Starter items

Core items

Offensive items

Defensive items

Situational items

Hello everyone!
Today we shall learn how to make your enemies rage and scream and beg for mercy while playing Gaslight Catwoman.
It's one of if not the best assassins in the game and the only one of them who actually afford us to go with the assassin playstyle.

Let's start with strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:
- very high physical burst damage output
- has a formidable escape/catch-up mechanism
- good jungler, but feels well in any position
- one of the best gankers
- will net you tons of kills if you treat her well :)

Weaknesses:
- none, jk ;)
- very squishy
- highly farm and item dependable
- will net you a ton of deaths if you treat her wrong :)

Now that we've analized the hero it's time to go into the game itself.

First phase - Picking phase.

When you should pick Gaslight Catwoman? This hero fits into most situations and team compositions, since she can stay solo, go jungle or even go with two more teammates for the trilane. Though there are some situations when i wouldn't recommend picking her:
1. There are already 2 or more assassins on your team. Assassins are not too good at doing anything else but killing opponents and that means you will have to share the glory of killing thus leaving some of you underfarmed. More so you will have a lot of trouble in teamfights against a good team composition.
2. There's no tank in the team. If there is no tank or anyone who can aggro or soak damage your team is in for some hard times as it is. But you will get it the worst, since there's hardly anyone squishier than you :) Not to say that enemy teams tend to hate poor kitty and you will surely be focused first. Just pick a tank and save the pleasure of playing Selina for another time.
If none of the above situations are present and no one have picked your new favorite champion just go ahead and pick her now.
What we should decide on next is our stolen powers .
Now your first and foremost power will always be Super Speed. Why not Psychic Assault or Invulnerability you ask? Because it just offers more utility in many different situations. Let's take some comparison. Ganking - Super Speed gives you that edge to get to that half dead enemy who is running to his tower to TP home, while by the time you get in range of your Psychic Assault he will be long gone. Escape - if you are getting ganked you will probably never die from one or two hits and will always have time to use your Blood Hunt and after that with Super Speed enemy can rarely be able to follow you, while Invulnerability only saves you that one hit after which you will be left at the mercy of your enemies. Catching the running away enemy - due to Gaslight Catwoman mechanics is not that hard to catch running away enemy using Steampowerd Claws and Predator's Grace, but if the enemy has an escape mechanism you'll have to somehow catch up to him after he jumps away. Here Psychic Assault may be of great use to you, BUT it has a very limited range, so if you don't use it on time before he jumps away, you probably won't catch him, while you still can use Super Speed to catch up and throw some Claws at the guy. Other examples may be hasting to a contested relay or roaming fast between jungle camps. Conclusion - take Super Speed. You can really take any update of it since they're all good but i personally recommend Flash's Super Speed.
Now to the second stolen power. This one solely depends on your team composition and laning.
For now there are two main laning schemes. First one will be LoL's. It is pretty much fixed and not very flexible and relies on certain team composition. It works fine for IC as a whole since the games are pretty alike but gives once again zero flexibility. The second one will be Dota's. Now everyone who palyed Dota 2 or 1 for more than a couple of games knows that it's laning is the stuff of nightmares. Most of the time it may seem completely disorganised and most of the times it really is :) It does not rely on fixed hero position but more on adapting to team composition and enemy picks. It's much harder to execute and if not done right it may turn against you. Now what laning scheme will we choose? Dota. Why? Because while LoL's scheme may play itself well enough in more organized pro or team games where you can coordinate your picks and laning it will completely rekt you up in pub, since no one wants to play what team needs and be honest, you probably broke one of the picking rules I mentioned earlier yourself ;) So situational laning it is!
Let's see some more or less basic possibilities for you to get a grip on.
Before we start, your starting items will always be Modular Health Vial (2) and Soultaker Katana (1). You should upgrade Modular Health Vial (2) on your first visit to the base but not before because it won't give you the charges. I prefer Soultaker Katana (1) to Nil Weapon and Marauder Knife (1) because while it still gives you enough survivability to remain on your lane position like those two items it won't become absolutely useless later on. You should upgrade it to lvl3 or to the max right after getting Deathstroke's Claymore (2). Now to the laning.

Second phase - Laning phase.

