Discover all champions who counter Karthus. Use our statistics and learn how to counter Karthus in League of Legends and win in Champion Select! Karthus Data for all roles taken from 95,6955051,19517,58036,19840,222 matches.
In the Jungle 51% Win Rate58% Pick RateKarthus In the Jungle Counters: 48,06222,22717,9807,238476141 matches, 44 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
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”
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.”
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. ”
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.”
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. ”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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”
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 Liandries or CotSQ. If he is fed go Zhonya's. For Support, go Moonstone. 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”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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. ”
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.”
SnowballBarrage says “Karthus can match any play you make post 6 because of his R. He doesn't need to properly counter gank you, he can perma farm and just press R if something is happening, outscales you really hard too.”
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. ”
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. ”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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. ”
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”
Suseri 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. ”
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.”
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 “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. ”
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 “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
”
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 “Clears 10x quicker, doesn't matter if you kill him. You can jump on him but you're so squishy until 6th item you probably just trade 1 for 1. Possible ban. Note: you can R his R and use stopwatch too, but you don't want to be using your R to evade a Requiem.”
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
”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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 “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. ”
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. ”
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.”
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.”
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. ”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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. ”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Bottom Lane 54% Win Rate29% Pick RateKarthus Bottom Lane Counters: 36,35214,28012,8028,373599298 matches, 25 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 Bottom Lane Tips Provided by MOBAFire Guide Authors
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).”
LewisTheRat says “I'd recommend running ghost as it makes it insanely hard to land his q for him. When he dies, he can keep using his spell for 7 seconds so be careful, try to kite him always.”
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.”
Middle Lane 49% Win Rate7% Pick RateKarthus Middle Lane Counters: 6,2482,6522,2941,1549553 matches, 53 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 Middle Lane Tips Provided by MOBAFire Guide Authors
V1kt0r555 says “[Don't get poked by his Q]
[Avoid passing through his W]
[Warn your team when he is lvl 6]”
Zeusman00 says “Very annoying champ to face, Q poke is very annoying and he will outscale you, avoid being hit by solo Q's and try to poke with your own or make very quick and brief trades while dodging.”
qkthr1 says “karthus, as with lane karthus vs jg viego is dangerous in the right hands. his wall and other ability tank whatever protection you had. build maw of mal in this comp btw. thankfully most karthus players in low elo arent great so you can still do well. His Q is really annoying because it has no cooldown, so you cant consistently W dodge it, and his aura thing prevents you from aggressing successfully. thankfully, he isnt played mid often and is less of a threat if hes adc or jg.”
Anguish333 says “- Dodge his Q's
- Most of the time he will play with exhaust so wait it out before making combo
- Don't stay on low hp since he can ult you
- Whenever he gets level 6 ping it for your team, so he doesnt get free kills. Do that whenever one of your teammates is on low hp”
Edwwardo says “Cringe boy who cant reach you and has no dash for your W. If he manages to catch you with his slow just jump over a wall and start making his life miserable again.”
AnxialSociety says “Aery manaflow absolute scorch.
Blood eyeball.
Wall into ganks is a problem. Focus on dodging q and getting CS. Can E into a kill at some point.”
Deru says “In general karthus is good against your champ because flipping a karthus into your team is just troubleful. In lane he's easily stompable tho so try to solokill him or ask for jungler's help since he is an immobile mage.”
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”
StralekS says “Kat Favored: Electrocute/ Sorcery: Short Trades, Ignite + Flash, Doran Shield start. Play lane safely, farm, and when he wastes ability, punish him with all in combo. You can rush Sunderer or Nashor for guaranteed win.”
Deru says “In general Karthus is good against your champ because flipping a Karthus into your team is just troubleful. In lane he's easily stompable tho so try to solokill him or ask for jungler's help since he is an immobile mage.”
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. ”
Mvrshy says “[JUNGLE] hes a bit annoying, his ganks are shit but sometimes he can just press R and get a penta, making him very impactful. cas doesnt benefit too much from zhonyas so you dont really want to be forced to build this. annoying if ahead.”
