Kayle Build Guide by TheRefuGs

Introduction

SPACESPACESPACESPACE"In the League of Legends, justice comes on swift wings."

Welcome!

Hey everyone, it's Chris from TheRefuGs here with a new guide! This is a competitive AD solo top guide for a Carry Kayle. If your AD carry is doing well enough you can build into more of a support for late game. Kayle is a very underestimated champion, especially in solo top. If you decide to play Kayle in ranked soloque be prepared to be abused, do not worry though, you will show them wrong! If you learn to play Kayle and pick her against the right solo top you can easily dominate your lane.

Enjoy!

Pros / Cons

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Pros + Easy to shut down most melee champions + Invincibility + Doesn't need much help from Jungler + Heal + speed buff + Ranged splash damage attacks

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Cons - Squishy (without runes/GA) - Heavily underestimated (use this to your advantage!) - Can get shut down by certain champions - Needs strong farm to keep up - Usually gets targeted first

Masteries

I recommend and personally use these masteries. They give a good damage bonus while also giving you key armor that stacks really well with flat armor runes.

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Runes

• Greater mark of desolation: These are perfect for shredding through armor, everyone gets a bit of it sooner or later.
• Greater Seal of Armor: Flat armor seals are commonly used, and for good reason!
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These are great for vsing AP champions at top and for lowering the damage on your opponents abilities.

Quintessences

For Quintessences there are a two options.
Greater Quintessence of Desolation: These are good for adding to your Armor Pen Marks, good for taking down tanky top champions.
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: These are good for going into more of an AD Carry build and dishing out extra damage early on, choosing between these two comes down to personal preference. I take Greater Quintessence of Desolation personally.

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Summoner Spells

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Skill Explanation

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Skill Sequence

Open with your E Righteous Fury, it gives you a ranged Tiamat effect straight up which is very useful. Opening with your Q Reckoning is pretty pointless because for it to be effective it must be used with your E. I don't know why you would want to open with your W Divine Blessing unless you are playing support... Which you aren't.
You can either max your Q or E first. Both have their pros and cons. Reckoning gives high burst damage and harass towards your solo top opponent while Righteous Fury gives AOE (and bonus) damage which can be useful for getting CS (creep score). I usually go with my Q because I usually play pretty aggressive at solo top and try to completely shut down my lane opponent and deny them of CS. If you went with maxing your E first, depending on your opponent, you could get shut out of the lane and denied of CS (the very point of maxing your E first).
Level your ult whenever you can, open with E, max Q or E then max the other. Finish off by leveling Divine Blessing to level 5.

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Using Kayle's Ultimate Intervention

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Teamfights

Don't be afraid to use Kayle's ultimate early, if you use it on your AD Carry just before they die they will last a few seconds then get finished off. If they are getting aimed at the start and you make them invincible, the enemy team will be forced to change who they are focusing.

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1v1

When 1v1ing, you want to make them think that they can win so that they stay and fight rather than running. You do this by holding off with your ultimate Intervention and Ignite (if you take it). When you both get down to about one quarter of health left, pop Intervention, Ignite and your Q Reckoning. If they try to run now it doesn't matter, they're done. When doing this make sure you don't leave it too late, if you do this right before you die, you will probably get killed by some sort of DOT.

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Turret Diving

Turret diving is pretty much the same story, use it early rather than later. You will save the tanker the same amount of health as you would right before they die except they could get killed by ignite or some other source of damage over time if you leave it too late.

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Items

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Opening Gear

After waiting 10 minutes, your toaster loads and the game begins. Buy normal boots and 3 health potions . You have 20 gold left, wait for minions to spawn or defend jungle and recall when they spawn. Wait until you have 35 gold for a fourth health potion, opening with boots will help you catch up to your minions.

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Early Game

Try to maintain 3 health potions and a Sight Ward during lane phase. After your first trip, buy a Doran's Blade and a Vampiric Scepter

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Boots

Now, there's three different options depending on the situation.
Mercury's Treads (recommended):
These are the default boots that you should use unless the following circumstances occur. Take these especially if your opponent at solo top is an AP such as Kennen.
Berserker's Greaves:
If you're dominating your lane and want that extra advantage. DO NOT buy these boots if their AD Carry or an AP mid character is fed.
Ninja Tabi:
These are an option if their AD carry is getting fed or if their team is very AD heavy in general.

