Celeste biggest counter is Cath since her shield reflect dmg hurts her allies if she hits Cath and Cath's silence is anti-mage. If going against a Celeste, make sure to Max your Shield and Silence over your stun. Save your stun to cancel Celeste's ultimate.
1
Ardan
Catherine is a great counter to Ardan because it is so easy to stun him out of his gauntlet making him that much less effective for his team. You want to stay near him to stun him out of gauntlets.
2
Kestrel
Cath is a very good counter to Kestrel as the stun is devastating to lock her down and the shield serves as a great body block against Kestrel's high dmg arrows as well as trap, if Kestrel hits a Cath on top her trap, all that dmg will be reflected onto Kestrel's allies making it perfect for Cath to bait the trap and set it off.
3
Lyra
Cath is an amazing counter to mages such as Lyra. Cath's stun on a squishy mage as well as silencing abilities is deadly.
4
Taka
A great Cath completely counters a Taka mid to late game, especially if they know when to stun Taka and lock him down. However, early game a really good Taka can take advantage of her weak early game.
4
SAW
Saw can be easily dealt with Cath, a silence stun initiation not only will lock Saw down but also allow you to land an atlas because he cannot reflex block it. However a really good Saw will normally have 2 reflex blocks against a Cath and it will be more challenging to lock him down. Cath's shield gives her the extra time needed to engage a Saw when he has his late game build, however, it requires a significant amount of teamwork coordination to beat the Saw.
4
Vox
Vox is a slippery hero where he can dash out of trouble and use pulse to slow you as you are trying to stun him.
5
No Threat
6
Lance
Lance is a great counter to Cath, since his Gythian Wall ability can negate and knock back Cath's stun. It can also stun her if he knocks her into a wall and if he times this ability he can cancel Cath's silence. When he overdrives his B ability and it's active, he is able to ignore all debuffs in any direction, thus being immune to Cath's silence.
7
No Threat
8
Fortress
Fortress is a good support against Cath to prevent her from getting to her late game power spike. His early game aggression will punish a Cath early as she has a weaker early game.
9
Skye
Skye negates Cath's shield and with a frostburn, she can easily punish a Cath who likes to intimidate and overextend.
9
Skaarf
Skaarf's long range poke coupled with goop slow and a frost burn slow can completely negate Cath's ability to initiate with a stun. His burn dmg over time also is barely impacted by her Stormguard shield.
9
Blackfeather
Blackfeather is great into a Cath because his ult can block her stun and silence and although Cath can stun Blackfeather, his Rose Trail allows him to be immune to slows/shiver so he can stick on top of a carry with ease, Cath doesn't have the same abilities to peel a Blackfeather off like Lance and Ardan can.
My name is Jeff "SuiJeneris" Chau and I'm the Captain for Hammers Kinetic and serve as the roamer, strategist, and shot caller for my team. I started playing Vainglory when it was first released in November 2014, am Summer 2016 Vainglorious Silver. Catherine is one of my signature heroes I am known for so I hope this guide helps you with playing the Storm Queen like a BOSS!
Goal of this Guide
This guide will focus primarily on advanced level strategy regarding Cath in Early Game, Mid Game, and Late Game. In addition I will discuss in-depth specific hero counters and some META team compositions where advanced Cath plays can turn the tide in your favor. Regarding a more thorough guide of Catherine, there are a lot of amazing Cath guides such as Thorin's Unbreakable Catherine Guide and FlashX's Catherine guide. I suggest you read those guides first before continuing with my guide.
Start out with an Oakheart along with a Flare and Halcyon Potion, Cath has pretty low shield and armor starting out at 25 each base level compared to Phinn or Lance and she also has one of the lower health of Roamers starting out at 772, so an Oakheart will compliment her early game very well. A good 1st rotation is to have your jungler aggro the back double camp and you aggro the big healer, then use Merciless Pursuit to stun the same minion your jungler is focused on. This will leash the healer minion down and then time it so the jungler takes the brunt of the aggro from all 3 with both of you working to kill a minion ASAP to decrease minion damage to your jungler, once a minion is killed move to start the mid-healer, pop your potion, you and your jungler should be close to full health with this rotation. I do not recommend Ironguard Contract for this reason as you can leverage the healer camps to rotate to shop with close to full health and not spending 300 gold on Ironguard Contract allows you to rush Fountain of Renewal faster.
