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Kai'Sa Build Guide by DoublefeedOP

ADC [11.12] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Kai'sa Guide!

ADC [11.12] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Kai'sa Guide!

Updated on June 22, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author DoublefeedOP Build Guide By DoublefeedOP 155 6 183,721 Views 2 Comments
155 6 183,721 Views 2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author DoublefeedOP Kai'Sa Build Guide By DoublefeedOP Updated on June 22, 2021
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Runes: Standard

1 2
Domination
Hail of Blades
Taste of Blood
Zombie Ward
Ravenous Hunter

Precision
Presence of Mind
Legend: Bloodline
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3 4
Flash Heal (Standard)
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

Champion Build Guide

[11.12] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Kai'sa Guide!

By DoublefeedOP







Hello! Welcome to my Kai'Sa guide where we go over everything you're going to need to be successful on Kai'Sa! I've played my fair share of games this season seeing as she's been in a very powerful state since the start so I feel like I, as a Grandmaster player, have the knowledge required to publish such guide and teach the masses how to better their gameplay. ^^

In this guide, I will be covering why you should play Kai'Sa, in what situations you should play her, how to play her, and even some tips and tricks that you can take to your future games that don't even include Kai'Sa! (Warding, Objectives, ETC.)

This guide was weeks in the making and I'm proud of all of the countless hours of hard work we've put into making this guide the best Kai'Sa guide for season 11 so please leave a comment and a thumbs up to show support if you liked this guide. All feedback will help me with future guides and updating this guide as we move along!


Special Thanks to Sleepininthegarden who designed the guide as well as proofread it.




PROOF OF BEING GRANDMASTER ADC MAIN



PROS
- Scales well in all stages of the game
- One of the most versatile kits in any ADC at the moment
- Has high base scaling on abilities which make her pack a punch even when behind

Kai'Sa has a multitude of benefits, the strongest being her ability to close in on one target with your Icathian Rain. The beauty of this champion is the fact that not only is she a traditional AD carry, but she can also be used as an assassin if you need to burst out targets and a tank buster in one kit. When playing Kai'Sa, make sure that you realize that you don't have to force fights because you scale very well into the mid-game once you get your mythic and core item rolling.
CONS
- Icathian Rain can do minimal damage if aimed at a minion wave.
- Kai'Sa lack utility, opting for raw damage instead.
- A_Bodacious_Peach hasn't drawn a Kai'Sa frog yet, so we all suffer as a result.

Kai'Sa is tricky because a lot of things are going on in her kit at once. It could be hard to grasp but once you get the hand of it you can easily stomp games given her overpowered nature at the moment. When playing Kai'Sa, make sure you time your all-ins off of your ability cooldowns because if you can't proc your passive, Second Skin, you'll have a lot of trouble finishing a target before they finish you.




Hail of Blades
We go Hail of Blades here because of Second Skin. Simply put, most of Kai'Sa's damage revolves around her ability to proc her Second Skin and having 3 quick auto bursts allows her to not only become an unstoppable carry but also an assassin. There's no other keystone ATM that is viable on her because of this. Always go Hail of Blades.
Presence of Mind
Presence of Mind allows us to take full advantage of our low cooldowns early game and help us sustain since we aren't going Manamune in this build. You'll notice that while Kai'Sa's abilities don't use up much mana, the fact that their cooldowns are pretty low later into the game and at the start makes it so that it is heavily recommended to go Presence of Mind.
Taste of Blood
Taste of Blood serves as our sustain early game - giving us that bit of sustain that'll carry us in trades and later on, in sustaining after fights. While its heal is pretty low, it adds up very quickly if you check after a game, you'll see that the healing is pretty OP. The other viable pick would be Sudden Impact, but you'd lose that vital healing for some extra damage which Kai'Sa doesn't really need.
Legend: Bloodline
We take Legend: Bloodline because, if you saw my take on Taste of Blood to the left of the screen, you saw that Kai'Sa already has high base scaling on abilities so taking extra lethality or damage in general isn't really necessary. Now, going Legend: Alacrity is an option, but seeing as you already have Hail of Blades you should have enough attack speed in your kit so Legend: Bloodline 99% of the time will be a more efficient rune.
Zombie Ward
Make sure that you know what this does, because Zombie Ward is really good when you actually take down wards, but if you're not actively looking for these and playing with your support to grab wards, this will be useless. I'd recommend only taking this if you're Platinum + because it's pretty hard to synergize with your support on low elo. If you're low elo, it may be better to take Eyeball Collection instead since you don't have to do anything but farm enemy champions.
Offensive:
10% Attack Speed
Flex:
9 Adaptive Force
Defensive:
6 Armor
Ravenous Hunter
Last but not least, repeated multiple times during this runes section, Ravenous Hunter offers even more lifesteal on top of our Taste of Blood sustain and Legend: Bloodline. You don't really need any of the other ones since our ultimate is on a pretty low cooldown and we don't need out of combat movement speed since we have our Supercharge and Killer Instinct giving us plenty of it.



