I am an ADC main in the BR server, who mains Xayah and Kai'Sa. I also play Zeri, Jinx, Aphelios, Sivir, Miss Fortune and Samira. Occasionally a Kindred adc player.

I started playing Kai'sa on early season 10, but I didn't quite commit to mastering her until late season 10. I totally owe my improvement to FXN Saber, without him I wouldn't have been able to wrap my head around this champion!

Right now I have around 170k mastery points on her. She is my second favorite ADC and the main reason I like her is because of her flexibility and independence when compared to other ADCs!

This guide can be useful for new people wanting to pick her up or veterans seeking to explore her complex builds.

See synergies, matchups, ability order and summoner spells above and their respective notes.

ABILITY RUNDOWN

PROS & CONS

RUNES

ITEMIZATION

HOW TO ADC

MICRO GUIDE

MACRO GUIDE

---

---

Second Skin

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.

---

Icathian Rain

Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 Cost: 55 Range: 600 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.

---

Void Seeker

Cooldown: 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 Range: 3000 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.

---

Supercharge

Cooldown: 16 / 14.5 / 13 / 11.5 / 10 Cost: 30 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.

---

Killer Instinct

Cooldown: 130 / 100 / 70 Cost: 100 Range: 1500 / 2250 / 3000 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.

---

---

Pros +Marksman/Assassin hybrid +Great scaling +Fun to play +High burst and DPS +Flexible build and pick +High survivability +Good against melees/kiting +Decent laner

Cons -Can lose damage if not played well -Hard to play when out-ranged -Weak early game -Mechanically challenging -Very item-reliant -You can int easily with R -High learning curve

---

---

Kaisa is a late game monster, an assassin marksman who can burst squishies and kite tanks. Her hybrid damage and very flexible build makes it hard to build against her, and with such an adaptable playstyle she can fit into almost any team comp. She synergizes well with enchanters who can enable her, mages who can highly increase her kill threat and engage supports who help her catch enemies and enhance her damage. You will find many supports can work with her. She can suffer to lane bullies and long-range champions, but after her Q and E evolve the table starts to turn in most matchups. Even when behind Kai'sa can turn fights in her favor thanks to her scaling and no matter the enemy's range Kai'sa can get on top of them with Killer Instinct.

She is incredibly slippery the later the game goes on which makes her a decent ADC to pick into assassins and bruisers. She may be squishy but she has plenty of self-peel and damage to targets who are singled out.

Right now the meta favors any build that can melt tanks: crit or AD/Hybrid on-hit builds

Kaisa has high kill threat in lane because of her passive, so if she works well with aggressive supports she can easily score early kills.

---

---

Hail of Blades is the best keystone for both AP and AD Kaisa. It is flexible, it helps a lot in early game damage and gives you easy access to Treasure Hunter so that you can get more gold and scale faster. Hail of Blades compensates for Kaisa's atrocious base AS by allowing you to quickly stack your passive in the laning phase with a burst of AS. I highly recommend you always take this keystone if you are playing seriously. The other keystones are very niche and harder to pull off.

Press the Attack is a niche keystone that can be picked for on-hit builds that have plenty of AS from items. It will make your single-target damage better and help you with a bit of damage in the early game, in place of Hail Of Blades. But one key thing to note is that if you are not going to be building attack speed early (like, you won't get Kraken Slayer 1st item) this rune is a bit of a risk... Kai'sa base AS is pretty ****. You will have to rely on your auto-resetting to get your passive procs and do damage early.

Lethal Tempo Is a niche pick for on-hit builds. Ideally, you would take it if you are not going to be getting a lot of attack speed items and instead focus more on damage, as might be the case in some AP mythic hybrid builds. If you are going to get more attack speed from AD items, Press the Attack is better.

---

---

Take Taste of Blood. Cheap Shot is useless and Sudden Impact is only useful later in the game, but it's not even that good.

Eyeball Collection is the most reliable in it's group, but if you like Ghost Poro you can take that as well. I wouldn't pick Zombie Ward since it's your support who will be taking out vision most of the time.

Ultimate Hunter, Ingenious Hunter and Treasure Hunter are all viable on Kaisa. Treasure Hunter as of now is my go to - Kaisa is extremely gold reliant because her Evolves need stats from items. Mid game you still need your evolves, and with Kaisa R and W she can easily do rotations to get her stacks. Combo that with Magical Footwear and Future's Market, you will get your spikes much earlier, especially if you are already ahead. Ingenious Hunter is viable if you will be building items that have cooldowns, such is the case with the AP build especially. Ultimate Hunter is also fine, but the other two are better in most games.

I take Presence of Mind on Kaisa the most to help with mana issues, but Triumph is also viable on her if it suits your playstyle. Presence of mind will allow you to never run out of mana in lane and in the late game while spamming abilities, and Triumph will help you survive skirmishes and give you some extra gold.

Take Legend: Alacrity for more dps especially if you will not be build AD. Take Legend: Bloodline if you want more sustain/survivability.

When I take the inspiration tree, I am expecting to have a rough early game or I feel the need to have some kind of security in my early game. I take Magical Footwear on Kaisa often. free boots make a huge difference when you are behind or rushing your Q evolve.

