@Riot, Will Karthus ever be looked at?

D2Vincent·Aug 15, 2015·6 votes·3,445 views

I hardly see him played anymore save for the Diehard Karthus fans, (myself included lol) and I'm wondering if it's because people think he's U.P. Now I'm not saying he should be buffed or anything, (though perhaps a buff to his E and Passive would be appreciated) but I'm curious as to what Riot thinks as to why Karthus is not nearly as played as other mids. Now, I don't remember much, but apparently he's showing up once or twice in LCS which means hopefully Karthus might be seeing some action by the general player now. I'm just saying that the last time we saw Karthus in the Patch notes was about a couple months ago regarding a bug fix. At least give the poor guy a skin LOL. Poor guy hasn't had once since last year before Worlds.

22 Comments

RiotRiotRepertoirAug 15, 20159 votes

I'm curious as to what Riot thinks as to why Karthus is not nearly as played as other mids.

If I had to guess the primary reason, I'd guess it's because his performance is probably highly variable with his lane matchup. This may sound like something true of most champions, but I'd expect it to be especially true of Karthus due to his low mobility and delayed Q resulting in particularly difficult matchups against targets with either more range or mobility than him. He's also not a staple of competitive play (despite some occasional play), so that doesn't serve to boost his play rate either.

Anyway, I can't verify that these are the reasons; just my guesses.

ShénzhìAug 15, 20151 votes

Allow the [Q] animation to slowly follow the player's cursor.

The ability and visual effect will slowly trail behind the cursor moving on the ground with its smokey effect. It's all Karthus needs, right? More control in applying [Q] to reduce miss chance. Still difficult against high mobility champs. The dragging [Q] stops when casting other ability [W] and [R].

Uniqueness ftw.

KeevalroyAug 15, 20151 votes

You guys could bring back Revive so he's actually fun to play as a start.

Ironclad DragonAug 15, 20151 votes

Revive, the pony that only knows one trick? Revive, the waste of a Summoner Spell slot on pretty much every champion? Revive, the thing that only becomes useful if you're performing badly?

D2VincentAug 15, 20151 votes

Do you suppose a small buff or 2 to either his E, Q, or Passive would help him gain some more fans among the other champs? Now, I'm not saying make him OP, but I am saying with all the gapcloser champs out there now, I feel like Karthus could use a little more incentive to land his Double Damage Q's at them, or make his Defile hurt worse against the Melee-Oriented mids in the game. I'm just saying that with all the Mobility champs, it feels like Karthus is having to deal with a lot more risk to get to the same rewards.

KONO RUBICK DAAug 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Do you suppose a small buff or 2 to either his E, Q, or Passive would help him gain some more fans among the other champs? Now, I'm not saying make him OP, but I am saying with all the gapcloser champs out there now, I feel like Karthus could use a little more incentive to land his Double Damage Q's at them, or make his Defile hurt worse against the Melee-Oriented mids in the game. I'm just saying that with all the Mobility champs, it feels like Karthus is having to deal with a lot more risk to get to the same rewards.

How to make karthus viable again:

-Wall of Pain: no longer reduce mr by 15% -now reduce enemy mr/armor by 10/15/20/25/30

now karthus is viable like before

IcyPepperAug 15, 20151 votes

Hurts squishies more, hurts tanks less.

But... becomes a pain in the ass for AD assassins who rush hexdrinker.

ErockandrollAug 15, 20153 votes

Karthus, somewhat hyper scales, and would prefer a farm lane. That just not favored by the meta at the moment. The meta favors more roam focused midlaners who can assert pressure early/mid game. That being said he doesn't need to roam because his ult allows him to basically AFK gank. so he has the best of both worlds.

Other than that. He's low mobility, low CC, pretty much bringing nothing but damage to the table. But none of this makes him weak, Just not a favorite of most.

TworieAug 15, 20151 votes

Karthus is pretty good imo

I just played a game against a Vel'koz player and every time he used his ult I'd run literal circles around him with my E on and then he'd die and I'd lol and then I'd use my ult and kill some people in bot lane. Karthus is so troll.