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Core Items

Infinity Edge:
Get this first for an increase in damage output.
Phantom Dancer:
Feeling a bit sluggish? Phantom Dancers are the second item to buy. The movement speed is also useful for chasing/escaping.
Bloodthirster:
Get a Bloodthirster for sustain and extra damage.

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Situational Items

Situation One (recommended):

This is my usual build as Kayle, it focuses on sustain and defense. An extra Bloodthirster will give you a great boost to your sustain while giving you even more damage. The Guardian Angel is a very nice item to take as Kayle, the balance of armor and magic resist definitely helps out late game. The instant revive on death is also quite nice.

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Situation Two:

Your AD Carry is doing well and although you're helping out you don't need to completely build AD. This is where you start building into more of a supportive Kayle to help your AD Carry dish out more damage while still being an active, damage dealing member of your team. Why take The Black Cleaver rather than a Last Whisper? The point of this situational build is to help out your AD Carry and possibly other members of your team. I would just like to say (because it is overlooked/unnoticed by so many players), the Last Whisper gives you a great armor pen for 1v1ing. The Black Cleaver however, reduces your target's armor rather than giving you armor pen. What does this mean? It means that your whole team get's to hit harder as well, if your AD Carry has a Last Whisper and you have a The Black Cleaver you will tear through armor like no tomorrow, ok? The Frozen Mallet gives you health and some other bonuses which are useful to you but it is usually built for it's unique passive. On EVERY basic attack, you slow your target's movement speed by 40%... What more do you need to hear?

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Situation Three:

I don't usually go with this but I thought I should bring it up because some people do prefer it. With Guinsoo's Rageblade and Wit's End (which should be built early rather than later if you do go with this build) will give you an extremely strong midgame if you build them in time. The Wit's End is good for stomping any AP at solo top too, try it out sometime. Although you will be smashing during midgame, the problem with On-Hit Kayle and items such as Guinsoo's Rageblade is that you will fall behind during lategame. If your team is wildly in front it won't really matter if you stay with the pack but if it's a fairly even match, you will notice that you start falling behind. At this point you could sell your Guinsoo's Rageblade and Wit's End but that would put you even further behind and it is not recommended. Feel free to try this one out though :)

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Finished?

I just want to put this out there because many people either forget or don't know about this. After you complete your build and have 6 items you can still buy Elixirs, when you buy them they automatically activate. After maxing your build you wont need your gold for anything else, so use it!

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Counterpicking

A big part of successfully playing solo top is counterpicking. Counterpicking is pretty straight forward, after you see what the enemy team chooses as solo top (note: has to be in ranked/draft game) you choose a champion that can easily beat theirs. Just keep in mind that sometimes you cannot counterpick the other team and sometimes you may have to choose first.

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Kayle is very strong against melee AD champions that cannot easily close gaps. This includes champions such as Tryndamere and Volibear. Melee AD champions that can easily close gaps such as Shen, Leona and Irelia are quite strong against Kayle. Kayle also has trouble laning solo top against damage heavy ranged champions such as Twitch.

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Ganks

When You Get Ganked

If you are up further than the brush in the river: Run into the bush closest to their turret but stand right at the end closer to your turret. Wait for the jungler to run towards that bush and as soon as they are entering, use Flash to jump to the next bush, pop your W Divine Blessing and run back to your turret. If they are very CC heavy, do not be afraid to use your ultimate Intervention to stop some of the damage.
If you are behind the brush in the river:If you are behind the brush in the river, you probably wont get ganked but if you do, pop your W Divine Blessing and run back to your turret. Don't be afraid to use Flash to get under your turret, they will most probably back off if you get under it.

