Kayle Build Guide by Nonconscious

Introduction

Hello. I am Nonconscious, a player on the NA server since Malzahar came out. Although I've come to take to the game as a casual, I've follow streams and tournaments since the WCG won by CLG. I've played a lot of Kayle.

Playing Kayle bot lane is regarded by some to be a troll pick. She's certainly fallen out of popularity since her rework (not that she was crazy popular before that, anyway,)- not quite grouped into "trash tier" Evelynn, but generally considered a weak choice.

Ever since the new masteries/new jungle I find that people are less surprised by their allies trying unconventional picks/strategies, though they still underestimate them. Kayle is actually really strong, and I'm embarrassed that it's taken me so long to discover this way of playing her. Of course, some indirect changes have helped her out. The nerfing of Sona, the emergence of Nunu support and the buffing of Heal have made Kayle as an AD Ranged Carry for the bottom lane perfectly viable.

Log

4/2/2012- Released. *Multiple, general edits, spelling, grammar, minor additions, coding changes, etc.*
-Added Fight Log section where I'll be posting my matches following this guide. It will include notes on experiments with different supports/items, what counters I en... counter, etc. Eventually will see how she performs in ranked.

Fight Log

I've been in California using library or hotel internet just doing Coop vs AIs to get my IP boost, but today I was able to get a string of games out now that I'm back in Oregon.

Match History:
Day 1:Supports tested in above: Galio, Nidalee
Discoveries:
Alistar blocks your chasing ability hard.
Graves hard to finish off early game because of passive, dash and smokescreen. Your short range can make it hard to dodge his burst.
Nidalee's Primal Surge' Attack Speed and Sustain provides you with good laning. You're also both hard to catch/finish off.
(If you check my match history today, you'll notice another Kayle game at the bottom where i lost- 13/2/16- which was a 4v5- our Fizz DCed about 25 minutes in. The game went on for 40 minutes.)

Background

Kayle was my main champ when I first started playing this game, and I played her consistently up until a month or so after her rework at which point I was convinced she didn't offer enough to the team and could no longer carry like she once did. I started trying her top, and did a lot of Jungle games running near full AS runes, etc. with average success. I had pretty much given up on her and would only play her when I didn't expect to win but wanted to have fun regardless.

One game I accidentally used the above set up and tried a build I used for her in ARAMs and dominated. After watching Kog'Maw + Nunu in many of the tournament matches and in high elo solo queue streams, I wondered if Kayle could have similar success. She does.

While I am a casual player who doesn't play ranked much, I have a lot of experience with the game, especially playing Kayle, and do consistently well with AD bot lane Kayle. I will post the results of a spree of games with her soonTM.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Strengths

• Easy Farm with Righteous Fury
• High Damage, Unstoppable Late Game
• Amazing Utility with Intervention, Reckoning, and later levels of Divne Blessing
• Great Laning phase synergy with Nunu
• Good Chaser
• Incredibly Mobile Late Game
• Great Survivability
• Underestimated
• Game-changing Baiting Potential

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to CC
• Righteous Fury tends to push the wave if you're not careful
• Can run out of mana if you don't manage E well or spam your other skills
• Holy Fervor isn't that great of a passive...
• Divine Blessing practically useless early game
• Intervention doesn't really have scaling
• Ranged AD damage dealer whose main damage output can be interrupted by an annoying (albeit short) cool down.

Laning Phase/Lane Partners

Laning with Kayle

-Try to get away with last-hitting with melee auto-attacks as much as you can without being harassed.

-Preserve your mana and refrain from spamming Reckoning or using Divine Blessing as a heal (if you put a point into it at lvl 4).

-When you go back to base, stock up on Health Potion maybe even a Mana Potion if you need to.

-Trade/harass only when Righteous Fury is up or available. To maximize damage, start off by throwing Reckoning at them. Or retreat with a Reckoning& Divine Blessing to speed away/juke if necessary, though it chunks your mana so be careful.

-You can clear waves quickly before they reach the tower with Righteous Fury if you're being pushed in. Likewise, be wary that Righteous Fury's AOE naturally pushes the wave.

