Karthus·Top Build

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Karthus Top build, you should take Ignite and Barrier as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Summon Aery as your keystone, followed by Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus and Scorch in the primary tree, as well as Presence of Mind and Last Stand 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 Stormsurge, 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 48.5% winrate over 136 matches played.

Optional

Your second option for Karthus Top build would be to take Exhaust and Teleport as your Summoner Spells. The runes that this build takes advantage of are 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. 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 Shadowflame as your third item. The rest of the items in order are Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff and Liandry's Torment. The skill order for this build is Q - E - W. In the current patch, this build has a 45.1% win rate over 113 matches.

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 Blackfire Torch 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, Void Staff and Liandry's Torment. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - E - W. This build is currently sitting at a 44.5% win rate across 110 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.