Take Biscuit Delivery for more lane sustain. It gives you HP and mana for tougher lanes or lanes where you want to trade a lot. Also good for poke lanes. You can take Future's Market if you want earlier evolves and combo that with Treasure Hunter and Magical Footwear. How to use it? Well, use it to buy major powerspikes like Q and E evolve, or Serrated Dirk if you can snowball lane. Don't go in debt for cheap stuff like Long Sword or uninportant epic items and don't spam use it so that the extra +5 gold/minute you get will always cover your previous -50 gold fee.

You can take Cosmic Insight if you want to play around item cooldowns and when you want to have your summoner spells on a lower cooldown as well.

Hail of Blades Setups - Any Build

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Now we get to the most complicated thing about Kaisa - her build. Her evolve mechanic works around combat stats, so if you build her incorrectly you be setting yourself further behind by delaying your powerspikes.

To Evolve Q, you need 100 AD. To Evolve W, you need 100 AP. To evolve E, you need 100% attack speed.

As of now the most common build is full crit AD, but in all honesty all her builds are good with the exception of the full AP burst build. AD crit, AD on-hit, full AP and Hybrid are all sustaining a good winrate and whether you do well on them will depend highly on the team you are into and your own skill.

Because Kaisa's build is very flexible I will not go in-depth into every single viable build/item here. However, I will list my favorite builds that have had success.

Build #1: AD - Burst Squishies, early game spike

On this build you want to start your game by getting a Serrated Dirk on your first back, then a Noonquiver and a Pickaxe. If you started with Doran's Blade, you will get your Q evolve before any mythics. If you didn't, you will get Q evolve from Galeforce or Kraken Slayer.





After your Q evolve you can buy Berserker's Greaves and build The Collector. To get your E evolve, build Phantom Dancer, Rapid Firecannon or Runaan's Hurricane (PD for better kiting and 1x1, Runaan's for better teamfighting, RFC if against high-ranged carries). You can also build Wit's End or another Zeal item, but the items I listed are the best choices for most games.

To wrap up this build, build Infinity Edge and finish with situational items.



Observation: Galeforce for more burst, Kraken slayer as a standard.



This build works the best against squishy teams and it gives you the earliest Q evolve possible in AD build. Collector/serrated dirk makes your early game stronger and allows you to snowball. If you get to full build you can sell the collector and get LDR or another more valuable item.

The only downsides are that Collector doesn't work very well in the late game, and you will also get a delayed E evolve. So if you need the extra survivability from your E evolve, I advise you choose another build.

Build #2: AD - 3 Item Powerspike

On this build you want to start your game by getting a Noonquiver on your first back, then building towards Kraken Slayer. If you build Galeforce you will delay your Q evolve a bit.



After your mythic buy 2 Long Sword, Berserker's Greaves and build Phantom Dancer. This will give your Q AND E evolve, the earliest E evolve you can get after your Q. After that, you build Infinity Edge.







This will give you the best 3 item spike you can get on Kaisa, and it gives you more options for situational items. You can go Lord Dominik's Regards if you need some tank shredding, Navori Quickblades for ability spamming, Bloodthirster for sustain... and what differs this from the previous build is that you have 3 core items intead of 4. It is reliable in the late game.

The downside of this build is that it has a slow growth. You get your Q and E evolve fairly early into the game if you farm well, but it has a weaker early-mid game when compared to Collector. You need to go at least even in lane, because if you are behind getting to your Q and E evolve will feel lackluster as you still don't have much damage. If you get ahead on this build it will feel good though.

Build #3: AD - The Tank Buster

If you are into a full AD team and the enemy has a Malphite, Irelia mid, Leona Support and Poppy jungle... This build is the best you can do to counter that. My example was a bit extreme, but if you are against tanky and beefy teams (Picture Vi, Mundo, Amumu...) this build will help you shred them.

You start by Building Kraken Slayer and a Pickaxe to get your Q evolve. Then build Berserker's Greaves and Blade of the Ruined King as your core. This will give you both Q and E evolve.





After that you build Lord Dominik's Regards, Guinsoo's Rageblade and choose a final situational item.




This build is a bit extreme so you can change some things to better fit your needs, but the core idea here is to build on-hit and deal hybrid damage.

Basically this build is great if you can constantly auto attack and melt the frontline, but if the enemy only has 1 frontliner and 1 not-fed bruiser the other builds will suit your game better.

Build #4: Hybrid on-hit

You start building a Kraken Slayer then picking up ad components from Wit's End to evolve your Q. Upon finishing Wit's end you will get your E evolve, if you don't (because levels) don't worry because your next item will be Nashor's Tooth and you will be buying a Recurve Bow. If enemy is full AD you can get a Blade of the Ruined King as your second item instead, but keep in mind Wit's end is still better because it gives you on-hit magic damage.

For boots you can go Berserker's Greaves, however, I find it better to actually get Sorcerer's Shoes for magic pen. You will not need the AS for your E evolve anyway.

OR



You can also get Muramana for your second item (you'll need early Tear of the Goddess) but you will delay your E spike.





For the rest of the items I favor going Guinsoo's Rageblade. It will help you stack your passive faster, which means you get more DPS than if you went for full AP the rest of the game. Ideally your last Item should be a Rabadon's Deathcap since it will massively increase your AP damage output on both your passive autos and procs.

