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Caitlyn Build Guide by Taneren

AD Carry Caitlyn - Boom, Headshot (Updated by Moonedge)

AD Carry Caitlyn - Boom, Headshot (Updated by Moonedge)

Updated on November 13, 2012
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Taneren Build Guide By Taneren 773 66 3,325,443 Views 328 Comments
773 66 3,325,443 Views 328 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Taneren Caitlyn Build Guide By Taneren Updated on November 13, 2012
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Introduction

Before starting off I would like you guys to do me a favor if voting do:
INFORM ME WHY YOU ARE VOTING THIS GUIDE DOWN, PLEASE. I WENT FROM 91% to 86% WITHOUT A SINGLE COMMENT ON WHY, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU DISLIKE SO I CAN CHANGE IT. Thank you


Welcome to my guide about Caitlyn - The Sheriff of Piltover.

This is my second guide here on MOBAfire. Caitlyn is my favorite AD-Carry Champion, and I really enjoy playing her, so I simply had to share my ways of playing Caitlyn in hope of letting people experience the same kind of love as I did, for this Champion.

I recommend you to read the whole guide, before voting(I know you guys will skip most of it anyways). And post a comment on why you either like or dislike this guide, of course criticism is allowed. Thank you.

-Taneren & Moonedge <'3
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Pro's & Cons

Pros / Cons

Pros


+ Third longest range in the game (650).
+ Great range; it allows you to poke and move back, before they get to touch you. "Hit and run".
+ Great damage early, mid and late game.
+ Amazing harass abilities.
+ Easy to last hit with.
+ Wonderful passive. If used correctly, it will help you gain control over the lane and scare your enemies.
+ Piltover Peacemaker got a nice amount of damage, and is easy to aim.
+ Great zoning with Yordle Snap Trap, and if placed correctly can help you get away from a sticky situation, through lurking them into a trap or avoid a gank.
+ A nice escape/chase mechanism and a decent movement speed.
+ Can finish off low health enemies in a great distance.
+ With the correct position, you can change the outcome of a team fight.
+ Extremely fun to play, you will be in love with this Champion.
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Cons


- A very low mana pool.
- Squishy.
- Focused in team fights (especially if fed)
- Yordle Snap Trap can be walked around, due to visibility.
- Ace in the Hole isn't reliable if there is more than 1 enemy in the lane. Enemy champions can intercept the bullet for their ally.
- Spamming abilities will oom you quickly, try and avoid spamming them unless you're sure about hitting. - On the other hand, who doesn't oom quickly when you spam abilities? (Except for those without a mana pool! :P )
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Summoner Spells

Primary Summoner Spells


Flash and Exhaust are my most recommended summoenr spells for Caitlyn. And should be carried with you into almost every single game, but there are certain occasions where you should pick something else, which I will mention soon.


Flash:The reason I enjoy Flash is due to the great escape and chase mechanism you get. This summoner spell can get you out of a sticky situation, where you accidently went too far.
Flash can also grant you a swift kill - The enemy is on very low health, 1 auto-hit is enough to get you a kill, that is where you Flash in range and right click on your target.
According to me, it is one of the most important summoner spells in the game.

PROS :
  • Early damage
  • Great finisher
  • Counters heals


CONS :
  • Short-range.
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Exhaust: If you have to face against an opponent who is faster than you, or deals high DPS, you'll want to pick up this. You'll significantly lower their DPS, and perhaps allow you to destroy them, or slow and use it to escape.

PROS :
  • Anti-DPS
  • Strong slow
  • Damage reduction


CONS :
  • Cleansable
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Optional Summoner Spells


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Ghost
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Apparently this summoner spell is used by a few Caitlyn players, but I am not a fan of it. I like ghost and I see it as a good choice for OTHER champions. Just not Caitlyn. There are those who likes the Flash/ Ghost combo, for a nice movement speed and good chase/escape options. I'm just not a fan of it, and see other summoner spells that fits her better.
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Cleanse
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Many AD Carries are using this spell lately, to counter all those CC teams. I'm not a fan of it, if they only have 1-2 weak CC abilities, go with Exhaust. But Cleanse gets you out of a bad situation and helps you get away from a CC filled team. If your enemy team looks a bit like this: . Then you should pick Cleanse asap, no discussion. If Rammus first gets you with Puncturing Taunt you're doomed, unless you have Cleanse to help you get away in time.