Flash
Flash is pretty self explanatory... You take this to reposition yourself, may it be offensively or defensively, always take this. I'd say be careful with using Flash care free because this ability has a 5 minute cooldown and will be mostly used to secure kills/ run from potential ganks/ when you cut it close
Heal
We're probably going to be taking Heal 90% of our games because of the extra movement speed + burst heal that it provides us. I can't express more the importance of having a heal that also gives you a 30% burst in movement speed, so if you don't need any of the other summoner spells, go Heal.

Cleanse
We go Cleanse whenever you see heavy CC on the enemy team such as whenever you're up against a Leona. We won't be going this summoner spell often as it doesn't offer anything but the ability to Cleanse or remove one ability of CC from you. Remember that Leona can still stun you with her other abilities after you Cleanse so keep that in mind before you go cleanse her Shield of Daybreak and get hit with a Solar Flare right after.
Exhaust
Exhaust is the more aggressive approach to a secondary summoner spell, and I'll usually take this if I'm up against something like a Tristana Leona where I'm confident I can dodge their abilities and 1v1 the Tristana with my Exhaust. Make sure that you can calculate exactly how much damage you need to before all-inning because this summoner spell doesn't give you the ability to back-pedal like Heal does.

Barrier
You'll take this secondary summoner spell the least of the bunch. We're only going to be taking this when we're paired up with a Yuumi or any other enchantress that is going Heal to better utilize the summoner spell because they have Revitalize. Keep in mind that ATM enchantress champions aren't the meta so you won't be seeing this often.





1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Q
W
E
Q
Q
R
Q
E
Q
E
R
E
E
W
W
R
W
W





Kai'Sa's basic attacks deal 4-10 (at levels 1-16) (+ 1-5 (at levels 1-17) per Plasma stack) (+ 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% of ability power (based on Plasma stacks)) bonus magic damage.

Caustic Wounds: Kai'Sa's basic attacks, Void Seeker and nearby allies' immobilizing effects mark enemies with Plasma for 4 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. At 4 Plasma, Kai'Sa's next attack ruptures the target, dealing 15% (+ 2.5% per 100 AP) of target's missing health as bonus magic damage, capped at 400 against monsters.

Living Weapon: When reaching a certain amount of stat from items and base stats, Kai'Sa can evolve the related basic ability. This has a channel time of 2 seconds, and the upgrade is canceled if the said amount of stat isn't reached anymore.
To fully utilize Second Skin, we're taking Hail of Blades. The idea is that with the burst of attack speed and your Void Seeker, you can instantly proc this passive to deal burst damage on-top of whatever DPS you did before it. If you can't land your Void Seeker, you can do the Killer Instinct auto cancel if you see my combos section.




Kai'Sa releases a swarm of 6 missiles that evenly distributes among nearby enemies, each dealing 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) (+25% of ability power) physical damage. Minions below 35% health take double damage. Non-minions take 25% damage from missiles beyond their first.

Living Weapon: Requires 100-72 bonus attack damage to upgrade (depending on level) - Icathian Rain fires 12 missiles.
We're going to want to use our Icathian Rain on isolated targets, kind of like how Kha'Zix uses his Taste Their Fear. You can also use this as a poke in lane whenever your opponent is going for a cs, you can sneak in a few autos and a Icathian Rain.




Kai'Sa fires a Void blast in the target direction, stopping at the first enemy hit, dealing 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+1.3 per attack damage) (+70% of ability power) magic damage, revealing for several seconds and applying 2 Plasma.

Living Weapon: Requires 100 ability power to upgrade - Void Seeker applies 3 Plasma and refunds 70% of cooldown against enemy champions.
This is great for proccing your Second Skin and you'll wnat to buffer this before preferably because it takes a while to cast. You can use this ability during your Killer Instinct (see the combos section) and do quicker all-ins.


Kai'Sa charges for 1.2-0.6 seconds (based on bonus attack speed), during which she gains 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75% bonus movement speed, increased by 0-100% (based on bonus attack speed).

