Caitlyn Build Guide by chrizzes
Champion Build: Caitlyn
| Health | 2110 |
| Health Regen | 14.65 |
| Mana | 885 |
| Mana Regen | 19.19 |
| Armor | 138.69 |
| Magic Resist | 60 |
| Dodge | 0 |
| Tenacity | 0 |
| Movement Speed | 395 |
| Gold Bonus | 0 |
| Attack Damage | 366.3 |
| Attack Speed | 111.85 |
| Crit Chance | 65%S |
| Crit Damage | 50% |
| Ability Power | 0 |
| Life Steal | 12% |
| Spell Vamp | 0 |
| Armor Penetration | 29.2 |
| Magic Penetration | 0 |
| Cooldown Reduction | 10% |
Recommended Runes
Ability Sequence





Mastery Tree Is Outdated
WARNING: These masteries are still using the old tree and have not been updated to the new tree by the guide author. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Caitlyn - General Stuff
Caitlyn is in my opinion one of the best ad carries in League of Legends and one of my mains. She has an incredible early game harrass due to her extremely high range. If played correctly
Caitlyn will be an Ad Carry that has an incredible early game and a pretty good late game. Next to
Ezreal she is one of the only Ad Carries that have an escape spell. And amazingly she has even two of them (her w and her e). If played to perfection (only possible with a valuable support), you will own your opponent unless as I said your support cannot handle the situation.
Runes
Caitlyn is a champion that needs the right runes to be played well in early game.
Choose Greater Mark of Desolation for early game advantages.
As seals take the
Greater Seal of Armor providing you with the needed armor to hold out against any early level ganks as well as enemy harass.
For glyphs take
Greater Glyph of Attack Speed, which provides you with enough attack speed until you finish your Zeal.
For the Essences take
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage.
With this rune-combination Caitlyn players will be able to experience a much easier and much better early and early-mid game.
There are many other play stiles considering runes. Instead of Greater Mark of Desolation you can take Greater Mark of Strenght.
Instead of
Greater Seal of Armor you can go more aggressive with the
Greater Seal of Attack Speed.
Instead of
Greater Glyph of Attack Speed you can also take Greater Glyph of Replenishment, if you are new to Caitlyn and know that you are a manahungry player.
For Quintessences you can take instead of
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage the Armor Penetration version: Greater Quintessence of Desolation or the Attack Speed Version
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed.
If there are any more good options for runes please comment. Anyways decide on your play stile if you would rather like armor penetration (take it if the enemy team is kind of tanky) or flat Ad (giving you an early game advantage) or even Attack speed, which gives you a nice little boost in all game stages.
Masteries
The
masteries
should be like those of any other Ad Carry (21/0/9).
Taking all the attack damage in the offensive tree branch. The other available 9 points should be put in the defensive tree. Take 3 points in
Hardiness
and only 1 point in
Resistance
(You need the Armor to withstand a 2 v 2 on bot lane).
Then put 4 points in
Durability
and the ninth point in VETERAN`s SCARS giving you the needed life / life per level.
Items
This is probably the most important part of this guide. Many people and pros say that
Caitlyn is not a champ that can be played in competitive play but I think she should.
As with every Ad Carry start off with
Boots of Speed (DO NOT BUY DORANS => nerfed) and 3 HEALTH POTS. If you want you can buy 1-2
Doran's Blade afterwards if the game does not go well (DO NOT BUY MORE, since you SELL them later on).
Finish up your boots
Berserker's Greaves next. The next major item you should aim for is B.F. SWORD - giving you incredible damage output. DO NOT GO DIRECTLY FOR
The Bloodthirster OR
Infinity Edge.
---Please guys - and this is important - buy a
Zeal first, giving you the needed Attack Speed and Movement speed Boost---
Then it is up to you if you rather go the aggressive damage style (
Infinity Edge) or the rather sustain style
The Bloodthirster).
After completing one of these items you NEED TO GO FOR
Phantom Dancer. Without them you have no Attack Speed. After completing these - which should go pretty fast since you possess
Zeal already. After
Phantom Dancer you need to get
The Bloodthirster in order to have some lifesteal.
Now it is up to you again. Either go for an aggressive build, taking
The Black Cleaver /
Last Whisper or go for the defensive build by getting a
Guardian Angel.
This last decision may decide the game. Go for the defensive item if you notice that the enemy team is able to focus YOU in the team fights. If they are too ******ed to do so or if you just play too good for them take the aggressive item. As I said this last decision is up to you and will decide the game 100% since the Ad Carry is the most important role in late mid game and late game itself. Chose wisely and based on your skill and experience level.
I will post the Startitems here:
These are my recommended follow up items:
And finally the Core Items:
You will probably need a last defensive item as well chose for yourself:
Skill Sequence
I will keep this chapter rather short since it is really not hard to understand how to skill
Caitlyn. Caitlyn´s most important Spell is her Q ( PILTOVER PIECEMAKER), so skill it whenever possible.
