Building Karthus: deviating from the...

[quote=samgoeslol]i get where that is coming from. haunting guise can be amazing on him, lian not so much imo but still okay sometimes you need roa tankiness. tear is a given. Zhonyas, void, cap are extremely important items aswell. honestly, i dont see the lian. if you wanna skip roa, go tear cap zhon or sth like that :D 60% on his q is crazy high imo for that low of a cd. thing is, he is squishy and midranged. get survivability, go zombiemode (doesnt work all that well anymore after his passive nerf wayyyy back yet phantomlord still does it), stay back or do a combination of those. greez sam[/quote]

[quote=throatslasher]I think rylai's liandry's is fucking stupid and overbuilt. Every kid that tries to theory craft mages always goes, HEY RYLAIS LIANDRYS OP DAMAGE. Not so. Karthus gets more damage out of higher mana pool and defense rather than dropping 3000g (HOLY SHIT) for little ap, little hp, some mpen, and burn. Whoop. Karthus's damage comes from a high mana pool and items that allow you to stay in teamfights as long as possible before dying. Liandry's is only viable on a very small handfull of champions. Just because your spells AFTER you cast W will proc the full damage, doesn't mean it's worth the investment. You come to lane after your second buy with boots and a HG. Guess what? You'll get absolutely hammered. Come to lane with tear catalyst, different story.[/quote]

[quote=Kuukai85]can't see the reason why catalyst is better than haunting guise, when you go back in lane. they are just different: if you feel confident, you can take the guise and try to get some kills..catalyst is just more safe.[/quote]

[quote=throatslasher]catalyst proc is godmode for lane if you complete it early, and the increased mana pool will allow you to use more spells. If you go HG and W+E+Q Q Q Q Q Q, you'll run out of mana much faster than if you had catalyst and tear.[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]spellvamp, hourglass, and a huge mana pool is all you need. Liandry's isn't that good on Karthus, you'd be better off with Void Staff or Abyssal Scepter.[/quote]

[quote=DarkKurisu]When I play karthus I get a haunting guise shortly after roa, doesn't really leave me much room to get tear but you dont NEED to have it. Having lower mana sucks but its not impossible to manage it.[/quote]

[quote=GrandmasterD][[Rod of Ages]], [[Seraph's Embrace]] and [[Void Staff]] are core on [[Karthus]]. To supplement that you get [[Zhonya's Hourglass]] and [[Rabadon's Deathcap]]. All other items are inferior. [b]Q: Why so much mana?[/b] [i]A: For the laning phase, mana is important but later in the game; as long as you have mana, you can deal damage; [[Defile]] is insanely strong. Additionally, [[Archangel's Staff]] provides one of the highest amounts of AP when combined with a proper mana pool and [[Karthus]] has very good scalings.[/i] [b]Q: I thought RoA was bad..?[/b] [i]A: [[Catalyst the Protector]] makes [[Karthus]]' laning phase incredibly easy. Also the health is very solid in order to survive. Additionally, the mana grants even more Ap due to Archangel's.[/i] [b]Q: I see everyone rush [[Athene's Unholy Grail]]. Where's [[Karthus]]' CDR item?[/b] [i]A: [[Karthus]] doesn't scale with CDR at all. [[Lay Waste]] and [[Defile]] don't scale with it and his other two abilities have such a high cool down that it doesn't warrant to get CDR. They're up every teamfight and CDR isn't going to make a difference. Ever.[/i] [b]Q: What about [[Rylai's Crystal Scepter]] and [[Liandry's Torment]]? They seem great, especially combined.[/b] [i]A: They are decent. The slow of crystal scepter is only applied in its diminished form (15%) and two of his spells don't benefit from it (W and R). Yes it provides HP but so does RoA and RoA synergises with Archangel's. [[Liandry's Torment]] is good but provides only 50 AP and no real synergy. Other items amplify his damage more.[/i][/quote]

[quote=utopus][quote=gotoh] Karthus has poor Ap ratios on most of his abilities and the burn from the item can increase his DPS quite a lot. [/quote] Karthus has some of the highest consistent AP damage in the game. You're discussing why liandry's is good on karthus, but you need to also take into account the item that karthus will forego in place of liandry's. To that, i don't have a very good response. Void staff, seraphs, and RoA are core on karthus, and a deathcrap and zhonya's are pretty nice too. what would liandry's replace? I think karthus would lose out on a lot of damage/utility if he doesn't get the 5 items listed above[/quote]

[quote=DarkPercy]It's better to get high amounts of AP/magic Pen than Liandry's Passive on Karthus because of his ult imo. Landry's burn cannot kill an enemy. It's literally impossible. So if you ult and someone lives with 50 HP, all Liandry's is gonna do is reduce that 50 HP left to like 40. lol[/quote]

[quote=Joxuu]I play [[karthus]] with [[The bloodthirster]] because he auto-attacks a lot and it's easier to last hit that way. [h5]I can't tink of a item I would drop to buy [[liandry's torment]] in my item build. You get wrecked early game if you do buy it.[/h5][/quote]