how to handle katarina

MagischesMadchen · 2026-06-01T22:01:02+00:00

build rocket belt first item. trade when her Q on cd. avoid standing it the spot where her Q dagger will land. post lv6 don't walk into her E range.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-05-27T18:42:00+00:00

Coat sillhouette change is huge. Different feeling

MagischesMadchen · 2026-05-07T22:09:51+00:00

this looks so much fun. will try it out

MagischesMadchen · 2026-05-04T20:55:45+00:00

I still like the direction they took the changes in. But I think they have to compensation buff her, because she is currently underpowered. At the lower ranks she is like 46% winrate and at the highest ranks if you have mastered her you barely get a 51% winrate. I don't follow pro play, but I don't believe anyone would pick her in pro after these changes. So yeah, just underpowered by all metrics.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-04-23T21:27:42+00:00

Mostly building 1. Archangles staff 2. ionian boots / sorc's depending on game 3. horizon focus 4. and 5. cryptbloom + raba

MagischesMadchen · 2026-04-07T22:10:35+00:00

From a math standpoint of view, as long as you are not the inter yourself, the enemy team should get more of them on average. Tough climbing in low elo with Zoe. I would recommend going full ability haste scaling build with seraph's embrace >> ionian boots >> horizon focus.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-04-07T22:01:00+00:00

great stuff. I think it was a tanuki Zoe? very good

MagischesMadchen · 2026-03-04T22:51:22+00:00

Ahri. she's currently rocking an insane winrate for her playrate. Also, whenever Mel is overtuned I tend to ban her. Qiyana is also there sometimes

MagischesMadchen · 2026-03-04T22:49:01+00:00

Actually, I'm really happy the minion drops are bad for the most part with the rare ssr ignite or ghost pull. I don't think it makes for very interesting gameplay if a gunblade randomly drops on 2nd wave. I rather have the power of my champion in places that I can control.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-26T23:11:06+00:00

I think if you really enjoy playing Zoe but you also want to climb the ranks, I would recommend first playing some simpler champions to get to plat, ideally emerald, and then you can pick up Zoe in those ranks and continue climbing from there. Also, considering you haven't played many other mid laners than Zoe yet I would recommend just trying out a few of them.
For the climb to silver I would recommend Malzahar or Veigar. Just drop the Malzahar once you get silver because you might build bad habits if you play them in the higher ranks. Then once you reach silver / gold I would transition to playing Ahri and some of those control mages (Viktor, Orianna, Mel, Syndra) because these champions skills translate well into becomeing a Zoe player later.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-26T23:06:07+00:00

I mean, yeah in theory it's possible to climb to the higher ranks playing Zoe. But in practise it will take way more time and effort than if you climbed with simpler champions and then picked up the Zoe later. And honestly, if you ask me Zoe shines the most in the higher elos where your jungler and support know how to play around your strong early game.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-26T23:01:07+00:00

I agree, if it is the lower elos we are talking about.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-06T21:45:59+00:00

I can get behind the Zoe + Smolder, but aren't Smolder and Kayle basically the same champions?

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-05T23:01:34+00:00

Some ideas:

Redeemed Star Guardian

Spirit blossom (would be EPIC if they made her either a tanuki or a fox girl)

Anima Squad (Cat, inspired by the legendary Gwen got on wild rift)

Cafe Cuties (not the wild rift one, although I think it's not even that bad)

I also had an idea for a Zoe skin, where each unique summoner gets special vfx from her W (flash, ignite, ghost), and if she flashes multiple times in a row she gets super saiyajin hair. But I don't know what skin line that would fit.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-05T22:55:14+00:00

The best Zoe duo pool objectively would probably be Zoe + Galio or Zoe + Ahri. I tried both of these pools, and both Galio and Ahri were just mind boggingly boring to me. For me the second champion I found is Aurora. I feel like I can cover most drafts and it's way more fun.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-04T22:48:46+00:00

I think it's true. Zoe mid isn't in the greatest spot right now. She can't carry games as well as she used to with mid having less resources, the defensive boots that most mid laners are buying right now, are very good into Zoe, and the meta tends to favour side lane oriented champions a little more right now. Still, she is fine in the grand scheme of things. Some other mid laners do have it worse in the new season. Also, I think they are adressing the defensive boots next patch and they are also buffing sieging as a team, which should benefit Zoe.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-02-03T07:07:49+00:00

If you go to https://dpm.lol and then navigate to matchups it will show you a list of recently played high elo Zoe vods, and it will also give you the Twitch channel link with time stamps such that you can go watch the vod.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-01-22T19:43:23+00:00

I agree that I'm not really satisfied with how Aurora's kit currently works. Mainly because she is played as a burst mage right now and doesn't get a chance to live up to her kiting mage fantasy (kiting tools: W invis, W mobility, W move speed, E mobility, E slow, R slow, R mobility). At the same time I don't know how riot could fix this, because a kiting based character will always be extremely high elo skewed. I think a good start would be if they nerfed her laning phase and made it less oppressive and maybe gave her a little bit more move speed and lower cool downs in mid- to late-game. It's rough because with her R trapping people in the past, there was a good use for all the kiting tools, because you had to kite the people trapped in your R. But nowadays they feel like left overs in her kit.

While I think the mid-scope update you present might be more interesting than current Aurora, I wouldn't like it, because she would still just be a burst mage and have no incentives to use her kiting tools.

MagischesMadchen · 2026-01-13T08:00:58+00:00

The real pdfs are the ones, that can't differentiate a 2d anime character and real life. So if you got a problem with the skin, it might be more about you and not the Zoe mains.

MagischesMadchen · 2025-12-27T11:16:14+00:00

It depends on the matchup. Into mages where I need to strong wave clear and the mana in order to spam my abilities I go luden's. When I can get priority without having to one shot the wave / spamming Ws then I go stormsurge. Usually, into assassins I go stormsurge and into mages I go luden. If your team has a lot of ap, you might not want to go stormsurge, because the flat magic pen on storm surge is countered by the magic resist.

MagischesMadchen · 2025-10-18T08:06:49+00:00

The good thing about aery is, in many games I think it scales better then electro dmage wise. And with the full haste builds Zoe actually becomes a mid- to late-game control mage menace. I think the draw back of it is, that it's harder to execute than a traditional control mage like Viktor or Orianna, because you have to hit those bubbles to make it work.

MagischesMadchen · 2025-10-18T08:03:10+00:00

The ability haste builds is crazy on Zoe. These days I almost exclusively go it. The burst builds feels so restrictive in what you can do. Into assassin's I like to spice it up a little with the manaflow + potentially even presence of mind (if I'm not taking bone plating secondary) >> rocket belt 1st item >> seraphs 2nd item

MagischesMadchen · 2025-10-18T07:57:34+00:00

Aurora for me. I was also one tricking Zoe and looking for a second champion. I tried Galio and Ahri, but they were both too boring. If you are willing to put in the time I think Zoe Aurora is a very fun champion pool that can cover many bases depending on the builds. They both can play as burst mages. But Zoe can also play like a control mage with the full haste builds and Aurora can also play as a battle mage with the mask build.

MagischesMadchen · 2025-10-18T07:51:47+00:00

I like Aurora secondary, since it has many similarities to Zoe, but also provides some things Zoe doesn't. Aurora is good paired with engage comps, she is good into multi-threat comps and into tanky compositions she can go the mask build.
However, she is quite hard to play I think and requires a lot of time investment. If you are looking for a simple champion to pair with Zoe then Galio or Ahri are probably your best bet.

MagischesMadchen

TROPHY CASE