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Runes: 95% of time, Standard Karthus Bot Page
1
2
3
Domination
Precision
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
1
2
99% of time
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Draven
Incredibly hard matchup, especially with IE Changes, snowballs crazy hard, you cant trade kills with him, I would recommend banning him
Nami
Best enchanter with Karthus, E max Nami + Mandate Spike absolutely broken with Karthus
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Nami
Best enchanter with Karthus, E max Nami + Mandate Spike absolutely broken with Karthus
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
Hello guys, I'm ChadKarthus, a Season 13 Challenger Karthus OTP from EUW and Im streaming on twitch.tv/chadkarthus .
I've been playing the game since Season 5, however I only started playing Karthus at the end of Season 9. Since then I've played thousands of Karthus games and started falling in love with the champion. I have been consistently Grandmaster or higher since Season 10 on both EUNE and EUW playing Karthus Adc, Support, Top and Mid. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Karthus Top/Mid are dead, I will probably do a guide on them in the future as well.
I will also start streaming my unranked to challenger journey on my Twitch, so feel free to drop me a follow and ask questions or watch my vods to learn Karthus.
I've been playing the game since Season 5, however I only started playing Karthus at the end of Season 9. Since then I've played thousands of Karthus games and started falling in love with the champion. I have been consistently Grandmaster or higher since Season 10 on both EUNE and EUW playing Karthus Adc, Support, Top and Mid. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Karthus Top/Mid are dead, I will probably do a guide on them in the future as well.
I will also start streaming my unranked to challenger journey on my Twitch, so feel free to drop me a follow and ask questions or watch my vods to learn Karthus.
Achievments

Challenger in Season 13 on EUW with Karthus Adc

Rank 1 and Rank 4 Karthus EUNE

Rank 1 Karthus EUW

Karthus Top with Thebausffs & Rekkless

Peak GM 600LP EUW with Karthus Top
Why should you play Karthus Bot
As is often the case with older Champions,
Karthus has a very basic and easy to understand kit. This makes it easy to pick him up, but at the same time he also has extremely high skill expression with his
Lay Waste,
Wall of Pain and
Requiem, which I will explain more in detail later on.
Now
Karthus can be played in all 5 roles, however I'm going to focus this guide on
Karthus APC Botlane in particular, otherwise it would be way too extensive.
I bet you are wondering why you should play
Karthus in the botlane instead of midlane or jungle? Well, there's serveral reasons. First of all, playing
Karthus in the jungle requires a completely different skillset since the jungle role is vastly different to lanes, making it harder to learn and master. Secondly,
Karthus midlane has become quite outdated and there are tons of incredibly hard matchups that makes it so you to spend hundreds of hours to become proficient at
Karthus mid. And thirdly,
Karthus wins most of the botlane matchups, allowing him to stomp and snowball the game way harder than in other lanes.
I originally played traditional botlaners, such as
Draven or
Jinx, however I struggled to push any further than low master on those champions. Playing
Karthus however is way more forgiving than playing any traditional adcs, since even when you misposition and die, you can still dish out tons of damage and win teamfights on your own. It's very hard for the enemy to punish you, especially the lower you are elowise.
And lastly, it's a very satisfying champion to master. Hitting all of your
Lay Waste on the enemy, being accused of scripting and popping enemies with your
Requiem and
Dark Harvest is simply incredibly fun.
Basically, if you like dying a lot and killing your enemies while doing so, then
Karthus is perfect for you!




Now


I bet you are wondering why you should play





I originally played traditional botlaners, such as



And lastly, it's a very satisfying champion to master. Hitting all of your



Basically, if you like dying a lot and killing your enemies while doing so, then

Pros/Cons
|
|
What to ban/when should I dodge
This is obviously personal preference, but I always like to ban either
Draven or any enchanter support such as
Karma or
Janna
If you want you can also ban
Kalista, however her pickrate is so low that I'd recommend just dodging if the enemy locks her, or if you feel daring feel free to play it out.
General rule of thumb when it comes to dodging is: always dodge if your team picked 4 AP champions or more. For example:
Singed,
Elise,
Zed,
Karthus,
Karma. Even though you have an ad midlaner with
Zed, it's an almost guranteed loss past 20 minutes since MR items such as
Force of Nature,
Maw of Malmortius and
Wit's End are too strong and make the game unplayable.
If your team hovers 4 AP in champ select, always ask them to play AD and they will listen most of the time.



