Disclaimer: This is my first guide, so bear in mind that it could suck or be absolutely brilliant. My aim is to start from the bottom though and work the way up to brilliant as this build may require you to adapt some game play style. On the bright side, it has been successful for me. I have been sitting comfortably at 'Pretty Good' for a while and am expecting/hopeful to progress.
Please also forgive me for not including images (abilities, etc). To be honest, I don't know how to. Sorry!
So why am I making a Catherine build?
- I love any type of champions with hard CC, some tankiness and a silence. When used properly, this will make you a high threat and a valuable asset to your team. Catherine is also a girl, has all of these qualities and who doesn't love a bad *** *****? I also would like to see her played more often and make our community more competitive. I also do not see many builds that are utilizing her the way that I do.
Abilities/Strategy Top
Before I get into my item build and strategy, I guess a good place to start is Catherine's abilities and how I use them.
- Passive - Panzer Faust:
This gives you bonus armor that stacks each time you stun or silence an enemy hero. As long as you do your job and land the AOE silence on multiple enemies, you really do not need to build that much armor unless the enemy carry is fed/farmed with Weapon Power.
- Merciless Pursuit:
This gives a movement speed boost and allows Catherine to stun the target on-hit. Activating this resets your auto attack to boot! This ability is great for catching, kiting, baiting and pumping some extra DPS, which I will explain below:
Catching: The movement speed is great especially for low levels when no one has boots. You can catch most enemies out of position this way and stun them so that your team can collapse or you can trade a bit of damage safely (I will explain the trading of damage in more detail in "Pumping some extra DPS").
Kiting: You should utilize this ability best in the jungle (preferably near Kraken/item shop) or around bushes to be effective. Kiting in those locations is the best with Catherine because you can juke using bushes. If you are low on HP and being pursued, go into a bush, wait for them to get close to the bush. Right before the enemy enters the bush, you stun them and exit the bush to the nearest friendly tower. Why I stun first then run away is best explained next:
So...as explained earlier, the stun and movement speed allows you to lock the enemy down and speed away, but there is more to it than just that. Please note that as soon as you activate your ability, you get two buffs: a movement speed buff & the on-hit stun. The movement speed buff and the stun have a CD timer before it procs off. Thus, if the enemy is on your heels and you are in danger, do not just speed away with the movement speed buff. Use the stun on the enemy immediately after activation when they are on your right butt (and I mean right on your butt). This way, they will be rooted and you will still have most of the duration of the movement speed to get even further away from danger, securing your life. If you just speed away without stunning, you may actually die. (Stunning also stacks your passive, so if you were going to die anyway, you might as well get a stack out of it).
Baiting: As I mentioned in Kiting, you really want to make most of your plays happen in the jungle or using bushes. This is directly related to my build, which will highly emphasize the use of Scout Traps and Signal Flares. The bait is simple: you lure the enemy into a bush with your scout traps (usually I will have 3 or 4 traps set in a bush). Once they enter I will stun them on the trap, and usually the enemy champion dies or my team comes from lane to clean up the survivors. I will go into more detail about the traps and where to place them later.
Pumping some extra DPS: Since Merciless Pursuit resets your auto-attack cooldown, you should always try to auto attack first before you activate your stun. This will give you a solid 3 auto-attack burst and maybe a 4th hit if the enemy decides to stick around. Only execute this if you are safe enough to. If you just run out recklessly, you will take a lot of damage and using the stun initially with the speed boost to poke instead of this 3-combo will be more rewarding of a trade in damage. So it depends on the situation. In the jungle, however, the 3-combo is a nice way to clear single cookie monster camps more efficiently.
- Stormguard:
Stormguard gives you a little bubble that deals damage over time to enemies close to you. In addition, it will deflect damage over a certain amount when you are attacked; however, each deflection will reduce the duration of your shield buff by 0.5 seconds. To me, this is my bread and butter ability. I will always max this first after your ultimate spell as it is your primary survivability and dishes out most of your damage. At early levels, it is not as strong, simply because enemies do not do as much damage early to you so you won't proc the deflection. Nevertheless, the DOT damage is nice especially as it is AOE and since you should always be in the thick of the fight - on top of a carry or protecting your own carry from an enemy melee, damage will be done. Do not underestimate DOT damage as it does add up especially if the shield is maintained for its full duration.
- Blasting Tremor:
Blasting Tremor is almost too strong of a spell in my opinion. It has great range, CC ability, damage and can turn the tide of situation (fights, objectives).
How do I use it?
1) Engage
2) Disengage
3) CC
4) Execute
5) Steal Objectives
1) Engage: Using this spell at the right time is crucial specially if you use it to engage. If you use it wrong, you still have some other CC to protect your team, but it can be devastating to the enemy team when used to engage in a bush. Normally I will not use this as an engage, but if the entire team is clustered and walking and your team is in position to gank, that would be the time to use it. Afterwards, follow up with a stun and your shield.
2) Disengage: When an enemy team is chasing your team and you are retreating to a tower, this ability is a lifesaver, but again, it depends on when you use it. Unless I know we can safely kill an enemy in pursuit before we reach the tower using this spell, I will use it. Otherwise, wait until the enemy reaches your tower with minions. The minions make the enemy feel like they can take your tower easily. BUT your ultimate will easily clear all the minion wave due to its damage and cone range allowing you to be safe under the tower. This is the most effective disengage and would have forced the enemy to waste time getting to your tower and now choosing to go to the next objective.
