Katarina is a mechanically complex assassin that excels at punishing enemy mistakes and snowballing teamfights through her reset mechanics. Her success rate dramatically increases with player experience, making her one of the highest skill-ceiling champions in League of Legends.

Core Abilities:

Passive (Voracity): Reduces cooldowns by 15 seconds when scoring takedowns. Picking up daggers deals area magic damage that scales with AD, AP, and champion level.

Q (Dancing Blade): Throws a bouncing dagger that hits up to three targets and lands behind the initial target.

W (Preparation): Throws a dagger upward that lands after a brief delay, granting movement speed.

E (Shunpo): Teleports to a target location, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Cooldown reduces when picking up daggers.

R (Death Lotus): Channels a blade storm that deals massive hybrid damage to nearby enemies and applies grievous wounds.

Optimal Skill Order: R > Q > E > W

Key Combos:

• Standard: E > Q > W > AA > Pick up W dagger > E to Q dagger > AA
• Ultimate Combo: E > Q > W > R > Pick up W dagger > E to Q dagger > AA

Build Path:

Starting Items:

• Dark Seal + Refillable Potion
• Dorans Shield (vs poke)

Core Items:

• Hextech Rocketbelt
• Rabadon's Deathcap
• Void Staff

Situational Items:

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

Playstyle Tips:

1. Focus on roaming to side lanes after pushing waves
2. Wait for key cooldowns before engaging
3. Position to collect daggers during fights
4. Use E creatively to dodge skillshots
5. Prioritize squishy targets in teamfights

Katarina excels at punishing positioning mistakes and thrives in chaotic teamfights where she can chain resets. While she requires significant practice to master, her ability to completely take over games makes her one of the most rewarding champions to main.

Note: Against tankier teams, consider building on-hit items like Blade of the Ruined King instead of full AP.

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