Talk:Karthus/@comment-26459891-20150704013506

A thing I've been doing lately (I'm a Karthus main, so I am fairly experienced with him) is getting Athene's and RoA rather than Archangel's and RoA, and I've been quite happy with it.

First of all, the early chalice is a much better item as a first back - gives you mana regen, MR against your lane opponent (if AP), and upgrades into Athene's, which is not tied to any stage of the game to be at its full effectiveness.

I don't really feel the lack of those 1000 mana points, since RoA's 650 + Athene's mana regen + Athene's passive which refunds 30% of your mana after a kill or an assist basically allows you to never go oom in team fights.

And most importantly, since I couple Athene's to CDR per level blues, this allows me to be at 30-40% CDR very early, which results in more frequent ultimates. I find this to be especially effective for solo queue, where you are the one who has to make things happen, and I think it's easier to do that as Karthus by having your ultimate up as often as possible.