You can switch Guinsoo's or deathcap for a Zhonya's Hourglass if you need the extra self peel.








This build works best with Hail of Blades and Press the Attack if you can pull it off.

You can go for this build if your team is AD heavy, but overall it has really solid damage against any teamcomps since you will have both the burst from your passive proc and the on-hit for longer trades, not to mention your hybrid damage.

Build #5: Full AP - 3 items spike

With buffs to AP ratios, AP Kaisa is more viable now. This is my least favorite among the ones I have talked about, but it can be fun and works great in the right games. It does better in the hands of more experienced players as well!

You start building a Muramana and take runes that give you Mana. You also get a Serrated Dirk to get your Q evolve faster, and you will sell it later on. If you prefer to not do that, you eventually get a Lost Chapter to get your Q evolve but keep in mind this will take longer.

After that you go Nashor's Tooth and Berserker's Greaves for W and E evolve, then you build a mana mythic. Crown of the Shattered Queen gives you survivability, but if you need damage Luden's Tempest is best.





For your last items you can go Zhonya's Hourglass for self peel, Void Staff or Shadowflame for magic pen, Rabadon's Deathcap for damage amplification.




You can go for this build if your team is AD heavy or if the enemy team is leaning more towards the squishier side. You will have a lot of burst upon stacking your passive and hitting W (which btw is really important). The only reason why I still don't quite like this build is because it has less consistent damage and it usually results in a rough early game.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned, Kaisa has a huge variety of items at her disposal and mastering her also includes learning how to build her well for each situation. Stick to the first 3 builds I presented if you are still not very skilled with her, and then try some new stuff and combinations once you are more experienced and more aware of how she functions.

Once you get more proficient on how to build her, start trying your own item combinations, switching 2nd and 3rd items to fit your playstyle and games better. It is overwhelming at first, but it gets fun after you get the hang of it!

---

---

This section will cover the most basic things to perform well as an ADC - how to farm, wave management and tips on how to survive as a squishy glass cannon. Of course there will be a focus on Kai'sa but the tips here can help you with pretty much any other marksman.

Everything I am going to share I have picked up over time both from personal observations and from getting tips from high elo players!

Kai'sa has a decent push and wave clear if you do it correctly. She has a minion excute on Q, blasting damage on W and attack speed on her E so you can push waves and farm nicely in the early game. It gets better after your Q evolve!

1. Don't use abilities on minions that are half health unless you are fast pushing.

Reason being: you can't last hit all of them at once. Look at any high elo player farming - they spare their abilities, use auto attacks when minions have high hp and wait patiently to last hit and get all the cs. If they can't auto, they use their abilities to last hit.

Kaisa's Q will deal more damage to minions below 50% health, so if you want to wave clear you should auto minions and then use Q to last hit the largest portion of the minion wave at once. You can also use W as an auto reset and as a way to secure cannon minions. Use E to get attack speed only if you need to fast push or take platings.

2. Practice farming under tower

It is simpler than it looks.

If melee minion is full health it takes 2 tower shots + 1 auto attack to kill them.

If caster minion is full health it takes 1 tower shot, and 2 autos if you are very low level, 1 auto if you ar higher level or with items. If you have to farm under tower pre level 5 auto minion once, let it take tower shot and then last hit.

"But wait, my minions already dealt damage to enemy minions!"

You will have to practice a bit. Ideally if you see the tower shot will kill the minion you have to auto or use abilities so that you can leave it low enough to last it, and that is something that takes some getting used to

3. Farming safely

Sometimes enemies will harass you when you go for cs. This can be deadly at times, so always pay attention to enemy and adc movements to see if they are going to harass you. If you think they are you can use your W to farm the most dangerous AND important minions from a safe distance. You can also try to get close, Q+aa and use E to run away if necessary, but if it's not possible just stay into xp range and get the one you can without inting.

4. Farming mid-late game

As an ADC it is important to farm consistently. Around the time where the first tower falls you ideally want to go to the mid lane and farm there while your team is not doing anything important.

If your mid laner wants to stay mid, farm side lanes (top or bot) then rotate with the team to mid. If your tower is down, make sure the entrances to your jungle are warded. If you have no vision you have to stay closer to your tower. If there is nothing to farm, or nothing to do, or it is too risky to walk up to minions, farm jungle camps your jungler is not going to take.

I feel it is difficult to explain wave management in text format so I will try to keep this short and simple as possible for your convenience.

There are three main types of wave management and each have their usages and a way to accomplish: fast pushing, slow pushing and freezing.

1. Fast push

This is usually what low elo players do constantly, especially newer players. This is when you quickly kill minions, which results in a thin wave that crashes under the enemy tower.

Fast pushing is easy - you auto attack frequently and use your abilities.

Ideally you want to fast push when you want to quickly crash your wave on the enemy tower to recall, fall back and/or make the enemy laner lose cs.

Fast pushing has the disadvantage that it can actually create a freeze (which I will get into) if you don't push fast enough or at the wrong times, which makes you lose cs instead. When trying to push the wave too fast you may end up losing a lot of minions as well especially if you lack attack speed.

2. Slow push

Slow pushing is when you create a big minion wave that slowly pushes to the enemy tower.

