In the Jungle 49.18% Win Rate65% Pick RateKarthus In the Jungle Counters: 22 counter champions
Counter RatingCounter rating is an expression of how strong or weak a counter is based on win rate, kills, and deaths, as well as early laning advantages or disadvantages. A higher number means an easier laning phase against that champion.
Counter RatingCounter rating is an expression of how strong or weak a counter is based on win rate, kills, and deaths, as well as early laning advantages or disadvantages. A higher number means an easier laning phase against that champion.
Tips Against Karthus in the Jungle Tips Provided by MOBAFire Guide Authors
F4LcH100NnN says “He's an immobile, squishy mage.
Need I say more?
You can ult his ult if need be. But a lot of the time your passive may just heal you up before it activates.”
nanic says “Se possível, arrisque invades lvl 1 contra ele. Karthus sempre vai priorizar iniciar no Blue por conta da regen de mana, então tente invades lvl 1 na galinha ou lvl 2 no grompe para interromper seu free farm.”
Vambient says “Karthus can get very much out of hand quite quickly. His damage is similar to a permanent Fiddlestick ultimate, and his ult is global. Please be aware that this champion snowballs very out of hand if ahead. This champion needs to be Dragon-stacked against and make sure you can counter gank him sometimes, he also just jungles quite fast so be very aware on the map for countergank opportunities if they present themselves.
Very toxic champion kit honestly, this champion is completely overloaded and very powerful (also has been since the beginning of Karthus release to now) ”
giloocore says “Most of the times he will play exhaust but you can just wait it out then burst him. He is very immobile and you can invade him alot. You have to get far ahead in early game cuz he outscales you hard later in the game.”
heybeyoo says “If karthus is playing smite / exhaust jungle then u need to be careful on a random invades because he is way stronger with that.
He is outfarming you and always faster on any play on map.
You can counter that by invading his buffs when are up and try to kill him there.”
Shekar says “Karthus is generally a favorable matchup for Ivern. Early on, good jungle pathing allows Ivern to safely clear and control the jungle. Karthus has weak dueling potential, and you can 1v1 him with Daisy, even if you’re building enchanter items. Simply dodge his Q (Lay Waste) and use Rootcaller (Q) and slows to lock him down.
In mid-to-late game, Karthus’ R (Requiem) can threaten backline targets, but with proper vision, positioning, and Daisy, Ivern can still minimize his impact. Karthus is immobile and predictable in fights, making it easy for Ivern to control skirmishes and protect carries.
Overall, this is a favored matchup for Ivern, as he can dominate early jungle control, punish Karthus in 1v1s, and maintain strong teamfight utility throughout the game.”
Corzn says “Karthus stands for ALL FARM HEAVY JUNGLERS!!!
If you are against farm heavy junglers or junglers that need their level 6 try to abuse them as much as you can and invade them whenever you have a chance to! Your kit is online once you reach level 3 and with first strike you can farm gold on them or just straight up kill them if you play it smart! They need gold just like you but you are more useful than them in early game so abuse them!”
Arctic Arrow says “Karthus is one of Briar’s hardest matchups. He full-clears faster, hits 6 first, and never has to interact with you. Once he’s ahead, he perma-farms and outdamages you everywhere. His Exhaust shuts down your engage, and even if you kill him, his passive + R will still wipe your team.
🧠 Gameplan Summary
⚠️ Don’t let him full clear uncontested — invade or force early fights.
✅ Play for early tempo — punish his weak first clears before level 6.
⚠️ Respect his Exhaust — bait it, then re-engage with E.
✅ Ping and move with your team — you can’t solo-pressure this champ.
⚠️ Edge of Night or Zhonya-like options (team) help survive his R burst.
✅ Once grouped, look to hard engage and delete him first — he’s useless if you kill him before casting spells”
Judgementlol says “He always starts on blue which means if you start on red there is a 100% chance he is going to attempt invading your blue after his full clear. That is something worth noting and it is the same with Mundo. It is easy to fall for this because most of the time you want to start red side. It is hard to invade him due to his tempo. Your best opportunity to invade is at his second Gromp (4:20) because this area is really risky for scaling junglers and you know for sure he is going to show up there. This is his most vulnerable timing.”
BapposDad says “Karthus is interesting because you can absolutely destroy him till 20 minutes but then it feels like you are 4 levels and an item up and he is still just shredding you through Maw. The reason this is a medium matchup is because you NEED to get a lead on him but it is also very easy to get a lead on him early as you will outduel him on every obj / can invade him easily.”
Saitarox says “Outscales you and Faster clear. Don't be scared to 1vs1 him in early game if you have double buff. Just focus him in early game and it's fine.”
lol_excalibur says “The same as Brand, wherein he can't damage you without having vision on you. This, coupled with the fact that he's an immobile champion means you can get your W off reliably and easily, making Karthus one of Eve's best matchups historically. Be wary of his exhaust though, if he runs it, as he WILL win pre 6 fights with it since it makes his Q so easy to hit, and you have no escape.”
Nightmare Painter says “Matchup is extremely unplayable. Outfarms you, out-objectives you, makes your Q useless for escaping with his aura (he can see you since its constantly dealing dmg), and oneshots boxes. Only thing you have over him is that you can dodge his ult with enough practice since spawning clone gives you some i-frames. Apart from that, just an unfun matchup, gotta play with your team to beat him up in his jg and objectives.”
Hazardist says “Karthus outfarms you very easily, but is helpless if you manage to get within range of him. Don't be fearful of engage if you see him invading, and consider invading him yourself.
Runeset to take: Phase Rush.”
SudbaTalon says “- immobile, easy to kill
- he can kill you because of passive, but overall he shouldnt
- buy maw, u gucci
- he can invade you early - care fr
”
Ferusz says “you cant counter this easily. it oneshots your boxes makes, your Q useless is within close combat because of his E , has great impact on game, can easily block your setups and good with objectives (shaco is a** with them). (if ad its worse)”
Reprobatus says “He farms incredibly fast. [[force of nature]] is a strong counter item. Look to create priority and gank him at an objective or (R) [[stand united]] for a counter gank. Will usually fall off mid to late because they will get picked in a team fight and then the enemy can't contest objectives. Look to counter JG while he is dead or JG tracking to minimize his farm. If he gets too ahead games can be difficult due to his high damage output. ”
lol_excalibur says “If you play macro correctly, and don't leave him any camps to take, he cannot do much against you. You are stronger 1v1 at all stages of the game, and he will not be able to snowball off of you. Beware of an invade on your first clear, as he can clear by 3:03 and make it to your jungle by 3:16 or so. ”
Crow7420 says “[Shadow Assassin Favored] You one shot him, literally. Bro is a walking canon minion that hits like a truck, try to punish him as much you can early on so you can snowball the game before he transforms into a nuke.”
chillhowl says “One of the easiest. You can invade him from start to finish (be careful, he farms very fast and you might not make it in time for invade level 3). You counter him with your R, he can't hit you with Q because of your Q's and after the 7th mark you outrange him.”
kittygore says “Invade him early. He easily outfarms you so make sure to get him out of his jungle. Try to oneshot him before he has zhonyas. Try to cleanse exhaust if he takes it.”
Bella Ciao says “Suprisingly hard matchup, take approach velocity or celerity
He outclears you by alot, but if you play smart you win 1v1/even outscale
Pheonix slightly recommended”
SelfLOL says “Insanely fast clear but easy to invade. If he has exhaust then wait it out. Don't focus him in teamfights, since he wants to die for Ult.”
friendlyfarmer123 says “If he can land q on you he will do massive damage and can shut you down. This is pretty unlikely though but he can be an issue with Liandry's. He could in theory out farm you if you're inefficient but you should be fine. Get objectives before he does and you should be alright. ”
Jackiewawa says “Karthus full clears extremely fast and can look to gank before scuttle spawns. Very annoying if he gets ahead and ganks from anywhere with his R. He can burst you with his Qs but you can also dodge with your E/Ghost/W and run him down.”
DoxxTheLeague says “mr mr mr without its game over you can go zhonyas for his r or banshee zhonyas better since you can use it for your q flash r zhonyas combo but its still a bit annoying matchup focus onto dodging his q with your movespeed”
ScytherKhaZix says “if karthus doesn't play with exhaust, invade him lvl 3 without exhaust there is practically no way to win against you unless you go into his Q”
Body Those Fools says “If he takes Exhaust, it will be hard to all-in him unless he's very low HP already. Karthus Q has similiar range to Azir so if you trade with him stand in your minions so you take less damage from his Q or be prepared to dodge it. The only way for him to get fed is by Ulting when your teammates are low. You can build a Zhonya's Hourglass or a Banshee's Veil to negate his Ult. If he summons his wall on you, try to disengage since it lowers your magic resistance and gives him the advantage. While fighting him, stay out of his E to avoid more of his DPS.”
Zasrana Hyenaa says “Karthus: Free win...... HOW TO PLAY VS: You can 1v1 him any time.. try to catch him everywhere you can.. if you can track him then go for his camps always he cant match you”
Neekster says “This champion clears the same time as you. Karthus is very immobile and easy to land spells on. You would always want to hunt him if possible. You can just dodge his [R] with your passive.”
lurutin says “Just avoid his skills and kill him, he has no mobility, no hard cc and his skills are easy to avoid with movespeed or negate damage with your W, just kill him and don't let him scale.”
masrigod says “Just invade, he can't ever 1v1 you if he goes exhaust instead of flash: engage, get exhausted, flash/jump out and jump back in. When exhaust is down he can't play vs you, ever.”
Yomu says “You can’t farm as fast as him but you gank way better. Farm VERY efficiently and don't over force to kill him once. Good invades and stack dragons”
lolWillieP says “this guy is annoying, but you can beat him in all 1v1s if you have good movement. Mess up his farm respawn cycle and youll make him baby rage every time”
Maciejson says “Karthus will almost always full clear into crab. Do the same, but avoid fighting him and ping your team to collapse if possible. He is akin to a ranged Kha'Zix - if he hits Q and you're alone, you can't beat him. As Rhaast, maneuver around his Qs and he's usually dead if you can knock him up. As Shadow Assassin (SA), it's easy to kill him whenever Karthus doesn't have exhaust up. However, it's tough for Rhaast as you'll likely be slowed and kited, especially since he's scaling. SA destroys this champion since he has no mobility. Just be cautious when running away from his passive after obliterating him.”
huncho1v9 says “Medium/skill matchup. Karthus can full clear and invade you right after. Use your E + Ghost to dodge his Q’s and you can easily run him down throughout the game. You can use your W to dodge his R as well as Q.”
12months says “Just annoying to deal with. keep in mind that If you both choose to do a full clear he can do his whole jungle and come smite steal your last camp. Usually karthus start blue side so you should do a 3 camp clear into invade on red (if your laners have prio).”
huncho1v9 says “- Medium matchup. Karthus is one of the fastest clearing champs, matching Hecarim’s tempo. Karthus wants to play for a perma fighting game because he benefits more than we do in this matchup. If he takes exhaust and we have phase rush we can run him down early game. Having good movement is really important in this matchup, making it more of a skill matchup. Phase rush is always better than conq against karthus.”
Mignognium says “Karthus Jgl n'est pas une menace et les Karthus tout court non plus. Mais les nouveaux items le plage en 50/50. Simplement qu'il peut être gênant de se prendre un ultime de Karthus en plein gank ou avant celui ci. Viego n'aime pas perdre de la vie avant ces ganks car il à besoin de PV pour performer étant le principal créateur de CC pendant le gank justement. Sinon le passif de Karthus ne sert à rien contre Viego car il vous suffit soit de partir de sa zone d'action avec votre [Z] ou votre [E] soit de prendre un corps avec votre [P]. Juste attention a ne pas prendre le corps de Karthus si ce n'est pas nécessaire car souvent vous perdrez plus de vie en faisant cela qu'en vous éloignant de lui tout simplement. ”
BullwhipGriffin says “Karthus is pretty easy for diana to deal with but i put it as an even matchup because every karthus takes exhaust which makes combatting karthus very hard. If you can bait his exhaust before an all in it becomes very easy to win, but him having exhaust makes it very hard to punish straight up.”
