LoL Wild Rift Katarina Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

S+ Tier

Class: Assassin

Recommended Lane: Mid

Best Katarina Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Katarina guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Katarina, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Katarina is the Sinister Blade, decisive in judgment and lethal in combat, she made herself known through her swift kills, fiery ambition, and relentless pursuits. She will not hesitate to execute her duty through her whirlwind of serrated daggers. Katarina is a team fight-oriented assassin who excels in cleaning up the battlefield with her unlimited ability resets.

Katarina Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Katarina Wild Rift in this patch.

The Sinister Blade

Void Staff [This item has been removed from WR]

Banshee’s Veil [This item has been removed from WR]

This is the standard Katarina Wild Rift build which focuses on increasing her burst damage as much as possible.

Riftmaker – Grants max health, ability power, ability haste and omnivamp. Deals true damage at maximum stacks of corruption.
Long Sword will help you get an advantage on trades, especially when you become proficient in the auto-attack resets of Katarina’s 3rd ability, Shunpo. Sell later as you complete your first item.
Rabadon’s Deathcap provides extreme amounts of AP which makes you effectively fatal to all enemy champions once you acquire this item.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity allows Katarina to reset her ultimate with one less takedown. But if an enemy champion is snowballing, do not hesitate to opt for defensive boots upgrade like Plated Steelcaps or Mercury’s Treads as Katarina does not strictly need the ability haste. Upgrade with the Stasis Enchant as a counterplay measure since Katarina is a squishy champion that needs to play up close and personal against her enemies. You can choose to buy Teleport Enchant instead if you are stomping your lane to increase your map presence and snowball harder.
Banshee’s Veil – Grants a spellshield that blocks hostile abilities, allowing her to survive some attacks or abilities that can cause her her death.
Infinity Orb makes your abilities do critical damage against low HP targets. This item augments your role as your team’s clean-up crew.
Void Staff will make you slice tanks like cheese thanks to this item’s high amount of magic penetration.

The Sinister Dagger

This is an alternative Katarina Wild Rift build involving Liandry’s Torment and Morellonomicon.

Liandry’s Torment – Applies burn that deal damage over time.
Morellonomicon – Magic damage reduces enemy healing

Runes for Katarina in Wild Rift

Conqueror allows Katarina to thrive on extended team fights and on multiple takedowns. Katarina’s basic combos will make her reach Conqueror’s max stack fast. Electrocute can work well in the laning phase but its long cooldown does not synergize with Katarina’s playstyle in the long run.
Triumph grants bonus execute damage which pairs well with Infinity Orb and Katarina’s clean-up playstyle.
Hunter – Titan grants bonus HP and tenacity for each unique takedown so you’ll have increased chances of surviving if ever you’re controlled by the enemy team.
Sweet Tooth is another rune that will allow Katarina to survive the laning phase thanks to the enhanced healing when eating Honeyfruits. It will also grant a little bonus gold upon eating Honeyfruits which will help her reach her item timings faster.

Spells

In our Katarina Wild Rift Guide, here are the best champion spells that you can equip on her.

Ignite grants you access to high amounts of DPS when it is activated while you are casting your ultimate. It is recommended to cast as your ultimate is nearing its end to extend its Grievous Wounds effect.

Flash grants you another outplay option so if you have your 3rd, Shunpo on cooldown and you don’t have any way to reset it, you’ll be able to escape or chase an enemy.

Skill Order

1st, Bouncing Blade is maxed first as it is your clearing and poke tool in the early game. 3rd, Shunpo is maxed next to increase its damage output then 2nd, Preparation is maxed last. Get a point in your ultimate whenever possible.

Abilities

Voracity

Passive

Takedowns on enemy champions reduce ability Cooldowns by 15 seconds.

Katarina slashes at all nearby enemies whenever she picks up a Dagger, dealing 72 magic damage (72 + 100% bonus AD + 58% AP).

Bouncing Blade

Active

Throws a Dagger, dealing 75 magic damage (75 + 30% AP) to the target and 2 nearby enemies. The Dagger then ricochets to the ground behind the initial strike point.

the Dagger’s time in the air is the same regardless of how many times it bounces.

