Karthus·Top Build

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Karthus Top build, you should take Exhaust and Teleport as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Summon Aery as your keystone, followed by Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Gathering Storm in the primary tree, as well as Presence of Mind and Coup de Grace in the secondary tree. For rune shards, you want Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health 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 Shadowflame. For your last 3 items, you should build Zhonya's Hourglass, 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 54.2% winrate over 168 matches played.

Alternative

If you're looking for alternatives, you can use Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, with runes being 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, as well as Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, and Health Scaling as your rune shards. The items that this build incorporates are Malignance as your first item, then Sorcerer's Shoes as a second item and Shadowflame as a third item. You want to finish the build with Rabadon's Deathcap, Stormsurge and Void Staff. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - E - W. This build is currently sitting at a 48.7% win rate across 117 matches played.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Karthus Top build in the current patch, try Ignite and Barrier as your Summoner Spells, Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus and Scorch as your primary rune tree, and Presence of Mind with Last Stand as your secondary tree. Use Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health as your shards. For items in this build, you want to complete Blackfire Torch as your first item, then finish Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item, and Shadowflame as third item. The last 3 options are Liandry's Torment, Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff. The ability order for this build is Q - E - W. As of the current patch, this build has a 57.0% win rate over 114 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.