Hi everyone! I'm just a player in SEA who mainly plays captain ranked or casual (thank you insta-lockers). Now I'm still in tier 10 bronze after so many hours wasted grinding (and they have the audacity to reduce a full rank lv). Should you have any questions, recommendations or see any typos feel free to comment. For this guide, I won't be copying much from my other guides cuz Cath is probably my greatest experience playing from tier 1 (even more than Ardan if you have read my other guide), so this guide would be kinda long and wordly. And I am really lazy so I skipped item build and left full build only. (Check Baptise build)

Before you read this guide I strongly recommend that you read CheeseAusar's Catherine guide first (second most Cath's guide votes).

Check out my other guides on Vgfire.

Cath has always been a beast even after Stormguard got nerfed from 6 to a 4-second shield. Now she gains double stack from Captain of the guard, which is even worse for people playing against her. And of course,
with all the bursty heroes around, her potential is greatly enhanced. I used to win all the kills late game just because a **** Cp Kestrel shot me in her mine with my shield on.
And sadly, the higher tier you are, the worse can a person use Cath because they focus on utility items first, neglecting her damage potential.

This guide will provide all situational counters and strategies in most cases. Obviously it's up to you and your team to have a substantial understanding of these information first to execute it properly.

If you are skeptical about my ability and experience, check out Vgpro and see how good I am with Catherine.

School started. And I'm lazy.

Really thankful that this guide is in weekly staff pick. Will try to reduce the amount of profanities.

Ok after a while without stable internet I played Vainglory again, and 1 rank is reduced.
*sigh*
The sad news is halcyon potion is gone for good. Halcyon potion was really good for Cath's massive energy consumption and all that.
The good news is healing flask. This item is a dang nuisance when late game captains still hold them. 30% health. You're almost dead and BOOM, half health. The barrier is pretty good too. It's like a relex block, but can't block the negative effects.
At the early stages of the game, you should use it at 50% health and you have no fountain. Or just save it in case you get in a tricky situation.
I'm not gonna cover Spellsword. If you want me to, I will, but this is a roam guide.
Longer fountain cooldown is really bad tho. SEMC wants people to get no healing at all and be really conservative with their health (longer cooldown on healing abilities)
Regen rate and energy regen is better tho.

So what should be the meta right now? Healing treant, as they mentioned. Just having the buff before a big fight does wonders. Try to steal one, too.

1. Captain of the Guard

Ok, so every stun and silence Cath dish out gains her 2 stacks of armor and shield.
This makes her extremely tanky, with almost 300 shield and armor each at full build lv 12, with like 40-50 stacks, which means you only receive like 1/3 of the damage received.

The f*cking problem here is that people don't always use this to their advantage, that is stacking up for late game. Play agressively, that is lane and jungle ambush, and stack as much **** as you can before Kraken spawns, preferably 2 stacks per minute (I got almost 80 stacks at 25 minutes once).

Another thing to note is that if your play style is damage reflecting, you might want to hold back on gaining stack.

2. Merciless Pursuit

Basically, it's a stun. One hell of a reliable stun. With the speed boost, you can almost guarantee a stack gained, except for blocks, dashes, their own speed boost and slow,
which is usually based on the enemy's reflex. The speed boost can used to chase, back down, avoid skillshots... The stun is used to lock down, disengage, or cancel an enemy skill. Watch out for reflex block tho, for many players don't want to waste their ult.

Remember that the stun will not lose immediately with the speed boost but 2-3 seconds later.

3. Stormguard

This is the ability that separates Catherine from other supports. No other heroes and items in Vainglory hold the ability to reflect damage. The more damage you receive, the more damage you'll return the enemy, especially with the extra 25% overdrive bonus. You will take at most 70-80 damage.

So what a good Cath should do, is to block skillshots, bait out burst ability like Heliogenesis or Active camo, or jump straight into the fray with the shield ON.

So this brings the incentive to use this skill constantly, with means cooldown reduction and extra energy, hence items like Contraption, Clockwork and Echo, or replacing War treads with Halcyon charger.

As a captain, this skill can negate most damage you receive and sometimes kill the whole enemy team. This is also true to a Cp player, with less emphasis on negating damage.

4. Blast Tremor

This skill is arguably one of the best in game. You may think a silence is worse than a stun, cuz silence still enables movement and basic attack. What is important, however, is denying enemy reflex block. Whatever happens, if the enemy block or can't do it, this skill have open up posibilities to stun the opponent, use items like Atlas or Nullwave.