RickTheMage says “Kathus is simply sick since the late game is his with an ult that will end your team, if he uses the ultimate and you will die in it, use your ultimate close by with 1 second left before Kathus's will explode so you won't die to it. At the beginning of the game you have to somehow end up with Kathus invading and delaying his farm, always trying to win the game quickly but don't get excited and do stupid things in the game”
IvernGott says “He wants to full clear alot. In that time u can gank alot and even counter jungle him by being on right side of the map and the right time!!!”
DjapeFromSerbia says “One of the few junglers that clears faster than you. Also you don't have any counters to his ultimate, untill you ban Banshee Veil, which you can go third or fourth depending on the game state.”
Mabujo says “The ghost man.
Surpringly, now a real danger (wow rito !), the Karthussy has : a q which does more damage when your alone, and a barrier that slows and reduces your magic resist. A veritable danger. Fear and run and trade at your own peril are more than definit. ”
HawkSP says “Karthus is a significant threat due to his ability to outfarm Ivern and apply global pressure with his ultimate. It’s crucial to establish early game advantages and use Daisy to disrupt his positioning in team fights.”
Jhingle says “Well, he is annoying, u want to rush banshee against him,respect him and kill him the first, than run away, be sure u get the camp to heal, near by, to survive his ult.”
EnderRed29 says “He clears 2x faster than you, has too much AOE damage and better scaling. btw you can dodge his R by pressing yours (or buying an EON).”
X3mHills says “Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary. Consider purchasing Zhonya's Hourglass or Banshee's Veil to aid you in the fight.”
Zasrana Hyenaa says “Karthus: Free win......
HOW TO PLAY VS: You can 1v1 him any time.. try to catch him everywhere you can.. if you can track him then go for his camps always he cant match you”
Tortizzy says “He's weak early game, if your team is good early game go and invade him it'll put him behind for a long time, avoid 1v1'ing him he will melt you.”
EnderRed29 says “He cleans 2 times faster than you and out scale you. Don't make the game last longer. Good point: you can easily dodge his R by pressing your R at the right moment, or buying an EON.”
Lodart says “Don't stay close to him, because he does a lot of damage with E. He outranges you so keep dodging his Q. He does less damage to you if his Q hits multiple targets (so you could possibly stay close to your minions in some situations). He has great waveclear, but you have a better push sidelane and a better zone-control. Ryze can DODGE Karthus R with his team if he times his ultimate right. Press R around quarter of his bar (y'know when you get ignited a little icon appears at the bottom of your screen above your healthbar). You'll have to get used to the timing, possibly with a friend in a custom game. He's just all-around very useful and that's why he is only a 2-3 on the Threat scale. Learn important ability cooldowns through an external website and fight enemies when their abilities are on cooldown.”
MhmYepSope says “Insanely fast clear but easy to invade. If he has exhaust then wait it out. Don't focus him in teamfights, since he wants to die for Ult. ”
Pro8l3m says “U can easily invade him bc so weak early but dont let him scale bc good karthus player can destroy everyone if fed or scalled to late game”
jajkopajko says “Very similar playstyle, you both have great clear and damage into objectives, he will always start blue, since he is very mana-dependent, try to track him and avoid 1v1 before lvl 6. After 6 you should be winning if you use ghost and run around so you dont let him hit his q´s. He is very squishy so you should be able to burn him down fast enough. If he gets ahead early it is a problem since his q´s start hurting like a bi*ch...”
Daawwnn says “somehow this guy does insane dmg all game long if you invade him make sure to dodge his q's and keep your E until u rly need to use it most karthus players play exhaust enabling them to 1v1 you early on”
Prefexx says “Very easy lane. He has no way to stop your ult with no hard cc. He does have his frequently used Lay Waste, but you can easily dodge the slow bubbles with your movement speed or even your shunpo. His passive does nothing really because once you kill him you can shunpo your right out of there.”
veipz says “This is a team fight around junglers karthus likes to full clear u like to full clear but u can outgank him karthus ganks are not favored but if he full clear take kills thats bad.”
loganrichards says “You can’t farm as fast as him but you gank way better. Farm VERY efficiently and don't over force to kill him once.
Play VERY SMART, about how much time you use, look to use your kit to dodge his Q's and always E his R!”
Samikin says “Non-Threat.
Dodge Q. That is all.
He outranges you, but his Q's are really easy to dodge. Get up in his face if you can without getting hit by too many Q's, then it's an auto-win.
Recommendation:
Aery (+ Ingenious Hunter) rune page
Crown of the Shattered Queen + Lich Bane”
Destruuu says “Karthus will sit in his own Jungle the entire time. Just make sure to chill and gank your lanes. He can't really do anything against you unless he has R and gets free kills.”
garbocan says “Extremely dangerous for Ivern. In the jungle, he massively outfarms you and will be ahead by 60-100 cs by 25 minutes.
His ganks are also difficult to counter, since Karthus doesn't commit very hard, both positionally and target wise. If Ivern shows up, Karthus is likely not in a position where he's trapped. If Ivern shields a teammate, it's not difficult for Karthus to just start Qing another target that isn't protected.
Even outside of the jungle, Karthus is still a big threat, especially if he dies in a good place. Best thing to do VS Karthus in a fight is to try to sneak Daisy onto him and make it harder for him to get the position he wants.”
FrostbiteMW says “His early game isnt that great, making it easy for you to poke him and snowball in lane. After 6 you can still easily poke with R - Q. You can kinda perma run him down with Ignite, because he has no way to CC you. Just dodge his Q and it should be free.”
Clasher2124 says “Outscales you and if you kill him you can still easily die because now you might have nowhere to heal from. Also rip force of nature.”
OakIgu says “Karthus is a fragile AP champion who have a INSANE clear speed but you can deal with him quite easily just be carefull with invades if he is running with exhaust.”
White Cr0w says “Scaling beast. He can kill you after you kill him. He deals a lot of damage, farms like a monster and puts you pressure to end a game quickly.”
Zero macro says “Briar has a pretty good time into Karthus, however… Karthus his fast clear speed and scaling can be hard to deal with + Karthus Q’s are very more likely to be guaranteed into a Berserking Briar.
Briar is allowed to counter jungle and pressure the map really easily in this matchup and thereby should do so.
”
Coccaa says “If he's fed its best to not fight him at all until you can lock him down for your team. His wall of pain can slow you so much which as I have said is a huge issue for trundle because movement speed is his best stat. However buying swifties is a good way to combat his slow. It also reduces your magic resist allowing him to absolutely melt you with his E since you need to get into melee range to fight him. It's all around a bad matchup duel-wise and farm-wise but if you kill him enough early, it should be enough to put him far enough behind so you can fight him any time.”
wiglessfool says “The only problem with karthus is that he just keeps scaling until he wins the game. Beat him by winning fast. Not a threat to Taliyah because of how fast she is.”
MusicJG says “He outfarms you in Jungler Clear by 30~ seconds.
He can look to invade your last camp so be careful of pathing to a lane without priority.
He scales like a truck, look to invade him with priority later on in the game to deny him camps, or look for a fast 3 invade with your laners to make him fall behind.
He'll be useless without an XP Lead.”
Turnupthetoaster says “Invade, invade, invade!!! DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET HIM FARM UP AND SCALE FOR FREE! He becomes a monster in the late game. He will out-farm you, and he will out-scale you. Do not give him that chance!”
Zero macro says “Karthus allows Ekko to safely enter the early game, thereby Ekko becomes a fast threat dive in for Karthus combined with high mobility as well. Ekko R denies Karthus his R as well.”
Zero macro says “Karthus is strong at any moment in the game, which comes in check with a hard to hit spamming skillshot. Thereby he wants to farm jungle a lot and scale up as soon as possible. Nidalee is good at taking advantage of Karthus early on, and she has the movement speed to dodge Karthus Q's easily with a good trade pattern.”
Zero macro says “Karthus had way better clearspeed combined with having no On-hit related damage. Thereby he scales way better and becomes more useful than Shen. Try to abuse Karthus early on, which Shen is stronger at.”
Zero macro says “Zed and Karthus are the best Speed clear junglers in the game, thereby Zed has a way much favorited early game and 1v1 into Karthus, especially when reached level 6. Zed early presence has a way better edge to succeed into skirmishes and objectives.
Whenever Karthus becomes a threat ---> Edge of Night and Maw of Malmortius become strong options. ”
NegativePhoenix says “He still has some threatening power against you but not much if you can get in his face. If you keep him CCed, he can't keep spamming Q. If he's able to kite you because of his wall, just run off until he makes the mistake of chasing. He'll have to tank it or flash. Your MS should keep you a hard target for his Qs so keep that in mind. In the VERY RARE CHANCE you catch him channeling ult, you're the best counter to stop it”
metalhydra273 says “He does a shit ton of damage if you aren't careful. His lack of mobility means that e could be enough cc, but in some cases you'll want to use your ult to reposition him before he dies. If you can do that, you should do well in fights against him. You can win 1v1s, especially if you're ahead, but you'll need to mind your footing and dodge some his qs. Going into him means you'll be taking damage, so knowing your limits is crucial as a fed Karthus can stuff you out easily. Consider Force of Nature or an Anathema's (if there's no other AP threats). Also make sure you set up objectives first, walking into him is not ideal.”
BigodeOfLegends says “Impossível de jogar contra, te caita facilmente ainda mais se ele estiver de exaustão, possui muito slow contra Rell e muito dano.”
SunLongGod says “one of the easiest matchup. no mobility, squishy and has no hard CC. He can't slow you, can't ult you with your Q or W is up. weak to invade early game”
MrFerrot says “Karthus is all about his Q's, and it is bloody hard for him to hit you at all. try not to get slowed, then ult and one-shot him. remember to run away from him after you kill him though.”
Ezikko says “Literally free, just invade him, ask for you laners to come with you, and he wont do anything all game. In order for him to win he has to be like 1 or 2 items lead and play with his team.”
Apari1010 says “Definitely an easier matchup for Shadow Assassin but Rhaast does just fine into him. Early game you beat him, try to match where he goes on the map and prevent him from doing anything. If you get on top of him, he's going straight back to fountain.”
BradJr says “He is a very easy target to kill at any point in the game. As long as his team doesn't help him, you should easily out-scale him. (clone rating 4/10)”
ttvRegedice says “If he runs exhaust this matchup becomes hard. Karthus can afk farm to carry the game when you have to be proactive on the map. If you slip up he's only going to be clearing more, so he can quickly gain level leads. Be prepared to invade with your team if you have lane prio, otherwise make sure to secure objectives early so you have something to scale alongside by while he has his gazillion damage ultimate brewing up in 20 minutes. Becareful invading as if you 3 camp and run into his jungle he would be finishing his 5th game and going to his 6th if he's clearing well. Ping your team for a rlly good leash to make the invade in time.”
Virizion says “Considered the easiest matchup for Nocturne. You can run him down in his own jungle during his first clear as this is his weak point. Be careful as he does run Exhaust most of the time and he will beat you if he hits all Qs”
PerfectPower says “Full clear champs are terrifying because counter-jungling is back in the meta as of patch 13.5. Ask laners for wards in your entrances and make sure to gank or you'll fall behind. ”
DJBASSANGEL says “AP based so he will be tough to battle, simply put, if karthus is a good player, gg go next, if its not a good karth, u always win, since his Q is the only dmg output really except for ult”
ShinyEmo says “Too easy. Immobile, his W is useless, you can just walk to get away or dodge as you are too fast and you can negate %90 of his ult damage with your W. Counter-jungling is advised with caution.
Note: Your Q dodges his Ult too.”