Adamonias says “You outrange him, you can just bully him. Sidestep Q's and you should be sweet. He actually does outscale you, so dont fall behind and ping when he gets 6. If you trade WQ for his Q you win the trade so dont be afraid of those trades, but it should be easy to poke for free bc he will have to Q the wave.
No-one really plays karthus mid anymore anyway”
SkyBanana says “Both singers of the souls: One sings of death and one sings of life. Karthus is a skilled base match up since he acts like Seraphine but in a different way. His early laning phase is very strong due to Q spam and E mana gain from kills, however he is not good to deal with ranged burst mages (which Seraphine is.) Your all in will kill Karthus but you have to make sure you have enough AP and HP to negate his R after death. All in all if you can beat him early you definitely seal the late game.”
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.”
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”
OSG Rewynd says “For both mid and jungle, I literally just one shot this guy. If he has exhaust, you just run away, and kill him when its on cd. Late game he's a menace, but preferably, you don't let him get to that point.”
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.”
Azurio says “You have kill pressure the whole lane, just try to dodge as many Q's as possible. You can shove waves and play the map too. Don't run at him when he has liandry's. Maw counter him hard, go for it if they have another AP champion.”
Bunny Kata says “If someone picks Karthus mid, consider this a win. You can W everything, and you can easily burst him, it's one of the best champ you can face in lane.
Ghost-Ignite + Corrupting Potion.”
donidaking says “the rock star!
Just dodge his Q's ,haha easier said than done.
Go electrocute/predator and trade him since he has no sustain but dodge some Q's since they hurt.
Boots is an option to have an easier time dodging his Q's also really good start if you go predator.
After you get some AP you just one shot him.
You can go banshee if you are struggling.”
V1kt0r555 says “[Rune Keystone: First Strike]
[Summoner Spell: Teleport]
[Starting Item: Tear of the Goddess]
[Free Farm lane]
[Dodge his Q]
[Back off when he dies]”
Winter Nicole says “Karthus: As long as you don't let him Q you a lot and go near him with his E ability on, your'll be fine just worry about his ult since its global. (Recommend pushing in a lot and make him lose mana but try playing it safe at times in case the jungler comes by to help him)”
ThePieBeam says “Karthus' Q range is deceptively far but other than that he doesn't really have anything going for him in this matchup. If he wants to do a considerable amount of damage to you he has to spam his Q and as of this patch, he can't do that for very long in lane. If he want's to try to run you down and get some kill pressure going, he has to hit you with his wall of pain. To which you just respond with your wall and completely negate his immobile champs ability to hurt you. Don't forget to try and be next to some friendly minions if you know you're going to get egged since he does a lot more damage to isolated targets with his Q.”
TcKatfish says “[Press The Attack Runes / Long Sword and Refillable Pots start.] This is one of the easiest "common" matchups you will play against. Go in at all times every time your grapple is up (hitting passive before using it). Karthus struggles to hit Q when you are on top of him so keep on him and move every time you auto. You will out damage unless you get hit by too many Q's but this should be a super easy lane.”
lonestar1870 says “Karthus is extremely easy to beat in lane, you outrange him and basically oneshot him 100-0 with a 5 ball ult (at level 6).
Just make sure you get early boots so you can dodge some of his Q's.
Karthus scales really well and does a lot of damage so make sure not to give him a lead. You have perma prio in this lane and kill threat on him at all times.
Be careful if he goes Exhaust since it will reduce your kill potential on him a lot and make it difficult to dodge his Qs.
If he ever uses R while alive in lane, you should be able to stop it with your stun and/or kill him while he is in the animation.
Electrocute is nice to dominate lane even harder, but PR is nice to escape ganks, help you dodge his Q's, and let you scale better.
TP and Ignite are both fine in this lane, just know that you may not be able to impact the map as much as him if you go ignite.
Zhonyas is nice if he has lots of AD on his team so you can stopwatch his R.
Get Banshee's if there are more AP threats on their team.”
livikattt says “You're a lot more mobile than him and can oneshot him easily, so just be careful about watching his passive and ult. it might be worth investing in a stopwatch.”
