Talk:Karthus/@comment-4499945-20141101163158/@comment-15244341-20141103012116

I believe you can skip RoA only if you are good at positioning with Karthus. I personally prefer Tear into Rylai's simply because the item makes his Q into the single deadliest thing at that point of the game. The shift to more AP in that item made it just awesome.It also makes your item slots less cramped, so that you have space for more pure damage (it's not that RoA is bad for damage, it's just not the focus of the item).

Also, I tend to get a Zhonya's as my next big buy since it synergyzes pretty neatly with Defile and will basically save your ass against many many spells. And I don't really like delaying either Rylai's or ZH, so I don't usually buy RoA unless I know I have low chances of teamfighting early on (with a late game teamcomp or a farming jungler, mostly).

That said, it's pretty much YMMV with this guy's build. Skipping RoA gives you some core items faster (ZH and Rylai's) which gets Karthus earlier into teamfights, which is what I personally prefer when I play him. Even if I get ahead I still buy the same opening since it fits my playstyle better. I think you can go ahead and buy RoA and Tear even if behind, since as YourPrivateNightmare says, the spike you get when they are charged is pretty insane and banking on that is not bad per se.

BTW, I run spellvamp Quints, so that does have influence in why I build him like that (no need for the sustain from Catalyst). If you run AP, then probably get RoA or your lane will be miserable.