League of Legends - Karthus Champion Strategy and Item Build Guide

Karthus

Basic Information

Champion Stats

Lore

Skills

Icon	Description
	Death Defied  Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form that allows him to continue casting spells for 7 seconds.
	Lay Waste  (Target Range: 875, Effect Radius: 100, Cost: 20/26/32/38/44 Mana, Cooldown: 1)ACTIVE: The character  unleashes a delayed blast at a location, dealing damage to nearby enemies.Creates a delayed blast at Karthus’ cursor position dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+30% Ability Power) magic damage to each nearby enemy.If the blast hits only a single unit it deals double damage.
	Wall of Pain  (Target Range: 1000, Cost: 100 Mana, Cooldown: 18)ACTIVE: The character creates a passable screen of leeching energy. Any enemy units that walk through the screen have their Movement Speed and Magic Resist reduced for a period.Creates a wall that lasts for 5 seconds. Enemies that pass through the wall have their Magic Resist reduced by 15% and Movement Speed reduced by 40/50/60/70/80% for 5 seconds (their Movement Speed gradually recovers over the duration).
	Defile  (Effect Radius: 425, Cost: 30/42/54/66/78 Mana Per Second)ACTIVE: The character passively steals energy from his victims, gaining Mana on each kill. Alternatively, Karthus can surround himself in the souls of his prey, dealing damage to nearby enemies, but quickly draining his own Mana.Toggle Off: When Karthus kills a unit, he restores 20/27/34/41/48 Mana.Toggle On: Drains 30/42/54/66/78 Mana to deal 30/50/70/90/110 (+20% Ability Power) magic damage to nearby enemies each second.
	Requiem (Effect Radius: Global, Cost: 150/175/200 Mana, Cooldown: 200/180/160)After channeling for 3 seconds, the character deals damage to all enemy champions.After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals 250/400/550 (+60% Ability Power) magic damage to all enemy champions (regardless of distance).

Strategy

Mid Lane

• Karthus has great poke damage as long as you are able to hit your enemy efficiently. His (Q) Lay Waste deals a lot of damage but is very hard to land. Predicting your enemy’s movement requires a lot of practice but pays a great amount back since this will usually be enough to bring your opponents hp down.
• Use (W) Wall of Pain on top of enemies to slow them down during team fights, or to help secure a kill when your jungler ganks your lane.
• Karthus has massive aoe damage so you are vital in teamfights. Your (E) Defile and (R) Requiem deal massive amounts of aoe damage that can change the tide of the game. Go into the fray during clashes and turn on (E) Defile while spamming (Q) Lay Waste to deal massive damage on the enemy team.
•  (R) Requiem hits enemies globally so always browse the map for potential kills. Keep in mind that that your ultimate requires three whole seconds to cast so some champions might be able to quickly heal or protect themselves. Try to cast your ultimate when you’re sure that they’ve already exhausted their resources.
•  Remember that even if you die, you’d still have seven seconds to live so try to hit enemies with (Q) Lay Waste as many times as possible before you’re gone for good.

Runes & Masteries

COMING SOON

Summoner Spells

Mid Lane
Flash	Exhaust

Exhaust – Exhaust is an essential summoner spell for Karthus since he lacks proper CC. If executed properly, he can lock down an enemy and deal massive amounts of damage with his skills that requires accuracy.

Item Builds

Mid Lane

Starter Items
Doran’s Ring	Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation x2	Warding Totem

Core Items

Core Items
Archangel’s Staff	Zhonya’s Hourglass	Rabadon’s Deathcap

Archangel’s Staff – Archangel’s Staff adds mana and ability power while increasing his maximum mana. Building Tear of the Goddess on your first back is very helpful since Karthus requires a huge mana pool to constantly cast his abilities.

Zhonya’s Hourglass – Karthus is a very immobile champion that is very vulnerable against very slippery champions. Zhonya’s Hourglass allows him to escape situations and burst abilities.

Rabadon’s Deathcap – Rabadon’s Deathcap greatly increases the ability power of Karthus, allowing him to deal massive amounts of damage with (R) Requiem and (Q) Lay Waste.

Full Build

Full Build
Sorcerer’s Shoes	Void Staff	Rabadon’s Deathcap
Zhonya’s Hourglass	Morellonomicon	Seraph’s Embrace

Void Staff – Void Staff increases the magic penetration of Karthus, allowing him to deal more damage even though the enemies are building magic resistance items.

Morellonomicon – Morellonomicon adds cooldown reduction, mana regeneration, and ability power while giving grievous wounds when the enemt reached a certain health threshold.

Situational Items

Situational Items
Liandry’s Torment	Rylai’s Crystal Scepter	Abyssal Mask

Liandry’s Torment – Liandry’s Torment is a great pickup when the enemy has a lot of tanks as the passive gives Damage-over-time and magic penetration.

Rylai’s Crystal Scepter – This item adds another soft crowd control aside from (W) Wall of Pain that can create more favorable situations for your team. It also grants the user 400 health and 100 ability power which can also benefit Karthus.

Abyssal Mask – Abyssal Mask is a very situational item and must only be bought when you are far behind the game and your team has a lot of ability power champions that can carry the game.

Playing Against

• You can use Zhonya’s Hourglass to block a potential (R) Requiem if you time it perfectly.
• As much as possible, avoid going into team fights when Karthus is near. He thrives on being inside the clash, dealing massive damage and slows with (Q) Lay Waste, (W) Wall of Pain and (E) Defile.
• Remember that Karthus has Death Defied (Passive) so try to keep away from him when he dies.
• Coordinate with your team to take out Karthus first in order to diminish his damage contribution during clashes.

Hard Counter

• Kassadin – Kassadin is very mobile so he can quickly kill Karthus without him being able to land a single skill. Kassadin can go in and out of combat without any trouble against Karthus.
• Leblanc – Leblanc is another mobile assassin that can one shot Karthus while going out of the range of Death Defied with ease.
• Zed – Much like Leblanc, Zed also has the ability to one shot Karthus with Death Mark while getting out of the field of Death Defied. Zed also has the ability
• Talon – Talon is a very slippery assassin that can get close to Karthus with Assassins Path and Shadow Assault .

Strategy video

COMING SOON

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