The dominant Katarina build right now continues to be Nashor's Tooth + Hextech Rocketbelt but there's another build quietly picking up steam across the world that used to be more popular but shot up in play rate recently...tank Katarina! By building tankier this allows Katarina to play more like a bruiser than an assassin, resulting in extended fights and more potential outplays.
So how does Tank Katarina work anyway?
The dominant Katarina build right now continues to be Nashor's Tooth + Hextech Rocketbelt but there's another build quietly picking up steam across the world that used to be more popular but shot up in play rate recently...tank Katarina! By building tankier this allows Katarina to play more like a bruiser than an assassin, resulting in extended fights and more potential outplays.
So how does Tank Katarina work anyway?
Guide to Playing Tank Katarina
The dominant Katarina build right now continues to be Nashor's Tooth + Hextech Rocketbelt but there's another build quietly picking up steam across the world that used to be more popular but shot up in play rate recently...tank Katarina! By building tankier this allows Katarina to play more like a bruiser than an assassin, resulting in extended fights and more potential outplays.
So how does Tank Katarina work anyway?
How to Play Tank Katarina
Abilities: Q, E, W then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Summoner Spells:
Starting Items: Doran Shield + Health Potions
Strategy: Scale into late-game and stack as many Heartsteel + Grasp procs as you can safely gather during laning phase.
Core Items: Heartsteel, Titanic Hydra, Sorcerer's Shoes, Demonic Embrace, Sunfire Cape, Abyssal Mask
Summoner Spells:
Strategy: Scale into late-game and stack as many Heartsteel + Grasp procs as you can safely gather during laning phase.
Core Items: Heartsteel, Titanic Hydra, Sorcerer's Shoes, Demonic Embrace, Sunfire Cape, Abyssal Mask
Tank Katarina Runes Setup
Primary: Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Second Wind, Overgrowth
Secondary: Sudden Impact, Ingenious Hunter
How It Works
Front Line Fighting Ability
Assassin Katarina tends to get focused down very quickly as a priority target. This means you generally need to play carefully in order to be successful early to mid game. Tank Katarina alleviates some of this by making her capable of scrapping in the front lines. She can also play more aggressively to draw out skillshots and jump away to safety.
Decent Base Stats
Katarina's base abilities do a decent amount of damage on their own. When you combine this with early game auto-attack resets from her Shunpo [E], this results in a strong amount of trade potential. Meanwhile, as you start to scale into late-game her ultimate synergizes extremely well with Titanic Hydra, resulting in plenty of damage output to assassinate backline priority targets.
Higher Outplay and Dive Potential
Giving Katarina more time to fight also gives her more potential to effectively utilize her mobility to outplay enemies. Additionally, while she can't assassinate enemies as quickly, she can dive low health players under turret much safer than with a traditional build.
Potential Pitfalls
Lower Burst Damage
This is essentially the only downside of Tank Katarina, which is lower mid to late game burst damage. If your team is lacking damage and truly needs to assassinate priority targets as fast as possible then tank Katarina may not be suitable for that particular role.
Tank Katarina Conclusions
Tank Katarina is very enjoyable and breathes new life into Katarina for players who feel uncomfortable living on the edge with her glass cannon build. It's somewhat like playing Katarina with training wheels, but is in many ways more effective in its own way.
Suggested Tier: Tier 1
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