1. Jungle. This is your preferred lane position, hence Gaslight Catwoman is an awesome jungler and can clear camps like very fast. When can you go jungle? Only when there's no more than 1 more of your teammates jungling with you. Otherwise tell him to go some other lane or go there yourself. Best stolen power for jungling would be Detonate, since it lets you eliminate camps even faster. X-Ray Vision would work well to spy enemy jungle camps and eliminate them in his absence, but without detonate you will really lose on that extra farm. As for the upgrade I recommend Atomic Joker's Detonate which will help you farm even faster or Joker's Detonate which will probably be useful on ganks. When jungling always go straight away for elite camp and use your detonate on it. After that you can go for enemy elite camp or continue farming your camps, saving your detonate for when elites will respawn. Try hitting all units in the camp with your 1st skill then use 2nd on the fattest one and kill the small ones. While jungling I recommend leveling 1st, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, because the enemy team would rarely have the means to pursue you, so no point in getting costly 3rd skill early on. I dont recommend ganks until you are at least lvl 4 and have your 3rd skill and Deathstroke's Claymore (1). Only do it if the enemy only waits for one throw of your 1st skill. When you are lvl6 and preferably have your Deathstroke's Claymore (2) you are ready to roam and bring tears to enemy's eyes. If you are farming close to a relay try capturing it when it's active, maybe even go for enemy relay if you have 3rd skill to escape.
2. Trilane (3 people on 1 lane). Now this one is not very popular and is executed poorly most of the time. When you should go trilane? Only when there are no other assassins, marksmen or bruisers on that lane. Only go trilane with a couple of blasters or a blaster and a tank if they both have some kind of slow or stun or something else to disable the enemy. That's the only way you don't want to go jungle because that meens some easy kills which in turn meens more money for you, less for the enemy. Your 2nd stolen power for a trilane could be Detonate if you are pushing well, so when your teammates go for the tower you can go clear a jungle camp quickly and come back to lane. If you don't have a pushing setup I suggest X-Ray Vision, it will help you see enemies hiding in the stealth pads so you can ambush them for some free kill, or you can just destroy enemy cameras in your stealth pads to help you once again ambush the enemy. I recommend Nightmare Robin's X-Ray Vision or Atomic Poison Ivy's X-Ray Vision. If you are standing against another strong trilane with disables and a lot of ranged attacks you can take Invulnerability. I recommend Doomsday's Invulnerability. In trilane you should still max your first skill to lasthit drones and harass the enemy. I also recommend getting 3rd skill right after the 1st one so you can get close to get the coins, finish the enemy or move unnoticed between steath pads. After that it's a standard skill and item build. You can use your 2nd skill to lasthit turret drones or enemies. If the farm is really good, you can try to finish Soultaker Katana (4) before Deathstroke's Claymore (2) so you can get stacks early on. I don't recommend going for tower push if the enemy is still present as you will be forced to go heal pretty quickly, just carefully harass enemy with your 1st skill and NEVER go under the tower with no drones. After lvl 6 and if the tower is down you should go for the killing feast on the other lanes. If no one goes for the relay and you're on top lane you should probably go capture it.
3. Dual lane (2 people on 1 lane). A pretty common stuff in any moba and probably the easiest. You should go on dual lane only if the forest is completely occupied and preferably with a ranged hero like some blaster. Skill and item builds are the same as on trilane. Just harass your enemy with 1st skill and get lasthits with 1st and 2nd skills and go for the kill if you have a chance though it won't be as easy as with trilane. Since you will be pretty busy on a lane for stolen powers i recommend X-Ray Vision if there aren't many ranged heroes or Invulnerability if there are. Once again if no one goes for the relay and you're on top lane you should go capture it.
4. Solo lane (that's it, you're alone, your comrades abandoned you, just try not to feed too much). That's probably the hardest lane position for you. It will be hard even vs 1 ranged hero, not to say 2 or 3. Your main objective here is not to die. Probably don't buy Soultaker Katana (1) right away and go for Modular Health Vial (3), since you'll need that heal. Then go for Soultaker Katana (1) and after that max Deathstroke's Claymore (3) to get more damage for your 1st skill. Get 3rd skill on lvl2 and max 1st skill as i will be your only means to farm. Use third skill carefully only to escape or get a big group of coins lying together. Don't risk trying to kill anyone alone if there's at least 2 people against you. For stolen power get either X-Ray Vision if there aren't many ranged heroes or Invulnerability if there are. Get lvl6, ask for a gank and go roam.
5. Roaming (you don't stand on any lane and don't farm forest too much, you are there for the kills). This is probably the hardest role to execute technically right and it requires some skill and I wouldn't recommend it to new players. As a roamer you get Detonate no questions asked because of three reasons. 1st, you will go get elite camp right from the start to get some of that lvl advantage to roam effectively. 2nd, you will be farming some jungle when there are no enemies on low hp on lanes, no junglers to be seen or you are just going through jungle to another lane. 3rd, it's mighty fun to steal enemy jungler's camp right under his nose. For the skill build go 1st, 3rd, 1st, 2nd skills, and for the items, max Deathstroke's Claymore (3) right after Soultaker Katana (1). What you should be doing while roaming is going between lanes, standing on stealth pads waiting for the kill opportunity or to just damage enemy enough to send him to base. Farm jungle on your way to other lane. Find low hp enemy jungler, spook him away and finish his camp or just steal it with detonate. And GANK, GANK, GANK. All in all you just do what you should be doing at lvl6 right from the start.
That about covers basic laning schemes and stolen powers, so if you're not yet bored to death with hell of a long guide let's move on to items and tactics.

