Karthus·Top Build

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Karthus Top build, you should take Flash and Teleport 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 41.6% winrate over 101 matches played.

Optional

Your second option for Karthus Top build would be to take Exhaust and Ignite as your Summoner Spells. The runes that this build takes advantage of are Summon Aery as your keystone, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus and Scorch in the primary tree, and Cosmic Insight with Biscuit Delivery in the secondary tree. The shards used in this build are Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health in defense. The items for the build are Blackfire Torch, 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 Zhonya's Hourglass, Rabadon's Deathcap and Shadowflame. The skill order for this build is Q - E - W. In the current patch, this build has a 41.2% win rate over 97 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 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, Liandry's Torment and Morellonomicon. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - E - W. This build is currently sitting at a 40.3% win rate across 67 matches played.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Karthus Top build in the current patch, try Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, First Strike, Cash Back, Triple Tonic and Cosmic Insight 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 Malignance as your first item, then finish Sorcerer's Shoes as your second item, and Liandry's Torment as third item. The last 3 options are Shadowflame, 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 51.6% win rate over 62 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.