Majd1 says “This is considered an easy matchup. To succeed, dodge Karthus's Q abilities and aim to secure an early game advantage. Consider counter-ganking and pathing to find Karthus at the first scuttler. Keep in mind that Karthus lacks mobility, making it difficult for him to dodge your spears. Karthus is known for his efficiency in clearing the jungle and quickly accumulating XP and gold leads. To counteract this advantage, it is important to try and kill him in the earlier stages of the game.”
1Strike says “I don't like this matchup. It can go either way really. He is magic damage and outclears you. But you can beat him in 1v1. You need your team to not int free kills to him or die to his R often. If he does end up getting free kills..this matchup turns from fine into horrible.
I rate karthus as even because this champions ultimate is too obnoxious and he always does damage unless giga behind.
”
GiAEcchI says “Try to predict his jungle pathing and invade him early on, you can easily 1v1 him even without ignite IF you can get close to him.
Beat him before he scale, he outscale you H A R D.”
checca says “One of the worst matchups for Zac in the jungle by far is Karthus. There is literally no way to counter him since you cannot dodge his E. Going in is almost always a death sentence, so most of the time I will only use my Q1, Q2, and CC and save my E to get out of his passive when he is dead. Never jump in on Karthus unless you are sure you can kill him and escape. Also, be aware that he will kill your passive in his death passive.”
basrty1p says “His skill is no threat to you anymore since you have CC, DPS, and team utility better than him.
Just use W+E+Q+Ignite to kill him instead.”
Kindredgarten says “Stop his ultimate with yours, you can save yourself and your team. Early game powerfarmer in the jungle, you can invade him for an easy kill.”
lovicoaching says “2,3,4 or 5. If he can't invade level 1, can't invade level 4 after clear, and you can get scuttles and he doesn't go exhaust he's a 1 or a 2 on difficulty scale, free win. If he goes exhaust and any of those are possible he's around a 3 to 4. If he goes exhaust and he has strong ad laners who allow him to invade level 1, invade after full clear at lvl 4, contest all scuttles AND setup ganks, he's a 5. Player skill does matter also but lanes etc. matter more here as long as he knows to go exhaust.
Hard cover level 1 invade. Do not start same side of the map as him if he seems like a decent player (decent elo and has exhaust). He finishes clear 2:55 with 1 smite up leashless so he WILL be on your blue before you finish your clear if you do not start opposite side from him. ”
Davecraft16 says “An immobile champion who doesn't take flash, if this isn't a free kill I don't know what it is. Unless you are high elo he will miss most of his q. Just perma invade him and don't even let him gank. Put an end to his suffering.”
Kukiziuu_ says “If you play rhaast or assasin your winning against him, hes the easiest matchup you could play against. Invade his jungle as much as possible, play near objectives.”
Bhyure33 says “You can kill him easily if you get close to him. But be aware that he can kill you in his passive. He is also a great threat to your team even when behind because of his R. But other than that, you should be able to carry better.”
Lasine says “This can be major or minor depending if he is going exhaust or not. With exhaust invade him its just a flip and he can free farm to outscale you and just press one buttom to one shot 5 people. If he goes flash you just oneshot him perma. Mid game is our best moment to kill him every teamfight with one combo.”
RedNBlue says “Run him down, go where you please. Even if he's fed try to run straight at him. Just hope your team has your back, and the enemy teams peel can't save him because if he survives your bomb rush you should be very upset. ”
Riccardo126 says “You can't block any of his abilities with your shield, so use it offensively or hold it with 5 stacks to escape with E speed after you killed him.”
MythicalMinute says “this champ is a farm machine, he will always be ahead in cs, he can also easily double camp. If you get vision of him early, invade him, if you get a kill on him, repeat invade him. If you dont, spam gank a lane because he will be trying to scale.
Bruiser (Fighter Oriented) is good.”
ItsSplash says “Pretty nice matchup for Evelynn even in higher elos. Evelynn gets to freely farm and no matter how fed Karthus is if he doesn't have Exhaust + Red smite combo for damage reduction or Stopwatch/Zhonya to dodge Evelynn R he will die to Evelynn.
Do note that Evelynn R can dodge Karthus R if timed properly.
Just be mindful of not dropping too low on HP with no R when Karthus R is up.”
spuki97 says “Make sure to invade him since he likes to full clear jungle. If he has exhaust in jungle, try to bait it out then blow your combo. Best build: Regular Assassin/Chinese strat”
Kao_Oak says “In a strict 1v1, you shred him. BUT he is a scaling champion and no matter how hard he will fall behind, he will start scaling eventually. You need to destroy him and his jungle as much as you can. Hit your W just before his R hits so you reduce it by 90%.”
RengarNBush says “You can cheese him by doing this exact clear, Red -> Blue -> his Red.
By the time you do your 2 camps he already did 4, he will have no smite on his red and should be doing it if you do everything right. You get an advantage over this guy from the beginning, but the game will be very hard since he can't really be put behind if he gets to farm his jungle, he might even be higher level than you since his clear is insane, also if you jump on him there is a 80% chance you die, if he has exhaust you can't kill him and run or you die. Very broken champ, if you are new on rengar and playing in high elo dodge this matchup.”
BattleCatsRoyale says “Karthus might be one of the few junglers you can actually invade safely, as long as you track him. he still out damages you early if he lands his Q consistently.”
MaximusWillCarry says “You beat him early but lat he will oneshot with each Q + ults all of your passive blobs. Stomp him early and dont let him get ahead. He is immobile but watch out for his passive.”
mochileiro says “Karthus is the greatest problem to go against in the jungle, the way to win against him is to counter his jungle early and keep pressing, but take care if he use exhaust.”
Geomine says “you outscale and outrade him in lane so no big deal, just kill him and his adc on repeat he is very squishy, you can sustain his dmg with your W he cant.”
Atemporal says “A única chance de Karthus matá-lo é no nível 1, respeite o dano do Q. Nesta partida, você já pode começar a negociar o nível 2 se estiver se sentindo confiante em suas habilidades de esquiva. Use a velocidade de movimento passiva para se esquivar e fugir. Depois de um comércio,
vá em direção à sua onda de lacaios. Mesmo que ele acerte um Q, contanto que também acerte um lacaio, ele causará apenas 50% de dano. Karthus não tem ferramentas para se defender se você E nele, então você tem muito potencial de matar no início do jogo. eu. Se você não pensa
é possível matá-lo, empurrar as ondas e procurar roams, invades, jg camps etc, pois Karthus não tem como negar o push a não ser matando você. Se Karthus for agressivo, concentre-se em processar sua passiva nele e depois use-a para correr
longe / esquivar. Se ele for uma construção frágil como o Eco de Luden ou o de Liandry, ele será macio o suficiente para você negociar com ele sob a torre, e você pode até conseguir 100 para 0 mesmo sob a torre. Isso basicamente não tem risco, pois ele não tem
cc ou explosão surpresa para pegá-lo desprevenido. Mais tarde, você o demolirá na pista lateral, especialmente depois de 2+ itens. Proc passivo, dance ao redor dele. Use seu R para evitar o dano do R, se necessário. Ele também é extremamente imóvel, então é fácil acertar W
dele. ”
Eagzey says “Yes we can 1v1 Karthus. But being a close range champion Karthus always does well against us and because he clears so quickly, we can't really punish his 'weak' early game like other AP junglers. Possible ban.”
Yuki H. says “In a 1v1 situation he poses a lot of pressure but in teamfight/skirmish situations Zac outshines a Karthus. Due to his squishiness and low mobility, any cc chain that lands on him will likely result in a kill.
His playstyle is often to powerfarm, which you are happy to partake in. Otherwise, look to counter his telegraphed ganks (most likely after he full clears) or gank a lane yourself with a vague idea of his position on the map. ”
DixonTheGuideMaker says “Karthus will be looking to farm as much as possible so he can get his Ultimate Requiem(R) as quickly as he can. You can delay his level 6 power spike by invading his jungle and stealing away his camps. Once Karthus has his Ultimate, he can impact the map at any given time. When fighting, always consider that he can use his Ultimate to turn the exchange around. Taking away Karthus’ blue buff will make it harder for him to clear the jungle as he needs as much mana as he can get to clear it quickly. If you know his buffs about to spawn and he’s on the other side of the map, try to steal it away.”
Saltu says “RUSH AND DO KILL FOR KILL. dodge Qs if you are PRO... yeah right.
it's impressive the damage this bad boy deals. That plus mage items it's dangerous.”
DixonTheGuideMaker says “Karthus will be looking to farm as much as possible so he can get his Ultimate Requiem(R) as quickly as he can. You can delay his level 6 power spike by invading his jungle and stealing away his camps. Once Karthus has his Ultimate, he can impact the map at any given time. When fighting, always consider that he can use his Ultimate to turn the exchange around. Taking away Karthus’ blue buff will make it harder for him to clear the jungle as he needs as much mana as he can get to clear it quickly. If you know his buffs about to spawn and he’s on the other side of the map, try to steal it away.”
domjakf says “Really easy matchup, especially if he has exhaust, look for invades, you can invade him lvl2 with your cougar W if he started the opposite side of you. 0 mobility, so he can't dodge your spears.”
lumihehe says “he does the same thing as you. farm and scale, if you do it better you win, if he does it better he wins. let the pve competition begin”
Salmon Kid says “Really easy match up. Karthus' w slow is easy to avoid and her q passive natrually counters Karthus' primary damage. Only issue is you get outscaled, but you can force a pace on Karthus and counter jungle him without restistance. ”
Lawiss1 says “Match-up simple pour Evelynn
Tu as envie de jouer contre lui.
Tu peux le oneshot très facilement surtout s'il go exhaust smite au lieu de flash smite.
La plus part du temps il n'a même pas le temps d'exhaust.”
Nik7857 says “Honestly, this matchup can go both ways. You should always save rappel to dodge his ult. And make it your mission to either take over the game or invade his ass. if he takes his exhuast he cant flash away on your first invade so just rappel its duration if he times it poorly and kill him. He will win if the game goes on too long.”
ItsAydam says “You'll have to get used to his movement and the way he hits his Q. Once you do that, he should be fairly easy to deal with. Your ult counters his whole kit and most karthus players take exhuast; this means he CANNOT escape from his death.”
Farmer Cleetus says “Depends if he's fed, but he's really really easy to beat when he does his ultimate, doing his slow or Q. He won't deal much damage if you dodge everything properly.”
HoesBeforeBros69 says “With inmatched movementspeed it is SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN impossible for Karthus to hit you. I tested it myself. Not even Rylai's Crystal Scepter will change that fact. That is also SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN.”
NegativePhoenix says “Besides burst if he cant slow you with his gate, he can't win against you, you can just keep using your Q to dodge his Qs and auto him down. Be mindful of his AOE field as it still hurts in a long time frame of being in it and book it after his passive activates or he could kill you if you're too low. He's immobile but still hurts if you let him get fed.”
resetwice says “He does a lot of damage but it's squishy and slow, so you can all win always! Just don't be low HP to avoid his R. BEST RUNES TO GO: ELECTROCUTE”
NightSoar says “Easy Peazy, just remember to dodge his Qs, use your resets to get out of his passive, and your E to get the dmg reduction from his Ulti.”
theAerialist says “He is a free kill after 6 unless he gets exhaust.
He will get free kills with his R. (Nice champ)
You can kill him before teamfights if you track him down well.”
NegativePhoenix says “He's squishy, immobile, a perfect target for Evelynn. Just be mindful of his passive once you kill him but your ult will usually put you out of range of his passive range. Just be mindful his ult will lock onto you no matter what, but you might be able to ult save yourself if you got the reaction time.”
Puddingb00m says “He will clear faster and, even can even kill you in a duel with the low damage taliyah rework. He will have the overhand till level 9. After that it will be up to your skills. He is immobile so hitting your combo will be easy, the problem his you will get him inside of your team where is passive will win the teamfight. Don't focus W him into your team and just R him off the fight.”