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Teleport
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I recommend this for new Caitlyn players or going mid-lane, and maybe those who are unlucky enough to get a non-support partner.
Teleport lets you get back in the lane quickly after recalling, which also means you gain more exp and farm due to getting back to your lane fast, and can help you keep up with the xp if you are having problems in the laning phase.

Those summoner spells that I did NOT list, should not be used no matter the situation. So I won't bother to waste time on listing them, and why you shouldn't pick them.
If you disagree on me with anything please feel free to inform me.
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Masteries


21/9/0 Pretty common for an AD-Carry, for the high damage output, and better survival
You can also choose to go 21/0/9 for more utility, but I recommend going 21/9/0

It took me a few days before realizing what was the best choices in the masteries, took a few things wrong, but I quickly came to the conclusion that going 21/9/0 was the best way to roll, and where I should use my points after recommended masteries.
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Offense
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Defense
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  • Resistance 1/3, You are going bot-lane versus an AD-carry which means that Hardiness is more important.
  • Hardiness 3/3, to increase your armor and take less damage from the enemy AD-carry.
  • Durability 4/4. Increases your health, but I take this so I can get Veteran's Scars .
  • Veteran's Scars 1/1. 30+ Health might not seem like a lot, but it will make the difference early game on a kill or surviving.
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Runes

Main and Optional Rune Choices

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation
    Marks:
  • Greater Mark of Desolation: I wouldn't say that anything should replace these runes, Armor penetration is really important. Lately I've been seeing a lot of armor stacking off-tanks, and you need Greater Mark of Desolation to counter them, Armor Penetration is very important for Caitlyn. Yet there is one kind of Marks that I accept (but I do not recommend, which will be listed now.
  • Greater Mark of Attack Damage: The Attack Damage is sweet for an AD-Carry, nothing wrong with them. I just find armor penetration a bit more important.

    Seals:
  • Greater Seal of Armor: Drag these runes with you into the game, to make you more tough versus the enemy AD-carry. The extra armor that it grants you, will make you feel less squishy.
  • Greater Seal of Attack Speed: Is one of my favorites, attack speed goes hand in hand with Headshot. In a team fight or a 1v1/2v2 situation you need your passive to deal extra damage, which why attack speed fits Caitlyn perfect.
  • Greater Seal of Attack Damage: A viable choice too. Flat Attack damage makes you shine early game, and should be taken if you do not have attack speed Seals.
  • Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Mana regen is nice, I mostly use this when I'm playing Miss Fortune or Ashe, allows you to spam your abilities a bit more than usual. Helps you with harass early game.

    Glyphs:
  • Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Thanks to the community, I decided to give these runes a chance, as they make you more tanky against the enemy support as well.
    Early game a decent Sona will zone you due to her high damage early game, so I pick these glyphs to counter a supports early-game damage.
  • Greater Glyph of Attack Speed: Attack speed, once again a nice partner to Headshot.

    Quintessences:
  • Greater Quintessence of Desolation: Once again, Armor Penetration. I love Armor Penetration ;) But I since you have armor penetration in Marks and lack Attack damage in Seals, I suggest taking 1 Greater Quintessence of Desolation.
  • Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: The other 2 Quint slots should be filled out by Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage. You lack Attack damage now, so go with the following in Quintessence.
    1 Greater Quintessence of Desolation.
    2 Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage.

    Your rune page should look like this, if you follow my main choices:
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Skills Preview

Skill Sequence


It's pretty simple.
  • Start the game out by picking Yordle Snap Trap(W), to prepare and place up traps before the enemies come to the lane. You should pick this ability first and max it last. Do not touch it again until you have no other options.
  • Then pick Piltover Peacemaker(Q) And max it 1st.
  • You should get 90 Caliber Net(E) around level 4, unless you fear an early gank from the enemy jungler, then pick this in level 3 for a brief escape mechanism. Max it 2nd.
  • By level 6 you WILL pick Ace in the Hole(R) Always level up this ability when you can, its your ultimate! Max it 3rd.
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Abilities

Headshot
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Caitlyns passive skill. I really love it, and find it awesome for harassment and farming.
This passive makes Caitlyn really strong in top and bottom because of the bushes.
If you auto-hit a minion out of a bush Headshot will grant 1 stack per shot, but if you stand in a bush 1 hit will count as 2 on the stacking. So use your Yordle Snap Trap to scare the enemy champions out of the bush and stand in the bush while trying to stack it up.

