Katarina vs Samira Counter Pick

Samira is a marksman rewarded for standing in melee range: Daredevil Impulse adds magic damage to her attacks up close and builds a combo grade from alternating attacks and abilities. That erases the usual assassin advantage, because Katarina’s arrival at 125 units is exactly where Samira wants the fight. Over 239 games on patch 16.13.1 Katarina records 43.5%.

The mechanical problems:

• Blade Whirl destroys enemy missiles, and Bouncing Blade is a thrown dagger, so the opening move of the sequence can simply vanish.
• Wild Rush refreshes on a champion kill, which turns one failed engage into repeated dashes with attack speed attached.
• Inferno Trigger fires at everything surrounding her, while Death Lotus channels at only the three nearest champions and requires Katarina to survive the duration.

There is still a case for her. Katarina’s 672 base health and 2,508 at level 18 lead 630 and 2,466, she spends no resource on a failed all-in, and Voracity resets the kit once a damaged champion dies. Samira’s 500 attack range is also short for a marksman, so disengaging is genuinely difficult once a Shunpo lands on a dagger placed behind her. Both champions move at 335 and neither walks out of a fight, though the difficulty ratings favour Samira at 6 against 8, and her 105.9 armor by level 18 is pointed at the wrong damage type.