Hello Boards! With the Assassin changes coming up soon and the hype spreading across boards, I thought it'd be perfect timing to release another one of my takes on a Katarina rework. I've done a few of these in the past, so heres a link to one of those older posts if you so desire further reading of my past work :^)

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/ghBW8GEM-katarina-the-sinister-blade-a-rework-concept

With that out of the way, let us begin!

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Katarina, the Sinister Blade

Katarina's been an iconic League of Legends champion for quite some time now. She is and has always been the flashy point-and-click reset assassin throughout the ages, and this rework doesn't aim to change that by adding skillshots or the like to her kit. Instead, this rework aims to introduce subtle mechanics changes that will make Katarina flashier than ever in the right hands. That being said, this rework concept focuses on the thing that makes Katarina a truly sinister blade - her blades!.

Base AD (adjusted): 41 (+1.2 per level)

Flash Steps (Passive): Katarina's basic attacks on enemy champions apply Flash Tag on them for two seconds. If she attacks an enemy marked by Flash Tag, Shunpo's cooldown is instantly reset. Enemies marked recently with Flash Tag cannot be marked again for quite a long duration (40s+).

Katarina's new passive is Flash Steps. Whenever she attacks an enemy champion, they're marked. Attack again to refresh Shunpo's cooldown. It's that simple. Of course, there's a catch or it'd be a tad too strong. Shunpo no longer deals damage, and Katarina only has so much burst damage without channeling her new ultimate, which we'll dive into as we progress into the rest of her kit.

Bouncing Blades(Q): Katarina throws a dagger at a target, dealing damage and marking them for six seconds. The dagger bounces to up to three additional nearby enemies upon striking the first target. Katarina's attacks consume the mark to deal bonus damage. The final target marked is dealt triple the normal mark damage if Bouncing Blades bounce at least once. Deals magic damage and scales off ability power.

Cooldown: 13 seconds

Katarina's focus is on her blade mechanics, so her bouncing blades should reflect this. If she bounces them properly in lane, she'll be able to harass enemies for tons of damage. If her enemies play smart however, then they'll take half damage or none at all. Her bread and butter knife throwing ability therefore has increased damage in certain usage scenarios and decreased damage in others. It's up to the skilled player to find, and sometimes create, those opportunities where Bouncing Blades will deal the most damage.

Shunpo (E): Katarina teleports to a target's location and gains a lot of damage reduction for three-fourths of a second. Does not deal damage.

Katarina's flashy moves are proof that she's the master of speed - and her speed sets her apart from her fellow assassins. Coupled with her new passive, Katarina should feel quicker than ever. She'll be flashing in and out of teamfights with relative ease. Of course, this comes at the cost of damage. Without any meaningful base AD to back up her attacks, she'll be doing less damage than a support if she hasn't marked her target with Bouncing Blades before teleporting in and out of the fray. Shunpo's range is 700 - if her opponents land any meaningful hard crowd control effects on her, she'll be toast even if she manages to teleport out if she doesn't cast Voracity to reset Shunpo's cooldown once more. That comes with at the huge cost of putting a high cooldown ability out of use for a while, of course.

**Voracity(W):**Katarina gains the ability to cast any one of her other abilities, even if they're currently on cooldown. Voracity's own cooldown is reset if Katarina scores a kill.

Cooldown: Very high

Katarina's old passive is converted to an active. When she casts Voracity, she'll be able to cast any one of her other abilities instantly, not so much unlike Zileans' ol' Rewind. This ability has a really high cooldown, but can reset Katarina's ultimate if need be. Katarina can be allowed to reset her most impactful ability simply because of it's difficulty of use - enemies can seriously damage or even kill Katarina if she misplays.

Death Lotus(R): Katarina whirls violently, throwing twenty daggers at the three nearest enemy champions over four seconds. Each dagger deals a very low amount of physical and magic damage, but applies on-hit effects on every other dagger (synergizes heavily with Nashor's tooth). This ability scales off both physical damage and magic damage (attack damage causes daggers to deal slightly more physical damage, while ability power increases the magic damage dealt by a lot). The final two daggers each apply on-hit effects twice.

Cooldown: High

Katarina's new ultimate applies on-hit effects at the cost of base damage. She makes up for the lost damage with Nashor's tooth, but she can also build items that grievously wound her targets. Overall, her ultimate will deal less damage than it did before over a longer duratino, at the added bonus of having increased utility and slightly increased range. Katarina's new passive almost guarantees that she'll be able to dart in and dart out in less than two seconds for poke damage, but she can also use that increased mobility to position herself far ahead of her enemies to block their escape path and make for an absolutely devastating Death Lotus.

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Summary

The goal of this rework was to solidify Katarina's role as a reset assassin whose theme lies in her ability to toss blades around the battlefield while moving around at blinding speeds. If she uses her passive properly, she can cover an insurmountably large range with Shunpo in a timeframe of less than ten seconds - meaning her ability to catch up to weak, fleeing targets is unrivaled amongst the assassins. Her damage without her ultimate is cut significantly, however, if she decides to use Voracity for mobility, making the ability that Katarina so chooses to reset with Voracity an always interesting and impactful choice. Since Bouncing Blades can only do so much damage as Katarina's only non-ultimate ability, she would need a far bigger lead than she does with her current kit to cause a concern for enemies trying to outplay her point-and-click mechanics. This version of Katarina is more team-oriented - her ultimate requires some form of crowd control in order to do its job effectively because its damage is simply spread out over too long a duration.

Thanks for reading! I'm terribly sorry if the post is lacking at all in enthusiasm, but I have a fever and really wanted to get this post out before the assassin changes come about, if only to give the smallest of insights to relevant audiences! Let me hear all your opinions!

TL;DR

-Katarina's passive lets her Shunpo to a target, attack it twice, and Shunpo out if successful.

-Katarina's Q bounces less and deals less damage, but deals more damage if Katarina attacks the final marked target. -Katarina's W lets her reset any one of her other abilities instantly. -Katarina's E deals no damage, but gives more damage reduction for a short (0.75 seconds) duration. -Katarina's R deals WAY less damage and takes longer to fully channel, but applies on-hit effects and deals mixed damage at a slightly longer range, making her more team-oriented.

-Katarina's mobility is way up, her resets become a more meaningful choice with her new W, and needs less damage to feel like an assassin (an unfair amount of burst damage isn't the only thing that makes an assassin an assassin).