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Karthus Build Guide by

[S9.2] ADC Karthus, the Deathsinger - KS is for Kill Secure

Updated on

6.9

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Karthus Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (4) More Karthus Guides

Runes:

Domination

Dark Harvest

Taste of Blood

Eyeball Collection

Ultimate Hunter

Precision

Presence of Mind

Coup de Grace

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

Flash

Heal

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Example Finished Build

Situational Items

Ability Order

Karthus Passive Ability

More Karthus Counters

Champion Build Guide

Table of Contents

Guide Details

x Intro
x Conclusion

Champion

x Pros / Cons
x Abilities
x Tips & Tricks

Pre-Game

x Runes
x Summoner Spells

In-Game

x Items
x Gameplay

Intro

Karthus is a very versatile champion, who can easily fit into different roles in LoL, and learning him as an ADC is a great way to get started, as you'll be protected by a support in the early stages of the game, which is your weakest phase of the game

Pros and Cons

PROS

+ Great scaling
+ Huge damage with isolated
+ can either start or end teamfights
+ Good slow from
+ OK if you get focused and killed early on in a teamfight
+ Strong level 6 powerspike

is a versatile mage carry that can go top, jungle, mid, or ADC. When playing him bot lane, your weakest phase of the game will be protected by the presence of your support. Your team doesn't have to risk dangerous tower dives because you have a global nuke on your ult. His , when utilized properly, can devastate other ADCs.

CONS

- Sub-par early-game
- Getting kills with requires watching your allies
- No mobility
- Hard to CS with autos
- Potential early-game mana problems
- has an extremely long CD

One of the weaknesses of Karthus is his early-game. Before getting , you can find yourself running out of mana easily if you spam on the wave. Also, as an immobile mage, you are extremely susceptible to being ganked. Finally, if you want to do well on , you'll have to pay attention to what your allies are doing, in case you want to use to secure the kill.

Abilities

PASSIVE
ABILITY

DEATH DEFIED (Passive): With this passive, you can feel free to play in the frontline of a teamfight, because you will still be able to sling out your spells for the next 7 seconds. When your passive is active, your abilities cost no mana, and your is turned on automatically.

LAY WASTE (Q): Knowing how to use effectively separates the good players from the bad ones. When waveclearing, you'll generally want to use lay waste on a single minion, to judge how much damage it will do. Being able to land on enemies can make you an incredibly strong dueler.

WALL OF PAIN (W):Usually the last ability you max, 's strengths come from allowing you to easily land your . It also decreases enemies magic resist, which will allow your to really lay waste.

DEFILE (E): This ability has two parts - an active and a passive. The when not activated, refunds mana any time he kills a unit. When it is on, it will drain an amount of mana to do damage all around you per second. This helps you last hit minions and refund mana costs so you can continue to use .

REQUIEM (R): is 's signature ability. A global damaging ult, it's guaranteed to hit all enemies unless they become untargetable. This allows for you allies to not need to recklessly chase down kills, as you can simply press R and secure a grey screen for your enemies.

Tips and Tricks

T
I
P
S

T
R
I
C
K
S

When stacking your , an easy way is to leave your on as you recall, as you can recall while it's still active. Your and both give you vision, so don't be afraid to use them instead of facechecking a bush.

Farming with is really important, so don't be afraid to go to the practice tool and practice hitting single minions with and tapping for last hits. When dueling enemies, you can weave in autos in between your Qs for maximum damage output.

Runes

KEYSTONE
Dark Harvest: With this, Karthus has even better scaling in the game. Landing a few isolated Lay Waste can easily drop your laning opponents past 50% health, enough to proc your Dark Harvest. Really helps to finish off low-health enemies in combination with Requiem.

PRIMARY RUNE
Taste of Blood: Using Taste of Blood, you have a decent amount of sustain during your laning phase, if you can hit your opponents with a Lay Waste. It has a relatively low CD, so look to proc it when you can.

PRIMARY RUNE
Eyeball Collection: This rune works well on Karthus because he will almost always be able to easily stack eyeballs by getting kills or assists with his Requiem. You also get eyeballs for killing wards, so make sure you kill the wards that your support reveals with Control Ward or Sweeping Lens.

PRIMARY RUNE
Ultimate Hunter: As so much of Karthus's power comes from his Requiem, it's important to shorten the CD as much as you can. By racking up kills and assists on different enemies, it stacks up to 15% CDR on your ultimate. Unfortunately, it stacks differently with your other CDR effects, so having 40% CDR with items and a fully stacked Ultimate Hunter will give you a 49% CDR on your ultimate.

