The reason for i wrote this guide is beacause i genuinely think it does work, though it may not compare to "real" supports on a serious play level, still it works pretty well, and afterall i just find it very fun to play. I quite compare her to AP mages in the support role; especially something akin to playing Lux support, since it plays in a very similar way and has more or less the same pros and cons compared to other supports.

Essencially you're gonna be playing Lethality Caitlyn, but oriented more towards Ability Haste rather than lethality itself, taking advantage of Caitlyns powerful early game to ensure an easy lane phase for your ADC, while using the utility in your kit to help your team take down objectives together.

Final Note: Although most of this guide is pivoted around the support Caitlyn theme, some of the resources here are aplicable as well when playing in other roles, especially when going for lethality builds.

Pros: Strong early game and harass. Potentially strong mid and late game. Helps securing objetives. Actually does have peel. Zones enemy support out of the bushes. Another AD support option. Easy gank mid.

Cons: Easy to kill. Provides no healing or shield. Only provides light CC. Requires good aim to work. Falls behind if youre on the losing team. Sucsesptible to ganks/dives. Lacks aggressive initiation.

After further testing i have acquired quite a taste for Arcane Comet, it is very useful for harassing the enemies in lane phase and i've noticed in my games historial that it ends doing more damage overall than Dark Harvest. Piltover Peacemaker doesn't have slow per se, which may make it possible to be avoided, but i still generally like it.

I still think Dark Harvest is somewhat better in a broader sense, since it is already a good rune for lethality builds, but it is too late-game oriented, which as a support I dont particularly endorse. It is escentially good in the bot lane since you have a partner that can deal damage as well. Remember that you need to stack it as often as possible in order to make something useful of it by the late game.

Taste of Blood and Cheap Shot are somewhat interchangeable, depending on the matchup, Taste of Blood is good against agressive supports and useful to stay in line for longer, whilst Cheap Shot is my overall prefered choice, especially against passive/all-ins.

Ghost Poro over Eyeball Collection is mostly a personal choice, i personally preffer to stick to the support role and prioritize vision, wich in the end becomes also useful to Ace in the Hole.

Ultimate Hunter vs Treasure Hunter still have me a little undecided, in theory extra gold sounds more useful than plain ultimate haste, but as a support in the bot lane you might not gain all individual takedowns while gold difference is still relevant.

The Sorcery subtree can be replaced to Inspiration for Magical Footwear and either Biscuit Delivery or Future's Market, though i again recommend sticking to sorcery.

Manaflow Band provides just the right amount of mana needed for laning phase and a very good mana regen on late game, Also sinergies with Muramana. Scorch could be changed for either Transcendence or Gathering Storm if you prefer a stronger late game, though the damage that Scorch provides early game just sinergyses too well with the game style of support Caitlyn.

As for the lesser runes, replacing Abilty haste for extra Adaptative damage could be something debatable and up to personal choice. Armor could be replaced for Health or Magic Resist against aggressive suports like Zyra.

Flash and Exhaust would be your to go in almost every situation. Flash I would say is irreplaceable, but that may depend on the meta, wich could unexpectedly change in the future. Exhaust on its side provides extra utility that Caitlyn as a support may lack, particularly for saving your Carry from ganks in the early game, while staying useful in the late game against assassins that may see you or your carry as a weak targets.

Ignite would fall on to a very aggressive play style for me, so i really dont like playing it on the support role, perhaps reserving it for All-in supports like Leona. Also Ignite's cast range is considerably shorter than Caitlyn's usual range.

Barrier Can turn out helpful on some particular ocassions, but your Carry might find it selfish, as you would be lacking protection for them throughout the whole game.

Heal is also very useful, particularly if your Carry decides not to choose it. This is something that also may depend on the meta, as we have previously seen double Heal being played in a previous season.

In this guide i choose to go for Duskblade of Draktharr as my Mythic option, because it provides extra ability haste, which as a support comes in handy as a support for more Yordle Snap Traps and 90 Caliber Nets.

I've still to make further test on Youmuu's Ghostblade, but with the -not so- recent changes it's been gaining popularity among lethality Caitlyn players, at least in the midlane.

I've decided to no longer feature Manamune within this list, it has always been a expensive item to build as a support, and too much middle/late game oriented. But most importantly I dont find it necesary anymore (I've seen other guides recently opting to cut out Tear of the Goddess items). That may change in the future though so i left this paragraft in here.