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When You Get A Gank

When you get a gank, it really depends on what champion your jungler is playing. If your jungler is someone like Warwick, let them initiate with their ultimate. If your jungler initiates the gank with a stun or a suppress, make sure that you use your Q Reckoning when the stun/suppress ends, NOT during. If you use your Q Reckoning as soon as your victim gets stunned, they will only be slowed for around one second depending on the stun used. If you use your Q Reckoning after the stun, you will slow them for a much longer time. (You can use your Q straight away if you have a Frozen Mallet)

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Farming/Laning

Early Game

When farming in Early Game, do not use your E Righteous Fury. Let the minions fight each other, when one of their minions is about to die, get the final hit. It is important that you do this rather than just right clicking minions.

• You will get way more CS, you miss less.
• You wont get ganked because you aren't pushing your lane.

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Mid Game

It's mid game, you start roaming and there are a few fights at mid. It is very important that you don't completely abandon top lane. After working so hard to push down their turret, is it really worth leaving to join a fight at mid? If their entire team is at mid you can go but make sure that if someone starts heading to top lane you go to defend it. Watch everyone's CS, make sure that you are staying around the middle or ahead with it. If you start falling behind, go back to top or maybe bot and farm minions. I don't recommend using your E Righteous Fury during mid game unless it is level 5. Also, if you do notice that their whole team is in one area, take a turret. You will either take pressure off mid or take a turret, both good outcomes.

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Late Game

During late game you won't really need to farm much unless you are behind (which you shouldn't be). Instead of farming, stay with your team. If there are minions in your base, or your inhibitors are getting attacked you should be constantly defending. If you manage to score an ace while defending, get your whole team to push mid. Even if you take an inhibitor like this, it will help you defend and possibly help you get a victory. If the table is turned and you are the ones pushing into the enemy base, continue pushing mid. When you are pushing during late game or farming a lane, you can use Righteous Fury to shred through minion waves. Their whole team will probably mass at their mid turret to defend. When this happens, get one person (could be you) to try to sneak down top/bot turret. When you start taking top/bot turret, they will weaken their defense at mid to defend the other turret.

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Harassing and Fighting Solo Top

Harassing and Fighting Solo Top

How you harass and how much you harass usually depends on the champion you are up against. If you are versing an easy opponent you will be harassing a lot, if you are up against a stronger opponent you will focus more on getting CS, getting ganks and surviving.

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Easy Opponent

If you have chosen Kayle as a counterpick to a champion and you know that you can beat them you should be very aggressive in your lane. (If you are winning your lane and are constantly pushing you will need to be very aware of ganks, always have a Sight Ward). Just farm like usual but don't just watch enemy minions, also watch your own. Just as one is getting low and your opponent will be going for a last hit, start harassing. ALWAYS harass with both Reckoning and Righteous Fury, not just Righteous Fury. When you start harassing them, chase them all the way to their turret or until your E runs out. If your opponent starts charging towards you ( Tryndamere spinning at you or vollibear charging towards you), pop your Q Reckoning and start running away, if the slow isn't enough you can use Divine Blessing to stay ahead. As soon as they turn their back to you and start to run away because they realize they cant reach you, activate your E Righteous Fury and start hitting them as they run. When your Q cools down, pop that and chase them to their turret. Doing this will almost always result in you winning the trade-off.

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Tough Opponent

When you are versing a stronger champion, you should be very careful in your lane but never too careful. This does not mean that you sit at your turret and get no exp/CS. Kayle can have trouble with campions like Shen and Irelia. Kayle's advantage over melee champions that cannot easily close gaps is that she can slow them and win trade-offs easily as explained above. When versing champions that can blink to you, you focus more on CS rather than harassing. You may want to use your E Righteous Fury to kill minions from a distance as a last resort (if every time you go near the minions you get harassed). If you try to harass your enemy back to their turret, if they think they can win they will probably jump to you and push you back to your turret. The good part about being pushed to your turret is that you can get help from your jungler. If your lane is constantly being pushed, make sure that your jungler comes up to gank a lot. If your jungler is ganking constantly and letting you take the kills (even assists will help), you will eventually pull ahead of your opponent and start winning the lane no matter who they are playing.

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To-Do List

Summary

Thanks for reading, comment if you want to see anything added or have suggestions/feedback. :3

-notes
If you do try this build, feel free to send in content or leave a comment.
Thanks to jhoijhoi for the guide on writing a guide :)