So with the new buff to Katarina I have seen her into the Jungle. it isn't the best thing in the world, and in fact it is kind of poor as far as I can tell. Early invades would ruin it forever. But maybe i am just too low elo to really make the magic happen. past level 4 her jungle clears get really good, very very good in fact! I really want to do this, and i'd love some helpful advice from more experienced janglers on how i might do better with this.
Theseepingdragon1 votesshes shit sincerely diamond jungle/mid main. Playing her jungle is asking to lose.
Dediguise1 votesSo I'm certainly not going to disagree with you on this. But I do think this needs to be evaluated on a level beyond what you've provided.
I think she would benefit very strongly from runic echos. And her q will allow her to clear extremely fast as well as to do it efficiently. She has incredible mobility because she can ward hop as well as fantastic cleanup potential(as usual). She would grossly benefit from all the movespeed items that define the runic echo's playstyle and she would effectively spend the weakest portion of her game in the jungle and away from general harassment. I also can't rule out the possibility of her using her hybrid scaling effectively by combining items like 
to an effectiveness we haven't tested fully. Most importantly if played correctly she could constantly avoid fights that she didn't want to fight.
Now the Cons. She has no CC and is squishy as fuck. Also there is no keystone that would allow her to perform well in the jungle. She would be countered by anyone who could outduel her 
(which as you can see is a crazy list). She would struggle with jungle gold income after the nerfs to AP item costs and she would struggle with her early clears. She would offer no lane pressure, unless those lanes had reliable cc making her team reliant as well.
TlDR Kat has potential as a niche pick if you are a master of her in this playstyle. But mastering this playstyle would take a lot of time and effort which may ultimately be wasted if the meta shifts and she becomes completely unviable. Essentially her kit offers enough outplay potential to carry her flaws but wasting that much time mastering this particular iteration of this champion in this role will be less useful than learning a jungler who can just perform well regardless of the matchup.
