Talk:Katarina/@comment-24082086-20151210094456/@comment-26227836-20151216012851

Hextech Gunblade has always been a pretty good item on her. In Season 4, it gave the most damage for Katarina's Ult, bar DFG. It's just that sometimes, there are just items you need before building it.

Corrupting Potion is pretty useful on Katarina. The extra damage from it increases kill potential Pre-6 without burning Flash. Autoing with Katarina is easier than autoing with some other champions since Katarina has one of the cleanest auto attack animations in the game.

W max has historically been better Post-Rework but it's just that some matchups do not allow you to get in close proximity to the opponent. It mostly comes down to which Ability you can land reliably or farm well with.

The reason why abilities are maxed is because it allows you to deal more damage without expending too much mana and you deal damage in less time or you're Syndra and you're passive is useless without maxing abilities out, but I digress since most of these reasons don't apply to Katarina.

Katarina's Q is usually maxed first because it's your "safe-farm" tool. Also, it can be used to harass at the same time (W can too but the windows of opportunity are smaller). Q allows you to deal damage without retaliation ergo, your Q trades always outdamage your opponent because the can't trade back. Q's cooldown is also reduced as you level it which also means, you can last hit with it more often. Q is sometimes not as good because you won't always be able to proc the mark on the enemy, so some of the damage is lost. Another problem with Q max or using Q in general is that it pushes your lane, making it even more difficult to farm. The biggest reason why Q max is weaker, in my opinion, is because investing points in Q also means that you're increasing the cd of your W. What I mean by this is, if you max Q, the only time that you're going to use your W on your opponent is when you Q which is every 10-7 seconds.

W max is used on champions that can't retaliate or can't retaliate quick enough to your W's (pre-6). These champions include: Zed, Talon, Diana, Anivia, Kassadin, Akali. Notice how most of these champions are melee. This does not mean that all melee champions can be W maxed against. Fizz is a champion that you do not want to step within melee range of.

Kassadin is a viable W max because his Q negates your Q and your Q cd will almost always he higher than his. W max allows you to trade when his Q is down. Unfortunately, he may decide to max E in response.

Zed and Talon deal a pretty good amount of damage even after their skill shots are expended(which should have been sidestepped or dodged with E). Your W outranges Zed's E and Talon's Q so you exploit that by maxing W.

Anivia cannot duel you if you max W and dodge her Q but if you're prone to getting stunned, I'd suggest focusing on farming.

Against Akali, Katarina's only way of damaging her pre-6 while her shroud is up is with W. Also, with Akali's Q-E detonation nerfs, you can trade well if Akali never lands a Q proc.

W max also contributes to your dps by comboing with your autos.

On to Will of the Ancients. It's an item that many mages would like to use but don't/can't because it:

1. Doesn't provide mana or mana regen

2. Doesn't give enough AP

Will of the Ancients is an extremely inexpensive full item but that's also it's weakness because Hextech Gunblade/Rabadon's will always be better in 6 item full builds. A 6 item build that costs 18,000 gold will amost always be better than a 6 item build that costs 16,000 gold whether you're comparing damage potential or raw stats.

Cooldown reduction is actually pretty misunderstood on Katarina. Many people dislike it (like SenorTaco here :P) because PURCHASING cdr means that you're losing out on damage/burst potential or because cdr pales in comparison with her passive. Back in Season 4, I would use 9 scaling cdr glyphs and go Lucidity Boots with DFG(10% cdr). It would allow me to ult again after only 2 resets as opposed to the current 3 resets(without cdr). Now that item builds for Katarina do not include cdr, it's harder to get to that point. Her current AP builds are usually:

Luden's Echo, Zhonya's Hourglass, Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Sorc Shoes, Guardian Angel/Banshee's Veil/Rylai's

OR

Hectech Gunblade, Abyssal Scepter, Void Staff, Sorc Shoes, Zhonya's Hourglass, Rabadon's Deathcap

Cooldown Reduction in lane is useful/strong because Katarina is manaless so using Q everytime it's off cd increases your damage by a lot. Every second that you do not use a Q(and/or W) stacks up. If you count up those seconds and divide by 9, you can see how many Q's you could have been using and therefore see how much damage you missed out on dealing.

I think a lot of seasoned players are annoyed at Katarina as a champion because she offers only damage to the team (unless you count putting opponents on their deathtimers or intimidating someone utility). So to many people, if you build utility stats on Katarina (cdr/spellvamp/Armor/MR) you aren't building damage. And if you aren't building damage, you're basically a subpar Katarina. But in my opinion, in conclusion, cdr Katarina is just a different playstyle than pure damage Katarina.

TL;DR   If you don't want to read through all this I can make a TL;DR. If you want more information, ask away.