Karthus. Talk about one annoying champion to deal with in ARAM if you aren’t building stacks of magic resist.
Karthus is a high damage mage that has crowd control, damage over time and regular/consistent damage on his kit.
Karthus can deal regular damage using Lay Waste (Q), which as handy as it is, can be quite costly and does have a delay to use.
Lay Waste (Q) will require players to get a fair amount of Cooldown Reduction as, without Cooldown Reduction, players will see a heavy decrease in damage and spammability of this ability. Depending on a player’s playstyle, Lay Waste (Q) can either be the first ability player power-up, the second or even last, ultimately showing how versatile Karthus really is.
Karthus can put up a Wall of Pain (W) which will cause enemy champions to become slower and lose magic resistance. Although Karthus’ Wall of Pain (W) doesn’t look like much, I promise when you get used to it or have seen how terrifying it really is when completely maxed out, you will want to place it all the time in ARAM.
I think the most impressive thing about Wall of Pain (W) is the fact that it can spread across the whole lane when it is maxed out, effectively making it extremely difficult to avoid.
Karthus can Defile (E) enemy champions, which is a toggle ability that puts a circle around Karthus, similar to Amumu’s W, Anivia’s R, or Mordekaiser’s W.
Defile (E) tends to be costly, though players can notably commit suicide by running into enemy champions using Snowball to use Karthus’ passive Death Defied (Passive), which allows Karthus to deal damage for 7 extra seconds upon death without the cost of mana, meaning that you don’t have to be as worried about timing it.
Kathus’ most notable ability is his ultimate, Requiem (R) which is a global ability that will cause damage to all enemy champions who are currently on the field.
Depending on how stacked Karthus players are, Requiem (R) has the ability to single shot enemy champions, effectively securing takedowns, or as we will cover later, ensuring Dark Harvest stacks.
QUICK RUNDOWN:
SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash, Clarity, or Snowball
RUNES: Dark Harvest, Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Ultimate Hunter // Manaflow Band & Transcendence
ABILITY POWER UP: Q, E, W
FIRST BUY: Catalyst of Aeons
BUILD ORDER: Rod of Ages, Sorcerer’s Boots (or Ionian Boots), Archangel’s Staff, Liandry’s Torment, Morellonomecon & Rabadon’s Deathcap
COMBOS: Karthus doesn’t really have any combos, though players should be aware that if they die in the middle of using their ultimate Requiem (R) the ability will be cancelled.
Players are recommended to wait until they have died to use Requiem (R) when they have low health or there are enemies nearby who have the ability to stop them.
SUMMONER SPELLS FOR KARTHUS IN ARAM
FLASH
Flash is pretty much a must for every champion in ARAM, however, Flash comes in especially helpful for Karthus players.
Players can most notably use Flash as a substitute for Snowball in ARAM, especially if enemy champions have Flashed away themselves to remain protected from you.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use Flash aggressively as Karthus, especially because of his passive allowing you to be able to attack enemies from beyond the grave.
Seriously don’t take Karthus’ passive lightly. I see too many players waste it, ultimately sacrificing second seconds of unstopped damage, as long as enemies are close enough in range.
CLARITY
I’m personally not a suicide Karthus unless I have to be, so I choose to take Clarity so I can stay out on the field, dealing consistent damage with Defile (E) and using the Gear I buy to focus on health and burns.
Karthus is a champion who can easily run out of mana, especially if you don’t use runes that focus on giving back mana to Karthus or aren’t having much luck causing the runes to go off.
Do I admit that taking Clarity greatly reduces the amount of damage and engage that Karthus has? Yes, I absolutely do, though making the decision between Clarity and Snowball really has to do with how long you are going to expect to be on the field.
