I played one game as Katarina, here's my thoughts.
Misleading title. I've played one game as the reworked Katarina. I'm not sure how many matches I have total (a few hundred), but I can safely say that about 90% of my games are Katarina. Anyway, I wanted to share my thoughts on these reworked changes and what I like and don't like about them. I will say that I don't follow the meta at all. I only play with friends so I don't know how the majority of people feel about Katarina.
BOUNCING BLADES: The higher base damage and lower bounces means using it to last hit in lane will be much easier, as well as not pushing the lane as hard. However, the downside to losing the number of bounces means you have to be a bit more smart with how you use them to harass an enemy if you're relying on both last hitting and harassing at the same time. If you time your blade right, or throw it at the right minion, you can get that sweet gold + some damage on your enemy. I also think the extra dagger that comes out is kind of pointless? There's almost no reason to Shunpo to the dagger, and any relatively smart enemy is going to avoid standing next to it during the laning phase. I like everything else about this ability but the dagger that drops at the end of it.
PREPARATION: See my notes for Shunpo. I generally dislike this ability because of how slow and clunky it feels. This is basically a 1.25 second delayed Sinister Steel, and any delay on Katarina is most likely a kill that gets away, or your own death. SUGGESTED CHANGE: Bring back Sinister Steel and remove the "DAGGER" passive from her Innate. Instead, give Sinister Steel the added ability that reduces Shunpo's cooldown by a scaling percent for each enemy champion hit by it.
SHUNPO: This is the one ability I feel didn't need changed at all. I can not express how much I dislike NOT being able to ward hop anymore. I'm going to guess they tried to remedy ward hopping by replacing her Sinister Steel with Preparation's dagger drop. This combo is so clunky and slow however. I can not tell you how many times wards have saved my life when quickly throwing them down under a tower and jumping to them because there are no creeps or allies around to escape with. "Preparation" only prepares you for "your" initiation, and not the enemy's. The higher cooldown also hurts her early laning phase as well. Shunpo is a great ability for dodging skill shots from her opponents. Her original cooldown was good because it lined up with most other enemy's skill shot abilities, allowing her to have the advantage in lane that she needs. This nerf only makes it harder for her to stay in lane while it's on cooldown. SUGGESTED CHANGE: Combine Preparation and Shunpo into one ability. Make it so that Katarina tosses a dagger in her original location once she Shunpos to a target. Bring back ward hopping.
DEATH LOTUS: Nothing worth talking about here. A couple of changes to damage and ticks, but it's still the same overall.
Overall I don't really see why Katarina needed changed in the first place. As I said I'm not into the meta for League, but from my experience Katarina was fine as she was. I'd love to hear other's inputs on her, especially as to why she was being looked at in the first place.
