Guide Sections (15)
- Champion Stats
- The Dagger Drop
- Skins Worth Buying for Katarina
- When They Ban Katarina
- Katarina's Rune Page
- What to Max on Katarina
- Mastering Katarina's Kit
- Who Katarina Beats (And Who Beats Katarina)
- Reset Greed
- When You Can't Get Resets
- The Flank Assassination
- The Reset Machine Build
- When Katarina Hits Hardest
- Pentakill or Nothing
- Recent Patch History
Champion Stats
Low elo players stand on your daggers. They just do. They don't respect the Shunpo threat radius. They group up in tight clumps, allowing your R and Passive dagger pickups to hit all 5 of them simultaneously. They save their important CC for the frontline tank while you blink around untouched. Once you get ONE reset, the fight is completely over. Your passive reduces ALL cooldowns on takedowns, meaning Q, W, E, and R are all back up. You become a spinning blender of death.
The Dagger Drop
Kat's level 1 cheese is limited. Q the wave and hit the enemy with the bounce for chip damage. The REAL cheese is at Level 2 or 3. The kill combo is: Q (dagger lands behind them), E to the dagger, Auto, W (dagger drops at feet), E back to a minion or forward to the W dagger, Auto, Ignite. This full burst with Electrocute will kill a 70% HP mage from range. Most low-elo players don't respect this and walk into the dagger zone for CS.
Skins Worth Buying for Katarina
'Battle Queen Katarina' is the ultimate flex—your dagger color changes with every kill, acting as a kill-counter for psychological warfare. 'PROJECT' has crisp audio cues for dagger pickups and sounds satisfying on combos. 'Warring Kingdoms' creates nice visual clarity on where daggers land. Avoid 'Mercenary' as the particles are muddy and harder to track in teamfights.
'Battle Queen' is the ultimate flex; daggers change color with kills. 'PROJECT' has crisp audio cues. 'Warring Kingdoms' possesses great visual clarity. Battle Queen wins for the psychological kill-counter.
When They Ban Katarina
Akali offers similar mobility and tower-diving. Talon provides roaming and snowballing. LeBlanc is the mage version of blink-burst-escape. Akali is the closest mechanical sister.
Katarina's Rune Page
Conqueror is standard for tankier team compositions and extended skirmishes where you need sustain to survive multiple rotations. Electrocute is best for bursting squishies in one combo. Dark Harvest is the greediest choice for pure smurfing—every kill makes your resets hit harder. For secondary runes, Sudden Impact is free Lethality/Magic Pen on every Shunpo, and Treasure Hunter accelerates your item spikes.
What to Max on Katarina
Maxing Q is essential for poke/waveclear and for resetting faster. However, many high-elo smurfs put 3 points in Q, then max E for mobility. E max gives you lower Shunpo cooldown, letting you hop around the fight more freely. W max last is universal—W is just for the dagger placement, not the damage. The damage comes from your passive.
Mastering Katarina's Kit
Bouncing Blades drops a dagger 350 units behind the primary target. Use this to set up aggressive Shunpo angles—Q-E is your bread-and-butter gap close. The Q also provides brief vision of the target, useful for checking bushes without facechecking.
Preparation gives 50-80% movement speed and drops a dagger at your feet. Use the speed to dodge skillshots, then Shunpo BACK to the W dagger when the enemy commits to trading. It's essentially a free escape built into your aggression.
Shunpo is an instant blink that applies on-hit effects and resets partially when you pick up a dagger. You can blink to enemies, allies, minions, daggers, wards, and most other units. The difference between a Gold Kat and a Diamond Kat is E target selection—knowing what to blink to and when.
Death Lotus applies Grievous Wounds (anti-heal) automatically. It's useful against teams with drain tanks like Swain or Aatrox. You can move slightly during R (less than a Teemo-length) but are effectively stationary. Cancel R early if they flash/dash out of range—chasing is better than channeling nothing.
Who Katarina Beats (And Who Beats Katarina)
Hard Counter. His magic shield passive negates your poke. His Q interrupts your R. He outscales you hard. Roam bot lane 10 times before he hits 6. Ban him.
