Skill usage Edit

• Sometimes it can benefit Karthus to die a strategic death, by rushing into a group of enemies and casting  Defile the enemy will focus you long enough for your team to initiate without affecting your chance of winning a team fight, as Karthus can cast his spells even after dying.
  • You can also activate Zhonya's Hourglass right before dying to let  Defile tick even longer.
• His passive allows him to cast spells while dead. Abuse this every time you die and punish any who remain near your corpse, casting  Wall of Pain if not already used and endlessly casting  Lay Waste. This may actually get you a kill.
• When focusing on harassment, try placing  Lay Waste where it will hit the champion, but not the minions. This way, it will deal double damage.
  • Karthus is a great harasser. Use your  Lay Waste to zone your enemies.
•  Lay Waste can be used to scout brushes since it reveals a small area around where it is cast. Since the skill has a low base cost, this can be used to scout brushes frequently.
•  Lay Waste is very strong at farming minions and harassing enemy champions.
• Taking 1 level of  Wall of Pain gives you a slow allowing you more time to cast  Defile on fleeing enemies, as well as deterring attempts of harassment, even at their towers. In later game it is useful in team fights, thanks to its magic resistance debuffs. With this spell, Karthus can actually be a very good ganker, as it slows and allows his teammates to deal more damage.
• Karthus's  Defile at higher levels can mow down creeps by standing next to them or walking past them for just 2 seconds. If given free rein or adequate protection from enemy champions, this can turn the tide of a battle very quickly or cement a teams victory.
• Ask your allies to help point out when you should use  Requiem to get kills in different lanes, or alternatively, alert your teammates when you are about to use it. However, be sure to keep your eye out for action elsewhere on the map; you may be able to help someone when they otherwise wouldn't have time to type for help.
• Before using  Requiem to kill a retreating enemy, consider the shield/heal/defensive abilities and items of the enemy team; at endgame, it is usually more important to have an ultimate up than to force enemies to heal.
• During laning, it may be more beneficial to attack the caster minions in the back and to kill them than to harass an opponent. If you find yourself being outlaned by the enemy, pushing them back and stacking up on your own minions can help control them and keep them away from your tower.
  • If your team can effectively distract the enemy, Karthus can actually be a very effective pusher, as the sheer speed at which he can consistently clear minion waves allows him to push his team's minions to a tower and destroy it in a short amount of time.
• Karthus highly benefits from the Crest of the Ancient Golem buff, giving him increased mana regeneration and reduced cooldowns for all his spells, allowing a focused AP build.
•  Requiem can be used mid-game before a major offensive is launched to weaken all enemies, making them easier to kill.
• Flash and Ghost are useful summoner spells, as Karthus often needs mobility in order to be an asset to the team.
• It is possible to jungle using Karthus with the proper runes and/or masteries. To get the blue golem rune, use  Lay Waste only on the blue golem (missing the smaller monsters). This way, you will deal double damage to only the golem.
• Be careful of when to use  Requiem due to your ability power and the enemies magic resistance.
• Using Karthus's  Defile will deal damage every second to your opponent after activation. With no cooldown reduction, it has a 0.5 second cooldown on both ends (activating and deactivating), making it deal the same damage as just leaving it toggled on. With any cooldown reduction, however, you can increase your damage by rapidly toggling on and off. At 40% cooldown reduction, you can effectively deal damage once every 0.6 seconds, instead of once every 1 second, for 1.67 times as much damage.
• Both  Wall of Pain's slow and stat reduction go through Banshee's Veil.
•  Wall of Pain can be a viable tool to saving an ally champion's life due to its movement speed reduction. Use it to give your allies a chance to get away if they are running from a pursuing champion.
• On Dominion, Karthus can work as a potent defender in bottom lane (between the Boneyard and Quarry), thanks to his potent zoning, ability to easily defend his point until reinforcements can arrive via his passive, damage aura via Karthus's  Defile, and  Lay Waste poke, and abilty to have a global presence via  Requiem. However, he is very vulnerable to ganks if overextended.
• If you're taking Karthus as a top laner on Dominion (between the Drill and Refinery),  Wall of Pain can prove quite useful as an initiation tool for turret teamfights (especially at the Windmill), as it increases the damage all your allies deal while slowing the enemy. (If placed right, it can even reveal their brush!) By taking levels at 3, 4, 10, and the remaining two between levels 11-18, you can become frightfully efficient at helping your allies cap points. As such, taking Garrison to further improve your initiation can prove valuable.
• Karthus is very good at interrupting captures via Karthus's  Defile and  Lay Waste.
• Notice that Karthus is very good at medium range, however he is easily countered by champions who can attack him from a very long range like, for example, Lux.