One Stab says “Karthus is not really a thread if you don't allow him to be. So try to abuse his vulnerability by invading and not letting him get into the game. ”
RLluka says “If he takes exaust you just run him down at all stages of the game. The only time you cannot do this is if he is solo AP and fed. If you have any MR he cannot play the game against you. You can freely walk into his jung.”
IamFafa says “Take phase rush and go through him with your E to proc phase rush and just dodge his Q while running around him, shouldnt even be a problem”
evil in says “Karthus is one of the easiest matchups. If u manage to oneshot him before the fight starts (which should be easy to do with flash) he is basically a nonexistant champion. U can also invade him all the time once u hit 6 i think this is the easiest match up for Evelynn”
Simple Shawn says “[TL;DR - GANK WHEN OVEREXTENDED / USED W ; IF JGL THEN DO THE SCUTTLE AS INTENDED AND GANK ANYWHERE, HE'S AFK-FARMING. TANK HIS R WITH YOUR W. YOU CAN 1v1 HIM AT 2+ ITEMS.]
[Karthus is a mage that is supposed to deal a lot of damage but he's really like squishy, you can easily oneshot him after reaching the damage output in the build (Goredrinker ; Demonic Embrace ; Guinsoo depending on the build). Otherwise, he just deals a lot of damage you know, his E is kinda not letting you be near him a lot of time, his passive is kinda annoying, try to Q out when he's dead, his R can be countered by pressing W.]
[MAGE CHAMPION]”
GrayJinxed says “Karthus' main damage are his Q skill shots. They have a shorter cooldown than your empowered cooldown on Q but you can kite around him to the best of your abilities.
His wall (E) will slow the target and reduce Magic Resistance so make sure to save your Q when he walls you.
If Karthus is in the middle of ulting (R), the only option is the R yourself from dying. ”
Majd1 says “Super easy matchup, dodge his Q's and try to kill him in the early game. Countergank and path into him to try and find him at first scuttler. Karthus has no mobility so he can't do anything to dodge your spears.”
YoungTact says “This champion is just a solo q monster in the jungle when played by a good player. Would recommend just banning it once you play in platnium and above if you intend on playing poppy jungle. When it comes to killing him it isn't that hard but its what he does to your team that is harder to deal with. Once snowballed its pretty much impossible to deal with and gg. Clears faster than you but isnt that healthy so if you have a chance to invade him you should take it. Use your MS to your advantage to dodge Q's. ”
Xyllow says “Doesn't seem like a natural counter, but there is essentially nothing you can do if Karthus plays it correctly. Full clearing into outscaling, better pressure in ganks and without Warwick having R it's really hard to reach karthus and kill him. If you do and have flash up and no one is there to help him, you will kill him but that almost never happens so.”
OfficerVi says “He just outfarms you by 30 CS and picks up free kills with his R while never leaving his jungle. Rush level 3 to gank and hardcore snowball the game. If he doesn't have exhaust, look to invade his jungle.”
Hienaa says “Even tho they are ranged champions, if you hit 1 Q on them, they cant contest your insane damage output and they just have to take it. One tapped every time.”
uglyama says “He's squishy, has low mobility and less burst. You beat him 1v1. Take care of his Q when he dies tho, you can dodge it more easily with your passive.”
Janooobi says “Make sure you hit your Q on Karthus because if you miss he will start killing you back, your passive usually allows you to get out of his slow safely”
officialwiseguy says “He can't slow you in your R, you can dodge his Ult with your Q, on top of that he has no mobility, is squishy and has no hard CC, you can also negate all of the damage from his abilities with your W so he is one of the easiest matchups for yi.”
BreadedBreadCrum says “Karthus can be a pain if he gets fed through CS or kills. Otherwise, your shield just counters his ultimate unless it's more than one executable teammate. Go Aery Domination with Eyeball. For AP, go Night Harvester or CotSQ. If he is fed go Zhonya's. For Support, go Shurelya's. Play aggressive for your laners, get you or them fed and try and match his CS'ing with your ganking if that makes sense.”
Consolo says “Have to invade him, track him as much as you can, and take your toplaner to kick his nuts in whenever he's topside. He outscales and you can't peel r.”
Zehmox says “if played correctly he can full clear at 3mins and you are still struggling on your wolves. you can prevent this by killing him on his last camp. but its hard to pull off. if they run Exhaust you are not going to kill him. what you can do is snowball your lanes and dragons”
blulemon says “Karthus is mainly a counter gank dependent champ, try to make sure he won't show up at your gank. He can kill your passive easily and damage you heavily early.”
TheDarkinReaper says “He is always dead by ur hand, but i also can say the same to u if u stuck in his W E and spamming Q at u after death or even R. So he can be pain in the ass most of the time, but not a reason for ur loss.”
b0n0 says “Just invade and burst the shit out of him. Do not let him scale or do anything. This champ gets absolutely rekt by Vi and if you lose you should rethink your life. ”
Elekktro says “Karthus can easily outfarm Viego and be a carry threat. Viego is able to invade Karthus relatively easily and also itemize well vs Karthus, but no matter what you do Karthus will be a threat. It's very difficult to make Karthus a non factor because even if you one shot him in a fight he can still provide tons of value to his team with his passive and ult.”
sonminh says “AP or bruiser is your best bet against him. If you can, go the Luden's build so that you can use Zhonya's when he ults. He will out farm you often so try to get your lanes ahead early. Once he gets Zhonya's he will be difficult to solo kill.”
Rechnomet says “Karthus' "W" Wall of Pain can easily nage you with its slow, do not let him stack Dark Harvest. Try to hun him early game as he is weaker than Warwick at this time.”
J98TheGreat says “I have no clue how this one goes and this might even be an even threat instead, but based on having 370k mastery on Ornn and not noticing an equally skilled Karthus having a clear advantage in a team fight leads me to believe there isn't one. He can't take out a teammate and dip out like a lot of more difficult matchups. If I see otherwise I'll update this.”
King Fidd says “A good Karthus is hard to play against. He will heavily outfarm you and his passive is annoying to play against. Ulting him can lead to messy fights where your team fights on his passive, so I usually take predator and pick him off without using ult.”
Ghionova says “Fun time is over, you will NEED to save your ult to dodge his ult. If you time it right, you can avoid taking damage. He can hardslow and kite you. Best way to put him on a leash is to steal his blue.”
leoviniciux says “Karthus possui alto dano, ótimo clear de jungle e sua habilidade W pode ser um grande problema em certas ocasiões. Pegar vantagem sobre o Karthus é fundamental, aproveitando principalmente do baixo potencial de gank dele.”
Brosinex says “Puedes matarlo muy bien y niegas su habilidad definitiva con la tuya en un enfrentamiento bastante fácil, simplemente no te quedes cerca de él después de que muera debido a su pasiva.”
Da Mastah says “🤣🤣🤣. I was actually considering putting karthus in synergy due to how easy this matchup is. If they have the audacity to lock in Karthus vs Yi they're either a smurf or completely clueless. Regardless it shouldn't be a problem for you. 3 out of 4 abilities in your kit are a natural counter to all of his abilities, so whenever you have the chance invade him. You should be living in his jungle rent free.”
ANTHONYEVELYNN says “easy matchup, you want to play vs karthus. easily able to 1 shot him, especially troll karthus will go exhaust and you can 1 shot him before he has time to exhaust and he has no flash as well like what ”
Zyvran says “You are stronger than him at every point in the game and just kinda run him over if he tries to do anything. Go Shieldbow or Hexdrinker so his ult doesn't pop you, if he happens to get fed.”
Citric says “Karthus clears faster than Shyvana and can gank with one press of the R button. You need to be actively trying to do more by securing objectives and perhaps counter jungling to break his jungle tempo. Save your W or R for when he dies so you can get out of his passive.”
Pullks says “Outscales you and farms much faster. In the early game you can all in him and kill him 1v1 if he misses abilities, don't be afraid of him if you have double buffs. ”
Pusi Puu says “Annoying jungler in generell. You have to make sure to invade him early and push him out of his own jungle, otherwise he doubles your cs with the blink of an eye. When he doesn't build zhonyas he is a free target almost every time, don't be scared even tho he has a solid lvl lead. You will kill him for sure, unless he is super fed and runs exhaust.”
SnowballBarrage says “Karthus is super cringe because of his clearspeed. I often am level 4 when he's level 6 even when I've picked up kills from good ganks. But as AP Nunu you can one shot him easily.”
NixLychee says “Extremely squishy in the early game, although he does a lot of damage for a mage in the early stages. He will mostly farm, so try to punish his lack of map presence by taking objectives, tower plates, and kills to make his farm lead irrelevant.”
LordGrox says “Attempt to deny his ganks and plays by abusing his lack of movement skills. Aside from that highly dangerous due to insane damage. Consider Mercs if the enemy team has enough AP.
Invading him on his first clear at Krugs is usually a decent idea.”
Polarshift says “Outscales you, outdamages you and clears faster than you. Not a counter by definition, but still insanely strong and most of all AP. You can try to invade his gromp at level 2 if he starts blue buff on red side. Setting him behind by invading is quite important.”
Veralion says “Nonthreatening. Karthus will probably stay in his own jungle playing farm simulator. You're fast enough to easily avoid his skittles. He can force your flash if he catches you in his W while yours is down, however, so respect him until it's available if you run into eachother in the early game. Post 6 he is easily gobbled up if you ever find him. If lane priority is favorable, feel free to go hunting. And make sure never to try to kill that one last camp if you're below 200 health. You never know when he may randomly ult. ”
Kocykek says “Early on you have to snowball asap because this guy is a ticking bomb. You somehow let him scale and it's over. His damage output is huge and you have to finish the game before late game. Otherwise stack tons of magic resists or just play like a god.”
Arfreezy says “Similar to Ekko and Evelynn matchups. Take an agressive setup like Ignite+Fleet+Lethality to snowball games before you get outscaled. Remember that healing runes such as Fleet and Ravenous can be very useful here to heal you out of Karthus Ultimate range after you kill him. Hex is a great option if there are other ap threats on the enemy team.”
LukaBre123 says “Karthus is good vs Sejuani since he has a very fast clear. He can also deal a ton of damage while not being near you. He doesn't have a lot of sustain but can deal a lot of damage.”
Doubtfull says “Karthus is another champion who is only really a problem at the top of the ladder. He generally power farms a lot, so it shouldn't be too hard to find him in his jungle and 100-0, especially post 6. ”
Asternova says “RUNES: Dark Harvest.
ITEMS: Zhonya's if his team has a lot of AD. Banshee's Veil if his team has a lot of AP. Mercury's Treads if his team is full of CC.
GAMEPLAY SUMMARY: Karthus scales extremely well and it's generally not a fun experience to go against if the game goes on for long and he gets a lead, so you must capitalize on his weaknesses. Know that he can't actually gank at all unless his target is extremely mispositioned, and if he tries while you're nearby, go for a countergank to punish him. Sometimes when you have a reasonable amount of AP, boots, etc.. you can ward his jungle to invade and potentially kill him if you see that his nearby laners won't be able to follow up in time. Use your movement speed to dodge and bait his Qs, get a Banshee's Veil if his team has a lot of magic damage, if not, go for Zhonya's to avoid his ult damage with this item's active effect.”
Whynotbefriends says “If he has priority laners it can be very hard to punish his farm heavy playstyle, we don't have the option of Athenes anymore for easy magic resist so attacking his laners is the only real option.”
Insightful says “Karthus farms really fast but he has a hard time fighting in your range so you, you can always black shield one of your allies to deny his ulti but overall it's an even matchup”
Insightful says “you don't really win fights at any stage of the game, he outfarms you, he can have more impact in teamfights aswell.. you have very limited win conditons here”
NamaeWaMitsurii says “Very fast clear and Strong Ganks. Don't let him get fed or he will R you for 1/4 of your Health. Beware of his strong gank potential and powerful obj contest power. He is Squishy tho so if you have the move-speed to dodge his abilities, try and kill him quickly.”