You can create a slow push by keeping the enemy minion wave smaller than yours, but not killing them too quickly. You can achieve this by killing caster minions since they deal more damage, and last hitting melee minions. If the enemy allows this to happen you will have bought enough time to stack 2 minion waves. Once that is done you usually want to fast push to crash them or wait for another wave to stack and then crash.

Slow pushing has a few advantages.

You can use it to set up tower dives since it gives you more time to position for the dive. Your minions will also aggro enemy champions once they hit you and you are close to your minions.

You can use it to trade. If the enemy trades with you and your wave is bigger, the minions will deal a huge chunk of damage in the trade. In early levels this is especially important!

It is hard for the enemy to freeze a massive wave especially if you have the pushing power to kill the enemy minions and crash the wave.

You can zone the enemy away from cs when you have a bigger wave to back you up.

The main disadvantage is when you are away from your push. If the wave is slow pushing into the enemy tower and you cannot get close to it, your minions will kill the enemy minions too fast and deny you xp and gold. Likewise, enemies can use the advantages of slow push against you.

3. Freeze

A freeze is when the wave is stuck and doesn't push to either one side or the other.

Freezing is the hardest to get the hang of because it depends on the position the wave clashes and how healthy minions are. In laning phase ideally you want the freeze to happen just  outside of your own tower range so that it can be beneficial to you. Having a freeze happen in enemy territory is extremely dangerous for you and puts the enemy in a safe position.

To freeze the wave outside of your tower range you need to have around 3 or 4 healthy minions on the area of the closest bush to your tower. To keep the freeze you want to last hit minions, but if you see the freeze is turning into a slow push (into your tower) you will have to thin the wave by killing caster minions (since they deal more damage they will kill your wave faster and cause the freeze to break). If the wave is becoming a slow push into enemy tower, just let it happen so that you can keep denying enemy gold and xp. The enemy will stop this from happening if they auto the wave.

To freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you need only to keep an equal amount of minions on both sides.

A freeze in enemy territory usually hapens when you try to fast push, but your wave clashes with the upcoming minion wave just outside enemy tower range. This type of freeze is good for the enemy as it leaves you vulnerable, and if you recall during such freeze you will possibly lose an entire wave of gold and xp.

Freezing allows you to zone the enemy away from cs, set up for ganks and keep you protected from ganks. If you manage to freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you give more room for your support to engage or catch the enemy from the bushes or the alcove. Keep in mind the enemy support could do the same.


To break a freeze in middle or enemy territory you need to get close and fast push. If that's too dangerous, ask your jungler for help. If the enemy fights it's a 3v2 in a best case scenario. To break the freeze close to your tower you can just let the enemy wave stack and crash or you can thin it and begin a slow push towards the enemy tower.



As you can see freezing is the one that requires the most practice and attention so if you are still new to this just start by trying to avoid freezes from happening and learning fast push & slow push. Once that's more settled on your mind try to practice creating and keeping freezes!

Golden tip #1:

If the enemy fast pushes to recall, watch to see if their wave is going to crash. If you or your support can hold 3-5 minions and the enemy recalls you will naturally create a freeze on your side and you can safely recall as you will only lose about 2-3 minions at most while the enemy will lose an entire wave. If you do it correctly the wave will not crash on your tower. Abuse this to get level leads especially in lower elo!!! If you just pay attention you will see enemies often giving you free opportunities to freeze.

Golden tip #2:

This goes beyond laning phase. If your team is playing the neutral game and there are no objectives to contest, seek to keep a freeze on your side of the map once your tower is down. This is especially good if you are behind and needing to catch up on cs and xp. Many people just fast push at this point, but it is not always the best choice as if you have a frozen wave deep into your territory the enemy team will either
1: lose a ton of cs and xp
2: go there to stop the freeze (which puts them in perfect spot to get collapsed on)

Golden tip #3: Cheater recall

A cheater recall is basically when you create an early slow push with a cannon wave, crash it and instantly recall. This allows you to get an item advantage in early levels as the enemy will have to stay to farm under tower and then crash their wave on your tower. If they don't do this they will have to take a bad recall... and while they are forced to choose the lesser evil, you can seek to punish them using your item lead.
To have a cheater recall you need to get lane prio (ideally you want jungler to start top or leashless) and let the wave slow push into enemy tower in a way the third minion wave will crash and you can recall. You need a cannon wave to crash because this will give you more time to get back to lane and not lose cs & xp.

Golden tip #4: Immediate level advantage

For this you need your jungler to start top/leashless and the enemy bot lane to leash.
Sit in the bush closest to the enemy tower, and when minions arrive, exit the bush and hold the wave there until your minions catch up.
What happens is that because the wave did not meet in the middle, your minions will focus on an enemy minion and kill it faster. So when enemy laners return, they will lose a melee and thus lose their level 2 spike. Get your level 2 earlier and pressure them!

It is common knowledge that Summoner's Rift is a very perilous place to the average adc player. Nowadays you can get one shot by the worst 0/10 Yasuo or Irelia. Even the enemy enchanter support can solo kill you.

This is why this section of the guide exists. Hopefully, you will be able to last longer following some of these tips!

