Ok McKeegan you are sadly misinformed about one major fact


ALL of kat's abilities do magical damage regardless of whether you are ap or ad


Also ad can get rylais for slow and can also rely on their teammates for the cc to force them in lotus

In answer to your questions as a fellow Kat player.

1. I find that it's situational. AP is very much a one-trick-pony. Once your ult is down, you're basically useless for the rest of the fight. If you're facing a team with very little CC, then definitely run AP. Your rylai's slow will ensure that DL is a triple kill or so every time you use it. AD, however, is better in most situations not because of damage capabilities but because after your DL is down you can still slap things pretty hard with BB and melee. Good teams will be interrupting your DL as soon as you cast it, so AD build gives you some leftover damage.

2. Yeah, in that situation.. don't play katarina, lol. I found Amumu because I hate being on tankless teams.

3. Once you have a couple points in Q (I go Q-E-W-Q-Q-R, though that's unconventional) it does some **** good damage as a harass. Use shunpo for last hits or closing the distance for a kill, use your Q for primarily harassment and zoning unless you want to get the last hit on a few creeps at the same time.

4. Defensive items are always a good idea no matter what character you're playing. Banshee's is nice simply because of the passive effect and the magic resist. It all depends on who you're up against, though.

As far as Frozen Mallet goes, no, it's not really a good choice. It doesn't get activated by your ulti because physical damage doesn't matter. FM is only activated on melee autoattacks.

Also, what McKeegan said is true, except for the part about "people usually stack armor." If your enemy knows what they're doing they're going to be stacking whatever mitigates the damage being dealt to them, which often times is magic damage, particularly against Kat since DL is her big source of damage and it's magic.

Nope, every skill kat has is magical damage, only auto attack from her is physical damage so magic pen runes>arm pen

Im an AP to AD convert. I tanked the first time i tried AD, i actually went 0/9/3 and then i switched to AP and finished even. My point is it'll take a few games to get used to and to really master. AD is a nice play style. Her BB is beautiful haha. AP is very viable as well. I still play AP for the hell of it once in a while.

1) Either one works, AP Kat is more of a nuke than a DPS, once your abilities are on cd your screwed. BUT.. with that being said, her CD's arent that long... Just find whichever one works best. AP for Early- Mid game. AD for Mid-Late Game.

2) Always wait till the team battle has started before jumping in. DO NOT just jump into the middle. YOU WILL get focus fired/stunned/silenced. dont wait to long though or your useless.

3) BE AGRESSIVE! You are one of the best laners in the game. use it to your advantage.

4) Get some defensive items if you are AD if your AP theres less of a need because you've got some combo items wich give you a lil more survivability.

Extra Tips
If you are AP PLEASE get Deathfire Grasp. You are your abilities in AP Deathfire Grasp gives you 15% cooldowns. This will give you alot better chance to be more usefull throughout the game. When i went to AD i started getting Randuins Omen for the same cooldown affect, its active slow, and extra bit of health.. its beautiful. Anyway, thats my 5 cents. hope it helped.

Actually.. I should say, her q is definitely physical guys, look at the spell. :P

AD kat is more of a 1 trick pony then AP kat because AP kat can literally spam shunpo during a teamfight which hits for 700, if you build lich bane you get a massive 2 hit burst combo to spam into their team with or without your lotus being successful