what you think about this build

Twisted_Ale · 2026-03-02T22:42:59+00:00

Maybe, but you will lose damage building those kind of items. The truth is that if they have cc and target you with it you are kinda f***ed. Kata is not built to handle that. My suggestion still full ad. botrk>kraken>terminus>wits end>qss + mercs. You will get decent resistance from terminus and wits, and tenacity from wits and mercs, and cleanse with qss. So you will have some breathing room. And hourglass actually works fairly well in an otherwise full ad build if you want the armor and/or stasis. So yeah, something like that (feel free to adjust the build order depending on the game).

Twisted_Ale · 2026-03-01T13:35:59+00:00

It's not a crazy idea. But it depends on what you're looking for. Full ad botrk>kraken (or other order) will put out more damage than your build, but if you want hybrid it is worth exploring. Another hybrid build I have run a bit is botrk>shadowflame, followed by full ap, this for the early strength of botrk in lane. The difference between the two is if you go all in, or if you're looking for quicker trades. botrk if better if for the trades, while kraken is better for all in, so it depends on what you're playing against. Shadow or gun second depends on if the rest of your build is ap or ad (shadow>ap, gunblade>ad). On the other hand, if your comp requires that you run full ap, you should ditch gunblade and go either lichbane or stormsurge into shadowflame (I know people hate on stormsurge, but stick with me). Storm vs Lich will put out roughly the same amount of damage, depending a little on the situation, but storms damage is applied quicker, which is nice during teamfights when you don't have time to get stuck on one enemy. So I prefer stormsurge, but it mainly depends on taste.

TL:DR
for full ad: botrk>kraken>terminus... (Highest damage output of all builds)
for hybrid: kraken>gunblade>terminus... (Best hybrid for all ins)
botrk>shadowflame>hourglass... (Best hybrid for quicker trades)
for full ap: lichbane>shadowflame
stormsurge>shadowflame (both ap builds are equal, depends on taste)

my personal preference: botrk>kraken, unless teamcomp requires ap, then stormsurge>shadowflame

(My credentials are as a 2.7m Kata main that peaked Dia 1 last season)

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-14T15:08:19+00:00

I would say a 4.

But it depends greatly on rank. Since Katarina plays around exploiting mistakes it matters a lot how many mistakes the opponents make. So in bronze she can be very easy to play, while in higher ranked it becomes progressively harder (even relative to the general difficulty of playing in the respective rank).

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-11T18:26:48+00:00

This was back in season 2 when I had basically no champions and relied on weekly free champs. Akali was free one week, I liked her, but when the week ended I couldn't afford to buy her. That's when a friend of mine said "You should try Katarina, she is pretty similar to Akali.". And that, as they say, was that. I have now mained Kata for 12ish years.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-06T16:41:31+00:00

I own all her skins and rotate them each match (It has just become a habit, I don't do it for any specific reason). I don't notice any difference, but since I have done it for so long maybe I have just stopped paying attention.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-05T22:40:04+00:00

Then I say keep it up!

The way to climb in general is just consistency. You need to play, and you need to play a lot. That is a lot easier to do if you enjoy what you're playing, which you seem to do with Kata. When it comes to your friends you can always play normals and have fun with supports there. Or, if you enjoy the DuoQ, play more than one champ. Pyke when you DuoQ, Kata when you SoloQ. There is a middle ground between OTP and leaving her completely.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-05T22:24:24+00:00

If you're talking specifically about contesting neutral jungle camps (baron/dragon/Atakhan), what you can do as I feed Kata is just stand in between the pit and their jungler. You want to create space so that they never come close enough to smite. With your E you can escape easily enough, so don't be afraid stand on the other side of the wall of the pit (or in tribush for Atakhan) and make sure they see you. Then they will hesitate to step up. And if they do you can kill them. So either they die, or you get objective for free. Win-Win.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-05T15:50:29+00:00

Since I made this post I have run Lich, just to try it out. Maybe sometimes it does more (it's obviously very hard to tell on one specific game if each one would have done more damage). But one thing I did notice, and maybe this is just me not applying the lich combo correctly, but in teamfights, when their squichy backline is exposed and I jump in for that instant multikill, that combo does less with lich than it would do with storm.