FREAKSTAR says “He scales harder than you, and it can be tough for you to run him down and kill him since you are slow. The other issue is that in a team fight killing him doesn't take away his damage, he can still hit Q's and then ULT to help his team. Not easy to shut down.”
Kayncer says “Easy to Engage on, easy to Invade early or late, doesnt spike a lot until level 11 and 2 items, can be annoying with his ult, try to ult him out of fights if he is to fed”
poopyOCE says “Your burst is better than him (ulti), your CC helps 1v1, Q then full channel Boutiful Harvest. E can deny most damage for a bit so try to use E to shut down his damage. Be careful of Ult, hurts a lot. Otherwise pretty favourable matchup.”
Karasmai says “Only reason he falls under Hard is because he can powerfarm and get free kills just from using R so its impossible for any jgler to punish especially since his lvl 1 is a lot more powerful than ppl think so its hard to invade and punish especially as a Kayn, I typically like to try to teamfight if i go rhaast and kill him early and you may use Ulti to dodge his ulti which can negate a lot of his dmg, If you go Blue you need to snowball before he gets zhonyas and invade him a lot and take his camps so he will not powerfarm.”
MexBookMaster says “Karthus farmea muy bien y esa es su fortaleza. Juega Shadow Assassin (Azul) saca ventaja y perma invade su jungla. En el 1v1 no te gana a menos que vaya muy feed y falles todas tus habilidades. SA puede oneshotearlo casi siempre así que abusa de ello, como quiera recuerda que Karthus es una granada de mano, si muere puede seguir utilizando sus habilidades incluso su R. Cuando lo mates sal de ahí corriendo!”
ak521 says “A skill matchup. If the karthus is good, it may be game for you. Very hard to engage on due to his large AOE damage and Amumu isn't particularly strong against AP champions. Furthermore, even if you do happen to kill him, he'll probably be able to kill you as well in his death animation.”
Rhoku says “Karthus is free food. He does not stand a chance 1v1. Ghost makes him a free kill every time. There is the threat of him becoming fed but there is not much he can do to stop you from killing him.”
Insightful says “karthus falls into the fiddlesticks category, but the difference is that he also wins 1v1 against you at any stage of the game pretty much, it's easy for him to get ahead and snowball”
izzlelol says “You can kite him out very well and you negate his ult with yours pretty easy matchup just don't stand close to him after he dies due to his passive.”
OsakaSatang says “Electrocute + inspiration
Same as fiddlestick but even weaker because he literally has no defensive tool except his annoying W wall. i would even recommend you to do red blue gromp and rush to his side for a easy pick off. Free lp”
ItsSkoob says “Karthus just likes to farm and press R from his jungle. Most Karthus players take exhaust now so early 1v1s are harder unless played right. You just need to disrupt his farming and he should fall behind.”
Sammystinky says “You can't invade him and by the time you get level 3 he is level 4. The entire game you are playing behind a beast of a late game champ. You can E in and burst him if he lacks flash and hourglass, but the passive will nearly kill you for it unless he is behind. ”
RedNBlue says “Karthus can outrange you but he's just too squishy. He can do damage but just way too late in the game. You can easily get some 5-10 kills off of this guy early. Of course at the cost of cs and objectives.
But really, this guy might as well be an OBJ to Trundle.”
colingogo says “You both powerfarm. If you ever find him after six you can kill him easily, and if you find him before six you can usually outplay him.”
SketchtheHunter says “Very similar to Lillia. He's got a bit more range, but his damage is less consistent. Don't walk into his W, you dingus, if you can't get to him don't bother since he'll run away indefinitely. ”
Suseri says “He can’t slow you during your R, you can dodge his ult with Q, and he has no mobility, hard CC, or tankiness. You can also negate all his damage with W, making him one of the easiest matchups for Yi.”
FrostForest says “Pretty easy to kill but he deals a lot of damage and can return a kill if you don't dodge his abilities
Outfarms you really hard
Look to invade him early game”
Irmike78 says “Close range fights can allow for Karthus to land easy Qs. Karthus R is a channel so unless you use Gwen W BEFORE he channels his ult then you will still take damage ”
manco1 says “Karthus out farms you, out ganks you, out scales you, one shots you with 2 items. Literally just a better champ than you in the jungle. Just pray he dies a couple times and take off with a lead. Best of luck, Summoner. ”
RichMrFork says “Incredibly hard for Karthus to kill you. Your passive movement speed and E should allow you to dodge the majority of Karthus Q's. He is also extremely immobile so hitting your W isn't too hard. Once you hit your items he can be one-shot consistently as he lacks peel for himself.”
Kayn Mains says “Karthus will almost always go for a full clear that ends at a scuttle crab. Do the same, but do not fight him. Instead, try pinging your team to get them to collapse on him. Karthus is basically a ranged Kha’Zix - if he hits Q and you are alone you cannot beat him.
During mid game you can try to fight him if you already have your core items. However, unless you have flash, it will almost always be a 1 for 1 killl unless you catch him on very low HP due to his passive.
Once you hit late game you will be able to destroy this champ since he has no mobility. Just be careful while running away from his passive, it deals more damage than you would expect.”
LilPaniniUwU says “This champ is really braindead afk farm, so just invade him and kill him. He'll definitely flash away, so try and save your second q for his flash. You might want to get a stopwatch for his ult in the later stages, and upgrade it into a Guardian Angel, he's gonna afk farm and then nuke everybody unless you can survive it.
”
metalhydra273 says “Karthus is easy to kill off, but not always easy to survive against. If you can, kill him away from the objective to limit the damage he can deal while in passive, and look to get mr so you aren't punished as hard for going in. If he does get fed, you may find his damage too much to handle, so try to win early because you should crush him if you do.”
LilPaniniUwU says “Karthus will almost always go for a full clear that ends at a scuttle crab. Do the same, but do not fight him. Instead, try pinging your team to get them to collapse on him. Karthus is basically a ranged Kha’Zix - if he hits Q and you are alone you cannot beat him. During mid game you can try to fight him if you already have your core items. However, unless you have flash, it will almost always be a 1 for 1 killl unless you catch him on very low HP due to his passive. Once you hit late game you will be able to destroy this champ since he has no mobility. Just be careful while running away from his passive, it deals more damage than you would expect.
”
KhaZix Mains says “[6/10] Another matchup where it can be decided based on your proactivity. If you let Karthus farm up and don’t pressure him/lanes early-game, then you may struggle as the game progresses. Look to place aggressive wards whenever you can, and try to get early ganks off before he reaches 6, also before he can pick up his core items since your base stats will be much more impactful early than his. Q evolve should be good to quickly DPS him but R can be a viable choice as well. Prioritize lethality items such as Ghostblade and Edge of Night instead of Cleaver in your build as long as there aren’t many tanks, so that you can deal with him quickly.”
The elephant says “Game can be unplayable for karthus early-mid, he'll always be useful late game.
do the same trick as vs evelynn, i swear it works 80 % of time.”
Gooooooby says “Karthus is a pretty easy matchup. Shaco is able to 100 to 0 Karthus at any point in the game past Lv 3. Karthus also has a linear jungle clear which is very predictable to read. When skirmishing Karthus, try to save your R to dodge his R.”
Ejsner says “If Karthus opts for Exhaust, this matchup can become quite challenging. While Karthus can focus on farming to become a late-game powerhouse, you'll need to stay proactive on the map. Any missteps on your part will only allow him to further pull ahead in levels. If you have lane priority, coordinate invades with your team. Otherwise, prioritize securing early objectives to keep pace with Karthus's scaling potential. Exercise caution when invading, as a well-cleared jungle can mean Karthus is already onto his next game. Communicate with your team for a strong leash to execute invades effectively.”
Ejsner says “Electrocute recommended. Really prone to being invaded early stages of the game, avoid getting hit by as many Q's possible and just quick combo him. ”
Nanelol says “Cheap. If you catch him he 90% dies if he alone. One problem is he can use skills for few second if he dies and he can ult from everywhere
”
SaintsBeast says “Karthus' wall can slow you down very easily when your in snowball mode and it completely counters this build. Avoid Karthus when playing Nunu. ”
Nanelol says “Dodge if you ever face Karthus. He will melt you in less than 3 seconds no matter your mr and health. If you do manage to kill him; you will at best trade 1 for 1 due to his passive.
”
Eagzey says “Great for AP Shaco because we can be aggressive knowing our R will almost always blow up in fights because of his E. Can also use our R to dodge his.”
Vispectra says “Another annoying match up due to having to dance around his Q but I max E in this match up due to the free charges he generates from Q spam. This gives you a fair amount of wave clear to push back. Be sure to try to cancel his ult with your Q although most Karthus players wait until they've died. Shouldn't be too much trouble to lane against him.”
BlackFalcon2005 says “Karthus is a very squishy champ so you should win in duels, He does outrange you but has no mobility to escape if you displace him with pillar. You also have your W to easily dodge his Q”
IWillShowYouNoMercy says “similar to all farming junglers, just gank more than them, never try to outclear these guys you just can't. Gank early get yourself ahead and just look for invades at level 6”
MrMeem45 says “Karthus becomes an insane threat the more the game goes on, and his heavy magic DPS means that if you can't dodge his Q's you might actually die to him early. Try to invade him at the start of the game with the Baron Wall Quickdraw trick, explained later in the guide.”
theceasrsalad says “tbh don't really see the guy too often but if he gets ahead its hard to take his body since most of his power is take by his ult. if you know your gonna die and see his body take it his undead passive will allow you to do some damage to the people around you”
PK Noob says “You can easily dodge and burst Karthus at any stage of the game. It's the easiest to shut him down early game because that's when he's the most vulnerable.”
Riyad101 says “Very easy to kill early in the game and make sure to invade him early as well. He is not too hard to fight but make sure to dodge his wall as that slow will change the fight in his favour.”
EUWRATS says “Take phase rush and go through him with your E to proc phase rush and just dodge his Q while running around him, shouldnt even be a problem”
Strike1 says “Now even though karthus is an ''easy matchup'' I struggle a lot vs this champ. he farms so easily and without lane priority he always gets a cs lead if you cannot invade.
HOWEVER. your ultimate is a massive counter to karthus ultimate. Completely negating his main strength.
If you can invade him and kill him. stopping him from farming and then get ahead. you will mostly win vs him since his ultimate becomes redundant.”
nuck fugget says “take phase rush to help dodge his Qs, all depends on if you can set him behind early, lucky Graves' kit excells at this. Graves struggles vs AP threats because of his passive stacking armour.”
GuillaumeP84 says “Take 3 camps and invade him. You have to care because at scuttle he will be lvl 4. He is very squishy so try to trap. Care if you fail once a moove he will snowball very hard.”
Caled says “Karthus will be able to jungle diff most matchups as he has the ability to powerfarm and get free kills on low health targets with his Requiem (R) . Typically, when fighting Karthus in duels, look to fight him post level 6 and with form as you have the ability to block his ultimate damage with your Umbral Trespass (R) . Your best chance at winning against Karthus is going Blue Kayn as you can easily one shot him due to the fact that he has no mobility and is relatively very squishy. Keep in mind that he can build Zhonya’s Hourglass and Banshee’s Veil so try to fight him as much before he gets these items. When going Rhaast, dueling him can prove to be much harder so try forcing him into teamfights as it will be way easier to fight him then.”
Loul_60 says “If you can, try to nick his blue, if you can't, you've messed up. His early game is weak and he can't really gank, but you can't outfight him unless he's very low on mana.
