Karthus pro tips for 2016

Takeuchi 17·11/17/2016, 7:00:58 PM·1 votes·1,417 views

Hey folks, been a while and I just started playing the game again after a long hiatus. Most of last year I played support and I'm aiming to get back into mid lane. Being that my old main Malzahar got too much attention I decided a fresh champion was needed. So I bought Karthus. Played two games with him and I like him a lot for some odd reason and I would like to get better. Any tips on game play, best summoner spells to use and item comps would be much appreciated!

**Looked around a lot and found most posts on him are mad old so figured some new attention to Karthus was needed

9 Comments

tofastforaname11/17/2016, 7:17:09 PM2 votes

Press R lol On the serious note,taking flash is preety much a must.Right now preety much every mage has to go either ghost,heal or exhaust depending on the lane matchup.You can even go tp if you want to rush a tear first item.For years the standard build for him used to be RoA ,tear and regular ap items.Right now Morello and Ryalis are waay too op not to buy and RoA powerspike is way too late for you to capitalize.I would recommend something like tear(you should upgrade it sooner than later,shouldnt be your n1 priority though)>boots(tier 1,upgrade when u can preferably soon because of your low moblity)>Morell/ryalis>ryalis/morello>void staff/rabadons>rabadons/void staff>really situational last item but i'd say zhonya or some defensive item for survivibilty.I'm not a Karthus player,but I'm somewhat of a meta sheep and someone that watches alot of gameplay videos so I guess I am knowledgable to an extent where I can recommend a few things to someone who was away from lol for awhile.Cheers

D2Vincent11/17/2016, 7:29:51 PM2 votes

(Formerly Silver IV) Mastery 6 Karthus main, here's some stuff that I know along with some tips that I picked up from a Diamond 4 Karthus main :P

When going mid, it's fine to get a Doran's Ring, but I personally like getting The Dark Seal. It gives extra potion power, and if you get fed, you can build into mejai's as well. (it's not as bad on Karthus as you think, since you can still get stacks while in passive). If you can't build into mejai's however, it's ok. I don't really build boots anymore because I find getting another power item is better. According to the Diamond Player, you should never build more than 1 defensive item if you need to.

My usual Mid Build is item 1082 + item 2031 > item 3070 + item 2033 > item 3027 > item 3165 > item 3001 OR item 3157 > item 3003 > item 3135 > item 3089 (if fed, get Mejai's in place of Void Staff or Scepter/Hourglass)

Now there are some situational Items I go to just in case. I usually will replace either Void Staff or probably Abyssal/Zhonyas for one of these if I do:

item 3285 : If I wanna go my "NasKarthus" build (goes with ghost as well)

item 3030 : If I want more tank/man and an active damaging slow

item 3116 : If I want more overall slow (however I know it's gonna get nerfed soon, so I've been staying off this for a while)

and if you want to go Jungle with him (it works suprisingly well in this new season), you can basically just use the same build, only instead of Dark Seal, you build toward Runic Echoes (w/ Blue knife usually) and then I usually sell it to get my void staff.

XxxLumberJackxxX11/17/2016, 8:01:34 PM1 votes

Don't get both rod and tear. It mashes your mid game too weak this denying your late game. I usually god rod into rylais. Rest of the build path is situational. Rarely ill go tear over rod.

Quepha11/17/2016, 8:20:08 PM1 votes

Karthus consistently averages to have the highest damage dealt by the end of the game across all games and I generally think of the goal while playing him to be to output as much raw damage as possible without worrying too much about where the damage is going.

Your first few ults you generally want to use to pick off targets or turn an important fight in a different lane and you want to use your damage on squishier, higher priority targets when you have the option, but as the game goes on longer, you don't really have much of an opportunity in team fights to hit the backline before the tanks are out of the fight, and the teamfight will tend to go your way if you ult when you can get damage on every member of the enemy team instead of waiting until after the fight to try and steal a kill.

EcchiOtakuTM11/17/2016, 9:07:00 PM1 votes

Use Ulti to rack up assist/gank follow ups like a GP ulti.

RoA then RYLIA is a MUST. Shoes-deathcap-void

Then hourglass/torment situation-based. Your main objective is farm/safe poke never trying to kill but farm up and bully out of lane.

Late game I pref simply ignoring hourglass for torment cause I stick.behind someone and focus on teamfights rather than dueling. With E only when no burst is on the enemy.

Pretty much a battle of patience but should still be a hypercarry threat is well practiced. Karthus can also flex to top if your top wants to swap.