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Lore
Template:C-renderDriven by an intense killer instinct, Katarina uses her talents as an assassin for the glory of Noxus, and the continued elevation of her family. While her fervor drives her to ever-greater feats, it can sometimes lead her astray.
From childhood, Katarina displayed a natural gift for combat. As the daughter of a prominent Noxian pirate general, many paths were open to her, but she rejected them all for the path of the blade. Rigorously trained by the finest assassins in Noxus, her father the best among them, it was not long before Katarina demanded her first assignment. The task they gave her was aggravatingly simple: assassinate a low-ranking Demacian officer. As she set to her work infiltrating the enemy camp, Katarina discovered an opportunity too tantalizing to pass by – the arrival of a Demacian General. Stalking him to his tent, she quietly dispatched his guards and slit his throat. Pleased with her impressive kill, she disappeared into the night. Katarina's elation faded the next day when her original objective, the Demacian officer, led his forces to ambush unprepared Noxian soldiers. Though the Noxians fought valiantly, they suffered heavy casualties. Furious at her mistake, Katarina set off to complete her original task. Returning to the camp, she spied her now heavily guarded target and realized a stealthy kill was no longer possible. Drawing her blades, Katarina swore the officer would die, no matter the cost. She leapt into battle, unleashing a whirlwind of steel. One by one blades flashed and guards fell, each strike bringing her one step closer to the officer. A final thrown dagger restored her honor. Bloody and bruised, Katarina barely escaped the Demacian forces, and returned to Noxus a changed woman. The scar she earned that night now serves as a constant reminder that she must never let passion interfere with duty.
“ | "Never question my loyalty. You will never know what I endure for it." |
— Katarina | |
Template:C-renderAs a militaristic state, it would perhaps come as no surprise that the primary responsibilities of Noxian women are raising strong children and providing succor for husbands who walk the path of soldiery. There are some, however, for whom nurture is not nature, and Katarina is just such a creature. Born the daughter of the feared Noxian General Du Couteau, the girl was always more interested in her father's knives than in the dresses, jewelry, and other trifles that her sister spent so much time fussing over. A childhood dispute soon unveiled her uncanny knack for bloodshed, and her father, ever the opportunist, happily fostered her killer instincts. After training under the tutelage of the finest assassins the mighty city-state had to offer, Katarina first cut her teeth performing assassinations in the Ionian War. There, her ruthless mastery of the knife and dagger combined with her sadistic temperament to earn her the title Sinister Blade, a moniker that would follow her for the remainder of her career. She is most famous, however, for her exploits in the campaigns against Demacia, especially those surrounding her engagements with the nation's champion, ; a rivalry which began when she recovered the remains of from a vanguard under his protection.
With the demand for warfare somewhat arrested by the tenuous peace settling over Valoran, Katarina sought the allure of violence in its last remaining haven: The League of Legends. Some might say it was an inevitability that Katarina's chosen path would draw her to become a champion of the League, continuing to enforce the will of Noxus and bring prestige of war to her noble family. There, she continues to perform her bloody work - esteemed and reviled, feared and adored.
“ | "The Sinister Blade of Noxus is like a black widow - beautiful, but deadly." |
— | , following a skirmish in the field|
Template:C-renderThis draft bio written by RiotRaven was on the PBE but updated after community feedback.
Born to Noxian privilege, Katarina trained in the ways of the knife from the time she was a child. Now that fiery, willful child has grown into a beautiful and deadly woman. Katarina's intense passion for life is tempered by a sense of duty and loyalty to her family. That same passion proves a double-edged sword when her heart and her responsibilities are at odds.
As the free-spirited daughter of a prominent Noxian general, the young Katarina was given the best of everything. Naturally gifted in combat, she found herself drawn to blades. Much to her family's pride, she trained under the deadliest assassins in the Noxian military. It wasn't long before Katarina's instructors deemed her worthy of a trial by fire – to kill a prominent Demacian soldier. Creeping through the darkened military camp, Katarina was overwhelmed by her passion to prove herself. When the army's General strayed across her path, unguarded, she quietly slit his throat. Katarina disappeared into the night, pleased with her impressive kill. Her elation was soon crushed, as the next day her original target – the prominent soldier who was the true military genius – led his forces to ambush unprepared Noxian soldiers. Katarina flung herself into the fray to correct her mistake, earning a scar over her left eye as a permanent reminder. Even though she finally completed her task, her family's reputation was damaged. Since that day, Katarina vowed to never let passion prevent her from bringing glory to both Noxus and her family. Reconciling her desires with her duty proves to be a constant challenge. To the world, Katarina is a symbol of Noxian patriotism, though there is more to the red-haired assassin than meets the eye.
