League of Legends: Karthus Guide

This is my guide for Karthus the deathsinger. Karthus is a pretty underrated hero to put it lightly. A lot of people out there think Karthus sucks, but Karthus actually owns pretty hard if you know how to use him. I like Karthus personally because of the spammability of lay waste and the global damage of his ultimate. Plus he's a lich and that's pretty bad ass. Karthus also reminds me a bit of the lich from WC3. Also he's holding a wand in one hand and a spellbook in the other. Call me crazy, but I think that's pretty sweet. Ocassionally,people leave the game when they see me choose Karthus. Every time it happens I laugh my ass off. To be fair, Karthus does require a decent amount of skill to play. I’ve seen many people bomb with him,, so he is without question a bad hero for newbies. However, do not be fooled. Karthus can be deadly in the right hands. In this guide I will explain how you can own with him, so listen closely.

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As you can see, Karthus' stats are pretty typical for a mage. I'm not going to go into too much detail with the stats suffice to say that as a mage his hp/hp regen increases slower while his mp/mp regen increases faster.

As for abilities, his main damage/aoe skill is lay waste (q). An interesting note about lay waste is that it deals double damage if it hits only one target. His main disable/chasing skill is wall of pain (w). His utility/dps skill is defile (e). His ultimate is ,requiem (r), a global damage spell that hits every enemy regardless of distance. Karthus' passive "death defiled" allows him to cast spells for several seconds after death. It's quite useful.

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Q,E*,W*,Q,Q,R,Q,E,Q,E,R,E,W,E,W,R,W,W . This is the general skill order that I follow. Lay waste and defile are maxed first for farming/harassing/mana purposes. I starred lv 2 and 3 because they are interchangeable. If I'm laning with another disabler/stunner I might take wall before defile if we want to go for an early first blood. If there's no chance of first blood, I'll take defile first for the mana/kill. Obviously requiem is taken whenever possible. I've provided some pictures of the abililtes and their descriptions:

I always take Meki Pendant + 2 healing potions first because they allow me to farm longer without having to port back too early.

Once I have a decent amount of gold, I'll port back and get a Sapphire Crystal,Ruby Crystal, and Boots (if there's enough gold).

After that, I upgrade to Catalyst, Chalice, and Sorc Shoes. If I have a spare 300 gold and nothing to spend it on, I'll usually get an Elixir of Brilliance. I pick these up again and again throughout the game whenever I feel like it. The next major item you want to go for is ROA. The earlier you get this the better. If you're racking up kills and assists early and the other team doesn't seem like much of a threat, then you might also consider Meja's Soulstealer -for a quick coup de grau.

The final items I go for are Frozen Heart and Zhonaya's Ring. At this time, you can also swap out your Chalice for an ArchAngel's Staff.

I have outlined 5/6 of the final items I go for. The 6th item I get will depend on how the game is going. Often it will be filled with Meja's Soulstealer. However, there are other options. If you feel you need more HP,MP, Armor, or Utility, then you can itemize for that need accordingly. =D

For Summoner Spells I always take Flash and Teleport. I can see how Clarity would be useful, but I don't really think the extra mana outweighs the benefits of my first 2 choices.

For my Rune Book, I set it up like this:       

Red:Magic Penetration | Yellow: hp/level | Blue: Cd reduction |Quints: Flat HP

For all casters I go 9/0/21.

Offense is taken far enough to get the 3% CD reduction and 15% Magic Pen.

Defense is ignored completely.

Utility is taken far enough to get the 4% CD reduction. The other points in Utility are up to you. Personally, I go for the 5% Exp Bonus, the Mana Regen, the time bonus to neutral buffs, and the 15% CD decrease for summoner skills.

Karthus is very good. I feel like I'm repeating myself, but he is! It's not uncommon for me to go 2:1 or even 3:1 in my ratio of kills: deaths. My assists are also pretty high as well, due to his ultimate. Requiem gets me a lot of kills and when I don't get the kill my teammates usually finish them off so I'll end up with an assist. Another thing I like about Karthus is that he can deal damage from pretty far away. His survivability is pretty low, but his spells have long cast ranges, so I can usually avoid ganks by keeping distance from enemies. If they attempt to gank me, I can usually get away by laying down a wall of pain (w) and flashing away. As I’m fleeing, I’ll also activate despair to discourage them from following me. Most of the time, this strategy allows me to escape relatively unscathed.

Here I'll outline some basic tactics I use. I'm not going to explain strategy in exhaustive detail because I know most people read these guides just for the ability order and itemization. :D But, I feel like I'd be doing the guide a disservice if I didn't address some basic strats.

Early on,I use the normal attack and lay waste to last hit minion mobs. At the same time, I use lay waste to harass enemy heroes and hinder their farming. If you can aim lay waste to single target an enemy champion you'll hit for double damage. This is an effective harassment technique if you can pull it off. Many times, I'm able to severely damage (if not kill) the enemy as they try to farm. Half the time they port back to fountain. The other half, I call for a gank and my team kills them.

Later, once I have a Chalice, I'll use Defile and Lay Waste to decimate minion mobs in mere seconds. The farming combination of these 2 skills is just delightful.

Contrary to popular belief, Karthus makes an excellent solo. Personally, I solo mid every chance I get. If you don't want to solo, Karthus lanes well with pretty much every other hero. Tanks, support, disablers, mages, etc. Some of my favorite laning partners include: Taric, Singed, Alistar, Malphite, and Svir. During laning, Karthus mainly plays the role of farmer/pusher due to the excellent killing power of lay waste/defile. However, Karthus can also function as a chaser/disabler by using wall of pain. The lane mate you have won't change your game plan too much, but you'll want to calibrate slightly to suit your partner. Generally if I'm partnered with a tank, he'll be up front trying to last hit creeps while I nuke/harass any enemy champions that try to attack him. If I'm playing with another mage/disabler, I'll try to coordinate my wall with their nukes/disables to maximize chasing/killing potential. When I'm with support characters, like soraka, I can play out in front while she stays back and heals me. If you're not sure what to do, ask your team. I always ask if I can have solo mid. If someone else wants it, I give it to them without argument. Some characters absolutely need the solo to do well early. Karthus is not one of these cases. However, soloing is always an advantage, which I have no qualms about taking ;P

Once I have wall of pain, I begin actively organizing ganks against the softest/slowest enemies. I call for my teammates to surround the areas adjacent and then I go in and put a wall behind the enemy. As I do this, my team swoops in and forces the enemy back through my wall. Once they're slowed we take them out. Easy pickings if they don't have any backup. Throughout the game we rinse and repeat this tactic until they surrender or we destroy their nexus. With this build, I can also gank lone champions by sneaking up, setting down wall, and rushing in with defile on. As they try to run away slowed, I spam lay waste. It deals massive damage to single targets and even more because of the gear I chose. If they're still alive and escaping, I'll flash to them and continue the onslaught with defile and perhaps another wall if it's up. If they manage to find over behind a turret or with their teammates, I'll lay down requiem to ensure their destruction.There is a bit more to it then what I've just described, but I wanted to keep this short and just briefly discuss the basics. Thanks for reading. Hopefully this guide will allow you to pwn with Karthus like I do. If you enjoyed the guide, please give me some feedback below! As always, I welcome your comments.