Kayle Build Guide by FalseoGod

Hello, and welcome to my Kayle guide! Within it, expect a lot of information about this champion, the options she gives you and a lot of alternatives so you may enjoy her and the league games you play her in.

About me: I'm FalseoGod, a EUW player, currently sitting at Gold elo. Kayle was one of the first champions I experimented with and played extensively, and I've accompanied her growth and changes from Season 2 up until now.

Hope you find this guide useful to improve your gameplay or simply getting an effective Kayle build!

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• AD: Attack Damage
• AoE: Area of effect (abilities that have a wide radius of impact)
• AP: Ability Power
• Carry: Champion who normally has the highest amount of raw damage per second (DPS). They are usually frail, so you should protect their precious damage, since they frequently define the course of teamfights
• CC: Crowd Control (abilities that stun/slow/silence, such as Terrify etc)
• Farming: The act of last-hitting minions so as to gain the gold they provide
• Gank: Act of getting one or more teammates to surprise attack your enemies from an unnexpected direction (you may be also ganked by enemy champions)
• Gap Closer: Term used to describe some champion's abilities that instantly dash them onto their target
• Jungler: Role where the Summoner goes through the bush area and beasts (creeps), whose position may be unknown to the enemy team. Among other things, he ganks, aids in lanes and gives buffs to laners/steals enemy buffs
• MR: Magic Resist

Pros: + Range modifier with Righteous Fury; + Combines good melee stats (such as HP) with Ranged qualities; + Strong early game, specially versus melees; + A breeze to farm with;

SPACE

SPACE

Cons - Range modifier cooldown can sometimes mess you up; - Pushes lanes very fast if you abuse Righteous Fury while susceptible to ganks; - Crowd Control can lock you down before you can cast a good Intervention; - Early game mana managing can be hard;

So as you read the guide, it must've occured to you "god, this guy wants me to decide if I want two different lane options or if I want to jungle. How am I supposed to do that?". If you did, here's a small list for each option so you know what you're going for:


A) Hybrid

• Hybrid Kayle is a build that bets on your early game a lot, emphasizing early damage. You will often hear that AD or AP Kayle are viable whereas this one is not, but they do different things;
  
• It uses Kayle's natural hybrid qualities (Q scaling, E's magical damage and shred with your auto-attacks) to deal damage. Season 3 items also improved this a bit with the Rageblade buff and other nice options);
  
• Due to item costs, this build can fall off around midgame in terms of overall damage. It catches thanks to survivability (because it's not so all-out) lategame;
  
• In all honesty, I know AD Kayle used to be a more "safe" choice for a competitive elo-seeking build. However, Season 3 changes have brought some great things to Hybrid Kayle;

B) AD

• Pure AD-Carry-like Kayle goes for your mid/lategame with A LOT of damage. It is quite squishy (unless you decide something directed towards bruiser; I cover this in itemization);
  
• This option uses Kayle's ability to hard kite (due to Q slow) so that you can still lane with safety. Q augmentation makes her hurt A LOT;
  
• Hard CC teams can destroy you fast;
  
• It is a good option if your jungler is tanky, someone like Skarner, Amumu, Malphite, or else your team may be too fragile unless you build tankier;

C) Jungle

• An option for those who enjoy the jungle and love ganking junglers. Kayle usually brings A LOT of damage to the lane. Her early ganks, if you manage to reach your opponent with Q, are brutal;
  
• It's a good option if you have good lane CC (specially the toplaner and the support), so that your team retains a good body;
  
• Jungle Kayle's clear times are great and she can fight back invasions;
  
• Her ultimate, Intervention, allows for tower dives at early levels, or even for baiting your enemies;

D) AP

• The "sleeper OP" as she's been called now and then, AP Kayle is going very strong currently;
  
• Her Q ratio makes this a great option, along with some hard AP, attack speed and survivability. She can dish a lot of damage, brings great utility to the game and snowballs really hard;
  
• Great pusher and ganker, great lane presence specially if you're given a crest of the ancient golem

Holy Fervor

Kayle's passive, it's shred is nice specially on the current damage-oriented meta; Allows to help cutting down the enemy offtank line;

