So I just bought Katarina since she's on sale and she has some cool abilities. I was looking for some builds but most in the guides section are terribly outdated, from what I gathered I made the following build and I am looking for some constructive feedback from people that have experience with her (so no 'OMG X ITEM IS FAIL!' without adding some alternative plz
Here is the build I came up with, got to admit it's hard to decide wether to go AD or AP so I came up with this weird hybrid after practicing once or twice, haven't tried this one yet, curious what your take on her is:

Vamp scepter
Boots
Brutalizer
Ninja Tabi/Merc threads
Youmuu’s
Emblem of Valour
Lich Bane
BV/Randuin’s


tl;dr: I'm looking for some constructive feedback on this build for Kat.


P.S. Before anyone asks, I like life steal and I'm aware that she benefits from Rylai's just not sure if I can squeeze that in

Stack AD,

Start with Doran's Sheild, 1 Hp pot
Sorc Boots
BF Sword*4
BF's -> Bloodthirsters

She benefits the most from raw AD

Super simple =)

~Pengwin

Remember that Kat is not an autoattack champion, nor can her spells crit. All of her damage comes from her abilities, which means they use Mpen. For this reason, the only lifesteal you should ever get on Kat is if you are goind AD and stacking bloodthirsters

For this reason youmuu's is useless because Kat does not need armor pen, nor does she need crit as she will rarely be autoattacking.

Emblem of Valour/Starks again does not benefit her because she does not autoattack enough to benefit from the lifesteal, the attackspeed, or the reduced armor to enemies.

Lichbane is awesome in a Heavy AP build.

Banshees is also a good item when they have a lot of disables or dangerous nukes

I believe the best way to play her is to either stack BF swords or go full ap with rylai's and zhoyna's. With ad your bouncing blade and ult will put out serious damage. With ap your ult becomes an amazing snare and shunpo puts out some great nuke damage.

Stuff like youmuu's isn't that great since you're not a dps and stuff like randuin's isn't great because you're not a tank. I also wouldn't get lich bane since it's pretty pricey and the mana is completely wasted on Kat, but that's just my opinion.

Doesn't BB proc the life steal? Because when I practiced with her it looked like it did. It's also AD damage so I figured Arm Pen would work on her If it doesn't then maybe it's indeed a good idea to just stack AD. What I'm seeing is that it's best to go either full AD or AP?

Ok I came up with a new build after heavy number crunching (meaning I just slapped on what I think works ) It now looks like this:

Doran’s shield
Boots
Madred’s razor
Ninja Tabi/Merc threads/Sorc boots
Rylai’s
Haunting Guise
Bloodthirster
(BV when CC’ed)
Keep stacking blood’s

I put in the madreds for some early game dam and armor and haunting guise was the cheapest MP item. Not sure what gives the fastest damage output, stacking B.F. swords first or turning them into Bloodthirsters right away? I figure if my team is dominating and I'm not dying it's better to turn them into blood's for the stacking, if not keep stacking B.F. for consistent damage since the only 'extra' Bloodthirsters give is stacked AD.

Read her ability tooltips carefully.
They all do MAGIC dmg therefore MR counters her, so she needs MPen to increase her output.
However BB scales with AD, shunpo scales with AP and the ult scales with either (picks the highest).
The type of damage an ability does is separate from what it scales with. On most champs AP=magic, AD=phys but it isnt always the case.

Kats not really the best champ to be playing atm anyway. She is mostly about her ult and it is too easy to shut down. However if you really wanna play her the best route is after you get the sorc boots and first BF, grab a chain vest and a negatron cloak (be smart - if they're all phys drop the cloak). This will give you some staying power when you jump in. As the game goes on, keep grabbing BFs as needed and upgrade to Randuins and FoN when the enemy is packing damage.

Always run with flash/ignite. Flash gives allows you to escape or initiate (then escape with shunpo). Or even better you can pull a slingshot around a team fight by flashing to the side and then shunpo to the enemy squishies in the back. Ignite helps with early kills, which are essential to start snowballing.

Most importantly: wait. Patience is your best friend. Chuck BBs until the fight starts and then wait until everyone is half dead and the CC is used. Then jump in, ult, get 3 kills, ult again, win. Wont always go like that but if you go in early and get killed/CC'ed it'll never happen.

Drop the madreds. Seriously. You wont be auto attacking. Therefore you wont proc it. And its a very expensive item. It'll delay the BFs and your real source of damage.

Drop the Rylais. You cant go hybrid on kat as her ult scales off either AD or AP. Not both. Going hybrid gimps the ult and therefore the entire reason fr kats existence.

You can go full AD or full AP. Thats your choice. Both involve sorc boots. Anything else is gimp.