Champion Build Guide
(14.16) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]
By Eriosunx
I started playing in middle Season9 and peaked Diamond I in early Season10.
I know it sounds weird but, hold on, it wasnt my first experience on MOBA games.
I played DOTA 2 for years! So when switching to League of Legends I was still in my environment.
As I said , I come from Dota2, and in Dota details and game knowledge is a MUST.
That's why I decided to make a guide, I really like to speculate on the game details and share with you guys my experiences and knowledge.I really hope this guide will help you out and answer some of the questions that playing Katarina raised in your minds.
So, with all that being said, hope you enjoyed the guide, I will do my best to keep it updated and make sure noone will be missing out on new builds and playstyles.
Thanks for passing by, and enjoy the guide! ๐ฅ
PROS ๐ข Good scaling ๐ข Insane mobility ๐ข High mechanical skill-roof ๐ข Rewarding when played correctly ๐ข Insanely strong while snow-balling | CONS ๐ด Has barely any winning matchups ๐ด Sensible to burst-damage ๐ด Sensible to Crowd Controls ๐ด Her mistakes are easily punishable ๐ด Hard to get consistent high CS/m |
๐๐๐๐พ๐๐๐๐พ๐๐๐ Electrocute is a good and consistent keystone for Katarina and it's the best one for short-trade matchups or while versing squishy champions. It makes some matchups way easier, like Akali or Zed matchup, thanks to the short-trading potential given by the Q+E+W+E FAST TRADE COMBO in lane. It's also very good if our aim is just to kill a sensibile target in fights with a burst of damage on a grounded dagger in teamfights. |
๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ Conqueror is a very versatile and consistent key-stone for Katarina, it can be used both on BRUISER BUILDS, FULL AP BUILDS , AND HYBRID BUILDS. This makes Conqueror one of the strongest options depending on the situation, wich also allows us access to solo-kills in lane while going for Divine Sunderer or Blade of the Ruined King as first items. |
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ First Strike is a very situational key-stone and becomes very usefull if the match-up we face is really impossible to kill, and it's not even worth risking your entire laning-phase just to try a trade or a solo-kill. Why would you still go First Strike if you can just play safe with any other rune? Well, First Strike allows you to REACH YOUR 3 ITEM SPIKE WAY FASTER AND MORE CONSISTENTLY. Just to be clear, if the match-up is playable, is always better to go Conqueror or Electrocute. |
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐ Summon Aery is a very strong keystone for controlling the laning-phase trough your poke damage. Combined with Scorch, Sudden Impact and Absolute Focus it will enhance our Bouncing Blades and allow us to poke really hard on the enemy midlaner. |
๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ is perfect to scale fast to frist item, expecially when playing with AD Builds. Blade of the Ruined King is the biggest spike for Katarina and having that little bonus gold from this rune, really makes you spike way faster. Downside, is that the Domination tree at this point and time is pretty weak after Sudden Impact nerfs. If you need tankiness, is always better to play with Resolve. |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ is the option when we don't need Ingenious Hunter and we wanna ROAM AND FLANK FIGHTS PROPERLY INSTEAD, the out of combat movement speed might seem weak, but in reality allows you to gap-close way better on picks or flanks, while also allowing you to better catch waves on sidelane and follow up schermiseh or teamfights. |
๐๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ผ๐พ๐ is the best one while running Domination trees, the bonus Lethality and Magic Penetration is no longer there, but the little bonus damage is still usefull to make your plays work. Make sure to always have it if you are running Domination tree as secondary or primary. |
๐ฝ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ is very usefull if we are facing BURST BASED MATCHUPS like Zed or Fizz. Combined with Electrocute we can safely take short-trades while the Bone Plating effect is up and even if the enemy trades back, we will still have some form of protection. |
๐๐๐พ๐๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐๐ฟ is very usefull if we are facing POKE BASED MATCHUPS like LeBlanc or Syndra. Combined with Doran's Shield it will allow us to have a WAY MORE HEALTHY LANING-PHASE and be able to witstand all the poke we need to take in order to not miss all the minions. |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ perfect in the games where we need to be A BIT MORE TANKY and we don't need the extra reistances from Unflinching |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐๐๐ very usefull while playing against ENEMY COMPS WITH A LOT OF STUNS/SLOWS. The bonus MR/ARMOR seems little but combined with all the stats with AD builds works pretty well. |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐ The best tip I can give you in order to learn her is PLAY HER A LOT and also WATCH A LOT OF STREAMS/VIDEO Watching streams and videos allows you to experience situations even if you didnt had the opportunity to play them yourself. I know is weird but for me, watching others really helped me out on gaining confidence on the champion and knowing what to do in almost any situation. |
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๐๐๐ You can walljump with Katarina without any target on the other side of the wall. The wall doesnt have to be thick. The trick can be executed by placing Preparation to the edge of the wall and before the Preparation Dagger drops you can Shunpo on the very edge of the dagger, even if you dont see it you can still jump over it. |