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Core

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After your fisrt back your best purchase is Serrated Dirk, it'll provide enough damage to keeep harassing the enemy lane. Going for boots instead though may be a wiser decision if you're having a difficult time with the enemy support.

Before the next core item it is best to buy and upgrade the boots, though once again, boots order has always been linked to meta, and i would suggest to stick to the general rule on the current meta. Ionian Boots of Lucidity is my to go with this build, and i really wouldn't change them.

Do not forget to replace your Stealth Ward with Oracle Lens once your Spectral Sickle quest has been completed.

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Utility

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Umbral Glaive may not seem too useful at first glance since its main purpouse is to deny vision to the enemy team, but it has pretty decent stats and has a low price, which is what actually makes this item worth. You may not want to build this item if you run both Muramana and Duskblade of Draktharr. By buying Umbral Glaive you are free to get Farsight Alteration instead of Oracle Lens.

Chempunk Chainsword and Serpent's Fang are basically tech items, you buy the former if the enemy team has to much healing, either by healer supports or self heal skirmishers, or you either buy the later if they gain too much shields. Important note, even if your enemy team has one of those strenghts dont rush any of this items, you still want them to be either your fifth or sixth item.

Serylda's Grudge is quite expensive, but also very useful, though quite situational. Its slow really comes in hand agains melee enemies, i would consider it a priority (after come items) if the enemy team has more than three meele champions, especially if your teams lacks CC. Also very useful if you decided to play with Arcane Comet.

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Defensive

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Maw of Malmortius is your choice against AP enemies. There are two main reasons to buy it, either the enemy team does mostly AP damage, or your enemy team has an AP assasin or busrt Mage that can easily keep you out of the teamfights. Even if they're not targeting you specifically AP casters usually have constant AoE harass damage.

Guardian Angel is therefore your Armor option. Buy it if your enemy team has at least two AD threats for you, or one that is far ahead in economy. Those threats are Assassins and Divers, specially when they have too much mobility such as Zed.

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Aggressive

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There is not much to add in the agressive section. Both Axiom Arc and The Collector are pretty good items that synergyse well with the build, but fall behind on utility. I personally never buy them, but you might want to do so if you're literally carrying your team or your team either has already too much utility or lacks damage. Also if the enemy team has too much DPS carries it might be better to just provide extra burst damage.

Ravenous Hydra on lethality Caitlyn used to be a thing many seasons ago but i find it to expensive now, but it is still a good item nonetheless.

In this section i want to break down an otherwise long paragraph of ability descriptions and instructions, explaing with detail how to effectively use all of your skills to ensure an appropiate support experience.

For the Learning order i would always go for Q > W > E, leveling of course R at the proper levels.

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Headshot

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Caitlyn's passive Headshot is a very realiable source of damage, and the core of her whole kit. It does scale with Critical strike chance but that does not stop it for being useful on Lethality builds. As Caitlyn Support you may not get to charge it as fast as an otherwise farming ADC, but you on the other hand get to save it to poke the enemy champions since you dont have to keep farming.

In the late game, as a Lethality build, you wont also get to stack it too often, but that shouldnt be much of a concern to you since most of your damage will come from your abilities.

Tips: In the early game help your Adc farm by damaging the enemy minions until you charge your passive, you can do it from the bushes to charge it faster, although by doing so you reveal yourself, wich may not be worth sometimes.

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Q: Piltover Peacemaker

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Piltover Peacemaker, as a Lethality build will be your main source of damage. In the early game you want to pacify your enemy Carry as often as you can, but you should be careful in doing so as your mana would fall very limited on those early stages, especially if you decide not to run Manamune.

Missing your Q could be very punishing to you in the early game, not only because you're wasting mana while doing no damage, but you're also not getting your stacks of Spectral Sickle and Manaflow Band, and your stack of Tear of the Goddess if you bought it. You're also not procing neither Taste of Blood nor Scorch. So even though you want to use it as often as possible you should only use when you know you can hit one of the enemy champions.

You'll also most of the time want to avoid hitting the enemy minions in the laning phase since it reduce the damage it does to your desired target, and specifically do not accidentally steal CS from your Carry.

