Katarina

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK or +RES / -DEF or -HP

• Weapon: Reese’s Tome (+Eff)

• Assist: Draw Back

• Special: Iceberg / Glacies

• Passive A: Fury / Atk/Spd Bond / Swift Sparrow

• Passive B: Desperation / Quick Riposte

• Passive C: Atk Ploy / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: Def Ploy / Quick Riposte / Distant Def

This build aims to make Katarina into an effective dual-phase combatant and team support.

As such, Attack, Speed, and Resistance are all key stats that Katarina enjoys receiving a boon in. A boon in Speed improves Katarina’s ability to both perform and avoid follow-up attacks while additional Attack increases her overall damage output. A boon in Resistance also makes for a suitable option by further improving Katarina’s magical bulk as well as her ability to activate Ploy skills.

With high Resistance and two Ploy skills built into her unique weapon, Reese’s Tome, Katarina can serve as a top-notch debuffer with the potential to completely cripple any targets in her cardinal directions. This makes Iceberg the choice Special to run, as its damage output will be quite effective thanks to Katarina’s high Resistance. At the cost of a longer cooldown, Katarina also has the option to run Glacies for an even more powerful Special activation.

Fury is a fantastic option for this set, as the boost it provides increases Katarina’s damage, overall bulk, and ability to utilize Ploy skills as effectively as possible. Alternatively, Atk/Spd Bond has great synergy with the Owl effect on Reese’s Tome, granting Katarina a whopping +7 to her Attack and Speed when adjacent to an ally. For a purely offensive approach or if neither of the aforementioned skills are available, Katarina’s native Swift Sparrow makes for a solid budget alternative by bolstering her offensive stats on initiation.

The choice of B skill depends on which phase of combat one wishes Katarina to focus on. Desperation is a fantastic Player Phase choice, as it allows Katarina to initiate on and double her opponent without any fear of retaliation. This crucial when taking on strong physical opponents due to Katarina’s extremely poor physical bulk. Meanwhile, Quick Riposte is better suited for dueling opponents in the Enemy Phase by guaranteeing her own follow-up attack. In particular, this makes it a more effective option against other fast mages such as Nino, Halloween Henry, and Bridal Tharja by allowing Katarina to reliably take them out in a single round of combat.  

As for C skills, Katarina can take her debuff game a step further by adding a 3rd Ploy into her C slot. Atk Ploy makes for a great choice and comes free of charge in Katarina’s base kit. While it doesn’t help her directly, Katarina can use the Def Ploy Sacred Seal in order to devastate her opponents by debuffing all four stats at once. Alternatively, both Quick Riposte (if not already being run in the B slot) and Distant Def also make for great choices of Sacred Seal by further improving Katarina’s Enemy Phase prowess.

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -DEF or -HP

• Weapon: Rauðrblade+

• Assist: Ardent Sacrifice / Draw Back

• Special: Glimmer / Moonbow

• Passive A: Swift Sparrow / Fury

• Passive B: Desperation

• Passive C: Spd Ploy / Res Ploy / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Res Ploy / Speed +3 / Attack +3

This set takes a more offensive approach by trading the utility of Reese’s Tome for the sheer damage output of a Blade tome.

For her Assist, Ardent Sacrifice has great synergy with Desperation. Katarina’s extremely poor physical bulk of 49 makes her susceptible to getting killed in only one hit; by dropping her HP without the need to engage in combat, Katarina can safely get into Desperation’s 75% HP threshold. Otherwise, any choice of movement skill such as Draw Back will make for a suitable Assist.

Glimmer is a great choice of Special on any Blade tome user, as it scales with the additional damage received from Hone/Fortify buffs and activates within a reasonable timeframe despite the cooldown penalty tied to Blade tomes. Alternatively, Moonbow can be used as a more effective option against opponents with extraordinarily high Resistance such as Sanaki and Winter Tharja.

Katarina’s native Swift Sparrow makes for a fantastic choice of A skill, as it gives her a strong boost to her offensive stats on initiation without the need to forego anything else. Fury makes for another solid choice by making it easier to get into Desperation range along with increasing her overall bulk at the cost of a marginally weaker offense. In addition to this, the boost in Resistance improves Katarina’s ability to utilize Ploy skills.

Desperation is the quintessential B skill for any glass cannon mage; once in the HP range, Katarina will be able to safely perform follow-up attacks without the risk of getting killed on the counterattack. Moving on to C skills, Katarina can once again make effective use of Ploys. In particular, Res Ploy increases Katarina’s overall damage output while Spd Ploy allows her to secure additional follow-up attacks should they land. Otherwise, the C slot can be replaced as needed to suit the team.

Last but not least, Katarina has several options for Sacred Seals. If she isn’t already utilizing Res Ploy in her C slot, it can also be run in the Sacred Seal slot. Heavy Blade is another option with a consistent activation thanks to the damage scaling property of Blade tomes. This allows Katarina to activate her Special more frequently. Finally, both Speed +3 and Attack +3 make for good picks in order to give Katarina a solid offensive stat boost.