“ | "Never question my loyalty. You will never know what I endure for it." |
— Katarina | |
Quotes
- Upon selection
- Attacking
- Movement
- Taunt
- Joke
- Laugh
- After using
Development
- Katarina was designed by Coronach.
Champion Relaunch: Katarina, the Sinister Blade
Announcement made by NeeksNaman:[1]
This patch, we’ll be overhauling one of our classic champions: Katarina, the Sinister Blade. Although Katarina's manaless, cooldown-based abilities put a unique spin on her gameplay, she's historically faced a number of challenges in the very early game and in team fight situations. In this update, we’ve made a few changes to her kit aimed at addressing these difficulties, while retaining the core elements that make playing this Noxian femme fatale a fun and satisfying experience. We also gave her a complete visual upgrade, including a new model, animations and spell effects on all of her abilities!
Katarina's New Abilities
- Voracity (Passive): Champion kills or assists reduce Death Lotus' cooldown and refresh your basic abilities.
- Bouncing Blades: Katarina throws a dagger that bounces from enemy to enemy, dealing magic damage and marking them. Striking a marked target with an ability or basic attack will consume the mark to deal additional magic damage.
- Sinister Steel: Katarina whirls her daggers around her, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the area. If she hits an enemy champion, Katarina gains Movement Speed for a short duration.
- Shunpo: Katarina instantly moves to her target's location and takes reduced damage from enemies for a short duration. If the target is an enemy, she deals damage.
- Death Lotus (Ultimate): Katarina becomes a flurry of blades, throwing daggers with unrivaled speed at up to three nearby champions. Daggers deal magic damage and reduce incoming healing on targets hit.
The first problem that Katarina players often faced was weak performance very early on, primarily related to the steep damage curve of her core damage ability, Bouncing Blades. While Bouncing Blades scales dramatically as it levels up, early on it ricochets only a few times, dealing relatively low damage. This forces Katarina players to play conservatively early in the laning phase, encouraging passive play until Bouncing Blades can be used to harass effectively.
To address this disparity, we normalized the damage inflicted by Bouncing Blades and made it bounce the same number of times at every level of the skill. In addition, each ricochet will now select the nearest available target instead of bouncing randomly. This change should both facilitate interesting counter-play for opponents and open up new harassment opportunities for advanced Katarina players who are able to predict where their daggers are going to bounce.
In addition to her early game difficulties, Katarina's reliance on the massive damage potential of Death Lotus has always made her a challenging champion to balance. A fully channeled ultimate could quickly reduce a team to ashes, but a well-timed interrupt from a canny defender could quickly transform Katarina from a maelstrom of death into an easy kill. For this reason, we decided to move the healing debuff from Killer Instincts onto Death Lotus and decrease the channel time slightly. This reigned in the overall damage numbers slightly, replacing some of this raw punishment with a bit of utility gave us the opportunity to make remainder of Katarina's kit more dangerous.
To accomplish this, we swapped Killer Instincts for a spammable, area-of-effect attack that grants Katarina a brief speed boost when it lands. This new ability, dubbed Sinister Steel, gives Katarina superior mobility and allows her to continue laying down damage on multiple targets during a team fight if Death Lotus is interrupted by a stun or knockback. For a little added kick, Bouncing Blades will now apply a debuff that is consumed to deal bonus damage when Katarina strikes the target with an attack or ability. These changes should give Katarina the extra damage she needs to play aggressively right out the gates and the flexibility necessary to keep her damage potential high once the team fights start.
This brand new take on Katarina, the Sinister Blade, will be baring her blades in an upcoming patch. We hope you’re ready!
Previous Abilities
Patch history
- Cast time delay before channeling removed (reduced to 0 seconds from a 0.25 second delay).
- Total damage increased to 400/575/750 (+2.5 ability power)(+3.75 bonus attack damage) from 400/500/600 (+2.0 ability power) (+3.0 bonus attack damage).
