This is my guide to Karthus. Karthus is one of my favorite, but, not favorite to use champions. Karthus takes skill and though Karthus may seem fun, sometimes Karthus can be really difficult when you have a 20 kill 4 death round and still end up losing like I have many times with Karthus. You will probably end up carrying your team and killing most enemy champions quicker then your allies if you use my guide correctly. You can still end up dying fast and getting completely wrecked if you don't check your privileges often you silly cis scum.

This guide will teach you how to use Karthus as a big play user. If you get unlucky and have a poor team, you will watch your team lose while you don't win because Karthus cannot take down turrets very quick. When a vote to surrender is made, you did a good job and should have your team mates reap what they sow by voting to continue playing no matter what as to be nice to your opponent and give them some extra IP by winning with more time on the clock. If you have a good team, you will watch the enemy probably surrender before the match ends.

This guide is for very experienced players and should only be read by experienced players who want to play Karthus and don't mind using common sense when it comes to when to use skills.

These are the best runes I could get to play Karthus effectively with this strategy. Experience allows leveling use quicker in order to get skills faster. Magic penetration, ability power, and mana regen should all be self explanatory if you understand how Karthus works. If you didn't read my notes, I just copy pasted them here at the start of this chapter. In all honesty, use whatever Quints you want as they are a wildcard, but, experience would be preferable due to the fact that it seems many other players are doing so as well and benefit slightly from it.

The masteries, I haven't much to say. These are the same masteries you would find in a Kassadin build and work just as effectively on Karthus do to similarities. I went through the masteries and made sure nothing pointless was put inside the masteries.

If you didn't click notes but took the time to read this, here are the notes. Wall of pain is not very important in this guide if you are going to actually follow this strategy correctly, thus, shouldn't be invested in until late game. Past the notes, understand that lay waste is your minion farming and DPS skill. Without this, you will not be able to zone, will get zoned, and won't be able to farm at all. This skill is extremely important to Karthus so take it. If you play against a Karthus that doesn't use this, you can just kill them with little to no effort. The second skill you choose is Karthus's e, which allows him to regain mana from killing something. It just so happens to be the same amount of mana to use lay waste. This means that if you always use lay waste to get the last hit, you will always have full mana until you need to use another skill.

For spells, you want Clarity and Ghost. Ghost will make sure that when you are trying to finish off an opponent after you made sure they couldn't flash away because they are too far from the tower or don't have flash, you can catch up to them and use lay waste on the side of them that their base is located at, as this is where they will be running to. When they are at full health, farming, or trying to kill you, always use this skill on your side of them, remember. Clarity will give you mana back when you need it, but, only when you are trying to take down an enemy or apply too much pressure on them without doing any damage, because if this attack hits enough they should be dead already.

You will be able to kill enemy champions, farm effectively, and carry your team normally without any help at all, are self-sufficient, and should only have to go back to your base after a kill or two in order to buy items or get health and mana back(not because you died unless you were wreckless).

If the enemy team is ignorant enough to ignore you at the beginning of the round, it could cost them the match. More experienced players will focus you very hard and try to gank you frequently, thus knowing what side you will get ganked from when mid(normally left for some reason) will allow you to trinket those bushes up. Over-extending will be negative on you and you probably won't get help from team mates as most players, even at level 30, seem to think dying in a game is a big deal and would rather watch you die and the game be lost then they would, die. You also have no sustainment potions and probably won't need any unless you play against Nidalee.

At the start of the game, you got a tomb of amplification. You farm enough to get Mejai's book of souls and now its time to play the game. You probably won't get a kill on the champion in your lane and got teleport. Ganking a lane is as easy as teleporting to a totem, or you could just gank them and teleport back to your lane to save your tower from destruction(unless you are doing extremely well in your lane). After you get enough from the Mejai's book of souls, you should build normally and save the hour glass for last when you have enough gold to sell Mejai's in exchange.

Gamble is good for an early advantage and repressing the enemy team strongly. This will completely ruin the game for them if done correctly.

The first thing you want to get is the chalice of harmony(most of the time). You will use lay waste to farm and decide if you want to put pressure on the enemy or not which will cost mana that you do not currently have a lot of. If you notice your enemy is a cocky over-extending idiot and they don't run when you attack like more over-extenders end up doing when you chase them, then use lay waste in front of them. Normally at the distance to use this skill in front of them, they will end up stepping into it in an attempt to attack you. When they start running in fear and have over-extended too close to your tower, use ghost and watch them pop flash. This still might not help them if they are not fast enough and minions are in the way. If you time this as minions are coming, they will flash and have to travel around minions unless they have ghost as well, which they probably do not.

After you have the chalice of harmony, build the core items according to your judgement. If you notice that you run low on mana very quick, get the athene's unholy grail You may notice them build armor first thing they buy after in lane with you. Immediately buying void staff fixes this. If you notice your team mates are doing great, you might want to invest in the Morellonomicon in order to make sure they die when you use your R. If the jungler keeps trying to ult you and gank because they know you are a threat, getting the hour glass early game is hard to do and if your team mates aren't helping you, then you are pretty much hopeless unless you can somehow bad *** them until you get the hour glass or avoid them all together. Rabanon's Death cap is normally best to get after the first or second item is finished from core and you feel you don't need any of the other items to effectively hold the other team off the best of Karthus's abilities. If not, then save the death cap for later which probably won't be necessary. After you got the void staff, getting the sceptor adds to the disability the enemy has already.

**** team work. Most your team mates are selfish *******s who will immediately try to call you angry when you logically explain why they are bad. You should mute everyone once the game starts because you know how the **** to play Karthus the way you are going to play Karthus, not them. If they tell you to change anything pre-game, find a new group instead. If they become *******s, steal their kill with R when you get the chance or don't assist them in team fights while you practice defending turrets which you will probably do most the time if they are bad anyway. Most bad players are the ones who tell others how to play. They are projecting what they wish they knew by telling others what they don't actually know as if they knew it. Mute and report, end of story. Do not talk back as this is what they want. Admins allowing players like them to not get muted are only contributing to the toxicity of the community.

I do not have a summoner named Managraw and will not be giving away my summoner information in this document or this website. If you see someone who is a summoner named Managraw, that is not me. Thank you come again.