If you want you can also ban

General rule of thumb when it comes to dodging is: always dodge if your team picked 4 AP champions or more. For example:









If your team hovers 4 AP in champ select, always ask them to play AD and they will listen most of the time.
What counters you
Adc Counters
As stated before, when it comes to adcs
Draven and
Kalista are by far your worst matchups.
Support Counters
Talking about supporters, enchanters like
Soraka,
Karma,
Janna and
Seraphine are really annoying to face, since they basically nullify your
Requiem. Honorable mentions are also
Zilean, whose very low CD
Chronoshift makes it hard to suicide and trade kills and Bard with his
Tempered Fate.
Midlane Counters
When it comes to midlaners, usually you are fine vs most of them, except for long rage mages such as
Xerath,
Vel'Koz,
Viktor and
Orianna, but only if they are allowed to scale and become strong. If you play in very high elo, then
Ryze also counters you hard, since the best of the best midlaners are able to dodge your
Requiem with
Realm Warp.
Jungle Counters
Karthus is fine vs most junglers, there are some champions that are annoying to play against like
Ivern with his shields and heals or
Kindred with her
Lamb's Respite.
Toplane Counters
Toplaners are most of the time the worst champions for
Karthus if they are fed, in particular bruisers. Champions like
Fiora,
Riven,
Darius and
Jax can stack MR items, have insane amounts of healing/damage and make your life hell.
Other Counters
There is also a lesser known fact, but the
hextech dragon
map also kind of counters you, since people can dodge your
Requiem damage if they enter a portal right before it hits them.
Another huge counter for you is
Cleanse since you will be taking
Exhaust 99 out of 100 games and it gets nullified by
Cleanse. Usually
Draven,
Kalista and
Samira will always be taking
Cleanse in Diamond.
What items counter
Karthus?
This item really makes your life miserable, people like buying this to counteract your
Requiem. Basically makes all the damage undone, no counterplay. Champs like
Karma,
Janna and
Ivern really like building this.
Usually only
Jhin players like to rush it, makes it really hard to hit
Lay Waste, especially in combination with
Fleet Footwork.
Probably the best MR item against
Karthus, its cheap and makes it really hard to kill the enemy. Always press tab and check if the enemy has this, dont get baited to use your ult, they wont die because of the MR shield.
Maw of Malmortius is also included in here, however it recently got nerfed for bruisers so its not as bad anymore.
Strongest MR item vs
Karthus for tanks and bruisers, building this makes it insanely hard to kill the enemy, especially if they stack up the passive.
anathema's chain This is a niche item thats really good against
Karthus if you are the solo AP carry on your team.
Most melee supports like to build this against
Karthus, it gives your team a nice shield against his
Requiem, however not nearly as bad as
Redemption.
Strong item vs
Karthus if you play stuff like
Kog'Maw,
Kalista,
Kai'Sa or
Yone. Can be built even if you are solo AP. Makes it really hard to kill them.
As stated before, when it comes to adcs


Support Counters
Talking about supporters, enchanters like








Midlane Counters
When it comes to midlaners, usually you are fine vs most of them, except for long rage mages such as







Jungle Counters




Toplane Counters
Toplaners are most of the time the worst champions for





Other Counters
There is also a lesser known fact, but the


Another huge counter for you is







What items counter















anathema's chain This is a niche item thats really good against











Summoner spells
|
FLASH![]() As you go into later stages of the game, you want to keep your flash for objective fights around ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
EXHAUST![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
TELEPORT![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
GHOST![]() ![]() ![]() |
Runes










































The way it works with




















For secondary you have two options:






Take



Core items









Very cheap and cost efficient item, especially good on



Always go


Optional Items

My personal favorite item if you are looking to carry games, incredible damage on your




Must have item on




Huge damage increase with this item, however extremely expensive and build path which is why I dont build it that often. Can also get outdamaged by


A lot of AP for a cheap cost, buy this if you are full build OR if there is a game deiciding team fight coming up, such as













This item recently got buffed and you now deal more damage to tanks, however I almost never build this item. It's too expensive and too low damage, only build if enemy has 3+ tanks. Can be built as a 6th item if you dont need


This is a very underrated and good item to buy if you are laning vs double AP botlane (



I almost never build this, however if they drafted 4 AP champions it's a really good buy, or if they have 2+ AP assassins that are really fed. Can also be good to avoid getting hit by spells like


Used to be way better on

Abilities




In some scenarious you can use your corpse to zone away the enemy backline from an objective or from joining their frontline in a fight. Often times you want to flash in and die right on top of the enemy team so you can apply huge AOE DPS to everyone.




In higher elos, your support will also be roaming a lot and often times the enemy team will counteract this by 3 or 4 man diving you botlane.

Note that you dont HAVE to die every time to play



Main DPS source, main damage ability, you want to be maxing this almost always. Quite hard to hit, especially against mobile champions or higher elo players, however you will learn to predict movement patterns the more you play him.