Late game he becomes stronger but so do you.”
liserith says “His Q's hit like a truck and his E blocks your escape. He can be annoying, but your mobility is a huge problem for him, and your ult cucks his ult. ”
Gumipapucs says “You can really abuse him early, and might aswell the whole game as he is an immobile farming jungler. You can dodge his Q-s, keep distance from his E, you can ult his ult. If you engage him he's dead.”
chevy the sloot says “I love this match up. Fight this guy for scuttle if you're healthy and have prior. He farms a bit faster than you but at 6 you can perma invade him and farm him for mejai stacks. Take blue smite into him and just don't let him play. Only time he wins is if he's team is hard stomping yours and you can't punish his existance.”
c0st0m says “Karthus relies on hitting his q's to do damage untill late game so with lillia's speed you shouldn't get hit by too many q's and as such you naturally beat him
if you see enemy team pick karthus in champ select and you struggle against him ask ur mid to pick zed/talon and makes karthu's life hell
++ invading is adviced with lanes pushed in”
Udyr uber says “É a mesma coisa do Ekko
Ele é realmente fácil, problema é só desviar da maioria dos Q durante o invade que você mata ele tranquilo.
Mesmo rush do ekko
Passos de Mercúrio+Sabre de Batalha Encantamento: Guerreiro
”
Raizins says “I threw Karthus in as a threat because he can be a real problem especially in lower elos for Alistars. Just remember you might be able to combo him and use R to survive but if you're whole team decides to jump onto a karthus make sure you don't get rekt by his R afterwards.”
Snadr says “Dodge if you ever face Karthus. He will melt you in less than 3 seconds no matter your mr and health. If you do manage to kill him; you will at best trade 1 for 1 due to his passive”
ImCarsonLol says “jg - Viego has one of the healthiest clears in the game but his early clear is slow, compared to Karthus. If Viego can't contest Karthus early the game can become very hard.”
Wolf Rengar says “Recommended: Electrocute Rune Page/Build.
Tips: Always invade , countergank , steal his camps , end game asap.
1 of the easiest Rengar matchups if played properly.”
BreakrZero says “Outfarms, Outscales, Gets kills for free. His Counter Ganks can destroy you hard pre 6, post 6 tunneling Karthus almost guarantees your death unless it's a nice invade. ”
Exoslol says “Immobile, you kill him fast with CC. If you happen to get down inside his E then your passive will not survive. Be a bit careful about that.”
Get Ricked says “Karthus just wants to scale up and farm all early game. He is very fragile and vulnerable and if you don't stop him from farming he will take over the game. Try to find him in his jungle and kill him.”
Remmacs1 says “This champion hard counters Aphelios because he will take exhaust and make your life a nightmare. Make sure you take magic resist and poke him out before fighting him all-in. You should only take fights that you're 100% sure you're going to win against this champ.”
DarkAuraLOL says “he has a fast clear, but he loses alot of hp, you can fight him at all times, just side step his q's , also use your q to dodge and hit him at the same time, fast early form into this matchup, and you can kill him alot in his jungle, + steal some camps , try cheese on his raptors too , would make him rage quit, at blue form, you can one shot him always .”
KajiKumihoAkukei says “Karthus isn't a really big threat to you. He will most likely just be hard farming in the early game until he reaches level 6. If you get the chance to invade him and take some camps or even take his life you should really take the opportunity. ”
MetaSolaray says “Minor threat if Gold and below. High Elo Karthus are more adapt at hitting Q's on targets with mobility spells and Udyr just runs slightly faster. Take aftershock and unflinching and try to catch him doing a camp. Never run directly at him and build bruiser as he will aim to teamfight. Invade him often to avoid him attempting to powerfarm gold and XP.”
DarkAuraLOL says “he has a fast clear, but he loses alot of hp, you can fight him at all times, just side step his q's , also use your q to dodge and hit him at the same time, fast early form into this matchup, and you can kill him alot in his jungle, + steal some camps , try cheese on his raptors too , would make him rage quit, at blue form, you can one shot him always .”
Degryh says “ENGLISH: You pop it but save the watch for when I throw "R" at you and you know it's going to kill you. ///////////////////////////////////////////////ESPAÑOL: Lo revientas pero el reloj guárdalo para cuando te lance "R" y sepas que te va a matar.”
C7 Lord Pingu says “He can hard outfarm you and can get massive gold leads just by pressing 1 button. If we are talking about a 1v1 scenario, it is essential you land your stun (which shouldn't be overly difficult given his lack of mobility), if he tries to flash away you really either have to insta run or just ult/flash after him immediately. He can kite you down really hard if you mess it up so you must land ult if he survives your stun.
Any of the Galeforce Shieldbow or Kraken builds will do fine, although personally I prefer Shieldbow to stop him from cheese ulting you.”
RedNBlue says “Karthus probably has the worst first clear as a Jungler. It is the worst and any smart Jungler would rush him in his Jungle on the last part of his first clear. He can do damage late game but you can get to him really fast with your speed.”
Hidon1 says “Karthus is not that hard, but if he gets ahead of you the jungler is set and done and you can never be near him again. In order to not fall behind you need to clear your jungle. You CAN NOT leave camps for him to pick up, you win the 1v1 early on if you hit the snowball! If you want to play the match up how I play it, try to yoink his camps from him. I like to start snowball and take his raptors level 1 and if he is not on the red side of the jungle you can keep going and take the full side of that part of the jungle leaving him with only 3 camps. ”
J03B0B says “He's probably not going to kill you outright but he will farm faster and scale harder and you have no real way of punishing this.
Best chance is to snowball a lane early and play around that lane to invade his camps and deny scuttles/early objectives.”
Simon The Shaco Main says “Can outfarm you however behind he is and end up dealing more damage and outscales you. However, good Karthus players are rare.”
Schadenfreude says “The problem here is more of how you play the early game. He is going to scale and he is going to melt everyone. He always takes dark harvest and his passive and wall makes it hard to get close to him. This is a situation where you want to end the game ASAP, otherwise, you're going to lose. ”
Maile says “If you kill him over and over again early you win. If he manages to avoid you and power farm his jungle he just is 2-3 levels up and then you're depressed because he will always have global pressure with R. Find him early and shut him down with good invades and wards. ”
McSushi says “in high elo, I've heard he can just beat you by farming. unfortunately, I'm yet to reach a point where karthus is stronger than shaco, in the ladder.”
Connweasel says “Fight this champion early, invade and make him regret picking this champion against you. Karthus will look to fully clear his jungle. If you can spot where he started it can be easy to take advantage of him in the jungle.”
CalicoCactus says “Can be very annoying as he is a massive AP threat, use your Q mobility to run circles around his first couple of Q's before coming him, make sure to constantly be moving around and keeping track of his Q's even when he is dead.”
b4kk0n the Gold Jungler says “Ironically, Shen does really well into Karthus. Shen provides a lot of passive pressure on Karthus since his gank is much easier than the Q-Machine's. Try to invade him whenever possible and work around his ult cooldown.”
Manzey says “Get boots + ghost, when fighting pop ghost and just run around and he won't be able to hit any of his Qs and you'll win trades. Get Zhonyas midgame, to avoid Karthus R.”
Minase says “You both just want to powerfarm, he's not hard to kill at all you just can't fight him pre-6 alone. As soon as you find him post-6 you will just one shot him and he'll cry himself to an FF vote.”
BoyWonder00 says “Hit with some big nerfs. He is a powerfarming jungler and you won't see him ganking much. Use this to get massive lane pressure. He does outscale you, so once you have a lead you need to punish him. Banshee's Veil is great to dodge his R.”
BoyWonder00 says “He does outscale you, but you get your powerspike earlier. Once this happens, you need to be invading him and trying to prevent his farming.”
Holessando says “Same for Rek'Sai, Skarner, Kindred, you don't see him much anymore, but if so, don't get him fed, or your game is lost. With full build he can ULT - pentakill, so be careful vs him, but he shouldn't be any strong counter..”
metalhydra273 says “Dodge his q, stun him up, kill him easily. Not bad at all unless he's fed and chunking you hard. His w can be a nuisance but get past that and he has nothing to fight you off if you can kill him quick enough.”
DemacianStandard says “Free invades without counterplay. Just use an Oracle Lens while doing so. Play around their early game and invade if they attempt a gank. ”
Reason97 says “Karthus can feel strong at times, but his Q has a very small hitbox, and all the rest of his damage requires him to be RIGHT up on you to do it. Use your range, keep mobile, and you should be fine for the most part. ”
TrainerPasty says “Jump on him and watch out for his Q's. Late game you can kill him really easily, he's pretty squishy and he's likely to miss his Q's.”
chasemyman1 says “As long as you punish him in his jungle early and dont let him get ahead you are ok. However if you dont he becomes very tough for you to deal with solo. You can Rappel his ultimate though and you will take no damage.”
UNKOWNAOE203 says “Can farm as fast as you, but more impact on his team early, cannot fight him he just spam skittle on you while you stand still and suck him to death.”
reganakers says “Karthus is a full clear jungler who just wants to power farm and get huge. You easily 1v1 him however escaping his passive may be hard. You should look to invade and take camps away from him. If you can deny his blue buffs then he will struggle.”
FrickLillie says “He's only a problem because of his R. You may get fairly low from a lot of ganks and karthus can, therefore clean you up. If you fight him 1v1 he will lose very fast.”
League Of Cursed says “Not that much experience with this matchup, but what I have fought has leaned towards a skill matchup. If you know how to clear jungle more efficiently than he could, which shouldn't be too hard, then you can win objective control.
”
Dopamine_influx says “Karthus is a "tempo jungler", meaning he looks to powerfarm. Watch out, as a good karthus will invade you the second he sees you on the map, if your camps are up. Look to invade, you're stronger, but you need to dodge a few Qs. Look to fight for scuttles. Don't randomly invade, only do it when you know where he is.”
Xeldom says “Favorable match-up. Maintain a lead against Karthus and you will be able to one-shot him almost all game until he gets zhonyas. His strength is in his ability to clear camps. Keep in mind of his ults before ganking.”
AWierdShoe says “My personal ban. Karthus outscales you HARD late-game, and his AP damage will make Swiss cheese out of you in teamfights. Your only chance is to invade him super early as he has the fastest but unhealthiest clear out of all the junglers in LoL. If you don't grab a hard lead the game will be over.”
DarkArbalist613 says “His Single Target dmg on his Q can hurt, but just dodge his Wall of Pain to not be slowed and have you magic resistance shredded. Your ult can counteract his, and your mobility and speed can let you kite out his abilities.”
Comrade Eshgrim says “It's not likely that you will see him in low elo, but if so, invade vigorously and keep hopping out of his Qs. Counter his ult with yours.”
nextonetwo says “One of the only jg's YOU can invade. he wants to full clear and he normally starts blue, so if you don't see any available ganks after red side clear, go blue and go to his red and kill him, should be around there somewhere”
nextonetwo says “One of the only jg's YOU can invade. he wants to full clear and he normally starts blue, so if you don't see any available ganks after red side clear, go blue and go to his red and kill him, should be around there somewhere”
GhostReaper87 says “Early game very week and does full clear to reach lvl 6. You can invade his camps and get out before laners react. You can get drags easily and rift hearlds. You can also steal drags with q+smite and karthus cant out smite that.However his lvl 6 global ult can be devastating and can get kills. He scales extremely well, I recommend to build some mr or he can just pop you if you get 30% hp.”
Kamisore says “Invade him as much as possible because if he farms enough and you happen to get to late game, he'll just skill on your team by pressing R and deleting everyone.”
Flux31 says “Karthus can be a hassle to be against since he can scale greatly and needs farm. Be sure to find opportunities to invade his jungle and deny him any camps. Once it's late game and he has levels and items be ready for a long fight.”
WickedPoppet says “Not that much experience with this matchup, but what I have fought has leaned towards a skill matchup. If you know how to clear jungle more efficiently than he could, which shouldn't be too hard, then you can win objective control.”