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W: Yordle Snap Trap

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As your main uitlity ability Yordle Snap Trap serves multiple purpouses that you may want to priorize depending on the situation. The first thing to note is that it enables a double damage Headshot on the enemies that step on them, so despite counting as no-damage actually does more damage that Piltover Peacemaker in the late game. Do not miss your Headshot on the rooted enemy unless you're running for your life or the risk of doing so can put yourself in danger.

The second thing i want to mention is that you really should not misspend your traps, specifically in the early game, and i've seen many caitlyn players do so. Do not place all your traps in the bushes hoping for your enemies to walk into them, you cant rely on your opponents being bad as your win condition.

I would like to divide this ability into three main functions. Agressively; by tossing it to your opponents feet, trying to predict their movement in order to hit them with your Headshot. Deffensively; By tossing one of them between you or your Carry and a charging enemy to block their path. And strategically; By placing them on key spots in order to deny space and paths to your opponents, especially on bushes.

Always keep in mind that Yordle Snap Traps have a 1 second delay once you place them to be ready to root enemies, and once they do they gain inmunity to further traps for 3 seconds. These are important timings you naturally want to master to use them properly. Also since the root has a duration of 1.5 seconds there is a way to trick all of this numbers, but its tricky, so i'll reserve it for the tricks section.

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E: 90 Caliber Net

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Few things to add on 90 Caliber Net, it is a defensive ability that helps you repostition yourself or escape difficult situations, something other supports may not have. It can also be used to help your carry escape from a dive, but its slow wont save them if they have already been dived.

Important note: Never use this ability to escape form an enemy skillshot, if you cast it straight from your enemy the disatance you move is not enough for ablitites like Dark Binding or Bone Skewer.

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R: Ace in the Hole

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Your ultimate Ace in the Hole should be a pretty straightfoward ability to use, you cast it on a low health enemy and if everything goes right you get a kill. In the late game, although being still more useful as a finisher, its relatively low cooldown may let you use it before a teamfight if you're too far away from it; this is especially useful if you builded enought utility items like Serylda's Grudge.

Champions with proyectile blocking such as Wind Wall are definitively a problem for your ultimate as well as enemies building Zhonya's Hourglass, but i would mind them too much, after all if they spend that resource for your ultimate they can be left vulnerable to an ally skillshot.

Little tip: Always do check your ultimate's damage in order to better predict wheter or not it will kill your target. Still in the early game would also be worth to shot a low health enemy even if you know they wont die in order to farm a stack of Dark Harvest.

In this section i was to encompass different strategies that only apply to certain sections of the game as well as general tricks that you can do to make the most out of your abilities.

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Early Game

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During the early game you want to be a harassing support, dealing damage to the enemy carry using your Autoatacks and your Headshot, hitting them with your Piltover Peacemaker whenever they are in a vulnerable position.

Keep yourself where you feel safe from the enemy duo intiating on you, while always mantaning a threatening positioning so you can get an easy Piltover Peacemaker shot on one of them.

The rule of thumb that i usually follow for Yordle Snap Trap in the early game is to keep one for each purpouse. Place one of them in the entrance of your opponent's closest bush to deny it, use another to try to root a misspositioned enemy, and always save one to stop an enemy charging at you or your carry.

Even though you can deal high ammounts of damage to the enemy champions during the lane phase it could be hard to your team to score a kill until you have your ultimate ability, so dont get greedy and focus in asuring a safe farming to your carry, while denying it to your opponent.

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Mid Game

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During the mid game, depending on the situation, you may get a considerable powerspike after your first item, meaning you can get profit by roaming to other lanes, while also putting down your wards. In the mid lane an Ace in the Hole gank can often be enough to ensure a kill.

Caitlyns high damage and Headshot provide your team an useful advantage while taking down objectives like turrets and dragons. Yordle Snap Trap is also a very strong zoning ability wich really helps your team to do so safely.

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Late Game

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During the late game you carry should already outdamage you with their farmed DPS, so staying together is usually more useful since you can peel enemies away form them with your Yordle Snap Trap and 90 Caliber Net, for wich you would by them have in a very low cooldown.

After level 13 your Headshot should start doing real damage and you should have no problem in deleting a misspositioned enemy, especially with your combos.

In the late game you always want to be positioned in the rear of your team, maybe moving foward enough to poke with your Piltover Peacemaker. You may have enough damage as an assassin, but you dont have their mobility so do not think of flanking your opponents as you would leave yourself vulnerable to the enemy team.

