First of all: This is my first n only Guide i wanted to share whit u Guys, excuse me my bad English becuse its long time gone since i used it in Scool or Work.

I dont know much about adding Images of Skills, Champs or other stuff so i hope its enough to explain u something about my Gameplay and my Tacktics.

Introducing u Katarina, The Sinister Blade:

League of Legends Homepage - Champions -> Katarina

My Guide is TOTALY Un-usuall.
Some guys perhaps even might Freak out n laugh or start Flaming about it.
Its easy to explain that, they got NO IDEA how possible n easy this Guide can work n how much Fun it can be when its played...
i got to say whit enough skill on Kat, !u may be able to play her how u want to play her!!
Just toooo many ppl in my eyes play her on focused Glass-Cannon becuse she is able to Burst Dmg 3-5guys in seconds n jump out after it (RunAway).
But what pushed me to make such a Guide? well ill tell u after this ->

B4 i start i wanna show u the Guides wich helped me much on my LoL start, n explained a lot of great Katarina game Tacktics, skills n how to Pwn whit her->

Of cuse 1 of the best scored´s Guides whit a lot of Explanation:
wRAthoFVuLK´s Guide for AP Katarina

1 Guide of my starting Days
long Time out of date but worth to read it -> HeAt´s Guide - Shunpo That Katarina Guidehttp://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/edit-build?edit=123974#

This Guide brought me to the AD Katarina long time ago:
another out-dated HeAt Guide for Katarina

This Guide isnt THE ULTIMATE GUIDE to Kata. becuse of time, different Word´s and my lack of English, some People might have problems in reading this so i try some Shortcuts to Help u go through it.
I am a Copy n Paste fan and to not oversize this Guide i cant tell u all my sources or explain u all sentence for sentence if u got still Problems after this..Google it :)

My Qualifications are:
Around 1300 won games in Normal - around 700 lost Games = ~2000 Totaly played Games on Normal
Kat focused games around 60%
Mid Dominating around 80%

CC = Crowd Control
BB = Katarinas Skill Bouncing Blade (Q) -> Bouncing Blades
Shunpo = Shunpo (E) -> Shunpo
KI = bla bla bla (W) -> Preparation
Ulti = Kat´s Ultimate (R) -> Death Lotus
Last Hit = Hit a Minion or Junglecreep whit a skill or Auto-Attack to it´s Death to get the Gold for it´s Kill
Farm = Kill Minions (Creeps) or Junglecreeps (Monsters in the Jungle) to get last hits, and Level Up
Minon Wave = 1Group of Minions
CD = Cool Down (Time delay to use the Skill as next)
Focus = to concentrate u on 1 Thing, 1task
DMG = Damage
Damage Cap = Maximum of Damage that can be reached
Squishy = Called "Glass-Cannon like" Champions, many Dmg but low healt or Mag. Phy. defence (Armor)
Burst DMG = Called the DMG right between a very short time (Like 2-3Seconds) normaly a Burst DMG hit is a BIG 1Hit DMG Skill, but sometimes a DMG Combo is Called that too.

Katarina got impressive nice Skills so why isnt she played much in Ranked´s... well easy to tell u she got no CC spells. Thats enough for most People ingame and if she gets countered well she is easy to get out of the Game, just some Stuns might freak u out n block nearly EVRY Ultimate, thats why i made this Guide to play her different :)

Pros:

Her best Pro is NO MANA
Can easy jump in and out, even across a Wall whit Wards, own Minions and Champions.
Great harraser, her BB just jumps across evrywhere n at Least hits Enemys throught her whole Minion wave if used right.
CD and CD Reduction -> Reduction after each kill and/or Assist and whitin that very low Cooldowns between the Skills u need ( BB, Shunpo, KI, Ulti)
Epic Ulti on up to 3 Enemys at the same Time, and till yet u can "Smell" Steahlt Enemys in ur Range
so that means u nearly can Jump Unlimited in and out and around at Teamfights or while harrasing out of the Bushes

Cons:

I think she needs some High skill and pretty much speed while u play Her
Get´s focused many times at least, if she gets a lot of Kills or just becuse her Ulti can be stopped whit a single Stun
Damage Cap, to explain that, i think 4 her its hard to stand the late Game, many times u cant get enough Armor or even enough DMG to Kill late Game Champs such as Tryndamere}}, [[Nasus or who ever.