- Channel time increased to 2.5 seconds from 2.
- Cooldown reduced to 60/52.5/45 seconds from 60/55/50.
- Initial damage reduced to 60/85/110/135/160 from 60/90/120/150/180.
- Damage reduction duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 3.
- Total ability power ratio increased to 2.0 from 1.75.
- Stats
- Base movement speed reduced to 345 from 350.
- Movement speed adjusted to 15/20/25/30/35% from 12/20/28/36/44%.
- Initial damage reduced at later ranks to 60/90/120/150/180 from 60/95/130/165/200.
- Damage reduced at later ranks to 40/75/110/145/180 from 40/80/120/160/200.
- Updated Katarina's lore.
- Cooldown reduction on kill or assist increased to 15 seconds from 10.
- Base damage increased to 60/95/130/165/200 from 50/85/120/155/190.
- Ability power ratio decreased to 0.45 from 0.5.
- Mark detonation ability power ratio reduced to 0.15 from 0.2.
- Ability power ratio decreased to 0.25 from 0.3.
- Damage increased to 60/85/110/135/160 from 40/70/100/130/160.
- Cooldown reduced to 12/10.5/9/7.5/6 seconds from 14/12/10/8/6.
- Fixed: Tooltip now states the correct damage reduction amount (15%, not 20%).
V1.0.0.145: rework
- General
- Lore changed.
- Bilgewater, Mercenary, Red Card and Kitty Cat skin artwork changed.
- Champion kills or assists reduce Death Lotus's cooldown by 10 seconds and refresh basic abilities.
(Innate)
- 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 second cooldown.
- Katarina throws a dagger which deals 50/85/120/155/190 (+0.5 ability power) magic damage. The dagger bounces to the 4 closest enemies dealing 10% less damage with each bounce.
- Enemies hit are marked for 4 seconds. Katarina's basic attacks or spells will consume the mark dealing 15/30/45/60/75 (+0.2 ability power) magic damage.
(Q)
- 4 second cooldown.
- Whirls daggers in a circle dealing 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.5 bonus attack damage) (+0.35 ability power) magic damage. If she hits an enemy champion, Katarina gains 12/20/28/36/44% movement speed for 1 second.
(W)
- 14/12/10/8/6 second cooldown.
- Moves to a target's location. Deals 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.5 ability power) magic damage if the target is an enemy
- After using Shunpo, Katarina gains 20% damage reduction for 3 seconds.
(E)
- 60/55/50 second cooldown.
- Becomes a flurry of blades, throwing daggers at the closest 3 enemy champions dealing 400/500/600 (+3 bonus attack damage) (+1.75 ability power) magic damage over 2 seconds.
- Daggers apply Grievous Wounds, reducing incoming healing by 50% for 3 seconds.
(Ultimate)
- Now always moves Katarina behind the target regardless if is active.
- Now moves Katarina in front of the target.
- When Killer Instincts is active, Katarina moves behind the target.
- Katarina will now attempt to attack the target after blinking to an enemy champion with .
- Can now target wards again, but will now briefly reveal wards for two seconds when used in this manner.
- Healing reduction duration on reduced to 5 seconds from 10.
- Now prefers to target enemies over allies when your cursor overlaps both.
- Classic skin splash art has been updated.
- Base damage per dagger increased to 50/65/80 from 40/50/60.
- Ability power ratio per dagger reduced to 0.25 from 0.3.
- Attack damage scaling per dagger reduced to 50% from 55%.
- Base damage changed to 80/120/160/200/240 from 90/120/150/180/210.
- Will now place Katarina on the other side of the target (relative to Katarina), rather than behind the target.
- Base damage increased to 60/95/130/165/200 from 20/40/60/80/100.
- Now scales off of 80% bonus attack damage instead of 100% of total attack damage.
- Now has a 0.35 ability power ratio.
- Base damage decreased to 40/50/60 from 50/65/80.
- Now scales off of both attack damage and ability power rather than one or the other.
- Now hits the closest 3 targets rather than 3 random targets.
- Cooldown reduced to 60/55/50 seconds from 60.
- Fixed several tooltip errors with related to number of champions hit.
- Cooldown reduced to 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 seconds from 10/9.5/9/8.5/8.