Skill Matchup. His E (Playful/Trickster) dodges your daggers. E his E—whoever uses their mobility first loses. Bait the untargetability before committing.
Annoying Counter. Her passive fears you every time you dash. Play safe, wait for her to waste her fear on the minion wave, then engage. Early Merc Treads help.
Reset Greed
You are NOT invincible during R. You are a stationary, channeling sitting duck. Stop pressing R the instant you arrive. Set up daggers first. The correct pattern is: E-Q-W (daggers everywhere), THEN R while they are slowed by daggers. Also, stop blaming the jungler when you shove the wave into their tower with 0 vision and die—YOU walked into their jungle. Kat's laning is weak; accept it and roam instead.
You are NOT invincible during R. You are a sitting duck. Set up daggers first (E-Q-W) THEN R. Don't engage first; clean up the fight. Stop blaming your jungler when you shove and die.
When You Can't Get Resets
Dodge if the enemy team drafts Kassadin or Pantheon mid. Kassadin's magic damage reduction passive and his Q interrupt make trading impossible. Pantheon's point-and-click stun guarantees he wins every trade. These matchups require you to roam constantly without ever 1v1ing.
Dodge Kassadin or Pantheon. Kassadin takes no magic damage. Pantheon stuns you point-and-click. You cannot win these lanes. You must roam, but if they follow, you lose.
The Flank Assassination
Flank. Do NOT engage through the front. Wait for the enemy support to use their CC on your frontline. Wait for Leona Ult, Thresh Hook, Nautilus R to be gone. Look for the lowest HP target. Kill them to get the first reset, then assess—can I chain-kill another, or do I need to E outward to safety? Patience is the hardest mechanic on Katarina. Going in too early is why 80% of Katarina players feed.
Flank. Wait for CC (Leona R, Thresh Hook) to be used. Jump on the lowest HP target. Kill for reset. E out or E to the next target. Patience is your deadliest weapon.
The Reset Machine Build
Heartsteel Katarina (Tank Kat) is a meme and only works because of Shunpo's on-hit application. The REAL disrespect build is Mejai's Soulstealer rush—if you don't die, you win. A fully stacked Mejai's on Kat makes your resets one-shot entire teams. For on-hit Kat, Blade of the Ruined King into Kraken Slayer is hilarious because your R applies on-hits to every enemy around you.
Mejai's Soulstealer rush—if you don't die, you win. For on-hit: BORK into Kraken. Tank Kat (Heartsteel) is a meme but works because Shunpo applies on-hit. Build damage to carry.
When Katarina Hits Hardest
Level 3 all-in potential. Level 6 gives you R for massive AoE damage and roam power. Your item spikes depend on build—Hextech Rocketbelt/Stormsurge for burst, Nashor's Tooth for on-hit, or Lich Bane for tower-taking. The moment you finish your first full item, look to group for dragon fights. That's your time to shine.
Level 3 all-in. Level 6 roam. First item (Rocketbelt/Nashor's) spike. The moment you finish your first item, roam bot. That double kill starts the snowball.
Pentakill or Nothing
Spam mastery emote (Ctrl+6) while channeling R. It tilts them harder than your damage does. Roaming bot lane over and over until the enemy ADC types 'mid diff' in /all and ragequits is a valid strategy. Also, flashing mastery after you accidentally E to the wrong dagger and still get the kill is peak Katarina energy.
Spam mastery (Ctrl+6) while channeling R. It tilts them. Roaming bot until the enemy ADC ragequits is a valid strategy. Flash mastery after a misplay that still gets a kill.
Recent Patch History
Recent Balance Changes
| Patch | Date | Type | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| V14.17 | Aug 28, 2024 | NERF | Q nerfed |
| V14.16 | Aug 14, 2024 | NERF | Q buffed, E nerfed, R nerfed |
| V13.7 | Apr 5, 2023 | BUFF | P buffed, R adjusted |
| V12.12 | Jun 23, 2022 | ADJUST | P nerfed, E adjusted, R buffed |
| V12.11 | Jun 8, 2022 | NERF | R nerfed |