To Explain u my Runes it doesnt takes long, the BB scales at its best whit Mag.Pen.
The Shunpo and the Ultimate scales whit MagPen, Ap and AD.
Of cuse Shunpo gets more DMG whit AP and even the Ulti is said to better scale whit AP now, but my Focus is the BB and my Skill whit it.

So i have choosen MagPen Marks:

Greater Mark of Insight

and MagPen Glyphs:

Greater Glyph of Insight

Kat got very low healt, but i learnd to play n even get the Enemy offensive whit it.
Most ppl Laugh at a 4-Healtbar Katarina untill their down on the Ground :),
usually they start Kat whit a Doran's Shield to get her some LifeRegen. some more healt and some Armor becuse her defence is kinda low.
So i trained myself to play whit 3HealtPots and LifeRegen Seals...
Greater Seal of Regeneration

Greater Seal of Regeneration

So now ur Thinking why didnt i used -> Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration again...
well it might sound funny but i felt on many tries whit another Mag.Pen Quintessence´s is too much, guess it is becuse the Shunpo scales whit AP and so it forces my Earlygame as much i needed it to Dominate the Mid.
People told me u cant go deeper then 0 MagResistence and most Champions got around 20-30 Base MagResistence so i use the Marks and the Glyphs and force em whit 15AP in

Greater Quintessence of Potency

21/0/9

Standart for Dmg Dealers

+ my favorite improvement Utility Mastery and the Burning Embers
and becuse of the Tanky AD Gameplay and aggressive harrasment if choosen the full DMG of the offensive Masterys.

To explain the Utility Mastery well others are useless and even some guys might tell u different KAT CAN USE THE BLUE BUFF, just becuse that impressive CoolDown Reduction its still usefull for her, but at all u shouldnt take it by Urself, take it from the Enemys if u got time or got Fed, or take it throught a kill :).


Ah b4 i Forget it in that Guide... ALL UR DAMAGE except ur Auto Attack damage IS MAGICAL DAMAGE not AP Damage but MAGICAL at the outcomming, if ur Enemy wants to block ur DMG he gets MAGICAL RESISTENCE, and to get throught that Magical Resistence u need to get more DMG in AD, in AP OR MagicPenetration (MagPen).

My skill Sequence is easy, just max.out BB when u´r able, otherwise Shunpo and of cuse Ultimate at LvL 6, 11 and 16, after all are done skill Ki out.

-> (Q) on 1,4,5,7,9

-> (W) on LvL 3 untill u got to Skill it on LvL 14,15,17,18

-> (E) evrytime u cant skill BB or Ultimate so at 2 first and then on 8,10,12,13

-> (R) of cuse on its LvL´s 6,11 and 16

My Summoner Spells are kinda Aggressive:

for the Dmg Boost specialy for Mid games, and for the 10AP extra while its CoolDown time.

&

for different Situations: to slow while i Ulti or to escape & weaken an Enemy while he Engages or try to Chase me.

What makes this Build so good?

Well i think different stuff makes it Good, Kat usually is very Squishy, she gets Focused many Times she gets a lot of Dmg if someone Attacks her and of cuse Spells Like Stun Slow or someting gives her same Problem, to much DMG for too much Healt and Armor or Magical Resistence.
Most Times the AP Kat is for me a BAD Pusher to forward a Lane or get some Jungle Creeps while a Time whitout a Fight.

Sunfire Cape on her is very Shiny :)
Sunfire helps u get a Minion wave easy down after one KI + Bouncing Blade throught it just Shunpo in the middle n all Gold is urs :)

Banshees Veil gives u some very nice Magical Resistence a great Spellshield if u learn to avoid its deaktivation throught lower CC´s like a Ashe Slowarrow, of cuse its Mana and the Manastone whitin is useless but u still can use the Healt and the Magical Resistence by its focused Effeckt the Spellshield.

In Jungle

She´s useless even Lategame u should just take the Blue-Buff sometimes or make a good hit Combo at the Wraiths like this order:
Ki+BB in Shunpo the Big one Auto-Attack the small ones all other are kinda Time waste.