WayOfTheTempesst says “This lane is probably one of the easiest. Rush zerks so you can dodge his Qs easier and the lane
is cake. He has no CC for you. Nobody really plays this champ unless it's a one trick, so you won't play
against it often.”
WayOfTheTempesst says “Karthus has no hard CC or escape, so it's a pretty easy lane.
Start E in this lane so you can dodge his Qs level 1.
Dodge his Qs and don't sit in his E for too long.
Make sure you at least get some MR since you can't dodge his R and it will do half your hp with 0 MR.”
Drewmatth Taliyah says “Start Doran + 2 Pots if 1) You think you can outplay her and hit your W's to generate a kill at levels 3-5 or 2) You think she will burst you down post 6 (get an extra ring).
Start Corrupting if you think you will not hit your W's (or you will get poked down) and you rely more on wave clear/spammy poke (you will be way more squisher but more durable -- this is recommended if you are sure you will not get hit by CC spells and instantly die).
Be careful of isolated Q (just like Kha'Zix). Play around minions and try to get a full combo on him. Remember if you kill him to back away as soon as possible because of his passive. Always keep in mind that he can ult when you are low hp or your team, so use pings to communicate. Ping when he makes level 6 so your team knows that an ult might come. Roam but keep in mind that if he has ult he will use it.
Try to go for the kill as often as possbile. Play with Ignite and get a stopwatch if you want to deny at least an ult.”
PlayCabex says “very easy match up , you have everything to counter him , your w , your q to heal back his dmg , your w can block his ult , if possible , then try to avoid his w (slow) because if will reduce your movement speed and magic resist , but with that you can still kill him but its just a bit harder”
eiensiei says “I out-range him, so I just poke with E without going for passive procs and putting myself in a position to lose a trade. I'll build Zhonya's for his R, but there's no point rushing it as it doesn't deal that much damage early on. If he's some sort of god that lands every single Q, I'll get some Mercury's Treads. He's fairly immobile and pushes easily, so my jungler usually has no issue ganking him and slowing him down from scaling into a late game monster. I'll also spam ping when he's close to 6/gets 6, so my teammates are reminded to back or avoid fights if they're low on HP.”
AP WormMaW Mid says “For Karthus, it's really important to not get harassed too much in early. A lot of Karthus players are trying to go on your face and spam their Q on you in order to drop you down. If it happens, it's quite good to get some jungle ganks if possible, otherwise this lane might turn into nightmare. On the other hand, once when you hit level 6, you can mostly use your combo on him and kite him in your E because once again, he has to walk up to you if he wants to do something. In that moment, you are the one who dictates the rules of trading. For lategame it's quite good to have Banshee against him or Zhonya to avoid his ults, otherwise you might have a lot of problems to survive in teamfights, since your ult can chunk you down really badly with high amounts of AP.”
Avucado says “Ask for ganks, e through wave then hook him and you win if your jungler listens. if not then you can't really do anything if they're a good player.”
Polarshift 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.”
Fuzzmonkey says “Karthus comes as an extremely easy match up for Leblanc since he struggles to hit many abilities on her at all. Leblanc just has to hit full combo's and dodge all of Karthus' Q's and she straight up wins.”
Fuzzmonkey says “Mainly a poke match up/dodge match up. Your level 6 beats his though, play aggressive into him with Q-E to combo with your W then R at level 6. Buy zhonya's if you think you're taking too much damage from his ult.”
Rermo99 says “Karthus doesn't have a lot of escape. His wall will probably save him from one aggressive ingage, but if you bait it, you are garanteed to kill him with an all out. Maybe plan on getting a stopwatch early to avoid one ult.”
leonidas44 says “Easy to face, one of the easiest match up in lane kill him in the early game so he wont be in danger later. You can one shot him with your high dmg and get out of his e in seconds
”
Kords says “Karthus will always try and hit you out of minions for extra damage, so shoves every time, he can only reliably follow up a gank with his R, but even then, the damage is done. Once he missteps in lane you can punish and kill him easily. In teamfights, look out for his positioning, if its close to your team, ult him away to minimise his passive's use. Luckily he became a jungle pick mostly its rare but u two still can meet on lane”
Dr Eggmund says “Hate him, ideally wait for ganks and all in him then. Otherwise experiment with the Karthus with a few Qs when you play against him. If you get a feel for how much damage you can do and how much you can take you will know when to kill him. Build Spirit Visage if scared and behind otherwise go normal build with Abyssal Scepter for more poke and damage.”
