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Katarina Build Guide by Eriosunx

Middle (14.21) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]

Middle (14.21) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]

Updated on October 23, 2024
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Eriosunx Build Guide By Eriosunx 359 39 1,011,340 Views 28 Comments
359 39 1,011,340 Views 28 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Eriosunx Katarina Build Guide By Eriosunx Updated on October 23, 2024
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Runes: SCALING - CONQUEROR

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace

Sorcery
Absolute Focus
Gathering Storm
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4 5 6
IGNITE+TP
LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Items

STARTERS
β€’HIGH SUSTAINED DAMAGE - LESS LANE SUSTAIN
β€’HIGH SUSTAIN IN LANE (reccomended with *second wind* in the runes)
β€’SNOWBALL POTENTIAL + LANE SUSTAIN
β€’SUSTAINED DAMAGE + LANE SUSTAIN
BOOTS ARE IMPORTANT!
β€’VS SQUISHY / RUNNING BURST-BUILDS
β€’VS HEAVY AUTO-BASED CHAMPS
β€’VS LOTS OF CCs & AP-DMG
DONT FORGET!
β€’VS LOTS OF MAGIC RESIST ITEMS
β€’CAN BE GAMECHANGER

Ability Order E MAX WHEN PLAYING WITH AD ITEMS AS STARTERS/PATHING AD BUILD

1 2

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

(14.21) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]

By Eriosunx
Hello and Welcome to my " KATARINA GUIDE". Im an Italian Master Katarina main.
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! πŸ”₯

PROS
🟒 Extremely fun to play
🟒 Good scaling
🟒 Insane mobility
🟒 High mechanical skill-roof
🟒 Rewarding when played correctly
🟒 Insanely strong while snow-balling
CONS
πŸ”΄ Very hard to master mechanically
πŸ”΄ Has barely any winning matchups
πŸ”΄ Sensible to burst-damage
πŸ”΄ Sensible to Crowd Controls
πŸ”΄ Her mistakes are easily punishable
πŸ”΄ Hard to get consistent high CS/m
π™€π™‡π™€π˜Ύπ™π™π™Šπ˜Ύπ™π™π™€
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.
π˜Ύπ™Šπ™‰π™Œπ™π™€π™π™Šπ™
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.
π™π™„π™π™Žπ™ π™Žπ™π™π™„π™†π™€
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.
π™Žπ™π™ˆπ™ˆπ™Šπ™‰ π˜Όπ™€π™π™”
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.
π™π™π™€π˜Όπ™Žπ™π™π™€ 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍
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.
π™π™€π™‡π™€π™‰π™π™‡π™€π™Žπ™Ž 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍
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.
π™Žπ™π˜Ώπ˜Ώπ™€π™‰ π™„π™ˆπ™‹π˜Όπ˜Ύπ™
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.
π˜½π™Šπ™‰π™€ π™‹π™‡π˜Όπ™π™„π™‰π™‚
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.
π™Žπ™€π˜Ύπ™Šπ™‰π˜Ώ π™’π™„π™‰π˜Ώ
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.
π™Šπ™‘π™€π™π™‚π™π™Šπ™’π™π™ƒ
perfect in the games where we need to be A BIT MORE TANKY and we don't need the extra reistances from Unflinching
π™π™‰π™π™‡π™„π™‰π˜Ύπ™ƒπ™„π™‰π™‚
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.
π™‹π™€π™π™Žπ™Šπ™‰π˜Όπ™‡ 𝙏𝙄𝙋
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.

π™’π˜Όπ™‡π™‡ π™…π™π™ˆπ™‹
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.

π™‡π™Šπ™‰π™‚ π™π˜Όπ™‰π™‚π™€ π™Žπ™ƒπ™π™‰π™‹π™Š
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

π™π™‡π˜Όπ™Žπ™ƒ π˜Ώπ™„π™Žπ™€π™‰π™‚π˜Όπ™‚π™€
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

π˜Όπ™π™π™Š π™π™€π™Žπ™€π™π™π™„π™‰π™‚
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

π™π˜Όπ™Žπ™ π™‚π˜Όπ™‹-π˜Ύπ™‡π™Šπ™Žπ™€ 𝙆𝙄𝙇𝙇
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
π™†π™‰π™Šπ™’π™‡π™€π˜Ώπ™‚π™€ π˜Όπ™‰π˜Ώ π™€π™“π™‹π™€π™π™„π™€π™‰π˜Ύπ™€
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).

π™’π˜Όπ™‘π™€ π™ˆπ˜Όπ™‰π˜Όπ™‚π™€π™ˆπ™€π™‰π™
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

π™‡π˜Όπ™Žπ™ 𝙃𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂
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.