Cath is pretty energy dependent if you are using her right. When I play any hero, I always try to maximize their heroic perk. Cath's heroic perk is Captain of the Guard and you stack up on this perk if you stun or silence enemy heroes and the more you can do that the more tanky Cath gets over time which is a key part playing an advanced Cath. The LANE is the best place for Cath to get lots of stuns off. She can help protect your laner, pressure and abuse the enemy laner to deny farm and gank getting them low or killing them. If you are constantly stunning and harassing the enemy laner, this opens up options for your team to out-rotate your enemy team and not only pressure lane but also pressure jungle. So always keep potions on you to keep up on your energy usage. Avoid using Stormguard unless you are taking excessive damage.
Make sure you purchase 1 Scout Trap each visit to the shop, you should not be excessively purchasing them since you want to save up the gold to rush fountain before the enemy team. This is why staying in LANE is most beneficial, because you maximize gold by staying in lane, keep your laner safe, and if you place a Scout Trap in your tri-bush or at jungle shop, you can anticipate the enemy team rotation.
You should rush this item in the early game before you buy any other items. So do not purchase boots, energy battery, etc. until you finish Fountain of Renewal. The goal is to get a Fountain of Renewal by the 4:30 min mark, which means you must purchase a limited amount of Flare, Halcyon Potion, and Scout Trap.
Cath's Merciless Pursuit is all about decision quality. Avoid doing the "long stun" unless your team is ahead and you want to engage and catch someone. ALWAYS use Merciless Pursuit to cancel and negate an enemy's ability--this is what separates a good Cath from a GREAT CATH. An amazing Cath knows when and when not to use her stun.
A good example is when the enemy Krul uses his Dead Man's Rush to dash for your carry, stun him out of it. Another good example is if an Alpha uses Prime Directive and the laser sight lands on your carry, you can stun her out of it.
A bad example is if you do a "long stun" against an enemy team and your carries are not close enough to capitalize on it, you now leave open a window of opportunity for the enemy team to engage your carries. Also, a stun coming from a mile away is easier to reflex block or boots away from.
Cath's Stormguard was slightly nerfed in 1.20 reducing it's duration to 4 secs. Regarding this ability, I take the overdrive on it when I am against high burst heroes such as Celeste, Kestrel, etc. as the shield reflection damage can be used as effective counterplay--so if you are up against such burst heroes, max it by level 8 first over Merciless Pursuit. Don't turn on your shield until you start receiving damage from the enemy, too often many Cath's I've seen would turn on their shield to intimidate and receive zero damage. Pro Tip: The best time to use the shield is when you engage the enemy team into the bush, when they hit your bubble, the reflected damage gives your team vision on nearby enemy heroes if they are hiding in nearby bushes, this vision is huge to how your team engages and how your carries need to position themselves.
Based on the item strategies discussed above, here's some key points to playing an advanced Catherine in the early game:
Farm Up: Catherine is weak early game, unless you have a stronger jungle match up you should play defensive by keeping your laner safe (the more farm they safely get the more gold you get) and ensuring your jungler can farm their jungle by holding off invades or counter rotating the jungle invades.
Fight as a Team: Good teams will invade your jungle, knowing Cath is weaker in the early game. To counter this you must pressure lane so you can afford to rotate to jungle to fight off an invade. Playing defensive allows Cath and her laner to drop down and when 2 carries are with Cath, that is when her Merciless Pursuit really shines if both carries can immediately take advantage of the stun duration.
Avoid Jungle Skirmishes: If you are being invaded and the lane is not pushed, you will need to counter-rotate against the invasion. This means your jungler must immediately disengage--do not fight--and go immediately to lane, while you and your laner can then push out the enemy laner. As roamer, once your laner begins making their way to the enemy back jungle, stay in lane with your jungler to keep lane pressure, try your best to force the enemy laner to hug their turret. Once your laner begins rotating the enemy mid-healer jungle camp, drop down as 3-person team and if you see their jungler and/or roamer, engage them since they are split up. You should avoid 2v2 jungle skirmishes unless you feel you have the advantage in terms of initiation, item, and/or level lead. A defensive ploy you can use against reckless aggressors is stunning a carry on top of a mine, it will immediately turn around an early skirmish in your favor and this is why you want to play more defensive early game as Cath. Below is an advanced rotation strategy that must be executed immediately once you know you cannot contest and defend your jungle.
