In League of Legends Wild Rift, Katarina is a melee assassin champion known for swift and slippery gameplay that requires practice and skill. Commonly, she is played in the mid lane so she can roam around the map, get early kills, join team fights, and become online earlier. However, playing her is not exactly easy and could be tricky the first time you pick her up. In this guide, we will look at the best runes, spells, and builds, including tips and tricks, and combos to pave your way to victory with Katarina in League of Legends Wild Rift.
We also have previously discussed how to master playing with LoL Wild Rift heroes like Ammu, Master Yi, Jinx, Braum, Dr. Mundo, Akali, Yasuo, Singed, Jax, Darius, Ashe, Lulu, Miss Fortune, Blitzcrank, Teemo, Xayah, Rakan, Corki, Shyvana, and Janna. So make sure to check these hero guides as well. For now, let’s focus on Katarina.
Skill Analysis
Katarina is a champion that has one passive ability and four active abilities. In this Katarina guide, we will see what are her abilities in LoL Wild Rift, how they work, what should be maxed out first, how to use them effectively and efficiently, and some tricks you can do with them.
Passive – Voracity
Takedowns on enemy champions reduce ability cooldowns by 15 seconds. Katarina slashes at all nearby enemies whenever she picks up a Dagger, dealing 72 magic damage (72 + 100% bonus Attack Damage + 58% Ability Power).
- Your passive ability will play a big role in how you will deal with the damage. Also, picking up your Daggers (which can be thrown by either your Ability 1 or Ability 2) is vital and should be practiced consistently)
- To add, takedowns (kills and assists) will basically reset the cooldowns of all your basic abilities (Abilities 1, 2, and 3) since their cooldowns are shorter than 15.
Skill 1 – Bouncing Blade
Throws a Dagger, dealing 75 magic damage (75 + 30% Ability Power) to the target and 2 nearby enemies. The Dagger then ricochets to the ground behind the initial strike point. The Dagger’s time in the air is the same regardless of how many times it bounces.
- This ability is what you will be using in the early stages of the game to clear the minion waves, along with your passive.
- Moreover, you can use this ability in a minion first, so you can cast your Shunpo (Ability 3) as a gapcloser.
Skill 2 – Preparation
Tosses a Dagger in the air and hastes Katarina by 30%.
- A simple yet very helpful ability to Katarina’s combos and damage.
- Also, you can place Ability 2 then use Ability 1 to Ability 3 into the Dagger placed by Ability 1, attack then comes back to the Dagger placed by your Ability 2 for a short trade.
- Additionally, it is a very good escape tool since it gives movement speed.
Skill 3 – Shunpo
Blink to a location near a Dagger or unit, dealing 44 magic damage (15 + 50% Attack Damage + 25% Ability Power) to the nearest enemy. Picking up a Dagger greatly reduces the cooldown of Shunpo.
- This is what you will mostly use to reach your targets (including plants). Furthermore, in team fights, you can switch to many targets as you kill one with your Passive, you can use this ability again and again.
- As mentioned before, using this ability with your other basic abilities, you can engage on short trades and even commit to an all-in if you think you can kill your enemy.
- Shunpo can take you through walls, but it can get a little tricky. Also, this can reset your auto-attack timer which can be crucial in 1 v 1’s.
Skill 4 – Death Lotus
Rapidly throws blades at the 3 nearest enemy champions, dealing 350 magic damage (350 + 260% Attack Damage + 260% Ability Power) and applying Grievous Wounds. Katarina can move and throw the blade for up to 3 seconds.
- This ability will be Katarina’s main source of damage in teamfights. Also, take note that it gives Grievous Wounds already so do not use ignite until you are done using this ability.
- Furthermore, you can move while using this ability, so besides the fact that you can gap close running targets, you can also dodge abilities and projectiles on the process.
- Take note, upon successfully killing an enemy with your Ability 4, especially in teamfights, it is much more efficient to cancel your Ability 4 and use your other basic abilities for burst.
Skill up Methods for Katarina
Always take your Ability 1 first since you will be using it to chip down your opponent the early game. Take Ability 3 second, and you will have more options to either clear the wave or fight your opponent. In level 3, you can take Ability 3 which can give you even more options.
Additionally, in maxing your abilities, max Ability 1 first if you are against a ranged champion like Orianna, and max Ability 3 first if you are against a melee champion like Yasuo or Zed. Furthermore, always max Ability 2 last, and take your Ult if available.
Best Runes Setup and Spells for Katarina in Wild Rift
Here in this part of the guide, you will see the most efficient Runes setups and the best Summoner Spells for Katarina Wild Rift depending on your matchup and the enemy composition.
Runes Setup
Electrocute
This rune setup will be most efficient when you are against a mage or a ranged champion in the mid lane. In addition, this will be good if the enemy composition has at least 3 ranged champions which you can assassinate faster with the help of Electrocute.
