Karthus

The Deathsinger · Battlemage

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Summoner's Rift ARAM Arena Nexus Blitz URF One for All Swiftplay Ultimate Spellbook

No Swiftplay-specific changes; plays as on Summoner's Rift.

Abilities

PassiveDeath Defied

Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form that allows him to continue casting spells.

QLay Waste0s20/25/30/35/40

Karthus unleashes a delayed blast at a location, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Deals increased damage to isolated enemies.

WWall of Pain15s70

Karthus creates a passable screen of leeching energy. Any enemy units that walk through the screen have their Move Speed and Magic Resist reduced for a period.

EDefile0.5s30/42/54/66/78

Karthus passively steals energy from his victims, gaining Mana on each kill. Alternatively, Karthus can surround himself in the souls of his prey, dealing damage to nearby enemies, but quickly draining his own Mana.

RRequiem200/180/160s100

After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus deals damage to all enemy champions.

Patch history

26.3 · Feb 4, 2026

General
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where his first encounter with Varus VO would fail to play.

25.18 · Sep 10, 2025

Wall of Pain
Bug Fix: Wall VFX now properly layers over terrain that is not at default elevation. Previously, the VFX could be completely hidden if the VFX coincided entirely with those sections of the map.

14.24

Lay Waste
Bug Fix: No longer reveals the user if cast while the cursor is near an enemy champion.

14.21

Requiem
AP ratio reduced to 70% AP from 75% AP.

14.15

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Restored death voice lines after Death Defied expires.

35 older patches

14.14

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Is no longer sometimes unable to issue movement commands after the zombie state has expired.

14.13

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Corpse is no longer sometimes a valid movement collision target.
Lay Waste
Base damage reduced to 40 to 116 from 43 to 119.
Single-target damage reduced to 80 to 232 from 86 to 238.

14.11

Lay Waste

Base stats

Health620 +110/lvl
Mana467 +31/lvl
Attack Damage46 +3.25/lvl
Attack Speed0.625 +2.11/lvl
Armor21 +4.7/lvl
Magic Resist30 +1.3/lvl
Base Health Regen6.5 +0.55/lvl
Base Mana Regen8 +0.8/lvl
Move Speed335
Range450

Ranged · Resource: Mana

Base damage reduced to 43 to 119 from 45 to 125.

Single-target damage reduced to 86 to 238 from 90 to 250.

14.2

Wall of Pain
Bug Fix: Magic resistance reduction while in Death Defied no longer multiplies the magic resistance of enemies hit by 25 instead of 0.75.
Requiem
Bug Fix: Now properly benefits from ability haste as soon as he respawns.
Lay Waste
Base damage increased to 45 to 125 from 43 to 115.
Single-target damage increased to 90 to 250 from 86 to 230.
Wall of Pain
Magic resistance reduction increased to 25% from 15%.

13.22

Stats
Basic attack missile speed increased to 1500 from 1200.

13.19

Death Defied
Bug Fix: No longer deals damage to his allies with Defile when the effect was triggered by taking lethal damage from an enemy Briar in her Blood Frenzy state.

13.14

Lay Waste
Base damage reduced to 43 to 115 from 45 to 115.
Monster damage increased to 100% from 95%.
Defile
Mana restored reduced to 10 to 50 from 15 to 55.

13.1

Death Defied
Bug Fix: No longer leaves a square VFX on the ground after the effect ends.

12.22

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Can no longer momentarily revive from the effect if he had the Chemtech Dragon Soul buff.
Stats
Mana growth increased to 31 from 30.5.

12.13

Stats
Base armor increased to 21 from 18.
Health growth increased to 110 from 101.

12.12

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Corpse is no longer an obstacle to other units' pathing.

12.10

Stats
Base health increased to 620 from 550.
Health growth increased to 101 from 87.
Armor growth increased to 4.7 from 3.5.
Magic resistance growth increased to 1.3 from 0.5.

12.8

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Enemy champions that deal lethal damage to trigger the zombie state are no longer considered to deal damage to the source when the effect ends.

12.7

Lay Waste
Damage against monsters increased to 95% from 85%.

12.5

Lay Waste
Bug Fix: Special buffering behaviour removed so that he can no longer bypass the spawn boundaries before 15 seconds into the game on Summoner's Rift after a certain condition.
Possible Bug: Karthus will now wait for the full cast animation to finish before walking into range for the next Lay Waste cast buffered outside cast range, instead of moving as soon as the cast time is complete.

12.2

Death Defied
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where towers would incorrectly target enemy champions who took damage from it.

11.21

Defile
Mana refund changed to 15 to 55 from 20 to 48.

11.20

Lay Waste
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where it granted Tear of the Goddess stacks despite not hitting a valid target.

11.6

Lay Waste
Base damage reduced to 45 to 115 from 45 to 125.
Single-target damage reduced to 90 to 230 from 90 to 250.

11.2

Lay Waste
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where he wasn't able to buffer cast while on cooldown.

11.1

Stats
Base attack damage increased to 46 from 45.66.

10.25

Lay Waste
Mana cost reduced to 20 to 40 from 20 to 44.
AP ratio increased to 35% AP from 30% AP.
Bug Fix: Now properly triggers Horizon Focus.

10.22

Lay Waste
Base damage reduced to 45 to 125 from 50 to 130.

10.20

Stats
Base armor reduced to 18 from 20.88.

10.16

Lay Waste
AP ratio reduced to 30% AP from 35% AP.

10.15

Wall of Pain
Bug Fix: Spawns properly even when cast at 0 range.

10.14

Stats
Base health increased to 550 from 528.
Base movement speed increased to 335 from 325.
Lay Waste
Base damage increased to 50 to 130 from 45 to 125.
AP ratio increased to 35% AP from 30% AP.
New Effect: Damage against monsters is now reduced by 15%.
Defile
Now always restores mana on kill. Previously only when toggled off.
Tick rate reduced to 1 per 0.25 seconds from 1 per 1.
Total damage unchanged.
New Effect: Deactivating Defile deals 1 tick's worth of damage.
Bug Fix: Tooltip now accurately mentions the increased mana cost per second at each level.

10.9

Stats
Movement speed reduced to 325 from 335.

9.18

Death Defied
Bug Fix: When in Death Defied, Wall of Pain now properly grants vision around the wall.

9.13

Requiem
Bugfix: No longer hits through untargetability.

9.12

General
Adjusted splash artwork for Pentakill Karthus.

9.11

Requiem
AP ratio increased to 75% AP from 65% AP.
Requiem
Base damage reduced to 200 to 500 from 250 to 550.
AP ratio reduced to 65% AP from 75% AP.
Undocumented: No longer goes on full cooldown if cast after respawning.
Undocumented: Can now hit through untargetability.

9.8

General
Bug Fix: Can now dance.

9.4

Lay Waste
Base damage reduced to 45 to 125 from 50 to 130.
Isolated base damage reduced to 90 to 250 from 100 to 260.
Bug Fix: Now triggers runes more consistently.

9.1

Death Defied
New Effect: Ability icon HUD now shows the remaining duration of the ability.