Here is a drawn out play of the Counter Rotation Strategy
Strategies in the Early Game vs Roam Heroes
These roam heroes offer higher DPS than Cath in their kits and they can bully Cath easily with a coordinated jungle team.
In the early game, Lyra, Lance, and Adagio can put a lot of pressure in lane as well as in jungle due to their range and ability damage/heal.
Ardan and Fortress along with potential Glaive and Taka roam, don't have range but can out damage Catherine. Ardan has vanguard on top of him being tankier than Catherine and does more damage with a base WP damage of 80 at level 1 vs Catherine's WP damage of 74. Fortress has 73 WP damage, however his Law of the Claw ability outputs more damage with the bleed stacks and he is known to be a roam choice for aggressive compositions. The same early DPS output applies to Glaive and Taka roam.
When playing against these roamers in the early game, use your stun to negate/cancel abilities to either help your team survive or secure a kill. You should only be aggressive if either your jungler is stronger and ahead in levels/items, you catch them off guard, they take too much damage from minions or turret and are low, or you have a 3v2 advantage.
Recommendation: Focus on farm, play defensive by counter rotating, not getting caught out, farming safely under turret when they are pressuring lane and rotating as a 3-person team often. Although Catherine's early game is weak, she more than makes up for it in the mid-game and late-game.
There are some early game match ups that can work in your favor.
Phinn is easier to deal with because he has no gap closers and is slow. If you and your jungler don't get hit by his Quibble you can win the fight and preferably you have a range jungler against Phinn as fighting within melee range is not advisable due to his high damage Quibble. Phinn normally will also stay in lane with his laner since he is one of the slowest heroes in the game.
If it's a mirror Catherine match up, use your stun wisely and catch them off guard. This will depend more on who has the stronger jungler, if you do, be aggressive, force objectives, and steal jungle camps.
Recommendation: Pick fights that are favorable, do not get collapsed on in jungle if you are invading them.
If you followed the early game item progression tips and strategies around playing defensive you should have achieved a Fountain of Renewal by the 4:30 min mark, sometimes as early as the 4:00 min mark if you buy little to no vision. Once you have Fountain of Renewal over the enemy team, you can now punish them and play more offense. Use that to your advantage by pressuring turret and objectives or invading jungle and try to force a fight. If the enemy team has a Fountain of Renewal before you, do not engage in a fight until you have it as well.
War Treads are normally my second support item choice because it gives so much offensive and defensive utility--use it to engage and use it to counter disengage an enemy War Treads or Attack of the Pack for example. It's also great to use when an enemy Phinn lands their Forced Accord on your team, immediately activate Crucible to block any crowd control abilities or stuns then War Treads your allies to safety. The best reason to get War Treads second is because it is absolutely devastating with a well-placed and time silence on the entire enemy team, especially before they build a Crucible. Currently, while Catherine is channeling her Blast Tremor, the game silences actives such as War Treads so you cannot active it while you are silencing. The best way to do this is to active it before you silence instead of after you silence for devastating effect. Vainglory is aware of this and apparently it should be fix on a future update where Catherine's silence does not self silence key active items.
Depending on the team composition we are facing, I sometimes rush a Shiversteel for my second item over War Treads. Pro Tip: A lot of people don't realize this but a counter to Shiversteel is Shiversteel. If we play against a Krul or Taka for example, I usually rush Shiversteel second because War Treads does not counter Shiversteel, War Treads isn't strong enough to help get your ally out of a Shiversteel slow. However, if you Shiversteel a Krul who shivered your carry, you will be able to lock him down and allow your carry the room to get away. Against a Taka it's great because he is a very slippery hero and Catherine with her Merciless Pursuit and Shiversteel completely counters Taka. If you have great mine vision and timing, you can cancel Taka's X-Retsu ultimate if you stun him while he is channeling it for a quick second.