There are lots of ways to use this ability well. Consider use it in a brush to start a fight and avoid block. Run away with allies ambushing close by and turn around, catch the enemy off-guard. Or use it in the thick of the teamfight so they can't focus much on blocking.

It's best that you use Echo for maximum efficiency.

This skill is literally the bane of Cp heroes's existence.

Try to position yourself to hit all 3 targets.

-This part is mostly improvisation. Preferably, if you farm with your jungler, or you expect a teamfight,
choose B. Else, choose A and get some early stack.
-Overdrive A+B:
If your ult is constantly blocked by the enemy, choose this option. The worst of 3 imo.
-Overdrive A+C:
Use against heroes that have small but consistent damage like Skye, Petal. Or against heroes that need lockdown.
-Overdrive B+C:
Use in most situations to reflect greater damage.

This section doesn't talk about Crucible blocking CC from enemies or skills like Hellfire Brew, but as a shield to protect allies. Admittedly, I fail 7/10 blocks for my team, so rather than wasting it, I use it to provide extra cushion to Fountain of renewal.
Pop it the moment your teammate is low on health, followed by a quick tap on Fountain. This helps your team by refusing more damage and let your team heal first. Or just use it to block final ult from Celeste or Kestrel.

Most people don't know this, but until sentry spawns, Catherine is a beast in the jungle. If you can steal a treant, push further into their jungle while they are low on health. Jungling without constant healing from treant is like playing with death, hovering at 1/4 or 1/3 of the health bar. The shield and stun is enough to kill most junglers, especially squishy ones. Use the minions to your advantage by waiting until they start aggro, and then stun. The back camp deals relatively huge damage at lower levels. Just remember to run away when sentry spawns.

There are 3 types of players out there:
- Squishy no shield large damage: Always the primary target, as the lockdown would ensure that they can't run away or kite at the edge of the fight.
- Full shield with decent damage: Less likely to be a nuisance to your team, and mostly countered by Atlas or so.
- Support: Why would someone stun a support while his teammates are around, you may ask? Support can easily land crowd control, provide shield, health, items, damage reduction, invisibility,... The point is, if you can somehow hinder their ability, their worth to the team is reduced a lot. Ex: Stun Ardan while his teammate is bursted down, prevent him from shielding and provide Fountain, Atlas your team,...

So pick the right target and stick to them.

Read my other guides to see my view cuz I hate copying content. It's really repetitive and annoying to me and most people, I believe.

One thing I personally have to fix is the possibility of buying Metal jacket and Aegis. Metal jacket is ONLY against Kestrel wp crit burst with no attack speed to bodyblock for teammates. Aegis is against double Cp.

Only works if the enemy is bursty/buys no Cp shield. Rush in first with Stormguard on, then wait until it only has like 1,5 second left run away. If the enemy does chase, stun hard and silence. By that time Stormguard would be back and continue reflecting damage.

The enemy of course knows this so they would wait till shield down or peel it off. Best stay near a bush so you could continuously remove auto target (run in and out so they can't always choose you as target).

Glaive made a mistake and rushed B first like a blyat, leaving behind his comrade and instantly go from full health to 1/3. Luckily he made it out alive. But in an instant, Celeste releases her comets in his direction. Yuo see Ivan, the trick is to boot ahead + speed boost from Merciless pursuit and block with B. Its all about that damage reduction from shield.

(Just want to have some fun and pls help me make it become more perfect)

Sometimes when you have a weak early game composition, the enemy has a more powerful comp, or lose a fight near the middle treant, it's likely that you will be invaded. So do you stay back in your jungle to fend them off, possibly get killed in the process,
or go to lane and abandon your jungler? Neither of that. Ping your carry to the enemy back camps and stay in lane with your jungler. If your carry is too afraid and decides to be a wuss, ping your jungler to lane and go to the enemy jungle yourself. No matter what happens, even if your jungler is too ****py and die back in your side, continuously pinging on your face, just farm your *** up. Predict the enemy movement and get the hell out before they arrive (the treant root circle helps a lot). Even if you do die in the process, make sure that they have an exp and gold deficit. And expect the creeps your side to spawn back right the moment you recall home.

If you do steal the enemy jungle, try to run to the lane immediately as they would be hungry for exp and gold, and what target is better than your laner. Or, put a mine in your Kraken pit bush and monitor enemy movement.

Preferably, look at your map every 10 seconds. But in my experience, your eyes can cover most of the screen and also the map in your consciousness. If you have mines but no contraption, put them somewhere that they provide vision, not to explode. By then you could see white dots on the map, which is jungle creeps. If you see them disappear, it means that the camp has been cleared or in the process. Predict movement by using this information.