- Cooldown reduced to 20/18/16/14/12 seconds from 22/20/18/16/14.
- Now fires blades at three targets at all levels.
- No longer ignores enemy spell shields like .
- No longer reduces true damage when used with .
- Can no longer be cast while rooted.
- Cooldown increased to 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds from 8 at all ranks.
- Gold gain on kills and assists reduced to 25 from 50.
- Bounce range reduced to 400 from 450.
- Stats
- Base health increased to 478 from 460.
- Health per level increased to 83 from 75.
- Damage per level increased to 3.2 from 2.
- Adjusted to trigger off kills or assists instead of a champion you've damaged within a short time frame. This should result in more consistent behavior, but not impact most cases.
- Bonus damage increased to 20/40/60/80/100 from 15/30/45/60/75.
- Passive now increases damage from abilities and melee attacks by 8/12/16/20/24 each hit.
- Using reduces all damage received by 15/20/25/30/35% for 3 seconds.
- Using remains unchanged.
- Fixed a tooltip error with where the damage listed was lower than the actual damage dealt.
- Physical damage scaling increased to 55% of bonus attack damage from 50% of bonus attack damage.
- Added an alternate attack animation.
- Voice over set updated (say goodbye to the 'Dance Macabre').
- Voice overs added to attacks and spells.
- Tooltip updated to reflect that it gains 50% of her bonus attack damage rather than item damage.
- Bonus damage is no longer lost when you switch targets.
- Bonus damage now triggers on spell casts as well as attacks.
- Bonus damage no longer triggers on misses or dodges.
- Channeling time reduced to 2.6 seconds from 3.
- Number of daggers thrown increased to 10 from 9.
- Added a new updated particle.
- Fixed a bug in which Death Lotus would not immediately deal damage.
- Reduced range to 600 from 650.
- Cooldown reduced to 22/20/18/16/14 seconds from 23/21/19/17/15.
- Base damage modified to 50/65/80 from 30/45/60.
- Bonus attack damage scaling reduced to 50% from 55% of total attack damage.
- Ability power ratio reduced to 0.3 from 0.4.
- Attack damage scaling reduced to 55% from 65%.
- Healing reduction effect increased to 65% from 60%.
- Healing reduction effect duration increased to 10 seconds from 8.
- Ability power ratio reduced to 0.75 from 0.8.
- Cooldown increased to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds from 9/8/7/6/5.
- Ability power ratio reduced to 0.35 from 0.4.
- Cooldown increased to 60 seconds from 45.
- Ability power ratio decreased to 0.4 from 0.5.
- Changed the look of her model.
- Base damage decreased to 30/45/60 from 60/90/120.
- Attack damage scaling increased to 65% from 15%.
- Ability power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.2.
- Stats
- Magic resistance per level increased to 1.25 from 0.
- Healing reduction duration increased to 7 seconds from 3.
- Cooldown modified to 23/21/19/17/15 seconds from 20 at all ranks.
- Changed to stacking +4/5/6/7/8 attack damage from stacking attack speed.
- Ability power ratio reduced to 0.8 from 1.
- Now applies damage after the teleport.
- Can no longer Shunpo to yourself.
- Fixed a bug that caused Katarina to have a mana bar.
- Now slows for 15% with .
- Now slows for 15% with .
- Now has either 0.2 ability power ratio or 15% of attack damage (whichever is higher) bonus damage.
- Updated recommended items.
V0.9.25.21: Added
- If an enemy champion dies within 15 seconds of being hit by Katarina, she gains 50 gold and her cooldowns are reduced by 20 seconds.
(Innate)
- Katarina throws a dagger that hits multiple units, dealing magic damage equal to her total damage plus a bonus amount to the primary target. Each subsequent hit deals 15% less damage.
(Q)
- Passive: Katarina's attack speed is increase each time she consecutively hits the same target.
- Active: Katarina's next basic attack has a bonus effect. Bouncing Blade deals full damage to every target hit and reduces incoming healing to the targets hit, or after using Shunpo Katarina's dodge chance is increased for 3 seconds.
(W)
- Katarina instantly moves to her target's location. If the target is an enemy, she deals magic damage.
(E)
- Katarina goes into a state of extreme focus, throwing daggers with unrivaled speed at one enemy champion for each level of the ability.
(Ultimate)
References
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