Preparation

Active

Tosses a Dagger in the air and hastes Katarina by 30%.

Shunpo

Active

Blink to a location near a Dagger or unit, dealing 44 magic damage (15 + 50% AD + 25% AP) to the nearest enemy.

Picking up a Dagger greatly reduces the Cooldown of Shunpo.

Death Lotus

Active

Rapidly throws blades at the 3 nearest enemy champions, dealing 350 magic damage (350 + 260% bonus AD + 260% AP) and applying Grievous Wounds. Katarina can move and throw blades for up to 3 seconds.

Grievous Wounds reduces Healing applied to the target by 60%.

Abilities Analysis

Innate: Voracity

Each takedown reduces the cooldown of her abilities. At all levels, each takedown will reset the cooldown of all her basic abilities. You can have up to three Daggers lying around thanks to her passive.

At level 5, Katarina’s ultimate, Death Lotus will be immediately available after four consecutive takedowns.
At level 9, almost available after three consecutive takedowns. (With Ionian Boots of Lucidity)
at level 13, Death Lotus almost resets after two takedowns so you can potentially use her ultimate thrice in a single team fight. (With Ionian Boots of Lucidity)

Katarina slashes at all nearby enemies when she picks up her daggers. The activation radius is smaller than the damage radius and the damage starts from Katarina herself and not on the Daggers.

You can issue commands while Voracity is active and the slash will still go through even if you auto-attack, cast your abilities, and even while your ultimate is activated. So sneak in an auto-attack while activating your Daggers to maximize your damage potential.

The Daggers last for four seconds before vanishing.

Q | 1st: Bouncing Daggers

Katarina throws a Dagger that bounces up to three times. The Dagger bounces to the next nearest enemies, the bounce pattern does not change even if you change the direction you throw it, it will always bounce to the nearest enemy.

Furthermore, the Dagger will always land behind the initial target which makes it a great tool to set up your 3rd, Shunpo. What’s better is that you don’t even need to wait for the Dagger to drop before being able to blink to it, but the cooldown of your 3rd, Shunpo would not reset if you teleported to the Dagger without picking it up.

Because of the nature of the Dagger’s bounce. You can use it to escape through walls by targeting a nearby jungle monster or enemy champion near a wall. The Dagger will drop over the wall and you can use your 3rd, Shunpo to blink to it to escape.

Remember to cast your Bouncing Daggers before you cast your ultimate, Death Lotus for more AoE damage coming from the ability itself and from the Voracity damage from picking up the dagger.

Katarina will attack move towards the target as soon as you cast Bouncing Daggers so take control of her if you don’t want to move towards the enemy yet.

W | 2nd: Preparation

Preparation grants Katarina a short movement speed burst and drops a Dagger in the area she is standing on upon casting.

There are three basic uses for Preparation:

To set up a dagger to return to when going in for a kill or trade.
To fake an engage using the bonus movement speed then immediately going back using 3rd, Shunpo.
For an additional Dagger to pick up for your Voracity activation during your trade combo or ultimate.

You can jump through narrow walls like in the middle lane or Pits by placing yourself close to the wall, activating Preparation then target the outermost area of the Dagger near the wall using 3rd, Shunpo.

Always activate Shunpo before activating your ultimate for the additional burst damage during Death Lotus. Also, activate Shunpo before a takedown for the additional Dagger and movement speed as the takedown will reset the ability’s cooldown anyway.

Activate Preparation if you think the enemy will use a skill shot. The bonus movement speed will help you dodge the enemy’s abilities.

E | 3rd: Shunpo

Shunpo is a targeted blink ability that resets upon picking up Daggers and on takedowns thanks to her passive, Voracity.

Shunpo can be used on almost everything, your Daggers, enemies, allies, Honeyfruits, and blast cones. The only exceptions are structures and wards. If you jump to a non-enemy unit, you will still damage an enemy nearby if it is within range.

Shunpo is an auto-attack reset that should be abused in short trades with melee champions, even with ranged champions if you managed to get close. It’s best to use Shunpo for short trades if a Dagger is nearby or as you activate your 2nd, Preparation so you’ll have your Shunpo reset ready once you need to disengage.