If you see all enemies in lane go straight to it. Also, if your jungler is engaging, rush down and help them to. Being inactive is really bad as a captain.

-With Stormcrown and Stormguard on, you can clear Kraken out in no time at all. Just watch out for the enemy trying to steal it.
-Stealing Kraken is a bit trickier. It mostly depends on the progress that had been made. The higher the bar, the more chances that the enemy will ignore you and focus on Kraken. If you come too soon, the enemy will focus you down first. If too late, you know what happens next. Wait till the bar is almost full and then Blast tremor the hell out of the pit. Reflect damage is also good for stealing.

Depends on your situation that even Kraken push can't save you from utter defeat. Beware if you only have 1 or 2 turrets left, and so is the enemy.
ATTACK:
- You have more than 3 full health turrets, or 1 full health but it's only over 15 min a bit: It's okay to sacrifice 1 or 2 members of your team to secure turrets. Still, pay attention to the enemy position, as their objective should not be Kraken, but preventing your team from dealing damage to turrets. Kraken in this case is like a punching bag, only to tank turret. Also if your respawn time is bad enough, the fight broke out near your base and you only have 1 turret, prepare for the worst.
- You have less than 3 turrets: Do not be aced. Repeat it again and again. In the worst cases, if the enemy do get an ace, make sure the only survivor is the captain/support or someone who can't deal much damage to turrets themselves. Another situation is no turret at all. If you lose just 1 teammate without killing anyone in return, you're lost. Whoever gets the number advantage wins, 3 vs 2 or 2 vs 1 is likely to lead to your doom. Even with Kraken striding in, the other team could just skip it and run straight to your base.
DEFEND:
The same strategy is used in both following cases: Kill the enemy team first. You can bait out the enemy by focusing Kraken first, and then stand behind its animation to land Blast tremor.
- You ace the enemy team with 2
survivors and the enemy have long respawn time and only 2 turrets: Run to their base and quickly destroy turret. You should sell off an item and buy Stormcrown at jungle shop.
- You kill off most of them or your teammates die: Kill off Kraken as quickly as you can while fending off survivors.[*]

There are 3 ways to get into the 2 bases: Straight through the lane, through the upper bushes, and through the wall. The best option if the enemy doesn't have mines is the upper bush. Why? Jungle have sentry. If you can somehow eliminate sentry before the need to backdoor, take the wall.

So, to prevent a successful backdoor, put mines in the upper bush of your side, behind the rock where sentry stands, and the first bush you encounter on your way out of the base.

The most reasonable situation to backdoor is when the enemy only have 1 turret left. Most people will think:"I have a turret up so they can't get to the crystal", which will let their guard down, or neglect the need to buy vision.

On the contrary, the most dangerous situation to backdoor is when the enemy doesn't have anything left. They will be alert, there will be mines put around their side, so flare up and stick together.

Or, if you have a teamfight, you can just let one teammate slip away and backdoor, while you harass them and deny recall. The enemy could do this too, so be careful.

Call me stubborn or **** like that. I don't care. Even if I don't have any turret left I would not give up.

That's the beauty of Vainglory. You always have a chance to make a comeback, however small it may seem. I won a recent ranked match with all of my turrets destroyed before 25 min. So don't just hit that surrender button just because the enemy had Kraken or destroyed most of your turrets. Focus and stick together.

Even if you do have scumbags in your team, who literally run straight to the enemy base to die, or just straight out afk, cooperate with the other teammate and try to at least fend them off til Kraken spawns or so forth. Don't screw other's game because you are a **** head and ping on their corpse. If you die trying,
at least the enemy would have a reason to honor you and report that game thrower. The feeling when a toxic player is banned makes me excited. The great karma is good, too, so I always honor people whether win or lose (except for game throwers of course). If they win, they played well, so why don't you acknowledge that;
the same applies to your team.

To further demonstrate my point, I present you one of my plays that I consider THE best:

Reim afked at 9 min. Luckily i had a phenomenally good Baptise support and the enemy went double Cp and no armor (Taka has Atlas).

Nothing is a threat to Catherine. No, seriously, even Skye can be countered rather easy with patience and silence. With the meta right now, Baron and Grumpjaw is currently the heroes that are banned the most in most of my games, just because they deal so much burst damage, and no one pick Catherine for fear of Skye. The only thing that can make you lose playing Catherine is ****ty teammates who are unable to use their head and buy some defence, (actually in some cases if they somehow are not the target or they kite well, instant gg). The next chapter will provide ways to deal with and annihilate all heroes.

