Interview with TiensiNoAkuma about the Katarina changes

TiensiNoAkuma is a top-level League of Legends player who is consistantly placed at the top of ranked solo queue ladder.  He is well known for his Katarina play and with over 1000 games at such a high level, one can see why he is considered the most skilled Katarina in the world.

Tiensi chose Katarina simply because she "looked like the most fun champion to play". He currently has no plans to go pro, as he is too busy with school.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to do this! Really means a lot when top players give back to the community. Along that vein of thought: how do you feel about being considered the top Katarina player in the world?

Tiensi:  No opinion, for all I know there could be somebody spamming Kat games in normal that can outplay both Scarra and I.

You've gone into your thoughts on the specifics regarding the skill changes (see:  Reddit &  GD threads), but do you think these changes will fundamentally change the way Kat is played?

Tiensi:  These changes will change Kat's playstyle during early-mid game. Even more so I have to be careful as to when I should be going all in during the early game since I don't have a shunpo to fall back on. Also they hurt her ultimate significantly and tried to justify that with a new damage skill. People can't rely on her ult anymore. I have trouble adjusting to the new ult since I can't expect the same damage output.

Do you believe the introduction of a new active skill will introduce variations into her gameplay?

Tiensi:  The new skill simply changes skill order to Q > W > E from Q > E >W.

Is there any particular lane matchup do you feel will be strongly impacted by these changes?

Tiensi:  Especially now counterpicks will dominate kat even more so now that her early game has been hurt and her harass has been nerfed massively. On top of that Kat will have even more trouble against champions without CC that she originally could take advantage of immediately after 6 like Ryze/Karthus.

In general, is there anything you would like to say about the rework?

Tiensi:  I really like the new sound and visual changes to her, and I felt like all she really needed in terms of a rework was a change to her W skill.

Again, thanks for taking the time to do this. Any shoutouts/sponsors? (Check out Tiensi's Youtube and Facebook!) Anything you want to say to the community?

Tiensi:  Thanks to everyone that enjoy the work that I do otherwise I really wouldn't be here.

 

Note:  I conducted the interview *before* the patch went live.  These were the impressions he got from theorycrafting and playing some PBE games.