So I haven't seen a Karthus in a really long time, until I picked him up and I saw him on the enemy team yesterday. He used to be really popular, now I hardly see him. I know it's because he lacks an escape, but still. The last time he was mentioned in patch notes was 5.6 and 5.5, but those were just bugfixes, no real changes since his rework in 2014. Does Riot have any plans for him? Buff base movement speed? Decrease Wall of Pain cool down? Any and all comments are welcome.
Lack of mobility, lack of crowd-control, strongly gated by mana costs.....all good reasons why people wouldn't want to play him.
The ease at which he can last-hit under turret is awesome, though. And his Ult is hilarious. Still a good champ.
I pick Karthus when I don't like my laning matchup and want to carry lategame. Karth can farm super easy and be super safe.
Does no damage early game is squishy has a long cd on ult some of the reasons he isn't picked.
I just picked him up, I personally love him, I feel like he's very safe (long range farming capabilities) and he doesn't need to kill his lane opponent to do good because he farms so well and his ult gets him kills/assists. His lategame is pretty strong as well. Once you learn how to farm as him and hit your Qs he is pretty damn strong.
He has issues during tank metas so his pick rate dropped a lot. In addition revive was removed from the game killing a very popular revive + tp play style as karthus.
He has good damage at all stages of the game but he is vulnerable to getting camped.
Karthus is a late game scaling Hyper farmer. Which is far out of the meta. With the Jungle changes, the wrath(now razor back) camp has a longer respawn timer, and with the smite buff it gives, Junglers are less inclined to give it up. As a result, hyper farming mid laners fell out of favor compared to assassins who could roam and make plays.
That being said, Karthus fairs better than most all because of his ult. His ult basically allows him to AFK gank, and hyper farm at the same time. If his Ult combined with allies lockdown and harass. You can get plenty of Cross map kill and assists, all without needing to leave lane.
FYI I played him allot during the Hexakill TT. He's good in a team fight. If a good front line tank can engage, He can act as a mid line and deal blanked damage with his E. while using Zonyas of Sepher's active to get temporary tanky. And even if You die, you will do wonders if you die in the right place.