Elite500 says “Try rush boots asap vs karth, it's really hard to dodge without and be careful he will q you when he thinks you're about to use an ability or autoattack so bait it out”
Ambitieux says “Personally on the surface this matchup is one of my mental blocks. But Karthus himself is quite predictable. Sit near minions so you take minimal damage. He will outpush you but run out of mana fast. This is almost like a dumbed down level 6 Anivia, so with this being said, his low mobility allows for amazing setup ganks. And he auto pushes into you. You can try to look for ganks but it will be quite hard with his pushing power.”
Coldsong says “Karthus' Q is super easy to dodge with boots, and he is super immobile and squishy. Beware of his R though, since it can easily kill you if he has Dark Harvest. If you are having troubles with him, an early Maw of Malmortius is great.”
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”
Sylvan Lore says “Although he does do lots of damage, his skillshots are easy to dodge and he has no cc. I find this matchup quite easy as long as you can outthink the Karthus and dodge his Q spam. If he is rushing for level two, back up and respect it because the only real way to lose this lane is to take a terrible early trade from the level 2 disadvantage.You should be able to bully him early, and burst him out nearly instantly mid and late game. Buying magic resists is theoretically useful, but in almost all situations it is much better to have a Zhonyas to survive his passive or ultimate while also stacking armour for his allies.
”
Impossible2Gank says “Should be an easy matchup depending on how well you dodge his Q's. Your ult can be used to dodge his as well making your engage all that more effective.”
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.”
Nanelol says “The only problem vs Karthus mid is that his ultimate does damage to every singe champ in your team, and that your ultimate saves only one person.”
TheSecretsWithin says “In my opinion, Kassadin's easiest matchups. He is already so immobile and adding onto your E and R, the matchup is really unplayable for Karthus. Early on, just keep poking him Q and E and block any Q damage with Q shield. Stand near minions so that you don't take bonus damage from his Q. The second you get R, there is no way Karthus is landing a single Q on you. His R can be cancelled by your Q, so he is left with his E that doesn't really deal much damage in the first place.”
3Riptide3 says “This is super rare. Take swifties and negatron cloak to counter his slow and damage. You can also take barrier into this matchup which will be good until mid-late.”
Little Planet says “Karthus with exhaust is impossible to beat, you don't have the damage to kill him and you can't do short trades as Karthus Q destroys you. Play the lane slow and steady, farm for mythic and roam.”
7daysko says “Really Squishy, he needs to get up close if he wants to do serious damage, which favours you hard. A good Karthus will farm with Q and wait for late game however, try to prevent that.”
Mpegial says “Karthus is more like an annoying fly than an actual champion, the biggest threat to you is a gank from the enemy jungler due to his huge Slow ability.”
mihaila says “Great matchup, u beat him 1v1 and u are better than him at using his ult because u can stack dark seal early on. Buy liandry in this matchup even if u are versing squishy champions, is worth for Q poke and ult”
Noodles912 says “Max Q in this lane. Play safe pre 6, then jump on him if he wastes his wall. Q if he ults. Your Q will soak a large portion of his R damage. Go mercs if you would like. Dodge his skillshots, and you win at 11.”
Noodles912 says “A good karthus will sit at range and harass you for every cs. Look to roam when you can, because you have fast and stronger waveclear. Look for burst trades when you can. If he plays far, you can Q to a minion to engage. Remember your E can dodge his R if timed right.”
elnino9 says “He has nothing to counter your ult. His power is lane control/poking and he scales into late game - use your early aggression by punishing him when he over extends. A matchup Kat wins most of the time unless you don't do anything in lane and he recalls with HP/AP. Stopwatch is wise vs his ult after gunblade.”
