Hello. Recently I bought Katarina to fill up my "champion collection". I knew that Katarina is hard to master champion, and I wanted to learn her a bit more. That's why I decided I'll play Dominion with her (I treat Dominion mostly as Training Grounds, didn't choose to play with bots, because it's better to learn while playing against normal players, additionaly Dominion isn't very long, and if played properly all champions there are viable). The first few games weren't really good, to be honest I played Katarina first time ever. After the first game (I lost) I was very happy, because she is very fun and interesting to play. Later on I started to get more positive score on her, making some crazy jukes and won 5 Dominion games with her in a row.

I want to start playing Katarina in Summoners Rift (Normal Draft, or even rankeds), however because I still lack some skill to play her properly, I'm little afraid that I will just get flamed, or do poorly. I want to ask good/pro Katarina players on what matchups (in mid) they would take Katarina, to dominate the lane, and snowball out of it, or just have an easier time than with other matchups. Also I want to ask for some rune advices, currently I use 3x AP Quints, 9x Magic Pen red, 9x armor yellows and 9x magic resist when playing her. Also what builds are "viable"? I've seen some guides, but I want more to compare all of them.

From my experience on Dominion I personally think that Katarina is good on mid against: Ryze, Xerath (need to be carefull there), Karthus, Lux, Ahri (only if she doesn't have Charm available)

Also I'm sorry if my english burns your eyes, I'm from Europe and English is not my native language.

i usually play her as a top solo with m pen red cooldown reduction yellow ability power per lvl blue and hp regen quints with a full ap offensive mastery then into defensive for hp

since she is more of a offensive champ i do not use much defensive runes/mastery. altho it makes me a bit squishy i do massive dmg which heavily overweights being squishy

Is investing into cdr runes is actually worth it? Her passive after kill/assit reduces all her 3 basic skills (W after 3rd-4th rank) instantly without any cooldown reduction from masteries/runes.

Katarina is a snowbally champion that can easily jump ahead or fall behind. The most important part of her skillset is her passive which reduces the cooldowns of her skills by 15 seconds, ultimately resetting her basic skills and her ult after three kills (this is why Katarina is the champion that statistically gets the second most pentakills).

For runes, the general setup involves mpen reds, movement speed quints, flat armor yellows, and flat mr blues. CDR blues are a waste because her skills are reset after kills anyways.

If you get to the point where you are very good with Katarina, a better runepage would involve attack damage per level reds, health per level yellows, ap per level blues, and movement speed quints. This allows her to snowball much more, but leaves you more vulnerable to harass (hence only using this runepage if you are skilled with Katarina).

As far as item builds, generally you want to start boots + 3pots, then buy sorc shoes or hextech revolver next, finishing up a hextech gunblade by midgame (her highest damage item because she scales off of attack damage and ability power). After that, it depends on how you play her and the enemy team comp. If they are kind of tanky, build a DFG for another nuke. If they deal too much magic damage, build an abyssal scepter. (Also you can try hexdrink -> maw of martimatus, because she scales off of attack damage well, but I personally don't build it much). If they deal too much attack damage, build a Zhonya's hourglass. If you're steamrolling, build a mejai's soulstealer (risky) or a rabadon's deathcap.

Playstyle-wise, you want to max R>Q>E>W, with a point in W at level 4. In lane (mid lane, hopefully) your goal is to get as many creeps as possible, and if you're being zoned out use Q to last hit. Otherwise, use Q to harass. Katarina has one of the weakest early games, so don't try to make plays until at least level 5 or 6. (In fact, Katarina usually loses most lanes. You have to make up for this by ganking other lanes a lot or greatly outplaying the enemy laner.) After 6, your kill potential goes through the roof because of your ult.. which unfortunately is easily stopped by enemy cc.

To counter this, only use Katarina's ult after the enemy team engages with your teammates and uses up all of their cc abilities.

Finally, in teamfights, if your team manages to kill someone, things get exciting! Your abilities get reset, and you want to bouncing blade + shunpo to another person, hopefully getting another kill. If that happens, you can rinse and repeat, possibly leading to a penta kill. If it's too risky to persue, just back out after a kill using shunpo because it's not worth suiciding.

Anyways, I love playing Katarina and that's just my two cents on playing her. I currently main her at about ~1550 elo and have a 66% win rate, so hopefully I'm doing something right. Also, if you *really* want to improve with Katarina, I suggest watching TiensiNoAkuma or scarra play her; they're generally known as the two best Katarina players. Judy Monica also plays Katarina at high elo, but I don't think she has any gameplay vids. If you catch TiensiNoAkuma or Judy Monica playing (from the main page spectator games) watch them, because they're playing all the time.

From my experience with kat you need to be a little tactical and smart about picking your fights.

kat is not an initiator. she jumps in after everyone has picked their targets and wreaks havoc. you also have to pay attention (and know) each champion's cooldowns. once any cc effects are used, then you jump in. but dont wait till their cooldown is almost up.

the fact that kat jumps in sometime after a big fight starts will get you flamed sometimes for "ksing" but just ignore the scrubs, that's what you do.

+1 to CSZHUNG. In teamfights you can't initiate at all with Katarina. Only go in after they blow their cc on your team first and you're not the focus of the fight. If they focus you no matter when you go in, build a Zhonya's Hourglass and use the active.

Otherwise, you can initiate in other stages of the game if you know you can get a kill then shunpo out, like when ganking or catching a support trying to ward out of position.

Haha, You just picked up on something a lot of people don't think about. As someone who used to play her a lot, that passive has gotten me so many quadra's and near pentas (Always stolen from me ) that I don't see why I should be getting CDR. Also, being that her skills go down to really low CD's, 4 second Shunpo I think, and 6 seconds on BB, there is no need for this.

What I'd suggest doing is, grab revolver early, then build into Rylais if you don't activate items a lot, or finish hextech if you do. The slow will help you to net kills, and let you snowball from there. Also, something you might not have picked up on yet is the range on BB is actually longer than that of your ult, so attack order should be Shunpo with KI, ult, and BB as they get out of range.

But back to build. Personally, I grab Gunblade, rylai's, Abyssal, Deathcap and Zhonya's and boots. The slow from Gunblade might seem a little excessive, but it is a 300 damage nuke that can help to secure an early kill in the team fight, thereby refreshing your CDs and allowing you to escape or secure another kill. Otherwise, you are building for decent survivability, while continuing to dish out the damage.

As for mids, if they have a stun or an interrupt, usually it's a bad idea to challenge them, but you can always work around it. If it's a skill shot stun, shunpo to them when they are in their minions, making sure that your shunpo will place you with minions between them and you (As they run). If it's not a skill shot, then juke into a bush and ult. And for specific characters like Anivia (Don't fight her) and Cassiopeia (Shunpo, turn, then ult) you might have to find other ways to pull off your ult.

Brush is your friend, just like Nunu

Ult in there, then proceed to smartcast Q W E for a kill, and keep doing it.

Learn from the pro himself. These 29 tips and tricks videos make you a pro, and he mains Katarina in 2300 ELO games, and has some Kata specific tips on his channel as well. He made me a much better Kata player, to the point of carrying 4 trolls if I have a good early game and no one else does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTxldaFrpxA

Im a heavy kat player. and i have to say, mid lane is best for me. I harass with my bouncing blade to get them low enough over a period of time, wen they get low enough Q->E-> auto attack-> ignite. and if u have ur ult Q>E>R