Karina

Karina is one of the strongest assassins of the game, she can easily one v one most of the game’s heroes. However, even she stands out because of her awesome offensive power, there are some situations in which we wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it.

If you want to know how to one-shot everyone in the arena, follow me in this guide to know in depth this aggressive elf.

ABILITIES

Her passive is one of the best Karina’s abilities and it is very important to take advantage of it, try to always hit at least three times to get this bonus damage. It is important to know that you can active this effect by hitting the target with other ability not only with autoattacks.

This ability has a lot of aspects that we will be talking about one by one. Let´s start with the passive effect of this skill, every time you get a kill or an assist you recover 60% of this skill cooldown, you need to get this in your mind when you are playing Karina because it let you be more aggressive.

As the cooldown of this skill is about 6 seconds and it gives you 3 of immunity you can use this to gap closer, kill someone and use it again to escape with the immunity and the movement speed buff. Finally, the first hit you will do after using this skill will slow your target which gives you an advantage chasing enemies.

One more time, this skill’s cooldown get reduced every time you get a kill or an assist, just keep it in mind to spam it more, but it is not as relevance as the elusiveness one. It is a simple ability and the base of his damage because combining it with your passive you can do tons of damage.

And here is the nightmare of your enemies; Karina’s ultimate gives you one of the longest gap closers of the game which resets every time you get a kill and, guess what? Yes, it active combo hit like the rest of your skills. To sum up, with the correct items, you can easily get a multiple kill by jumping into your enemies with her ultimate.

Finally, you must prioritize dance of death and upgrade your ultimate every time you can.

CORE ITEMS

The synergy between them is awesome as you can hit a really powerful basic attack after using elusiveness, or by the third hit of your passive.

SITUATIONAL ITEMS        

BATTLE SPELLS

You can play Karina in the jungle or in a lane, and depending of this, your choice will be one of this two battle spells.

FLICKER: If you want to play Karina in a lane, I highly recommend this spell because of its versatility, you can use it offensively to reach the enemy back lane or defensively if you need to escape from someone.

RETRIBUTION: On the other hand, if you want to play a jungler Karina, you must use this spell to kill jungle monsters quicker and reach level 4 which is indispensable for your ganks.

EXECUTE: Finally, if you have not unlocked flicker yet, you can use execute in order to get early kills in the game and start your fed.

GOOD ALLIES TO TEAM UP WITH

FRANCO: He is a really nice option to team up with and more even if he is in your lane, with his hook, you can get fed easier and earlier.

RUBY: Is the same idea of Franco, with her ultimate, she can help you in your mission of getting kills especially for your resets.

ESTES: The Estes’ healing would be very useful during your fights, a good tip is to use elusiveness to get immunity and get healed during that time, preparing yourself to return to the fight.

SKIN PREFERENCE

There are not so many things to say about Karina’s skins, both of them are really cool and give you the same stat boost, but if I have to choose one of them I will take Phantom Blade Karina, I think that it represents better the essence of the hero than the Christmas one.

EMBLEMS TO USE

I highly recommend the magic assassin set for Karina, as magic penetration should be your main stat to improve without forgetting the magic power. But actually, you can also use the magical emblem set; the main difference is that the second one gives you more magic power and less magic penetration.

In this case, is up to you which of this two stats you want to prioritize.

Magic Emblem Set – +13.82 Magic Power / 4.68 Magic Resistance / 5.02% Cooldown Reduction / 234.34 Hp / +3.32 Magic Damage Reduction.

Magic Assassin Set – +14.19 Magic Penetration/ +9.41 Magic Power / 5.02% Cooldown Reduction / +30.93 Hp / +2.01% Movement Speed.

IN GAME TIPS

First of all I really recommend going to the top lane or the mid lane with Karina, but the early game will be easier with an alley behind you especially if you are facing ranged heroes as it will be hard to reach them without your ultimate.

You don’t need to be very aggressive during the early game unless you see a good opportunity to hit a short combo into your opponent. That’s important, during the early game just do short trades making sure that you hit three times to active your passive.

Use elusiveness not only to engage but also to escape when it is necessary, in fact, cooldown is not really high and you can die a lot less if you learn to use this skill defensively.

