Overview

Catwoman is a whole different breed of champion to those currently in Infinite Crisis. An Attack Damage melee caster, she relies heavily on her Whip Strike to deal damage, whilst using her acrobatics to remain out of range of the bevy of assassins and bruisers who would like nothing more than to rein this kitty in!

Abilities


Passive - Cat Burglar: Catwoman's passive has two parts to it. The first, and most notable aspect of it, is a trigger that creates a credit drop whenever Catwoman damages an enemy unit, with a cooldown that decreases as Cat Burglar is ranked up. This starts at 4 and rises to 10 at rank 4. The second, and arguably most useful, part of her passive, reduces the recharge time of all of her abilities currently on cooldown (other than Cat Burglar) by 0.75 seconds every time a coin is collected near her, including Catwoman herself. This is very useful during laning, when you'll be spending the majority of your time, well, collecting coins. This keeps your Q up more often, allowing you to farm safely from a distance and harass even more frequently than you'd otherwise be able to.


Q - Whip Strike: This ability essentially defines Catwoman as a champion, and is where 90% of your damage over the course of a match will be coming from. You will base your entire game around landing Whip Strike as often, and as carefully as possible. At only a 3 second cooldown at max rank before reduction from artificats/ampliphiers is applied, you can basically treat it as a long range auto-attack with a hitbox that travels much quicker than the majority of standard ranged auto-attacks. It also applies any on-hit effect like an auto-attack would, such as the Attack Harrier passive on Lobo's Chain, and even the ability to critically strike. Whip Strike also deals an additional 25% damage when the target is struck at it's max range, and when you combine this with the further 40% damage boost from a max rank Acrobat, it's not difficult to see how this puts Catwoman well up there in the company of top dps dealers.


W - Cat's Paw: Your crowd control ability. Alone, it applies nothing more than a (admittedly strong) slow, but when used after Acrobat, it knocks down targets for an eventual 0.8 seconds; invaluable in halting a fleeing target or would-be kitty-catcher in their tracks. Whilst not it's primary use, Cat's Paw also deals a decent amount of damage, although the high will cost should tip you off that this is not an ability to be used liberally for farming purposes.


E - Acrobat: This is a priceless repositional/buffing skill, and will save your hide and amp up your dps in equal measure. On use, Catwoman cartwheels a short distance in the direction of the cursor, and adds an additional effect to your next Q or W, if used within the next 5 seconds. As mentioned above, Whip Strike gains a % damage increase, and Cat's Paw will knockdown as well as slow. With a relatively short cooldown, Acrobat is also an excellent Will Battery charger if you've purchased Deadshot's Visor - racking up stacks whilst traversing the map.


R - Bad Kitty: Catwoman's ultimate ability is a strong self-buff that grants several additional effects to her other abilities for 8 seconds. It upgrades Acrobat into Savage Acrobat, causing it to do damage if you pass through an enemy unit whilst cartwheeling, reducing the cooldown to 2 seconds (before CDR), and halving the will cost. Any damage Catwoman deals whilst in this state will also cause the target to bleed, acting like a ramped up version of Gaslight Catwoman's Sharpened Claws. You'll want to pop your ult in order to turn assassin when targeting a lone opponent, or when arriving at a team fight in order to land as many enhanced Whip Strikes and Cat's Paws as possible whilst remaining on the outskirts. It can even be used in a pinch to escape a sticky situation - Catwoman utilising Savage Acrobat is the most mobile character in the game.

I find the best order of priority for levelling your abilities to be:

R > Q > E > W > Passive

Ult then Q should be fairly evident as your primary sources of damage, and you want the utility of E maximised quickly afterwards, but W/Passive comes down to extra credits vs extra damage. The cooldown and slow applied on W remain static, but the damage and will cost rise significantly as they go up in rank. I find the trade-off there to be more worthwhile than extra credits; you'd benefit most from that in the laning phase, and you'd be mad to not max Q first.