BE AWARE THAT ENEMY ALSO CAN SEE WHEN YOUR PASSIVE IS ON THE 7TH STACK Use this to scare them away and zone them. People will step away when they see you have it ready.

As you can see above on the picture, her hands glows shiny when Headshot reaches the 7th stack.
A small tip when pushing the enemy turret - When hitting the turret you gain stacks, but it won't use the final stack on the turret, so try and land the 7th hit on the enemy champion and go back to avoid a turret hit, then re-do the process.
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Piltover Peacemaker
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This spell is great in so many ways.
  • Harass in a safe distance.
  • Push
  • Farm
  • High damage

A skill-shot might not always hit, but when you hit with Piltover Peacemaker they feel it.
Do not spam this spell, I repeat DO NOT spam this spell. It drains your mana if spammed.
You can use this from a safe distance, but if you are using it to harass the enemy champion then try and hit as few targets as possible.
The damage is decreased by 15% for each target it hits up to 40%.

A tip when using it - When throwing it try to place it a few inches behind them, and move forward to place an auto-hit on them. If they wish to dodge Piltover Peacemaker they will have to step forward to dodge it, and it will allow you to hit them 1-2 times. Try and see if you can time this together with Headshot for max. damage.

Another tip - If the enemy steps in a Yordle Snap Trap use Piltover Peacemaker since you're almost 100% sure to hit the enemy champion.
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Yordle Snap Trap
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Early game these traps will do a lot for you through the laning phase, but they slack late-game and won't be worth much.

But they are so amazing in so many ways, which I will go into details about now.

You can see these traps so they can easily be avoided which makes them useless. On the other hand, they can be hard to see in the bushes so try and place them there, in a team fight they might 'seem' useless but they are not - Remember that in the team fights the opponents might not pay attention to the traps but their targets, so you can easily plant them and take one out when they step on it.

When an enemy steps into one of these traps, he/she will get stunned for 1.5 seconds, use this opportunity to harass.
It functions a lot like Nidalees traps except for the fact that Caitlyn got CC, the reason they remind of each other is due to the vision it grants.
Another thing they can be useful for is face checking.
Do not face check a bush, use your trap - It will grant you vision around the trap for around 0.5 seconds, which should be enough to tell you if they are in the bush or not.

Early game these traps are actually really strong. Around 80 damage in level 1, which is a lot that early. Imagine if someone were silly enough to step into 3 of those in a row (it happens). He/she would be down on 50% before the minions even spawned which would grant you a good start.

Even if I go bot lane I like to rush mid before the game begins and place 3 traps to help our mid-carry get a better start by zoning theirs.
I hope adding this picture will show you what I mean
This might not seem as a big problem to you, but think about it. You can barely walk through them, without getting hit by one of them. Your mid-lane will love you for it!
But you can also do this on other lanes as well, and if used correctly you might even stop a gank.
    Where I like to place traps in my own lane:
  • Trap 1 is placed in my own bush, if they chase me down and I need some kind of escape mechanism, they will usually step through the bush and if they decide to avoid the trap, you will grant 1-2 seconds more to flee which might make a difference on surviving or not.
  • Trap 2 is placed in their bush to zone them, and make them stay out of the bush and closer to the river.
    Q: Why closer to the river?
    A: Well, it lets me have a view on where they are and I get control over the bush. Easier to go out and poke, then step back in before they get to react, if they decide to react I will get the first shot since they have to step inside the bush before getting vision on me.
    And by getting them closer to the river, I also make them more vulnerable to a gank.
  • Trap 3 is usually placed in the mid bush in the river as most junglers like to wait in that bush until their team mates are ready for a gank.
Where to place traps, when in fear of getting dived, this is the perfect bait and can often give you a kill without dying:
You can use these traps everywhere on the map, but the following are my most recommend (if you start in blue base):
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90 Caliber Net
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90 Caliber Net is mostly used as an escape tool. You can knock yourself back, mostly used to increase the distance between you and your opponent. But a decent Caitlyn will also learn to master this ability, in more ways than just fleeing.
90 Caliber Net can be used for chasing as well. It also slows down the enemy on impact, so try and see if you can hit someone with it in the process, to gain more time to run.

