Katarina is one of the most mechanically challenging champions to play. However, the reward for mastering her justifies the effort. To start honing the skills on this great mid lane assassins, it’s really beneficial to pave the road with the right tools in your kit. The greatest way to start would be equipping the right build, and that’s exactly what we are gonna focus on!
Best Katarina Items
Lich Bane
The greatest first item for our Katarina build will be the Lich Bane. On the stats side of things, it will give us really great AP rations, decent ability haste, and some very welcome 4% movement speed. Additionally, Lich Bane will give us a passive that will increase the auto-attacks following abilities. The additional damage is quite easy to proc with Katarina, and it increases our combo damage by decent margins.
Shadowflame
Shadowflame is a mix of AP and magic penetration. Other than these two stats, it will give us a major passive that increases our ability damage by 20% on targets below 40%. The passive has a huge value on Katarina because it has incredible synergy with her ultimate.
Rabadon’s Deathcap
Rabadon’s Deathcap is just the usual purchase following heavy AP builds. It gives the highest flat AP ratio amounting to 130 AP, as well as 30% bonus on our total AP. To get the most value out of its 30% bonus AP, we will want to continue building high AP ratio items.
Zhonya’s Hourglass
Katarina’s kit is conditioning her to close combat. Despite having great damage and mobility, some engages can often pose a serious threat to Katarina. To mitigate against some of the threat, we can build Zhonya’s Hourglass. Its active spell “stasis” is great to proc after engaging, as it will buy time to reset our cooldowns and get assistance from our allies.
Void Stuff
Void Stuff is quite similar to Rabadon’s Deathcap by the fact it has a really single dimensional value. The Rabadon’s will increase our AP much more than any other item, while Void Stuff will do the same for our magic penetration. Having both these items combined creates an uniquely high degree of damage output.
Boots
The boots selection for this Katarina build pretty much boils down to Sorcerer Shoes. The boots will give us another sprinkle of magic penetration, and enable us to do more damage with the AP we will accumulate through the game.
Runes for Katarina
- Electrocute
- Sudden Impact
- Eyeball Collection
- Relentless Hunter
- Triumph
- Coup the Grace
The best keystone for Katarina is Electrocute. It’s easy to activate, and it will make our early game trades much easier. The rune following it should be the Sudden Impact, which is quite easy to activate by using our E.
Next up, we should take the Eyeball Collection and Relentless Hunter. These two will stack simultaneously each time we get a unique takedown. The first one will give us bonus damage and the second one movement speed. Finally, we will want to take Triumph for extra healing, and Coup de Grace for more damage on low HP enemies.
Final Thoughts
Katarina is one of the strongest AP mid lane assassins. Currently, the greatest way to play her is AP. We will want to build high AP ratio items, and combine them with Rabadon’s Deathcap and Void Stuff for extra damage. I also recommend making space for Zhonia, as it’s defensive properties can get converted to great value on the Rift.