This is a great second or third item, especially against high attack speed heroes such as SAW, Ringo, Kestrel, Vox, etc. You want to rush this right after Fountain of Renewal with an exception of the Pro Tip Crucible advice above, not only will it make you more tanky against WP attack speed comps, but Catherine is really great at coming up close with her Stormguard and Merciless Pursuit and apply the Atlas Pauldron on the enemy carries.
Flare and Scout Trap are crucial from the 5:00 - 10:00 min mark, always flare check a bush before going into and remind your carries that they should not be face checking or being too far in front of you.
Based on the mid-game item strategies discussed above, here's some key points to playing an advanced Catherine in the mid game:
Fountain Advantage: If you follow the early game strats above, once you get fountain before the enemy team, rotate as 3 together and focus on dominating the enemy jungle and taking turret, you want to force a fight and kill or get one of the enemy heroes low. Do not "go on as normal" and farm when you have a Fountain of Renewal over the enemy team, take advantage of it and play smart! Don't waste Fountain of Renewal due to turret diving etc.
Level 6 Power Spike: Catherine's Blast Tremor is the best ultimate in the entire game and if used to its full potential usually always results in a clean ACE on the enemy team. When I get a Level 6 Blast Tremor power spike, it is usually around the 7:00-8:00 min mark and that's when Gold Mine is almost full, bait the Gold Mine, the enemy basically has to give it to you because if they contest it you can land a 3-man silence and eliminate them because the enemy team won't have a Crucible by then as they normally will prioritize a Fountain of Renewal.
Maximize Your Stuns: Once you reach Level 6, that is when your team should rotate as 3-man team as much as possible and avoid getting caught out. As mentioned above, Catherine shines when she is with her 2 carries who can immediately capitalize on her Merciless Pursuit stun. Use her stun to cancel enemy ultimates, especially if they are heroes like Ardan's Gauntlet or Adagio's Verse of Judgement, you can also cancel ultimates such as Celeste's Solar Storm and even Fortress's Attack of the Pack if you time it correctly. This is how an advanced Catherine player shines mid-game--when she wisely chooses which ability or ultimate she wants to negate.
Strategies Against High Attack Speed Heroes
When it comes to high attack speed heroes, it's critical that you get Atlas Pauldron after getting your Fountain of Renewal. Here's some tips on each hero and how to play Catherine against them like a GOD:
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Get in front of your carries, so when she tries to use her Prime Directive, especially when she is ulting, you can stop her from landing onto your carries. Plus a Stormguard bubble up when her Termination Protocol goes off will be the ultimate counterplay, especially against a CP Alpha. You also can save your stun right before her Termination Protocol goes off, so you stop her in her tracks if she is trying to do a last minute Core Charge to hit your carry and land her ult.
Avoid doing the "long stun" I mentioned above since a good Blackfeather will ult with his Rose Offensive right through you and dodge your Merciless Pursuit. What you want to do is wait for Blackfeather to get on top of your carry, then stun him when you are immediately next to him while activating Atlas Pauldron. A stun prevents him from doing a Rose Offensive, which will negate the Atlas Pauldron affect if he times it right. Shiversteel is a good item to lock down Blackfeather however, if he maxes his Feint of Heart the rose trail will make him and all his allies immune to any slows. The reason why Shiversteel is still good is because you lock him down so both your carries can delete him and not allow him to run away, he can still Rose Offensive out and that's a good thing because now he is playing defensive and running away.
Save your stun for when he Afterburn's into your team, stay close to your carries because if you are far away, your stun won't be quick enough to stop Glaive from afterburning your carry out of position. I normally have a Shiversteel against Glaive so if he Afterburns in, he is immediately stunned and locked down by me.
Again, avoid a long stun against Kestrel and Taka as they can just Active Camo or Kaku away. Always Flare before you engage them, turn on your Stormguard then get up close and stun then immediately activate Atlas Pauldron. Then drop a Scout Trap in the middle of the fight when you are on top of them so you completely negate their ability to stealth out of trouble. Shiversteel is especially important against Kestrel and Taka as they can be very slippery and they must be immediately deleted or they can come back to dish out another round of high burst damage to your carries. Against Kestrel, remember to use your Stormguard bubble to body block her arrows and also stop her One Shot One Kill from hitting your carries. Regarding Taka, if you have godly timing and positioning, you can stun Taka out of his X-Retsu as he has a brief delay animation before he executes his ultimate.
