Karthus — League Classic (Season 3)

Classic build

Era-accurate Season 3 (2013) builds.In-game values and the live meta may differ before the July 29 launch.Why?

League Classic is a curated recreation of old League and is still being balanced ahead of the July 29 launch, so in-game values and the live meta may differ. We’ll update builds as the mode settles.

Mid

AP Burst Mid

Researched, pending verification

Items

Starting

Doran's Ringdefault: mana regen and AP
Health Potionx1 with ring, x3 with boots
Boots of Speedalt start: safer

Boots

Sorcerer's Shoesdefault: magic penetration
Mercury's Treadsvs heavy CC

Core build path

Rod of Agesmana pool + scaling
Rabadon's Deathcapamplifies everything
Rylai's Crystal ScepterDefile becomes a slow field
Zhonya's Hourglasssurvive dives, channel Requiem

Situational

Buy these only when the game calls for it. They are not part of the core path.

vs magic resist stacking

Void Staff

point-and-click burst combo

Deathfire Grasp

teamfight burn and %HP

Liandry's Tormentpairs with Rylai's

MR shred, with Wall of Pain

Abyssal Scepter

if mana-starved without blue

Athene's Unholy Grail

extra life

Guardian Angelsuperb with Death Defied

Summoner spells

Flash
IgniteorTeleportorExhaust

Max order

R at 6/11/16. Early E point at 2 to shove, early W at 3 for the zone; W maxed last.

Ability leveling order from level 1 to 18
Ability	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Q	1			2	3		4	5
W			1											2	3		4	5
E		1							2	3		4	5
R						1					2					3

Runes

Marks

9/9

9× Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

Seals

9/9

9× Greater Seal of Armor

Glyphs

9/9

9× Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Quintessences

3/3

3× Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Masteries

21/0/9

Offense / Defense / Utility

Offense

4/4
4/4
3/31/1
3/31/1
4/4
1/1

Defense

Utility

1/13/33/3
2/3

Notes

The champion you cannot kill hard enough. Karthus does massive damage from total safety: Lay Waste out-pokes anyone, Defile shreds whole waves, and Requiem reaches across the entire map to finish kills he cannot even see. Rush Catalyst the Protector into Rod of Ages for the early spike, which gives health, the mana pool his kit needs, and ability power that all scales up over time. His weakness is that he is slow and has no escape, so he gets caught and bursted, except that Death Defied means killing him just buys seven more seconds of him casting everything he has from the grave, often including the Requiem that wins the fight anyway. Peel him, focus him last, and expect to eat one more ult after he is dead.

Not hand-checked yet, so treat these values as provisional. Source: Season 3 MOBAFire community guides (2012-2013), cross-referenced against MetaSRC League Classic 3.13 data (corroborates 21/0/9, the Doran's Ring start, and the Rod of Ages / Rabadon's / Zhonya's core).

Abilities

Passive

Death Defied

When Karthus dies he enters a spirit form for 7 seconds, during which he can keep casting all of his abilities for free before fully dying. A dead Karthus is still doing full damage, which usually means one more Requiem and a last Defile from the grave.

Lay Waste

Cooldown 1sCost 20/26/32/38/44 ManaRange 875

A small delayed blast at a target location dealing magic damage, doubled if it hits a single isolated target. The cooldown and mana cost are tiny, so it is cast constantly: his poke, his waveclear, and his primary damage. Landing isolated Lay Wastes is the skill of the champion.

Wall of Pain

Cooldown 18sCost 100 ManaRange 1000

Karthus conjures a wall; enemies passing through are slowed and have their magic resist and movement speed reduced for a few seconds. Zoning, catching, and peeling, and the magic resist shred makes everything else he casts hit harder.

Defile

Cooldown 0.5sCost 30/42/54/66/78 Mana per secondRange 550

Toggle. Passive: killing a unit restores mana. Active: Karthus drains his own mana each second to deal continuous magic damage to everything around him. His damage aura, his waveclear, and a fast objective-steal tool. With Rylai's it becomes a permanent slow field.

Requiem

Cooldown 200/180/160sCost 150/175/200 ManaRange Global

After a 3-second channel, Karthus deals magic damage to every enemy champion on the map, wherever they are. The iconic global: snipe low targets across the map, close kills out for allied lanes, or nuke the whole enemy team in a fight, and again from the grave through Death Defied.

Base data from Data Dragon 3.13.24, not yet hand-checked. Old-patch ddragon values are unreliable and League Classic may differ.