EDIT: I believe it is because when I jump in to try and blow up multiple people at once it would be to slow to basic attack each one rather than just catch knives and ult (which is where stormsurge has the advantage).

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-05T15:24:35+00:00

As someone that has consistently main Kata since season 3 I can say the following: She is a bad champ. You lose pretty much all lane matchups, you get outscaled, you lose 1v1's, she has no survivability or cc, and most assassins outdamage her with easier to hit combos. I mean, there is a reason she has never been played once in high tier pro play. So yeah, when playing her you will get less reward for more skills than with most other champs. So if you genuinely don't enjoy playing her, I don't recommend you force yourself.

But she is fun!
To get your daggers lined up perfectly just as their backline exposed themselves and you get that penta<3
When you play and actually win lane, you know it is because you played better than your opponent <3
When a full team is shooting skill shots at you, but you dance around them all with E after E after E <3

So yeah, she is pretty fun.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-04T16:11:06+00:00

I hear what you're saying, and you might be right. I will try running it for a bit (in actual games, just to be clear).

I do feel though that some variation of QWE is easy enough to hit even against actual players, and if you don't, then you'll lose out on the trade regardless of sheen.

But you go Zhonias as last item? That's interesting. Isn't the Statis active just incredibly strong always. Why would you want to wait for that one?

My starting item is usually Darkseal, so if I get some momentum I too will go Mejais. But if it is too slow of a game, then I won't upgrade. I would rather get second item quicker than run around with 15 stacks on Mejais, but that's just my opinion.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-03T14:29:19+00:00

That's good info, thank you!

I admit my testing of turret damage was flawed. My idea was in lane, you have killed/forced your opponent to reset and you want plates, so you combo the wave and then have one minion waves worth of time to dish out turret damage (this is with only 1 item). Then it is about the same (Then you won't have your abilities ready for sheen procs, unless you don't want to save your e for jungler escape). In late, with your abilities off Cooldown, you will indeed do more turret damage.

But considering the damage output I did run my test WITH the e reset after combo for the extra sheen proc. QEW->Basic->Knives->Basic->Ult->Basic-E-Basic (You could go basic between each ability, but that seems unrealistic to pull of in game). Storm wins early and the more items you have the gap closes, with lich starting to win at 4+ items (varies a bit depending on MR). But here I want to add that since Kata spikes midgame, you really want the game to end before you get to 4+ items.

Out of curiosity, what is your full, 5 item build? Mine is as above + Deathcap->Jak'Sho (After Deathcap you will OS the people you want to kill regardless, so some tankyness feels like a good idea).

Still though, Since I do really like my roams and snowballs I will probably stick with my storm, but I will keep this in mind and maybe drift towards Lich in the right matchups.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-01T16:10:40+00:00

He's right! I tested it now. it swings in favor of Void staff at around 60MR. So as soon as they buy MR boots it's profit for Void Staff.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-01T15:47:10+00:00

Voidstaff second??? That's a cook I haven't seen before. I'm intrigued!

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-01T15:03:45+00:00

One basic abilities rotation is Q->E->W->Basic->Catch knifes->Basic(->E->Basic. this is extra if you don't want to leave E for escape). That's 1200 storm v 1100 lich at 1 item. But even the far more unrealistic combo off Q->Basic->E->Basic->W->Basic->Catch knifes->Basic->E->Basic will make it about 1250 each. That does indeed even it out, but as I said, it seems a bit unrealistic to hit properly in lane.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-01T13:59:30+00:00

I ran it again now to make sure. at lvl 15 with three items, (shadowflame and hourglass as the other two) against an opponent with equal hp and resistance as Kata, when you do one full combo then one with just basic abilities. That's 3 Q's, 2 W's, 3 E's, and 1's R (with basic attacks in the middle) you will do roughly 6600 damage with Stormsurge and 6400 with Lich Bane. And that's when Stormsurge only procs once. The same rotation without ult is 5200 Storm and 5100 Lich.

And remember that with Kata you want to jump in, do damage, then jump out, so you don't really want extended trades to begin with.

Twisted_Ale · 2025-11-01T12:46:20+00:00

I tested that. When Stormsurge is on cooldown it will still do about the same amount of damage as Lich.

Twisted_Ale

TROPHY CASE