The only important choice you need to take is what to level second. If you know that the enemy jungler is aggressive and comes in for early lane ganks SKILL E
90 Caliber Net in order to not waste your
Flash. IF NOT skill your W
Yordle Snap Trap. This allows you to place 3 traps onto viable positions all over the map. Use them to block off the jungler´s main path at the river or at the lane bush.
Skill your ultimate (
Ace in the Hole) whenever it is available. Caitlyn´s ultimate spell assures that the enemy will NEVER luck if your in range :)
REMEMBER THIS SKILL SEQUENCE:
=>
=>
=> 
Summoner Spells
In this chapter we will be going over the best summoner spells for
Caitlyn.
A must have spell for every Ad Carry is
Flash. It gives you the opportunity to escape from critical situations saving your life many many times or flashing after low life or squishy targets to kill them many many times. If you are low level take ghost to speed up your attack or your escape.
The second spell depends on your play style. Take
Heal if you want to surprise your enemy with a little health boost, which can be unexpected if used at the correct moment (DO NOT USE HEAL IF IGNITED).
The second possible spell is
Ignite. With
Ignite you are able to counter heal pretty easily if you are an experienced player to predict the enemie´s
Heal.
If you are countered or if the enemy team has heavy CC take
Cleanse to free yourself from that CC - like Nunu´s annoying
Ice Blast or Warwicks annoying ultimate Infinet Duress.
You should NOT take
Exhaust since your supporter should take it, giving you a better spell like Heal or Ignite. As an Ad Carry you are the damage dealer on your lane, so you should take the most critical actions. Do not forget that your support should NOT use
Exhaust at the start of a battle. Wait until the enemy uses high damage spells like the ultimate and reduce that damage; or use
Exhaust if the enemy flashed and is trying to get away alive.
But as always there are different opinions about
Exhaust which should be tolerated.
Gameplay + Farming
Caitlyn has the highest range in the early game. USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. On bot lane try to use your passive (
Headshot) by shooting out of bushes reducing the number of shots necessary to load the passive.
Caitlyn needs to be farmed to fulfill her role in late game - just like any other Ad Carry, too. In early game try to last hit all the minions and if possible even take the
golems
if you are on the blue side.
Guys, there is something that is very dangerous to do if you are an Ad Carry. DO NOT PUSH your lane or you will die if you do not know the position of the enemy jungler. If you are experienced enough you can bait the jungler into an unexpected 3 v 3 if your own jungler is good enough to do a proper lane gank.
If you want to go backport just use your Piltover Piecemaker to clear the waves. DO NOT use it too often or you will run out of
mana
resulting in an easy kill since you cannot use your escape spells anymore.
In the late game stop farming your *** off since your team will get nervous and will blame you for losing the team fights (WHICH WOULD REALLY BE YOUR FAULT). You need to be present in team fights.
There are 3 points that you need to do in team fights:
1. Stay Safe (Do not hesitate to use your flash, since you will get focused in all TFs)
2. Focus the high damage targets (AD => AP)
3. SHOOOOOOOOOOOT like hell
Pros and Cons
If you play
Caitlyn there are some pros and cons you need to know about.
PROS:
1. High Range => Early Game Harass
2. Good Early Game => Creep advantage at 10 minutes (you will have +15 creeps at least)
3. Nice Escape Spells as well as Map Awareness Spells (W, E)
4. Very nice Ultimate, which will quit any luck streak the enemy will have
CONS:
1. Not much CC (DO REMEMBER THAT E SLOWS TARGET)
2. Can be countered by taking a supporter like
Soraka or
Taric, who provide the enemy with huge heals (
Taric IS YOUR DOOM since he will just Stun you)
3. There are much better ultimates like Ashe´s Arrow that can make the difference in critical team fights (Caitlyn is NO INITIATOR)
Caitlyn + WHICH SUPPORT?!
Caitlyn can be played with many support characters. There is the nice and easy farm style: Take
Soraka as your support or
Sona to have nice lane sustain.
If you want to be aggressive take a CC supporter like
Leona,
Alistar or
Taric. This allows you to trap the enemy target after it was stunned by the initiating tanky support.
You can also take
Lulu as your support but she is in my opinion not the best choice for Caitlyn.
Nunu is also a good support for
Caitlyn but only if you want to play aggressive (These supports are more for experienced players).
REMEMBER SOME GOOD SUPPORTS:
SUPPORTS FOR MORE ADVANCED PLAYERS:
Summary
hmmm... there is not much to say about this short
Caitlyn Guide, which should be really factual and informative.
REMEMBER:
Caitlyn OUTRANGES most Ad Carries on bot lane so try to harass your enemy a lot in early game. Try to do as much damage as possible in team fights and use your escape spells as well as
Flash properly and without taking any risks (if you know that you die, do not USE FLASH).
That is all I have to say to you guys about my favorite Ad Carry: OWN YOUR ENEMIES WITH CAITLYN: THE MOST ANNOYING AD CARRY
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