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ I use it mostly to surpise the enemy thanks to the very LONG RANGE, its basically instant if you do it in the correct way. The trick is simply pressing both Flash and Shunpo and the same time on the target, it will automatically use both of the abilities and both their max range of usage. Trust me, noone will expect that much range of engage |
๐๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐ Consists in using Shunpoon a Q Bouncing Blades landed into a teamfight and instanly Flash out , while leaving a W Preparation on the ground. As a result, you picked up the Q Bouncing Blades resetting your E Shunpo and you still have your W Preparation in the middle of the fight ready to be picked up! In that way you can bait some CC/SET UP SOME DAMAGE on the first jump you make and then you can go back in on the W Preparation and START MAKING BLADES DANCE with Death Lotus |
๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ Katarina's Shunpo can be used as an auto-reset. We can maximixe our damage out-put by resetting our basics with Shunpo and taking off-guard enemy laners in the early schermishes Auto-resettig is important in order to deal proper damage expecially in the laning-phase while we are playing with Conqueror |
๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐-๐พ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ This is an insane combo , designed to take off-guard enemies when they are very low hps. If done correctly you will give the enemy literally 0 reaction-time since is too fast to react. The combo consists in using your Flash and instantly casting your Bouncing Blades , when the Bouncing Blades cast-animation is completed proceed to Shunpo + AUTO as fast as you can! I reccomend to try this combo in practice tool several times before using it in-game |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐พ๐ Knowing how to lane into all the matchups is exactly whay you need to make sure you will be able to have an IMPACT IN EVERY GAME YOU PLAY. Katarina is known for her weak laningphase , but if you wanna become a Katarina master you will have to adapt and manage to play around any matchup. You can check the champion threats , I explained overall how the matchups should be played (the hardest ones). |
๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ Do not push lane for no reason, further you are from your tower, easier is for enemy midlaner to freeze the wave and easier is for enemy jungler to kill you with ganks. Also most matchups you NEED TO NOT PUSH EARLY LEVELS to make sure you have SPACE TO ALL-IN level 3,For example: Kassadin, Zed, Qiyana, Yasuo |
๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ Having perfect CS on Katarina is almost impossible, the only way you will find yourself in a position where you can CS properly is when you already snowballed on enemy midlaner , and you are the one in control of the lane-state. In my experience IS NOT WORTH TO GET HARASSED FOR EARLY MINIONS, if you get outlaned before lv3 only to get a few CS more is absolutely not worth it. MOST OF THE TIMES IS BETTER TO GIVE UP CS BUT MAKE SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO LANE PROPERLY AND DONT LOSE XP.For example: Orianna matchup , you just give up everything and you lasthit only what you can, if you manage to get lv3 with a good wave position you can easily all-in and solokill. |
๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ Trading in the midlane is one of the most important things. We wanna make sure we are trading properly in every matchup in order to pull off solokills or let our Jungle gank our lane. A good way to trade properly overall is with Q+E+W+E(OUT)//(IN) , consists in landing a Bouncing Blades on the ground , picking it up and instantly dropping your Preparation , this will result in an instant DOUBLE Voracity PICKUP giving us an INSTANT Shunpo RESET. We can either commit and prolong the trade or Shunpo on a minion behind us and take the trade |
๐๐ผ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ Having a good map awareness is crucial in order to use our roaming potential. We have to know what is happening is side-lanes and what summoner spells they used in order to ROAM OR Teleport on the sides and take free kills! Most of Katarina's Kills come from Jungle schermishes or side-lane kills so its important to have the habit to check sides or jungle with our cam view, and taking as much infos as possible on the current state of the game and learning how to use those informations for snowball games! |
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐ In a lot of matchups giving up early first waves CS its important. For example against Orianna , Viktor , Syndra , Yasuo you won't be able to get close to the minions and last-hit them unless they have no clue of what they are doing. Losing half-health for a couple of minions of the first wave is something we need to avoid. Taking that much damage will get us too low , waste sustain and make us unable to follow up early schermishes due to our low hps. Katarina doesn't have huge kill-pressure in laning-phase and most of her kills comes from sides / jungle schermishes, this is why is important to BE ALWAYS FULL-HEALTH IN LANE IF POSSIBLE in order to give us the possibility to get some kills in the early stages of the game! Also we will be able to take solokills from level 3 , so getting there full-hp while having all pots is a good way to get solokills in lane. Viktor and Orianna matchup for example are all about Katarina getting level 3 full-hp , from there you can perma all-in them if you manage the wave properly and open up solo-kill scenarios |
๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐๐พ๐ Ok, remember that waves crash in the middle of the lane every "":30 seconds , DO NOT ROAM WHEN ENEMY WAVES ARE CRASHING UNDER YOUR TOWER There's a trick to SHOVE THE WAVE PROPERLY, you need to wait the wave to fix to a position, then place a Bouncing Blades + Preparation VoracityIN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAVES, picking them up will instantly oneshot the casters and if you have enough damage the meeles as well, resulting in a 0.5 sec total shove. You will be then ready to roam and put pressure on the map! This works best with AP-Builds.If you have Dark Seal + Amplifying Tome + Blasting Wand YOU WIL BE ABLE TO INSTANLY SHOVE THE WAVE WITH THE TRICK I DESCRIBED UP THERE For now all I can say is , when you are attempting a roam MAKES SURE YOU SHOVED YOUR WAVE UNDER ENEMY TOWER AND TRY TO COME BACK INTO YOUR LANE AT "":30/"":00 WHEN WAVES ARE CRASHING!(every 30 seconds) Also make sure you know the position of enemy jungler and you are aware of the position of your own jungler, I know there are a lot of factors to consider, but with time and practice all these details will become AUTOPILOTED.In my opinion when you AUTOPILOT and still manage to consider all these variations your skill level will increase exponencially! Roaming doesn't mean we have to pull-off a sidelane gank every time MOST OF THE TIMES JUST LEAVING LANE AND PRETENDING TO ROAM GIVES YOUR SIDES ADVANTAGE you can do that by just shoving the wave and sitting in a side-bush of the midlane if you already know there is nothing you can do on the map in that exact time, becaouse enemy midlane will ping you are missing, making enemy bot play safe and give space to your botlane if they are being pressured under tower, same goes for toplane pressure or jungle pressure. Also pretending to roam can be an easy fix for the lane if enemy mid is freezing it. Since you are faking a roam, the enemy mid will more likely shove the wave to potentially follow your roams. |
๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐ Katarina is known for her TEAMFIGHT POTENTIAL, thats why after laningphase and roaming, the TEAMFIGHT is the last but not least thing to focus on. Teamfighting as Katarina can be tricky, many meta champions have lots of stuns and crowd controls. |
๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ BASED ON WHAT YOU ARE BUILDING YOUR PLAYSTYLE IN TEAMFIGHTS HAS TO BE ADAPTED.. Exactly, what you build, makes your champion A DIFFERENT CHAMPION. If we are talking about ONESHOT-BURST builds you will focus mostly on Bouncing Blades set on the ground in teamfights and you will Shunpo on them ONLY WHEN A SQUISHY CHAMP OR A PRIORITY TARGET IS IN RAGE OF IT. NEVER ENGAGE and NEVER COINFLIP FIGHTS, be aware of what cc's they have in their pockets and start projecting and immaginating what is going to happen when you pick up that Voracity. Knowing what spells they have to stop you and considering all of them allows you to be prepared and have BETTER REACTION TIME TO SKILLSHOTS AND CC'S. |
๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ If we are playing instead on a BRUISER-LIKE BUILD where sustained damage is the foundament of the build, you will have to look for POKE Voracity , so daggers landed in positions that are not punishable but allow you to deal some damage before the teamfight and start stacking up your keystone/item passive (CONQ+RIFRMAKER+DEMONIC) And you can also take a bit more risks since usually these builds allow you to build a lot of hps/resistances. |
๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ Its important in every teamfight to analize the situation and predict what is going to happen before going in as Katarina |
๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐พ๐ผ๐๐๐ Make sure to wait out target CC's and Escapes of the enemy team for example Lissandra's Frozen Tomb or Malzahar's Nether Grasp |
๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐๐๐ It's important to choose the best target to kill in the teamfight as Katarina expecially, if we don't get a reset in the first stages of a teamfight we will be completely useless during the rest of it. This is why is important to utilize our damage on the target that's easier to kill and has also some impact in the fight |
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐พ๐ Can be applicable to Katarina's Kit, we can throw a Bouncing Blades on the frontline and land the Voracity on the groud trying to reach the backline |
๐ฝ๐ผ๐พ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ One of the most common options, just ignore the frontline and rush for the high priority targets , its important to have a good positioning in the teamfight in order to flank properly the backline |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ If you can't kill or get a reset do not go in. Knowing your damage out-put is important. This is where experience and practice pays out, make sure that whenever you are going into a teamfight you are choosing an almost *100% resettable target*. |
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ Positioning as Katarina is quite important. We have to make sure we are in a good spot to both join the fight easily and avoid getting instalocked from ccs or bursted down from high-damage spells. This is where movement speed is important. Lately im running Relentless Hunter in the runes even when going Conqueror Relentless Hunter allows me to have higher movement speed while approaching a target and facilitates the flanking part of the teamfights. Its also easier to select the target thanks to the movement speed! And overall having that movement speed boost troughout the game will allow us to also get more side-lane farm and be always the highest level on the map! |
๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฝ๐, ๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐ฟ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐'๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐!