One Karthus buff that will nudge him into relevance
During Death Defied, Karthus can cast his other spells while channeling Requiem.
This change would make Karthus strong, but not overpowered. However, Karthus can be permitted to be strong because he is not an oppressive champion. He has lots of counterplay. His Q is a skillshot, his ult can be shielded, ignored, stasis'd, survived, healed, and the most oppressive part of his kit - Wall of Pain - was recently nerfed.
Karthus's Death Defied Zone needs to be respected more. As it stands, unless Karthus is fed, many champions can ignore his passive zone and keep fighting through it or walk/dash right past it.
Many of the newer champions that Riot has been releasing have a mechanic to keep them relevant, even when behind. Some examples would be:
's Devour
's Fate's Call
's abundance of %hp damage
's Parallel Convergance and Chronobreak
's GNAR!
This change is all Karthus needs to get a bit of relevance when behind. It would makes enemies respect and have to play around his passive more by increasing the potential damage output during Death Defied. It also means Karthus does not have to make the choice to sacrifice half of his valuable passive time just to ult. As a champion who's role is exclusively to deal massive damage, he feels a little lackluster unless fed.