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Lane Partners


is by far your best option for support.
Blood Boil makes you incredibly mobile and strong
Ice Blast and Reckoning guarantees blown summoner spells and/or kills, makes for great chasing, escapes, and assisting in jungle ganks.



works pretty well with you, too. Eye Of The Storm and Righteous Fury bonus damage will win you trades. Also have double slow- Zephyr& Reckoning



works much the same as above a la Help, Pix! and Glitterlance.

I don't have much experience with the other supports as Kayle. You can survive with them but the three above are your probably best options. I have never outright lost lane with the above supports.
Need more insight, will update:
Laning Partner Research:

TO BE UPDATED

Feels weak. Could've just been the players or the match ups. Will test more with a support buddy of mine.

Synergies/Counters

General Synergies:

-Double Wota/Sustain Compositions- You benefit from Will of the Ancients passive and can keep your AP casters from being bursted, significantly boosting the power of their sustain.

-Snowballing Champions- Allies who get fed with a Kayle on their team become even more dangerous. Attempts by the enemy team to focus them will bait out a ton of damage- all negated by Intervention.


-Strong Initiating Compositions/Champions- Guarantees your initiator won't be instantly bursted. Especially useful for high damage, squishy divers such as Nocturne, Xin Zhao, Jax, Pantheon, etc.


Champion Synergy:

(Of course, every champion in the game synergizes well with freakin' INVULNERABILITY - but these stand out in particular)

- Olaf- God mode
- Nunu- Your best lane partner.
- Morgana- Combined with Black Shield, any champ on your team becomes briefly unstoppable. With Black Shield, Intervention, and Soul Shackles, your sis can devastate the enemy team.
- Swain, Vladimir, & Dr. Mundo- Invuln them when the enemy tries to instagib or finish them off with burst damage and Ignite. It's darn precious how much health they can regain within that couple of seconds.
- Fiddlesticks- There's no way to interrupt his damage once he jumps out for the surprise party besides killing him. Make him unkillable.
- Twitch- Still incredibly strong even if the old days of 6 sec invuln OP Twitch have passed. Like Fiddlesticks, people panic and try to instagib him when he pops out.
- Zilean- Never die.
- Tryndamere- Never die.
- Poppy- Hard to explain.

General Counters:

-High CC, especially silences- prevents ult usage and possibly E activation

-Poke Compositions- Hard to gauge ult usage, can be kited til E cooldown

Difficult Enemies:

- Gangplank& Nidalee- Their heavy poke and mobility/survivability can bait out your ult, your Reckoning alone isn't enough to catch them, and they can sustain and kite you until Righteous Fury goes on cooldown
- Kassadin- His silence and mobility makes him very difficult to deal with. He can jump out of your Righteous Fury range until it's on CD.
- Mordekaiser- His shield can be difficult to deal with since it can last through/significantly reduce the damage dealt during Righteous Fury's time limit.
- Vladimir- His heavy poke and sustain is incredibly hard to deal with- his Transfusion range is longer than your Righteous Fury range. Sanguine Pool can be used to wait out and negate a significant amount of your Righteous Fury damage, or dodge a Reckoning when chasing, and you'll have to be careful in timing Intervention to counteract Hemoplague.
- Nocturne& Graves- Paranoia and Smoke Screen can ruin what may have been a powerful or clutch Intervention. Also, Fear is scary. (Is that deep or what?)
- LeBlanc& Veigar- Can bait out your Ult/instagib you. Likewise, however, you can bait out and prevent their entire combo, rendering them effectively useless. It's all skill in the timing and judgment. Try not to be the focus of their nukes, and avoid being CCed by them. It's much easier to save an ally than yourself.
- Malzahar& Warwick- On your team, you can ensure their safety during their suppression. Against you, you can render their deadly ultimates completely useless. Just make sure YOU'RE not the one who gets targeted.

Runes

For Runes I use 3 Attack Damage Marks, 6 Armor Penetration Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs OR Magic Resist per level Glyphs, and Attack Damage Quintessences.

About 10 ArPen, 9.6 AD= Best combination for the most of both stats.

13 Armor= No-brainer for bot lane against an enemy AD carry. Could possibly slip in some Mana Regen if you wanted.

13 Magic Resist/24 Magic Resist at 18= Adds a nice buffer against getting one shot by Mages, lessen burst, etc. Stacks with the magic resist you get from Maw of Malmortius. (Some people don't run any MR bot lane, so by all means run CDR, AS, or Mana Regen if you want.)

