Warring Kingdoms Katarina

Been running this skin since it dropped back in February 2015 and I still keep it in my rotation. Warring Kingdoms Katarina hit during that Lunar Revel wave where Riot was pumping out some of their cleanest thematic work. First game I played with it was around 3 AM on release night, some normal draft where I went 14/2 and thought the skin was lucky. Spoiler: it wasnt the skin.

What Warring Kingdoms Katarina actually brings

For a Standard tier skin at 975 RP this one punches above its weight. The model swap puts Katarina in this red and gold armor inspired by Chinese warrior aesthetics. Hair pulled back, dual blades redesigned with ornate detailing. Clean silhouette in lane.

New VFX on the abilities. Her Q dagger throw has this subtle red trail that reads well against the Rift. Shunpo keeps things tight, and when you proc the passive reset in a teamfight the visual flow just works. Not gonna lie, the Death Lotus ult spinning with those redesigned blades looks better than some 1350 skins I own. The recall animation is a nice touch too. Katarina does this warrior salute thing that fits the Warring Kingdoms fantasy perfectly.

Voice lines stay base. No new VO which is expected at this price point. Tara Platt’s performance on default Katarina still holds up so its not a huge loss. Could be wrong here but I think the auto attack animations feel slightly different with the new blade models. Might just be placebo from hundreds of games.

The Warring Kingdoms line and release context

Released February 10, 2015. Alex ‘alexplank’ Flores nailed the splash. The composition puts Katarina mid-dive with this intense red backdrop, very dynasty warrior energy. Part of the Lunar Revel: Warring Kingdoms skinline which gave us some bangers across the roster. Jarvan, Nidalee, and Katarina all got the treatment that year.

The Warring Kingdoms line is one of those thematic sets where every champion actually fits. Katarina as a blade assassin translating into a Chinese warrior general just makes sense. (Random aside: I used this splash as my Discord avatar for like two seasons straight and nobody complained.)

One chroma available. The Golden chroma swaps the red tones for full gold plating. Honestly it looks royal. I switch between base and Golden depending on my mood. Some games around last Tuesday I ran Golden three times in a row because it matched my ward skin better.

Should you pick up Warring Kingdoms Katarina?

Still in the shop at 975 RP. For Katarina mains who want something with actual character without dropping Legendary money this is a strong pick. Played maybe 200 games with this across Diamond and it never gets old. The VFX are clean enough that they dont distract during teamfights when you need to track your daggers for resets.

Real talk though. Katarina has a massive skin catalog now. Battle Queen, High Noon, Faerie Court all exist. But Warring Kingdoms holds its own because the theme is so distinct from everything else she has. No other Katarina skin hits the warrior fantasy this hard.

Best value Katarina skin if you ask me. 975 RP well spent for mains. Skip if you only play her in ARAM, but for anyone grinding ranked with Katarina and looking for a skin that feels premium without the premium price tag, this is the one. Been spamming this in Diamond lobbies season after season and I keep coming back to it over skins that cost twice as much.