When you pick Karthus and the enemy picks Raka.

In my experience I have to say Swain is a HORRIBLE matchup for Katarina. 9 times out of 10 I bully Kats so hard they either afk or never come back into the lane and go camp bot or top while I take turrets and free farm/harass the enemy jungler. The few that choose to stay in lane end the game with so little farm and damage that they can't even blow up adcs.

I think the reason is most Swains I and other people see don't know how to bully with him, but Swain's early pressure is so absurd that melee champions can't even tower farm, actually Mordekaiser is a decent counter to Swain, but he's the only one I've ever had any trouble with. So if the person playing Swain knows how to actually play him then picking any melee champ into Swain is the worst thing you can do.

Also some of those other champions you listed are definitely skill matchups. If Veigar is good with dropping his stun he only needs to land it once and Kat is boned. Although maybe I'm just biased because Kat requires a lot more skill these days than just smashing your face on the keyboard and people in my elo don't seem to understand that(same applies for Riven). Everyone just remembers Kat from when she was op and could make entire teams disappear as soon as she hit lvl 6. Another thing I've noticed about Katarina is she has a lot of difficulty against people who know how to itemize, whenever I'm against one I typically rush magic resist and health which stalls her power out until she can buy a void staff or liandry's(which aren't really items she tends to rush). The thing about Kat is if you can survive her full combo then she can't do anything til her cooldowns come back up, but everyone likes to try and out burst her, which is a terrible idea that usually gets her fed.

Those are just my observations, and again I could just be biased by silver elo. Things may be different in higher ranks. -Vaz-

:^]

They're reworking her to be more of a high-risk-high-reward champion. She's not going to have much lane power, but still get some damage buffs including to her R. From a recent leak this is her new kit. Please, make sure you don't actually believe this as it could be fake.

Passive - Whenever you get an assist or kill for an enemy you damaged 3 seconds ago, your cooldowns are reduces by 15 seconds. Q - Throw daggers at 5 enemies, that can trigger for a bonus effect. This can only be activated by basic attacks and reset the cooldown of her E. W - Throw 3 daggers dealing damage, and vaulting backwards. E - A Blink that can only be done on champions or minions. After a short duration, Katarina spins in what can only be described as her old W, (Sinister Steel) dealing damage in an AOE. Does not have 15% damage reduction. R - Same as current R, only packed with more damage.