When you reach level 4, party starts, try to poke your enemies with short trades and then finish them with your whole combo engaging with your ultimate. As soon as you get three or four kills, your mid game is here and it is really important to carry this part of the game as hard as you can.

When your mid game starts, you should roam every time going to the other lanes and getting more kills. Elusiveness will help you a lot in this aspect because of the movement speed boost that it provides you.

The late game could be difficult for you if team fights start, but that is something that we will be talking about in the very end. During the late game try to split push the lanes, enemy team should defend and you can kill them if there is only one or even two enemies defending your push, if you can´t kill them you always can escape with elusiveness.

Finally, team fights is the more difficult thing about playing Karina. You have two options here and I will explain them carefully.

On the right hand you can flank your enemy team to reach the back lane and kill the weaker members of the enemy team but you need to be sure that you can kill them with a combo because if not, you won’t receive resets and it will be very difficult to survive in the middle of your enemy team.

On the other hand, you can wait in your back lane, hoping your team start debilitating their front lane and when you are sure that you can kill someone with your combo, your jump party starts.

SUMMARY

Karina is a strong assassin hero that can win the match during the mid game if she is enough fed, and that’s an easy thing to achieve if you follow this guide. Let’s start jump into your enemies!

Introduction

Do you HATE tanks such as Tigreal, Minotaur and Franco?

Do you LOVE dishing out INSANE amounts of damage?

Well, look no further. Karina is the hero for you!

Karina is an insanely strong assassin, who does more damage the lower health your enemy has. She has a great chain killing potential which usually results in Triple Kills to Penta Kills quite often.

Lore

“Unlike the friendly moon elves, night levels were born into a world of darkness which casts a gloom on and twists their personalities. They offer their services as assassins to the other races, as all night elves are born killers. Karina is a standout among them.”

Pros

+INSANE burst damage and snowball potential.

+AoE skills

+Can farm pretty fast

+Immunity to Basic damage for 3s

Cons

• Easily CC’d

• Weak escape

• Melee

Abilities

Combo Hit (Passive)

After attacking a target twice in a row, the third attack will deal extra true damage equal to 8% of Hp already lost by the enemy.

This means the lower the health of target, the more damage you’ll be doing!

Elusiveness (6s cd)

Karina enters a state of Elusiveness for 3 seconds, making her immune to basic attacks and raising movement speed by 35%. In this state, her next basic attack will slow down the enemy and must be a critical hit, dealing extra 165 pts of magical damage. Getting a kill or assist will reduce this skill’s cooldown by 60%.

The slow is important to catch up with your enemies. The critical hit damage increases as your AP increases as well. Make use of the immunity to basic damage when faced up against physical carries such as Miya and Moskov. Also, upon a kill or assist, your skill ALMOST resets. This is HUGE.

Dance of Death (4.5s cd)

Brandishes double swords, dealing 260 pts of magic damage to surrounding enemies(AoE!!!). Getting a kill or an assist will reduce this skill’s cooldown by 60%.

Karina spins and applies her passive debuff on enemies. This means 1 less attack (if you can apply effect on multiple enemies during fights) for your passive to take place. Also, skill will ALMOST reset upon kill/assist.

Shadow Rush (Ultimate Ability, 40s cd)

Rapidly rushes towards the target, dealing 430 pts of magic damage. Killing any enemy hero will immediately end this skill’s cooldown. An assist will lower the remaining cooldown time by 80%.

This is what makes Karina so strong. Use this skill to secure kills by landing the last hit. It will help you get your chain kills.

Item Build

In general, get Hunter’s Knife as your first item to farm faster. Karina is VERY farm dependent.

Go for this if you’re doing well.

1. Calamity Reaper. Getting this item will deal extra true damage with your basic attack after you use a skill. This applies to your attack from Elusiveness. Get this as fast as you can as it scales late game when you build more AP.
2. Arcane Boots. +15 Magic Penetration, perfect to deal more damage.
3. Holy Crystal. The passive of 15% increase in magic power after your skill hits the target allows you to effectively burst down the enemy faster.
4. Devil Tears. More magic penetration, more damage. Also, the passive makes gives u more AP if u have over 70% HP. Great item.
5. Glowing Wand. Does damage overtime when your skills hit, based off of current HP. Great for dealing with super beefy tanks.
6. Gives you a second chance if you’ve over-extended a little. Gives you some health and survivability.