CaythelesAug 15, 20151 votes

I would say with all of the mobility they are giving other mid laners these days, maybe have his Q burst abit faster. it seems that most champions can either Dodge most Qs really fast. OR have some built in CC/Burst to make karthus unusable. also why not reduce the slow on his wall and make it so when something passes through it, it is like a 1 sec stun then slow. I mean Veigar gets a whole Area of (Im gonna Mess you up if you stay in here and im gonna mess you up if you TRY to leave for the next 4 seconds.) This would make Karthus really viable vs people with really high mobility if used right.

stealthfox94Aug 15, 20151 votes

Part of the problem with Karthus is he loses most lane matchups. Gets rekt by assassins, and still loses to most mages.

Meep ManAug 15, 20151 votes

I've always thought that he should have some way to reduce the cool down of his R in one of his abilities. Like killing minions with his Q. That way he is more active globally.

excodarAug 15, 20151 votes

The reason he's doing so poorly right now is because if your champion doesn't have a dash, its trash. That's how riot is aiming this game because they want flashy plays only. Karthus will never be meta unless they buff the shit out of his abilities to the point where he is one shoting everyone.

Insane PyromanicAug 15, 20151 votes

Karthus is honestly really good with tear rylais being so ridiculous, I have buddy who mains Karthus . He's got a pretty high win rate right now. He goes summoner 12 most the time or if he's against a Zed or Yasuo summoner 3 . TP is actually super strong on him cause it lets you go back to lane after your tear and you can use it to screw over ppl's ganks.

KONO RUBICK DAAug 15, 20151 votes

i hope they bring back his old Wall, so i can play support karthus

CatastropAug 15, 20151 votes

His damage is all sustained. With burst mages being a trend now, he just doesn't fit into many comps because he dies before he can even dish out at least 2 Q's. HE's good though just kind of situational.

Binxy PrimeAug 15, 20151 votes

Karthus is one of the highest win rate mids in Korea above plat. The champion is really good, people just dont play him because not everyone finds his playstyle fun, he does a lot of passive farming and his teamfighting is really wierd.

Immortal StrifeAug 15, 20151 votes

I enjoy playing Karthus just because his voice is so incredible. Who ever did his voice over should do characters like smaug from LOTR or a villain in the upcoming Star Wars.

Oerba No NajaAug 15, 20151 votes

what about Zyra ?

NekusenAug 15, 20151 votes

1- reduce the delay of his Q between cast and explosion

2- increase his AA missile speed

3- ult could have some kind of MR penetration

ThorHammerzAug 15, 20151 votes

Current meta doesn't let Karthus farm comfortably to "turn on": you need at least 7000 gold (2 complete items & sorcerer shoes) to even be a relevant factor in the game (if you didn't lose lane, that is. ~10000 gold is when a Karthus can start teamfighting with confidence), if your team isn't already far ahead. Teamfights start breaking out far too soon (for a Karthus), and your ADC is probably going to rotate mid (so you have to compete with them for your CS).

The multiple nerfs (a long, long, long time ago) on his Wall of Pain were possibly a bit too much. If one wants AoE-DPS damage, there are plenty of other champions who can do so, with either more mobility or utility attached, and certainly without requiring 10k gold to become effective.

That being said, once "late, late game" comes around (when Karthus has 13,000 - 16,000 Gold in items... that's 4 complete items + sorcerer shoes for those not counting), he is more than capable of pulling his own weight.

If your other lanes are also winning, you make them "win more" with your ultimate to pick up kills/secure early teamfight objectives. If your other lanes are losing, you may as well concede the map for the next 15 minutes, because you cannot output sufficient pressure with your zero mobility, low turret clearing power (note: wave clear != turret damage), and an ulti on a 2 minute cooldown.

blackcat1300Dec 7, 20151 votes

just have his q do triple damage to single target champs and jungle mobs and double damage to aoe two jungle mobs and champs that way you make up for the lack of mobility cc and late game damage with very powerful Q'S THAT CAN BE DOGED.