Karthus is one of the only mages that are viable in the bot lane in the current meta of LoL.
Although Karthus jungle got hit by strong nerfs in the recent patches, Karthus is still a massive force in the bot lane.
It is extremely hard to stop this champion from scaling because of his passive ability that enables him to take CS or kills even after his death.
While he out scales most champions in the game, Karthus’ damage output in the laning phase also outweighs most marksmen.
This Karthus Bot Guide will help you get familiar with the champion’s strengths and weaknesses.
Karthus Bot Guide: Strengths
This part of the Karthus Bot Guide will be focusing on the strengths. These will give you an idea on how to utilize them.
- It is a perfect fit if your team picks full AD. People in soloQ are often reckless in the pick-ban phase.
- I remember countless games where my team picked all AD and the enemy team stacked a thousand armor which resulted in a loss for us. Having Karthus bot-lane in your pocket solves this problem when it occurs.
- Karthus’ damage output is quite incredible in all phases of the game. In the early game, you are likely to win most 2v2 fights in the bot-lane thanks to the insanely low cd and high damage on your Q.
- Karthus’ ultimate ability brings a great, reliable global presence to the game. There are marksmen like Jinx and Ashe who also has a global presence but their ultimate abilities are skill shots. Therefore they are not as reliable as Karthus.
- Even if Karthus gets camped and dies in the landing phase, it doesn’t stop him from scaling because of his passive. You can still take the cs and might even be able to sneak a kill.
Karthus’ Weaknesses
Of course, like every other champion, Karthus has his weaknesses. These can be abused by enemy players or can be covered by you.
In this part of the Karthus Bot Guide, we will focus on his weaknesses. Besides, you will also see how you can avoid being exploited by the enemies.
- Karthus has a huge mana problem in the early game. You should be very careful with your mana usage in the lane. Try to land your Q’s on single targets as it does a lot more damage. This way you can save up mana and last-hit minions with your Q and regain your mana with the E passive. If you try to spam Q’s on multiple minions you are likely to run out of mana before you clear the wave.
- Karthus is extremely squishy. This champion is too easy too kill. Now it is not always a bad thing to die with Karthus. However, if you are going to die you should always look to die for something.
- You can trade a kill, or you can die close to the minion wave so you get to farm even after your death.
- Karthus needs levels and the bot lane is not the best place to earn EXP. Karthus needs levels because his ultimate is probably one of the strongest ultimates in the game that scales with levels. Since you share exp with your support in the bot lane, it gets harder to reach 16 and destroy the enemy team with your ult. Always look to get solo exp when you can.
- This is a hard champion to play. Although you can still do damage with your E and ultimate even if you miss your Q’s, hitting them is, of course, a lot better. This champion relies on skill shots as his primary damage source. So you have to get used to landing Qs to be able to utilize him to his full potential.
Don’t Jinx yourself– enjoy the excellent lumbar support available from the Secret Lab x League of Legends Collaboration Chair!
Conclusion
In this Karthus Bot Guide, we have listed the strengths and weaknesses of Karthus and how you can utilize or avoid them. Karthus might take some practice to get used to but this champion is in a great spot in the meta. You can definitely gain some ELO by abusing him.