What makes it so epic according to me, is the way you can go through the walls with it (Not every single every single wall). At certain places of the map, Caitlyn can push herself through with the use of 90 Caliber Net.



This can be done a lot of places around the map, it can be tricky sometimes to find the correct places, but it can spare you the waste of flash. For example if you solo dragon, stand close to the stones so you can instantly jump away instead of dying. Stand the same way, as shown in the picture above.
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Ace in the Hole
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This ulti is amazing to finish off fleeing targets. But it got some cons as well.

Pro's:
+ Long range
+ High Damage
+ Often gets you a kill in level 6

Con's:
- 2-seconds charge time making you unable to move.
- Might not always hit your primary target, if another enemy is willing to take the hit by stepping in front of your target.
- If the enemy dies before the 2-seconds charge, it will automatically get cancelled. (THIS WILL RESET YOUR COOLDOWN, SO NO WORRIES)


Keep in mind not to randomly use this spell, save it for a kill.
A small tip when using Ace in the Hole - Do NOT use this in a team fight, you risk getting into a bad position, use it when the fight is about to end on the fleeing enemies. Since it might also be difficult to actually get a kill with this, when the tank can block it for your primary target.

Make sure your support carries Clairvoyance to help you with the ultimate.
If you can ask your support to CV and ping, then thanks to the incredible range of Ace in the Hole you might get the kill even from a far distance.
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Items

Starter items


I enjoy starting out with Doran's Blade, and to me this is the only viable starter item.
But I make certain exceptions, when you end up on a lane with a support who has no kind of heal or regen to offer you - Get Boots and 3x Health Potions for the sustain.

Since you start out with 475 gold Doran's Blade fits even more on the gold price, since it costs exactly 475 gold. These minor stats that it grants you actually matters a lot on the lane.

- 10 Attack Damage, 100 Health and 3 life steal. Fits Caitlyn perfect early game.

After getting the first Doran's Blade I suggest for you to get a second, when recalling and Boots.
Q: Why 2 Doran's Blade? Shouldn't you go directly to your core build?
A: Well, the health and the damage will provide more health and damage which leads to better farming, you risk not having gold for B.F. Sword when recalling, so it would be silly to back to the lane, having 900 gold and not buying anything.
Afterwards you should get your boots.

Your early game build should look a bit like this. Unless your laning phase goes really good, then jump straight to B. F. Sword and Boots skip the double Doran.
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Preparing for the Core build


Almost ready to begin getting your core items, but first you have to build up by getting the minor items that fits to get your core items.

Boots is optional, but I recommend getting Berserker's Greaves, I will go in depth about this soon. But these are my favorite boots due to the attack speed, and I use them 90% of the time.

You should get B. F. Sword as soon as possible, I sometimes even skip boots if I can afford BF Sword instead, this might cripple my harass when they enemy champion got her/his boots, but it's fine - If they are going for the kill, guess who gives the most damage ? B. F. Sword>Boots.

When I got my B. F. Sword I go for Vampiric Scepter or Infinity Edge all depending on my amount of gold when recalling. If I got enough money for Infinity Edge then jump Vampiric Scepter and buy it afterwards. Damage > Lifesteal, you got a support to help you with the sustain through the laning phase.

Get Zeal afterwards, and only Zeal - Buy Phantom Dancer when you got Bloodthirster
My recommended way of going from here:
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Boots

Mercury's Treads - This should be picked if they enemy team has a heavy amount of CC and AP carries on their side. It reduces the CC by 35% which will matter on getting away or not and it grants you some nice Magic resist to counter all those nasty AP-carries bursting you down in a single combo.