Know your limits

You can only do so much when you have no summs, when you have had a stressful day at work/school and you can't move your fingers because it’s too chilly outside. On top of that you could be playing against your personal counter - like for instance, maybe you just can't play against Twitch with any champion because he always wins regardless of what you do and you tilt so much.

It's important to be real and understand your limits as a player - whether you are against a champion you cannot stand, how much BS you can take before tilting and running it down, how many buttons you can press at once to survive a teamfight, how aware you are of your cooldowns. Play safe/cool when you know you are at a personal disadvantage.

Know your champion's limits

You can only do so  much without your self peel tools (E, R, Flash) - so pay attention to your champion's limits. Don't go to a teamfight or position aggressively when you don't have the tools to defend yourself.

You can be 10/1 and still lose to the average assassin player if your self peel is down and you are surrounded by 3 enemies. If you were a m7 high elo Irelia player you could probably 1v3 or even 1v5, but you are not playing Irelia - you are playing Kaisa. You have to take people down 1 by 1. Players who often main other roles fail to respect their champion's limits when they play off-role.

Recognize the biggest threats

This is both champions as a whole and specific champion abilities. Malphite may not be a a huge threat himself, but his R is, so you want to be ready to react accordingly when his R is up. If you know you can't outplay a Zed then track him on the map and keep your distance. On champion select, instead of waiting for tha game to start, stop and think about what abilities in the game can kill you and plan how you can avoid getting hit by them.

Example...

The enemy team is: Malphite top, Yasuo mid, Warwick jungle, Ezreal and Yuumi in the bot lane.

Step 1: List what can kill you in a game/teamfight

Malphite R+ Yasuo R combo
Yasuo Q+R
Ezreal combo + R
Yuumi R
Warwick R

Step 2: List how you can survive those threats

1. Bring Exhaust for Warwick and Yasuo

2. Bring Heal to not die from Ezreal combo

3. Build Galeforce to dodge Warwick R, Yasuo Q, Ezreal R, Yuumi R, Malphite R

4.Build Crown of the Shattered Queen or Zhonya's Hourglass if you are going AP

5. Use your Killer Instinct and Supercharge to reposition and dodge (and get a shield)

6. Time your Flash to avoid enemy abilities

7. Use your Supercharge invisibility to kite Yasuo and Warwick, as well as prevent Yasuo from using E to get on top of you.

8. Build Quicksilver Sash to cleanse Warwick R or Yuumi R


Step 3: adapt to your game

Maybe warwick and Ezreal are not fed but Yasuo is. What do you do? Well then your priority should be holding your R, E, exhaust and Flash to survive Malphite R and Yasuo Q+R. You can also avoid being in the same lane as Yasuo and keep an extra eye out for him during teamfights. Maybe get a Mortal Reminder for Yuumi or ask your team to build anti-heal.

Go into the game with a game plan on how you will survive each and every threat.

Position well in teamfights

Kaisa can play as an assassin if you are strong and free to make picks, but you can also play her as a backline carry if going in is too dangerous, which means you should be positioning fairly back in teamfights and waiting for the enemy team to blow their threatening abilities on your team before going in. You don't want to be the one going into fog of war to ward, or the frontliner, if you don't have vision you can use W to scout. Play around getting free picks or waiting for enemy engage on your team. You can go into the backline if you see they are vulnerable! But be ready to react to them.

If you play around getting picks, stay out of sight and get in with W+R or allied CC+R to follow up. If enemy is close you can go in invisible (if you have E evolve) to catch them off guard.

If you play around enemy engaging on you, stay back to avoid enemy initial engage and use your self peel tools (R, E, Zhonyas, etc) to protect yourself from enemy divers/assassins. If there are none, you still want to avoid enemy engage and focus on kiting the closest target to you or diving the enemy carry if they are vulnerable. You can also use R on an enemy away from you to disengage from divers or anyone trying to run you down really.

Position well on the map

Stay away from enemy threats (usually assassins or fed bruisers, but it can also be mages or enemy ad carry). Don't sit alone in lane and avoid pushing too far into enemy territory without vision. Be in position to rotate to baron/drake skirmishes.

Use blue wards, vision plants and control wards

Adcs have to ward too. Be mindful of your wards since you don't have many - every time you want to stick to one side of the map, use vision control to make sure you are not getting flanked. If you do, see if you can use your R to reposition and run away.

Good recall timing & Greeding

If you are sitting on a lot of gold and your team is not around, recall. You are usually a key member of the team to take objectives so it's important you are there for your team when they need you - sometimes staying to push one extra wave or take a few jungle camps will cost you a baron because you had a late recall. Sometimes you will die for being too greedy!

Try to have your recall aligned with your support's in the early game. Recall when you have a lot of gold, a powerspike (such as Q evolve), when you need full mana/hp and when the enemy gives you an opening to do so (when you are not getting pressured/ when they are not looking to make plays on the map). Good recall timing is extremely important so that you don't fall behind and so you are not alone/mispositioned.

---

---

Here we will be going in-depth on how to use Kaisa's abilities optimally. Her abilities may seem rather straightforward, but they can be easily misused. What separates a good Kaisa player from a bad Kaisa player is how well they can maximize their damage and still survive.

Do keep in mind that sometimes the optimal is not always feasible - meaning that to score kills or outplay your opponent you may need to go against what is optimal. Most of the time though, using your kit to its full capacity is what will dictate whether you score a kill or not. This will also entail some mechanical prowess.

