Katarina Tips?
I just got katarina maybe a week or 2 ago and I was wondering if there is any tricks or tips on how to improve my gameplay and strategy from any pro or main katarina players TY!
2 Comments
Firstly, I don't claim to be the best Kat main out there - I'm certainly not, though I did reach Platinum I to Diamond V promos in S4 and again in S5 on two accounts, essentially spamming 
so I think it gives me at least some room to speak on the topic. If anyone has anything constructive to say, feel free.
-
First point to note; her extremely weak laning phase and low base damage, making for slow waveclears in comparison to other mid laners like
for example -
Powerspikes come particularly when you drop a point into your ult for the most part. Obviously I'm not saying at lvl 6 take on a 5v1, but understanding where her raw power and potential comes from is a huge part of playing
to her utmost potential. -
Q to poke early, e/w makes for some nasty burst if the opportunity is there, just don't forget that E can be used defensively as well as it reduces incoming damage for (I believe) 1 second after landing, which can seriously reduce damage from things you simply cannot dodge or didn't dodge, for example
q that you accidentally walked into and avoiding entire combos by dodging skillshots like charm -
avoid committing to an engage, particularly on a full or partial team without knowledge of how much of their hard cc is still up (especially if it's point and click and/or AoE
) as hard CC will shut you down instantly -
roaming is your friend at 6, especially toward bot lane where you have squishies or an overextended top who's just a little too low.
-
/e/q/w catches a lot of people offguard and should only be done if you're 100% sure you can secure a kill - remember, you're burning a 5 minute cooldown for it. -
Personally, if I can and I see bot's low enough or just needs help (and only if I started boots/4) I tend to roam at lvl 4 if I can force my laning opponent back to base. It applies immense pressure to bot lane early and even if you don't pick up a kill, you've at the very least evened it out a little more. That map pressure is just amplified once you have T2 boots (mobis or sorc boots, total preference - i like mobis if my laner's particularly braindead and feeds me an early kill or I'm put up against a
) -
Quick notes on some hard lanes to avoid wherever possible:
are extremely hard lanes for her, particularly if they respect the fact that they can zone you out hard and totally shut down your combos, 
is just a pain to lane against, annoying and not very fun - turns into a farm fest if you're able to dominate her early, nobodys going to be pushing here without some jungle attention without taking some immense burst damage, 
point and click CC is bad (though this applies less to TF who simply gets melted if you can effectively dodge his Wild Cards and be sure to engage while his W is on CD with E/Q/W or E/W and Q as you walk away)
Don't build Hextech Gunblade. Seriously, don't. The madness needs to stop. Also, Haunting Guise is good to pick up early on but not really worth upgrading to Liandry's. If you're up against Zed in mid (a common scenario), get Seeker's Armguard and then upgrade to Zhonya's as quickly as you can. Some Kat players don't like to get Abyssal Scepter, but I've had a lot of success with it. It's a great magic resistance boost and Haunting Guise + Sorcerer's Shoes + Abyssal means you'll be doing close to true damage against targets who haven't built a lot of MR of their own. Of course you'll want to get Rabadon's as quickly as possible too, but if you come into a lot of gold after that think about maybe selling Haunting Guise and getting something else rather than upgrading to Liandry's. If you have both Haunting Guise and Rylai's that's a grand total of +600 health that can really help, though.
Also consider Mercury's Treads or Boots of Swiftness instead of Sorceror's Shoes depending on the situation. Kat can be especially terrifying if she can run faster than teamfight escapees and they have no way to get out of range of her E.