Berserker's Greaves is my favorite choice, and the most common choice for AD-carries in general. It helps you farm and harass effectively early game and mid game with the attack speed + the attack speed stacks great together with Headshot. The only problem is they grant you a level 2 movement speed which means that you can easily get caught are not moving slow. You sometimes need a quick movement since you often will be the primary target.

Boots of Swiftness is not something I'm a fan of neither, but it helps you, if you get the feeling of being too slow and easily caught. It grants you level 3 in movement speed and can be good to match swift champions + If your team needs a jungler/roamer you could take the job and gank once in a while. (Not recommended, stay at lane and farm)

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Core build


The following 3 items, should be picked almost no matter the situation. I will list a few Recommended builds versus the different kind of teams you can meet (AD, AP, Tanks) soon.
But for now, keep in mind to get these 3 items as they have a huge impact on your damage output:
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This item is very expensive, but is worth it and should be bought very early. It provides you so much AD, crit and an unique passive increasing the damage of your critical blows by 250% instead of 200%. Critting with Headshot stacked hurts a lot, and your enemies will fear you very early in the game.
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This is the part where people start to realize harassing you in the lane will be in vain, a few auto-hits and you managed to regain the health you lost. With this baby stacked full up, you will be unstopable with an extremely high damage output. If I end up in a lane without a healer, I usually pick Bloodthirster before Infinity Edge due to the lifesteal. Only con about this item, is that you lose your
bonus stacks on deaths
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Phantom Dancer mixed up with Infinity Edge is a dangerous cocktail. Bestows you attack speed as well as critical chance with fits perfect with Infinity Edge + It grants you a nice movement speed so that you can outrun most enemies that are chasing you / you are chasing them.
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Final items

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Banshee's Veil - This item really counters AP champions such as Annie, because you get to remove her stun before she throws in her deadly Summon: Tibbers combo on you. It provides mana and health + A shield which blocks a negative spell every 30 seconds. It can be very effective and a life savior against certain spells for example Requiem, if you are lucky on the timing.
Since you are AD-carry and deal a lot of the damage compared to your other teammates the enemy team will focus you, and Banshee's Veil might save you from a certain CC which would have surely meant your death.
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Last Whisper - A great counter against armor stacking tanks (off and main tanks). It grants you both AD and armor penetration which boosts Piltover Peacemaker and Ace in the Hole. Suits Caitlyn perfect! I am often in doubt about picking this item or Black Cleaver
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Black Cleaver - It provides you damage and attack speed. Great for Caitlyn to stacking up her passive Headshot. The passive of this items reduces your targes armor by 15 for 5 seconds which stacks up to 3 times. This item isn't really meant to counter tanks, pick Last Whisper if you wish to counter a gank. With Black Cleaver you should be focused on 3-4 hitting squishies.
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Frozen Mallet - This item is also a challenge to Last Whisper and Black Cleaver.
Lets look at what it does
  • Great kiting / hunting unique, slowing down the enemy.
  • Provides a good amount of health, to make you be more tanky (Means you might be able to survive a burst). This is a MUST as last item if your team lacks CC, only way to get protected is by kiting and using the slow that Frozen Mallet grants. AD, Health and slow. Wonderful combination.
This is a must have if you feel squishy, and feel the need of slow (Some junglers are ego. and won't share their buffs). This item is not seen on enough AD-carries, and should be used a lot more, it is a very strong item.
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Recommended Builds


I'm going to list a few recommended builds that should be used in different kind of situations.
  • Build 1: For common games, with balanced teams or Attack Damage teams / My personal way of building Caitlyn

    or
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  • Build 2: Rarely used, but will be effective against tanks.

    or
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  • Build 3: I haven't used this more than 1-2 times, because you should ONLY use this, if the enemy team got around 4-5 heavy AP characters.

    or

    I take Hexdrinker before Wit's End due to the attack damage it grants, and it can be a lifesavior due to absorbing 300 magic damage for 4 seconds if you come below 30% health.
    Versus Champions like Veigar it matters a lot.
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Laning phase / Early, Mid and Late-game.

Finding your lane


Laning is parted into 4 phases, known as:
  • Top-lane.
  • Jungle.
  • Mid-lane(Middle).
  • Bot-lane(Bottom).

