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Katarina Build Guide by

Katarina - The Lunatic Blade [Mid]/[Jungle]

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5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Fruty

Katarina Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (5) More Katarina Guides

Spells:

Barrier

Flash

Items

Starting #1

Starting #2

Lane goals

My personal Core

Standard Run

Very Late game Options

Ability Order

Katarina Passive Ability

Developement

Development Section - What you should know

Hi everyone, I did this section in order to explain some few things, and ask for some help.

This build is under construction and I'll try to complete it as fast as possible. Even if it's not finished, i would appreciate some comments, and feedbacks, if you have tried it, or simply what you think.

You will also notice that I'm not engligsh, and I will appreciate some help with the language. I try to write something easy to ready, with somes "jokes". So some grammar mistakes would be annoying.

Introduction

Introduction - The Lunatic Blade

Who I am :

First Of all, I play League of Legends for a very long time. And have a global knowledge over the game. I'm use to main Adc, but I really love to play some Assassin champions. I'm use to play very mobile champions with low Cool Down, in order to play with opponents and to ensure a high survivability.

Kata is one of the first Champion i've played in the league, and she changed a lot since I began. Her kit got fully rework, she earned a new spell, and her gameplay had been totally tweaked.

I've decided to make my own guide, because I think, my Katarina is quite unique, and pretty effective. But requires some skill in order to use it effectivly. So I'll try to explain with an high accuracy how I play in order to help you understand how to be a good "old" Kata

About Katarina :

During her life, Katarina changed a lot, and received a very important change to her Kit. On a single patch she lost an Ad Ratio on her bouncing blade, saw one of her spell deleted, and Sinister steel made an appearance. She then became an All-in Burst assassin, who mainly rely on her Ultimate. Even now most of the "recent" patches, buffed her

So the reason why I explain that is because my guide is a kind of vestige of this Old Katarina. The gameplay is mostly centered on a mobil assasins, with lots of differents choices, and not a single spell champion.

The hugest weakness of Katarina, is her weakness to Crowd Control, moreover during her This is why this guide will mostly learn you to play With and Without Because you will often get canceled or something.

Important Note

Important thing to Understand.

You're probably wondering why is this build so strange and why it doesn't scale as every other builds. So I'll try to convince you and teach you why I prefer this build over a classic snowballing Katarina.

The higher rank you are, the shorter games are. Cause better player know how to snowball and how to make their team win with this advantage. So if you seriously plan to hard carry a game, and think your level is almost Diamond or Something. You can check top-rated build on Mobafire and simply follow it. You will probably win if you're able to carry for 4 people.

The Reason why I created this special Build, is to fulfill the lower elo ( Bronze -> Plat V-IV ) Where games are way longer. Most of the times players don't know how to carry properly and the game last a little bit more than expected. And Champion like Katarina, who relys a lot on a fast win, it's hard to stay strong when the game last longer and longer. Then I created this build, which is not all about early game but all about late game. Being Tanky, and everything centered around teamfights.

Quick Sum-Up

Sum-up almost every single strange thing in my guide. Until I write it all.

There is a lot of strange things in my Build.
About Runes / Masteries , goals etc.

CDR Runes

I love CDR, because it allows you to use your spells more often. And Katarina is totally spell reliant. So In my opinion, 10% CDR free at Lv 1 will always be Good. I will almost ALWAYS take that over MR. Because it will allow to take more creeps with , survive with . I will still consider some MR against some or Heavy burster.

AD Runes

Sadly almost EVERYBODY wont understand that Katarina scales with AD. These runes add 82.5 damages to at Lv 18 + damages on auto-hits.

Swaping Boots in the very late game for Lucidity is very important, due to the CDR which is Vital late game, because you will need to avoid as much as possible damages, by using Shunpo in order to deceive your opponents, and in order to use Twice in a teamfight.
I will also sometime pick Lucidity early when the opponent builds no MR and they mostly have carries.

Early Alacrity

I Pick Alacrity very early, often after Zhonya's Hourglass, because I want to ALWAYS catch my targets and I would appreciate to escape tight situations, with my extra movment speed boost + Sinister steel buff.

Mostly Resistances in the Build

I build lots of defensive items, which give damages to my spells. Why ? . . . Well First of all, Katarina naturally has tons of damages. And he doesn't need to be full Ap Builded in order to kill Carries. Katarina also benefits more of Magic Pen than Flat Ap. This is why Haunting guise and Abyssal scepter are my favorite ones. You will also need to stay alive, in order to not feed, and to keep the fight up.
An other reason is that you will stay low ealthed Longer. Then Malmortius Ad bonus will be even more reliant. And a weel casted shield will keep you close to death, but will also del the Maximum of damages.
So you probably understood that Malmortius is the MAIN item of the build. ( Benefits more from AD than AP )
You will also need a Guardian angel, because you will play with Death, in order to do your job.

