LoL Champion Build Guides: Karthus

Karthus The Deathsinger

Find the best Karthus build guides for League of Legends S12 Patch 11.23. The MOBAFire community works hard to keep their LoL builds and guides updated, and will help you craft the best Karthus build for the S12 meta. Learn more about Karthus' abilities, skins, or even ask your own questions to the community!

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Season 12 Guides // Patch 11.23 & Patch 11.22

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Karthus Build & Runes

If you're looking for the best rune build for Karthus we've got you covered. Below you can find the best items and runes to build for Karthus, as determined by LeagueSpy's calculations of thousands of Plat+ League of Legends games. If you are already familiar with how to play Karthus this is a great resource to quickly get a good rune selection for Patch 11.23. However, if you are a new Karthus player we highly recommend reading through some of the guides above to learn why this build is strong on Karthus!

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Patch 11.23: 635540 matches scanned * Each section of the build is rated independently of the others

Domination

Precision

Second Best

52%

Win Rate 2114 Games

Domination

Precision

Third Best

51%

Win Rate 1183 Games

Domination

Precision

More Karthus Runes

Second Best

49%

Win Rate 7402 Games

Third Best

60%

Win Rate 130 Games

Second Best

49%

Win Rate 2951 Games

Third Best

49%

Win Rate 2144 Games

Second Best

46%

Win Rate 3803 Games

Third Best

48%

Win Rate 1337 Games

Don’t forget
to Buy Wards

Passive Ability

Second Best

63%

Win Rate 877 Games

Passive Ability

Third Best

60%

Win Rate 65 Games

Passive Ability

Patch 11.20: 494917 matches scanned * Each section of the build is rated independently of the others

Domination

Precision

Second Best

57%

Win Rate 134 Games

Domination

Precision

Third Best

54%

Win Rate 330 Games

Domination

Precision

More Karthus Runes

Second Best

53%

Win Rate 168 Games

Third Best

52%

Win Rate 109 Games

! Small Sample Size Warning * There is either not a lot of games played on this champion or the builds vary greatly, we have provided the top build but it does not have a high confidence rating so use your own discretion.

Second Best

100%

Win Rate 1 Games

Second Best

51%

Win Rate 697 Games

Third Best

54%

Win Rate 137 Games

Don’t forget
to Buy Wards

Passive Ability

Patch 11.23: 635560 matches scanned * Each section of the build is rated independently of the others

Domination

Precision

Second Best

62%

Win Rate 115 Games

Domination

Precision

Third Best

57%

Win Rate 153 Games

Domination

Precision

More Karthus Runes

Second Best

50%

Win Rate 1393 Games

Third Best

56%

Win Rate 386 Games

Second Best

51%

Win Rate 764 Games

Third Best

55%

Win Rate 168 Games

Second Best

52%

Win Rate 1227 Games

Third Best

56%

Win Rate 384 Games

Don’t forget
to Buy Wards

Passive Ability

Second Best

65%

Win Rate 357 Games

Passive Ability

Third Best

54%

Win Rate 57 Games

Passive Ability

Karthus Counters

Learn 's counters and discover matchups where they have an advantage! When you're starting a game of League of Legends you should always keep in mind if you'll be at an advantage or disadvantage against your opponent, so you can know whether to bully them or play safe. You can find detailed breakdowns of each matchup on CounterStats, and you can also check out some Karthus guides to see how to build and play against other champions you may find yourself up against!

This counter data is for Karthus Jungle in Plat+ games. The percent shown is the enemy champion's counter rating against Karthus. Counter rating is our own statistic that factors in counter kills, overall kills, early lead ratio, comeback ratio, and win percent to give the whole picture of that champion's effectiveness as a counter pick.

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Counters powered by CounterStats

CR is Counter Rating, which is a combination of multiple counter factors. Counters shown are for Karthus Karthus Jungle

More Karthus Counters

Karthus Skins

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Find Karthus's skins and when they were last on sale. Never miss a sale for your favorite skin by using our Wish List feature! You can also find all Karthus skins and chromas on Karthus's skins page.

Skin Release Wishlist Popularity Cost

Pentakill III: Lost Chapter Karthus

September 9, 2021

+ Wishlist

1350

Infernal Karthus

July 16, 2020

+ Wishlist

1350

Karthus Lightsbane

November 17, 2016

+ Wishlist

975

Fnatic Karthus

Special Events

September 25, 2014

+ Wishlist

750

Pentakill Karthus

August 29, 2011

+ Wishlist

750

Grim Reaper Karthus

September 27, 2010

+ Wishlist

975

Statue of Karthus

July 4, 2010

+ Wishlist

520

Phantom Karthus

Legacy

January 13, 2010

+ Wishlist

460

Classic Karthus

Original

+ Wishlist

Karthus' Abilities

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Death Defied Karthus's Passive

Self

Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form allowing him to continue casting spells for 7 seconds. During this time his abilities cost no mana.