Stolen Powers
[[Catwoman's Teleport]]
- The usefulness of this upgraded Stolen Power cannot be overstated. A full minute off of the cooldown of an ordinarily every-5-minutes ability is HUGE. It's uncanny how often you'll find it's available to be used when you desperately need to be across the map fighting at an objective, when using the base Teleport or even Cyborg's variant you'd be stuck with it still on cooldown. Teleport gives you map-wide presence, allowing you to arrive at Raider when it spawns, teamfights, and also the ability to push lanes away from your team whilst arriving almost instantly once they need you.

[[Gaslight Batman's Surveillance Camera]] / [[Robin's Surveillance Camera]]
- As a laning champion, you'll want these to give you vision of entry points from the jungle and inside of stealth pads to keep you safe from the enemy. It's a matter of personal choice whether you want the enhanced vision range, or extra uses before returning to base to refresh.

[[Gaslight Catwoman's X-Ray Vision]]
- Generally most useful when scouting stealth pads from a safe distance at the beginning of the game, or when chasing a fleeing enemy running through them. For general vision purposes, cameras are usually more useful in the long-term, but it can have it's uses when taken alongside them bot lane, or if your jungler(s) hasn't taken it.

[[Doomsday's Invulnerability]]
- Ideally you won't be close enough or be engaged slugging it out with the enemy to need this, but it's a nice safety net if you want the added protection.

[[Flash's Super Speed]]
- A below-par choice on Catwoman, she doesn't really need the extra help in getting around or catching foes, but on somewhere like Gotham Heights, it never hurts to have a burst of speed on a relatively short cooldown.

Amplifiers
[[Deadshot's Visor (3)]]
- Either the Empowered or Accelerated mod are fine choices. The former will grant you more attack damage in the long run, whilst the latter will grant it more quickly early on, whilst also further stacking your will.

[[Huntress' Crossbow (2)]]
- An extra 13 attack damage from the Enhanced mod is some nice additional padding on a core item for Catwoman.

[[Lobo's Chain (3)]]
- The Enhanced mod adds an additional 105 health for free. Who am I to argue?

Coda Blade (3)
- If you're buying Coda Blade (perhaps on Gotham Heights), the Enhanced mod provides a compelling case for not selling it for something better later in the game as it adds an additional 13 attack damage.

Nil Weapon
- The Discounted mod enables you to start the game with a fully upgraded  Tektite Vial as well as a Nil Weapon with the credits you save. This can help you stay in lane that little bit longer before returning to base for the first time, although if you've taken Catwoman's Teleport you might not find this quite as necessary as other laning champions.

As for augments, you'll want to prioritise attack damage and attack penetration with gold, or at least silver ratings, whilst move speed and crit chance are also useful stats to choose. Unfortunately, the augments for cooldown reduction do not mesh well with these four, leaving you with bronze ratings in one category, or requiring you to pad a stat Catwoman doesn't utilise.

Artifacts

Start of game
Nil Weapon Tektite Vial
- A Nil Weapon/Ring and Tektite Vial is the almost universal starting build of choice on any laning champion. It provides a nice balance of health, damage and sustain to get you through the early levels.

Core Items
[[Deadshot's Visor (4)]]
- Catwoman relies heavily on her abilities, in particular her Whip Strike, and can run into trouble without a will pool to sustain her. Deadshot's Visor solves this by stacking up a large reserve of will for her to burn through, whilst simultaneously boosting her damage. Once at rank four, you should activate the Will Force toggle whenever fighting an enemy champion to further kick her damage output up a notch at the cost of some additional will. You should be buying this in every match on Coast City, whilst it's more of a judgment call on Gotham Heights. I tend to love Will Battery artifacts on the former, but find they stack too slowly on the quicker paced GH. In my opinion at least. In any case, if you're buying it, you'll want to rush it to rank 2 to get the Will Battery passive before focusing on some more immediate damage. It's up to you, depending on the flow of the game when you decide to rank it up to 4, but you probably shouldn't leave it any later than your third major completed artifact.

[[Huntress' Crossbow (3)]]
- Catwoman wants both attack damage and cooldown reduction, and this gives you both. The Crossbow should be one of the first artifacts you complete, and will allow you to throw out your harder hitting Whip Strike more frequently.

