Champ of the Week: Karthus review

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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.

  

Champ of the Week: Karthus

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It’s Monday, which means it’s time for a new Champ of the Week. I was thinking about rolling with one of the remade champions from tomorrow’s patch, but I think I want to have a champion to play that won’t be getting picked quite as often as those champions are likely to. With that in mind, I’ve chosen Karthus as this week’s Champ of the Week.

Karthus currently holds a very strange position in the game – he’s one of few champions that can provide almost as much value dead as he can alive. In fact, I’ve seen some Karthus players use death as a viable carry strat. They allow themselves to be focused so that the teamfight happens on top of their dead body. Once dead, they cast like mad, dropping that humongous ult in the middle of five opponents. It can be seriously devastating.

I have a problem with the concept of global ults in general. So much of the game is knowing how to position yourself – when to run, when to fight, when it’s good to leave lane and help your teammates survive a gank. Global ults circumvent that knowledge requirement, allowing players to be more sloppy with their play.

With the advent of Deathcap, Karthus poses an even bigger threat. His ult has a pretty awesome AP ratio, which Deathcap obviously takes advantage of. Dealing 700-900 damage to an entire team before the fight starts can be catastrophic. If the teamfight then happens on top of Karthus, well, it’s probably game over.

I’ll be focusing on the ways Karthus affects the game, mostly at the early and middle game – I think we all know what he can do late game. I’ll also be taking a look at his best build. Is just rushing all out AP best for that big ult or is some sort of utility a better service to the team. At the very least, it’s going to take some time for me to get used to mouseover casting again.

  

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