Build usage Edit

• Due to  Requiem, the enemy team will likely build some magic resistance. Building magic penetration items such as Void Staff will help pass through their defenses.
• Will of the Ancients can enable you to regain health quickly with  Defile or  Requiem, especially with enemy minions around.  Lay Waste also gains full spell vamp when only used to attack a single enemy.
• When played as more tanky build, consider Rylai's Crystal Scepter as a top-priority item. Its passive provides slow for all your spells, but especially for  Lay Waste, which you can use to kite enemy with terrifying effeciency.
  • On either lane for Dominion,  Requiem has a great deal of utility. Not only can it be used to secure kills, but it can also slow via Rylai's Crystal Scepter, reveal all enemies via Hextech Sweeper, butter up enemies for your teammates from afar, or simply work as a global capture interrupter.
• Try building tanky on Karthus as you will try to stay in the teamfight with your  Defile on and spam  Lay Waste.
• Building an Archangel's Staff is a strong choice for Karthus as  Lay Waste can quickly build up the Archangel's staff's passive.
• Void Staff has nice synergy with  Wall of Pain. You can lower the target's magic resistance by 15% and ignoring 35% of it, ending up in 45% when combined.
  • Since the  Wall of Pain now provides percentual magic resistance reduction, it can no longer decrease it below zero. Flat reduction from Abyssal Scepter has less synergy, but it can still be useful against champs with lower magic resistance.
• As mentioned previously, Karthus can be played as suicide initiator. Build him fully offensive with items such as Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff to maximize your damage output.
  • Mejai's Soulstealer can be viable even in this build. You can kill and assist easily with  Death Defied, being able to maintain more stacks even with your death.

Recommended builds Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting		3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting			3	3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting			2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Countering Edit

• Playing against Karthus can be extremely frustrating, as avoiding death with a small amount of health left is nearly impossible due his  Requiem. If you find yourself having trouble with an enemy Karthus, buying a Banshee's Veil can offer at least some protection to his ultimate. If you are a caster and wish different/more protection, grabbing a Zhonya's Hourglass earlier than you normally would can save you on many occasions. If you are an AD-based champion and wish for some additional protection, a Hexdrinker or Maw of Malmortius can block 250 or 400 magic damage respectively from his ultimate if he takes you below 30% health. Beware however, those items aren't as reliable as Zhonya's Hourglass.
• Elixir of Fortitude is a good counter to Karthus's ultimate during the early and mid game. It costs only a fraction of the other items which would normally be used to counter  Requiem.
• Always remember, especially during team fights, that Karthus can continue to cast spells while he's dead without the cost of mana. When engaging his team, kill Karthus first, then retreat out of his attack area before continuing the fight.
  • When in the midst of a team fight, it may be difficult to notice the attack animation of his  Lay Waste. Be wary of this if you are playing a squishy character and/or have little magic resistance, as Karthus' damage output is steady and deadly.
  • Also, do not underestimate the tick on his  Defile. It is DoT, so it may not be noticeable at first, but its damage can be as much as 160 per second, not counting resistances, on top of his damage from  Lay Waste.
• Do not underestimate Karthus' 1v1 potential. He may be squishy, but his killing power vastly increases when fighting stationary, single targets. If you engage him as ranged, try to stay out of his  Defile and keep moving to avoid his  Lay Waste. If you need to remain stationary, stay near other targets that will be damaged by his  Lay Waste (e.g.: Allied minions or neutral monsters) to reduce his damage output. If you engage him as melee, you should either only do so if you have the level advantage or survivability to engage him in his AoE spells and live.
• Karthus's  Wall of Pain reduces magic resistance, instead of penetrating it. This means that damage done to you by all enemies will be increased. Keep this in mind while standing in or walking through his  Wall of Pain during a team fight.
• Some Karthus players will intentionally walk into a teamfight and die, This is rather a great strategy if Karthus is in a situation where he will die because he can cast his spells for 7 seconds after his death. Make sure that after you kill him, stay away from his  Defile.
• Laning against Karthus can be challenging if you are not aware of his  Lay Waste. Without at least one movement speed increasing item (e.g. Boots of Speed) walking away from your minions can be costly even while watching for  Lay Waste's if the Karthus is predicting your movements accurately. To avoid the doubled damage, stand near one or two minions. That way, if Karthus attempts to harass you with  Lay Waste, he is either doing minimal damage to you and the minion or placing it so that you have more time to respond, as the AoE is only half as close to you. Standing in the middle of your minions is a less favorable way to reduce damage as the unit collision can more or less hold you in place while Karthus  Lay Wastes continually.