Edg3Lord says “Almost 0 lane pressure, since it is really easy for you do dodge his Qs and you are able to walk right through his W which would have been the only way for him to distance himself from you.”
Coldsong says “Karthus is rarely seen mid lane anymore, so it may be a little bit of a surprise if he does happen to go mid. Dodge his Q spam and stun him when he is channeling his R, as it will cancel it and put it on CD.”
KataTocDo says “Super easy. Karthus isn't even a mid lanner anymore because every matchup shit on him.
Runes: Elec. - Prec.
Starting Items: D. Sheild or Dark Seal”
Jnewbringspain says “Really easy. You can sustain against his poke, and his immobility makes it easy to land Rupture. One of the most useless champions once you land Feral Scream too.”
1Recycle Bin1 says “your early phase is too much for him, dodge his Q and poke him down, at level 3 you should be able to kill him easily since his health is low(base health)”
wildersovereign says “This matchup entirely depends on your ability to dodge his Q. Thankfully, it doesn't deal too much damage early on, so surviving should be pretty simple. His Q is the only ability you have to worry about. Everything else he has is either effective outside of combat or at close range, which is your all-in range anyway. Remember that his passive exists and you should be fine.”
Aikairi says “You win. You can easily destroy him early-late game with autoattack weaving while using your combos. Make sure you shunpo out of his E once you kill him, and don't be too low health where he can kill you with ult.”
Scyrine says “he's pretty squishy and with how agile you are it'll be hard for him to hit a skillshot. dodge everything he throws on you and play aggressive. ”
Chili Dog says “Try rush boots asap vs karth, it's really hard to dodge without and be careful he will q you when he thinks you're about to use an ability or autoattack so bait it out. Both Runes are viable.”
FalleN3 says “He is very squishy and which makes it very easy for you to burst him down and get fed against him in lane. He's a good enough lategame champion though so he will eventually hurt.
Try to get fed from him, Roam and end the game as early as possible :)”
vCraze says “Karthus is a very easy matchup as you outrange him by a lot and he doesn't really have much pressure on you. Just make sure you don't allow him to get isolated Qs on you and you will have an easy time laning against him.”
OxiteoMyst says “If you have good movement, he should be a breeze. He doesn't win unless he hits his spells. Easy laning. But in teamfights where everyone hits everything he will do more, and especially if he flops dead in the middle of your team. ”
SkellyBirb says “Karthus isn't mobile at all and can be one shot fairly easily. Highly recommend building Banshee's Veil to deal with his ulti and damage unless he's super far behind.”
Katfire says “Karthus isn't played mid much anymore, but if you face him he is pretty much a free kill every time he is in lane since he doesn't have any kind of mobility and his main damage early is based on his Q skillshot which is hard to land on Katarina due to her mobility.”
Bobbab says “Free matchup. He cant really poke you without dying for it and your q does more then his (non isolated) watch out for his ult damage when roaming and it should be all good. Farm him for snowballs.”
sweodigaming says “Low hp, just burst him to death. You have to have some faker game juice ready so you can dodge like a pro. Go perfect timing so he can not get a free kill when you kill him at level 6/7”
TheFwnK says “He could be annoying with his Q. But you can escape from his Ultimate just by pressing E. Press E when his Ultimate is close to explode. If you do it too early, you are a Sushi.”
dDenzere says “He does good damage but never could kill you, if he try to E flash you you just slow him and dodge his abilities, don't trade him with his W active. Lane is safe.”
SkellyBirb says “Karthus can't really burst you and will struggle to do almost anything. He can't really stop you from roaming, but he may out farm you and be a threat.”
FalleN3 says “Man this champion is just annoying but you should have no problem against him. You are mobile enough to dodge his (Q). He has no escape and you can leap over his wall with your (E). He is squishy and easy for you to all in. You can dodge his ultimate if you time your (E) correctly and use it just as his ult is about to pop off. Late game he can do a lot of damage to your entire team with his ultimate. Be sure to type in chat to your team when he hits level 6 to let them know he has utli ready.”