Creeping (Farming)

to farm whit Kat u got to know its kinda hard to Last-Hit whit Her and same whit her BB its kinda Hard, so u got to learn this:
Whit KI ur BB deals Full DMG on all hitten Targets, so wait untill some Minions are lowlife then KI and BB in (W then Q) after it (mostly u kill around 2Minions) Shunpo in whit ur (E) and Auto-Attack the 3rd one.

Repeat repeat and repeat ^_^.


Now the Biggest part wich u got to learn very Hard:

My Gameplay focuses on the Impressive Kombination of Preparation and Bouncing Blades, whit KI aktivated ur BB Bounces whit Full DMG to ALL Targets and after they f been hitten they got a 5Second 50% Heal Reduce and thats the way to Win.

U can crash a lot of Champions whit just this lil HealReduce.
Learn how to hit Minions to bounce the BB to an EnemyChampion, some day u learn it and u got to see it can even on LvL2 been thrown to hit a Champion throught only 2Minions, of cuse the higher its LvL the more it bounces,
the more it bounces the more it got a chanche to hit the Enemy Champion.

so u got to harras, harras & harras, her biggest PRO is as i said she got no Mana so u can spam her BB as much as it is out of Cooldown :).

so u got to watch:
lemme say ur BB got 4-bounces, so u see a new Minion wave comming and the Enemy is so Stupid to stays near by it
(Most ppl try to hide behind their Minions as usually vs. a Ashe Arrorwave or someting like that)
so calculate the 3 bounces near Minion to the EnemyChamp n threw it whit KI aktivated on him and soon he gotta Freak-out :).

Why? Oh Yes ill Tell Ya of Cuse:

Doran's Blade , Doran's Shield , Health Potion, Vampiric Scepter, Regrowth Pendant, & Hextech Revolver
are standart "Start"-Items or used on LvL 2-x to regain Life.
to Counter em u got to use KI + BB

Champs like:

Ashe, Mordekaiser, Xin Zhao, Katarina, Vladimir, Fiddlesticks

or even the supporters on a Botlane like:

Soraka, Alistar, Taric or Janna

love to heal themself or their Teammates, whit those items or their Skills and u can crash their Gameplay to a 50% Heal if used right specialy on the right time b4 u know they gonna use Heal or a Healpot

Gameplay:

So first of all some ppl in low Elos laugh at it but the first skill i do... is Ignite em :), of cuse kinda funny but it got a totaly tactical use, Ignite em and use ur LvL 1 BB right after it, so u start whit ur Ignite DMG + Bouncing Blade DMG + the improved Ignite +10AP effeckt on BB, of cuse some Champs laugh at it like a healer named Soraka wich Heals that dmg right after it but hey, he got to wait till its effect is gone becuse he got 50% Healreduce while it runs out, and u got ur BB+10AP to work whit it :)

Many times i had my opponent on low Life right at the Point when Ignite run out of its CD, so first i do next is run to him, Ignite him Shunpo him whit +10AP and KI+BB him +10AP :) and most of em are down after this "Burst" DMG.

So i try to repeat the combo in skill Sequenc order:
its (D) then right after it (E) then a (Maybe make sure u right click the Enemy) Auto-Hit and then (W)+(Q)

1 of the NR.1 needed Combos or gameplay Tactics in LoL is the Autoattack hit right after a skill or a "Skilljump" like Katarinas Shunpo, u totaly GOT TO LEARN IT, watch it Shunpo ur Enemy give him a "Kick" and then run away its very much more DMG then a Shunpo usually does, and many times u need just those 20-50HP more DMG on ur Enemy.