After charging up, Kai'Sa gains 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% bonus attack speed for 4 seconds. Kai'Sa's basic attacks reduce Supercharger's cooldown by 0.5 seconds.

Living Weapon: Requires 100% bonus attack speed to upgrade - Supercharger grants invisibility while charging.
With Supercharge, you can go invisible after upgrade and cheese kills giving you extra time to escape or get into a better position for a fight. We're not really going to be using this in between our combos unless we have to and keep in mind that every auto attack is going to reduce the cooldown on this ability so if you fit enough auto attacks, you can use this again (sort of like how Vayne spams her Tumble.)




Kai'Sa dashes to a target location near an enemy champion with Plasma and shields herself for 75 / 100 / 125 (+1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 per attack damage) (+75% of ability power) for 2 seconds.
This ability is what makes Kai'Sa the menace that she is. Not only does she output a million damage a second but she also can protect and reposition herself toward an enemy champion. Whenever we use this ability to engage, always buffer your Void Seeker to have your burst set-up and one shot the enemy. Don't be afraid to go in, because if anything later in the game, you can just go invisible anyway.

As with a majority of champions, put points into your ultimate whenever possible, at levels 6, 11, and 16.





The general rule of thumb is that every game will be different so you won't always go for the same build path. In the section below, you'll find the build paths for different situations. Remember that there are times that you can't afford your items and that's okay.



Standard - Doran's Blade
The standard ADC start is Doran's Blade, one Health Potion and a Stealth Ward.



Standard - Noonquiver
If you can get 1300 gold, this is your optimal buy. This item has great gold efficiency and offers you the waveclear/all-in potential early game perfect for pushing leads and creating ones as well.

Behind - Pickaxe
We're going to want to go pickaxe here if we can't afford noonquiver. The idea is that we're building into our mythic item but also prioritizing damage items as well.




Anti-Tank
Mobility
Simply put, Kraken Slayer offers the most DPS out of any other crit mythic item. If we wanted to go into an ultimate teamfighting, tank-shredding build this would be the way to go. The ridiculous DPS output that this offers is unmatched, however, as you will see in my Galeforce section, DPS isn't the only thing we have to think about when picking our mythic item for the game. Galeforce is our other alternative which excels in burst trades. Whilst Kraken Slayer is geared toward getting a second item Phantom Dancer and gunning down tanks front-back in teamfights, Galeforce is geared toward bursting down enemy champions and safely getting out of the fray or dodging vital skillshots which your Kraken Slayer wouldn't allow you to do.




Attack Speed
Burst Damage
Amp Crit
We're 99% of the time always going Berserker's Greaves. No debate here. Finish this after your mythic item. The Collector is the most common 2nd item for Kai'Sa. The reason people go this is because it allows us to execute our targets fairly easily. Now, as you will see in the rest of my situational items section, The Collector isn't the only item you should be considering as a second item so be sure to be on the lookout but it's a solid burst item. This item is 90% of the time our optimal 4th item, given the fact that we're going to be going Runaan's Hurricane with this build, it offers you a ton of extra damage once you have the sufficient crit to activate it but the only time you wouldn't go this 4th item is when you're up against fed tanks which would mean that Lord Dominik's Regards takes priority over this item.




Life Steal
Anti-Armor
Reduce Cooldowns
Build this as your last item, if you feel as if you'd like some extra damage and a hefty shield and you don't really need any of the other situational items. The point of this item is offering a high AD stat whilst giving you some defensive stats which most of the time is what you're gunning for with a last item. This is a solid item, even a candidate for second item. You'll take this second item whenever we're up against a ton of tanks and the enemy ADC has opted for Plated Steelcaps. Other than that, in a normal game, you can take this either last item or 2nd to last item whenever there a few tanks on the enemy team. This isn't really meta ATM because of its high cost and low gold efficiency but it's a fun item to play around with if you can get a ton of auto attacks off and spam your abiltiies. Don't regularly take this but if you're looking for something a bit out of the box, this item should facilitate your needs.
Anti-Healing
Slows Enemies
Attack Speed
We build this whenever they have a source that provides plentiful healing such as a Yuumi or a champion which self-heals well like an Aatrox. Don't be scared to finish this 3rd item because it's a pretty solid finished item. We're going this item as a potential 2nd item candidate. The only time we're going to be building this is whenever the enemy team is majority AD based and we're up against an ADC like Yasuo and we need to kite them out. Other than that, The Collector is typically a better choice as a second item. I really like taking this item whenever I want to be an utter beast in teamfights. Take this whenever you're in a more organized, front to back teamfight style where we want to be consistent and auto attack the front line first. If you're going Kraken Slayer, Phantom Dancer is a solid second item choice as a result.
AoE Attacks
Magic On-Hit
Anti-Shielding
Most of the time this will be our third item choice. This provides us with our E upgrade (Invisibility) and will cement us with a solid teamfighting structure. Don't play around with this too much and 90% of games you will be going Runaan's Hurricane 3rd item. Nashor's Tooth is our staple item for hybrid Kai'Sa. This provides us with 100 AP which is exactly enough to provide Kai'Sa with her W upgrade. If we're going to end up going hybrid Kai'Sa, take this. Just keep in mind, AD Kai'Sa is considerably better. This is a rare item, only being taken in a small size of games. We'll be wanting to go this 3/4th item only if you're in a situation where a majority of the enemy team relies on shields such as a funnel composition which relies on multiple shields on a single champion like a Master Yi Lulu Karma Taric.




