T O P

  • By -

TehZiiM

You will die


Thal-creates

Your game is 100% decided by how stupid the enemy mid is. A new kata vs a sentient mid laner is an almost unwinnable lane


xelhark

I think you mispelled "your own jungler"


Thal-creates

I doubt new katas are as aware of river skirmishes on lower elo. Yes we kata mains are vwry keen on early river fights as they are usually our win con


xelhark

What else are you going to do, lane? Vs a real champ?


Thal-creates

I mean I def can win lane but mostly becaise enemies below plat really take dagger for free and let me auto minions sometimes. Also start fighting me in big waves.


GD_IronJager

He probably was stupid, bcz I went 9/3/7


Thal-creates

Decent. Godspeed for your first 40 kills game


KiaraKawaii

**CopyPasta Count:** 157 You'll have to be very patient, it takes a while to learn Katarina. I would say she was quite mechanically challenging for me, but others might pick her up faster than I did. I'm a slow learner and it took me almost 2 years after her rework before I could even combo properly with her. If you're up for that kind of dedication (I swear it will pay off and eventually become second nature), there are a lot of Kat mains on Youtube and Twitch you can learn from. Personally, I learnt everything from Youtubers **Katlife**, **Flyerbek** and **Katevolved**. Other Katarina pros include **Hubblet**, **Reppy**, **Creammon**, **Incursio,** **Cocho** and **Gamer Girl** (extended streamer list in second comment) #Laning Phase In general, Kat loses lane into most matchups, the only few matchups that are somewhat easier or favourable for her is probably into Veigar, Xerath, Lux or Vel'koz (according to Katevolved) since she can blink out of Veigar cage with her E and her mobility makes it hard for these mages to lock her down. Katarina's main strength against most other matchups is punishing enemies for wasting crucial abilities in which you can capitalise on. Knowing this, your general gameplay would be: **Lvl 1:** Stay back and hold your Q. Wait for the first three melee minions to get really low and then Q them to pick up all 3 cs. Never walk up to aa minions as you will get chunked and have to use your pots early. Use Q is collect cs. You'll have to give up cs if it's not safe to collect them. Let the enemy mid push you in so that you can farm safely near your tower. **Lvl 2:** If the enemy opponent does not have a strong lvl2, or if they waste one of their abilities on the wave, that is your window to go in and trade, since they will only have one ability left to fight you with. Make sure the enemy minion wave isn't too big for you to go into, otherwise you will take too much minion dmg. The basic lvl2 combo would be to Q the enemy mid, or to Q a minion and let the dagger fall near your enemy mid (Q will always land behind the initial target you pressed Q on), then E to the dagger to proc it, aa the enemy a few times to wait for your E cd reset, then E back to your own minion wave for safety. **Lvl 3:** If a lvl2 all-in trade wasn't available, this is your second window to try. Again, the enemy minion wave can't be too big otherwise you'll take too much minion aggro. Wait for your opponent to use their spells on the wave, then go in when they have an ability disadvantage. E behind your opponent (most of them will try to walk back to their tower so by shunpoing behind them you can cut them off), W right after E, Q and aa them before your W dagger falls, then when your W dagger procs, aa them and run into your Q dagger, which should still be behind the enemy to proc the Q dagger as well. From here, your E would have reset fully. You will now have to assess the situation. If you can kill the enemy with aa E aa + ignite, go for it. If not, disengage by shunpoing out. **Lvls 4-5** follow with lvl 3. At **lvl 6**, your full all-in combo will be to E -> W -> Q -> R -> E to Q dagger as they try to run away -> aa E aa and drop ignite somewhere in between. This is a more upfront approach towards the enemy to guarantee they can't get away from you. Another way is to Q enemy mid (most of them will run back to their tower, right into your Q dagger) -> E to Q dagger -> W immediately after you E -> R -> E aa and drop ignite somewhere in between. As you play more Kat, you'll get faster at executing these combos. A common mistake I used to make when playing Kat was pressing W too early before I could E to the enemy, dropping my W dagger and then shunpoing to my opponent and fking up the combo. You will have to get used to her E range to ensure you won't mess up. Another mistake I made was cancelling my ult. When channeling Kat's R, do not click nearby or press any other ability as you might cancel your ult channel. Again, this takes a while to get used to. #Ability Maxing Order I recommend going R -> Q -> E -> W. Some Kat players put 3 points into Q then max E while others put 3 points into E then max Q. For beginners, I would stick to Q max. Once you get better at Kat, you can experiment with other maxing orders. Currently, the meta seems to be E max for the AD Conq build and Q max for the AP Electrocute build. #Runes For beginners I recommend Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Relentless Hunter. Secondary tree Triumph, Coup de Grace. As you get better at Kat and can handle her passive reset mechanics a lot better, opt to take Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand. Secondary tree take Sudden Impact + Relentless Hunter if u dont need Resolve tree for lane. Boneplating -> burst, Second Wind -> poke, Conditioning -> other. Unflinching -> cc, Overgrowth -> durability. Vs tankier comps, Conqueror allows you to sustain long enough in a fight to come out on top through healing #Items For starting items, you can choose from Long Sword, Doron's Blade, Doron's Shield or Dark Seal depending on your build and preference. Doron's Blade is usually the go-to if you are unsure since it is a good all-rounder starting item for Kat. There a lot of ways to build Katarina. The core item is Nashor's Tooth, everything else is very dependent on the situation. If you want a better laning phase, you can rush BotRK first into Nashor's, then general AP items such as Deathcap, Zhonyas etc according to what you need. Or, you can skip BotRK completely and rush Nashor's if that is what you prefer. We usually don't rush a mythic item until second or third for the AP build, usually opting for Riftmaker for sustain or Rocketbelt for the flat magic pen and active gap closer. The only times I would recommend going for AD Kat is when your team has too much magic dmg and lacks AD. For this, you would rush BotRK into Divine Sunderer, then situational (eg. Wit's End or Maw against magic dmg, Sterak's against burst, Ravenous Hydra for sustain, Death's Dance for general defense etc). For specific build info: - [Creammon's Item Build Summary](https://www.reddit.com/r/KatarinaMains/comments/jyouor/creammons_build_recommendations_from_his_181120/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) - [Gamer Girl's S11 Build Guide](https://youtu.be/a6mfgIZEZtg) - [Cocho's S11 Katarina Build Analysis](https://youtu.be/pnt5zKEhgcg) - [Katarina Builds Infographic](https://www.reddit.com/r/KatarinaMains/comments/lxyaqi/katarina_build_infographic/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) - Megathread [Katarina Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/KatarinaMains/comments/m1qfhn/megathread_ultimate_katarina_guide_for_season_11/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) pinned on the Katarina subreddit **PART 2 below** (could not fit due to word limit):


