Why Karthus Needs Changes

Karthus has been receiving a lot of attention with more people realizing that the new season is introducing new mechanics or items that will heavily affect Karthus over other champions. Whether it be item related (spell shield on a 45 second cooldown with mr) or a new mechanic added (plants that replenish hp) Karthus is going to have a more difficult time being played in season 7.

The examples I listed above are based on counters to his Ult. Many people seem to hate the idea of Karthus getting any buffs because of his global ult and the amount of damage it can do. But his ult is structured the way it is to balance how unreliable the rest of his kit is. Of course I'm going to complain about more items, abilities, or gimmicks that make his ult useless; Karthus is known for having a global ult but when he can't do reliable damage with his basic kit, nor his abilities then what is he good for.

Lay Waste His Q has a range of 875 units and a radius of 100 units that detonates after .5 seconds and can be recast after 1 second.

Karthus is known to have a horrible auto attack animation and a bad time when trying to CS with it to the point where people call his Q his auto since he uses it more often. It only has a mana cost of 20 and with the refund he gets on E he can spam it a lot in lane. Sounds like a strong ability until you realize it is easy to avoid. The slowest movement speed in the game is unmounted with a speed of 285. In .5 seconds he travels 142.5 units which is 42.5 bigger than the radius which means if Karthus placed the cent on a running Kled, Kled can out run it by just keeping the direction. So for kitting Karthus has to place the center in front of a target so they cannot out run it but that leaves a distance of less than 100 in the other direction so the opponent just has to side step or reverse a bit and continue walking foward. Karthus could slow them with his W but that has been nerfed to just being a tool for vision or getting a quick assist. But lets say People do not react instantly to a Karthus Q, so give them a good reaction time of .300 seconds according to WCU if the target is standing still they can only move 70 units before it explodes. The problem is no one stands still in mid lane people walk back and forth (especially if Karthus is there) and this is not taking into account cast time or server lag. The distance champions cover increases with boots, and ability that let them dash. This is why Karthus buys , so when it lands once he can land it again and again but the second problem occurs, Karthus is very squishy. An enemy champion will just go in and kill Karthus when they can after poking him down. Karthus can't get enough Q's out to kill them quick enough nor can he land them. So even if he lands 5 by level 6 he has done, best case scenario, 800 damage over 5 seconds.

** Wall of Pain** This ability was how Karthus landed his Q before, even if just 2 or 3. But the slow was nerfed and now he gets lucky if he can land 1. I do not see a use for this ability other than peeling if the distance between an enemy is great enough.

Defile This ability combined with and his passive is what makes Karthus great at team fighting. This ability is what drains mana from Karthus causing him to build mana, and unless they want to keep it a exclusive, I can see Karthus gaining a mana stacking power boost too since he builds a large pool just to use E. During laning phase this is the only ability that most people can land damage with against mobile champions. But the ticks are very weak early and happen every 1 second. This ability should recieve the Singed treatment and tick more often but deal the same amount of damage.

Karthus when fed can be a scary beast but it is hard to be fed when every game has to be played defensively early game, since he cannot apply pressure early, and once he gets to late game other champions are more ahead or are able to ignore the ultimate. Karthus is very squishy so if his mid-laner roams he cannot push lane for fear of them returning and killing him, or the enemy jungler killing him. And for having such a weak early phase Karthus does not get compensated through a stacking mechanic like or . He is suppose to he a long range mage but cannot land his long range reliably nor is his short range E good for quick damage if they get in range.