The longer players expect to be on the field, the higher chance they’re not going to be able to do anything and will have to commit suicide anyway unless they have Clarity. Think about it mama, you never know,
RUNE TREES FOR KARTHUS IN ARAM
Karthus plays like many other mages such as Veigar, Morgana, Twisted Fate, Heimerdinger, Brand, Anivia, Teemo, Zyra, Soraka, Ziggs AP Miss Fortune,, and Malzahar where he can either use domination runes or sorcery runes.
DAMAGE HEAVY/BURST RUNES FOR KARTHUS (DOMINATION/SORCERY)
DARK HARVEST
Damaging champions below 50% deals 20-60 (+ 15% AP) damage based on your level. Each soul that you harvest adds +2 AP.
Players will only be able to collect souls every 45 seconds or can reset Dark Harvest’s cooldown to 1.5 seconds by being part of an enemy takedown.
Dark Harvest stacks shouldn’t be too difficult to collect as Karthus, though if players are having extra difficulty with collecting Dark Harvest stacks they should consider buying Luden’s Echo versus buying Archangel’s Staff.
I recommend that players use Requiem (R) to collect Dark Harvest Stacks any time that enemy champions are low on health, especially if there are multiple enemy champions who are about to die.
There’s nothing worse than being midway through a game with low stacks of Dark Harvest, especially with Karthus who can easily collect 30 stacks within the first 20 minutes of a game, well as long as you’re stomping.
CHEAP SHOT
Cheap Shot will deal 10-45 (based on level) bonus true damage to champions who have impaired movement or actions. Cheap Shot has an extremely short cooldown, being 4 seconds.
Since Karthus’ Wall of Pain (W) slows down enemy champions who walk through it, players should be able to get Cheap Shot off regularly.
No one should say no to true damage, especially when it can be caused every 4 seconds.
EYEBALL COLLECTION
Collect 1 Eyeball per champion takedown, up to 10. Each takedown will provide players with 2 AP. Once players have received 10 Eyeballs they will also receive an extra 10 AP.
Eyeball Collection is the only Rune you will be able to use in ARAM from this tier of Runes.
ULTIMATE HUNTER
Reduces the cooldown of the player’s ultimate ability by 5% (+4% per each unique champion killed) up to a maximum of 25% CDR at 5 stacks.
While I would usually take or recommend Ravenous Hunter on mages because of the healing it provides, Karthus players are going to want to have their ultimate off of cooldown as often as they can have it, simply due to how powerful it is.
Karthus’ ultimate can significantly tilt a team’s success in a matter of seconds, securing a pentakill and potentially the destruction of a turret, two or even the nexus itself.
Enjoy that ultimate beebee, because once bans come around for the alternative game modes, you’re going to miss Karthus!
MANAFLOW BAND
Hitting enemy champions with an ability will permanently increase your maximum mana by 25 (cooldown 15 seconds), up to a maximum of 250 mana. Although players will receive an increase in the maximum mana they can have, proccing Manaflow Band will not provide an increase in your current mana.
Once players have capped out their maximum mana at 250 bonus mana, they will receive 1% of their missing mana every 5 seconds.
TRANSCENDENCE
At level 10 players will receive 10% CDR and 2 AP for every 1% CDR that goes over the 40% cap (or 45% if using Cosmic Insight).
Players are going to want as much cooldown reduction as they can have on Karthus, without building useless items.
Karthus is pretty powerful with 30% CDR, so if players want to build more damage or health-based burn items they can do so with no fear.
SUSTAIN DAMAGE FOR KARTHUS (SORCERY/DOMINATION)
ARCANE COMET
Damaging enemy champions with an ability causes an Arcane Comet to be thrown at the enemy’s current location. The Arcane Comet can deal between 30-100 plus 20% AP. Damaging enemy champions with abilities will help reduce the cooldown of Arcane Comet, though the cooldown sits between 8-20 seconds based on player levels.
Unlike Dark Harvest, Arcane Comet has a cap on the amount of damage it can do and the increase in damage is tied to the player’s champion level, making early game buffing… well… unachievable.