π™Žπ˜Όπ™π™€ π™π™π˜Όπ˜Ώπ™„π™‰π™‚
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

π™ˆπ˜Όπ™‹ π˜Όπ™’π˜Όπ™π™€π™‰π™€π™Žπ™Ž
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!

𝙇𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙇 𝟯 π™Žπ™Šπ™‡π™Š-π™†π™„π™‡π™‡π™Ž
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













π™π™Šπ˜Όπ™ˆπ™„π™‰π™‚ π˜½π˜Όπ™Žπ™„π˜Ύπ™Ž
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 A lot of Katarina players waste a LOT OF GOLD AND EXP foundamental in order to scale properly and snowball only becaouse they see a single kill on the map. A single kill is not worth, even if you get it, losing a whole wave is not worth 1 KILL , unless its a big shutdown of course.I cant find the exact numbers from this patch of A WHOLE WAVE OF MINION GOLD AND EXP I'll make sure to inform myself on the details and update this section.

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.
π™π™€π˜Όπ™ˆ 𝙁𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 π™‹π™Šπ™π™€π™‰π™π™„π˜Όπ™‡
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.

π™†π˜Όπ™π™„π™‰π˜Ό π™‹π™‡π˜Όπ™”π™Žπ™π™”π™‡π™€ π™ˆπ™Šπ™π™‹π™ƒπ™„π™‰π™‚
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.

π˜½π™π™π™„π™Žπ™€π™ π˜½π™π™„π™‡π˜Ώπ™Ž π™‹π™‡π˜Όπ™”π™Žπ™π™”π™‡π™€
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.

π˜Όπ™‰π˜Όπ™‡π™”π™•π™€ 𝙏𝙃𝙀 π™Žπ™„π™π™π˜Όπ™π™„π™Šπ™‰
Its important in every teamfight to analize the situation and predict what is going to happen before going in as Katarina

π™’π˜Όπ™„π™ π™Šπ™π™ π™Žπ™π™π™‰ π˜Όπ˜½π™„π™‡π™π™„π™€π™Ž π˜Όπ™‰π˜Ώ π™€π™Žπ˜Ύπ˜Όπ™‹π™€π™Ž
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

π™π˜Όπ™π™‚π™€π™ π™Žπ™€π™‡π™€π˜Ύπ™π™„π™Šπ™‰
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

π™π™π™Šπ™‰π™ π™π™Š π˜½π˜Όπ˜Ύπ™†
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

π˜½π˜Όπ˜Ύπ™† π™π™Š π™π™π™Šπ™‰π™
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

π™‹π™π™„π™Šπ™π™„π™π™” π™π˜Όπ™π™‚π™€π™π™„π™‰π™‚
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*.

π™‹π™Šπ™Žπ™„π™π™„π™Šπ™‰π™„π™‰π™‚
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!
π™π™ƒπ˜Όπ™‰π™†π™Ž π™π™Šπ™ π™‹π˜Όπ™Žπ™Žπ™„π™‰π™‚ π˜½π™”, 𝙄 π™π™€π˜Όπ™‡π™‡π™” π™ƒπ™Šπ™‹π™€ π™”π™Šπ™ 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 π™π™„π™‰π˜Ώ π™π™ƒπ™„π™Ž π™‚π™π™„π˜Ώπ™€ π™π™Žπ™€π™π™π™‡π™‡, 𝙇𝙀𝙏 π™ˆπ™€ π™†π™‰π™Šπ™’ 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 π˜Ύπ™Šπ™ˆπ™ˆπ™€π™‰π™π™Ž π™’π™ƒπ˜Όπ™ π˜Ώπ™Š π™”π™Šπ™ 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙆 π˜Όπ˜½π™Šπ™π™ 𝙄𝙏 π˜Όπ™‰π˜Ώ 𝙄𝙁 π™”π™Šπ™ π™ƒπ˜Όπ™‘π™€ π˜Όπ™‰π™” π˜½π™π™„π™‡π˜Ώ π™Žπ™π™‚π™‚π™€π™Žπ™π™„π™Šπ™‰! π˜Όπ™‡π™Žπ™Š 𝙁𝙀𝙀𝙇 𝙁𝙍𝙀𝙀 π™π™Š π™‹π˜Όπ™Žπ™Ž π˜½π™” π™ˆπ™” π™Žπ™π™π™€π˜Όπ™ˆ 𝙄𝙁 π™”π™Šπ™ π™ƒπ˜Όπ™‘π™€ π˜Όπ™‰π™” π™Œπ™π™€π™Žπ™π™„π™Šπ™‰π™Ž 𝙄'𝙇𝙇 π˜½π™€ π™‚π™‡π˜Όπ˜Ώ π™π™Š π˜Όπ™‰π™Žπ™’π™€π™ π™π™ƒπ™€π™ˆ!
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(14.21) Eriosun's Complete Master Katarina Guide - Season 14 [UPDATED]

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