3) CC: If you can't stun someone channeling a spell such as Adagio or Skaarf, use your silence. I would gladly trade my ultimate for a Skaarf ultimate that would decimate my team.
4) Execute: Because of the range, this ultimate can be cast over walls, cover entire brushes to snipe enemies. Please note that it takes a second to land the ultimate, so make sure that the enemy will be closer range otherwise, they can just walk out of it by the skin of their teeth while you are casting.
5) Stealing Objectives: Similar to Execute, you can use the damage and range to snipe Kraken or Gold Mines. It's all about timing the cast time with the time you need to last hit the objective while the enemy team is DPSing.
Items: (ALWAYS BUY SCOUT TRAPS - I will stress this through my guide)
I take the Ironguard Contract, pots and a scout trap for sustain and baiting early game. The Ironguard Contract also gives you extra gold when you take damage.
I then build into the Eve of Harvest. Before building it fully, I will grab boots, a lot of scout traps for more damage, kiting ability and baiting enemies into a bush full of scout traps. The Eve of Harvest is more for sustain than damage. You need to live long enough so that your traps proc and do their work on the enemy's health bars. Again, the Eve of Harvest should be your only "DPS" item though it is more for sustain and survivability.
Once you have your Eve of Harvest, start building a Shiversteel. The CD for this is only 20 seconds so you will have it every fight. Once you have this, this is where Catherine Ketch'em really shines. The slow allows for you to pin enemies down for allies to DPS, traps to proc, and allows you to kite. You also get beefy from it with 600 bonus HP. Your build is essentially done after this item. The rest of my item slots, I fill with Scout Traps to deny the enemy team objectives.
In the late game, if the enemy is very strong, I will build either a Fountain of Renewal or Atlas Pauldrons depending on whether the team is Weapon Powered or Crystal Powered oriented.
I prefer the bonus heal from the Renewal + the Eve of Harvest. You should not die if their mage is strong. I prefer Atlas Pauldrons over Metal Jacket because I like using activating items. Most Weapon Power heroes such as Saw and Ringo depend heavily on attack speed bring a target down. Atlas Pauldrons reduces their attack speed by 65% in an AOE, which severly mitigates their threat.
For my remaining item slots, I usually sell the Ironguard Contract and fill my inventory with Scout Traps and Signal Flares.
Scout Trap Strategy Top
What to do with all these Scout Traps? (Mid & Late Game)
I place them all around key objectives and for vision. I begin placing traps in the bushes next to the Item Shop. Once that is done, I lay more around the Kraken bushes. You want this area to be heavily guarded. If your team can take the enemy Goldmine, buy a lot of traps and place them around the mine. This will secure the mine for most of the game.
What about lane? (Early & Mid Game)
I always Scout Trap the lane bushes coming from the jungle. This will give your laner security and the damage beleeve it or not may help the laner secure a kill. There were multiple time where I place a trap in the bush, the enemy jungler walked on the trap, took damage and my Saw just decimated him. Other times, the enemy laner/jungler will be retreating and will actually die to my trap giving me a kill while I am farming in the jungle. Traps in the lane bushes are for early & mid game only.
What do I do with all the traps if the enemy has Kraken? (Late Game)
Place all your traps around your tower and base. This will allow you and your team to safely slay Kraken while denying the enemy from advancing further. It's a cheesy turtle strategy, but it works and it has won quite a few games despite our team being very far behind.
How do I dominate an enemy base with Scout Traps? (Late Game)
Say the enemy is turtling and you can't seem to take down their last towers. Place scout traps everywhere in their base,especially where you will be standing to take down the towers. The enemy team will be forced to not fight where you placed your traps or else they will be dead within seconds.
Signal Flares Top
I only grab a few signal flares each game. I only do this when we do not have the proper vision or if the enemy has a Taka. Using a signal flare when Taka goes into stealth will reveal him.
When the enemy team doesn't have a stealth champion, shoot a flare before you take a big objective such as Gold Mine or Kraken.
Shoot another flare if an enemy is running from death. This will reveal baits and may help you/your team secure the kill if there is no bait.
Closing Remarks Top
This is essentially how I play Catherine and the strategy I have developed by constantly picking her and using this build.
BUT please do not pick Catherine if you team composition does not require her. Only pick Catherine if your team does not have a tank like Ardan/Krul/Joule or if your other jungler is not as tanky such as Taka or Roshka. The point is you are more valuable to your team as a different hero if your team does not need a tank. This is only a rule of thumb - I have used Catherine with Krul/Joule and have been quite successful with this comp too, but it is riskier late game since the damage will not be there.
I realized I didn't explain ganking. I do gank and roam a lot. Hence, most of my play happens around bushes/jungle, but for ganking, you need to use your judgment as each situation is different, so how to gank is up to you. In most cases though, I wait in bushes, bait with Scout Traps and my team usually ganks off of my baits.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this guide. Feel free to try it out and leave some comments so that I can improve it. You may also add me and I can demonstrate how successful this build can be.
Once again, I am sorry I do not know how to include images to make this guide pretty. Regardless, I hope that this guide was able to help anyone out :D Thanks for taking the time to read.
Add me @ Rainbowarrior qB^)
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