Just a quick word: As mentioned above, every Cp hero (with the exception of Reim or Vox) will be completely worthless while being silenced. So focus them down first before they can do any AOE damage.
All Wp power based heroes can be countered with Atlas (except Kestrel).

Adagio

In most cases it's really hard to gain stack on Adagio in the early game due to his slow, which also burns you and provide some sustain back to him. Wp Adagio can be Atlas easily in the late game, same with Cp, but the Cp path deals enormous damage with Verse of judgement. If your team is in his range, or being crowd controled, stun him out of his ult. Otherwise pop shield and reflect all the damage back to his team. If he goes support make sure to burst down his team first.

Alpha

You can easily kill Alpha early game with your jungler. At later stages of the game, don't use Stormguard that often, but pop it when she use Prime directive. Boom, easy 600 damage reflected. The same applies to Termination protocol, but stun her before she explode to avoid her using Prime directive on your team.
Wp Alpha is trickier, because of her sustain from Core charge, which heals with each hit, so use Atlas. The damage is not so bursty but turned to constant, so less potential damage can be reflected.

Ardan

Oh god here comes the worst part. I already wrote about how Ardan can tear off that shield easily but the trick is buying more health and armor. Only damage over 10% is reflected so his punches would pose no problem (it's real hard trying to counter your own strat). When he is flying mid air stun the **** out of him, followed by a quick silence and/or Nullwave to completely shut him down. His shield shouldn't always be the problem with every Wp carry rushing Poison shiv 1st or 2nd item. Build Atlas against Wp Ardan and intentionally run into Gauntlet against Cp Ardan (shield on).

Baptiste

Beware of Ordained. You can easily be trapped because you always have to run up first to stun people, which inturn means that you usually have to touch the barrier. Get a Crucible and block Fearsome shade. Don't regularly use shield unless he is empowered, which will help you reflect greater damage.

What do you think about "Snake charmer" Baptiste, with cobra staff, a snake circling as Ordained and a pack of snakes as fearsome shades (it's my idea)? Let me know.

Baron

Packs a heavy punch with every rocket fired which is AOE damage. Sadly for him, it's his worst weakness against Catherine. Even if he aims at another, if you stand near that target the explosion would reflect back at him. Yes, your team may die, but it's worth it if his reflect damage kills his own team. Stand near a vulnerable teammate and see Baron cries when his jumpjet is wasted. You could also reflect damage from Ion cannon, but most Baron I know buys crit, so it's not much. Cp Baron is the same.

Blackfeather

Annoying swashbuckler. In most cases, you can't solo against him, unless he f*cks up and execute you with shield up and low health. The worst part is that he can stick on to your teammate and resist most cc you dish out. Sustain and poke from afar, with a shield that negates most of your reflect damage as Cp. Buy Atlas and use only when he is stunned or silenced. Focus on him first before he gains enough Breaking point stack. Stand in the way between him and your allies to discourage poke from Cp.

Catherine (casual only)

Whoever lands the silence and nails it, wins the teamfight. Most of the time. Unless your teammates don't follow up (every day in casual), enemy Cath can just wait out your silence and counter-silence you.

Celeste

Stand near your teammates to discourage Heliogenesis drop. If you get stunned, at least pop the shield before you lose control. As one of the most squishy heroes in the entire game, the moment she gets both stunned and silence she should probably die immediately in 3 seconds, or your team have done something wrong. It's also better to engage late game rather than early game due to her small but consistent damage that usually bypass the shield. If you see Solar storm, bodyblock it.

Flicker

Has a much, much stronger early game than yours with a high damage output with no need for any items. Nonetheless, his usefulness falters later into the game when you have vision around . Contraption is a must. Spam mine everywhere you feel like and watch some fireworks. His team-wide invisibility poses a problem if your team can't focus down a member and the cloak gets on. His slow would sometimes stop you from getting stacks or get you killed in the process. Just don't be dumb and at least boost out of Blinding light.

No one plays Flicker these days, only in Blitz where he can spam Blinding light like a god. Here's a video to show you why:
Fortress

Your only hope is to destroy him early game so invade hard with your jungler. The moment he hits lv8-9 with Aftershock and Stormcrown and still on par with your jungler, your team is probably doomed. Attack of the pack has like a 40-second cooldown with reductions, which is bad if the fight drags on and he could 1v2 at low health with fortified health and wolves. Try your very best to stun him the moment you see his ult animation. Should you fail, ping your team to retreat and use War treads if necessary. Kill the wolves before the enemies could reach you and you will be fine to engage. On the bright side, Fortress has low ganking ability so you can usually stay in the jungle to help out.

