Karthus·Jungle Build

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Karthus Jungle build, you should take Flash and Smite as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Dark Harvest as your keystone, followed by Cheap Shot, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter in the primary tree, as well as Axiom Arcanist and Gathering Storm in the secondary tree. For rune shards, you want Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense, though it depends on the matchup. Finally, for your items, you should build Blackfire Torch as your first item, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes and Liandry's Torment. For your last 3 items, you should build Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap and finish with Void Staff. For the skill order, you want to stick with Q - E - W. Right now, this build has 52.2% winrate over 7 996 matches played.

Optional

Your second option for Karthus Jungle build would be to take Exhaust and Smite as your Summoner Spells. The runes that this build takes advantage of are Dark Harvest as your keystone, Cheap Shot, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter in the primary tree, and Axiom Arcanist with Gathering Storm in the secondary tree. The shards used in this build are Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense. The items for the build are Malignance, which you should build first, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item and Liandry's Torment as your third item. The rest of the items in order are Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff. The skill order for this build is Q - E - W. In the current patch, this build has a 42.6% win rate over 706 matches.

Alternative

If you're looking for alternatives, you can use Flash and Smite as your Summoner Spells, with runes being First Strike as your keystone, Cash Back, Triple Tonic and Cosmic Insight in the primary tree, and Axiom Arcanist with Gathering Storm in the secondary tree, as well as Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, and Health Scaling as your rune shards. The items that this build incorporates are Blackfire Torch as your first item, then Sorcerer's Shoes as a second item and Liandry's Torment as a third item. You want to finish the build with Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff and Zhonya's Hourglass. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - E - W. This build is currently sitting at a 49.2% win rate across 569 matches played.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Karthus Jungle build in the current patch, try Flash and Smite as your Summoner Spells, Dark Harvest, Cheap Shot, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter as your primary rune tree, and Axiom Arcanist with Gathering Storm as your secondary tree. Use Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health Scaling as your shards. For items in this build, you want to complete Liandry's Torment as your first item, then finish Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item, and Shadowflame as third item. The last 3 options are Zhonya's Hourglass, Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap. The ability order for this build is Q - E - W. As of the current patch, this build has a 45.7% win rate over 230 matches played.

Situational Karthus Runes and Items

Depending on the context of your game, your matchup, and enemy champions, you might want to consider building some situational items or take specific runes. Carefully examine your team, enemy team, game state , and your matchup to plan your Karthus build accordingly! For example, when it comes to rune shards, you might want to take either Armor or Magic Resist, depending on which champion you are about to lane against.