[[Lobo's Chain (4)]]
- The benefits of this fantastic artifact are twinfold. Firstly, it provides her with survivability in fights in the form of a large chunk of health, as well as some attack damage; and furthermore, grants the Attack Harrier passive that applies a slow onto all her auto attacks, as well as her Whip Strike. This ensures none will be able to escape a chasing Catwoman, as the short cooldown of her whip will constantly reapply the slow, even if they're not in auto attack range, and as a melee champion, this remains at the full 30%.

Situational Items
Coda Blade (4) / Atomic Axe (2)
- Attack penetration is important on Catwoman, and although I've listed it as situational, you'll likely need one, or even perhaps both of these. Coda Blade is a fine item to rush on Gotham Heights, and is very cost efficient, whilst Atomic Axe is a huge boon late game on either map, but particularly on Coast City.

[[Joe Chill's Revolver (4)]]
- Building crit chance on Catwoman is a viable option, and this artifact, perhaps along with another that provides additional crit chance, will have you dealing out some seriously nasty Whip Strikes, which can also critically strike. The additional attack damage is obviously nothing to sniff at either; it provides as much as a fully stacked Soultaker Katana.

[[Metallo's Heart (3)]]
- This is the go-to artifact if you're in need of attack armour. It provides not only a large amount of that (60 to be exact), but also an invaluable 350 will to go towards your resources. With Deadshot's Visor, you're not only buffing your defence, but your attack as well. Metallo's also aids your team by giving the Dampening Aura passive, subtracting 20% from the attack speed of nearby enemies, so is also a wise choice if an enemy marksman is getting a little out of hand.

Sword Of Beowulf (3) / Entropy Aegis (4)
- If it's power armour you need, these are the two best choices. Sword of Beowulf provides a solid 50 attack damage, as well as a 200 hp shield that activates automatically once you drop below 30% health (with a 1-minute cooldown); whilst Entropy Aegis gives additional health, will, greater power armour, and Skill Shield that nullifies the first enemy ability to hit you (also with a cooldown). The Aegis tends to be the one I favour, as I have plenty of damage from other sources, but once again this is basically down to personal preference.

[[Ra's al Ghul's Robe (2)]]
- It has a hefty 5-minute cooldown, but the revive this item provides can make all the difference in crucial team fights as you become an effective 6th man, and also isn't a bad choice if the enemy is generally prioritising you in them.

Gameplay
There are two words you need drilled into you to play Catwoman, not just effectively, but at all competently: positioning and kiting.

Catwoman should (almost) always be on the fringes of any engagements. Not only does it keep her out of harm's way, but it maximises the damage from Whip Strike. Whilst a melee champion, you don't want to be relying on your auto attack as a consistent source of damage. This is where positioning is absolutely key. Learn the range of Whip Strike, and try and be no closer than that at any point with another enemy champion. It's cooldown is short enough, will cost low enough and damage significant enough that you should try and treat it as a surrogate auto attack, especially during laning, which is an arena almost exclusively populated by ranged champions. This is where Acrobat comes in - it is both your repositioning tool to get you where you need to be, and dps maximiser by empowering your Whip Strike. Use it constantly to keep space between you and your opponents, and whenever possible before a Whip Strike when harassing them with pokes. As Catwoman is generally on the squishier side of champions, you'll learn pretty quickly the importance of keeping your distance, lest you suffer the consequences.

Kiting is a term used to describe constant harassment with attacks on an opponent whilst keeping yourself safe from any recourse they may be trying to pile on you. Sort of like a measured hit-and-run. There is no-one better at this in Infinite Crisis than Catwoman. In fact, it's not just an advised tactic, it's outright essential. Her entire kit revolves around floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, whilst your lumbering opponent labours to get the slightest touch on you. Acrobat and Whip Strike to land some punishment on them before backing off. A few seconds later, repeat it again. If they get uncomfortably close to you, Acrobat away and hit them with Cat's Paw to make your getaway.

