Katch Her if You Can: Can Katarina be a viable Jungler?

As anyone in solo queue can tell you, Kat has seen a lot of play recently. I’ve seen her mid and top, both of the positions building her the same way: Tanky. With bulky characters forcing themselves into the spotlight early in Pre-season 3 we’ve seen many bruiser champions, who are usually holding top lane or scurrying around the jungle, take to the mid lane, so why not take a mid and put her in the jungle?

Yes, I am suggesting that playing Katarina in the jungle. Before you outright call me a lunatic and tell all your friends about this insane article you read, hear me out. In this article I’ll be examining how Kat can be fulfill all of the roles of the jungler, and create havoc across Summoner’s Rift.

Let’s start with the basics, a jungler is typically a tanky champion who can clear the jungle quickly, can gank effectively, and who will hunt down the enemy squishies during a team fight. Kat can do all of that and more.

 

Clearing the Creeps:
In the middle of season 2, summoners started to realize that when it comes to clearing the jungle effectively, AOE damage is king. Lucky for us, since Katarina’s rework, she has 2 spells that deal damage to all jungle creatures in each respective camp. I start with Sinister Steel (W) which will damage all the minions in any jungle camp and comes off cool down every 4 seconds. Upon reaching level 2, take Bouncing Blades (Q), Kat’s other jungle skill.

This allows you to take advantage of the marks left by throwing Bouncing Blade without changing target focus. The combination of skills allows for relatively quick jungle clear when starting at either wolves or wraiths, and with either Hunter’s Machete/health pots, or Cloth armor/health pots.

Ganking Like a Beast:
Kat can gank early and often. Once she hits 3, Katarina has an effective low level engage/disengage, and significant early burst. Her Shunpo range (700) is long enough to move from any bush to the middle of the lane in both top and bottom lane creating easy kills. Through her passive, all her cool downs (except ult) are refreshed upon kill or assist, so in the case of a bottom lane gank or a counter gank she will have more utility and be able to cast more abilities during an early fight than most other junglers.

Chase the Squishy:
Kat is an excellent duelist versus squishy characters, and that capability only gets greater as the game progresses. She has great mobility can chase down any champ with a simple ward and Shunpo, negating any escapes the enemy might have. She can also quickly return to a fight if needed and, hopefully, get a part in kills to continue resetting her abilities.

Advantages All Her Own:
- Katarina can quickly counter jungle and, with proper warding, can easily escape a sticky situation.
- She has high base damage and burst with minimal items (a quality that is important in a jungler considering the lack of farm), allowing her to build tanky and play the role just as any other jungle champ would.
- As a snowballing champion, Kat has the opportunity to roam as she pleases and grab kills across the entire map. Each one of those kills/assists will add to her mid and late game effectiveness.
- Kat can donate every blue to mid, and stay in the jungle longer because she doesn’t rely on mana.

So, Katarina in the jungle. Sure it sounds odd, but the evidence is right there in front of you. Does it work? Yes. Does it make sense? For the most part. Will it see competitive play? Not likely. Does that deture me from recommending you try it? Not in the slightest! I, for one, will show no fear and continue to work out the kinks because there is one thing about this insanity that I’m sure of, I’ve never had this much fun in the jungles of Summoner’s Rift.

-Juscuz