Katarina/Strategy

Skill usage

 * When facing a team with healers, use in order to hit as many enemy champions as possible, hindering their healing capabilities.
 * can easily escape, , , , , or even an enemy by using  on a unit that's out of range. She can leave the area of effect of special abilities unless she is affected by a Crowd Control effect like a knockup, stun, silence, etc.
 * can use to, , , , , , and  so keep an eye on the battlefield and coordinate with your teammates to give you an easy escaping route.
 * Using on an allied  or  will reveal the ward.
 * will always place her on the opposite side of the target from her current location. This is a buff for chasing enemies, but can put you in some less-desirable spots as well.
 * With quick reactions, can be used to dodge skill shots like  and.
 * When the enemy is low on health behind their tower, consider a into  combo, as very few champions can withstand the onslaught at critical health. An inexperienced player may not expect the sudden tower dive, though a stun will shut you down quite quickly. Make sure you have enough health to make it out alive.
 * This strategy can also help you in team fights. If you see an enemy who has low HP, you can in, kill them, and then  out right away. Be mindful of stuns.
 * A surprise can turn the tide quickly. This is best used in coordination with hard AoE crowd control, as not having any form of crowd control can leave Katarina vulnerable during . If your team can keep enemies from escaping, Katarina can put out plenty of damage.
 * Remember that many forms of crowd control will interrupt, specifically any stun, silence, taunt, fear, knockup, or knockback. Enemy tanks will save their abilities such as or  specifically to stop you.
 * Try waiting until the other team is already engaged with your team before using followed by.
 * also hits enemy champions which are stealthed. Furthermore, it becomes usable when a stealthed champion approaches, so keeping an eye on its icon may notify the player of incoming ganks.
 * is one of the few manaless champions and is based entirely on cooldowns. Use this to your advantage by using spells whenever possible.
 * makes for an excellent last-hitting spell as it keeps you at a safe distance while allowing for easy farming and doubles as a harassment tool. Try to time the skill to kill as many minions as possible with a single use in order to avoid having the skill on cooldown when other last hits become available. For easy harrass, use it on the minions as they're lined up walking into lane so the last bounce jumps to the enemy champion in the back.
 * and can be used to quickly and effectively farm minions while directly under your tower, especially at higher levels. Wait for the tower to fire at minions once or twice before jumping in for the last hit.
 * ' channel is not interrupted by using summoner spells, with the exception of and.

Build usage

 * The first thing to note is that due to having no mana but relying on abilities is that certain ability power items are less efficient.
 * In addition, due to her cooldowns, having some cooldown reduction is a good idea, whether you get it from runes, masteries, or items. Try building an early and save it to build a, which will help your burst, as let you use your abilities more often.
 * is very useful due to her lack of other forms of crowd control. The 35% slow (counts as a single-target spell for items) on makes it harder for enemy champions to leave her range before she's finished.
 * Although two of her skills scale with her attack damage ( and ), they deal magic damage, so magic penetration is very useful.
 * is therefore the preferred choice of boots, regardless of whether you're doing an attack damage or ability power build.
 * and scale from both ability power and attack damage, making hybrid builds effective. However, remember that her base damage and attack speed are not as good as those of other hybrid champions and scale less on level.
 * Note however, that building a few attack damage items will make you less reliant on your abilities, allowing you to still do damage if you get silenced or are waiting for cooldown.
 * Also, since those two abilities' ratios for attack damage are about double the ratios for ability power, only or  does as much raw damage as a good attack damage item, such as
 * is a core item of any hybrid build, as it provides large amounts of both attack damage and ability power. In addition, it gives significant regeneration power and a crowd control ability. However, due to its cost, rushing a leaves you much squishier early game.
 * can greatly increase your autoattack damage output as well as give you increased movement speed for greater mobility.
 * Both and  can work well if you are performing well, but carry high risks.
 * Building some survivability is a good idea, as is naturally fairly squishy and has no crowd control to keep enemies at a distance.  is a good choice for increasing durability.  can help ensure a successful channel of  by blocking a disable, however  will not benefit from the extra mana provided by.
 * Purchasing an early and/or a later  can allow for good sustainability within lane and after a fight. Use your  along with your  and  freely on a minion wave to gain health back and reduce unnecessary recalls.
 * Keeping one or more s in your inventory to drop and to can help you to make a quick escape, or to catch up to a fleeing enemy.

Countering

 * lacks any ability to heal herself. It is a good idea to harass her in lane at early game to make her underfarmed and underleveled.
 * Saving your crowd control in order to interrupt can negate a large part of her damage.
 * Even though some of them scale with attack damage, all of abilities do magic damage. They can always be countered with magic resistance, regardless of whether she's doing an attack damage or ability power build.
 * Moving away from a minion wave when she throws can help you dodge it.

Champion Spotlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soCg5RbgYIA