New players will most often struggle to use all her abilities optimally, especially if they are not used to mechanically intense champions. This is FINE - take your time, practice, and have fun first and foremost. You don't need to play perfectly.

---

---

Your passive is pretty straightforward: you auto champions, you stack your passive. You hit Void Seeker, you stack passive. You deal magic damage with each auto. The damage of your passive scales with AP, which is why AP and hybrid Kaisa are viable.


The best way to optimally use it is by stacking it as fast as possible. To do that you can take the rune Hail of Blades, making sure to auto the same champion three times in succession to make the most out of the rune. In the early game, you will want to use W to stack your passive and burst enemies.

You can also stack faster if you build Guinsoo's Rageblade, but as the item stands now it is only good if you go for a on-hit build.

In the early game your hybrid damage will be more meaningful and you can kill enemies with your fully stacked passive - sometimes it is worth it to Flash on an enemy sitting on low health and 4 stacks.

Being mechanically trained on Kaisa will also help you use your passive better. Kaisa has auto-reset mechanics that you can use to stack your passive faster - most common being the W+aa and R+aa. These will make a huge difference in close fights, believe me!

Supports with CC are great with Kaisa because they help her stack her passive faster - any immobilizing effect will give the target 1 passive stack and will enable her to use Killer Instinct on them.

---

---

First of all, evolving Q should be your first priority - you need 100 AD to evolve it. This is your bread and butter to deal damage so you want it to evolve first and use it well.

Q deals a huge chunk of damage to isolated targets, so naturally you want to kite away from enemies in order to use it optimally.

You will want to fight away from enemy minions and jungle monsters. In teamfights, you will want to position away from enemies and single out one person. You may use Killer Instinct or Supercharge to do that and burst a single target.

In lane, your Q will help you push lane, but keep in mind it deals more damage to low health minions. You should auto-attack them until they have less than half their HP and then use Q to insta kill them.

Q is a great trading tool. If you can get away with it, trade with the enemy ADC or support with auto and isolated Q (as isolated as possible). You will catch many enemies off guard with your damage, especially if you can make full use of your Hail of Blades. If you manage to hit W as well, your damage will be insane in early levels.

Neat trick: you can cast Q just before W and E to deal damage while you are channeling those abilities.

---

---

First, keep in mind that if you go full AD you are never going to evolve this ability. You need 100 AP to evolve it (which is easily achieved by building Nashor's Tooth), but it is usually not worth it.

Hitting this ability will grant you true sight, which means you will be able to see champions like Akali and Shaco when they are supposed to be invisible. it will also give your 2 plasma stacks (3 if evolved), which allows you to ult on top of the marked enemy.

In the early game you will want to use this ability to combo and trade/all in. You will see many players using this ability to poke enemies, and in most cases this is not the best use of it.



When you are building AD, the main purpose of this ability is to allow you to go in with your R, combo, stack your passive, and snipe enemies.

When you are building AP it is a bit different. You will want to max this ability and make sure you ALWAYS hit it. When you have evolved W, hitting it will highly decrease its cooldown, allowing you to spam it and poke squishy enemies to death. Fully stacking your passive will pack a massive punch as well.

You can combo W with Flash to reposition it and make sure you hit it, especially in laning phase. Your W will go to the targeted direction but it will be cast from your new location. If you time it just right though, you can make what is called "Phantom W", which is a visual bug that makes it look like your W is coming from the place you were before flashing.

---

---

You want to have this ability evolved after your Q, it happens when you have 100% attack speed.

Supercharge has two main uses: to run away or to go in.

Ideally, you want to use this ability to dodge important abilities and to kite. Only use it to go in if you can get away with it - if the enemy can't punish you for using your mobility. One exception to that is when you get evolved E - you gain invisibility. You can use it to go into range of a vulnerable target from fog of war and surprise them.

When you are pushing into the enemy tower you can use E to take platings faster, but beware if you don't have vision. If there are enemies nearby it is best to use this ability to run away in an emergency. Otherwise, using it for plates and turrets is not that bad since auto-attacking will reduce this ability's cooldown.

In the early game you will not be building tier 2 boots (you shouldn't), so you can use your E as an attack speed steroid and mobility to compensate for your lack of boots, so use it wisely.

You can use your E before a fight as a way to enhance DPS... it gives you a nice setup to R in and blow up vulnerable targets. But especially when the enemy has threats around it is best to hold on to E in order to have some mobility. Killer Instinct is one of your main defensive tools, so if you use it aggressively you want to at least have your E for survival, especially if you have it evolved.

---

---

Now here's the ability people misuse the most, and that is because it can be both an offensive tool and a defensive tool. The ability is at its best use when you can use it both offensively and defensively!

You will see new Kaisa players hitting Void Seeker on a seemingly isolated squishy target, R in and then die because the whole enemy team is there.

First let's look at its offensive uses

- Isolating a target to hit Q

This is especially important in teamfights. You can use R to reposition and isolate the priority target. You should be cautious and ideally use R like that when the enemy has used their CC and self peel on someone from your team instead.

- Engaging and following up on an engage

This is pretty straightforward. Maybe you or your support manage to get your enemy marked, you see their team is not there and you go in for the kill. You can also use it to help a teammate if they have CC to mark the enemy.


