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Rito for the sake of Karthus. Hear my plea

SilverFoxFoxy··5 votes·1,198 views

Hello Rito Balance team/Powers that be,

I have been playing karthus on and off since Season 3. Karthus used to be known as one of the select hyper carries of the game. His late game dps was always noteworthy and typically it felt good to play him. Karthus has seen nerf after nerf and over the seasons he has been phased out by mobility creep, new masteries (CoC), new champions, and itemization. It is frustrating as a player to see champions like nidalee (see latest rito post RE: buffing nidalee yet again, because she is too weak RN). I would just like to highlight a few things that make it feel awful to play karthus. (in no particular order).

1- Redemption - Press R as Karthus only to see 1-2 Redemptions popped at the same time. Now your "feel good late game pog champ ult" is reduced to nothing. Let's wait another 2 min to ult again. Oh wait redemption is back up. Feel bad man.

2- Locket - Locket Shield (sometimes coupled with aforementioned redemption and other frustrating anti karthus cucklord items/ champions [see below for more] make karthus ult even more insignificant. Cheap item and late game the shield is pretty busted.

3- Edge of Night - Want to do late game dps to the adc or other ad assassin champions to punish them in teammates for being squishies? Nope the 1.5 second channel trumps your 3 second channel. Ult dps = zero. Didn't channel in time, no worries (see above/below).

4- Soraka - this is an old counter but still relevant. The heals are busted but what makes it worse is she naturally builds redemption and locket. One champion to counter your "hyper carry" late game champion.

5- Karma - See above itemization for soraka exception add a shield that goes on whole team. True story had 1k ap and ulted and a karma popped redemption, ulti shield, and locket. 0 dps ult. I had full magic penn as well.

6- Bard - Bard ulti, ult nulified

7- Hourglass - press item gg ult

8 - Rylai Nerf - After karthus had his e dps nerfed, and W nerf (apparently that was too good too so why not nerf it as well). Karthus saw the end to one of his core items Rylai. If Q wasn't hard enough to land now you only get 20% slow and less ap. So if you weren't doing dps with your ult before look no further lower dps overall and less kiting because every other mage abused this item.

9- Courage of Colossus - If you go top karthus you would know that you just get sat on by any tank top. You would think that you could get a free farm lane and poke the tanks as they cs in the wave. Nope. They just all in you and full dps while you die insta die. See Sion/Naut for examples.

10- Hourglass change - Hourglass got less ap taken from it (see rylai nerf) and thus again another core item got dumped to take away ap from karthus. There was cooldwon reduction added which I guess helps for quicker ults but overall your build path feels weird and the dps doesnt feel like it is there.

11- Maw - Maw is a common place item which is bought by some tanks, bruisers, and adcs. In some games enemy top/jungle/adc (and in full ad comps mid) will buy this item. Couple this with everything else above and you do no dps.

12- Other supports that dump Karthus - See Janna, Lulu.

13- Taric - I don't know how i forgot about this one. Ults whole team.

14- Kindred - Ults whole team

Those were the ones I could think of at the moment. Feel free to add some if you want. These were the first to come to my mind. Overall it doesnt make sense how other mages simply outclass karthus in every way shape and form. The one thing that makes karthus unique is his ability to swing a teamfight late game. That has been completely dumped on. Karthus does not win most lanes and has to farm it out to be relevant late game with his dps. However, there is simply too much "counterplay" to make Karthus feel good. I am not asking for Karthus to become meta. I am asking for him to not feel terrible. That is not that big of deal. it doesnt make sense why Karthus has seen nerf over nerf with such a low play rate. I believe in a post a Rioter said they would pay attention to Karthus. Well this is a plea from the grave. Please help Karthus out.

Sincerely,

SilverFoxFoxy

-Captain of the Sexy Foxy-

14 Comments

Handy Sandy 2 votes

That's why as a karthus player, you need to pay attention to everything in the game and use your ult at the right time when things are on cooldown. Most of the time, you're not even using your ult to kill someone. Ulting after a teamfight when they blow everything is a good idea.

Also, karthus shouldn't build hourglass. (or boots) It doesn't matter if he dies, he just has to die in a good position. A lot of karthus mains build full AP. Landing your W will let you still hit your Q btw.

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

I do pay attention to everything and like a good jhin I look to start fights with my R. However, there just is too much going on against karthus. Look to the meta mids and you will see it really don't pay to play karthus most of the time. And ya if you dont know that W can help with Q's you gotta go back to karthus training camp <3

Guanxi1 votes

Rip phantoml0rd

Big Lincoln1 votes

karthus R needs to have counterplay, they've done a good job on that

His W nerfs should be reverted now that that awful item, Rylai's, isn't forced down his throat.

some small tweaks to his E and Q would be nice but I really don't think he needs much, his kit is really well-put together

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

I agree on the Q/E tweaks but with regard to the R counterplay. There just is too much. There is a fine line between counterplay and being phased out because too many things make you inconsequential.

Big Lincoln1 votes

never been my experience

aside from them having like, a Lulu or Janna on the enemy team (or god forbid Soraka) i still net kills with my ult late game. even if I don't get them in lane, I at least usually burn an ult or a summoners and sometimes nab an assist

honestly all I really want is for Karthus to be able to deal with mobility better. new katarina is abysmal for him rn

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

Yeah I mean I am not saying he does 0 dps useless. It is the combination of the hard counters and the fact that hitting your Qs in lane vs mobile champs is really difficult (combined with the fact that he is just not as good with rylai anymore which has been core with him for a long long time, before it was busted to the point where everyone built it). Laning vs new kata is awful X_X the horrors.

1 800 GGTOOEZ1 votes

Let's wait another 2 min to ult again.

2 minutes? They nerfed it to 200/180/160 seconds a while ago. Bringing it back to 180/150/120 would be a nice start.

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

oh God you are right. I just played a Karthus game Pressed R and was like Hmm 3-4 min lol

IllegalBagel1 votes

Riot doesnt care about karthus thought this was common knowledge. I will upvote this tho

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

Domo Arigato

IllegalBagel1 votes

thanks for making this post though hope riot will see it

SilverFoxFoxy1 votes

I hope so. I don't know how these boards work. First time posting. I hope I get enough upvotes so that it doesnt get buried. For the sake of karthus. He is undead but Rito dig him out of the grave!

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