Karthus Build
Latest Karthus build for League of Legends with items, runes, summoner spells, skill order, counters and patch data.
Karthus Build Guide
Karthus is a unique jungle pick whose damage keeps threatening the map even after he dies, and ranked data on patch 16.13.1 shows a 48.87% winrate at a niche 1.21% pickrate. He’s also playable in the bot lane for players who want to bring his wave clear and poke to a duo lane.
Dark Harvest scales with his ability to finish off targets from a distance, and the Blackfire Torch, Shadowflame, and Rabadon’s Deathcap core turns his ultimate into a game-ending threat. Skill order runs Q, then E, then W. Full itemization and counters are covered below.
Karthus Build
Imported from op.gg.
Starting Items
Core Items
Boots
Full Item Set
Karthus Runes — Domination + Sorcery
Dark Harvest 
Cheap Shot 
Grisly Mementos 
Ultimate Hunter 
Axiom Arcanist 
Gathering Storm 
Adaptive Force Adaptive Force 
Health Scaling Karthus Summoner Spells
Exhaust 
SmiteKarthus Skill Order
Ability Order by Level
Levels shown as recorded in ranked data; R is highlighted at its level-up points.
Starting Items
Core Items
Boots
Full Item Set
Karthus Runes — Sorcery + Precision
Deathfire Touch Axiom Arcanist 
Transcendence 
Scorch 
Presence of Mind 
Last Stand Adaptive Force Adaptive Force 
Health Karthus Summoner Spells
Exhaust 
FlashKarthus Skill Order
Ability Order by Level
Levels shown as recorded in ranked data; R is highlighted at its level-up points.
Karthus Counters
Weak Against
40.2% 127 games 
41.8% 189 games 
41.9% 387 games 
43.5% 336 games 
43.5% 563 games Strong Against
55.0% 129 games 
54.4% 237 games 
53.9% 858 games 
53.8% 184 games 
53.8% 370 games Win rates are Karthus's results against each champion, imported from op.gg.
Karthus Build FAQ
Based on current ranked data (op.gg, patch 16.17.1), the strongest recorded Karthus build in Jungle goes Blackfire Torch, Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap as core items, with a 49.29% win rate across 35,380 games.
The most played rune page runs Dark Harvest (Domination) with Sorcery as the secondary tree.
Blackfire Torch, Shadowflame, Rabadon's Deathcap.
Based on real matchup data, Karthus struggles most against Volibear, Aatrox, Xin Zhao.
Build and counter data comes from ranked game statistics.