When the game starts, you should head to bot-lane together with your support, while the rest of your team heads towards Mid-lane and Top-lane, and the last guy heads into the jungle.

Example:


Above me, could be a great team for Caitlyn to be part of.

Top lane:
What you should do here is send Galio into the top lane - It is often tanks or high dps based characters that heads top.

Jungle:
Attack damage melee-based characters for example Lee Sin heads into the jungle, but it could also be a tank for example Amumu, his role is to gank the different lanes and help your team get some kills.

Mid-lane:
The person heading mid-lane is often your AP-Carry who needs free farm without worrying about being ganked too much, since it is the shortest lane, you can easily get back to your turret, it is often champions like Morgana and Annie that takes care of this lane.

Bot-lane:
Bot lane is where you and your support is supposed to be, early game you should primarily be focused on farming and harassing, but I will mention this briefly.

In pictures, it should look like this
Keep in mind that Laning is mostly around 1 minute - ~20 minutes, by then the laning phase will begin to end and team fights will begin.
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What to do in the lane

Before going into details about the laning phase, I will go into details about:
  • Last-hitting.
  • Harassing.
  • Aware of ganks.
  • Pushing the lane.
  • Zoning.
Last-hitting:
Last-hitting in other words is when you do the last hit on a minion before it dies "The killing blow".

Last hitting is very important to carries, not only AD-carries. You should spend the most of your time on the lane early and mid game farming. Farm, farm, farm!
Everyone on your team should be focused on last-hitting (except for the support). Last hit is the key to a successful laning phase. Minions grant you a specific amount of gold if you make the killing blow on them.

If you are unskilled and can't seem to last-hit, head into a custom game and practice - It won't hurt anyone? :)

A good place to practice should be by the turret, this is the hardest place to last hit the minions, so keep this in mind:
  • Melee minions - Stand by and let the turret hit them twice, then do the killing blow.
  • Ranged minions - Ask for your support to hit them once, only once! Then let the tower hit them 1 time as well, and then finish them off. (The reason I want your support to do this, is that you might give too much damage on the minions for this to work).
Practice this in a custom game.

Harassing:
People often tend to overextend when it comes to harassing, if you overextend you might end up taking unnecessary damage from the enemy champion or the minions (Yes, the minions got damage too).

As Caitlyn your primary harass spell should be:
The point of harassing is to keep your enemy at low health, to make sure they won't be brave enough to attack you.

Getting ganks / Getting ganked:

Getting ganks - Often when the enemy champions are doing better than you, they will end up pushing, this would make them an easier target to gank, so if the enemy pushes your lane ping your target and ask for your jungler to come and gank them.
Sometimes 1 gank is enough to turn the lane around, and let you dominate the lane.

Getting ganked - Keep in mind that pushing the lane isn't always the best idea, it would result in you pushing the lane and make you an easier target for the enemy jungler, even if your support knows how to ward their jungler still might be sneaky enough to get around it without you seeing it.
Avoid pushing the lane if possible, but do not get pushed to the turret neither, it will make your creep farming a lot harder by the turret, try and keep the fight somewhere in the middle of the lane.

An example of a gank:
You pushed the lane, suddenly their mid-carry (Lets say Annie) appears on the lane and attempts to kill you. To prevent this place a sight ward, wards are very useful for preventing ganks. Another way is to let your team know that a person is missing at his lane by calling SS (miSS), and RE when the champion appears on the lane again (heRE).


Pushing the lane:
Very simple thing to do, but if you can - AVOID DOING THIS EARLY GAME IT WILL RESULT IN YOU GETTING GANKED

This is a common mistake that most players do.
When you constantly auto-hit the minions (without killing them) you will end up pushing due to having more minions alive than the enemy. It should be avoided, as it will also be more difficult for you to harass the enemy champion if he/she hides behind their turret.

Sometimes it is a good idea to push the lane though, if you need to recall I recommend for you to spam Piltover Peacemaker and kill the minions as quickly as possible then recall, if you recall while being pushed you risk loosing your turret which would hurt your farm badly.

Zoning:


Inform me if you do not understand this video, and I will try to explain it through words myself, but this youtube video should cover the part about zoning.