The most underrated



The most important part about this ability, however, is the huge amount of vision it gives. You can use it to scout out bushes if you suspect the enemy wants to trap you, if you suspect an in lane gank or if you want to push out a wave savely. You can also use it over wallls to gain vision on



Big AOE damage and very mana draining skill. A good


A little known fact about this ability is that killing a minion/monster/eneny will restore you mana. If you learn to last hit with auto attacks on

You want to max this skill second most of the times, however I really like maxing E first into champions like



The most iconic and satisfying ability of



Note that his is one of the longest CD spells in the game, so never use it if the enemy has something like a


Early Game
Early game is the most important part for
Karthus botlane and also what sets apart a good
Karthus player from a bad one. Now you might think that
Karthus is a strong scaling mage, however that couldnt be further from the truth.
Your early game is incredibly strong, to the point where getting a kill level 1 or level 2 happens almost every game for me. If the enemy is weak level 1 and you are confident in hitting your [lay waste] then you can all in them, use your
Exhaust and force them to use
Flash and sometimes even get a kill.
Usually, you dont want to flip level 1 like that if you are new to
Karthus, so just use your
Lay Waste to poke the enemy ADC when they are going for a last hit. Push the wave, but not overly hard, to gurantee hitting level 2 first. You almost always want to all-in the enemy level 2 and force them to use summs/get them low.
The perfect scenario would be to slow push the first and second wave, force enemy
Flash and poke them low, then crash the minions under their turret when the third wave arrives and dive them/zone them away. Even if you die for this turret dive, it will still be worth it if you trade 1 for 1 with the enemy ADC since they will miss out on minion gold and exp.
Obviously, not every matchup and game will go this smoothly, its also very dependant on your support. Engage supports like
Nautilus or
Amumu allow you to play the lane extremely aggressively, while supports like
Yuumi or
Sona force you to play more safely.
In some lanes you have no choice but to farm up and scalee since you have no kill prsesure at all, for example agsint
Caitlyn+
Lux.
So to summarize: look to all in level 1-2, poke enemy ADC when he goes for last hits, force out their
Flash with your
Exhaust, dive them if you can go 1:1 at the very least.



Your early game is incredibly strong, to the point where getting a kill level 1 or level 2 happens almost every game for me. If the enemy is weak level 1 and you are confident in hitting your [lay waste] then you can all in them, use your


Usually, you dont want to flip level 1 like that if you are new to


The perfect scenario would be to slow push the first and second wave, force enemy

Obviously, not every matchup and game will go this smoothly, its also very dependant on your support. Engage supports like




In some lanes you have no choice but to farm up and scalee since you have no kill prsesure at all, for example agsint


So to summarize: look to all in level 1-2, poke enemy ADC when he goes for last hits, force out their


Mid Game
If everything went well in lane, then you should have taken down enemy bot turret by now and you want to be sitting in midlane while your midlaner goes botlane. Here you just want to clear waves and join your teams in any fights that might occur.
Always try to keep your
Requiem ready for
drake
or
baron
fights.
Try to always aim for 7-8cs/min in your games by farming well in lane, catching mid waves and farming jungle camps in midgame. Look to assisst your sidelaners with your
Requiem. Always ping that you have your
Requiem ready so teammates dont forget.
If you have both
Exhaust and
Flash up then you should win almost any teamfight. Often times your toplaner will splitpush and draw 2+ enemies to him while you assisst him with
Requiem while you and your team burst down
baron
really fast, since
Karthus has a high amount of DPS.
In some cases you can also use
Requiem to cancel enemy recalls, for example when your teammates is going for a backdoor, since your liandry burn will cancel their bases for at least 6-7 seconds.
Always try to keep your



Try to always aim for 7-8cs/min in your games by farming well in lane, catching mid waves and farming jungle camps in midgame. Look to assisst your sidelaners with your


If you have both





In some cases you can also use

Late Game
Late game is usually a tough time for
Karthus, since enemies will have completed
Force of Nature,
Maw of Malmortius and other MR items.
Your role is similar to midgame, you want to keep waves pushed out and group up with your team to fight. Always preserve your
Requiem and
Flash for upcoming objective fights.
At this point of the game, you should have reached
elder dragon
, which often decides the outcome of a game. Its incredibly powerful, especially for
Karthus. Most of the time you want your team to engage first and follow them up with your
Requiem or follow up by flashing into the enemy and suciding.
If your team has bad engage or the enemy has a heavy engage comp then you can also wait for them to engage on you and bait them with
Zhonya's Hourglass, forcing the enemy to either disengage or keep commiting while tanking your
Defile+
Liandry's Anguish damage. In games like these its also really good to buy
Rylai's Crystal Scepter to apply an AOE slow, effectively zoning the enemy team.
If you have
Ghost or
Flash then you can also take matters into your own hand and engage a teamfight by yourself, however you have to be careful since this can either lose you the game completely or make you win it on your own. As always, decisions like these will be easier to judge the more
Karthus games you have.



Your role is similar to midgame, you want to keep waves pushed out and group up with your team to fight. Always preserve your


At this point of the game, you should have reached



If your team has bad engage or the enemy has a heavy engage comp then you can also wait for them to engage on you and bait them with




If you have



Conclusion

If you are tired of playing ADCs and looking for something more fun and refreshing, or you simply want to play

I hope you managed to learn something and if you have any questions feel free to either DM me on twitter (@ChadKarthus) or ask me on twitch.tv/chadkarthus .
See you on the rift ^-^
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