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Reckoning

Really strong skill that increases the damage you deal to the target it hit. It scales really well with AP; Inbuilt slow allows you to chase or slow down a chaser; Can wear down your mana fast early game, so be careful;

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Divine Blessing

A heal with a movement speed boost. The healing scales with AP; Can help you run, chase, get into Reckoning range or simply sustain in lane; Also an expensive spell, use with caution;

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Righteous Fury

Your range modifier, applies Kayle's passive and a damage splash that scales with AP; It pushes the lane if you use it to farm indiscriminately. Decide whether or not this is what you desire; Allows you to kite melee opponents with the help of Reckoning; Hits invisible champs that are near the splash area. This means Teemo or Akali can still get hit by it, even if you can't see them;

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Intervention

Your ultimate, renders a target invincible for 2/2.5/3 seconds; Damaging Crowd Control abilities will not affect you during this state ( Pick A Card), whereas non-damaging Crowd Control can still hit you Terrify; It must be perfectly timed, pondered and used. It has a short cooldown, but there is no point using it on your Taric just as he initiated, or on a champ that left battle; save it for yourself or other carries; Great for early game tower diving, for baiting tower divers. Sometimes can help you survive DoTs such as Ignite or Torment; Sometimes can be hard to manually cast during a fight. Practice selfcast shortcut as well as smartcasting this on others;

Prioritizing your Q will give you a lot more damage, since raises it's own damage and the damage % you're increasing on your target.However, hard matchups/high sustain champions can make you run out of mana fast without great results. For these, you may consider leveling Righteous Fury so you can harass with auto-attacks or farm with greater ease under tower.

In the jungle, you may consider two early points in W, but once you get Wriggle's Lantern or another source of lifesteal/sustain your problems are solved.








The idea is to use your strong AD side while giving you some AP advantages, mainly the magic penetration. Fury and Sorcery are both mediocre, so feel free to choose between both, the difference is hardly noticeable (although Kayle scales well with both attack speed and CDR). The armor was inserted in case you're almost certain you lane versus an AD. If you're certain it's an AP, then change to MR. If in doubt, bet on armor, since it's usually more common toplane and covers some minion damage. You may put the leftover point on Tough Skin . As for the rest, you're getting early double penetration to let your damage sink in.






Similar to your daily AD Carry Masteries.




Uses the Defense Tree masteries that allow for reduced CC and a more defensive early game. Good if you're thinking about going through a bruiser-oriented item path.





A balanced investment in all the trees, giving you boosted buffs, betting on enduring the new jungle and still being able to dish some of your base damage.





Almost a standard AP set, except for the focus on double pen. Since Kayle usually follows up Reckoning with Righteous Fury auto-attacks, it benefits your strong early game even more.

Ignite A good option due to it's damage being augmented by Reckoning; Healing reduction is nice versus champions like Yorick when you're dueling to (his) death;

Teleport Should you desire early ganks or mid/lategame splitpushing. Kayle's clear is good for this purpose, and her ganks, if unnoticed, are deadly; Do not replace a mobility Summoner with this, Kayle needs ghost/flash to get around;

Flash A disengage/engage tool that can have 1000 uses; Use it to cross walls, flash to ult a colleague, flash to catch an enemy out of position with Reckoning, save your own butt, juke undertower, etc;

Ghost A decent engage/disengage tool, not quite as amazing as Flash in some situations, but great versus low CC teams or as a ganking spell; Space crossed over time is bigger that that with Flash, it simply isn't instantaneous;

Barrier A nice defensive spell, that, combined with your ult, can make you more durable than expected in a teamfight (regarded you're not cc'ed to death); You may also consider Heal should the enemy team have loads of AoE damage;

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Smite

Essential to your early jungle rounds and to securing/stealing buffs/objectives;

HYBRID CORE ITEMS

Items you should be getting 99% of your hybrid Kayle games; Guinsoo's Rageblade provides a really strong early game, besides upping Kayle's Q damage greatly; Wit's end is usually a must for Attack Speed, but you may consider Nashor's Tooth in case the enemy has no real good Magic Damage source; You may consider a Doran's Blade if you recalled early;