Sorrowful Prince says “The definition of lane difference creates jungle difference. If you've got 3 loosing lanes you can't punish him and he will just go for 10cs/minute while "counterganking" his winning lane with one button. In this case your only hope is catching him offguard later on and bursting him down.
On the other hand if you get winning lanes or the winning lanes are evenly distributed you can abuse your lane prios to fk him up in his jungle really hard while ganking your strong side. Honestly if you go Tiamat you can play Camille like you would have Nidalee in this case.
Herald is really good against Karthus because missing towers force him to give up camps to avoid getting invaded which gives you bonus ressources.”
TrevorJayce says “This champion, although weak early, can become a bit of a problem late game after he builds Zhonyas and gets a little bit of AP, as with one button press he can ensure that your entire team has 2/3s HP disadvantage in fights. He's pretty easy to handle if put behind though.”
Fabosch is Love says “You can catch him easily in early game, but don't forget that he scales really hard. You have to denie him with calculated invade.”
Akja says “Most of the times you'll try to do an invade, so junglers with great lvl 1 like Karthus are a big trouble. Adding to that Karthus farms his Jungle really quickly, so maybe you won't have enough time to farm the Scuttler before he gets there”
KajiKumihoAkukei says “Karthus isn't a really big threat to you. He will most likely just be hard farming in the early game until he reaches level 6. If you get the chance to invade him and take some camps or even take his life you should really take the opportunity. ”
Daedralus says “His constant ranged spam can be a problem if he manages to harass you safely. However, once on him, his damage is not enough to get over your healing, and your speed will make it quite difficult for him to hit you anyway. Your ult completely shuts him down, and due to his mobility, flash is his only chance. By using your E, you are also likely to survive his ultimate even after he is dead and you can no longer use him for HP.”
BlindKidNoThumbs says “Out farms you quite hard and can counter jungle you quite well if you show. Try and duel him early or get a huge lead otherwise your doomed.”
The Top Bear says “JUNGLE: Karthus jungle is one of those picks that tries to farm, but is good at fighting people in certain scenarios. His q damage is pretty good early, so be careful where you engage him. The best strategy to attack him is trying to oneshot him from bushes. It is also advisable to be semi-close to a hoppable wall or a bomb plant to give yourself an escape after, as his passive makes it impossible to stick around and farm his camps after he dies.
MID AND TOP: Here, you want to make sure to ward for people coming to help karth, then proceed to clap this man's cheeks early. He has no mobility, and he can't dodge well placed spears easily. Just keep moving and don't get caught being poked down.
ADC: ADC and SUP: Karthus is the same as solo laning, other than that he has a support to protect him. However, you have to watch out for the support distracting you are cc'ing you. If you start getting nailed by karthus, things get a bit tricky. Remember though, your main goal is to stamp out karthus and not give him the chance to be ahead.”
Liibron says “Karthus is the easiest match up. Try to invade him early as he is very weak and by killing him/taking his camps you will put him extremely behind. Dodge his Q with your Q. His ultimate should never kill you since your ultimate is on a lower cooldown.”
orangepenguinhead says “Make sure to take advantage of his pre-6 weakness. He has no CC just a a lot of damage. If you can put him behind, this is a free matchup. ”
ImAceee says “If he meets you first your 6 in jungle its gonna be hard escaping him because of his q's and w's. If you are vs him try to not use w for moving in jungle and use the snowball for escaping from him.”
0kruemlmonster says “Can't do much, you do everything better than him. While fighting him, don't just simply auto attack him, kite him a little bit and don't let him hit free Qs on you.”
Havewyouseenmycaw says “karthus has to ability to power farm and he will be a lot more impactful then you in team fights and throughout the game. I usually try to rush level 6 and impact the map as much as possible to snow ball before karthus has time to scale”
Mkcls says “It' all about dodging his q's. Later on, he can oneshot while dead, so try to end game ASAP. Consider early Herald. GA is good option. If you feel confident, try to 1 vs 1 early. ”
Simphoria says “Karthus himself won't typically kill us, but he loves to power farm. To prevent Karthus from scaling you have to invade his jungle often. Steal camps and try to abuse the fact he's squishy. Unfortunately, Sejuani is not good at either of these. Karthus also scales really well. While he isn't a direct threat to us, Sej cannot abuse Karthus' weaknesses very well. The only advantage is the ability to pick or engage once 6, as our team can easily burst him when he's stunned. ”
HackedAccountlol says “His E deals a ton of damage if you are 1v1ing him. You can still kill him if you have enough damage to burst him down and get out alive. You can try to counter jungle him, and leave one monster to delay his camp spawn since he mostly relies on hitting 6 and pressing R. DODGE Q since it deals alot of damage to an isolated target.”
shaundasschaf says “He actually can't do anything. Really squishy. Kill him and always meditate when you see his ult late game, as it will deal tons of damage then.”
spark2 says “Karthus is the freest kill you'll ever get. Dash in, proc your passive and run out of his E before he knows what happened. If he catches you in his W, try to either dash again or move unpredictably. He's a danger to your team come late game, but he's the easiest lane you'll ever have.”
GROFITEER says “Extremely high AP damage, combo'd with a global ulti and things like dark harvest will get you killed. even when you think the fight is over, he can just ult you and it's game over. the only way to kill him would be to cc him and let aftershock block some of his damage as you whittle away at his hp.”
SirZeros says “Karthus is pretty special. It's hard to win against him the first games.
You just have to get sure, your team knows, that Karthus is in the game!
If you see him going back, watch if one of your teammates is lowlife. If yes: Follow him and Stun or Ult him.
I recommend you to not save your Ult for later, if you can't stun him. It's just not worth! If he wants to harass you with his Q, farm under tower and call your jungler to gank. Since he hasn't got any mobility or hard cc, it should be easy to shut him up/down ;)”
Yuki H. says “Although he is an AP champ, he has no mobility and is very squishy. During the early stages of the game, it is very easy to kill Karthus, but this matchup really boils down to how well you dodge his Q's.”
Hamstertamer says “GET EDGE OF NIGHT IT BLOCKS HIS ULTIMATE COMPLETELY DON'T BUY SILLY ITEMS LIKE MAW AGAINST KARTHUS. Also one of the few junglers you can beat 1v1. Abuse him when ahead.”
Andante Tempo Jungle says “Power-farms and relies on being one of the strongest junglers that still hasn't been nerfed too hard. You can abuse him in his jungle, but don't get too carefree or else he'll win by doing way too much damage and having his ultimate.”
4by3 says “This champion is really annoying, as he outduels you as a control mage WITH a faster clear. Shaco has very bad base MR. It's funny that he will be squishy but when you kill him it would probably end up being a 1 for 1 since his passive will end up killing you. Shaco doesn't have an escape and you'll be slowed and have to tank all his Qs while in his E which is just absolutely crazy.”
KhaZix Mains says “[5/10] Another matchup where it can be decided based on your proactivity. If you let Karthus farm up and don’t pressure him/lanes early-game, then you may struggle as the game progresses. Look to place aggressive wards whenever you can, and try to get early ganks off before he reaches 6, also before he can pick up his core items since your base stats will be much more impactful early than his. Q evolve should be good to quickly DPS him but R can be a viable choice as well. Prioritize lethality items such as Ghostblade and Edge of Night instead of Cleaver in your build as long as there aren’t many tanks, so that you can deal with him quickly.”
MrPuggles says “ Karthus is easy enough if you know what you're doing. Don't invade him as it is pretty much a skill matchup for Xin Zhao. Karthus may invade you. If he does, have one of your laners help kill him unless you have more health than him. His teamfights are decently strong, but not OP. Try to snowball as best as possible and you should be able to melt him. Don't let him get ahead or suffer the consequences.”
SexyKungFu says “REAL PAIN BECAUSE HE RUINS YOUR TEAMFIGHT POWER WHILE FORCING YOU TO TEAMFIGHT BECAUSE OF THE SHEER PRESENCE HE BRINGS. SCALES ABOUT 0.75X AS HARD AS JAX. EVEN WITH ADAPTIVE HELM HE WILL POP YOU WITH 5 Q'S BECAUSE OF HIS MAGIC RESISTANCE SHRED AND PERMANENT AOE. HIS ULT LOWERS YOUR SPLITPUSH POWER AS WELL. THANK GOD KARTHUS IS BORING.”
Maltz says “After Karthus nerfs this patch he is way worse in jungle, he has same midgame but has a harder time snowballing. You have better ganks, slightly worse clear but you can kill him whenever you see him”
Intello says “Karthus is seeing more play in the jungle.
The important thing to know is how his q works. His Q has a very very low cooldown (1 second) and it'll spawn a bubble that'll pop and do damage. If the bubble only hits one person then it does 2x damage.
When fighting him, you can burst him down but your main focus is sidestepping his bubble spawns. If you avoid his bubble pops then it's an easy fight.
ALSO DO NOT FORGET HIS PASSIVE. When he dies he can still cast spells so if you kill him make sure to get away from his body. If you're far away enough he'll be useless.
If he ults you, time your Serpah's Item shield to protect you. ”
Xavier Senori says “One of Cassiopeia's easiest matchups. You outharass and out DPS him ten times over. Make his laning phase a living hell because he scales in a fashion very similar to you. Harass him whenever possible, and don't be afraid to trade with him, as you should win all 1v1 trades. Consider buying a zhonya's mid game to counter his ultimate. ”
The Jhin Cena says “If he's an AP Tank then he can be a bit harder to kill. However if he's squishy, you shouldn't have much trouble. If you see him channeling his ult, remember that you can stun it to prevent him from finishing it. Also his passive can be a bit annoying, so remember to juke your way out of range after you kill him.”
Toad12138 says “He is immobile, has little cc, the perfect target to either assassinate as blue or slaughter as Rhaast. You only have to be careful of early game fights since he is pretty strong and at lvl 6, he has his ultimate.”
AgreeableOtter says “Karthus is a free lane
he cannot stop you from getting onto him
he will outrade you lvl 1-2 if he uses his abilities on you only. But this will leave him with no mana
So you get a free lane afterwards
lategame karthus wins from you as killing him in a teamfight wont make much of a difference”
noolan says “Again, I have never personally played against a Karthus. But, he is rated number Kats easiest champion to play against. Your mobility should be too much for him to handle.”
Shderen says “Well, this comes down to the age-old gimmick matchup. He ults, you ult. He pokes, you poke harder. His range is pretty much your range. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. His trades will likely entice you to get in close range to avoid his Wall, leading to a potential jungle gank on you but that's situational.”
Larby says “Invade this dude as much as safely possible if you get a lead. He can't trade with your burst.
The worst thing you can do against a Karthus jungle is allow them to farm and unleash hellfire with their global R.
Take camps from him, keep him tracked, keep him behind.”
Jomickies says “Karthus is the opposite of Kindred. He does not pose a threat to you in skimishes/teamfights. However, he hard counters you because engaging on him is pointless. His passive allows him to deal massive amounts of damage, even if you kill him. This makes it very hard to engage him and if you ignore him your team will die to him. I recommend trying to either pick him or try to kill him later in the team fight as he cannot cast his ultimate near you because he can be CC'd out of the animation.”
AmericanNa says “Again another easy lane. generally though if hes a jungle and he starts doing well i get a banshees. Had a Karthus very recently hit me for 1400 with banshees.”
Tipurrs says “Suicide champ. Too squishy and can get you fed so fast. He's lategame is good though, if it gets to late game. get behind your minions as it diminishes his early poke.”
Finish Flash says “Easy to jump on, difficult to kill. Good Karthus players will take Exhaust vs Fizz. If this is the case, you must burn that summoner cooldown before fully committing for an all-in kill. Engage with either E or Q, but use the other ability to escape once he uses it defensively. Karthus will usually sit back and farm max range with Q, making you opt for an E engage more. Be careful when extending trades with Karthus as he will generally win with his higher DPS. This is a very tricky matchup as you have to do enough short trades with the right timing to threaten a kill onto him, bait out his defensive summoners, then look for the kill. Note that your E can be used to dodge Karthus's R.”
