Karthus Guide by Reginald

Karthus- The Deathsinger




Summoner Spells:
Teleport
Flash

Rune book:
Nine Greater Marks of Resilience
Nine Greater Seals of Evasion
Nine Greater Glyphs of Insight
Three Quintessence of Fortitude

Masteries:

Offensive Tree:
3 points into Archmage's Savvy
1 point into Deadliness
4 points into sorcery
1 point into Archaic Knowledge

Defensive Tree: None

Utility Tree:
1 point into Spatial Accuracy
3 points into Perserverance
4 points into Expanded mind
2 points into Utility mastery
3 points into Meditation
3 points into Movement
1 point into Blink of an Eye
3 points into Intelligence
1 point into Presence of the Master

The Beginning:
1x Sapphire Crystal
2x Health Potion

Skill Build
Level 1: Lay Waste
Level 2: Defile
Level 3: Lay Waste
Level 4: Wall of Pain
Level 5: Lay Waste
Level 6: Requiem
Level 7: Lay Waste
Level 8: Defile
Level 9: Lay Waste
Level 10: Defile
Level 11: Requiem
Level 12: Defile
Level 13: Defile
Level 14: Wall of Pain
Level 15: Wall of Pain
Level 16: Requiem
Level 17: Wall of Pain
Level 18: Wall of Pain

How to use Lay Waste: Usually when lay wasting an opponent you must decide whether they are going to be offensive ( attack you) or defensive ( run away). After deciding whether they are running or not, you lay waste them depending on their course of action. The next thing a good karthus must know is the map and its surroundings. Try to imagine the pathing and the quickest way of escaping as if you were the one being focused by a Karthus. Never laywaste on top of an opponent, unless they are stunned. Always time 1 second ahead of their pathing and cast Lay waste at that point. Also when last hitting creeps, try to aim the Lay Waste at the side of a creep where your Lay Waste would only hit 1 creep. Doing so will make your damage do twice as much, making it very easy to last hit. Not only will it be easy to last hit, the lane will not be pushed as much. Keeping the lane on your side will make it harder for enemy champions to gank you and easier for your team to gank them.


Wall of Pain: Wall of Pain is a very good spell in all circumstances, offensively and defensively. This spell helps your magical damage take much more due to the reduction of magic resist. When using Wall of pain, try to use it in positions where your opponent does not see the wall. Doing so will increase your chances of killing an opponent. When an unexpected attack happens to an enemy champion, they would have a slower reaction than when they know it is coming. This spell is usually used for karthus to stand around a range of 200-300 (about half of max range) from their enemies. At that range it is perfect because ; Melees must take time to turn around and focus karthus, Karthus's Defile is also hitting his enemies aswell as lay wastes.


Defile: This spell is a very good AoE, but very mana inefficient. Usually this spell is used later in the game, or when Karthus gets the Ancient Golem buff. In many cases Karthus players usually forget to turn off defile, always keep an eye on your defile and toggle it off as soon as the enemy champion is out of range. In my experiences, i have seen many karthus's forget to turn defile off, therefore making them unable to kill their opponents due to lack of mana. Getting golem for Karthus's defile is a must. Always have a lookout for when Ancient golem is up. Keep track of the respawning time of the Ancient and kill it when it respawns. The respawn time is 5 minutes. With the Ancient Golem Buff, Karthus is very strong. The buff increases his farming ability, ganking ability and reduces his Requiem drastically.


Requiem: This spell is very straight forward, it deals a certain amount of damage per its level to all enemy champions on the map. However I see Karthus's miss kills daily, due to them not factoring in magic resist. Always expect Karthus's ultimate to take around 4/5's of the spells full damage or even less. Using this spell to its fullest potential, the Karthus must know how much magic resist the enemy champions have and estimate how much the requiem is going to deal. Magic resist has the same effect as armor, so if calculated briefly, it will be very easy to know when to cast Requiem for it to kill an opponent.


Builds on Karthus:

Tank Build-
Items to get in this order:
Tears of Godess
Ninja Tabi
Catalyst the protector
Rylai's Scepter
Turn Catalyst into Rod of Ages
Tears into Arcangel's Staff
Guardians Angel
Zhonya's Ring

End game items: Ninja Tabi, Arcangel's Staff, Rods of Ages, Guardian's Angel, Zhonya's Ring, Rylais Scepter.


Recommended Build
Ganking/ All out Damage build:
Items in this order:
Tears of Godess
Boots of Swiftness
Mejai's Soulstealer
Catalyst the protector
Turn Catalyst into Rod of Ages
Tears into Arcangels Staff
Guardians Angel
Zhonya's Ring
End Game items: Boots of Swiftness, Arcangel's Staff, Mejai's Soulstealer, Rod of Ages, Guardian's Angel, Zhonya's Ring

Tips:
Always look out for Ancient Golem Buff.
During team fights, be the second person to initiate after the tank.
Dont be scared to die.
When you are killed, Turn on your defile.
Don't cancel your ultimate on accident.
After getting Guardian's Angel, play really aggresive when its up. Sometimes even initiate. Use your flash to initiate and use wall of pain to slow them.