Is Karthus still viable?

InfinitexMortal·Sep 1, 2016·3 votes·697 views

Just wondering never see him played but was thinking about picking him up

11 Comments

Maximum MordeSep 1, 20161 votes

Yes.

OneMustFallSep 1, 20161 votes

Seems like there's just so many better picks mid/top but he's still viable I think. He doesn't deal with Yasou well and Yasou is like in every game so...

Fondling GemsSep 1, 20161 votes

Yes, he just isn't good vs high mobility matchups.

For a good while he was sitting at the highest winrate top.

Handy Sandy Sep 1, 20161 votes

I main him and he's great. Ignore all the hate he gets, so many people think he's such a weak champion but his ability to farm and lategame waveclear is amazing. His lategame power lets him actually 1v5 and take at least 2 people with him. A couple single target Q's and the enemy ADC is basically dead. A full damage build's lategame ult does litterally over 1100 damage. (Not exaggerating at ALL, I've done this so many times before, he's so broken lmao.)

item 3102 Doesn't really counter him no matter what people say, in laning you hit as many single target Q's with the help of W and if they back off check their health and if it's low enough, just ult. It doesn't give a chance for Banshee's shield to come back up. The only item that truly counters him is item 3157 .

You can build full damage and still get pretty tanky with your passive + ROA + Rylai's + Liandry's (If needed) Overall, he really can carry a game hard but the hardest part about him is that you need to survive to mid/late game to really become a monster. I prefer not even to buy boots on him and go full high damage AP items to just oneshot people.

Pros: Extremely high sustained damage, good teamfighting but you'll have to die to nuke multiple targets at once, decent peel, you can't towerdive him at early/mid game or else you'll die too, safe(ish) laning phase, huge lane bully and zone potential, good at kiting, can fight long and close range.

Cons: Squishy without items, very low movement speed, need to pay close attention to enemy health and magic resist AND if they have the ability to shield/heal/dodge (like fizz) before ulting (you don't want to waste it)

He's also my #1 pick to counter the cancer champion yasuo since none of his moves are projectiles and his E lets him fight up close.

OneMustFallSep 1, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I main him and he's great. Ignore all the hate he gets, so many people think he's such a weak champion but his ability to farm and lategame waveclear is amazing. His lategame power lets him actually 1v5 and take at least 2 people with him. A couple single target Q's and the enemy ADC is basically dead. A full damage build's lategame ult does litterally over 1100 damage. (Not exaggerating at ALL, I've done this so many times before, he's so broken lmao.)

Doesn't really counter him no matter what people say, in laning you hit as many single target Q's with the help of W and if they back off check their health and if it's low enough, just ult. It doesn't give a chance for Banshee's shield to come back up. The only item that truly counters him is .

You can build full damage and still get pretty tanky with your passive + ROA + Rylai's + Liandry's (If needed) Overall, he really can carry a game hard but the hardest part about him is that you need to survive to mid/late game to really become a monster. I prefer not even to buy boots on him and go full high damage AP items to just oneshot people.

Pros: Extremely high sustained damage, good teamfighting but you'll have to die, decent peel, you can't towerdive him at early/mid game or else you'll die too, safe(ish) laning phase, huge lane bully and zone potential, good at kiting, can fight long and close range.

Cons: Squishy without items, very low movement speed, need to pay close attention to enemy health and magic resist AND if they have the ability to shield/heal/dodge (like fizz) before ulting (you don't want to waste it)

He's also my #1 pick to counter the cancer champion yasuo since none of his moves are projectiles and his E lets him fight up close.

Any Yasou that loses to a Karthus needs to just not play Yasou ever again. That's all.

Handy Sandy Sep 1, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Any Yasou that loses to a Karthus needs to just not play Yasou ever again. That's all.

He's a good counter to him, none of his moves are projectiles and he can just E over minions when he dashes to them. I've beaten tons of yasuos with karthus. If yasuo ever runs away just W + Q and maybe R. The Karthus would have the upper hand here, Yasuo is still strong against alot of other champions.

OneMustFallSep 1, 20161 votes

{quoted}

He's a good counter to him, none of his moves are projectiles and he can just E over minions when he dashes to them. I've beaten tons of yasuos with karthus. If yasuo ever runs away just W + Q and maybe R. The Karthus would have the upper hand here, Yasuo is still strong against alot of other champions.

There is no reason for a Yasou to ever let you land a Q on him or any high mobility champion for that matter. In normals you might run into bad Yasous that don't know what they're doing. Not in Ranked. He has a 45% win rate against Yasou for a reason. He easily can dash in, pop you in the air, ult and kill you and then dash away out of your passive range in under 4 seconds.

Handy Sandy Sep 1, 20161 votes

{quoted}

There is no reason for a Yasou to ever let you land a Q on him or any high mobility champion for that matter. In normals you might run into bad Yasous that don't know what they're doing. Not in Ranked. He has a 45% win rate against Yasou for a reason. He easily can dash in, pop you in the air, ult and kill you and then dash away out of your passive range in under 4 seconds.

A good karthus would freeze his lane so he has no minions to dash to and zone with his W, then E/Q when he tries to farm. Take barrier/exhaust to block the ult because DPS champions don't need ignite and dodge his skillshots. Also karthus can farm from an extremely safe distance with his Q so he shouldn't be in any range at all to get hit by anything. He has a 45% winrate because he has such a low playrate and I've never really seen a good karthus before. It's like Azir, most of them are extremely bad but the ones who are good just do amazing plays.

420 gramsSep 1, 20161 votes

That's because yasuo is OP af. But karthus can still win if they play it right. With e to punish engage, multiple qs that are easy to predict. And w with more qs when he tries to disengage. If you try to sit there and fight him, you'll lose. If you stand back, he won't be able to do enough to win a trade

EmollientNut0Sep 1, 20161 votes

Unless you can land every Q after they nerfed his slow for no reason? Nope!

420 gramsSep 1, 20161 votes

IDK why this was down voted. It's just a question. He is still viable. Problem is most mid Laners are tons of assassin like damage. So you will probably lose lane every time. But that's OK, he's not meant to win. He's meant to be played passively, poke often, and do tons of team damage that is pretty much non dodge able. If you do get him, poke when you can with q, but don't spam it every time it's up because you'll run out of mana fast. Use e to punish when they get close to you. And use w to set up a chance to combo a couple of qs. Map awareness is the most important thing with karthus. Consider archangels and rod of ages