Glaive

Wp Glaive is usually easy to kill, just use Atlas and stun him mid air when he dash to your teammates. Cp and Captain Glaive is a problem tho. They are tankier, and has better cooldowns, which means more dashes and higher capability to push your team and you out of position. Get Crucible and try to block the punt and he would put himself in a tricky situation.

Grace

A really versatile opponent that has damage reduction, stun, constant slow and a big *** heal that can usually go over 1000 health with infusion and some crystal items. Stun her as she starts channeling Divine intervention, or Holy nova. Against Wp get Atlas. Cp is basically support but with damage. Beware of early aggression due to her godly early lvs.

Grumpjaw

The second most banned hero in my rank queue. Extremely high damage, capable of shredding through your health in no time. That is not the worst part. His Stuffed can and will probably aim at you instead of your team to make a 2v3 and less chance for him to be stunned. If you are eaten, ping your team away, wait for release then dash away with what you have. If your team gets eaten, stun. If you get blocked, immediately silence the other team after 1-2 seconds your teammate get eaten and War tread your team out. You can also block Stuffed when you see the dash animation. If he dash in with Grumpy, stun. Use Atlas, and stick to him with Stormguard activated and basic attack to burn away his Living armor stacks.

Gwen

Has a relatively weak early game but quickly reaches power spike when Tension bow is bought. Stand in front to bait out the first basic attack and stun someone else rather than her because Skeddadle will waste it. If you can silence her, stun her first. The moment you stun her use Atlas and burst her down. Cp Gwen is less popular and above strat works well, just reflect the Buckshot Bonanza damage.

Idris

A good laner with high 1v1 capablility in the middle and late game. Do try to keep his shield bar from being full so he can't get Shroudstep barrier. Chakram deals a lot of damage the moment he has Sorrowblade onwards so remember to Stormguard. Use Atlas against both Wp and Cp. He could also blink through walls so it's unlikely that you can chase him alone in the jungle.

Joule

Wp is more dangerous than Cp, the latter of which can be countered easily by stunning Joule in the middle of her ult, or just stand in front of the beam with shield on (burst damage in every skill). Atlas is not always reliable, because the damage mostly comes from Thunder strike crit, and it also has armor pierce. Try to stun her the moment she Rocket leap to your position (BEFORE HER LANDING) and Atlas, stand in front of your team and shield up to discourage Thunder strike.

Kestrel

Probably the best source of damage that you can reflect from. For real tho, both Wp and Cp path deals exceptionally high damage, usually over 500 if Wp crit or 1000 if you stand in the Cp mine. Grab Contraption against Cp, bodyblock Glimmershot and intentionally step in the mine. Depends on the way the other Wp Kestrel plays, buy appropriate armor. If you see they shutterstep like crazy, buy Atlas. If they rely heavily on Glimmershots, buy Metaljacket and bodyblock.

Koshka

A hard struggle at the start of the game, as Koshka has one of the biggest power spike in the whole game (besides Samuel). It gets easier later on, when you can just stun her out of her ult. In the very late stage, she will do next-to-nothing damage without Broken myth stack, and you should have a Crucible by then.

Krul

A dang nuisance at the middle stage of the game when the meta is Tension bow + Poison shiv Krul, with a powerful sustain and burst proc. Atlas is a must against both Cp and Wp. I don't care if they go double Cp, just have Atlas ready. Stun him often so he can't stick to one target. Bodyblock ult or Crucible if you can. When he reaches lv6, stick to the laner to avoid ganking.

Lance

A hard counter to Catherine. A lot of upfront damage reduction and crowd control. The worst part is that he can push you away or root you so you can't stun people and get stack. It's also hard to cc him if he has Gythian wall overdrive. Bait out Impale so he gets stuck and then stun him. Or shield up and stay intentionally run in to the line of fire against Wp Lance. Sadly Atlas is not very effective, but just grab it nonetheless.

Lyra

Easier counter than you may think. Bright bulwark won't stop your Merciless pursuit so if she puts down bulwark it's a good opportunity to stun her. If your wp carries don't have poison shiv or they go double Cp, grab Poison shiv, or try your very best to coordinate and burst her down first. Don't stun anyone standing on the healing sigil, and wait the moment the sigil is almost deplete to strike.


Will update more in the future.