The same tactics regarding Alpha apply to Krul. Always position yourself in front of Krul so he does not land his From Hell's Heart onto your carry and if he tries to Dead Man's Rush towards your carry, have your stun ready to stop him, apply Atlas Pauldron and then Shiversteel him and lock him down. I normally prioritize Shiversteel before Atlas Pauldron against a Krul. If I don't have an Atlas Pauldron and sometimes I don't build it against Krul, he will feel helpless when shivered and normally will start auto-attacking and getting stacks on me, once he hits 8 stacks and he is starting to get low from my carries hitting him, I turn on Stormguard to reflect his Spectral Smite if he dares tries to smite me with my bubble on.
Against a Ringo you want to try to catch him out or play safe and stay with your carries. If you try to do a long stun towards him, he will slow you and begin stacking up Breaking Point or Broken Myth stacks. Make sure your team is ready to engage and dive him, you want to get close with Stormguard and do the Merciless Pursuit + Atlas Pauldron combo.
The best way to deal with a SAW is to go all in and delete him. Do not engage if he has full stacks, what you want to do is wait close by and out of his range and wait for him to Suppressing Fire, once he does, go around the Suppressing Fire and stun before he finishes his Suppressing Fire and Atlas Pauldron him. This will prevent him from winding up and getting his full stacks + you atlased him making him a potato. If you try to do a long stun towards him, he will Suppressing Fire into your stun slowing you and then proceed to auto-attack you to death if you don't land your stun.
Dealing with Vox is similar to how you would deal with a Ringo. However, it is more tricky if it is a CP Vox. You want to position yourself so you don't allow him to land his Pulse on you and then get resonance bounces off you that then bounce to your allies. Stay back, don't frontline and allow him to bounce attacks off you, this will be a weird style of play to get used to since Catherine is so good at frontlining. If you are a dive comp, dive when you can land a silence or if you can catch Vox off guard and lock him down with a Merciless Pursuit + Atlas Pauldron combo.
Strategies Against Mage Heroes
When it comes to high burst ability dependent heroes, it's critical that you rush Shiversteel after getting your Fountain of Renewal (or Crucible if you have to get that as a second item to counter key ultimates) to lock them down, a Mage that is stunned and shivered is a dead one. Here's some tips on each hero and how to play Catherine against them like a GOD:
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I normally do not get cool down on Catherine until I get my three T3 item power spike which is usually Fountain of Renewal, War Treads, and then one of the following: Shiversteel, Crucible or Atlas Pauldron. Contraption is my favorite fourth T3 item because of it's cool down and ability to place mines and use flares. Pro Tip: Vision is EVERYTHING in the late game. What separates a great roam vs a mediocre roam is the vision difference. It is also important late game going against a Taka or Kestrel as plenty of mine and flare vision will help your carries fight them.
Get Stormcrown if you are against 2 hyper squishy carries and plan to be using your Merciless Pursuit and Stormguard often since it gives you extra energy, health, and cooldown speed. I personally do not get Aftershock on Catherine as it's a selfish item for a roam, however it is a great item for a carry Catherine. The reason why is because it doesn't offer as much utility as Contraption and Stormcrown. I suggest getting Aftershock as the very last item in your slot if the game does last that long, it is great against enemies with high health and the tankiness of Catherine along with her Stormguard bubble makes her into a semi 3rd carry with Aftershock.
NEVER EVER get these items on Catherine as a roam hero, I expressly forbid it. It offers ZERO utility for your team. Good teams won't be focusing you anyway so that extra tankiness doesn't make any sense. If you are tanking a lot of free damage for your carries, team positioning is the problem and that's something you and your team needs to work out. The same idea applies towards items like Halcyon Chargers and Eve of Harvest--you want cool down speed not more crystal power and you want items that benefit your team, not only yourself. For that reason, I also don't recommend Clockwork because Contraption and Stormcrown offer more utility for you in terms of health and your team. Pro Tip: Remember, you are the roamer and your job is to set up plays for your carries and negate plays of the enemy team, that is the utility you must offer. Getting some of the items I mentioned above is selfish and doesn't offer team utility which is most important for a roamer.
