Katarina

Detailed Tips

1. 01

   Level 1 Q or E Start - As mentioned through other notes, playing off Q and E both require different plays, however in this match up you can essentially do either of them and have pretty good success. With that said, play around the strengths of level 1 and look for a level 2 kill.

2. 02

   Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once you chunk out Katarina you're most likely able to kill her with your W, Dash or Flash up. Look to shove the wave around your kill timer, so you're able to make Katarina lose a lot more.

3. 03

   Track Katarina daggers - Katarina’s whole gameplay revolves around playing off her daggers, which she can create using her Q or W. When using these a dagger will drop onto the ground, allowing Katarina the ability to dash or deal damage when walking onto them. Make sure to always be aware of where she is using them, as this can help provide you the foresight of where she will go towards. If you’re low in the lane, Katarina will look to E onto her Q dagger to deal damage or look for a kill. If Katarina is low or you engage, she will use her W dagger to reposition herself away with her movement speed, or use her E to blink back towards the dagger. If you can read the situation and see how she plays off them, you will be able to easily cut her off or prevent her engage combos.

4. 04

   Understand Katarina E - Now that we covered her dagger playstyle and how she uses her E, it’s also important to understand she can also E onto minions and enemies. Katarina E when picking up a dagger also refunds 78%>96% CD based on level, meaning that she can potentially always have her blink the later the game gets. Katarina’s E, while seemingly strong, is actually entirely dependent on the wave states. When each wave arrives within the lane, Katarina can instantly blink towards her own minions, meaning if she gets ganked she can easily avoid it with a simple click of a button. However, this only applies if the wave is crossing past the turret, meaning if the wave is met in the middle of the lane, Katarina simply cannot easily reach her tower, making her a sitting duck in the process when it comes to Renekton. Renekton can easily force trades onto Katarina within this wave state, so make sure to wait for the wave when it’s in the middle or on your side to prevent Katarina from escaping.

5. 05

   Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.

6. 06

   Heavy Trades - Being that Renekton carries a lot of high damage, Renekton is able to just jump on his target nearly at will. Whenever your laners present you with the ability to jump on them, simply take the opportunity to burst them as much as you can. If you didn't kill them already from that, use your options of freezing or your tower diving ability to help you finish off your opponent.

7. 07

   Abuse Renekton's Early Game - In this match up Renekton is essentially able to do whatever he simply wants. With that said, really hone into your strong early to mid game strengths to help you dominate and win the game. Play to deny your enemy of gold and xp, play to proxy and generally lead any top side skirmishes with your insane lane advantage.

8. 08

   Ping Katarina Roams - Katarina’s strongest part of her kit is based within her low CD and resets, making her a very dangerous skirmish based champion. Katarina will function towards looking for low HP targets to help her snowball her potential dark seal stacks, while trying to reset her CDs for additional damage within the fights. As Renekton, we want to always prevent Katarina with the ability to roam by making sure we spam ping constantly when she’s not in the lane, as well as perma shoving as soon as she’s gone. Playing to maker her miss XP and gold, on top of obtaining plates is very important in these situations, as even in the worst case we get something if Katarina manages to.

9. 09

   Cancel Katarina R With W - Katarina’s R is a very dangerous ability with how much damage it is able to do, on top of it applying on hit effects, as well as its own ability to set up her crazy reset ADHD playstyle. While it’s a very crazy ability, Renekton W is by far one of her biggest counters with how easily he can stun her and cancel it out completely. With that said, try to always hold your W within low HP situations or teamfights, as you will be able to instantly cancel it out, allowing you to set up easy kills individually or with your own team.

10. 10

    3 Points Q > W Max - This playstyle allows you to constantly have W’s to help you stay onto Katarina while abusing your high damage ratios, allowing you to easily snowball and permanently shutdown Katarina within all stages of the game. Make sure to put 3 points into your early wave clear and poke, then look to max W throughout the rest of your points. Once completed, max your E for additional mobility to help enable your up close stun abusing playstyle.

11. 11

    Build Eclipse, Stridebreaker or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Stridebreaker to cripple Katarina’s mobility and provide teammates with additional utility. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.

12. 12

    Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Katarina’s strengths through the mid to late game, are trying to create chaotic and advantageous skirmishes or teamfights, essentially baiting out the enemy abilities with her high mobility, while searching for the right time to jump in and abuse her kit. Katarina’s probability of insta winning teamfights completely depends on how much you and your team prioritises her. A few big mistakes to avoid vs Katarina, are ignoring Katarina within the fights, allowing her to get off her R and resets to win fights. Another mistake is ignoring her roams and rotations, allowing her to pick off free kills and snowball for free. To play against Katarina you need to always pay attention and spam ping her whereabouts on the map, to prevent her getting free kills to snowball. Within teamfights, try to always look for Katarina with the intention of holding your stun. Once Katarina shows up, try to instantly prioritise W’ing her when she jumps into your team, as doing this allows you to instantly lock her down allowing you and your team to easily shut her down.