- Using it as a auto reset for more burst

This is a use people often overlook but I suggest you do try to practice it in your 1v1. Basically, you can aa+R+aa. Make the most use from that after using your Hail of Blades, you will get 2 stacks quickly after the first 3 you get from the rune.
Using it as a auto reset when you have already engaged on the enemy means you don't need to R to reposition yourself - instead, you can use it in a 1v1 to dodge, get a shield and reset your passive. Your Ult won't go to waste if you use it both offensively and defensively!

Quick side note on using your R: because of how Kaisa works, you ideally don't want to R into the entire enemy team. Make sure you are sticking to the sides of the teamfight so that you can run away if things go ugly and you can isolate your target.


Now the defensive uses

- Repositioning

Maybe you are caught in the middle of a teamfight and enemies surround you - but suddenly, you see your team has caught someone on the sides with CC. You get a free out of jail card. You can also get yourself out if you hit W on a distant target.
Maybe the enemy is standing close to a wall and you need to get away. You can R over the wall!

- Juking enemy abilities

Morgana Q, Seraphine R, Sett W - you name it. If you have enemies marked you can R to juke important abilities.
One tip that works best against bruisers and the kind is: when they are going for you, run away to one side and R to the other. This will glitch their minds for a moment and you may get away from a champion like Sett or Riven who used their abilities predicting you were going to follow a direction only to see you dash to the other one.

- Getting a shield

Your R gives you a massive shield. If the enemy has a lot of damage you will want to R to both reposition yourself and soak up damage instead of engaging.


An important thing to notice when using Kaisa R: it counts as a Dash, which means it can be interrupted by Vex and Poppy. You are not untargetable.

If you try to R on a Jinx and you fly over her traps, you will get trapped. If you get caught on Poppy ult you will fly away. If you get charmed mid air you will get charmed.


As you can see, this ability seems straightforward but it can be very complex. What separates the good Kaisa players and the bad ones is 1: how they work around their passive and 2: how good is their decision making skills to use her abilities the right way at the right times.

Mechanics & Combos to Practice

Here I will just go over some of her mechanics. I have mentioned quite a few already, but I figured it would be good to have a place summing it up for you to practice later.

I made a video demonstrating some combos but I have also written everything down for reference!

Play Video

---

---

Kaisa is a marksmen/assassin hybrid like Samira, but what sets them apart is that Samira wants to go in and stand in the middle of everyone with her ult, while Kaisa wants to assassinate isolated targets by kiting them.

Her playstyle will vary depending on the team you are up against: if you are against bruisers and champions that can catch and burst you, you will want to play as a front to back adc. You will stand behind your team, hit the closest target, use your abilities for self peel and only go in if you can execute a target and run away.

If you are against squishy, vulnerable champions you can start playing as an assassin. Most of the time you will be playing safe, but if you are fed and the enemy is actually vulnerable you can easily solo kill them using your self peel and burst. In teamfights you can sometimes get away with using R to reach the backline and kill them one by one after their defensive tools are down.

Kaisa does well with teams that can CC enemies for free stacks and teams that can peel for her. She is pretty flexible since she can play around both a pick off team and a teamfighting team.

Because she is a short ranged ADC and revels in close combat, she tends to be vulnerable when her team doesn't have a frontline and when they have mainly ranged champions. When you go in, the enemy will focus you and the melee teammate you have if they come, which is not ideal. Kaisa wants her team to distract the enemies while she eliminates the targets that can be picked off.

---

---

If you have an aggressive support in the early game, you will want to position more aggressively and be ready to make picks whenever the enemy mispositions. With engage or hook supports you will want to stand close to them, in a way that minions are not in your way for you to hit Void Seeker and isolated Icathian Rain. Keep your wave frozen in the middle of the lane to give room for your support to engage, but let the wave push into you if you don't have vision in river and trybush.

If you can get away with it, seek to trade with the enemy adc using your isolated Q and your autos. If the enemy has a lot of poke I would advise against trading since you will likely get poked before getting within auto range.

If you score a kill in the early game do your best to maintain your lead. Don't get overconfident as you are still pretty weak early on. Play around your strengths and don't throw your lead.

When you fight, seek to hit your full combo and using E and R for self peel especially when you don't have vision. Before your Q evolve you will have to hit your W, isolated Q and proc your passive to do damage and score kills. If you misuse your abilities you may find yourself lacking in damage.

In passive or hard lanes your main priority should be at least going even and not setting yourself behind. Focus on farming and don't force plays if you don't have a lead or if the enemy lane has more kill pressure than you. Try not to die as to not give the enemy a lead or set yourself further behind. Most of the time you should focus on wave management, and prioritizing getting every wave to increase your gold and xp income. In a passive lane, dragon rotations can be very risky, and it is often here where players will mess up their lanes.

Never rotate to dragon if your wave has not fully crashed into the enemy tower, and don't over commit to a fight. Don't rotate without lane prio. Early drakes are not a big deal, by the mid game you can focus more on helping your teammates with dragons as you will either have destroyed the enemy tower or lost yours, which means the enemy laner will more often than not (in low elo) leave their lane. You will be able to farm in peace, quickly crash the wave at the enemy side as you will push faster if you need to rotate.