Reason97 says “He's a much bigger threat then some people first realize. He can machine gun his Q, his wall can pop your shield and slow you down, and his ult can hit you from literally anywhere. He can also clear out your minions pretty easy between his Q and E. ”
Veralion says “I never have many issues with Karthus, but not many people are really good with him. They prefer to just take him jungle, not have to deal with hitting Q in lane, AFK farm 200 CS, and press R for 4k damage in the lategame. You should be able to farm up just fine. With your W you ought to be able to avoid all the skittles fairly easily. Taking a direct isolated hit seriously hurts though, so be careful. A confident Karthus could very easily force your flash if he catches you with a wall while your W is down. That’s the only way this really turns against you. Just farm, poke, and eat him at 6. He shouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it and you'll kill him instantly. Don’t go in unless you’re full though; expect to take a ton of damage while retreating from his ghost. Just 2 or 3 skittle hits while you’re killing him and his ult will still get you. ”
Zoe Sparklepop says “Low Even
As long as you sit in minion waves, you out poke him out but when you step out of the minion wave he will W and it'll get hard to dodge his Q so, you know, don't.
”
snukumz says “Super easy in lane.
You can poke him for tons of damage and combo and kill him easily.
Get banshee's/zhonya's to dodge his ultimate since late game it can wreck you if he gets fed.”
Art1val says “Boring lane, most of the time after level 3 they just sit back and farm, if you land your e though he will either die from your all in or be forced to back. Build Zhonyas when facing him due to his ult.”
Debonair Karma says “Karthus has been a top tier pick for a long while now and he's definietly way stronger than Karma could ever be. Avoid playing Karma in this situation. Take barrier/teleport if it happens. Get Corrupting pot.”
Gageowago says “Keep close to minions and watch for his q. He is usually easy to hit with a charm because he is a large target but it is important to keep in mind that his passive lets him damage you after death so back away.”
Papapostolou says “Can i say gg already? The most easy match up. he is so squishy and and he is so slow, low mobility and his damage is so easy to dodge. ”
Lil Tidepod says “Karthus has about the same range as you, except his Q is a little bit farther. Let him blow his mana, as most Karthus's have to siphon through mana like crazy to stay competitive in the lane. Once he's down to about a quarter mana or lower, engage him, but make sure to continue to dodge his Q's. You'll easily win and maybe even pick up a kill.”
MartinMorningstar says “Squishy battlemage with negligible CC. You can kill him and E away his R on you or a teammate. Just stay out of his Q range once he is in passive. ”
Malmortious says “This guy is really easy, but be careful when going for riskier kills, because he can kill you with his passive either by ulting or pre-6 with his Q.”
ekkologix says “easy matchup , u can go for all win after he gets about 60% or lower health and u have electrocute or dark havest up , 3 hit and kite his Q's.”
8wolf says “His short range and 0 mobility make him an easy target for poke. Just try to stay out of his range and deny him cs. If he gets too close, use e to put some distance between you. Repeat.”
MrRiots says “Starting Item: Dark seal + Potion
Not a big threat at all. But has good range so can harass and damage you. If youre a new velkie, stay out of range.”
MarkeleleYasuo says “Dont get hit by his q, always try to kill him, karthus is useless while behind, if he gets ahead you still win 1v1 as long as you dodge his q's”
HeisendongNA says “Don't bother placing your turrets, it's free gold and mana for him: better just max W and try to poke him down and maybe got a kill. Place turrets to combo with W or E.”
Euphoric Toaster says “He can clear your turrets pretty easily with his Q so its a little annoying. His ultimate also forces you to build Zhonyas to prevent him from executing you with it anytime you get low. Hes not too bad outside of those factors but he does negate a lot of your power early on. Heimer can also have a lot more teamfight presence than Karthus since your RE outranges all of his kit besides his ult.”