SECONDARY RUNE
Presence of Mind: Karthus uses this rune because it lowers the CD on his ultimate. The mana refund is nice and all, but so much of his power is found in his Requiem that it's important to be able to use it as much as possible.

SECONDARY RUNE
Coup de Grace: This rune helps Karthus to finish off enemies that are low on health. This and Dark Harvest synergize incredibly well with Requiem allowing Karthus to easily pick up kills on low health enemies half the map away.

Summoner Spells

SUMMONER SPELLS
-

FLASH: The standard summoner spell for almost every champion, it provides insane versatility, allowing you to dodge skillshots and escape over walls or secure kills with or a basic attack.

HEAL: is the most commonly used second summoner spell for ADCs, as it grants a small speed boost and can save yourself or your support, as it heals a nearby ally.

Items

Doran's Ring
This is the best starting item for as it gives AP, mana regen, extra damage on autos to minions, and a bit of health. Getting is better if you're going to get poked out in lane pretty hard, as the extra healing from potions is better, but otherwise the mana regen from is better than the extra 100 mana from .

Health Potion
This item will let you to recover from trades and stay in lane so you don't miss cs. It restores 150 health over 15 seconds, so be aware that you don't get all 150 health at once.

Archangel's Staff
This item is very strong on because it allows him to not worry about mana consumption at all, as well as giving him an activateable shield. You can stack it up by using your while walking back to lane, but note that stacks it pretty easily without having to spam out spells whenever the proc is off CD.

Sorcerer's Shoes
Almost all mages get because having having flat M-pen is so strong. It works differently than 's unique passive, because it is calculated by taking the enemies magic resist and minusing your M-pen value from it before it calculates damage totals.

Zhonya's Hourglass
A repeatable effect is incredibly useful as a squishy ADC who is usually going to be focused in teamfights. It also comes with some decent stats, giving armor, 10% CDR, and 70 AP.

Rabadon's Deathcap
This item is a huge powerspike for , because it gives 120 AP and a unique passive that increases all your AP by an additional 40%. Your will nuke anyone below 50%, coupled with your .

Morellonomicon
This item is great against teams with a healer (, , , etc.) because it applies grievous wounds. It also comes with the desired M-pen stat, but sadly got nerfed in 9.2 to give less AP than it used to.

Banshee's Veil
A good defensive option for AP users, it will block the first enemy spell you're hit by, on a 40s CD. It can be a lifesaver against some CC, like a root or stun. It also has some magic resist and 70 AP.

Void Staff
For when you seriously need to take down enemy tanks, this item provides a bit of AP and more importantly, 40% ignore magic resistance. Don't buy this before unless they rush a magic resist item.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
This item slows down enemies any time they are hit by one of your abilities. This allows you to land on them even easier, and allows you to have decent kiting potential.

Gameplay

Early-game

✦ Focus: Farm
Your most important job is to stay alive and get cs so you can scale into late-game and take over with your crazy damage. Don't overextend for kills - a kill is around 10-12 cs that you could potentially miss by overcommiting for a kill. Make sure you are hitting your single target 's and last hitting with your . Ping when your lane opponents are missing and place wards! They can easily save your life when you're pushed up in lane. Establish a game plan based around who your lane opponents are so that you can focus on certain goals while in laning phase.

Mid-game

✦ Focus: Objectives
Mid-game usually begins when after first tower blood. This usually happens in bot lane. After this, you should lane swap with either your top or mid laner. Once all the outer turrets are down, you can look to take more important objectives like dragons, rift-herald, and . Make sure you stay with you support, as being caught out alone will most likely lead to your death (unless you got super fed while laning. Make sure you're watching your opponents in other fights, in case you need to use to finish them off. Don't be too afraid to stay near the front in teamfights - if you die, you can still wreak havoc with your .

Late-game

✦ Focus: Nexus
It may seem rather redundant that you're trying to take the nexus but it's important to keep in mind that's the only way to win a game. The easiest way to end the game is through the buff. Killing the will grant you a buff that gives adaptive stats. More importantly, it gives all of your minions a stat boost whenever you are near them. The buff allows you to siege towers more effectively, but is dangerous to get when the enemy jungler is still alive. While you don't have it, you can siege towers by slowly poking them down. Slow-push until you have a large minion wave, then chip away at the tower. If enemy champions try to defend it, poke them with your . Eventually you will take down the tower.

Conclusion

is a fun late-game carry with lots of damage and good teamfighting potential. He can often find himself low on mana if he spams before getting , but his puts a timer on the game that allows you to win almost any teamfight after you have enough items.

Thanks for taking the time to read my guide. Any comments are appreciated!