I'd like to show you a quick video, that covers most of the things I've just been through.
I do not success 100% at every single thing, but I managed to cover most of it decently.
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Early-game


The game begins, nothing unusual here - Pick up your items and head to your lane and place a few traps or protect the jungler, if you have a jungler I strongly suggest to use your first trap to protect him from any ganks.

Your play style early game should be the same through almost every single game, focus on farming and harassing, nothing else. Do not bother about getting the kills unless the enemy is playing extremely aggressively or stupid, focus on getting those minions!

Keep in mind to inform your team when there is MIA/SS, this is very important but usually your support will call those for you.

You shouldn't worry too much about warding, let the support do it for you, but sometimes I like to pick up 1-2 wards on my first recall all depending on how much spare I got, it really helps our support as he/she might be in need of cash to get enough wards early-game.

Ask for ganks when the opportunity is there, and grab a few kills.

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Mid-game

You're mid-game now, it's about to get more serious and the action will begin.
By this time you should have 1-2 Core items or at least have the items that will be used to get your core items all depending on how the game went Early-game.

Around ~20 minutes you will either stand on a lane and farm, farm, farm or begin a team fight all depending on how the game went. If you feel that your team is stronger than the opponents then force a team fight, head mid and push the turret.
If you on the other hand feel a bit weak and in need of farm, I suggest for you to remain on the lane and keep on farming unless the other team forces the team fight.
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Late-game


If you made it this far, congratulations this might be a good game.
By now you should finish your build, or at least be close to and only miss 1-2 items.
If the game goes into late-game you should start playing aggressively together with your teammates, remember that League of Legends is a TEAMPLAY based game, so do NOT solo and leave your teammates in a 4v5 situation. Stay together with your team and be careful not to get picked by the enemy team.

Drop farming, and prepare for the final battle! This is the point where your should stick to your team non-stop, because one lost team fight might lead to the end of the game.
When you engage pick out their carries and the rest shouldn't be a big deal, played organized with your team when engaging.

If you haven't already - Force Baron if you feel that you are able to win the fight.

Keep in mind that late-game is all about team fights
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Partners

I'm gonna keep this list very simple. I am aware that there exist other champions viable as supports as well, but these are my recommended lane-partners.

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Alistar
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I love laning with Alistar, such a strong pick nowadays.
Tanky with a godly CC-combo and decent sustain thanks to his heal.
Alistar pretty much covers what a support needs all around, and is a very strong and recommended partner to lane with.

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Janna
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Time for Janna another strong pick, but nothing a partner I'm a fan of laning with.
Do not get me wrong here, I find Janna very strong as a partner, but I often have to start with Boots and x3 Health Potions instead of Doran's Blade to sustain in the lane. She got a lot of CC as well as Alistar but lacks at sustain.
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Karma
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Karma is very underrated but I like to lane with her (Not my favorite partner though).
There are many better partners, but Karma offers speed, slow, shield and heal - Only thing she lacks is CC. Problem is that Karma is extremely weak without her Mantras.
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Leona
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I LOVE playing with Leona, true that she lacks sustain but her damage and CC is so godly that you often will dominate the lane. Together with Leona you should play extremely aggressive and go for the kills, if she's good you will win the lane without too many problems.
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Lux
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I do not mind Lux its just sad that people are starting to see her as a support instead of an AP-Carry in the mid-lane.
She lacks sustain, and if she's bad at using skill-shots she will be useless. On the other hand, if she hits 90% of her skill-shots she's one of the best partners you can get. I'm just not a fan of laning with her due to the lack of sustain and risk of missing every single skill-shot.
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Sona
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Uhh, she's so nice to lane with! Her damage early game is amazing if she knows how to use her combo with Hymn of Valor + Power chrod.
Her sustain is decent, and she's like a tiny version of the Baron with all those buffs.
She can easily turn a fight around when she reaches level 6 and uses Crescendo.
A very good pick together with Caitlyn.
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Soraka
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Is decent, you shouldn't play aggressively and attempt to get a kill, when laning with Soraka do not be afraid to exchange health as Soraka will get you full in no time.
Do not go for the kills, just farm, farm and farm non-stop.
I do not mind getting Soraka as I'm sure I will get a high farm in the game, unless the enemy team manages to zone me.
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Taric
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Manliest Champion in League of Legends, you do not find a more awesome partner!
Taric is a huge counter to the enemy bot-lane due to his high amount of armor + You grant armor as well.
He got a wonderful CC that works excellent for zoning the enemy, a decent heal for the sustain and a wonderful damage + Abilities that makes every player 1.5 instead of 1.
A very strong pick to lane with.
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Team fight

The most important thing to keep in mind when playing AD-Carry is your positioning. You have an incredibly range(650), so make use of it and stay behind your team while shooting them down 1 by 1.