Guardian Angel
Revive
We're going to want to take this item last whenever you feel as if you're being taken down quickly such as an Evelynn taking you out but your team being able to respond to your revive.

Maw of Malmortius
Survive Magic Burst
We're not going to be taking this item often but we are going to consider it whenever we're up against a composition that is all AP (Ability Power) based. Other than that, don't consider this item viable.

Plated Steelcaps
Anti-Physical
We're only going to be taking this in the rare event that the enemy team is full AD (Attack Damage) and we would be directly countering every champion by building this item.

Mercurial Scimitar
Remove Disables
Build this item whenever you have something that you can't reliably dodge well such as Annie's Summon: Tibbers. Use this the moment that you get hit by the stun, remove it, and proceed with your carnage.

Zhonya's Hourglass
Survive AD Burst
This item only offers us 65 ability power which isn't enough for us to get our W upgrade which is (100 ability power) so don't build this item unless you're planning to get into hybrid Kai'Sa. The reason that we go this is similar to why we would go Guardian Angel in the sense that it buys us time after we've gone in or been caught out to reposition ourselves and win a fight which would've been impossible otherwise.
PRE-Laning Phase
Keep in mind that this is for BOTTOM lane. Now let's begin.

Kai'Sa is a champion that is very versatile in nature. There are many ways to go about playing Kai'Sa but I personally prefer starting Doran's Blade in a majority of matchups. During the start, you're going to want to go ahead and 5 point / leash your jungler. In high elo, it's preferable that you just go to lane and the jungler does a leashless clear but it's fine if not. If he doesn't want a leash then you have a few options...
1. Go walk up to the minion wave before it crashes and make them all attack you. Then hide in the bush and watch them kill the first minion on your side. This secures level 2 because they lose a minions worth of xp but be careful if they cheese you because most high elo bot lanes will know about this strategy
2. Cheese them in a bush
3. Try to secure vision and steal pressure by pressuring their bot lane during leash. Only done if you can overwhelmingly beat the enemy AKA if you're against something like a Senna Sona. This usually doesn't work though.
FAQ
What is the best combo for Kai'Sa? - The best combo for trading is Void Seeker - Icathian Rain - Auto attack - Supercharge.
Why are you still playing ADC in Season 11? Reason being is that I see a lot of ADC's having inherent hatred for this role, and I want to bring to limelight the real reason that I have a passion for this role. Looking at clips from Doublelift and Gosu, I wanted to bring out the full potential for the role and late game teamfights fuel my love for this role.
When should you pick Kai'Sa? Whenever you can because this champion is not balanced right now. Ban her if you aren't first pick.
Watch me execute the many Kai'Sa basics you've learned in this League of Legends game! (NOT FOR BEGINNERS)
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my guide! This is all a WIP as the season progresses I will be sure to update this guide. Thank you and I hope I helped you win your next League of Legends game on your climb to Challenger! I'm really excited to have the opportunity to take my knowledge and put it on a platform that other newer players can further their gameplay with. Kai'Sa is one of those champions that when you learn her, you will further your knowledge of all of the items in the game.

I want to remind everybody that this guide is WIP and I will try to update even a small new section everyday until its completion. Feel free to tune back in a week and learn even more about my favorite champion, Kai'Sa.

Feel free to check out my Twitch and stop by to chat anytime!
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DoublefeedOP Kai'Sa Guide
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[11.12] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Kai'sa Guide!

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