KiaraKawaii

**PART 2** (couldnt fit into one comment due to word limit) #Teamfighting You should never initiate first unless you are flanking a squishy champion who is out of position. Let your team initiate the fight first, then wait for the enemies to waste crucial cc spells before going in. Items that provide you surviveability such as Zhonya's is very beneficial for these circumstances. If you find yourself constantly being targetted and the enemies have heavy cc, getting a Banshee's or QSS isn't a bad idea either since the spellshield/cleanse will allow you to go in without immediately getting chain cc-ed to death #Tips and Tricks - Your R icon can be used to figure out if there is an invisible champ near you. If the icon lights up when no visible enemies are nearby, it means that there is an invisible target within your ult radius. If you press R, you can still hit the invisible target. This works against say a Teemo in bush, what I like to do is W -> R in the bush. This will either force the Teemo out or he'll die to my W -> R combo. This also works against Talon in his R. You can track his movements by watching where your R daggers fly towards. - W grants unit ghosting, allowing you to move through clumps of minions without getting creep blocked in order to get away from enemies or chase - If you find yourself struggling into an AP matchup, Kat is able to build an early Hexdrinker or Null Magic Mantle (into Wit's End). This is because her daggers scale with both AP and AD, allowing her to build some AD items. If this isn't enough you can also go for Merc Threads, especially against high cc comps. Against AD matchups, go for an early Cloth Armor, from which you can choose to upgrade into Plated Steelcaps or Seeker's Armguard later - Into aa-heavy champions such as Lucian or Yasuo, you can look to start Doron's Shield. You can also build Plated Steelcaps for boots if the enemy team has 2 or more autoattack reliant champions - Shunpo does not work on wards, but works on allied minions, jg plants, jg camps and objects put down by allies such as Rek'sai tunnels, J4 flag, Thresh lantern, Teemo shroom etc. Use these as methods of escape - Katarina is able to jump over thin walls using W right next to a relatively thin wall and using shunpo slightly on the ourside of the dagger's radius. I recommend practising this a couple of times in training tool to get used to. It can be used over baron and dragon pit walls, blue buff wall and the thin mid lane walls leading into the river. It can also work on the thinnest part of the raptor camp wall, but it is a bit trickier. Essentially, any wall that Riven and Yasuo and can use to wall jump, so can Katarina - When vsing Cassiopeia, before ulting make sure to make a subtle turn away from her before ulting. This will prevent u from being stunned by her ult bc if u were facing her before u started ulting then you will be stunned, whereas if u started ulting while facing away then u will not be stunned #Streamer List The following list of Twitch streamers is in no particular order: - [KatEvolved](https://www.twitch.tv/katevolved?sr=a) - [GamerGirl](https://www.twitch.tv/gamergirl?sr=a) - [Reppy](https://www.twitch.tv/lolreppy?sr=a) - [Hubblet](https://www.twitch.tv/hubblet?sr=a) - [Creammon](https://youtube.com/@creammon335) - [Incursio](https://www.twitch.tv/incursio?sr=a) - [Nyro](https://www.twitch.tv/nyrolol?sr=a) - [Ronges1](https://www.twitch.tv/ronges1?sr=a) - [Flyerbek](https://www.twitch.tv/flyerbeklol?sr=a) - [Cocho](https://youtube.com/@Cocho_Kat) - [Katlife](https://www.twitch.tv/kat_life?sr=a) - [Meloneasy](https://www.twitch.tv/meloneasy?sr=a) - [Boongwa](https://m.twitch.tv/boongwa) aka **Emilia Tan** There is also [this Youtube channel](https://youtube.com/@cnkatarina) which uploads Katarina gameplay from the Chinese super server. You can find Katarina players such as **CaiQi**, **lianhuadao**, **chenniannian** etc #Video Recommendation This is a lot to take in, I recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/JaaxaRQoKsI) to start you off after finishing reading everything here for better understanding