SeeEl says “Okay, so this ones a little weird. A really good karthus can be extremely annoying to deal with, especially those that are happy to die and trade 1 for 1 while simultaneously denying you the wave with his passive. His level 1 is tremendous with electrocute so respect his damage and try play around your minions because you take less damage when you're not hit by his q as a single target. Respect his w slow as it shreds MR and watch his q+e electrocute combo. If you play the lane safe and get your items he will be beat harder than when his uncle beat him especially post ludens/6. You literally auto-win super late game, and buying boots early as well as MR can definitely be your option depending on enemy jungler.”
Fox1ne says “His harassment is really strong level 1,but trying to sidestep his q makes it great opportunity to trade him early levels,you just have to cosplay happy feet.”
ZenonZeni says “Karthus I would consider as the weakest champ in this matchup. Dodge his q's and poke with q and w till low then kill him when you are at full hp. Avoid fighting him when low since his ult will kill you instantly without shield or ally help.”
Pumparum says “Karthus doesn't have to mobility to dodge a Snowball and will most likely push up allowing for easy kills. Not much to fear besides a suicide attempt.”
kilgta says “Do not fight him level 1, Disengage the fight. Karthus is busted as of patch 8.24, Farm, shove and pressure the other lanes. Roam a lot, ward their jungle, contest buffs, etc.. Zhonya second is your best friend.
start sapphire or seal.”
unownreality says “Karthus can be very annoying to play against early game. Lux's low base MR means you are going to take a lot of damage by lay waste. Pre-6, farm under tower amd at a distance. At 6, try to pick him off with your combo. You should kill him even with just a lost chapter. ”
MechaaZero says “If you move all the time and he start to chase you out of frustration, landing your full combo becomes one of the easiest things ever. This lane is pretty damn free. Don't mess it up.”
CC Diana says “Karthus is relatively easy to beat. His Q is on a 1 second cooldown, but it's fairly easy to dodge and if it does hit you, it doesn't do that much damage early anyway. When CSing against Karthus, try staying close to minions, but be sure not to get yourself into a situation where you are creepblocked. Karthus' Q does more damage if it hits a solo target so if you position yourself where you are near a minion, the Q damage will not receive the bonus. Of course, dodge the damage entirely if you can. Post 6, Karthus should be an easy kill, but be careful about going in while low. Aside from ulting you, he can set up Wall of Pain to block your escape which can put you in an awkward spot while you dance around in his Defile pool. As always, Zhonya's Hourglass is a solid buy here.”
GaspiNinja says “if you dodge a couple of his q, and go with e to slow him down, you'll win 100% of the times. Watch out when being really low, remember his ultimate.”
LighterDay says “Karthus' Q is the same range as Veigar's W and E, but since he's squishy, it is easy to harass Karthus in lane and easy to farm against.”
BL00dY3nD says “Sidestep his Q and dodge his R with your W. Kill him and show him what it is like to get killed. Give him a payback for killing your team with his R. If he uses his E just go for him with E+W combo.”
Bughans says “Can deal damage late game, lots, in fact. You'll have to smash the shit out of him earlygame, where he's very immobile and can't deal tons of damage. ”
Extro Huski says “Even with just an Amplifying Tome he does 1/6 of Sona's health with one Q. There is basically no surviving this monstrosity w/o your jungler near. You better rush Banshee's Veil!”
BicBee says “Stay away from minions to make him choose CS or harass. Stay away from Karth's dead body. Rush early Zhonya's for his ult if he's strong. Ward path to his blue to catch him if you can.”
BicBee says “Stay away from minions to make him choose CS or harass. Stay away from Karth's dead body. Rush early Zhonya's for his ult if he's strong. Ward path to his blue to catch him if you can.”
vukashin.xyz says “Your mobility will make it hard for him to land Q
After two shadow combos you can all-in him
You can dodge his R with your R
Watch out for his wall slow since it will probably follow up with a gank”
xispy420 says “Even tho,the range of his Q is the same with your W,you can still win it,try to get stopwatch as soon as possible after he hits 6 otherwise,if you're low on HP you're dead ”
AzureArmatt says “Khartus with his Q spam and global ultimate is match up where you will constantly be on the move while trying to keep eye on him to save your allies in time. The dance between his Q's isn't that hard since it will deal it's damage with nice delay + it's AoE is pretty small. the problem starts when you get too close and khartus manage to catch you wil his wall and another AoE that deals damage to enemies around him. That's why before getting your ultimate try to stay at the safe distancce and after getting lvl 6 play more aggressively with poking him 1st before going all in. Remember that his passive gives him few extra seconds where he still can hit you so don't drop your guard after kill since it can lead to unpleasant death. If you see him backing away under his turret suddenly be ready to act, he will cast his ultimate most of the time after it, if you see that u have not that big window to charm him to cancer his channel so you will save your teammates from death and have free damage on him at the same time. Consider buying mercury treads if poke get's too heavy and you get caught often by his wall.”