Here are some tips on how to best use Catherine's stun in the late game.
Pro Tip: You have 3 seconds to apply her stun to someone, NEVER EVER click on the hero you want to stun unless you are literally right next to them and they can't Reflex Block a random stun--this applies to early, mid, and late game. What I normally do is click behind the hero while I am engaging with a stun, they will usually reflex block, just continue to dash behind them and then click on the enemy hero once the Reflex Block wears off after 1 second. This is the most OP way to play an advanced Catherine.
Don't use your stun in obvious ways, use it either when you are literally on top of a carry or to cancel an enemy ability or ultimate.
In the late game you should have a cooldown speed of 7-8 seconds with a CP infusion + 1-2 cool down items like Contraption, Stormcrown, Aftershock or Clockwork, so if you apply the 2 tips above, you will be devastating and the true late game carry for your team.
I'm going to end this guide on Catherine's best ability: Blast Tremor--it is the most powerful late game ultimate in all of Vainglory. This ability is what makes her a late game beast and a great Catherine knows how to land one successfully so teams don't have the chance to Crucible and block it. People like to play frontline intimidating Catherine where they tank of damage for their team as they engage. I think that's overextending and in the late game, it's really bad because you are allowing your enemy carries to build either Breaking Point or Broken Myth stacks and if you are stuck in a Frostburn hit from say a full build late-game Skye, you can lose up to 50% of your health and then they can engage your team. On top of that, you are in vision so if you try to Blast Tremor it is extremely easy to block for good roams out there. Here are some tips on how to land a Blast Tremor late game:
Ninja Catherine is the best Catherine play style to play, you want your carries to engage while you are hidden behind a wall or in the bush.
No one can block a Catherine silence from stealth unless they got lucky with a Crucible.
When your carries begin a fight and kite back, the team fighting and abilities all being used at once distract and as your team kites back and they dive, you come out of nowhere with a Blast Tremor from a bush--GGWP.
If the team engages your team and you are all in the middle of the fight, try to silence when there are lots of particle effects so it's harder to catch your channeling animation, especially mid-fight to prevent the enemy from using their Fountain of Renewal
If the enemy roamer wasted their Crucible to block something else or activated it too early out of nervousness, Blast Tremor and seal the deal.
Silencing under Kraken is also a super awesome tactic as the big body of the Kraken will give you the stealth you need to silence like a ninja. Try it!!
You never want to do a silence where the enemy team is far away, it never works out. Pro Tip: If you happen to land a 3-man "long silence" ALWAYS focus the enemy closest to you, even if it is the enemy roam. If you try to dive past the roamer and your carries aren't with you, you allow the time for the silence to wear off and the enemy roamer can then immediately fountain. It is better to stun whoever is closest to you and your carries and delete that carry or roam in the silence period.
As you can see, the spots I draw a "V" is where Catherine should silence from as it conceals Catherine's location from the enemy when they flare common bush areas. Try it and let me know how these silences go! Don't forget to immediately activate War Treads and Shiversteel to lock the enemy team down while they are silenced!
See the video below (17:50 min mark) to see Blast Tremor from a bush to negate a gank.
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Catherine
Halcyon Potion
Phinn
Ironguard Contract
Krul
Dead Man's Rush
Alpha
Prime Directive
Glaive
Law of the Claw
Quibble
Attack of the Pack
Forced Accord
X-Retsu
Verse of Judgement
Gauntlet
Ringo
Solar Storm
Termination Protocol
Core Charge
Rose Offensive
Feint of Heart
Afterburn
Active Camo
Kaku
One Shot One Kill
From Hell's Heart
Spectral Smite
Breaking Point
Broken Myth
Suppressing Fire
Pulse
Dragon Breath
Big Red Button
Suri Strike
Forward Barrage
Halcyon Chargers
Eve of Harvest
Clockwork
Reflex Block
Frostburn
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