Karthus Popular Build
The patch 25.23 Karthus most played build uses Mercury's Treads, Shadowflame, Zhonya's Hourglass, Blackfire Torch, Liandry's Torment, Void Staff, Oracle Lens. This Karthus build has a 5.76% pick rate and a 61.38% win rate in LoL patch 25.23. Alternatively, check out some of the other ranked Karthus build choices below.
Death Defied
Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form that allows him to continue casting spells.
Lay Waste
Karthus unleashes a delayed blast at a location, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Deals increased damage to isolated enemies.
Cost:- 20/
- 25/
- 30/
- 35/
- 40
Cooldown:- 0
Range:- 875
Wall of Pain
Karthus creates a passable screen of leeching energy. Any enemy units that walk through the screen have their Move Speed and Magic Resist reduced for a period.
Cost:- 70
Cooldown:- 15
Range:- 1000
Defile
Karthus passively steals energy from his victims, gaining Mana on each kill. Alternatively, Karthus can surround himself in the souls of his prey, dealing damage to nearby enemies, but quickly draining his own Mana.
Cost:- 30/
- 42/
- 54/
- 66/
- 78
Cooldown:- 1
Range:- 550
Requiem
After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals damage to all enemy champions.
Cost:- 100
Cooldown:- 200/
- 180/
- 160
Range:- 10000
- Mage
Karthus's most popular build path includes Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap, Blackfire Torch as core items. Choose from multiple build variations below based on your playstyle and game situation. Each build is analyzed from thousands of ranked games to provide you with data-driven item recommendations.
Select a Karthus Build
Shadowflame
Zhonya's Hourglass
Blackfire Torch
- Shadowflame
Rabadon's Deathcap- Blackfire Torch
- Shadowflame
Void Staff- Blackfire Torch
Liandry's Torment- Rabadon's Deathcap
- Blackfire Torch
Best Karthus Build - Highest Win Rate Items
Popular Karthus Build Guide - Complete Item Build Path
This Karthus build focuses on ability power for maximum spell damage. Build the core items first for your power spike, then adapt with situational items based on enemy team composition.
Best Karthus Core Items - Build These First
These are Karthus's essential items that you should build in nearly every game. Rush these items first to reach your power spike and maximize your impact.
Shadowflame
3,200Click for detailed item information and stats
Ability Power:11053.23%Win Rate63.42%Pick RateRabadon's Deathcap
3,500Massively increases Ability Power
Ability Power:13056.12%Win Rate41.28%Pick RateBlackfire Torch
2,800Click for detailed item information and stats
Mana:600 Ability Power:8052.38%Win Rate77.20%Pick Rate
High Win Rate Situational Items for Karthus
These are the recommended top performing situational items to complete your Karthus build. These can be swapped out depending on the enemy composition and team needs.
Best Boots for Karthus
Choose your boots based on the enemy team composition and your playstyle needs.
Recommended Trinket for Karthus
Your recommended trinket choice for vision control and map awareness.
Complete Karthus Build Item Stats
Combined statistics from all items in this Karthus build.
Movement Speed:55- Ability Power:445
- Mana:600
Health:100
Armor:50
Karthus Counter Build Advice
When facing Karthus's top counters like MasterYi, MissFortune, Kindred, consider adjusting your situational items to increase survivability and match their damage output. If counter champions are building high damage, prioritize magic resistance items against AP threats or health-stacking items for general survivability in your situational item slots to reduce burst damage and improve trading potential. Your core build provides strong damage output. Against tanky counter picks, consider penetration items or percentage-based damage from your situational options to maintain kill pressure. Adapt your final build slots with items like Mejai's Soulstealer or Zhonya's Hourglass based on which counter champions you're facing and their itemization patterns. Monitor enemy builds and adjust accordingly for optimal Karthus performance.
Karthus - Champions with Similar Builds
These champions share similar playstyles with Karthus. The build shown is Karthus's current popular karthus build configuration, which may also be effective on these champions.
Champion | Full Build | Win Rate | Pick Rate | View Build |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 66.7% | 4.7% | View Build → | ||
| 61.4% | 5.8% | View Build → | ||
| 71.7% | 5.0% | View Build → | ||
| 55.0% | 4.4% | View Build → | ||
| 58.0% | 4.6% | View Build → |
Karthus Build - Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Karthus build?
The best Karthus build in this patch includes Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Blackfire Torch. This build has a 56.68% win rate and is picked 11.00% of the time.
What are Karthus's core items?
Karthus's core items are Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Blackfire Torch. These items provide the best stats and synergies for Karthus's kit and playstyle in League of Legends.
What are the best boots for Karthus?
Boots of Swiftness are the best boots for Karthus. Enhances Move Speed and reduces the effect of slows They are included in 11.0% of Karthus builds.
What is the best trinket for Karthus?
Oracle Lens is the best trinket for Karthus. Disables nearby invisible wards and traps for a duration Using Oracle Lens helps Karthus maintain vision around objectives and track enemy movements.
Are there alternative Karthus builds?
Yes, alternative Karthus builds include options like Shadowflame, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Blackfire Torch. Different builds can be more effective depending on team composition and matchups.
Where does MetaBot source build data for Karthus?
MetaBot sources its build data for Karthus directly from the Riot Games API, provided to developers for ingesting game data from League of Legends. MetaBot analyzes hundreds of thousands of matches daily to help it determine build statistics.
How does MetaBot determine what the best Karthus builds are?
MetaBot filters out any matches that don't use complete builds for Karthus. From there, we aggregate the Karthus builds data and use that to determine which builds are finding the most success in the current League of Legends meta. High performing builds with low confidence intervals resulting from thin data are dropped from our final results.
