Katarina is a powerful AP assassin that excels at punishing mistakes and snowballing teamfights through her reset mechanics. Her success heavily depends on mechanical skill rather than macro understanding.

Key Strengths:

• Ability resets on takedowns
• High burst damage potential
• Strong roaming capabilities
• Scales exceptionally well with experience

Core Abilities:

1. Passive - Insatiability

   • 15s cooldown reduction on takedowns
   • Deals AoE magic damage from collecting daggers
   • Scales with AD, AP, and on-hit effects

2. Skill Priority: Q > E > W > R

   • Q (Dancing Blade): Primary poke and setup tool
   • E (Lightning Step): Mobility and target access
   • W (Preparation): Additional dagger setup
   • R (Death Lotus): High-damage channeled ultimate

Basic Combo: Without Ult: E > Q > W > AA > Collect W dagger > E to Q dagger > AA > AA > E > AA With Ult: E > Q > W > Ult > Collect W dagger > E to Q dagger > AA > AA > E > AA

AP Build Path: Starting Items:

• Dark Seal + Refillable Potion
• Doran's Shield (vs poke)

Core Items:

• Hextech Rocketbelt
• Sorcerer's Shoes
• Rabadon's Deathcap
• Void Staff

Situational:

• Zhonya's Hourglass (vs AD threats)
• Banshee's Veil (vs AP threats)
• Shadowflame (vs shields)

Tips:

• Wait for key cooldowns before engaging
• Vary E placement to avoid predictability
• Focus on roaming over CS when possible
• Look for cleanup opportunities in teamfights
• Practice dagger positioning and collection timing

Remember that success with Katarina comes with practice - expect lower performance initially but significant improvement with dedicated gameplay.

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