What Happened to Katarina (and Akali?)

katt5·9/25/2015, 2:42:44 PM·21 votes·3,808 views

It seem like the Bronze has finally moved on.

I am not lying when I say that for the past few weeks I have not seen Katarina or Akali banned AT ALL during any of my games. I find this interesting because they used to be a consistent ban.

I suppose that they have been pushed out by the juggernauts, sort of answering my own question xD However, now that they are rarely banned you would think people would play them, but I also see them very rarely in my games (unless I pick them.) I think I've only seen like 1 Katarina lately and I haven't seen any Akali.

Sorta weird, as far as I can tell Akali still stomps skrubs in Solo Q effectively (the salt is real whenever I win with her) and if you just know when to enter a teamfight Kat can still do her triple, maybe penta swag and carry games.

71 Comments

disregardable9/25/2015, 2:58:09 PM18 votes

Let's look at the meta by play percent. Top 10.

Vayne Tristana Leona Thresh Blitzcrank Yasuo Ahri LeeSin can interrupt Kat's ultimate Lucian can dash out of Kat's ultimate

The Next 10.

Braum Janna Riven Morgana Irelia can interrupt Caitlyn Zed Ezreal can get out

The Next 10.

XinZhao Gnar Alistar Malphite Garen Soraka Elise Renekton can interrupt Graves can dash out

So out of the top 30 most played champions, only 3 are somewhat vulnerable to Katarina. Jinx MasterYi Lux

Akali got nerfed, different story.

Miraweave9/25/2015, 4:31:15 PM13 votes

Akali got gutted.

Ralik0989/25/2015, 6:44:03 PM9 votes

I mained Akali Irelia Katarina for a long time. The nerfs to Akali made them pretty much unplayable imo. Akali basically is working with two skills (Q,R) after the first 10 mins or so because shroud is so useless now and e does nothing other than waveclear. Kat, on the other hand, is absolute trash in lane phase now. She was bad before the nerfs but the reduction on her rank 1 ult just made it pretty much impossible to actually do anything in lane. This is speaking from my experience in Plat I-II, they are probably still fine in bronze.

PapaGreg219/25/2015, 5:39:46 PM8 votes

Akali is pretty bad right now with a real low win percentage and low play rate across the boards. If you are stomping people with her, you are in the minority and must be a pretty talented player. Her R was gutted with the range so badly that most people don't even bother with her, especially since you get free pink wards with upgraded trinket (making her shroud almost useless). If you are wasting a ban on akali then you probably haven't been paying attention to the game for the last season

YumaS2Astral9/25/2015, 4:08:25 PM6 votes

Here on the BR server, if you are Bronze to Gold and leave Kat open, it is almost guaranteed that someone will instalock her.

Cow says meow9/25/2015, 5:47:56 PM5 votes

Katarina has been over nerfed and every other mid laner out scales her hard. Akali still has damage and snowball potential though, but noobs fail to trigger Q mark, which is the high damage part.

Bemapon9/25/2015, 8:48:12 PM5 votes

Wait, Akali is still a champion?

Inphernal9/25/2015, 2:54:40 PM4 votes

Tank meta leaving kat in the dust, too much CC and MR.

Chaotic Reks9/25/2015, 2:57:58 PM4 votes

hell i don't even know if Leblanc is a champion anymore, i haven't seen a single one in about a month

IcyPepper9/25/2015, 5:46:05 PM4 votes

People got tired of Katarina's shit. With enough people spamming her long ago, people just learned to counter her through trial by fire.

You can only get spun so many times before you learn to deal with it.

LadyRenly9/25/2015, 6:25:25 PM4 votes

Kat's always been a waste of a ban, but I suppose with the juggernaut update, people have been far more conservative with their bans and saving it for those who truly need it

Actin9/25/2015, 9:40:08 PM4 votes

I cringe every time I see a Kat instalocked on my team.

