try to harass until around level 5 because you simply dont have the damage and survivability to do so against competent opponents.
The objective here is to stay in your lane long enough to get 1900 gold, so you can go get your
Hextech Revolver and
Ionian Boots of Lucidity at the same time. This is about the same time you should start looking for people to gank.
What I like to do is be very proactive about ganking. This means asking your teamates if they are struggling with a certain hero, checking the top and bottom lanes for heroes below 50% health, and asking your jungler to cover your lane while you gank. This stops your middle lane from getting pushed, gives your jungler a little xp boost, and allows you to snipe some enemy heroes.
Mid Game:
Once you get some ganks, and start building up your items, you should be entering the part of the game where you and your team need to stick together and push lanes, kill dragon, and get neutral creep buffs. Sticking with you team is going to be where you shine as Kat.
What you want to try to do is before teamfights, activate
Preparation and try to bait them in with a few
Bouncing Blades. By now you should be at least level 13, and you will have maxed out
Bouncing Blade and
Shunpo. At all levels,
Preparation gives your
Bouncing Blade full damage no matter how many times it bounces, making it insanely good for pre-fight harass.
Once the fight actually begins you are going to want to wait for the enemy team to use a few of their stuns/silences before actually going in. The beauty of Kat is that all of her damage can happen in about 4 seconds, so even if you wait for your teamates to get around 50% health, you can jump in and kill the entire enemy team before you lose allies.
Late Game:
If the game has gotten to this point, it means you are either god status or do nothing status. Hopefully it is god status and the enemy team is just being stubborn. The hardest part when this happens is to not get cocky. Even though you can probably destroy their entire team in 4 seconds, by now they have caught on to what you are doing and will put every single stun/silence/supression they have on you. But don't panic, USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! If you stay back and harass with your
Preparation +
Bouncing Blade, they will be so worried about you coming in and destroying them that they won't use their skills on your teamates, allowing them free-reign to plow their way through the enemy base with you sitting just behind them scaring away your enemies.
Early Game:
Always throw a


The objective here is to stay in your lane long enough to get 1900 gold, so you can go get your


What I like to do is be very proactive about ganking. This means asking your teamates if they are struggling with a certain hero, checking the top and bottom lanes for heroes below 50% health, and asking your jungler to cover your lane while you gank. This stops your middle lane from getting pushed, gives your jungler a little xp boost, and allows you to snipe some enemy heroes.
Mid Game:
Once you get some ganks, and start building up your items, you should be entering the part of the game where you and your team need to stick together and push lanes, kill dragon, and get neutral creep buffs. Sticking with you team is going to be where you shine as Kat.
What you want to try to do is before teamfights, activate






Once the fight actually begins you are going to want to wait for the enemy team to use a few of their stuns/silences before actually going in. The beauty of Kat is that all of her damage can happen in about 4 seconds, so even if you wait for your teamates to get around 50% health, you can jump in and kill the entire enemy team before you lose allies.
Late Game:
If the game has gotten to this point, it means you are either god status or do nothing status. Hopefully it is god status and the enemy team is just being stubborn. The hardest part when this happens is to not get cocky. Even though you can probably destroy their entire team in 4 seconds, by now they have caught on to what you are doing and will put every single stun/silence/supression they have on you. But don't panic, USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! If you stay back and harass with your


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