Karthus

The Deathsinger

Mage · Mana · Ranged

About

Karthus, the Deathsinger, is a mage champion who uses Mana as a resource and attacks at range. Their kit focuses on magic damage.

On the official scale, difficulty is 7 out of 10: a champion hard and needs practice to perform well.

Compared with other champions, Karthus starts with average HP (620), below average armor (21) and average move speed (335). Attack range is 450 units.

Karthus has 10 skins besides the default look.

Difficulty

Attack2

Defense2

Magic10

Difficulty7

Abilities

Passive · Death Defied
Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form that allows him to continue casting spells.
Q · Lay Waste
Karthus unleashes a delayed blast at a location, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Deals increased damage to isolated enemies.
Cooldown: 0s · Cost: 20/25/30/35/40
W · 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.
Cooldown: 15s · Cost: 70
E · 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.
Cooldown: 0.5s · Cost: 30/42/54/66/78
R (Ultimate) · Requiem
After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals damage to all enemy champions.
Cooldown: 200/180/160s · Cost: 100

Tips for playing Karthus

Ask your allies to help point out when you should use Requiem to get kills in different lanes.
Lay Waste is very strong at farming minions and harassing enemy champions.

Tips for playing against Karthus

Karthus can cast spells for a short duration after he is killed. Move away from his corpse to be safe.
Make sure you always have enough health to survive Requiem, even if you have to go back to the base more frequently to heal.

Base stats

HP: 620 (+110 per level)
Mana: 467 (+31 per level)
Armor: 21 (+4.7 per level)
Magic resist: 30 (+1.3 per level)
Attack damage: 46
Attack speed: 0.625 (+2.11 per level)
Move speed: 335
Range: 450

Lore

The harbinger of oblivion, Karthus is an undying spirit whose haunting songs are a prelude to the horror of his nightmarish appearance. The living fear the eternity of undeath, but Karthus sees only beauty and purity in its embrace, a perfect union of life and death. When Karthus emerges from the Shadow Isles, it is to bring the joy of death to mortals, an apostle of the unliving.