Third phase - Item building and the rest of the game

As far as items go you should mostly follow laning guide item builds and most of the time you should finish building your core items before you go for anything else. That would be Modular Health Vial (3), Deathstroke's Claymore (3) and Soultaker Katana (4). This are you attack items and most of the time it's more than enough to kill most marksmen, blasters or some of the supports. If your farm is really good and you have like 1,5k gold you can skip a couple of levels of Soultaker Katana (4) and buy Atomic Axe (1). This a really good item to boost your damage output. Most of the time however buy the time you finish your core you will start noticing increased amount of damage coming from your enemies. If it's no one in particular I recommend going for Batman's Utility Belt (3) as it gives you some hp and really nice boost to your damage with it's passive ability. If the enemy has no high attack or power damage output you can carry on to build Atomic Axe (2) or Joe Chill's Revolver (3) with priority on atomic axe. Only go for Velocity 9 Implants (4) as the last item as any other, even something with armor is better. But most of the time after you get Batman's Utility Belt (3) some of enemy's assassins or bruisers get pretty much farmed as well, so I usually go for Claw Of Horus (3) right after the belt. It not only gives you armor, hp and attack but also let's you chip armor from them annoying bruisers we all hate so much. Only go for Sword Of Beowulf (3) if the enemy team almost entirely consists of power damage heroes. It doesn't happen too often though. Just ensure your survivability before going for those high end damage items, you can't kill enyone while you're dead :) As for situational items, I'd recommend going for Rip Hunter's Time Pack (4) with two conditions: you do actually know how to use it right and you are losing lanes to enemy push. This way you can come in from under the tower with 3rd skill, quickly deal with the enemy and go right back to safety. But you are free to use it even without losing lanes if you are real good with it, as it let's you skip some survivability items. Lobo's Chain (4) is not my favorite item, but you can get it if the enemy has much escape mechanisms and they just keep running away from you. That about covers you items.
Now to tactics. Early game tactics are pretty much discussed in the laning section. After the laning phase you need to go ganking and teamfighting. This calles for some different tactics. Let's take a look at ganking first. Some ground rules:
1. Never gank enemy tank alone at full hp with as much farm as you have. Waste of time and his buddies might be close.
2. Never gank two people alone if you are not sure you can escape after killing one of them. Because due to skill cooldown you probably won't be able to kill both of them, only if they are not critically underfarmed.
3. Only sacrifice yourself in exchange for the enemy marksman. Those guys rape lategame more than anyone else. And be sure that he dies first. Better don't sacrifice yourself at all :)
Now straight to the tactic. Try using stealth pads, but be careful, there might be cameras in there. If the enemy is not suspecting and is standing close to the pad and farther from the turret than you dont use stealth to get near him. Start with 2nd skill, then 1st, then 4th. If you hit him with the 1st skill, your 4th skill won't go on cooldown. Now if you are sure you will kill him with 4th skill, just use it again. If not, start pursueing because he will most surely start running. Here comes to help your 3rd skill which will boost your speed if the enemy has 50% hp or less and your Super Speed. Pursue him until your 1st skill comes off cooldown and hit him with it. Now you can use you 4th skill two more times, which is usually enough to kill even the toughest enemy. If the enemy is standing far from the pad, start with your 3rd skill and use your 2nd skill and the rest as described above. Rinse and repeat to get damn big pile of kills.
Now to the teamfighting part. Most important rule - don't stand anywhere near your or enemy tank or bruiser. Your most important job in a teamfight is killing enemy marksmen, blasters and supports. Farmed marksman is a priority. Those guys will most likely be found behind enemy lanes, so your job is to get there safely, do some raping and safely get back. To do that use stealth pads or 3rd skill, but keep in mind that without 3rd skill you probably won't get out alive, because all enemy's back line will turn on your sorry butt, so try to kill as many as you can. To do that you can try to hit multiple enemies with 1st skil and try to jump between them with 4th skill. If you do everything right even an unequal teamfight should come out in your favor.
As for some general tips - try to capture as many relays as you can, kill solo enemies capturing relays, kill raider (fat drone on bottom lane worth much gold, easily killed solo with 3 built items), kill doomsday device solo with 4 built items, don't go in under the towers too far, don't stop farming when there's no one to kill, try not to feed too much and be polite with your teammates and enemy.

Now you know everything there is to know about Gaslight Catwoman.
So go out there to bath in blood, drink enemy tears and have loads of fun!

Thank you for reading this guide!
With best regards,
Dokuro.