Welcome to Fellish´s Karthus guide!

About me:

I play this game for fun, no matter if I win or lose.
Mostly I play with friends in Normals as you can go HAM and try new and stupid stuff.
If I play alone, I go Solo Queueing because there the motivation of both team´s members is different and you meet less AFKs or trolls.

About Karthus:

Karthus is a ranged AP Carry, which, unlike other AP Carries deals sustained DMG instead of burst.

How I play him:

Karthus has 3 main features:

-His global ult Requiem
-His ignorance of cooldowns
-His passive Death Defied

Most people only know 2 of them and hate him for his ult.
Most people neglect that he has more than just his Q spam and his R button.

With my guide, those two things will be combined with the 3rd, which in my opinion is the most powerful one.

+ outgold/ -level enemy fast + tremendous teamfights + very strong mid/late-game + did I mention GOLD

- weak in early-game / squishy - bad without teamwork, premades/platinum+ elo recommended

For this build we want to save as much money as possible while gaining as much as possible.

Therefore we're running runes, that give us free stats and stuff, like the 5% CDR from Cosmic Insight that benefit our abilities, summoners, and, most importantly our active items.
Transcendence gives us free 10% CDR once we reach lvl 10 and Perfect Timing gives us a free stopwatch and an additional 15% CDR on our Zhonya's Hourgass. Meanwhile Manaflow Band gives free mana that stacks well with our Seraph's Embrace and free mana reg so we can stack Tear of the Goddess and Spellbinder better.

Summon Aery and Scorch are for the little additional DMG we need in lane. I chose Summon Aery over Arcane Comet as it has much lower CD and we're spamming our stuff in fights, so we can proc it 4 to 5 times, taking our passive into consideration.

Both trinkets are viable, I mostly use Stealth Ward to not be surprised while taking chickens. Build Farsight Alteration if you want to be sure a Requiem will actually kill the enemy and Sweeping Lens if you´re feeling sweepy...


Start Doran's Ring + 2 red for maximum sustain you need to farm.


Next step is getting, Tear of the Goddess, Boots and we begin to build towards Spellbinder.

Tear of the Goddess gives you MOAR Mana-Regen + Mana as the game goes on and finally builds into the Archangel's Staff.

Boots: any questions? Really?

Spellbinder rewards us for spamming Lay Waste so we can activate it to give our Requiem the extra spice it needs for killing our enemies.


Step 3: Get Zhonya's Hourglass, upgrade your boots, buy Archangel's Staff.

Zhonya's Hourglass is THE base item every Karthus who isn´t trolling needs! It´s active is amazing and together with the mentioned Seraph's Embrace will lengthen your existence on the map for ages (seconds)

Sorcerer's Shoes: What else would you get on an AP based champ? Decision is tough!

Archangel's Staff: Do you remember what I told you about dying? The thing Karthus does, but doesn´t? Which is unavoidable but can be delayed? Well, Archangel's Staff doesn´t do that, but keep spamming and be surprised!

Final step: Complete your build with Void Staff and something else you like...

Void Staff gives you some extra AP plus heavy magic penetration which sums up nicely with your Sorcerer's Shoes

Something you like is in my case either Rabadon's Deathcap or Banshee's Veil, depending on the situation.

Rabadon's Deathcap rounds up your AP scaling, giving you an awesome lot of extra AP to the bit you already have. Maths: without Rabadon's Deathcap you have 437 AP and an empty slot. With Rabadon's Deathcap you have 780 AP. With Elixir of Sorcery that will go up to 848 Ap. This one single item boosts your AP by nearly 58%!

You can get Banshee's Veil for the Magic Resistance and for the cool Spellshield that may save your life as it blocks the first ability that hits you. Good on paper, but the first ability that hits you mostly is some spammable poke, that doesn't really make a difference. IT CAN THO

Get Liandry's Anguish if your enemies are stacking hp AND magic resistance, or if you´re bad at maths and think you need even MOAR magic pene.

Hextech Rocketbelt is a very cool item if either you and your team struggle to catch up to the enemy (very unlikely due to your Wall of Pain), or they have a lot of deplacement spells like Jayce, Alistar, Lee Sin, Tristana, etc. so you can get back into the middle of the teamfight where you belong.

Lich Bane is a good idea for a Lich, but, you know, Auto Attacks?

Mejai's Soulstealer is too risky for my taste, and anyways, we agreed on farming only, didn´t we?

Rod of Ages and Rylai's Crystal Scepter are for the tanky Karthus version, which is considerable, but here and now doesn´t have any place in this guide...

Last but not least: Athene's Unholy Grail: We all know that Sir Farmalot always looked for the grail, but this one simply is too unholy. Anyways, the mana regen it provides is best in game, but you already have a mana regen item with an active you need ( Seraph's Embrace), making Athene's Unholy Grail kind of needless and even unnecessary if not superfluous (Get it, fluous because it provides mana flow? No? Nevermind, let´s move on...).

