Preface - Double Double Stanking

If you take a look at Reitende Leiche's section on the cost effectiveness of Fountain of Renewal, and more importantly to this build, Lifespring, you start to see that the Fountain of Renewal upgrade path is highly undervalued by most players. Why nothing else besides 2 Eve of Harvest and 2 Fountain of Renewal? Well, to be fair, there's some boots and an Aftershock. By double stacking Eve of Harvest and Fountain of Renewal you'll be able to never leave the fray. For this to be possible, make sure you max Stormguard. The overdrive doubles the dps allowing for the 2 Eve of Harvest, with their combined 50% lifesteal, to give as much health/second as double stacking Lifespring/ Fountain of Renewal.

Besides, no one ever said you can only have one of each item. As long as the effects stack, why not?

A Modest Catherine at work:

Playstyle - DDS

Begin with Stormguard. For this build you should act as a wall to enemy advancement. That means in the lane and in the jungle. But this also means you most likely won't be las hitting and thus a lower level. Often times I am 2 levels lower than the highest level player in a match. That's okay. You're main focus should be on staying alive to build up more armor via panzer faust. (FYI: the armor build up does not go away if you die).

Feel free to pop into the jungle to kill a healing jungle creep, but always keep an eye on enemy movement. If you find yourself a much lower level, don't be afraid to jungle or even try and entice a teammate to infiltrate the enemy jungle with you.

Punish players who aren't able to adapt. Once you grab the Essentials to this build, you shouldn't have to teleport to the base unless you're in imminent danger of dying. Merciless Pursuit out, get behind a turret, and then teleport.

Save Merciless Pursuit during a fight for stunning and chasing enemies for a kill. Don't let yourself get kited into an enemy trap. This build doesn't pump out the dps (especially in the early game) to constantly chase opponents down.

Speaking of saving, your ultimate, Blast Tremor, shouldn't be used as a finsher. Use it to cancel out opponents' ultimates or to silence enemies trying to take down an ally. Blast Tremor is also a great way to scare opponents that aren't willing to commit to an encounter. P.S. I have a confession: I like using Catherine ult as a finisher to 3v3 encounters. It gives everything this, "LOOK AT ME" flare.

Highest Priority Items - DDS

Ironguard Contract is a must for obtaining gold, via its passive. Plan on getting hit a lot, it's what Catherine does best. I like to stay in the lane, roam to the jungle when needed, and just scare the opposing laner(s) from going near my turrets. This means I most likely won't be last hitting much and scaring the enemy early game usually doesn't involve killing. Hold onto this for most of the match until you need the slots to upgrade.

Eve of Harvest is essential for basically every stat boost it gives. More energy means more abilities before you need to recharge; more energy regen so there's less down time between abilities due to a lack of energy; 25% lifesteal to start making Stormguard heal you; +50 crystal power to make everything even peachier! NOTE: You can grab a Lifespring first if you're having early game health issues.

Lifespring gives +200 health and 13 health/sec. The main reason we want Lifespring is for the health/sec, but I won't turn down 200 additional health points. By now you want to know why I have prioritized Lifespring over Fountain of Renewal (twice actually). That is because when you purchase Fountain of Renewal you pay 1100 gold to upgrade. For 800 gold you can grab yourself another Lifespring for another 200 health and 13 more health/sec.

Continuing the discussion for another Lifespring over upgrading to Fountain of Renewal, the 60 shield and 30 armor bonus don't give a big enough boost to your sustainability to warrant the upgrade yet. While yes, the active is fantastic, it's has about a minute CD and if you're always in the thick of battle, wouldn't 13 additional health/sec be more beneficial to you staying alive?

Chronograph or the second Eve of Harvest, whichever you feel is more appropriate for your match. A second Eve of Harvest should make it to where you almost never run out of energy, long drawn out battles being the only exception. Either way, get these before you move on.

Grab Travel Boots when you can. They're not a top-top priority, but keeping pace with others and 3 more health/sec is welcome. If you're wanting to upgrade to Journey Boots do it last. There is no speed increase by upgrading and the additional stat bumps are not cost effective compared to the higher priority items in this build (or lower for that matter).

Upgrade to Fountain of Renewal at this point. Having two team heals towards the end of the match is awesome for turning the tides in your favor. Keep in mind, they have about a 60 sec CD. Don't pop both unless you're sure you'll get an Ace and the opposing team will take the full 60 sec to respawn.

Aftershock will make that Chronograph more offensive for you, give you more lifesteal, and more crystal power will only help you do more damage with Stormguard. Did I mention there's even more lifesteal when using an Aftershock? Alternatively, if you lean towards lower CD for your abilities you can replace Aftershock with a Clockwork.

Thanks for reading!

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If you've read this far, I should let you know, I've had enemies run away when I walk by. It makes me giggle everytime!

Thanks again for reading ^-^

Playstyle - Hybrid Vengeance

Hybrid Vengeance is a much more offensive build. Its main combo, its main strength, is when Tension Bow and Aftershock are ready and you Merciless Pursuit from a bush. Add in the Frostburn to keep enemies within attack range after the initiation (or a Sorrowblade for more damage output) and "You Have Killed An Enemy" should pop up soon afterwards.

That sounds nice right? But this can be easier said than done. This build demands awareness, of the map, your energy, and your cooldowns. A few proper ganks can easily snowball into a victory, but without teamwork to set up a gank, energy to perform the gank, and your Tension Bow and Aftershock ready the enemy may get away.

Tension Bow just takes 6 seconds to recharge, Aftershock, however, activates only after an ability is used. To prepare for ganks, pop Stormguard but make sure not to basic attack anything. Catherine's hands should now be glowing red and blue!

Highest Priority Items - HV

See DDS's explanation. Only difference is that you will most likely act more like a normal jungler, but make sure to still roam.

This is when your high powered ganking starts. Because Merciless Pursuit already gets bonus damage, the additional boost from Tension Bow should cut through your opponent. It's also one of the cheaper T3 items.

You could honestly stick to just an Energy Battery, whichever helps you manage your energy better. If the T1 battery is enough, use that extra gold for something else in the meantime.

The enemy team should be afraid of bushes after you show them this. Like stated above, pop Stormguard to get the blue hands, then when you Merciless Pursuit you should see a huge part of their health be depleted. I was shocked when I saw it the first time.

As you can tell from Double Double Stacking, I love Lifespring/ Fountain of Renewal. Modest armor, shield, and bonus health with the best hp/sec combined with a low price tag just shouts "use me in every build". That being said, I would still place a higher priority on the more offensive items in this build. If your opponents are dead, do you even need any of that defense?

I feel the same way about boots for this build as I do in DDS.

Pick Frostburn for more of a support role. Keep pace with your target, use Stormguard, and Frostburn will keep them in range. On the otherhand, if you want straight up damage when you gank, Sorrowblade should give you what you're looking for.

Merciless Pursuit has a static cooldown which doesn't change regardless of what level it is. Picking up Clockwork fixes this issue. More ganks, stuns, and "holy ****" moments are in store. Feel free to grab Clockwork sooner if cooldown reduction is your schtick.