BOOTS

Merc's should be bought versus strong AP Champs with CC ( Elise comes to mind); Ninja tabi if you're losing versus a strong auto-attack melee (such as Fiora). Versus casters, Cloth Armor and/or Doran's Shield will "suffice"; Berserker's is a luxury, to be built only if you're raping and desire more damage; As for enchantments, I usually recommend Furor, although Alacrity works nice and Homeguard is a good option if you're getting pushed bad;

OTHER ITEMS

There are other options, but a combination of these usually works best; Decide between gauntlet or mallet. Usually, Warmog's will be core because of how stupid strong it is right now, so you might want to combine it with Gauntlet's armor + cdr + Sheen proc; For lifesteal, I usually recommend Blade of the Ruined King, although Hextech Gunblade and The Bloodthirster work nicely too; Do not forget your survivability items! (warmogs, guardian angel, mercurial scimitar, maw of malmortius, etc);

TYPICAL AD KAYLE ITEMS

More straightforward in terms of build, AD Kayle usually goes pretty much like an AD Carry; Squishy and goes down fast if focused, although the ultimate gives you 3 seconds of strong unhindered damage; You may sell the cleaver for a Guardian Angel, or perhaps replace another item with it; Boots will vary like they did with Hybrid Kayle; You may instead go AD Bruiser Kayle. I personally prefer this route, building stuff like Frozen Mallet, Wit's End, The Black Cleaver, Maw of Malmortius, etc;

TYPICAL JUNGLE KAYLE ITEMS

Like with AD Kayle, you may decide between full AD or bruiser-like; Hunter's Machete can be evolved into either Wriggle's Lantern or another item, depending on how well the game goes. If it goes really well, you may leave it at Madred's Razors; Consider a Warmog's Armor in case your top isn't very tanky and you've got some good money incoming; Boots will vary like they did with Hybrid Kayle or AD;

AP KAYLE CORE ITEMS

Consider starting with Crystalline Flask, and then move on to guise or Doran's Ring if something went terribad. Your Q should hurt like a rabid dog; Nashor's Tooth allies a lot of things AP Kayle enjoys (AP, CDR, AS). Malady is not really worth it versus this item since it requires a lot of AP to be effective, and for the AS you could get a Blade of the Ruined King or a Wit's End; Consider a Warmog's Armor after these two items, since your base damage is already great; For boots, prioritize Sorcerer's Shoes;

OTHER ITEMS

Typical AP Caster items; Lich Bane works well once you got some decent AP, hitting E after Q will hurt a truckload; Always build according to what sort of things you need (damage? survivability?);

Ok, so you can either go top or mid, if laning. Botlane is kinda messy and requires your range modifier a lot, and in serious games I can't recommend you go there at all.

• If against a melee, remember to deny them minion kills (cs) so they loose gold and experience. This can be relatively easy versus some champs (like Akali) while harder versus others (Fiora);
• Remember that Kayle isn't hard to gank if the jungler/enemy laner has hard CC or a gap closer. You have a single disengage and a movement speed boost, both of which kinda costy. If you wanna push, do it cautiously. However, since you push fast this means you can also get the lane to the tower and gank;
• Careful while managing your mana, you don't wanna waste it all and have to recall because of mismanagement;
• Remember that you can setup ganks nicely, specially post level 6: your slow is good enough for your jungler to catchup - or as a followup - and Intervention makes tower diving a less risky option;
• When you recall, consider your gold, situation (doing good? bad? ok?) and buy accordingly ( The Brutalizer/ Haunting Guise if doing good/normal, doran's if doing bad, etc);

Here I'm going to try helping you thinking about some of your opposition and how you can face them. First of all, I'm going to divide them by "gap closers" - characters who have a skill that'll make them jump onto you - and those who aren't. Currently, I have no mid lane matchups written (although I did play many mid kayle guides) because I'm a bit lazy. If you have any special request, do ask.

Gap Closers

These will usually be your hardest foes. Gap closers are typically melee champions with high early game damage. My recommendation versus these is playing safe, perhaps getting a Doran's Shield for added sustain, health and armour (which helps against them). If they use their gap closing ability, this actually gives you time to use Reckoning and kite with Righteous Fury, and harass afterwards while the ability is on cooldowns. Some gap closers include the famous Xin Zhao (also known as Win Nao), Fiora and Irelia. Not all of them are Uber good versus you, but be careful.