Laning
Top lane champions tend to comprise of two classes: Marksmen and Blasters. Catwoman can hold her own fairly easily against her fellow Blasters, but Marksmen with their painful auto attacks, that obviously have no resource attached to them, give her a much harder time. Regardless of who you're up against, you'll want to hang back and last hit drones with your Q. If you spot an opportunity to safely last hit with your auto attack, then by all means take it, but generally this leaves you vulnerable to harass from your lane opponent, as well as any unseen enemy jungler that may be hiding in wait for such a chance.

Against Blasters, such as Joker or Green Lantern, your E > Q combo is quick enough that you can get in and out before they have a chance to react with skills of their own. Mix this harass in with your last hitting to whittle down their health. Once they're down to around 25% life, you may have an opening to land a kill on them if they don't retreat. Go for an E > W combo on them, followed up with a Q, then continue wih an E > Q, which ought to kill them. Don't be reckless though; taking one tower shot too many, along with minimal counterattacking from your opponent can easily lead to the reverse outcome.

Marksmen are a trickier prospect. A good one will be well aware of the limitations of your auto attack and will be looking for any chance to land one or two of their own. Stick to last hitting with your Q and remember to keep your distance. You are unable to win trades with your whip alone, especially if they start to build lifesteal. Mecha Wonder Woman is less daunting in lane if she is building power damage, but Cyborg and Gaslight Batman will give you a very hard time if you allow them to. Consider asking your jungler(s) to pay particular attention to your lane to prevent them from free-farming.

Bottom lane can be a more forgiving environment with the back-up of your lane partner, who can both provide a distraction to allow you to poke unpunished, as well as support you in last hitting and exchanges with the enemy, and vice versa. Catwoman works well bot both with a supportive champion helping to sustain and peel for her, and in a supporting role herself, chipping away at the enemy carry and making plays with a quick E > W.

Fighting
Ultimately, this is what the whole game boils down to, and nailing it with Catwoman is something of a fine art. Unlike most champions, there is a time and place for everything in terms of how you go about trying to kill people, and there is something to be said for the correct modus operandi for any given prey.

Most of the time your fighting style will be an extension of your laning: positioning and kiting. Against bruisers and assassins in a 1v1 you want to abuse the range of your skills to keep them at bay whilst poking them down. Catwoman can chase as well as kite, so if they begin to flee with low life, you can use exactly the same tactics in an offensive sense to stop them from making a break for it.

The same goes for team fights. You'll want to activate Bad Kitty and dance around the outside of the fight, away from the AoE and up-front damage. Although Savage Acrobat does damage to any enemies you pass through, putting yourself that close to the action often ends up doing more harm than good, and you'll find yourself down for the count before you can make use of your sustained dps. Try and focus your damage onto the opposing carries, whilst keeping an eye out for any allies who may be in need of some peeling with your Cat's Paw. With the majority of big hitting abilities expended, you should hopefully still be fresh and able to clean up any stragglers still standing at the end of the fight.

In a 1v1 vs a marksman, assuming they aren't farmed well ahead of you of course and scaled way into the distance, you can usually afford to throw a little more caution to the wind and go in hard on them, trying to burst them down assassin-style before they can out-dps you. Pop your ultimate and after making initial use of your benefit from range, feel free to auto attack and apply the damage from Savage Acrobat. A boosted Cat's Paw will take advantage of the crowd control they lack for some extra damage whilst they're prone.

1v1'ing a Blaster can be a judgment call, but generally you should play it on the safe side and play your positioning and kiting game. Their abilities do just as much damage up close as they do at range, and from there they're harder to miss. In all cases though, if you see the opportunity to go in for the kill, close into melee range to quickly finish them off.


In closing, Catwoman has a higher learning curve than most champions, as late game carries tend to do, so it'll take some practice to really get a hang of her playstyle. Just think of her as a graceful fencer - you don't win heads up against burly men with axes and greatswords, so flit around them out of their reach and dart in and out with quick pokes. Playing her is something more cerebral than Shazam's burst centric game, or stealthing in as Gaslight Catwoman, hitting every key and autoing them to death. It's harder, but also a lot more fun and rewarding. Hey, you get to listen to her sassy and quasi-sarcastic voiceover at the same time!


*And no, I don't know why the section for Catwoman's Teleport formats like that :/