If you make a bad rotation or a bad recall in the early game you will lose valuable gold and xp that will just make your whole game harder. Focus on getting yourself ahead in order to become the late game monster you are.

The most reliable way to get a lead from level one is to push for level 1 first, take favorable trades with Q and autos if possible and match your support's aggression (unless they are trolling). If against a poke lane, let the enemy push and preserve your health.

---

---

Mid game generally starts when the first tower falls. It is at this point where you have to be especially careful if your lane is going even, as the enemy mid or top laners will try to make plays on your lane. Your team will also start requiring your help to get drake, herald or baron. It is also the point of the game that you start to get strong.

If you are ahead, focus on farming and snowballing your lead by chunking enemies, taking towers and making picks on mispositioned targets.

Ping your jungler or mid to make plays bot and get yourself further ahead. If it is safe you can go for kills on unsuspecting targets. If you are behind, focus on farming and avoid making rotations unless it is absolutely necessary.

Even if you are behind, as long as you are not too behind you can seek to finish off low health targets to get yourself ahead. If you have a duo support tell them to set you up for getting a shut down on mispositioned enemies.

At this stage of the game your main priority should be farming and making picks if you are ahead. By picks I mean, the enemy happens to misposition and your team can collapse without inting. Before making any plays or rotating you will want to shove any lane you are farming, be it bot, mid or top. It is at this stage of the game where many low elo players throw their lead because they stop farming and rotate to every single jungle skirmish.

A good rule of thumb for choosing when to rotate with your team or not is: is there something worth fighting for, and what do I lose for this play?

If your team can get something out of a skirmish, like drake, baron, or tower, then you can look to shove the wave into enemy territory and rotate. If your team is outnumbered, you probably shouldn't go as it is a losing fight.

If you don't shove your wave, you and your team will lose many minions either because your tower will kill them all, or because the wave will slow push and take longer to reach the enemy tower before crashing. You will lose a lot of gold and xp, which you still need to get your core items. If your team gets a few kills and you didn't crash the enemy wave, the amount of gold you will get shall still not make the play worth it.

To get the most out of the mid game as an adc, just solo farm whenever you don't have to be with your team. If you think your team will get caught, spam ping them off, or farm as quickly as possible for good rotation or to allow a disengage.

Don't ever share farm with solo laners or jungler. If a solo laner is in your lane, move to another lane or farm jungle. Ask your support to set up vision control for you to safely side lane or be at easy in mid lane. When an objective is about to come up, shove and recall, or recall and shove. If you have nothing to farm, then look to roam with your support or join with your team, but you do not always want to be doing that as you will eventually start to fall behind the enemy solo laners. Look at your minimap and see which waves are going to bounce back into your territory and jungle camps about to spawn, so that you can recall and get there before your teammates take everything.

Also avoid ARAMing mid. If either your team or the enemy team arams, farm jungle or side lane. Sharing xp with 2+ people will do nothing to set yourself further ahead. If your team dies - it happens. They shouldn't be there. They should be pressuring side lanes to force the enemy into rotating. 3 people mid is often enough to hold the tower. If the enemy doesn't rotate to stop your side lane pressure, they will lose gold, xp and probably towers as well, while you will get far more gold than your teammates in mid. Mute teammates to not get tilted. If both teams aram mid, you will just be stalling the game and not making progress, while relying on coinflip fights to win the game.

---

---

This is where you should already have your core items. Most of the time you will keep the same playstyle as in the mid game - farm waves, get gold and get strong to contest objectives or force plays. At this stage it is very important that you do not die, as spawn timers will skyrocket and your team will be at a great disadvantage if outnumbered and without your damage.

On Kaisa specifically you are able to assassinate squishies and melt through most frontliners. If you are sure there are no enemies around and you can pull off Kaisa's mechanics, you can assassinate isolated squishy targets. If it is not safe to be on your own, you should hang around your teammates and make picks - always keep in mind you will be a priority target and you should seek to use your R and E to peel for yourself most of the time.

Look to always be on the same side of the map as the objectives your teams want to contest. Don't split push bot if baron is up. Don't be top when soul is about to spawn. Play around your R and Flash cooldowns to safely contest objectives. If your team wants to get top tower, hover around mid or top to be there for them. Let the top laners be on the opposite side of the map, as they usually run Teleport.

This is the point of the game where you want to be the carry. You will deal the most damage to towers and monsters, and in teamfights you should also do a lot of damage as long as you are positioning and building properly. Focus on having good positioning to keep yourself alive.

Play around your cooldowns - when Killer Instinct and Flash are on cooldown, position more defensively.

---

---

That's all I have for now. Thank you for taking interest in my guide! I hope it was helpful.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to let me know. I will keep updating this guide and maybe I will keep adding things to it.

Last updated: patch 12.12
Last changes: Updated for current patch. Added how to use Future's Market in Runes section to get your spikes.

Planned updates:simplifying text for easier reading, gathering courage to write matchups and synergies.

Good Luck & Have Fun playing Kai'sa!

My other Guides!!!

---

Complete Xayah Guide

Complete Zeri Guide to Zap Your Way to Victory

My Unbeatable Crit Sivir Guide

Off Meta Kindred ADC Guide