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Karthus General Guide by

Mid Lane General Guide

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3 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Yeodan

Karthus Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (3) More Karthus Guides

Spells:

Teleport

Flash

Ability Order

Karthus Passive Ability

Introduction

Yo,

This is a general guide to the mid lane in League of Legends.

I'm writing this guide to share my experience as a mid player.
I've worked my way up from 700 elo to 1350+ elo, where I'm now, by playing mid mostly.

Mid is probably the hardest lane to play, not because it's actually the hardest lane to play, but because all the best players will be playing mid.

You can carry games by winning your lane, then moving to other lanes to win those too.
You are in the middle of the map and can move everywhere.

This is just a basic guide for now, I will be adding and changing a lot to it.
Please leave some positive feedback!

Pros / Cons

Pros

you can carry games
you get a lot of kills
most mid champions are fun to play
there are a lot of good champions to choose from
it's easy to counter pick the enemy mid and totally dominate them
you can move to top and bot lanes to gank

Cons

probably the hardest lane to play
you can easily get countered
most mid champs are squichy
you will always be the target of the enemy team
if you lose your lane, you probably lose the game
everyone wants to play mid

Runes

Havn't put much thought into these so far. Will update this when I get the chance.

For now I just use:

9 x
9 x
9 x
3 x

Other options:

9 x Greater Seal of Replenishment
9 x
9 x
3 x
3 x

Masteries

Havn't put much thought into these either.
I usually just go 21 - 0 - 9

Summoner Spells

Standard on AP Carry is Ignite / Flash

Provides that little extra dmg needed for a kill.

A must have on nearly every champion.
You can run, chase, jump over walls, position yourself in teamfights, ...

If you're going to gank lanes a lot or will need to recall a lot.

If the other team has a lot of AD or your champion benefits from the slow (Karthus)

It's viable now, nice to have in mid, can save your life!

When you're tanky enough not to need flash (Cho Gath) or when you like running / chasing.

Items

This really depends on your champion, your team and the enemy team.

+ 3 x

Standard starting items on most AP carries.

If you don't need speed or pots, or if you need health to stay alive.
Strong early game champions should get 1-2-3 of these to dominate their lane.
If you buy these, don't buy a Rod of Ages! It's a waste of money.

Sight Ward

Don't forget to buy these, they're really important.
From the first time you go back, try to always keep one side of mid warded, and hug that side!

If you need some health / mana, go for this item first.

If you need health but no mana, go for this item, the slow is always nice.

Pretty standard, 20 Magic Pen increases your dmg.

If the other team has a lot of cc, and you're not extremely squichy.
No use getting this item if 65% of a stun will still get you killed.

Must have on every AP Carry, best ability power item in the game.

Need some spell vamp?

Getting focussed while all your spells are on cd?
Getting focussed as Karthus / Kennen / Morgana / ...?
Buy this, don't forget to use it ^^

Enemy team stacking magic resist? And I'm not talking about their tank ...

Counter Picks

First of all, wich champions do I play mid and why?
I'm not saying these are the only good mid champs, but it's hard to write a guide for things I can't play.

A very strong mid champ, hard / impossible to counter, since he can just stay out of your range and farm minions.
He farms really well with his Q and can help other lanes without moving by using his ultimate.

A very strong pusher and ganker.
What makes ahri so strong is that she can quickly push her lane and then gank other lanes.
She's very hard to gank because of her ulti.

You can stop Ahri by pushing the lane harder than her, Malzahar is very good at this.
Ryze is said to be a counter to Ahri, but he really isn't, he's just good against her 1v1, but Ahri can push much harder and pick up kills top and bot while Ryze is defending his turret.

If your team lacks cc, go kennen.
Another good farmer, but easier to counter.
Also very hard to gank because of his e wich gives him movement speed and ignores unit collision.

A hard counter against this champion is Annie.

A hard cc champion, she can stun your entire team while doing insane dmg.
Her stun means free kills for your jungler all day.

Annie is countered by champions with a longer range stun, like Anivia and Brand.

This one's a bit hard to play, she's slow, she's squichy, her auto-attacks are really slow, making it hard to farm with her.
That being said, she has an amazing stun, wich isn't too hard to hit in the right situation and insane burst dmg + awesome utility (slow + wall).
Her passive, the egg, is awesome too!

If you can play Brand, he's good against her, Anivia is too slow to dodge.
Ahri / Karthus are decent picks against her too.

This guy will ruin your day, he's impossible to stop mid, he has high dmg and a very dangerous stun.
He will push, your jungler just has to be there every time to pick up the free kill.

Pick something with a reliable stun or slow that can push the lane back.
Karthus / Anivia / Kennen

A very strong early game champ and when fed a very strong late game champ too.

Pick something that is fast enough to dodge his skills, Kennen.

Probably the strongest champion in this game if not dealt with correctly.
He has a silence that does a lot of dmg, a slow that does a lot of AoE dmg and a free flash every few seconds.
Don't let him farm, don't give him kills.

I'd pick Cassio or Annie against this guy.
Cassio can Q him every time he goes for a last hit.
Annie can stun him every time he comes too close and then burst him down, preferably with your jungle.

Her spell shield makes it impossible to kill her as an AP carry.
Her pool allows her to push the lane.
Get hit by her snare and you're dead.
Her ultimate will slow and then stun your entire team.

Just ban her or lose your lane, you can't kill a good Morgana.
Make sure you can get her away from your team, Gragas' ulti, Lee Sin's ulti, ...

One of the most fun champions to play.
Very weak early game, but once you get to lvl 6-7-8 you're pretty much unbeatable, being able to one shot everything that gets caught in your stun.

Counter him by stunning him from further away or by staying away from him, Anivia, Karthus.

Probably the most painfull AP Carry you can run into.
Unlike most AP carries, she can spam her spells, kinda like Karthus, you will die within seconds, no matter how tanky you are.

Veigar is a nice counter to this one.