Masteries

Purely personal preference. You should at least run 21 in offense for maximum damage output.

I like to run 21/9/0- 21 pts in Offense for damage output because that's your job as an AD carry, and I simply feel more comfortable with 9 pts in Defense with the extra armor and hp for lane as well as improved Heal. Feel free to go into the Utility tree instead of Defense if you're having trouble managing your mana or want longer buffs time. Purely up to you.

Items: Damage, Survivability

Start
and x 3

Next
x 2 and , possibly a

Try to get a as soon as possible, followed by .

Upgrade the B. F. Sword to and the Zeal to .

Sell the Doran's Blade to build and then two of the following:
/ / /

Finish last two into , your second , , or

Other options that are expanded on below: Banshee's Veil, Frozen Heart, or sell your boots and get a 3rd Phantom Dancer because what-the-hell-why-not.

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Example End Game Builds:








All the damages.

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CORE
Berserker's Greaves, The Black Cleaver, Phantom Dancer, and The Bloodthirster
AFTER CORE:
I highly recommend some combination of: Maw of Malmortius / Phantom Dancer / Guardian Angel
You'll probably need to take least one SURVIVABILITY item.

Core increases your[/color] AS by a ton, allowing you to get the most out of Righteous Fury while it is up and to max stacks on Holy Fervor quickly. Getting another Phantom Dancer will near max your AS and make you incredibly mobile. ( Nunu's Bloodboil makes you insane.)

Personally, I usually get Maw of Malmortius, as it's an amazing item which, though expensive, is never hard to farm up as Kayle. The Shield Passive keeps you alive through major burst- your ult and heals on top of that make you incredibly difficult to kill.

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Survivability-


- Incredibly good as a late game choice against AD comps or a snowballing Riven/ Talon- 99 armor, awesome passive, and a significant amount of CDR (20%)

- Decent amount of HP with more MR, plus a Spell Shield since you're weak to CC, I prefer Maw of Malmortius as you're usually pretty safe against burst with your Ultimate if you have good timing.

- A cheap alternative to Banshee's Veil that, while lacking health, provides more Magic Resist as well as the choice of when to cleanse an incoming disable. May be a must against a Veigar, Warwick, Malzahar, Sion, Morgana, etc.

- I love this item, especially for Kayle. This significantly boosts both your Damage and Defense.
Amazing passives-
1. Helps you survive their AP burst if your Ult is down,
2. Even more damage that can be clutch in a duel- Ulting yourself when close to death.

- Always a viable option as it provides both Magic Resist and Armor.

More importantly, the resurrection can change the course of a late game, game-determining team fight. If the other team has considered you too big of a threat or an easy target and focuses you, this will lessen that pressure and give you more flexibility with your Intervention.


- Gives you attack speed, more bonus Magic Damage on top of your E, Magic Resist, and is fairly cheap. I prefer Hexdrinker-> Maw of Malmortius though.

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Possibly viable, needs research-

Guinsoo's Rageblade- Formerly known as THE Kayle item to get... Used to get it when I tried laning her top or jungling... don't think it's so viable for AD bot. Better to prioritize getting B. F. Sword and Zeal Might be good with Double Wota.

Hextech Gunblade- Despite it's nerf, it's still pretty good. Gives you great sustain and has a decent active also works well with your Reckoning.

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Don't get:
Nashor's Tooth- Hate it when I see Kayles get this item. Gimps your damage.
Zeke's Herald- Stark's was better.
Malady- No.
Madred's Bloodrazor- Still don't think it's worth it even after AD boost. Could be situational, though.

Skills and Sequence

Note: If you think prioritizing W over R is dumb, by all means, don't do it. It's just how I play Kayle. A LOT of guides mention how useless W is. It IS horrible early game, it becomes OKAY once it acquires levels.

Sometimes I level R again at 15 or something random like that, or don't level W at all- it's mostly intuitive for me. However, you NEED to be maxing E first always followed by prioritizing at least 3-4 levels of Q.