Conqueror
Compared to Electrocute, this will be most efficient when you are against a melee champion in the mid lane since melee vs melee matchups usually end up in early long trades which Conqueror will be most effective on. Furthermore, this will be good against team compositions composed of 3 or more melee champions since you will be in the melee range more.
Hunter – Vampirism is standard and will give Katarina huge values in any game. However, take note that you can swap Regeneration with Backbone against melee matchups, and you can swap Hunter- Genius with either Sweet Tooth for sustain, or Pathfinder for stronger roams.
Summoner Spells
Flash
This is the most standard spell on the game, and you can take it on any champion. Although, since Katarina is a very mobile champion you can make a choice of not taking it.
Ignite
Since Katarina already has Grievous Wounds on her ult, you can make a choice of not taking it. But, take note that this spell gives the most kill pressure on all Summoner Spells out there besides Flash.
Heal
Besides Katarina’s strong spell vamp, Heal adds more option of quickly regenerating health which can come clutch sometimes in helping you survive more.
Exhaust
This spell will give more defensive options and stronger dueling power. In addition, this can be used offensively by slowing enemies.
Best Builds for Katarina in Wild Rift
No matter what match-up, Hextech Gunblade will be your standard item. This will give Katarina useful stats like Attack Damage, Ability Power, and Spell and Physical Vamp. Also, the activity it provides will be super valuable in adding damage and chasing potential to Katarina. Infinity Orb will be built first against squishier targets, while Liandry’s Torment will be built first against tankier targets. Moreover, it synergizes well with Conqueror.
Rabadon’s headcap will always be valuable to champions that scale with Ability Power, while Void Staff will give Katarina stronger damage against enemies that build defensively against her. Only viable Enchantments will either be Zhonya’s Hourglass, a defensive option, or Hextech Protobelt, for the offensive option. In some situations, you can build Death’s Dance as a defensive option, which also provides physical offensive stats at that.
League of Legends: Wild Rift Katarina Gameplay Tips
There will only be three tips in this guide to help you with your Katarina gameplay. First, practice and make sure that you can do your combos consistently. Second, know your matchup (which will be mentioned below). You should know if you can take on your enemy on a certain level, what runes and build you should run against your enemy. Our League of Legends: Wild Rift Katarina guide includes the perfect game plan to use her in-game.
Moreover, there are times where you are totally countered by your enemy champion, and you cannot fight them at all no matter phase of the game. Third, is Roaming, Katarina is a champion that relies on having a strong lead which she can then capitalize on to go stronger and stronger. To add, roaming will help Katarina get multiple early kills making her come online faster.
Matchups
As mentioned earlier, take the right runes and build depending on the enemy champion you’re against. However, there are champions that will straight-up own you, and you cannot fight no matter what. These champions are Corki, Tristana, Annie, Ahri, Zed, Fizz, Yasuo, and the upcoming champion, Pantheon. Moreover, the reason why is because these champions either outrange Katarina on the whole phase of the game or because they have their own access to CC which can shutdown Katarina, or a combination of both.
For the case of Yasuo, Zed, and Fizz, these champions do not have that much CC and range, but they have high outplayed potential against Katarina which can be a problem when against more experienced players. Against these champions, resort to Roaming to get and grow your lead.
Roaming
It is the term generally used for moving around the map. Since you are supposed to go into the mid lane, you will be in the middle of the map, having many options in where to go. The idea is to shove or kill the minions as fast as you can and go into which lane you think you can get kills and at least summoner spells from the enemy.
Moreover, doing this, again and again, will be valuable for your team and will remove the factor of the enemy champion you are against with killing you. Also, Katarina loves team fights and skirmishes. When they occur, come, and join as much as possible.
Combos for Katarina
As Katarina, you will be using your abilities a lot, and certain combos will be vital on how you will deal damage efficiently according to what you are aiming for, safe pokes, all-ins, swift clean-ups, etc. Remember, if your combos successfully kill a target, you have options with your Ability 3 to either run away or switch to another target and use your other abilities to kill. You can perform these combos with Katarina to gain an upper hand in the fight.
All-in Combos
This combo will be one of your all-in combos. For those who don’t know, all-in means you will use all your abilities to kill or assassinate a target.
Fake Back Combos
There are times where you can use your Ability 2 to fake that you are backing or retreating, then turn to the enemy and kill them. Moreover, this will make your combo unpredictable.
Final Thoughts
Katarina is a snowball reliant champion. If you are not familiar with the term, she is a champion that relies on getting a strong lead and using it to become even stronger. Also, not getting a lead will deny lots of Katarina’s value and can even be a burden to the team. When playing Katarina in Wild Rift, make sure to do the said tips in this guide in order to become stronger as fast as possible.
That’s all for today’s League of Legends: Wild Rift Katarina Guide. Do you prefer to use Katarina in any other way? Let us know in the comment section below!
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