Katarina will automatically attack the target after using Shunpo if the target is an enemy.

You can choose where you land around your target. This is especially crucial when trying to outplay enemies with strong skill shot crowd control like Ahri with her Charm. It’s way harder to do when enemies are clumped up real close. Target locking won’t help.

R | Ultimate: Death Lotus

Death Lotus is a devastating AoE ability that deals massive DPS on the three nearest enemy champions. The damage per target is not affected by how many targets are there so it’s fine to use it on a single target as well. Thanks to your passive, Voracity which grants cooldown reduction on takedowns, you’ll have opportunities to use your ultimate multiple times in long team fights.

Enemies would generally lookout for your ultimate and save their crowd control in order to cancel your ultimate so be opportunistic in your ultimate usage. Take a mental note of who has used their crowd control abilities. It is way better to enter late in the fight as the clean-up crew instead of entering early only to have your ultimate canceled and finding yourself dying early in the fight.

Activate your 1st, Bouncing Daggers and 2nd, Preparation before activating your ultimate so you’ll be dishing more damage thanks to your Voracity passive. The passive damage will still activate even while your ultimate is active.

Although be careful because activating your abilities, Flash, Stasis, or auto-attacking will prematurely cancel your ultimate. Do cancel it when the enemy is beyond your ultimate’s range, though.

Ignite, Barrier, Locket, Redemption, Stoneplate won’t cancel Death Lotus.

Combos:

Trading combo: 1st + 2nd + [AA] + 3rd + AA + 3rd

Throw a 1st, Bouncing Dagger to your target then activate 2nd, Preparation as you’re walking towards the enemy to set a dagger to return to. Auto-attack once if you are close enough or activate 3rd, Shunpo on the enemy just make sure to target towards the Dagger from your 1st then auto-attack once on the enemy before using 3rd, Shunpo on the Dagger you left with your 2nd to disengage. This is perfect for activating Electrocute while leaving little counterplay options for the enemy.

All-in without ult: 1st + 3rd + AA + 2nd + 3rd + AA + 3rd

This combo allows you to land two Voracity Dagger attacks and two to three autos. Practice the skill used to make it fast but still have three 3rd resets. Be wary though, this will leave you with no way to escape if you use the last 3rd, Shunpo to reset your auto-attack so only use this combo for all-ins or if the enemy has their crowd control on cooldown.

All-in with ult 1: 3rd + 2nd + 1st + Ult + 3rd + AA

All-in with ult 2: 1st + 3rd + AA + 2nd + Ult + AA + 3rd

These are the basic variations of her all-in combo. The first style is more reliable as the Dagger from 1st, Bouncing Blade can be used for a 3rd, Shunpo jump if the enemy used their mobility tools but the second combo deals more damage in a shorter time frame.

Katarina Early Game Guide

As a melee champion, you’ll get bullied most of the early game when facing ranged champions. Try to keep your health up when you reach your level 5 so you can force a trade if you are confident when that comes or force a fast clear using all your basic abilities and return to base before the first dragon spawn.

Use your 1st, Bouncing Blade to clear waves and hit the enemy champion if possible. The bonus movement speed from your 2nd, Preparation will help you dodge skill shots.

If you against a melee champion, it will mostly be a skill matchup. Bait the enemy’s abilities as much as possible and once they use their important ability, like Zed’s Living shadow, proceed to punish them using your combos.

Remember to track the jungle and ward at least one side of the river so you’ll know when to use your 3rd, Shunpo to disengage before it’s too late.

You are extremely strong starting level 5 so look for opportunities to gank. One of the best way to kill your lane opponent is to follow them when they attempt a gank and go in for a countergank once they used their abilities.

Katarina Late Game Guide

In the late game, you have to be patient in picking your battles. Be opportunistic. Track your opponents and take a mental note if they have used their crowd control.

Never go in first or second because the enemy team is surely waiting for you so they can counter your ultimate.

Remember that Katarina is great at cleaning up fights and she can easily pick up a pentakill as long as you picked the right timing when to enter.