Sometimes my Ulti DMG Skill Sequence Order Switches a Lil bit becuse the Range of Shunpo is Kinda Higher then the Range of Ignite.
But i Always try to got all togheter right at the Time when the Ignite Runs out so i can Heal Reduce the Enemy right in Time when i Ulti him +10AP wich is much in the right situation :)

Ulti Combo Skill Order is: (If u Got all Skills on CoolDown of Cuse)
(E) on the Enemy go on Ignite !AND! Exhaust (D)+(F) him and make sure u hit him Close after he gone out of the Ulti Range whit a (W)+(Q), specialy that last BB hit makes way better Kills then totaly wait till he run out of Range.


u got to know ur TOTALY Squishy at the Beginning, so try to stay behind or wait till some of ur Enemys used their skill to farm some Minions, right after it letz say u stay behind ur Minions becuse u got Lowlife, dont be Stupid and give ur Enemy free-way, u see him Slashing hes Minions whit his skill go Shunpo some Minions to the front KI+BB him and Run back b4 he got hes skill rdy again... thats the way to play.


Dont get Freaky if a hard Lane-Pusher press u right on ur Tower, like Morgana whit her Oil-Field or a ******** Sivir ^_^
Try to use the CD-Time of their skills or avoid their skills, run around or Shunpo above em hit them whit some skills and if u do it right u hit em while their near their Minions so u got a double effect again, u hit the EnemyChamp while u farm and pushing ur Lane back.

Of cuse ProGamers watch about their movement n try to not be in range but Trust me, even to do their Own skills they have many times to go near the Minions to set it right in range.


Use the Regen in those Runes to stay in Lane and alife :)

Yeh a single Chapter for Ganking, and no there isnt much to say theres just to say

!DO IT!

U killed ur Opponent and ur back from Shop, check out if there´s a way to Help ur Guys.
Ur enemy is back to Shop, Push ur Lane or try to get a !NOT VISIBLE! time to rush out of Mid into 1-2 or more Enemys, of cuse its Dangerous, u may even fall out of Farm, but hey if u getting better and u Know when its Time to leave to may get a Kill its Worth it.

Its just sometimes enough to help an other Lane to be not Rushed or Ganked, u just need to Prepare urself from Death or ur Tower to get Lost.

Just watch and follow the Game whit an Eye on the Mini Map or if u see u got some Passive Time of ur Enemy Push Him and try to get Lost b4 he is able to Call u Missed in TeamChat.

Of Cuse it isnt Easy, of Cuse if Lost my Own Tower while i tried to Gank, but that happens in around 10% of my Games

and now the special part (yeh again lol) for MID GAMERS

! ******** WATCH UR ENEMY !

Is he lost CALL HIM MISS (or close chat commando: "Mid ss" = Mid Miss) dont be Stupid, prepare ur Teammates from getting Ganked 2Pings (whit (G)) on the Way from Mid to Toplane 2Pings on the Way from Mid to Botlane to ensure they f get ur "MISS CALL" and now....
GET THE F... OUT OF MID AND SEARCH HIM, i hate §§%/$§%/ staying in Mid Farming While their Enemy PWNS an other Lane whit hes 2LvL or even better Farmed Champion on a 3on2 at Bot or anywhere.

UR HES ENEMY! U R THE ONE WHO SHOULD FACE HIM! U R THE ONE WHO MAY BE THE ONLY ONE TO BLOCK HIM! Get it into ur Brain. At All u Should bee the Dominating Mid who gets Some Time to Gank whit hes Team, if not LEARN IT, LEANR MID OR STOP BEING MID.

Good Situations are if ur Toplaner Warded hes Jungle Part, u see the Enemy Jungler gets Rdy to Gank Toplane Whit hes M8, SCHOCK EM! B There Ping ur Toplaner u r Comming and Punish that Jungler for Trying a Gank at ur Team :)

I´d Love to even get Down the Jungler as a Mid Kat, i see my Enemy is in Base Cuse he was LowLife and i did not get the Kill, ill try to get a Ward near the Enemy Blue buff and go back to Mid, Harras him from outa the Bushes just Rage into him like usuall Shunpo BB bla bla bla to Scare him a lil bit and get him to a Passive Playstyle becuse hes Thinking i am Walking around him to get him from Behind.
But hey looks whats that... the Enemy Jungler starts hes Blue, well then i try to Leave as soon as possible the Mid to Jump above the Wall to he´s Blue Maybe get it or get it after the Kill.
The Good thing in this is... usually the Junglers are Focused on getting the Buff or at all CLEAN all Minions from there to get the Respawn Timer to 0

Of Cuse they may have Warded their self, so watch out throught the MiniMap if someone Maybe dissapears right at the same time when u come near the Blue then u shoudl leave or be sure where hes gone, maybe just Ping ur Botlaners to Help u maybe they r enough to Help u jump out after u r done ur Ulti and try to escape whit LowLife.

