I play Catherine like a support tank. She requires very little to be a major contributor to fights. Your job is to initiate. If someone is going to facecheck a bush, it should be you. If someone is in trouble, it is your job to save them. When tower diving, you should be the first one in and the last one to leave. In other words, if anyone is going to die, it should be you.
But here is Catherine's secret: she can't be killed.
I generally buy an ironguard contract and head into the jungle. Since you have ironguard, your job is to soak up jungle damage and let your partner get the last hits. Catherine doesn't need many items to be effective, so don't worry about gold too much. You will also be the person on your team buying scout traps and flare guns, so, depending on your playstyle, you might want to start with scout traps over potions. If you take this route, your jungle partner should let you have one of the heal camps when you are low.
I like to invade, so I normally put my first point into Merciless Pursuit. If your partner jungler plays passively and doesn't invade, put your first point in Stormguard instead. Either way, by level 2 you should have at least one point in Merciless Pursuit. Every available point after should go into Blast Tremor first and Stormguard second. Max Stormguard over Merciless Pursuit. (EDIT: I just learned recently that the last point in Merciless Pursuit increases the stun duration by quite a bit, so I might actually switch to maxing Merciless Pursuit instead)
Like I said, I like to invade, so I head to the enemy jungle camp near the middle shop and start there. Leash them into the bushes by the shop so you can fight them while not letting the enemy team get the jump on you.
Normally the enemy will have the same idea and a fight will break out. You aren't quite tanky enough to stick around yet at level 1, but if you are level 2, your shield will help you stay in the fight.
Generally, once I hit level 2 I look for a gank opportunity in the lane. If there are none, Just clear the jungle, focusing on the centermost camps and invading when possible. Stealing the enemies jungle when you can means they will either be under farmed or they will have to counter invade, opening themselves up to being in a bad position when your laner heads down and cuts off their exit.
Have scout traps in key positions to keep an eye on your enemies so that you not only know when its safe to invade but also when they are invading you. The best scout trap positions are in places that give you vision to key locations but aren't in the direct path of traffic. When someone steps on a scout trap, it explodes and you lose vision, so you want to find the balance between places where you get adequate vision and places where people don't normally step.
Rush reflex block and then crucible as quickly as you can. Also make sure your boots are comparable to or better than those of your enemies at all times. You need to be able to get to targets to stun them, so speed is important. And crucible allows you to save yourself or a teammate when things go bad. Consider the activatable on crucible your 4th ability. That is how important it is for this build. The cooldown is fairly short, so you should be using it in nearly every teamfight.
Don't be stingy with crucible but also don't be overzealous. Wait until the person you want to save is low before you use it. This serves two purposes.
First, if you use it early, your teammate will feel safe and might get himself into a bad position later in the fight when you don't have the means to save him. By waiting until he is low or in danger, he will feel threatened and will already be looking for a way to escape, and so your crucible will be what gives him that extra bit of health he needs to escape effectively. When he begins to escape, the enemy will have to make a decision whether to chase or to retreat. If he chooses to retreat, you can save your crucible, but if he wants to pursue, your use of crucible can cause him to over extend or give your teammate an opportunity to turn the fight back around.
Secondly, using crucible late can cause your enemies to become overconfident or blow their load early without having enough followup. For example, an enemy Ringo might be sure that he can get a kill on your teammate, so he launches his ult and begins to retreat. Your crucible could save your teammate, and by that time it is too late for Ringo to follow up for the kill. If you used it earlier, he might have waited longer to use his ult and gotten a few more hits in on your teammate, allowing the ult to secure him the kill while you helplessly watch.
The only time you should consider using crucible early is when your teammate has a channeled ability and you want to prevent the enemy from stunning them and stopping the channel. For example, Adagio's and Koshka's ultimates.
Your core build is simply crucible and boots. This is all you need to strike fear into your enemy. You should probably also build a chronograph for the cooldown and energy regen. After tankiness and speed, cooldown acceleration is your next most important stat, and energy regen always comes in handy.
After your core build, there are a few directions you can go. If your teammates are doing well and causing a lot of damage, you can buy items like shiversteel and warhorn. These allow you to continue to support your carry by keeping enemies slowed and boosting your allies in for the kill while also giving you some tankiness and extra damage to jungle monsters. If your team is lacking in damage, Buy aftershock and clockwork to give your stuns, which now have a lower cooldown, an extra bit of punch.
If the enemy team isn't focusing you, consider building more crystal instead of more tankiness. This will make you more of a threat, which hopefully will pull some of the heat off of your allies.
If, on the otherhand, the enemy team is being silly and focusing you instead of your allies, drop some of your crystal in favor of more tankiness. Buy an atlas pauldron to slow down the attacks of that pesky Saw, or buy an aegis for a second reflex block.
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