thedonk says “Pretty much any assassin has no problem with going against Karthus. He is very vulnerable and he is only scary when he reaches 6. Make sure you can kill him with just enough health to survive his ult, or buy Zhonyas.”
Jazzmonkey says “Level 1 is hard he can kill you if you trade stupid, specialy if he gots exhaust. wait until you reach level 4 karthus is always a target for your jungle because, he got no escape wait until your jungler comes and just kill him straight away.”
Jenkinsu says “His range is short, but overextending can kill you pretty quick. If your HP is starting to drop low enough for his ult to kill start backing asap before he backs up and presses his instawin button”
Junix L9 says “Just dodge his Q's and you should be good to go.
Karthus cant really do much against mobile champions like Katarina.
But he will outscale you hard.”
apsonalol says “Ele é fácil de matar na lane, porém lidar contra ele globalmente vai ser a coisa mais complicada que você possa lidar, usar a build de burst e fazer de tudo para acelerar o jogo vai ser fundamental, lembre-se de nunca dar call de objetivo com o karthus vivo, talvez ele possa virar o jogo mesmo estando atrás.”
moutenn says “All he has is his Q, and you have so much mobility. Also he has no escapes or burst. Just all-in him as many times as you can. He is however a bit tanky.”
qasddsa says “Definitely run Fleet for this lane. You can go with an E max here or just a standard Q max, but don't bother trying to get in close to trade before you hit level 6. After level 6, you can save Riftwalk so you can walk up, E + Q, and then Riftwalk out. Your Q will stop the channeling of his ultimate.”
Gambinos says “Karthus is an easy match up (IMO).
Avoid his attacks by dashing through minions. Use minions as wise as possible, cause you can all in him lvl 2-3. If you can beat him early game, he'll be useless late game.”
Sozzoh says “Karthus will most likely spam Q in the early game due to its low mana cost and cooldown. Just try and dodge all of it. Once he reaches 6, you will probably want to get Zhonya's or GA to basically avoid his ult. Push him under tower and watch him cry. ”
undeadsoldiers says “Again, his main tool that he can spam at you is his Q,,,,, a skillshot. DODGE. After you kill him, make sure to go away, keeping his passive in mind.”
DaBigNut says “Majorly watch out for all of his abilities due to high base damage and fast proque.
Play aggressive and if possible freeze lane under his turret/ yar turret to have full control over the lane.”
Eccentrik says “Interesting to fight against, be cautious of where his Q's are and predict his movements, also predict his slows. And if he dies low health, you're lucky if you have a commencing stopwatch.”
wo xiang zhaoo says “Permanently harass him with your Q's pre 6. Just R into him after you hit 6, easy to kill. You can interrupt his R with your Q when he's alive.”
asffg123 says “Don't engage and play safe. Karthus has consistent damage that outtrades if you miss your Q or W. Otherwise, you will have an equal laning phase.”
Bengineer says “If you can take care of Anivia, ban this guy. His ult is avoidable with Sanguine, but, just like you can Sanguine under enemies in a team fight, when he dies, you and your teammates are screwed. Also, it's a pain to escape him when he uses his Wall of Pain. I pity you if you match up against this guy.”
Palme201 says “You will win this Matchup, just Oneshot him. But care for his passive after you kill him. His late game can be annoying with Mana shield and more HP”
BattleXD says “Karthus is a decent match up the only problem with Karthus is that he has map wide kill potential. So if he has map awareness he will be getting kills/assists from other lanes. ”
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