KARTHUS - The Lich.

When I see a normal game & someone instant locks as Karthus on our team, I always think we'll loose. Usually, we do, because the person can't play his champion properly.

Karthus is in my opinion a top tier mage, not because of his ultimate which wrecks fear into the enemies, but because of his combination of a huge AoE slow & a heavy spamable nuke. If things tend to get worse he has his defile ready to dish out AoE damage. His passive is insane in a teamfight, but this should not be in use if you follow my guide.


Going middle is the best option as Karthus. Not because of a quick ultimate, but because your Lay Waste will deal huge damage to one target, making it a huge nuke even at level 1.

Runepage:
Marks - Magic Penetration
Seals - Mana regen5 per level
Glyphs - Mana regen5 per level or ability power per level
Quints - Flat AP or flat health.

Masteries:

Basic caster set, 9/0/21.

Summoner Spells:
Ghost + Flash. No exception, Karthus is extremely squishy & is always the first target due to his high damage output in teamfights.

Skill Leveling:
Start with your Lay Waste.
At level 2, pick Defile & last hit creep waves so you can keep harassing.
At level 3, picking Wall of Pain will allow you to escape a gank or combinate both previous abilities (Lay Waste + Wall of Pain).
After that, you want to max your Lay Waste as soon as possible.
Always pick your ultimate ofcourse.
I personally prefer to level Wall of Pain over defile, because it is a huge AoE slow which can stack with other slows as Rylai's crystal scepter or Nunu's iceblast.

Item choice:
There is one must item on Karthus. That is, Mejai's Soulstealer.
Your ultimate will grant you 2 stacks for each kill, & with basic knowledge aswell as your Wall of Pain & summoner spells, you will never die. If you do so, you need to improve.
After that, rush a Rod of Ages or Rylai's crystal scepter. Karthus is squishy, value HP over ability power. If you don't pick Rod of Ages first then don't buy it as it is too late. You should always place Sorceror shoes somewhere between all of those items.
Rabadon's deathcap is the next pick, you can however also buy Zhonya's Hourglass, if you need the extra survivability.
At this point it is better to buy survivability rather than ability power, worth to mention items are:
Abyssal Sceptre
Banshee's Veil
Quicksilver Sash


What to do ingame:
Kite the champions. Wall of Pain will make your team catch up with them but also give them a magic resist debuff.
You are extremely fast at killing Nashor if your tank can tank his attacks. Use this to your advantage.
I will add more later but playing Karthus is not hard, you just have to remember you're about as squishy as a teemo running into a fiddlesticks.

Like to hear the rest as I enjoy playing this champion very much

Sorry I prefer my Karthus guide.

RuiMilk wrote:Sorry I prefer my Karthus guide.

Lmao this is probably the best guide for karthus i've seen, but the credit still goes to Shaco for another very impressive guide!

+1 and +10 forum points!

Tried out Clarity on Karthus. Big waste, not needed at all, but I did get Archangel's Staff. I didn't know about Defile's passive (better than Swain's real passive, sadly).

I will try him out following your guide when it's completed.

RuiMilk wrote:Sorry I prefer my Karthus guide.

Haha; nice one xD

DUDE, OP.

I THINK I LOVE YOU.

YOU ARE THE FIRST EVER PERSON
I HAVE
SEEN
SPEAKING
SENSE
ABOUT

KARTHUS OMG.

FAP FAP FCKING FAP.


He menna be a lich, and lich is vengeful, and vengeful is IF you get killed (not when you rambo it into the enemy team 1v5 with your E on) you should use your passive to its fullest, wall of pain lay of waste lay of waste (with your e on defensively as you put it on when you saw that master yi comin' right?) and then requiem to finish.

Also quicksilver sash should be bought earlier than banshees. Morgana ult? Not any more.

btw; whens the next karthus free week? think ill go on holiday

Karthus is easymode.
Your passive is useless if you don't die. Which you shouldn't unless you got AoE stuns in your team (Amumu etc)

Shaco wrote:Karthus is easymode.
Your passive is useless if you don't die. Which you shouldn't unless you got AoE stuns in your team (Amumu etc)

Yes... but i did make the IF big :p

Well karthus , even tho i play him alot, he is a NOOB champ.
He is like a coward, and sometimes an unfair champ.

Anyway, nice guide +1

FarSeerPT wrote:Well karthus , even tho i play him alot, he is a NOOB champ.
He is like a coward, and sometimes an unfair champ.

Anyway, nice guide +1

He's only so against non-premades that can't properly coordinate to gank his bony ass of

Rahbek er Gud wrote:

FarSeerPT wrote:Well karthus , even tho i play him alot, he is a NOOB champ.
He is like a coward, and sometimes an unfair champ.

Anyway, nice guide +1

He's only so against non-premades that can't properly coordinate to gank his bony ass of

Well yeah, in premades i never see a karthus, whan i solo its a karthus heaven

FarSeerPT wrote:

Rahbek er Gud wrote:

FarSeerPT wrote:Well karthus , even tho i play him alot, he is a NOOB champ.
He is like a coward, and sometimes an unfair champ.

Anyway, nice guide +1

He's only so against non-premades that can't properly coordinate to gank his bony ass of

Well yeah, in premades i never see a karthus, whan i solo its a karthus heaven

Story of my Karthus career

Guys guys guys.
Karthus is just like Vladimir.
It's easy to be annoying with him but really hard to be a god.

Being awesome with Karthus isnt only pushing "R" (remember if the opposite team buy banshe's / zonyas hourglass your ultimate will be kinda useless), is also be good when laying the Q spell, the slowing wall, etc. That's a good Karthus.

A bad karthus is totally rapped at mid (and get 2 or 3 kills by using R)
A good karthus rape you at mid and gets also the free kills

RuiMilk wrote:Guys guys guys.
Karthus is just like Vladimir.
It's easy to be annoying with him but really hard to be a god.

Being awesome with Karthus isnt only pushing "R" (remember if the opposite team buy banshe's / zonyas hourglass your ultimate will be kinda useless), is also be good when laying the Q spell, the slowing wall, etc. That's a good Karthus.

A bad karthus is totally rapped at mid (and get 2 or 3 kills by using R)
A good karthus rape you at mid and gets also the free kills

I used to play the 'R' Style... then found out it was a lot more fun getting thrice as many kills with the same build, relying on my Q/E as main dmg instead