Now the Biggest Thing in that Guide... My Freakin Items :)
First of all !! THAT MANA POT ISNT A JOKE!! if done it Between my Regular Items and Some Situated or Kat Usable Items, usually most of my Games dont go to the Point where i got to Buy more then My Sorcerer's Shoes, B.F. Sword, SunfireCap and Banshee´s Veil

So then my Main Build is
i Start whit Boots and 3 Health Potion
i try to get a Kill in Mid or as fast i can my 750Gold to buy-> Sorcerer's Shoes
if i got Gold and Time or if my Mid Enemy is Strong i try to get some more Health Potion and maybe a Elixir of Fortitude

Goin Straight Ahead to my 1650Gold for a B. F. Sword

after it i watch at my Mid Enemy or the Whole other Team, Usually u got a AP Enemy in Mid or Strong Burst DMG Casters whit a High Early AP Ammount in ur Enemy Team so i Buy a Negatron Cloak when i reach the 740Gold needed for it,
right after it i Buy some Armor to prevent myself from the AD Enemys, most Time Junglers are AD or "Fed" Ranged AD´s from the Botlane so i get a Chain Vest on the next 700Gold

of Cuse always u got to Watch about ur Time ur Money and ur Enemys, u got a Strange Enemy Jungler...dont be Stupid.. get a Sight Ward by urself, u r the Mid (in my Opinion ^_^) u got the Damn Gold..if not..ur Kat get a Kill n then Buy it xD

Then get the Biggest thing needed after those 2"Armors" the Life to Stack whit it, the Giant's Belt for a Hard Ammount of 1110Gold yeh Kinda much but-> Armor and MagPen needs some Life to Work whit it and the good thing is Usually ur Next Item on the next 800Gold is the Lovley and Wonderfull Sunfire Aegis my NR.1 Item in the Game :)
So Shiny,so Helpfull, Kat gets many Times near her Enemys, After a Shunpo, While a Auto Attack and of Cuse While her Ultimate and in my opinion while Farm too.

Then go get the Gold left for a Banshee's Veil of Cuse after the Negatron Cloak u go for a Ruby Crystal and its 475Gold or its Next Step the Catalyst the Protector (1325Gold) and OF CUSE not the useless Sapphire Crystal between it, its needed for the Item but in NO WAY for KAT


While all that Item Shopping i Love to Buy Health Potion, Sight Ward and Elixir of Fortitude
Get a Healt Pot as much as u Can whit u, just 1-2 Evry Time u can Spend the Gold Cuse they are Worth it, in LvL 1~10 i think HealPots and RedElexirs are Pretty Much, dont use the Elexir Right after u Shop, use it in Hard Situations, b4 u try to get a Kill or while u r Running away just like a Situation when u get Ignited whit LowLife, to Protect urself from Dying USE IT u will wonder how many times it is Possible to safe ur ***, same to the Healt Pots

1of my Favor Items i got to get in a Special Capter the Sight Ward

The stack Items have been my favor some time ago b4 ppl started to focus Kat out or focus Guys whit stacks, at least becuse Kat gets weak whit evry Stack lost and on a late Game u can loose even ur 20Stacks.

Situation based Items:
Frozen Mallet
High ammount of Healt, cool slow effeckt after ur Common or Auto Attacks, and +20 AttackDamage pretty nice on Katarina.
Abyssal Mask
If ur enemys have some MagResistence and u might not need the spell Shield from Banshee´s Veil, and if u wanna support ur inteam Casters whit some DMG plus.
Still good MagResitence up for u, a great effeckt whit -20MagResistence in range of ur Ulti
and some DMG plus for u in AP so u could go Hybrid wich means AP Dmg scales on Shunpo
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
1 of the best Caster Items ingame but might be expansive, some Healt, pretty much DMG in Ap wich means ur Shunpo benefits from it too AND the big thing in it u got hella lot slow effeckts ur BB, Shunpo AND ur Ultimate gets a slow effeckt whit it. so ur "Hybrid" then but as i said b4 ur Dmg is magical DMG anyway.