Shield

It's really easy to understand that. ( I guess )
You don't need Ignite. You will not target tank anyways, and you have enough damages to take Carries down ANYWAY . But it may help you to Snowball easier early.
Barrier will grant you a huge shield, which will protect you during your it will also save your life early. Kata is seriously easy to kill early, and a Barrier will often avoid a death.

Skill Order FTW ?

is an important spell for lane presence. It allows you to harass, farm, and to damage the opponent. Upgrading it will also reduce CD. Best damages upgrade of the 3.

is your movment spell. You WANT to stay alive, so you will need to lower the CD by upgrading it. Even it gives less damages than Sinister Steel. It will also allow you to use it twice on the same target. Or to chase.

Sinister Steel. I mostly consider it as a Tool in order to complete her kit. Not as an important spell.

Pros / Cons

Pros / Cons - Expectations time

What You will Expect

The Side you'll love

The Side you'll hate

¤ Assassin
¤ Can Carry a Game
¤ Very Mobile
¤ Short Cool Downs
¤ Very High Damages
¤ Pretty strong escape
¤ SnowBalling Champion
¤ Hard to shut down when well played
¤ No mana
¤ No real "Trick Shot"
¤ Cool Down Reset upon Kills
¤ French °^°

¤ Melee range
¤ Hard Weakness to CC
¤ No Built-in CC
¤ Long cast time ()
¤ You will hardly be focused
¤ SnowBalling Champion

In depth explanations

What She will Expect

Katarina wants that

Katarina hates that

¤ Smart-Cast
¤ Fast Reaction time
¤ Global knowledge over the game
¤ A ward in your Bagpack
¤ Tons of CC ( Your team )

¤ Hesitation
¤ Tons of CC ( Opposite side )

Runes

Runes - When your IPs Boost your in game stats

Generic Runes

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

My Personal Rune Set

Runes

Precision

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Phase Rush

Greater Mark of Attack Damage
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage

Generic choice : Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

You may probably want to go for these marks. For some reasons : you probably already have these runes on your account, while you probably don't have some . These runes are also a pretty safe pick. They will grant you some damages, in almost every situation. You will always need your spells in order to deal damages, and will poorly be auto attack reliant.

My Personal Choice : Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage

Even if it looks strange to pick Attack Damage marks for Mage. I'm really use to pick that. The first reason why I pick that is because it helps you a lot to farm.

Note: If you don't see any other reason to pick these marks instead of Magic Penetration. You should go for some Greater Mark of Attack Damage instead.

Moreover, Scales a lot with attack damage. 3.75 magic damage per bonus attack damage. As these runes are more effective than flat at Lv 7, and will need it for Lv 6. You may consider to chose the scaling ones.
An other reason why I like to pick both Attack damage and Scaling runes. Is because I farm jungle camps a lot when laning phase is ended. This attack damage will help you to clean faster because of the high use of auto attack.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Greater Seal of Armor

Generic and Personal choice : Greater Mark of Scaling Health

I have almost nothing to say about that. It's almost the best choice in almost every situation. It will give you more survivability. No mana problem, only one option if you don't know your opponent.

Options : Greater Seal of Armor

If you have several rune pages. You can do another one where your replace the health seals for armor seals. You will need these runes against some Ad assassins such as or or almost any "Bruiser" such as ,

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Generic choice : Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

This is probably the most picked glyph for midlaners. Because you will almost always play against a magic damage based champion. It will help you to stay alive on lane, because they will mostly harass or burst you with magic spells. In other words, it will help you to stay alive longer, and to take a little extra farm, or to survive to an all-in burst ( if you're watching us )

My Personal choice : Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction

I really love to pick these glyphs on almost every spell reliant champions. because it will give you 7.5% free cdr at Lv 1 ( 10% with the good quintescence ) You need your spells, and will sometimes be waiting for it at the very last second of Cd. Especially if you need an extra or something. In lane you will also have less Cd on your bouncing blade. Which allow you to farm a little bit more than expected. Or to harass. The more often you will harass, the more your opponent will find you annoying, and the more he will lost control of his decisions. Later it will also help you to chase someone, by spamming your which has a pretty low cooldown on high ranks ( 3.6 seconds at 40% Lv5 )

Other options :

/ : If you plan to build damages instead of defense of utility. Chose for early presence. if you wanna go for better delayed damages.

Masteries

Masteries - Being level 30 helps you a lot

My personal Masteries

Pretty Masteries

My personal Masteries :

This is what I prefer pick because it finely fits my play style. I'm use to play a very mobile kind of champion, then I easily go for (I NEED SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN ME HOW TO HAVE THE RIGHT ICON HERE :o). I also like to pick up some free damages which doesn't need support of items. ( Thinking about )

Q: Is that the best Page I could use ?

Well I use to say: "Masteries are here to emphasize your play style, and it's a place where you can freely pick stats you like to have."
In other words. You have to chose what you personaly wanna pick. You will probably want to go for a 21/9/0. Or maybe more points in Offense tree. Time to be creativ