Now this build is what if you’re behind.

1. Clock of Destiny. Gives you more HP to survive earlier fights.
2. Arcane Boots. No change, you need the damage.
3. Calamity Reaper. Important item
4. Holy Crystal. Damage
5. Glowing Wand. More penetration.
6. Same thing, a second chance.

Battle Spells

Enables you to farm faster, pretty much a must-have if you’re solo queuing or don’t trust the teammates you play with to let you get the farm you require. Remember, Karina is a farm dependent hero.

Not really a common battle spell, but it helps you to get the final bit of damage in to your target, and also to ensure your spells get reset by getting kills.

Helps you to get closer to the enemy, but most importantly to get you out of sticky situations. For example, you miss timed your Elusiveness skill and you need to get out of the enemy’s carry. Just flicker out. Still, not a very common spell but it works.

If you find yourself diving into swarms of enemies very often, you can opt for the Petrify spell and use it to give an additional 0.7s of CC for your team. Helps with escaping sticky situations too.

Emblem Set

Use your highest Magic Emblem set.

Best Teammates

• He will help you slowdown the enemy so you can get closer and he can ensure your survivability.
• Despite not seeing her in the current meta, she is similar to Estes, providing u with heals and CC to the enemy.
• If your Tigreal can land a great ultimate, you’ll be able to eliminate the enemy’s high value target such as Estes or their carry, and your Dance of Death will be applied to the clump of enemies too.

In-Game Settings

Make sure you choose Hero Lock Mode ON!!!

And get Free Aim.

Having Hero Lock Mode ON is key in playing an Assassin role, as it aids you in targeting the hero you require to eliminate first. It’s difficult to manually aim at a target if they’re lumped up like after Tigreal uses his ultimate ability.

Gameplay Summary

Here are the much needed combos to learn for Karina.

Skill 1 > Ult > Skill 2 > Auto Attack (Crit from Skill 1)

This is great for finishing off enemies that are medium-low health.

Skill 1 > Auto Attack > Skill 2 > Auto Attack > Ult

For ganking heroes when you are able to get close the them quickly.

Skill build for Karina

Max Elusiveness first(Skill 1), and get her ultimate whenever possible.

Early game

Go to your lane and clear the minion waves, make sure you go jungle and clear the jungle monsters, and not to miss out on any minion waves. Don’t forget to use Retribution(if you’re using it) to secure last hits on buffs.

Once you hit level 4, it’s time to apply pressure on other lanes. As an Assassin role, you should not stick to one lane only. Go to the mid lane, apply pressure on the enemy carry or better yet, secure a kill for your carry and create space.

You can buy an Enchanted Talisman early to aid your mana problems. Do not be afraid to use Elusiveness to move around quicker.

Mid game

You should be able to dish out quite a decent amount of damage now, and team fights are happening more often.

DO NOT rush first into the fights. Initiating as a Karina is a bad idea, you’re going to get CC’d the crap out of you and turn the fight into a 4v5.

Instead, wait out and flank and pick off enemies that are running low on health/pressure their carry. Force the enemy carry to move away from his team while you still are able to join in the fight to clean up.

Late game

At this point you should have full/close to full build. You can usually take out an enemy carry from 80% almost immediately. Once the teamfight has started, wait for the CC spells to be cast/your team’s initiation before you jump in.

Once again, aim for the high value targets like Estes. If none, go for their carry and take them out of the equation.

After that, get some distance away from the enemy and wait for your skills to come off cooldown and re-engage into the fights and clear the whole team.

Additional Pointers

When you are facing up against another Karina, it is important to get more farm than her. In teamfights, do not engage first as your health will be low enough for the enemy Karina to burst you down.

Instead, wait out for your team to lower the enemy’s health so that you can combo them out, and escape from the enemy Karina. Your Elusiveness will block the enemy Karina’s Elusiveness’ slow from proccing, so you can escape.

If you’re dying too much, consider if you’re playing too aggressive without any backing of your team.

Summary

Karina is a really fun hero to play, and to see the enemy’s health bar dissappear within seconds. But do not be frustrated if you are unable to do well the first few times you play Karina. It takes a bit of practice to know when to engage, and when not to.

Farm quickly, Gank effectively and Kill efficiently.