R > Q > E > W
What I am trying to say is:
Always max Requiem(R) when possible, max Lay Waste(Q) over Wall of Pain(W) and Defile(E).

Now it depends on you and your opponent if you want to max Wall of Pain(W) or Defile(E) second.
If your opponent plays risky and tries to towerdive you, max W, if not, E, your call.

Take Flash and Teleport

Flash is a great escape/engage tool

Teleport brings you to your farm, as it never comes to you :´(

All the others: NO

I´ll feel personally attacked if I meet one of you guys following my guide, but taking different Summoner Spells and most likely report you for bad player...

The above are everything you need and I´ll tell you why not the others:

Barrier and Heal would be acceptable as they give you the opportunity to lenghten your presence during team fights, but Zhonya's Hourglass and Seraph's Embrace do well enough, and as far as I know, there are no items which do cool things like Flash and Teleport.

Cleanse: not that good kind of a spell, when in need buy Quicksilver Sash

Exhaust: little better than your Wall of Pain, but only on a single enemy.

Ghost: Where would you want to run to? Wanna escape? See Exhaust

Ignite: What about "play safely" didn´t you understand? Ignite is the most aggressive Summoner Spell ever.

Smite: You suck at lasthitting, eh?

Now, I´ll tell you how to play with this Karthus build.

With this guide I bring to you the possibility to travel through time and bring the so called "Late Game" a little earlier to your unexpecting enemies.

The trick is simple: Karthus is a Late Game monster, an unstoppable force, when he has his items.

But you don´t want to wait for the Late Game to come, you decide when the Late Game starts.

Therefore, you completely ignore the enemy mid lane champion, keep pushing your lane into his tower from afar with Q, then, when he is losing CS under his tower, you go and farm your wolves and chickens, or even the enemy's chickens, if your team is warding well.

As you are farming like a boss, you don´t need kills on your enemy or ganks by your jungler.
Plus you can´t feed them, because you´re constantly in your tower or jungle farming.

While farming always have an eye on your ally's lanes, if they need help or engage a fight, press R for a global gank.


Now everybody's Mid Game has come.
Everybody's but yours: You're already in the Late Game, with your nearly full build.

Now you want to start teamfights as long as you are in advantage, but have in mind, that you are the only one with full build. It's up to you to deal the heavy damage.
If you are not sure if you should start a teamfight keep farming!



If you haven't won yet, the Late Game starts, although you don't really want to get there.
The tides are nearly even again, the others have caught up, your only advantages are your elixirs.
Your role has changed completely by now: You don't start teamfights anymore, you wait for your team and keep it safe. Never get caught alone!
In case of a teamfight, try to deal as much DMG as possible and be in the middle of the fight when you die.
I say when and not if, because you most likely will die now.
The point in dying is doing that after having dealt as much DMG as possible to everyone. Try to delay your certain death as much as possible using your actives.

And this is what you want to do in TFs:
- Poke until it finally breakes out
- When it started, go right in the middle of it with your W active, use your Seraph's Embrace and Zhonya's Hourglass to survive as long as possible. (Note: You want to stay in the fight until you're dead, you might even want to Flash if you've been knocked back.
- After you're dead always use Requiem to help your team out
- Never, I repeat NEVER use your ult to actively steal kills from your team. You are undead, but not an ***ho1e, plus your ult has a long cast time, that can't be interupted, when you're dead and untargettable and it has a really high cooldown, so it's better using it for something more productive.



That's about it and I hope you have a lot of fun with this guide!

Thank you for reading my guide on Sir Farmalot.

I'm sorry for the boring looks in this guide, I did this to share my knowldege, not to impress!

Maybe you'll let me know if I've done or said something wrong, if you're offended by this guide or need any psychiologocal help.

16.06.2014: Fixed mistakes in the ability sequence and the most embarrassing spelling mistakes, added more viable items and bad jokes

18.06.2014: Item section adjusted so it becomes clearer

19.11.2014: Damn, found even more spelling mistakes I had to fix, one of them in the change log >.<

28.01.2015: Changed itemization, RIP Deathfire Grasp, added matchups

03.02.2015: Now really removed DFG from everywhere it was hiding

21.02.2015: MOAR matchups for you

25.02.2015: Revive has left the League and this guide

03.04.2015: Luden's Tempest has been looked at and found worthy - included in the build

28.10.2015: Reworked and added some Champs in matchup section

11.11.2015: Masteries updated to S6, Clairvoyance and Clarity removed

28.12.2015: Items updated

25.01.2016: Homeguards removed

25.03.2016: Reworked runes and masteries section

05.05.2016: Ripperino enchantments

02.11.2016: More maths in rune section, reworked masteries, clearer item selection, added eyecandy!

05.05.2017: been a while, but I changed Abyssal Mask into the new Banshee's Veil, which is cool, read on

21.07.2017: updated a few matchups and the masteries

06.06.2018: been nearly a year, damn. But we're up to date now, fellas!