During a team fight you should wait for your Tank/Off-tank to engage the battle, and afterwards pick out the ones giving the most damage but do NOT risk placing yourself in a bad position to kill their squishy, pick out the one close to you that gives a lot of damage. Stepping into the middle of the fight in attempt to pick out their carry would be suicide.

If your tank/off-tank is good, he will protect you if you get focused, so do not worry too much about it, and if needed you got 90 Caliber Net to get away from him.

Your 2 primary focus targets should be the AD and the AP Carry, but there are certain situations where you are forced to hit the closest enemy to avoid putting yourself in a bad position (The tank).

In a team fight only 2 things will happen - Either you win or lose.
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After Winning A Team fight
Okay, you won your team fight - Good job! Use this and change the game.
  • Push the lane and destroy the enemy turrets as quickly as possible.
  • Go ahead, kill the Dragon or the Baron and grant some extra gold.
  • Just do something! No need to recall if they are all dead, just be sure to pull back before they respawn.
After Loosing A team fight
Your whole team is dead. What now?
  • You're screw'd, pray to the League of Legends god and ask for another chance.
  • Hope that they decide to recall.
  • Watch them take your turrets and Dragon/Baron.
  • Ragequit and blame the team. (JK, Do not blame the team if you did something bad too, use the time on making new tactics to beat them in the next fight)

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Elixirs and Wards

This might seem a bit off-topic, but is very important.

Elixirs are often bought towards the end of a long game when you finished your build and got some extra gold, they can also be bought mid-game to give you a temporary stat advantage during ganks and team fights.

I'm going to list the sequence that you are supposed to by the elixirs in:

--> -->

Lets look at it:
  • Elixir of Fortitude is my first pick because it grants health and attack damage, and can counter ulties like Requiem or a simple summoner spell as Ignite. Somewhat like a minor Heal
  • Elixir of Agility is my second pick because it grants attack speed and critical strike, which also fits excellent to an AD-Carry.
  • Elixir of Brilliance is my third choice, but isn't really worth anything to you. Grants you ability power and cooldown reduction. You can't really use the ability power for much, so the only reason you should pick this is for the cooldown reduction.



I know most of you are wondering why I didn't add Oracle's Elixir to the list.

Well, why would you give the enemy team another reason to focus you? Let the support get this one, and stop giving them silly reasons to focus you more than needed!
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Screenshots (Send yours in!)

I decided to make a specific section with Screenshots from people who had good scores using my Caitlyn build. So if you have any games, send them in!
Kill streaks, normal games, penta-kills everything! (Video's too, if you uploaded them to youtubE)
Video: http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/82800/ A small match together with C4k3CooKieZ where we played Taric + Caitlyncombo.
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Summary & Thanks

YOU MADE IT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING! (Unless you skipped some of it >.>)
I hope that you enjoyed my in-depth guide about Caitlyn and understood what I wrote and meant.
Please leave a comment and a vote, it really means a lot to me.
If you have any questions, ask and I will gladly answer them.

Criticism would be appreciated, but please have a good reason.
(Anything I could improve?)

- Also a big Thank you to Jhoijhoi who made an excellent guide, showing how to create a good guide, which helped me out in a few sections.
Clicky to check it out
- Thank you to Koksei as well, who helped me out as well. I recommend for you to check out his Lux guide.
-Thanks to Snowfall for letting me borrow some of his coding.

It would also mean a lot to me, if you could check out my other guide that covers Taric
Click for Taric guide :)
- Taneren <'3 (EU-West) You're welcome to add me.

Thank you for reading my guide.

Finally finished the guide:

Also, Moonedge is the best Caitlyn ever.
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League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide