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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Death Defied (PASSIVE)
Karthus Passive Ability
Welcome
Unlike most of the other AP Carries, his skillset is not so much about bursting single targets down with a combo, but more about dealing massive DPS-AOE magic damage with a powerful global ultimate on top of that and a passive, that allows you to do damage for a few seconds after death. He can be described as one of the strongest Lategame champions in the game, but you pay for that by having a rather slow early game. However you can farm pretty well with him.
I'm very far away from being a high-elo player or stuff, but I think I play Karthus pretty solid and he's been my favorite midlaner for months now. In this guide you'll find tips and tricks for laning and teamfights as well as some items to consider for different situations and how to annoy enemy-Karthus players. This is my first guide here.

no exceptions.
Seals: Different possibilities here.




Glyphs:

other options may be:


Quints:

in 95% of all cases flat AP should be ideal. Consider





You really want that

You have some options for your second spell:
Most casters bring



However I prefer





I also see lots of people bring


The
Revive/
Teleport strategy
This is kind of a "troll selection" called suicide karthus, which can be successful, if the enemies does not adapt to that strategy. Lategame it is pretty mighty, as you can teleport back into an ongoing teamfight dealing tons of damage for a second time.
However there are 2 reasons, that makes me think this isn't viable if you play against good enemies:
1. Revive cooldown is sooooooo long
2. You give up Flash, which will cause your Early game to be a lot harder and potentially feed your enemies so you won't even see the Lategame.
All in all I can't recommend to choose those summoners, although it certainly works against decent enemies, because you have the element of surprise on your side.
Sapphire Crystal and 2x
Health Potion
pro: builds quickly into Catalyst the Protector.
con: no wards
Crystalline Flask and
Health Potion + sight ward
pro: Sustain and vision.
con: you'll have to wait a bit longer for major items
Cloth Armor and 4x
Health Potion + 1x
Mana Potion
pro: solid start against AD-Bruiser midlanes, builds into

con: not useful against AP-Caster midlanes.
no regular major item, just a couple
Health Potions,
Mana Potions and sight wards
pro: awesome lane sustain.
con: you'll have to wait a bit longer for major items
Boots and 3x
Health Potion
pro: some sustain, some quickness to dodge enemy skills/ganks
con: no wards


Your

Normally you should'nt use


Ask the jungler for the second blue buff (and all the following ones as well). You can solo them by midgame easily without the jungler. You don't really need ganks in early game, if you dont get zoned too hard; it may be better to send the jungler top or bottom and once you hit level 6, you can give them the additional 150-200 damage needed to make the kill via

However if your lane-enemy is bad enough to get harassed by your



Against most lanes you can easily get your 120-140 Creeps in 15 Minutes (if you are really good and/or take wraiths and wolves from time to time too even more).You dont believe me? Watch that Karthus played by Froggen making a creepscore-record with 300 creeps in 23 minutes.
Also, you better know which champions can dodge spells (see chapter "Counterpicks against Karthus"), and check the enemy inventory for scumbag-items like




If you don't want to embarass yourself, dont cast your





It's essential not to go for "all-in teamfights", when you are either out of mana or your

Don't get caught alone, as you will fall pretty quick in an 1vs3+x situation, even if you built up a little tankiness. However if it happend and you are dead, cast your Requiem if its up, even if you know you won't get a kill, so that your team can manage the 4vs5 easier.
Your


Although you want to go deep into their lineup to reach their Carries, you shouldn't go in first. Let your bruiser/tank engage or wait for the enemies team to engage on your team to avoid getting isolated from the rest of your team and die too quickly. Its okay to use



If you die, but the enemy team is aced, your job is done. However if you manage to survive, Karthus has good pushing potential because of his huge AP and fast waveclearing.
With enough Mana you can Solo Dragon easily, however if possible do it with your own Jungler securing it with

As Karthus is one of the very few champions, that pretty often get their fullbuild because of his farm and kill-secure-potential, buy













Core items
Rod of Ages
Sorcerer's Shoes (later:
Enchantment: Homeguard)
Rabadon's Deathcap
Mostly I even buy it in that particular order, but if the gold-amount does not quite fit, I swap Shoes and Rod of Ages sometimes. An early Catalyst The Protector is helping you a lot to survive your lane.
Very good items
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
I love this item on Karthus, although most people don't go for it on Karthus. You may argue your W is already a slow and the Item-passive isnt really needed, but the slow percentages stack, and your Lay Wastes will slow enemies too, so its like a Red Buff for AD-Carries. With 500 more HP your are harder to kill, reaching more than 3000 HP together with Rod of Ages at Level 18, while still granting a nice amount of AP.
Zhonya's Hourglass
Awesome item on Karthus, as you gain Armor, AP and that passive. Use it while your

Liandry's Torment
A mighty item as it gives you HP, AP, MPen and an on-spell effect doing aditional Damage to all your

Situational items
Void Staff
Situational item if the enemies stack Magic resistance (scumbag



Will of the Ancients
Spellvamp is massive on Karthus and this is the only way to get it besides Spellvamp runes. (Don't even think about


I think it works best against tanky teams, while its not as good vs teams with a lot of squishy High-Damage-Dealers. If your team has an AP Toplaner (e.g.

Abyssal Mask
If you needed an early





Archangel's Staff
I don't really build this often, as it gives you nothing besides AP and Mana, and I like my Karthus being a little more beefy and with


Guardian Angel
I built this sometimes as the last item for fun when I had a good game, while the rest of my team was struggling, just to make sure I can stay alive as long as possible. As you dont gain AP by this, you give up some damage potential though, so its really just a situational pick.
Mejai's Soulstealer
just no, except you want to stomp Bots or poor Lowlevel-Guys. You'll die in teamfights and lose all that sweet stacks you may have gained. Also the item does not give you any defensive stats at all.




Another reason you should'nt consider doing Jungle Karthus in serious games is, that you are pretty much f*#ked when they steal your first Blue buff.

Lane counters
As already pointed out, Karthus early game isnt the best, so lots of midchamps can be considered counters for his laning phase. However with some practice and skill you should be okay to deal with most of them and farm you into later stages of the game.
Learn to dodge CC-skillshots like




Basically there are 2 ways to counter your lane pretty hard: champions with high mobility and single target nukes like





Also the new AD-Bruiser-midlane-meta with mobile champions like



how difficult it is not to die/farm well against common midlaners
(based on personal experience, of course it depends on the enemies build, playstyle and skilllevel a lot)
Nightmare




pretty hard
















moderate

















Other lanes


Basically all kinds of heals and shields are soft counters, if you want to grab kills via

As I already said, there are some Champions that can dodge spells or quickly recover lots of Health and you should'nt waste your Ultimate, if you are not sure if they still have them availible. Those include










Also the passives of



Besides that it's fair to say that Splitpush strategies can counter him a bit too, because as Karthus you want that huge 5on5 figt, where you can AOE-damage the whole enemy team. However his waveclearing is phenomenal and with teleport up, he can end a splitpush pretty fast.
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