I spent most of my time with Karthus early in the week since I had so much to test. He may not have been given a completely fair shake, but, well, I can always revisit him later if necessary. For now, here’s what I think about The Deathsinger.
Karthus is heavily reliant on immobile teamfights. He doesn’t do particularly well with chasing, largely because so much of his damage comes from the Defile toggle. Also, as teamfights get more mobile, his passive loses much of its effectiveness, existing to pretty much only get his ultimate off. His ult is definitely a pain as the game goes on, especially at higher ranks, so it’s extremely important that he stay ahead of the leveling curve as much as is possible.
I think I had the most fun building Karthus kinda tanky. I definitely missed having a massive ult, but with a Rod of Ages and a Rylais it was easy enough to soak some serious damage, all the while dishing back some pain with Defile. Add in an Hourglass and he can be really tough to hang around. His ult still hit surprisingly hard whenever I built him on the beefy side.
Playing Karthus was a strong reminder of why I hate global ults so much. His might be the best of them, if only because he doesn’t teleport with the ult, but it’s still too much unavoidable damage to be dealt across the entire map. If I could change one thing about Karthus it would be that his ult not be castable while his passive is up. It’s just silly that he can be 100% effective from death. I would even be fine with a 50 percent damage reduction while in his passive, but frankly, I think the best thing would be a rework of his ultimate in full.