I have seen one win lane in months, and that was because I ganked her lane a dozen times to prevent her from losing.

All of them get crushed by the waves of Ahri, Zed, Lee, and Yas in every single game.

If you win lane 1v1 as Akali or Kat, it's not because you were good, it was because the other person is significantly worse than you.

CasterGilgamesh9/25/2015, 11:12:30 PM4 votes

well they are nerfed to the ground lol

Only Play Darius9/25/2015, 11:13:53 PM4 votes

They both got nerfed directly, and buffs to tanks and mana regen items made them much less effective both in lane and out.

High59/25/2015, 10:18:44 PM3 votes

People go through phases of forgetting that hard CC exists. Kat, Akili and Yi will swing back around after the meta moves on from hard CC.

Maokai into MasterYi is an auto win. Lulu into Akali and Katarina is an auto win. Vladimir into Talon is an auto win.

If you first pick a squishy character that can easily be CC'd, you'll lose. The mentality that assassins without CC are OP comes and goes like the tide though.

As people come and go, there is a lot of lost knowledge until the current community reteaches itself the basics at lower levels. There's no skill floor because Riot doesn't teach new players the basics of the map, obj control and champion styles. Each player that hits 30 has to reinvent the wheel, so they try kat, akili and yi until someone stomps them a few times.

Catastrop9/25/2015, 11:23:46 PM3 votes

Katarina just sucks in the current meta. People stopped playing Akali because it's too hard to put effort into playing her now. The Juggernauts didn't really push her out, it's just that if she doesn't get that lead, she can't assassinate high priority targets fast enough for her team to turn their attentions to Juggernauts. So they just end up getting obliterated.

Cupkek9/25/2015, 6:04:33 PM3 votes

Part of it is also that there are so many 'broken' champions out there right now that we simply don't have enough bans to tag them all, so I'd rather go with the threat I know how to stop rather than a threat I can't stop. Garen

Akali is SO HOT9/26/2015, 7:47:24 AM3 votes

Akali is so bad right now due to nerfs that she can't even pubstomp in bronze 5 anymore.

KingKong23509/25/2015, 5:57:29 PM2 votes

I was using akali the other day and went 18/2/14 or something and the enemy team reported me despite not saying anything. Then in the post game lobby they told me to never play an assassin again and that i ruined their game. Akali still got it. Im trying to figure out some way to jungle with her though

Rico Nasty9/26/2015, 12:27:10 AM2 votes

Yeah I'm happy that Kat isn't really banned anymore. She is so easy to counter, what is this mentality that she is op?

shadecrapper9/26/2015, 3:43:09 AM2 votes

With every champ have 6 different types of CC, 5k HP, and needing to kite. Katarina and akali just get blown up.

Dakuraigun9/26/2015, 4:40:07 AM2 votes

The thing is that you don't see Kat as much anymore because there's better picks.

Doesn't stop me from playing her. I can't play Zed for jack, and I don't really have too many alternatives, spare Veigar. I'm a solid enough Kat to dodge things when I need to. I'm not saying that Kat is easy, and as much as people say that she is, she isn't really, but people are just like, "Lol you're playing a no skill champ"

Bruh.

It takes skill not to die as an assassin.

Sire Hippington9/25/2015, 10:18:47 PM2 votes

i guess thats juggernauts by double.

juggernauts hardcounter both kat and akali, they just feast upon burst-reliant squishy melees, so if juggernauts are played alot, akali and katat will look pretty weak if picked
most people blindly ban juggernauts+fiora, so only 1 ban free...

Aikki9/26/2015, 8:57:09 AM2 votes

Katarina's damage just isn't there anymore, the nerfs were quite harsh. With low early game damage, she's very dependant on her team for resets. Also, you can just shut her down in the first 10 minutes or so and she won't be a problem for the rest of the game. It's much easier to just play Fizz so I guess that's what people did.

Carnage9/26/2015, 11:56:04 AM2 votes

still fun champs tho