Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Katarina, the Sinister Blade
Katarina is a melee mage and assassin who excels purely at dealing as much damage as possible and taking out entire enemy teams.
Katarina specializes in cleaning house at the end of a battle: As enemy champions fall, she can cast her abilities again.
Katarina’s passive is Voracity.
Whenever Katarina kills or assists in the kill of an enemy champion, her ultimate’s cooldown is reduced and all of her basic abilities are immediately refreshed.
Bouncing Blades throws out a dagger than bounces from target enemy, damaging each enemy it hits and leaving behind a mark for a few seconds.
Katarina’s basic attacks or other abilities will consume this mark to deal bonus damage.
As Katarina’s biggest damage tool, I recommend taking it at level 1 and maxing it immediately.
Sinister Steel immediately damages all nearby enemies. If she hits an enemy champion with it, Katarina briefly gains bonus movement speed.
Absolutely take a point early to help trigger the marks from Bouncing Blades.
If you want even more damage, start maxing it early. Otherwise, save it for last.
Shunpo teleports Katarina behind the target, dealing damage if it’s an enemy. For the next few seconds, Katarina receives reduced damage.
Absolutely take a point at level 2 for the extra mobility Shunpo provides.
If you’re looking for extra mobility with a bit of damage as well, max Shunpo second. 00:01:35.800,00:01:33.800 Katarina’s ultimate is Death Lotus. When activated, Katarina spins around, constantly tossing daggers at the three nearest enemy champions.
Struck enemies take massive damage and receive reduced healing for a few seconds.
In early laning, you should have three goals: First, last hit as many minions as possible.
Normally you should do this with basic attacks, but if a minion is out of reach, using Bouncing Blades.
Second, harass your opponent. The mark from Bouncing Blades plus Shunpo deals some nice early damage.
Third, you want to dodge your opponent’s damage with Shunpo.
As Gragas tosses out Barrel Roll, Katarina hops onto him with Shunpo, taking zero damage and returning some of her own.
Katarina’s combined damage and elusiveness is exceptional, even with just the use of basic abilities.
Here as Gragas and Maokai look to gank her, Katarina first creates some distance with the movement speed from Sinister Steel.
Then as Maokai chases her down, she Flashes over the wall, jumps to Gragas with Shunpo, and gets farther away with Sinister Steel again.
As Maokai dives in, Katarina makes sure to land Ignite, Bouncing Blades, and a basic attack to trigger the mark for bonus damage.
Deciding to try her luck against Gragas with under 100 Health, she dodges Body Slam with Shunpo, hits Sinister Steel, and picks up the kill with Bouncing Blades.
Remember that Katarina’s ultimate, Death Lotus, has a very low cooldown.
Because of this, don’t hesitate to use it simply to deal a bit of extra damage in an exchange, even if it won’t kill.
Katarina opens on Gragas with Bouncing Blades into Shunpo, Sinister Steel, and finally Death Lotus.
This combination drops Gragas to about half health and sets her up for a future kill.
Quickly after, she beings harassing again.
Using Flash plus Shunpo to close in unexpectedly, she deals incredible damage with Sinister Steel, Bouncing Blades, and Ignite, grabbing the kill as she walks away through the jungle.
As Katarina levels up, her ability to farm minions in large groups is exceptional.
Tagging a minion wave with Bouncing Blades and Sinister Steel, she immediately kills five of them and sets up for what should have been an easy sixth kill with Shunpo.
Always remember that Shunpo can target any ally, including wards.
As Katarina gets caught by the enemy team, she Flashes to the side, allowing her to Shunpo to Rumble and safety.
In the absence of nearby teammates, Katarina can also carry Sight Wards to achieve similar results.
Katarina’s goal in a fight should be to find the squishiest target she can and kill it immediately.
She happens upon Gragas at half health, and quickly drops him.
With better reflexes, Shunpo would have also killed Tristana, as her basic cooldowns refresh upon kill or assist.
With all enemy stuns on cooldown, Katarina fully channels Death Lotus, picking up two more kills for her team.
In a team fight, Katarina’s most important decision is exactly when to initiate.
If she heads in too early, she’ll be focused and killed, but if she goes too late, her team will fail without her.
As Xin Zhao gets low, she hits Bouncing Blades, Flashes for Sinister Steel, and then Shunpos to Maokai to channel Death Lotus.
The assist on Xin Zhao refreshes her cooldowns, allowing her to burst Maokai.
That kill refreshes her cooldowns again, giving her the kill on Gragas.
Once Gragas falls she unloads her full combo once more on Tristana, picking up the Ace in what was ultimately a three versus five.
In one final team fight, Katarina employs all her tricks once more. Opening up on Maokai, he targets her with Twisted Advance.
Targeting a teammate with Shunpo, she gets away from her other opponents, wasting Maokai’s initiation.
Once Leona follows in, she looks to charge to the back line, channeling Death Lotus onto Xin Zhao and getting an assist on Leona.
This allows her to dive back in, hitting Bouncing Blades on the enemy team and triggering the mark with Sinister Steel, picking up a triple kill.
I recommend building Katarina with a heavy emphasis on offense through Ability Power, with a splash for durability to survive being in melee range in team fights.
Try Magic Penetration Marks, Health per Level Seals, Ability Power per Level Glyphs, and Movement Speed Quintessences.
21/9/0 Masteries can work well, taking Magic Damage Masteries in Offense, plus Health and minion damage reduction in Defense.
Ignite and Flash both allow Katarina to chase down and pick up kills in order to fuel her passive and continue to dominate in fights.
Consider opening with Boots of Speed and Health Potions while rushing for Hextech Revolver and Sorcerer’s Shoes.
Upgrade to Hextech Gunblade and then choose your next items carefully:
Rabadon’s Deathcap adds the most pure damage.
Abyssal Scepter grants damage and survivability versus magic damage.
Zhonya’s Hourglass grants damage, durability against physical damage, and the ability to wait for cooldowns mid-fight.
Void Staff is more of a late-game item if your opponents start to build Magic Resist.
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