Players can, however, rely on steady damage from Arcane Comet, which they will not see when playing with Dark Harvest, as Dark Harvest requires you to be alive and damaging when multiple enemies are burst down into oblivion.
MANAFLOW BAND
Hitting enemy champions with an ability will permanently increase your maximum mana by 25 (cooldown 15 seconds), up to a maximum of 250 mana. Although players will receive an increase in the maximum mana they can have, proccing Manaflow Band will not provide an increase in your current mana.
Once players have capped out their maximum mana at 250 bonus mana, they will receive 1% of their missing mana every 5 seconds.
TRANSCENDENCE
At level 10 players will receive 10% CDR and 2 AP for every 1% CDR that goes over the 40% cap (or 45% if using Cosmic Insight).
Players are going to want as much cooldown reduction as they can have on Karthus, without building useless items.
Karthus is pretty powerful with 30% CDR, so if players want to build more damage or health-based burn items they can do so with no fear.
SCORCH
Every 10 seconds players a player’s next damaging ability sets an enemy champion on fire dealing between 15-35 bonus magic damage after 1 second.
While it doesn’t seem like Scorch is all that powerful, especially in comparison to runes like Gathering Storm. Scorch can be extremely useful for Karthus so you can keep enemy champions are low on health.
Scorch can be helpful when trying to get rid of an enemy’s magic resist shield and can also make sure that you continue to deal damage to enemy champions even after your passive ends.
EYEBALL COLLECTION
Collect 1 Eyeball per champion takedown, up to 10. Each takedown will provide players with 2 AP. Once players have received 10 Eyeballs they will also receive an extra 10 AP.
Eyeball Collection is the only Rune you will be able to use in ARAM from this tier of Runes. Players can also choose Cheap Shot if they please.
ULTIMATE HUNTER
Reduces the cooldown of the player’s ultimate ability by 5% (+4% per each unique champion killed) up to a maximum of 25% CDR at 5 stacks.
While I would usually take or recommend Ravenous Hunter on mages because of the healing it provides, Karthus players are going to want to have their ultimate off of cooldown as often as they can have it, simply due to how powerful it is.
Karthus’ ultimate can significantly tilt a team’s success in a matter of seconds, securing a pentakill and potentially the destruction of a turret, two or even the nexus itself.
Enjoy that ultimate beebee, because once bans come around for the alternative game modes, you’re going to miss Karthus!!
SKILL LEVEL UP RECOMMENDATIONS & TIPS ON HOW TO PLAY KARTHUS IN ARAM
LAY WASTE (Q)
Karthus will briefly reveal the targetted area and deal 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 (+30% AP) magic damage to all enemies within.
The damage from Lay Waste will be doubled if only one enemy is hit at a time.
Lay Waste has a 1-second cooldown reduction and costs 20 / 26 / 32 / 38 / 44 mana per hit.
Lay Waste is the obvious ability to upgrade first, however, it will depend on whether players are good at landing Lay Waste or not.
As mentioned earlier, due to the amount of versatility Karthus shows in his abilities, players should be able to upgrade any of their abilities first without the fear of missing out.
I usually upgrade Lay Waste first or second, depending on who I’m up against.
WALL OF PAIN (W)
At first, I thought that Wall of Pain was a useless ability, but as I started playing Karthus more often I realized that his Wall of Pain can be very powerful, especially if upgraded first or second.
Karthus’ Wall of pain can be used every 15 seconds and costs 70 Mana to cast.
The Wall of Pain will grow in length with every upgrade going from 800 / 900 / 1000 / 1100 / 1200 units and putting a 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% slow on enemy champions for 4 seconds.
Karthus players will also receive 5 seconds of sight while the wall is up and enemy champions will also lose 15% magic resistance.
Wall of Pain is a very powerful support ability that players should be using off cooldown to keep enemy champions on their toes.
Powering up Wall of Pain can be a good tactic, though choosing to power up Wall of Pain first will severely decrease your damage output since Wall of Pain deals no damage.