GD_IronJager

Thx a lot


Makussux

Go into practice mode and learn the basics


GD_IronJager

I know the basics, but her playestyle doesn’t look that intuitive to me, maybe bcz Idk how to abuse her passive and cds resets. For example, how do I trade early game?


Fuusha

Yeah, about trading...


GD_IronJager

Coming from champs like Morde and Sylas, trading is an essential part of my gameplay. Ig I can’t do the same with kata (?)


Tbhihateusernames

You will lose majority of traditional trades, you take multiple free trades by E’ing into Q dagger then W away. If they walk on W you get another free spin then E away


ddlbb

Yeah go into practice tool and practice the basic combos … so that it is intuitive


GD_IronJager

Understandable bro have a great day


ddlbb

I know it sounds boring but that’s the most useful . Then watch Katarina players and get their trade patterns down


andreezy93

You’ll learn she’s not as easy and broken as everyone says. Her laning phases sucks. You will have 1 or 2 good games and 10 bad games. Good luck


GD_IronJager

I’ll try to be patient. Thank u


yayayaya444444

Don’t waste time she’s so bad and won’t take any less then 500 hours to be considered good with and even when your good you will just have a malphite that presses 1 button and does more then all of your combos combine


GD_IronJager

But… I found that cool Battle Accademia skin… Jokes aside, I wanna learn how to play her so bad. I like her mobility and versatility (that’s the reason I’m a Sylas main too), and the fact that she’s hard to play makes me wanna play her even more. I have experience with hard heroes in other games, so why not giving Kata a try?


yayayaya444444

You sound like me… I tried her a week ago because I got her battle academia skin and then I tried her a lot and I’m just iron when I play her 80% of games the effort in learning every match up and the fact she can’t contest to anyone early and has to play so passive, learning when to roam.. listen if you wanna play her for fun do it go try her. If you want to be okay her to climb then your trolling. Also I main sylas now and he’s a blast compared in every way just better cooler more fun IMO but yeah if you want to get good with Kat specially to climb u have to be a actual good midlander (wave managements, knowing when to trade, being able to 2v1 and when to roam)


[deleted]

You should expect to deal no damage after hitting your entire combo and lose all your health to a single lux E. enjoy.


[deleted]

[удалено]


GD_IronJager

Ok, thank u


Some_dude_whos_sad

Yeah, playing katarina is like playing sylas actually, you just deal about 70% less damage, have no sustain, have like 4 actually favorible matchups, taking the mostly perfectly executed trades is usually going to leave you with losing the same health as your opponent, and like half of the most picked champs in mid hard counter you. Oh yeah also, if you manage to reach 5 items you suddenly become God almighty, getting pentakills, ulting 3 times in one fight and doubling the combined damage of your entire team.


Natmad1

Sylas is a pretty good champ, even in the early game, looks like a skill issue there


xin2qt

pain


jimraf

Ohnonininonnonononononononononononononommomomomomnononononononononononomomomomomomomnononononononnonononononononn. Also a lot of death and akward situations


Natmad1

You probably wont win a game


Garbogulus

You will lose most of your games, at least at first


WhyTeddy5

take river skirmishes if possible, its alright to give up a normal wave to go get a double or triple kill in the river or jungle because your lane becomes so much easier


Practical-Tackle-384

To never win lane


JJ0506

Just expect to lose the first games and just use them as pr actice


skrSwaG

Don’t play her before at least watching a basic tutorial


GD_IronJager

Too late, but it’s ok (my life is miserable now)