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Rengar

Rengar can't engage you unless: a) you are under brush range; b) He uses a full fury Bola Strike; c) He ults you. If you play safely enough, you can zone him hard and use Q to disengage normal bola strikes or hit him hard in case he snared you; He has good sustain, but this requires him to spam his spells and gives you some good harrass opportunities; I recommend going bruiser-ish, full-head damage will become dangerous to you once he gets his ulti due to his burst. Even with Intervention, it's risky; Always call ss, and always stay together when he ults (unless no one is close to dying and you're 100% sure he was running away;

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Shen

Very mediocre early game, but with good damage-soaking capabilities; You cannot stop his ultimate, which helps him snowball other lanes and splitpush. Teleport may help you restore some order/stay there when he splitpushes while still being able to teleport to your team; Get some early sustain and armor penetration, so you can help ruin part of his ability to stay in lane; Watch out for ganks, he sets up kills nicely with Shadow Dash;

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Garen

Kinda annoying due to passive and skill set (his Q can reset your slow, so you have to keep it); Harassing must be done frequently or he'll start recovering; Avoid checking random bushes or you'll suffer his combo of doom;

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Lee Sin

Extremely mobile; Uses energy; Dodge his Q or you're in for some pain; Smart Lee's (ohai N1ghtraider :D) will still use minions they hit a Q with to land a Tempest/Cripple; They may also use W on a minion (usually the one you're hitting) to try and Q you. He's overall abusively mobile and has HUGE early game damage, do not underestimate him;

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Nasus

Has a terrible early game; Can escape/setup ganks using Wither; Very easy for you to zone; Watch out for ganks, because you will push unless he's dumb and uses Spirit Fire; Try to prevent him from farming, or he'll become a monster;

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Mordekaiser

A great pusher as well, so the lane should freeze; Farm only with E unless he misses/wastes his own E; if he does, move in, Q and punish him for a bit; Try managing your ulti versus his; heal yourself, ulti, try surviving it; He has low mobility, so ganks are very effective;

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Darius]

Low mobility as well, not hard to gank, your ulti counters his if well-timed; Depends on harass a lot, and you can avoid that harass easily; If you learn to kite him correctly, he's easy;

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Cho'Gath

Strong sustain; Very hurtful combo; W yourself out of his Q; He can easily disengage from your Q with his own, so try playing passively or wait for him to waste that skill so you can zone him/move in;

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Rumble

Cooldown-based; No early game sustain; Decently mobile, great harass; Generaly easy to zone early on, reducing his entire game effectiveness; Build tanky, lest he commits to fights and you cannot win the matchup alone;

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Akali

Energy based; Bad early game; If she fields with minions around, hit them for free splash damage on her; If she hits you with Q, don't let her hit you with an auto-attack; Post level 6, if your denial wasn't strong enough, she will become very dangerous;

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Kennen

Energy based; Ranged, unlike most of your top opponents; Very mobile, but usually squishy; Will be a generally boring eventless lane, you sort of null each other. Dodge his harass, farm with E, and use ganks on him to your favor;

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Wukong

Can be extremely annoying; Not too hard to zone, specially if you have great reflexes to Q him after he gap closes; No early game sustain; Snowballs really hard if you underestimate him;

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Olaf

Has some decent sustain with Vicious Strikes; Dodging Undertow allows you to control how harass is managed; You can easily dish unpunishable damage; You should build tanky, or else he may get you by committing with his own ultimate;

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Riven

Doesn't use mana; Extremely mobile with inbuilt stun and knockup; Her combo deals TONS OF DAMAGE; Use your Q defensively, to counter her broken wings and get one or two hits in; Max E for damage and farming, Q will get you out of mana in no time; She snowballs like a panda, so if you give her the first kill prepare for a world of pain

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Yorick

Feared by many, but not too hard for you; Lives to poke, so if you dish some damage back he'll start considering his options; He pushes a lot, so you can farm with relative ease;

If you desire tips on other opponents (top or mid) just ask ;)







Start at red if:

• Your midlaner has decent CC to get at level 2: Mages such as Ryze, Swain, Veigar can get decently reliable CC at their level 2, so this means you can gank for a huge chunk of their HP OR their flash. Don't forget you may go mid again if they wasted flash. Try using the entrances on the river closest to the turret so the CC delay from your mage gives you time to use Reckoning and Righteous Fury;
  
• You're on purple team (the top right side of the map) and want to gank top early;
  
• You're on purple team and know the enemy jungle must get blue. This is risky, but many tanky junglers like Amumu and Alistar are almost blue buff dependant for their first jungle trip. This means that you may take your team to invade their jungle, take their Red buff, steal their big wraith and immediately gank top. Their top will most likely be at level 1 and will take a HUGE amount of damage from you, risking death;
  
• You're on blue team (bottom left side of the map) and want to gank botlane immediately, usually because your team's support has great CC ( Leona comes to mind) or enemy AD Carry isn't very mobile ( Varus, Kog'Maw)

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Start at blue if:

• All lanes are particularly safe and you believe you might stay in the jungle for a bit. Ask for a bigger leash if you do this, or consider starting Cloth Armor instead, althought it'll almost certainly set you behind - yes, you can use it for Ninja Tabi or Wriggle's Lantern, but Kayle needs those early ganks;
  
  
• You're on blue team (the bottom lef side of the map) and want to gank top early, by using the entrance closest to the enemy turret (the one leading to enemy golems);
  
• You're on purple team (top right side) and want to gank botlane early. This means your botlaners have few escapes, or that you want to give them a bit of a lead (it may set you behind though). Remember to use the entrance closest to their tower;

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Other considerations

• If you're not considering an early gank and you know the enemy jungler starts at a certain buff and is a ganking jungler, consider stealing a buff from them. If so, ask for a big leash so you do not require Smite. Examples of this is Lee Sin, who always gets red and will probably go for an immediate gank. Steal his blue if you find this a good option;
  
• If you're a confident jungler and know the other jungler's timing, remember that you can get their face with Kayle due to her strong level 2;
  
  
• As a jungler, you will be congratulated if you do good, but everything will be considered your fault if you don't. That's the current disposition of most players. Ignore, try doing your job the best you can;
  
• Do not feel obligated to gank if there's no real opportunity for it. Pushed lanes, no real cc, thoroughly warded lanes with people who play safe come to mind. Going there will waste you gold and experience;
  
• Try evening out ganked lanes if you're nearby;
  
• Get wards. Ward keypoints (loads of guides talking about this, if you can't find any request me and I'll put the tips here). If you're considering counterjungling a lot, it's even more important to ward;
  
• If you're going REALLY well, consider an Oracle's Elixir, but remember it's temporary now;

Well, that makes the guide. I'm open to suggestions and critique, be it in the form of how it is presented or other matters. I didn't include a section on warding because I thought this was already too extended.






Feel free to send me your results with Kayle! ^^






x7virus




JuniorMarchetti





Merenwen Séregon




LadyKazuki









Thank you to anyone who somehow contributed to this guide:

• All those who provided feedback and voted it, up or down;
• JhoiJhoi, Astrolia and anyone who somehow contributed to my current knowledge of Mobafire's BB Coding;
• All them graphics people, making me not become a lazy/scared bum and make my own credits;
• My team and LoL friends, who endure my occasional crybabying and tryharding;

25-03-2012:

- Added Kennen and Wukong to the list of lane oppositions;

- Updated the runes and masteries;

25-03-2012:

- Added Olaf to the list of lane oppositions

- Tweaked some details on the lane and mid phases to address Kayle's need for farm and how you must keep your game up

- Updated the Summoner Spells

12-04-2012

- Added Yorick and Riven to lane oppositions

20-04-2012

- Added small Hecarim Patch Update


24-06-2012

- Added Darius to lane opponents;
- Reworked some bb coding


02-08-2012

- Added some more info (items and stuff), reworked a bit of the bbcoding;


27/09/2012

- Huge information revamp, with the inclusions of AD and Jungle Kayle


28/09/2012

- Updates after a review by tehAsian (thank you!)


08/12/2012

- Season 3 updates;


22/01/2013

- Visual and content revamp;
- Added AP Kayle Sheet;
- Added Credits sections;


06/04/2013

- Edited some runes