Katarina Middle Lane/s4 Guide
This guide is intended to help you during game play,It isn't in depth and is mainly for build,rotation,masteries an ect.
Katarina can be a great snow balling champ,Especially when roaming from middle lane for ganks.With a great escape,Her Q allows her to jump in and out of fights or escape ganks from the enemy jungler,while also giving a damage reduction buff for a short period of time.
Starting build,What you will start off with will vary on who you are going up against. Starting Builds
x5 For champions with alot of poke (Harassment).
x4 For melee champions
x4 This is the typical beginning build I usually do,I normally just use boots to help me evade skill shots and get a start on my Sorcerer boots
First recall:I usually build my Haunting guise then boots,But you can go either way if it suits you.But for now I'm going to show you how I build.
If you feel that theirs alot of pressure than you can go with the ruby crystal as you build your Haunting guise.
But if you feel you are OK and you want the extra damage than go with the Amplifying tome,If you can afford both get it!
Next Build:
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If you have enough for both.By now,You should be doing decent damage with the AP and Magic Pen from the mask and boots.With the haunting guise you also have the choice to upgrade it to
But I usually wait a bit,I personally don't worry about it until after I basically have a full build but you can upgrade any time you want.
Next Build:You have two choices for this next one,Some people will go with the
or they will go with
.I'm kind of torn between them,Because I like the death cap for the increased AP but I also like the Rylai's slowing effect as well as 500 health,It also helps because Katarina has no slow or cc.
Death cap
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Rylai's
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Now remember,The way you build varies on how your doing against your opponents/opponent,If the champion you're versing in your lane happens to hit hardy and is a champ that uses magic,Then get some MR(Magic Resist). Start building
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But if you're doing well enough to where you don't need the MR than go with the
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I like this because it ignores 35% percent of the enemy champions magic resist.Goes a long way when you have sorcerer boots and haunting guise.But like I said before,Build MR and armor if needed,Which is the next of builds I'm going to talk about.These two items are a bit OP imo.
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This item is awesome because it gives you 50 armor/40 magic resist also allows you to restore 30% of your health after taking lethal damage.
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This is a good item because it gives you 120+ AP/50 Armor and allow you to become invulnerable and untargetable for 2.5 seconds. With GA(Guardian Angel) and Zhonya's you can basically cheat death twice,Alot of fun doing it and seeing people get mad.If you think I should add something to kat's build let me know.
Runes:
Mark of Magic Penetration x9
Seal of Armor x9
Glyph of Magic resist x9
Quint of Ability Power x3
Masteries:
Offense Tree 1 Double edged sword,4 sorcery,1 Butcher,3 Mental force,1 Arcane mastery,3 Executioner,3 Archmage,3 Devastating strikes,1 Arcane blade,1 Havoc.
Defense Tree 2 Block,2 Enchanted armor,1 Unyielding,3 Veteran scars,1 Juggernaut.
Utility Tree Nothing...
Ability Learning Sequence:
These numbers below represent a level gained in a match,The letters next to them is your spell rotation.This is the order you will choose what spell to level up when you level.
1 Q/2 W/3 E/4 W/5 Q/6 R/7 Q/8 W/9 Q/10 W/11 R/12 E/13 Q/14 W/15 E/16 R/17 E/18 E
This last part is just going to be basic types for mid laning with kat.
When using katarina be sure to get last kit on minions,Try to play aggressively so that it reduces the amount of minions farmed for the enemy.Be careful though,You don't want to get to aggressive and over extend and either your enemy slaughtering you because you underestimated them or you get ganked from their jungle (Use wards...)If you pushed your lane to hard and you don't want to advance to their turret,Don't stay at your turret,Farm the wolves or something near your lane until the wave is closer to the middle of the lane,This allows you to keep up on farming while you have down time,And if you're lucky your enemy wont get cs from being under their turret.
When you reach level 6 or have the opportunity,Roam and gank another lane,This will get you the jump you will want on your enemy in mid lane and of course help you snow ball.Alot of people get mad at people who play katarina and say they KSed but shes basically meant for clean up in team fights,Kat isn't suppose to start team fights,She's meant to jump in after the team has already started fighting.That way when the other team has blown cool downs she had come in and use her ult and wreck em,Just don't wait long...It only takes a few seconds then you need to engage,unless of course you know you're teams going to lose the team fight.
A tip about forcing your opponent in your lane to retreat a little,If your opponent doesn't have a stun or slow this can be an easy way to harass them.When you're farming and you see that they are getting close you can start off by using your Q to hit them followed by you E to shunpo on them then use your W to run out of their.If you can do it fast enough you can get them 3 attacks off and be out of their before they can react.You can also spam your queue at them.Even using your ult (R) for harass isn't really that bad because the cool downs on your spells are so low.But be sure to use it wisely as well when needed...Now if your getting pressured in your lane,Try and set it up to where your jungle can get an early gank,A way to do that is to allow him to clear some of your minions without you hitting them allowing him to advance toward your tower giving him a longer time to run back to his base.And odds are your jungler is going to have some type of cc so he/she or you can pick up the gank.Last tip I'm going to leave is,If you plan on basically maining Katarina,Learn her counter champs,Counter champs are champions that can counter you and beat you up pretty bad.But even if you don't main her,Learn your counters.
Please leave comments an let me know if I helped or if you didn't like my guide.