Originally Posted by Ur little sister

1) this post will ppb get downvoted. (just warning in advance, almost all my Kat posts tend to get downvoted into oblivion)
2) You can check ANY of my claims.
3) This post doesn't apply to jungle Katarina or top lane tank Kat.

a) AD is a wasted stat on her. Pretty much all it's good for is lasthitting. People think AD is good on her because she has AD scalings, but then you do the math and find out that every action she can perform in the game scales way harder with AP than AD. (Keep in mind that gold-efficiëncy wise AD is 2ce as expensive as AP.)
b) Spellvamp is barely worth it. No, seriously, it isn't. The reason it's still bought is because gunblade was core on old Kat for several reasons that changed during the rework. The largest change to the spellvamp component is the fact that new BB is considered and AoE spell. This dramatically lessens the effect of spellvamp on Katarina compared to the old days.
c) Gunblade isn't worth it. Reasons 1 and 2 contribute to this. The only extra thing Gblade has is the activatable, the slow on which isn't all too useful anymore since the nerf to her ultimate. If you REALLY want an activatable damage nuke, DFG offers a stronger one. (inb4 I get comments on how "cutting a second off of her ult is a buff" again, please note that her old ult dealt slightly more damage after 2 seconds than the new one does. Do the math, don't forget to incorporate Killer Instincts.)
d) Don't invest in CDR. It's a bad stat on her due to Voracity.
e) You should focus on proccing voracity as much and as fast as possible. This is Kat's main damage amplification tool, and it's the main thing that separates her from other champions. WIth new Kat, this pretty much means getting AP/Mpen is your primary goal, as damage is the only thing you offer to your team. The secondary thing you need is defence, cause living longer means more damage.
f) DO NOT get Rylai. It was a bad item on old Kat, and it got nerfed even harder on new Kat. It's just not worth the cost. You're better off just getting a giant's belt and flat AP if you really need the tankyness. As for the slow: it wasn't overly useful on old Kat due to her being a full out burst assassin rather than a "stick to a target and chase" assassin (like Akali is more or less); and it's even worse on new Kat due to the BB changes.

Summarizing: Invest in pure raw damage as much as you can muster. Sorc shoes are the only boots that really make sense. As for items, AP vs Mpen is a rough discussion and it's situational, as with any champion.

Originally Posted by xMugix

Agreed ^^ You understand Kat very well and I remember you from the guide you made ;D Id highly advise any Katarina platers to take this person's advice.

Originally Posted by Amoc

Rabadon's is by far the most important item in her kit at this point. It gives you the burst you need to proc your voracity over and over and makes Kat a beast through mid game.

Whatever you do though, please don't rush DFG before Rabadon's. Nobody has enough HP at this point in the game to make it as effective as it should be, and without the SP from Rabadon's it's not going to be doing a high enough burst %.

Originally Posted by Amoc

You may be right about the spell vamp. I stopped playing LoL for about 2-3 months and only started playing with her after the rework this week. Gunblade was an obvious drop because of the AD ratios falling but the revolver still seemed like it worked. I suppose with BB being considered an aoe and with shunpo not being a nuke anymore, it may not be worth it anymore. I'll try that out for sure.

As far as the changes go, however, I love the new Kat compared to the old. She poops all over a lot of the skillshot mids and with proper positioning and her Q, E, W combo is OUCH. It's a completely different laning experience than before, where you use to sit back and launch W/Q's and have them hit randomly. Now your harrass is risky business, but so much more dangerous. Her teamfight presence is also infinitely better.

Originally Posted by Ur little sister

1)(inb4 I get comments on how "cutting a second off of her ult is a buff" again, please note that her old ult dealt slightly more damage after 2 seconds than the new one does. Do the math, don't forget to incorporate Killer Instincts.)

Originally Posted by Katustrawfic

What I understood from this change is that she throws out the same amount of daggers (10) in a smaller amount of time. It went from 3.33 daggers per second to 5 daggers per second. How is this a nerf? I don't know about the ratios or damage off the top of my head but this change gives the enemy team less team to escape it or interrupt it.

Originally Posted by Ur little sister

However... If you adjust your playstyle to passive ADC-like farming and agressive harassing and trade forcing (focussing on maxing non-skillshots first), you WILL steamwaltz over Kat in the early levels.

Originally Posted by Ur little sister

As for the roaming: keep in mind she'll be underfarmed. Roaming when you're far behind is a big risk, and honestly I've only seen it pay off for an ennemy Kat once.