Still, 80% slows are phenomenal, especially if you are against a team of squishies.
DEFILE (E)
Defile is a toggleable ability that will deal 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+20% AP) magic damage per second and will restore 20 / 27 / 34 /41 / 48 mana whenever he kills a unit.
Defile costs 30 / 42 / 54 / 66 / 78 mana per second and while it is an extremely useful ability, leaving it on for too long will leave you completely drained if you’re not careful.
Make sure that you’re only using Defile whenever you are never to enemy champions and use it sparingly when killing minions unless you have a good hold on your mana.
I usually power up Defile first, since I’m pretty aggressive and chunky as Karthus.
REQUIEM (R)
After channelling for 3 seconds, Karthus will deal 200 / 300 / 500 (+75% AP) magic damage to all targetable enemies.
Requiem can be used every 200 / 180 / 160 seconds.
There’s not really much to say about Requiem other than get cooldown reduction and use it whenever it is off cooldown prioritizing securing enemy takedowns.
GEAR BUILD FOR KARTHUS
ROD OF AGES
Rod of Ages gives bonus Health, Mana and Ability Power every minute for up to 10 minutes. This equals out to 200 Health, 100 Mana and 40 Ability Power, on top of its already 60 Ability Power, 300 Health, and 300 Mana. After 10 minutes Rod of Ages will have a total of 100 Ability Power, 500 Health and 400 Mana. Those are some pretty sweet stats at the end of the day. Players will also restore mana equal to 15% of the damage taken from champions.
Rod of Ages works especially well for players who are building Dark Harvest because it will allow Karthus players to be more aggressive in order to get the souls. Rod of Ages has the ability to sustain players for the duration of a full ARAM match, so use that to your advantage.
SORCERER’S SHOES
Sorcerer’s Shoes will provide players with magic penetration and movement speed. The only other shoes I would recommend are the Ionian Boots which will provide players with 10% Cooldown Reduction and will reduce the cooldown reduction of Summoner Spells.
ARCHANGEL’S STAFF
Archangel’s Staff will provide players with 50 AP, 20% Cooldown, 650 Mana and will also provide players with AP equal to 1% of their maximum mana and will always refund 25% of their mana spent.
Every 4 seconds players can proc 3 charges, providing players with 8 maximum Mana upon casting an ability. Upon receiving 750 mana from this passive, Archangel’s Staff will transform into Seraph’s Embrace, which provides players with an active shield and higher stats.
Archangel’s Staff is truly a lifesaver when it comes to mana in ARAM. The more mana Karthus can have, the better. There’s no stopping Karthus once his toggle is on.
LIANDRY’S TORMENT
If players do not need any defensive items or do not need cooldown reduction I would recommend using Liandry’s Torment so they can do sustained burn damage.
Liandry’s Torment gives 75 Ability Power and 300 Health. As a passive Liandry’s Torment will also deal 2% more damage per second in combat with enemy champions, up to a maximum of 10%. Spells will also burn enemies for 3 seconds dealing 1.5% of the player’s maximum health per second. If enemies are experiencing movement impairments they will receive an extra 2.5% damage from the burn.
Liandry’s Torment can be paired up with Rod of Ages to deal more damage from maximum health. Rod of Ages will also provide players with extra healing based on the damage players deal to enemies. If players choose to team Liandry’s Torment up with Rod of Ages, Rod of Ages should be built as the first item.
MORELLONOMICON
Morellonomicon will provide players will Ability Power, dealing 70 AP and giving players an extra 300 Health, which will also work very well with Liandry’s Torment.
Morellonomicon provides players with 15 Magic Penetration as well as Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds.
RABADON’S DEATHCAP
Need to amplify all that sexy Ability Power? Grab Rabadon’s Deathcap for 120 AP with a 40% AP increase.
Rabadon’s works best with Gathering Storm, however, is just useful no matter what.
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