As a lethality build you dont want to focus your damage on the tanks untless there is no other enemy in your damage zone, still landing your CC to them is always useful. Most of the time you want to attack whoever enemy is threatening your carry.

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Combos

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Not exactly a great variety in combos when it comes to Caitlyn, but more of variations on the same combo, wich is enabled by the way Caitlyn's animations work. You can cast 90 Caliber Net inmediatly after casting Yordle Snap Trap, and if you cast Piltover Peacemaker right after 90 Caliber Net the former's cast starts while you're still dashing backwards.

The full combo is W > E > Q. Place a Yordle Snap Trap near your opponents feet, trying to predict their movement, cast 90 Caliber Net and then Piltover Peacemaker on them, and finish them with the two enabled Headshots. This combo does enough damage to kill a foe if they're not tanky enough, but it is risky as you only move in a straight line. Remember that after the cast you still have just enough time to reposition before the two autoatacks with Headshot.

Partial Combo W > E, should leave you more time to react and anyways you can have another opportunity to land your Piltover Peacemaker. E > Q, is also a faster version if you plan to run away from your enemy, thus allowing you to use your Yordle Snap Trap defensively.

Flash + Full Combo is exactly what it sounds like, but i want to note that it is something that should be practiced beforehand, otherwise you're risking failing the entire thing or misscalculte your abilities range.

Those combos are not easy to execute and sometimes hard to land properly, they're also extremely aggressive, especially if you used 90 Caliber Net, so dont force them into situations that dont require you to do so, particularly in the early game.

Now, as i teased in the ability description, there is a way to (almost) perma CC an enemy with multiple Yordle Snap Traps. Once an enemy step on a trap wait for the CC bar to wind up half the way and then place another trap on their feet. They should be rooted again after a very brief delay, but if you do it too fast they'll actually take longer to get rooted.

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Trap Positioning

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In the mid/late game you can have up to 4/5 available trap and relatively low re-stack cooldown, meaning you can place all of them around objectives and get another ready when you need it. This is very useful when your team is going for a dragon, baron or an enemy structure, closing roads for your enemies entrance.

In the next image i made some example of trap placement around dragon and baron as well as inner and outer turrets, which alongside wards can easily secure an objective for your team. Traps are set in a blue team perspective, but if you're on the red team you can pretty much flip the image.

On the final notes i want to add more information on how Caitlyn support perfoms on different matchups depending in both the enemy team and your lane partner, as well as some tricks you can use to survive or take advantage of your oponents.

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Synergies

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Caitlyn support, as many other harassing supports, works better with champions who can also damage the opponents from afar and do not require you to make a strong CC chain on them to combo them to death. It is also useful if your carry provides extra CC in abilities like Flame Chompers! or Deadly Flourish.

You'll often also find yourself in a situation when a low health enemy just walks away to their turret, in those cases is good to have a carry with an extended range ability like Trueshot Barrage.

Playing with an AP character as your carry could also be theoreticaly good since you would be still having both physical and magical damage, but that depends if there are good AP champions that can play in the botlane in the meta. Still bear in mind that most AP champions are not DPS, and even when you end up winning lane your team has to compensate for that DPS somehow.

Avoid playing alongside characters who are short ranged and/or rely on dashing to the enemy team to make their plays like Vayne, you'll have no means to follow their game or enable it, and you'll also have no means to put them back to safety.

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Threats

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Against similar supports like Brand i would say both of you should be even in chances. In those scenarios you can focus on either the enemy support or carry, keeping always your safety as a priority. This matches are but a battle of who pokes better. I wouldn't doubt buying a pair of potions on the firsts backs.

Against passive enchanters like Soraka you should have an easy task, poke the enemy duo out of their lane. You will have a hard time trying to score a kill though, and maybe youll receive extra visits from their jungler. In those matchups i would always buy Tear of the Goddess as fast as i can.

All-ins could be a real problem for you even if you're good at dodging skillshots, one Rocket Grab and there is no Flash that could save you. In this matches keep distance from your enemies and always be ready for your enemies intentions. I would prioritize damaging the enemy support rather than the carry to make them less of a threat.

Patch 13.15:
-Updated
-Edited the recommended items and the Items Chapter
-Added some Treats and Synergies
-Rephrased some parts of the guide
-Added Changelog

Patch 13.16:
-Added Arcane comet as keyrune
-Manamune no longer featured
-Serylda's Grudge moved to Utility Section
-Updated some parts of the guide accordingly