https://lolalytics.com/ranked/worldwide/9.11/platinum/plus/champion/Karthus/
Note that if you don't filter for 'Patch 9.11 all days' then it will include pre-patch days, falsely inflating his winrate.
In the patch notes, Riot explicitly describes the nerf being because of his jungle strength. But instead of just reducing his Q's damage to monsters or something obvious and surgically effective like that, they completely gutted his ultimate. They even instantly hotfixed his R's AP ratio back up to what it was before (0.1 higher) because they knew instantly they'd destroyed the champion. But they haven't balanced Karthus, they've FORCED him to be played jungle now, by ruining him anywhere else.
I've been playing Karthus for four years or so now -- the Ultimate damage's calculations around his 250 base damage at Rank 6 are so precise, so frequently missed -- people regen enough HP to survive just during your cast-time, often -- you're avoiding Stopwatches, and untargetabilities (Fizz/Vlad), and heals (all enchanters and some tanks and their ADCs), you're calculating for the tankiness of their toplaner, etc.
Now, the damage is horrible. Keep in mind it isn't just 200 damage at level 6 now. It's still 200 damage at level 10. When people have over 1,000 health and have bought some MR.
Why?
As soon as ark Harvest gets reworked again, he'll fall even harder, since he's completely riding off of its synergy with him right now. They've forced him into a singular keystone in a singular role, and made him awful there, and useless outside of them.
Why is this being glossed over? Why aren't we making Riot talk about it? Are Karthus players just so rare that we don't care?