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Passive: Yes, yes, we all miss the old passive, but this one works... all right, especially since one of the main focuses of this build is Attack Speed. This passive combined with The Black Cleaver and Phantom Dancer will allow you to significantly reduce and bypass the defenses of armored targets not only for yourself, but for the rest of your team.

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Q is great for initiating ganks, chasing, getting away, and leveling it second in priority to Righteous Fury significantly boosts your damage output. It has a 1.0 AD ratio AND 10% damage amplification at max rank, which is nothing to scoff at. The synergy with Nunu's Ice Blast is incredibly strong, allowing you to chase and output a lot of damage while your E is up.

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W This skill, at early ranks, IS something to scoff at. While underpowered in my opinion, it does become NOTICEABLY helpful at later ranks when chasing/escaping, speeding up either yourself or an ally to help secure a kill, or surviving those last few ticks of Ignite.

-If you have Blue Buff you can spam this to sustain yourself and get where you need to be.

-I usually put one point in at level 4, sometimes not at all if I'm significantly dominating lane. Although prioritizing this makes the heal half decent and the movement speed pretty good, it's not worth losing out on the damage of Q + E. I personally level this instead of the 2nd and 3rd ranks of Intervention just to give it some use as a skill.*

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E is your main source of damage and the reason why you can win trades and farm so easily. The AOE allows you to clear waves and jungle camps incredibly fast. At max level this gives you +60 base damage, and like every other guide for Kayle that recommends you level this first, "oh ma gah, that's more than a B. F. Sword!!!" Though of course it is Magic Damage rather than AD, you benefit from Will of the Ancients' spell vamp and AP and deal some damage past Blinds or Jax Dodge. Coupled with Nunu's Blood Boil or Janna's Eye Of The Storm, your damage output is beast.

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R Kayle is a pretty easy champ to play, no skill shots etc, until this skill. This ability requires a high level of precision and good judgment to really be useful. The amount of Utility is on par with Zilean's Chronoshift.

-You can bait, clutch save, turn the tables of fights, tower-dive, and secure a powerful initiation by someone like Nocturne, Shyvana, etc.

-It is incredibly powerful on sustain champs with high Lifesteal/Spellvamp/Health Regen like Swain or Dr. Mundo, negating enemy attempts to burst them down and keeping them alive when vulnerable/hit by an enemy Ignite.

-It puts Olaf into literal God Mode and when used with Morgana's Black Shield allows a champ to do pretty much whatever they want uninhibited.

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*Note: Above I said I usually level Divine Blessing over Intervention after getting one point in R at 6. Although leveling Intervention significantly reduces the cooldown, I find that it is available enough for important situations with only one rank. To me, the .5 second duration increase per level is worth sacrificing in place of making Divine Blessing actually useful.

Summoner Spells

IMO, best to take Heal and Flash.

I try to save my summoners until I have to use them which makes for good baiting and long-term survival

-In a prolonged chase, my ideal order of escape is Q pursuer, W self, Ult self, use Heal, and then Flash.



-Pretty standard on AD carries nowadays. Works very well with your ult and baiting, as you can use Intervention on yourself or an ally and then use Heal to turn a fight around, or survive for a long amount of time. You can effectively block an Ignite counter to running double Heal bot by ulting the Ignited focused target and then using Heal.

I prefer to take Flash over Ghost because:

-You can go over walls

-You're incredibly mobile after getting levels in Divine Blessing and purchasing a Phantom Dancer or two, which, for me, increases the value of the in-an-instant versatility of Flash versus the prolonged mobility of Ghost.

-It's also very useful to get off a clutch Reckoning or that final hit of Righetous Fury before it goes on cooldown.


Other viable options

Final Comments

I have mentioned multiple times in this guide that Righteous Fury's CDR can be a problem, but late game it's practically nonexistant. If you use good judgment and the build above you can output enough damage while it's up.

Thanks to jhoijhoi and her Karthus Guide. You've been invaluable as this is my first guide and I've wanted to publish a Kayle guide for a long time.

Please endure me as this is my first published guide. Kayle is my favorite champion, I don't know why. I hope you give the build a chance and discover what a powerful teammate she can be. Respectful suggestions on how to make this guide and build better are welcome.

(It is important to remember that Kayle is, in fact, a beautiful woman. She is the Samus of LoL)