Lay Waste Karthus's Q Ability

875

20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40

Karthus briefly reveals the target area which he detonates after a 0.5-second delay, dealing 45 / 62.5 / 80 / 97.5 / 115 (+35% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies within, doubled when hitting only one target.

Lay Waste's damage is reduced by 15% against monsters.

During Death Defied, Lay Waste will cast at maximum range if cast beyond that.

Wall of Pain Karthus's W Ability

1000

Karthus creates a 800 / 900 / 1000 / 1100 / 1200 distance wide wall at the target location for 5 seconds. The wall reduces the magic resistance of enemies who pass through it by 15% for 5 seconds and applies a 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% slow which drops to half effectiveness after 1 second and then decays over the remaining debuff duration.

Defile Karthus's E Ability

425

30 / 42 / 54 / 66 / 78

0.5

Passive: Karthus restores 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 mana whenever he kills an enemy.

Toggle: Drains 30 / 42 / 54 / 66 / 78 Mana every second. Deals 7.5 / 12.5 / 17.5 / 22.5 / 27.5 (+5% of ability power) magic damage every 0.25 seconds to all nearby enemies. Deactivating Defile deals 1 tick's worth of damage.

Defile cannot be toggled off during Death Defied, but it can be while channeling Requiem.

Requiem Karthus's Ultimate (R) Ability

Self

100

200 / 180 / 160 / 160 / 160

After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals 200 / 350 / 500 (+75% of ability power) magic damage to all enemy champions (regardless of distance).

Questions About Karthus

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Latest Questions

Karthus DH or Predator

Asked by ninja8135 on December 11, 2018

So I know before the DH rework [[Karthus]] used to take [[Predator]] because you could activate it and boost your ult damage on everyone that you hit. Does the new [[Dark Harvest]] work the same way? That is, if you have multiple targets within...

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what can i build for karthus jngl???

Asked by Spiros_Dhim on January 21, 2018

what can i build for karthus jngl???

View (1) Answers

Karthus jungle?

Asked by Dill Money on April 10, 2013

In the most recent Pro Player Pick, Archie mentioned that one of his favorite junglers to play with is [[Karthus]]. I've heard of jungle [[Karthus]] before, and that it has been used by some pro team in the past (just can't think of the team), but...

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Karthus and Soraka

Asked by Pluckin Penguin on December 30, 2012

So, a lot of people think of [[Soraka]] as the #1 counter to [[Karthus]]. Constantly in solo queue I see teammates pick [[Soraka]] because there is a [[Karthus]] on the other team. The common claim is that [[Soraka]]'s ultimate negates...

View (7) Answers

LoL Champion Build Guides: Karthus

Karthus The Deathsinger

2.4 Million Mastery-Lane Karthus Guide-Season 11

[11.21] Challenger NA & EUW Rank 1 Karthus world | In-de

#Rank 1 Karthus Jungle and adc Grandmaster 74%wr

BEST JUNGLER IN THE META Challenger karthus jgl guide

[11.23] Rank 1 Karthus World Guide To Climbing

Cashout Karthus

Karthus Money Printer

Karthus

S12 Karthus Jungle Guide

Money Print Karthus

11.23 Karthus First Strike (Gold For Days) Jungle

Muahahaha

Gate Karthus :O

[S11] How to Solo Carry as Karthus

[70% Winrate] Rank #84 Karthus In The World Guide (MID)

[11.20] Karthus Jungle Guide | Not just an R Machine

Diamond Tank Karthus - Swift Death

[10.25] Harambe Homie - Karthus the top dog of the jungle!

(11.17) KARTHUS BOT FULL GUIDE

[11.13] Three Ways to Karthus by JuvX

Karthus Build & Runes

Karthus's Top Items

Karthus's Top Items

Karthus's Top Runes

Karthus's Runes

Second Best

Third Best

Karthus's Summoner Spells

Second Best

Third Best

Karthus's Starters

Second Best

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Trinket

Second Best

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Karthus's Core Items

Boots

Karthus's Luxury Items

Karthus's Ability Order

Death Defied (PASSIVE)

Lay Waste (Q)

Wall of Pain (W)

Defile (E)

Requiem (R)

Second Best

Death Defied (PASSIVE)

Lay Waste (Q)

Wall of Pain (W)

Defile (E)

Requiem (R)

Third Best

Death Defied (PASSIVE)

Lay Waste (Q)

Wall of Pain (W)

Defile (E)

Requiem (R)

Top Karthus Players

Top Karthus Players

Karthus's Top Items

Karthus's Top Items

Karthus's Top Runes

Karthus's Runes

Second Best

Third Best

Karthus's Summoner Spells

Second Best

Third Best

Karthus's Starters

Second Best

Trinket

Second Best

Third Best

Karthus's Core Items

Boots

Karthus's Luxury Items

Karthus's Ability Order

Death Defied (PASSIVE)