A Challenger Jungler (NA) and Youtuber

Hello, I'm KingStix. I'm a challenger jungle main on NA and I play a variety of jungle champions in challenger. Karthus has an insanely high win rate. Even though it can be tough to gank with him (needing to land your Q's) he is also great at power farming and just pressing R assuming your team isn't super far behind. I would recommend picking up Karthus to play against squishy enemy team comps.

I'm passionate about improving at the game and helping other people improve as well. So, I make guides and other educational content for League of Legends on my YouTube channel .

Karthus Pros
He scales really well
He has a great clear speed (2nd to only Dr. Mundo)
He can power farm and be useful without ganking

Karthus Cons
He's not very good into tanky team comps
He is countered by Zhonya's Hourglass
His Q's can be very difficult to land
Managing his mana can be difficult

Core Items
Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes always for the slow on smite and AP.
Dark Seal should be your next purchase (or before you finish jg item) for some mana, 25% increased healing from your Refillable Potion and of course for the stacking AP.
Next, Oblivion Orb is great against squishy enemy comps for the magic pen. Leave it as a partial item.
Sorcerer's Shoes always.

Optional Items
Tear of the Goddess can be purchased very early on after your jungle item if you are ahead. It is super strong late game and can be upgraded into Seraph's Embrace as your 1st item after your jg item. It gives a ton of AP and mana, 20% CDR, and a huge shield for the active.
Rabadon's Deathcap can be built straight after Oblivion Orb or after Oblivion Orb + Seraph's Embrace if you're going the tear route. This is a staple on Karthus.
Mejai's Soulstealer is only good when you have a 10 stack Dark Seal and you have a nice front line and you know you can survive during team fights. If not, there's no need to upgrade.
Void Staff is a good item only AFTER Rabadon's Deathcap if you need more magic pen for tankier teams.
Zhonya's Hourglass is good against certain team comps that can dive the back line so you can stay alive longer with it's active.
Morellonomicon can be upgraded from Oblivion Orb only if the enemy team has strong healers like a Soraka and a Vladimir.

If you'd like to see the late game power of going Seraph's Embrace, you can view that here: Play Video

Clear Route
The clear speed on Karthus is extremely important and takes some skill. When learning this champion, you should really focus on clearing optimally. You should be finishing your full clear (24 cs) right before the scuttle spawns and be nearly full health. Start with your bot lane for the best leash possible and complete a full clear.
Depending on what side of the map you are on, it should look like this:
Red > golems (smite) > raptors > wolves > blue > gromp (smite) OR
Blue > gromp (smite) > wolves > raptors > red > golems (smite)

After your full clear you can look to do 1 of 3 things- gank, scuttle, or reset.

Option 1. If you see a gank that you know will result in a kill, you can gank at this point. However, be mindful of where the enemy jungler is to avoid a counter gank. If your laner is too low, don't go. If ganking is not a good option at this point then go with option 3. just reset.

Option 2. If you clear correctly, you should be able to show up to the scuttle crab right around the time that it spawns. Depending on your health, lane priority, who the enemy jungler is and where he is, you may or may not be able to go to scuttle. If you think you might die then go with option 3. just reset.


**Clear TIPS**
-Only level up W at level 3 if you see a free gank on the map. If not, put a 2nd point in Q to clear faster. You will be level 4 at the end of a full clear and have your W for a gank anyway at that point.
-Only use E to flick on and off to finish off monsters quicker or you will run out of mana.
-The clear combo should be Q - auto when you first start the camp then Q - Q - auto because his auto attacks are on a longer cool down than his Q.
Ganking and Early Game
Playing Karthus correctly, you most likely will have less ganks than early game junglers. That is fine. It is very important to keep track of where they are in order to ping them out so your laners do not die to their ganks. It is also important so you are able to safely counter jungle knowing that you aren't at risk because you know the enemy jungler is elsewhere on the map.

Also, of course as Karthus you should be looking at the laners as much as possible so that you don't miss out on a kill opportunity with your ultimate. Free kill while farming? yes please!

To effectively gank on Karthus , you should utilize your 3 slows to make landing your Q's far easier. You should have the slow from your Stalker's Blade smite, red buff auto attack, and of course your wall of pain! The first thing you should do in a gank is throw your wall down on top of the enemy/enemies. It has a longer range than your Q or auto attack and shreds their magic resistance. You can then utilize your auto > move in closer > Q combo. If the enemy is already CC'd, you can of course just throw out your Q instead of autoing first. Keep an eye on your E and make sure it is only on when the enemies are actually standing in it and turn it off as soon as they aren't so you don't waste your mana.

Karthus can take an early dragon at level 4 or 5 if he has backed and only if you went ravenous hunter for the healing. Make sure you know where the enemy jungler is so that you aren't at risk of dying and losing the dragon. That would be a huge early game mistake. Your laners should also have priority as well and make sure you sweep the dragon pit to ensure it isn't warded.

**TIP** Ultimate hunter is a noob mistake. You won't be able to 1v1 the enemy jungler, you won't be able to solo objectives, and you will be lower health in your jungle which will make you more likely to die to the enemy jungler if he invades. You can also tank baron for your team, if needed, with ravenous hunter and late game even duo baron with your ADC.
Mid/Late Game

In the mid and late game, you should still be farming it up as much as possible for the gold and xp. Mid and late game jungle xp is now stronger in this current patch, 10.8, so it is even better now than it was before! When it comes to team fighting, the best option is for you stand behind your tank(s) throwing Q's out which will make it much easier for you to land them while they are being CC'd by tanks and not focusing you. If there is no tank on your team, let the enemies engage on your team first and utilize Zhonya's Hourglass to stay alive for longer and and deal as much damage as possible that way. Instead of autoing, at this point in the game you can just throw out your Q's only because they should be on a super low cool down by now. Make sure you don't use your ultimate unless you are dead or you know for sure there's no way an enemy champion will cancel it.

If you enjoyed this written guide and would like to see a video guide on Karthus as well, you can view that here: Play Video