Do not hesitate to use your ultimate on one or two champions because two or three takedowns will easily reset your Death Lotus.

Synergies

For our Katarina Wild Rift Guide, we highly recommend using her with the following champions as they synergize well with her.

Amumu has an adequate clear and ganking capability which is enough to support Katarina in the mid lane. But his ultimate, Curse of the Sad Mummy, and his passive, Cursed Touch works amazingly well with Katarina’s Death Lotus. Expect to see many wombo-combo plays from these two.

Alistar’s reliable crowd control and peeling capabilities are a great help for Katarina. Not as much as Amumu, but his abilities are on a low cooldown so he’ll be able to support Katarina on consecutive small skirmishes and turret dives more often once the mid-game comes.

Shyvana’s ultimate pull champions together for a massive wombo combo together with Death Lotus. Katarina can also provide the ganking pressure that she lacks in the early game.

All Katarina Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll specifically show champions that can easily counter Katarina in Wild Rift.

Orianna is the Queen of the mid lane and Katarina’s arrival won’t change that any time soon. She will easily bully Katarina out of the lane and she can use her ultimate, Command: Shockwave from long range to cancel Katarina’s ultimate. You have to play extra carefully if you want to find success against Orianna.

Yasuo has a solid level 1 thanks to his Steel Tempest. He can render your ultimate useless using his Windwall and if he is a proficient Yasuo user with discipline, he’ll have the advantage over you all game long.

Yes, your cow best friend is also one of your toughest enemies. All his three abilities can cancel your ultimate so Alistar can easily walk into your ultimate to cancel it.

Pros & Cons About Katarina

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Katarina in Wild Rift.

Pros

Katarina is a high pace, high damage champion. She can kill champions takedown after takedown. Thanks to her high damage and cooldown resets, she is capable of carrying her team 1v9 even while playing from behind.,
She is an assassin who thrives in team fights. Once an opportunity presents itself to Katarina, she is able to do consecutive takedowns thanks to her cool-down resets.
Katarina is a high-skill expression champion which means that the more you practice her, the more possibilities for outplay presents themselves to you making her one of the most satisfying champions worth mastering.

Cons

Katarina is mechanically demanding. She requires a lot of practice in order to master and at the same time, she requires good macro knowledge so she is not a champion for beginners because if you choose a mechanical champion without having a good macro knowledge base, you will have a hard time finding success in that champion for a while.
She is very punishing. A single mistake will cost you your life or the game itself in the later stages of the game.
Katarina is a weak laner. She doesn’t win her laning phase often and due to that, she needs to look for opportunities elsewhere in order to pop off and carry her team.

FAQ's About Katarina in Wild Rift

How good is Katarina in Wild Rift?

Katarina is an (Tier S+) champion. Since Katarina is a team fight oriented assassin, she will thrive in this team fight heavy nature of Wild Rift.

What role / lane should I play with Katarina in Wild Rift?

Katarina is played in the mid lane as a team fight oriented assassin.

What abilities do I level up with Katarina?

1st, Bouncing Blade is maxed first as your clearing and poke tool in the early game. 3rd, Shunpo is maxed next to increase its damage output then 2nd, Preparation is maxed last.

What items should I build with Katarina?

Hextech Gunblade is Katarina’s first item. The additional magic damage and slow effect allows her to easily burst down a single target. Her next core item is Infinity Orb which makes her abilities deal critical damage on low HP targets so she can execute enemies one by one.

What Runes should I use when playing as Katarina?

Conqueror allows Katarina to thrive on extended team fights and on multiple takedowns. Katarina’s basic combos will make her reach Conqueror’s max stack fast. Her other runes are Hunter – Vampirism, Regeneration, and Sweet Tooth.

How can I land her combos and ultimate with Katarina?

Never enter a fight first. Wait for your opponents to use their abilities before entering the fight. Do not spam your abilities blindly and focus on resetting your 3rd, Shunpo. Do not be stingy on using your ultimate, if you can kill one using it then use it.

List of all Wild Rift Champion builds

Last updated on May 11th, 2023