Sight WardNOOBS GET SOME!

ur Solo Lane? GREAT U GOT GOLD GET ONE
ur Mid Lane? GREAT U GOT GOLD GET ONE
ur Bot Lane? GREAT U ARE 2 GET ONE

Why am i in Rage?
cuse ppl are Stupid, no one is banished to get evry Sight Ward u need,
of cuse u got a Jungler he should get some (Focus on Dragon Ward, Baron Ward and (Solo)Toplane Ward) u got a Supporter on botlane GREAT he should get one (Focus on Dragon and Enemy Blue Ward)

B U T

Just becuse they should get some it doesnt mean u shoudl be so Stupid n Flame them to get some, of cuse evry Gold is much 75-Gold for a Ward is much too BUT! protect u and ur Teammates is WORTH THE GOLD, specialy if u r lucky and get a kill becuse of em, or prevented to let ur Enemy get the Dragon Gold and Exp.


Here some Guides for good Wards or Jungle Guides whit a Ward Chapter->
Jungling 101 - What You Need To Know! from Xenasis

Warding helper - More than your eyes can see from Panglot

Thanks to u Guys it was great for me to learn throught these Guides!


And now 1speciality why am i telling u this boring Ward chapter well just becuse Kat shoudl ALWAYS GOT ONE IN INVENTORY, yeh u heard right in INVENTORY not on Map ^_^
becuse her ability to Jump on a Ward u can play her tricky like Hell some examples are around here but couldnt find em now, easy to tell if u run away throught the Dragon hole set the Ward on the Darkside and jump over to It "WallJump", if ur Mid and u dont know where the Jungler comes from.. Top or Bot, easy going :) Freak em, hold ur Ward in Inventory if he appears, set ur Ward near to ur Tower jump on it and be Happy...
those 75Gold may saved ur Life.

Well i dont play ranked cuse Katarinas in ranked are "Useless", "Banned" by own Teammates, flamed right from start or whatever, nah not really but well ppl dont like her becuse shes a Champ wich easy steals Kills whit her Shunpo, BB or Ulti, can usually easy be blocked whit a Stun-Champ or whatever, well thats why u may not have many ranked Katarina players except ME :)

The PRO in her ranked Play on this Style are:
U r able to engage the Fight
U r not that Squishy as usually Katarinas
U r not that Killstealing as usuall Burst-DMG Katarinas
U r kinda Protected whit ur Banshee´s Veil and ur Sunfire
U can Push very nice Help on Minion Waves or even Push Towers

Cause I told you once. Now I told you twice
We gon' light it up like its dynamite :) *Small Joke again hu*

The Autoattack learn it guys TRAIN IT even if u might train on Botgames

Shunpo, Auto-Hit, run back, Ki + Bouncing Blade on ur Enemy and most Minions u can hit, u see a low life Minion, Hit it whit Common-Attack, u Shunpo a Minion let Kat hit him whit Autoattack then go away, ur Enemy is in Range for a nice Combo...
Shunpo, Auto-Hit aktivate Ki hit him whit the BB and laugh 5Seconds while u running back behind ur Minions and he waits 5Seconds to aktivate hes Healpot after the 50% Heal Reduce time.

Well then i Guess if Said all....

Id like to Have a Special Thanks for all those Guiders in Mobafire, and of cuse to the PPl whose Guides if used, of cuse its not Fair to base my Guide on ur Work but i guess evrybody knows thats the way how it goes, and maybe some Day we got a Huge Guide in the Ring of Fire :)



Try out this Guide, comment it, Vote it, and the most important !HAVE FUN! whit it,
its a totaly Unusuall Guide and i like to Play that way becuse i won´t be Mainstream,
even yet since AD Kat is nearly Death and there Items like a AP BOOST Rabadons Deathcap.


Best Wishes to all of u and Cya.... maybe.... :)

Updatet 09.09.11 - changed some stuff after some comments thx guys.
Updatet 10.09.11 - of cuse more correction and little things, like added some color.