ARAM Build Guide
Katarina ARAM Build — Reset Machine on the Howling Abyss
Katarina in ARAM is a pentakill machine. Constant teamfights mean constant resets. Here's how to build her for maximum snowball potential on the bridge.
Katarina in ARAM is either a 1v9 carry or completely useless. There's no in-between. Her entire kit is built around resets — every kill or assist resets her E (Shunpo) cooldown, letting her dash in, delete someone, and dash out. In ARAM's constant teamfights, one good engage can turn into a pentakill.
Her win rate in ARAM sits around 50%, which sounds average, but that's because she's high skill cap. A good Katarina player can easily maintain 55%+ win rates. The key is knowing when to go in and when to wait for cooldowns.
Best Katarina ARAM Runes
Primary: Domination
Dark Harvest — Katarina stacks this fast because she's constantly getting kills and assists. By 15 minutes you'll have 20+ stacks and your burst will one-shot squishies.
Sudden Impact — Your E dash procs Sudden Impact for bonus lethality and magic penetration. Free damage on every engage.
Eyeball Collection — Free AD and AP from takedowns. You'll max this out fast.
Treasure Hunter — Extra gold on unique kills. ARAM games are shorter, so the early gold spike from Treasure Hunter helps you snowball faster.
Secondary: Precision
Triumph — Heals you on kills and assists. In ARAM teamfights, Triumph keeps you alive through resets.
Coup de Grace — More damage to low HP targets. Synergizes with your execute playstyle.
Why not Conqueror? Conqueror is fine for extended fights, but Dark Harvest gives you way more burst damage in ARAM. You're not dueling — you're diving in, one-shotting someone, and resetting out. Dark Harvest scales harder for that playstyle.
Best Katarina ARAM Items
Core Build (in order)
Hextech Rocketbelt — Katarina's core mythic. The dash gives you extra mobility for engages, and the magic penetration helps your hybrid damage.
Sorcerer's Shoes — Magic penetration boots. More damage on your abilities.
Nashor's Tooth — Katarina's daggers apply on-hit effects. Nashor's gives you AP, attack speed, and on-hit damage. This is your biggest power spike.
Shadowflame — Flat magic penetration. Your burst damage will delete squishies.
Situational 5th & 6th Items
Void Staff — If they have 2+ tanks building magic resist. 40% magic penetration makes your damage relevant again.
Zhonya's Hourglass — If you're getting focused in teamfights. E in, ult, Zhonya's, wait for resets.
Rabadon's Deathcap — If you're snowballing hard. Massive AP boost for one-shot potential.
Lich Bane — If you want more burst. Your E dash procs Lich Bane for bonus damage.
Don't build full AD Katarina in ARAM. AD Katarina is a meme build. AP Katarina with Nashor's Tooth gives you way more consistent damage and better scaling. Stick to the AP build.
Ability Order
Max Q first (Bouncing Blade), then E (Shunpo), then W (Preparation). Take R at 6, 11, 16.
Q is your primary poke and dagger placement tool. Lower cooldown means more daggers on the ground for resets.
E second for the dash cooldown reduction. In ARAM, you're constantly dashing in and out of fights.
W is one point wonder until last. The damage is nice, but the scaling isn't worth maxing over Q or E.
ARAM-Specific Tips
Your daggers are your damage. Katarina's Q and W drop daggers on the ground. When you pick up a dagger (by walking over it or E dashing to it), it spins and deals AOE damage. In ARAM teamfights, drop daggers in the middle of the enemy team, then E to them for massive AOE damage.
Your E resets on kills and assists. Katarina's E cooldown resets on takedowns. In ARAM teamfights, one kill turns into a pentakill because you can E in, kill someone, E out, E back in, kill someone else, repeat. This is why Katarina is a reset machine.
Engage timing: Don't engage first. Wait for your team to engage, wait for the enemy to use their CC, then E in and clean up. If you engage first, you'll get CC'd and die instantly.
Dagger placement: Katarina's Q bounces to 3 targets and drops a dagger behind the last target. In ARAM, Q the enemy backline, then E to the dagger for a free engage on their carries.
Ult positioning: Katarina's R channels for 2.5 seconds and deals massive damage. In ARAM, use R when the enemy team is grouped and low HP. Don't ult at full HP — you'll get CC'd and interrupted.
When Katarina is Strong vs Weak in ARAM
Katarina dominates against squishy, low-CC comps. If the enemy team is 3+ mages or ADCs with no hard CC, you're going to have a great game. Your resets will carry teamfights.
She struggles against heavy CC comps. If they have Leona, Nautilus, and Lissandra, you're going to get CC'd every time you E in. Build Zhonya's earlier in these games and wait for them to use their CC before you engage.
She's also weaker against heavy sustain comps (Soraka + Sona + enchanters). Your burst gets healed up before you can follow up. Focus the enchanters first in these games.
FAQ
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Looking for more ARAM builds? Check out our Akali ARAM build, Zed ARAM build, or Yasuo ARAM build.
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Check out our full Katarina champion guide for ranked builds and strategies.