GodFizzJungle says “Easy, once you get Trinity Force, you can easily just ult him and combo him, since you are fairly tanky you can get out of his passive alive, if he ults you just trickster.
Make sure he gets no crab, pressure him early in the jungle, you should be able to dodge most of his Q's.”
SpicySkelleton says “You may not know it but JG Karthus is pretty good once he get's going. Don't try to int him, especially if you're alone. He's going to go AP no matter what so go for Anti-AP and you should be fine.”
undeadsoldiers says “Step around his Qs and push him in. He can't CS under tower very well due to his clunky autos, so you'll force him to burn mana to last hit.
You can end his ult channel with your E if he isn't in his passive.
Just generally poke and burst him to death - he's extremely vulnerable to burst.”
macspam says “Immobile champ without hard CC. Dodge his Qs and use your stopwatch against his ult. Go for kills if you want but at minimum take the free farm lane.”
quinn adc says “This matchup is free top lane.
Goal is to bait karthus W, and if he ever uses it, he can't play the game for 15 seconds.
Ideally, freeze against karthus, which will force him to over extend.
If you freeze, he has to be far away from his tower, so you can E him when he walks up and run him down until he flashes to his tower.
You must play close range to him because he out ranges you.
Karthus only wins if you play far back, so always be in E range of him if you can.
Use Q on him during trades, which makes it almost impossible for him to land his Qs on you while blinded.”
Hazardist says “[[Karthus]] is one of the few champions that outpaces your farming from start to end of the game, meaning you will have to adapt in order to build an advantage. Your [[Gank]]s come off much easier than his, and counterganking is almost guaranteed to work every time. You should try to finish the game as early as possible because his scaling is second to none and even if behind, can turn the tides of a teamfight with the press of [[requiem]].
Runeset to take: [[Conqueror]], but [[Phase Rush]] is fine.”
Bottom Lane 53.26% Win Rate22% Pick RateKarthus Bottom Lane Counters: 5 counter champions
Counter RatingCounter rating is an expression of how strong or weak a counter is based on win rate, kills, and deaths, as well as early laning advantages or disadvantages. A higher number means an easier laning phase against that champion.
Counter RatingCounter rating is an expression of how strong or weak a counter is based on win rate, kills, and deaths, as well as early laning advantages or disadvantages. A higher number means an easier laning phase against that champion.
Tips Against Karthus in Adc Lane Tips Provided by MOBAFire Guide Authors
BrunkageManden says “Somewhere in between swain and cassio. He is very mana hungry, meaning you will out last him in lane early before he can back and get items. His isolated Q deals extra dmg.
Capitalize on him early or he will deal insane amounts of dmg with his R late game. He is usually paird with an engage support meaning that Cleanse is to be considered in this matchup. ”
FuseFanatic says “his Qs are basically the only damage to Mundo play safe and farm with your Q to scale the only issue is his Max lvl W which lowers your magic resist and slows you”
Foxirion says “Karthus's global ultimate and sustained damage can make him a major threat to Kog'Maw. His ability to deal damage from afar and in the afterlife can pressure Kog'Maw throughout the game.”
mcdnldsmngrxdd says “As long as you take cleanse for his exhaust, you're free to run at this character as you please, his lack of movement options and fighting back potential isn't enough. He's a walking cash-out so abuse it while you can ”
Sxd42069 says “Level 1 just hit minions after level 2 can harass and doge his Qs. laning phase will be boring if enemy karthus is a good player. What i recommend you to do is play also passive get as many stacks as possible and try to get an elimination even if it is a trade.( you have to kill first to collect all the stacks ) and from there snowball. late game cant prevent karthus damage but can reduce it with mr boots and maw.”
the hood says “Karthus Botlane is really strong. His Q Range is a lot higher than ur AA. Avoid getting poked. If you have Cleanse, try to use it for his Exhaust and use ur W Movement speed to dodge his q's and look for all ins. Another Skill Matchup which is slightly Karthus favoured since he can snowball but also just farm and outscale u. Try to kill him without trading kills since he scales really good on gold aswell.”
wungus says “Karthus is similar to Swain but slightly easier to deal with. Your high mobility from your E can help you dodge his Q's, and he's a lot squishier than Swain, so snowballing is a little bit easier against him.”
Alvatorz says “| STRENGTHS - Huge burst / Strong in early / Finisher on R / Great laning phase / Easy to comeback / Not easy to abuse (passiv)
| WEAKNESSES - No moblity / Weak to CC / Rely on skillshots and mana / Hard to play
| WHAT TO DO ? - Play safe in early and avoid his Q at any cost. If you can ult him and combo him with W - Q, you can try to kill him and get the advantage, otherwise, it will be tought. Lategame is in Karthus favor. Too much damage and R can midlife you if he's ahead.”
Reptile9LoL says “This matchup is all about avoid karthus Q's then it becomes a farming simulator, if karthus ever oversteps and doesnt have exhaust up all-inning is very is, Vayne can build mr such as witsend/spiritvisage/maw etc so she's chilling vs Karthus later”
LoLEnryu says “Cleanse is a MUST vs Karthus because 99% of Karthus bot lane players will take exhaust and they will pair an engage support with karthus most of the time. Cleanse will do wonders in the match-up and hexdrinker early is recommended.
Eclipse will definitely help you survive 2v2 bot lane better since the shield will protect you from Karthus R lethal after you guys fight and end up killing the Karthus. Make sure to time your Nilah E ability (both charges) with Karthus Q so that you can dodge at least 2 Karthus Q's in a fight.
Match up can be harder if your support is massively gapped which makes it seem hard but if you are duo or if you can communicate in chat without tilting your support: please tell your support to walk up and bait with their HP so you can free hit karthus while they focus your support. A fight like this should always be winning for Nilah.”
Hidden Ghoster says “This is similar to Varus/Similar poke lanes. Dodge his Q's and don't take any bad trades. Also take MR. Ghost is very optimal here because you will need that Movement Speed to engage/disengage fights.”
I Am Not u says “For some reason, this clown is in Bot Lane. honestly, he's not too bad. He's incredibly immobile, and his weird wall doesn't affect your jump, only when you get out. And when you kill him, you can jump out of his range. Just don't play like an idiot.”
SheriffADC says “Easy to all-in since he is unmobile and has no hard CC. Laning is just annoying because he has better poke and pushes waves fast. NOTE: do not level up Blade Whirl until level 4 since he has no projectiles other than autoattacks (if the enemy support has a hook then you can level it up at level 3).”
slendoooo says “Karthus is only problematic level 1, because you don't really have a way to dodge his Q's. So avoid fighting him at that level and wait for your level 2, when you can use W it makes it easier to dodge his Q's.
And late game when he can damage you and your whole team with his ultimate. But most games won’t get that, because Karthus ADC players tend to play hyper aggressive and Draven profits from that.
You can also look to buy an early maw or mercs for extra protection.
A video example of Karthus-Draven
Matchup:
(To be made)”
KnobHobbler says “Can be frustrating to play against if you can't dodge Q's.
You win all 1v1s.
Try to zone him off his minions to reduce his gold intake.
If scared of his R build Wits End.”
DixonTheGuideMaker says “When playing as an AD champion in the bottom lane, look for extended trades whenever possible. Trading autos will usually end in your favour, just make sure you dodge his Lay Waste(Q). If you see Karthus channelling his Requiem(R), try to cancel it with any CC abilities. This will reduce his and his allies chances of getting kills. Karthus will be looking to farm as much as possible early so he can unlock his Ultimate. Try to put him behind by playing aggressive and requesting ganks.”
m1NEEX says “Karthus bot is cancer for Jinx as pretty much every mage on bot, since you can't really dodge his skills due to no dashes in your kit. Only good thing about Jinx into Karthus is that when you kill him, your passive can get you out of his passive. He is very squishy, if your supports CC him you can burst him with E > AA > W > AA > R . Take MR runes into this fight. Galeforce also viable into him, but not recommended, since Kraken is way better in teamfights. Also get one stopwatch eventually later on to survive his R.”
Kitqsune says “Against a fed one, the matchup is even. Dodge his q's with your passive ms and kill him and quickly get out of his passive zone and you'll be fine. If needed, take stopwatch for his ult (obviously).”
quinn adc says “This matchup is free top lane.
Goal is to bait karthus W, and if he ever uses it, he can't play the game for 15 seconds.
Ideally, freeze against karthus, which will force him to over extend.
If you freeze, he has to be far away from his tower, so you can E him when he walks up and run him down until he flashes to his tower.
You must play close range to him because he out ranges you.
Karthus only wins if you play far back, so always be in E range of him if you can.
Use Q on him during trades, which makes it almost impossible for him to land his Qs on you while blinded.”
7EyesNoSkills says “He can slow you down, you can easily kill him but he will also easily kill you when he dies. Wit's End will help alot. If possible, kill enemy toplaner as first while dodging Karthus's Q, then kill him. Don't forget to dodge his Q after he dies.”
IKeepItTaco says “◉ Karthus is the 2nd most popular botlane mage in the current meta and he does a ton of damage while also having one of the best scalings in the game for a mage. He is very strong in the botlane due to ADCs being weak early game and unable to bully him much.
◉ His primary method of farming, trading, and all-ing will be through the use of his Q ability [[Lay Waste]] which creates a blast where he clicks and after a short delay it will deal damage and it will double that damage if the target is isolated. It is important to be consistently dodging these if you want to stay healthy in lane and beat him.
◉ When he is farming with [[Lay Waste]] or after you’ve successfully dodged a few of them, that is your opportunity to bring out [[Fishbones, the rocket launcher]] to start poking him since he has no sustain whatever poke you dish out on him will stick.
◉ Be careful not to get too close to him because if he ever gets into melee engage range he will use [[Defile]], [[Wall of Pain]], and [[Lay Waste]] to absolutely shred your HP apart and if you end up living all of that with a tiny bit of HP he will then finish you with his ultimate [[Requiem]].
◉ WIN CONDITION: Play the lane from a distance. Focus on poking with Fishbones, the rocket launcher and constantly abuse the range difference you have on him. Stay healthy and don’t underestimate his all-in.
”
Coldsong says “Karthus is good botlane against other ADC's that like to scale up early. Samira, however, can bully him out of lane very easily. You cannot W any of his abilities, so make sure to dodge his Q's and if he uses R try to use your built in lifesteal on the wave to heal.”
yers says “Immobile and almost like you, you just need to stun or slow him to start exploding him. Remember his Q deals double damage if it hits only one target, so if you think you're getting hit, just keep running or be near a minion to negate the extra damage.”
HyroPyro says “Karthus APC has been coming to the scene. His threat in lane is low due to the reduced damage on his Lay Waste (Q) when multiple targets are struck and his need for items to do damage. Kai'Sa can easily kill if the correct engage is made. Be careful at level 6 because after a close fight, you may still die to the Death Defied (Passive) or the Requiem (R).”
im_zeno says “Not a hard lane, Yasuo is generally good against non-mobility champions, you can dodge all his Q with your E so fight with a minion wave. You have NOTHING to wind wall unless his support is ranged, you can start fighting lvl 2 if his support is melee, lvl 3 if it's a ranged support. I put him at major coz of his late game, he COMPLETELY outscales you, fact that he can just press one button and kill your entire team is just dumb. Even if you kill him first, he can still just pop his ult and chunk your entire team. Build mr if needed.”
majororange77 says “Full info in Guide.
Even if you kill him, he can trade. If he is ahead, your best bet is GA or Zhonya's so that he can't fully kill you.”
Cactusmies says “He 1 shots you by abusing funneling strat. He will always be 1-5 levels ahead of you from the minute you walk in to lane. If the ult doesn't kill you don't worry Liandry's + Dark harvest will finish you off after procing and killing your other 4 team members.”
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Bottom Lane
