13.1 Stay Alert, Stay Aggressive

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros & Cons

Abilities

Summoner Spells

Wards & Trinkets

Stats To Consider

Which Boots & Why?

Items

Runes

Rune Shards

Summary

Introduction

Hi, my name is Demonsedge, and I've been enjoying my time on league of legends. I can't say enough about this game.

I'm a bot lane player with good knowledge of , so I can speak to how this champion feels and works. When referring to team setup and itemization, I will have a more in-depth look at 's options below as you read through the guide.

I hope you will enjoy this guide and be able to follow my suggestions to understand how works optimally.

So let's kick things off in style with my guide on - Daughter of the Void.

Kai'Sa - Daughter of the Void
Marksman, Bot

Specialties: Sustained Damage, Ranged
Why choose Kai'Sa?:
- She has a very skill-expressive kit because each of her abilities can evolve, unlocking new bonuses and effects.
- She can provide heavy burst for her team that makes her feel impactful in the lanes and when getting objectives (/ & ).
- She has great potential to make plays, carry her team and be a good team fight asset.

I always enjoy taking her on the rift when playing league matches, and I hope you will too.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Great poke

+ Self Peel

+ Strong against isolated targets

+ Scaling champion

+ Good at securing objectives

+ Evolves ablities for greater potential

Cons

- Squishy

- Lacks crowd control

- Trouble dealing with heavy poke

- Mana intensive

- Low base attack speed

- Constrained item choices

Ability Rundown

Second Skin

|Effect Radius: 2,750|

Living Weapon - can gain a set amount of permanent stats from items and stats growth. Once you have reached the stat caps required per ability, she can upgrade it, further increasing its strength, but bare in mind the upgrade is lost if the stat requirements are no longer applied.

With 's basic attacks, on-hits and , apply stacks of plasma to enemies that lasts 4 seconds, which refreshes on subsequent stacks, stacking up to 4 times. Her and nearby allies

immobilizing effects, silences & polymorphs against enemy champions will also apply plasma.

Each plasma stack deals bonus magic damage per stack. Her next attack against a target with 4 plasma stacks will consume them, dealing additional missing max health as magic damage to the target, capped at 400 against .

Icathian Rain

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

fires six missiles that evenly distribute among nearby visible enemies dealing physical damage to all targets hit. Additional hits against champions or jungle monsters will deal 25% damage.

Minions below 35% health take double damage.

gains strong damage potential with this ability in fights and duels, and is very effective when farming in the lane phase and beyond.

Avoid spamming this ability to conserve your mana in combat.

Living Weapon: Requires 100 bonus attack damage from items and levels to upgrade this ability. will then fire 12 missiles, thus increasing the overall damage dealt with this ability.

Void Seeker

is 's form of long-range poke, firing a void bolt in the target direction that grants sight around its trajectory as it travels. This ability deals magic damage to the first enemy hit, applying 2 plasma stacks, and revealing them for 4 seconds.

The damage dealt from this ability can be very potent after getting a few items. Note that it stops on contact with the first enemy/objective hit, so position yourself to have a clear view of your intended target. Excellent to use when looking to steal objectives ( & ) or to finish off low-health targets in fights.

Living Weapon: Requires 100 ability power from items to upgrade this ability (example: ). After the upgrade, this ability will apply increased plasma stacks towards your passive and provide increased cooldown reduction if hits an enemy champion.

Supercharge

| Cast Time: 1.2 to 0.6 (based on bonus attack speed) | Cost: 30 Mana | Cooldown: 16 / 14.5 / 13 / 11.5 / 10 |

Your signature attack speed steroid. charges up throughout the cast time, during which she is still allowed to move, becomes ghosted and gains bonus movement speed that will vary based on her total bonus attack speed.

After completing the cast, gains bonus attack speed and her auto attack windup percentage is reduced to 6.44% for 4 seconds.

Basic attacks reduce 's cooldown by 0.5 seconds.

Living Weapon: Requires 100% attack speed from items and stats to upgrade . Once this ability has evolved, you'll improve the dashes effect and gain invisibility, which activates during the cast animation.

Killer Instinct

With , dashes to a visible enemy champion recently affected by plasma while granting herself a shield for 2 seconds. The shield's duration refreshes once the dash ends.

's ult has two other benefits:
- Her auto-attack timer is reset after the ability ends.
- During this dash, can cast any of her abilities.

Combos:

In this section, I will share some of the effective combos for that are simple to understand and that you can apply while playing summoners rift (draft and ranked) games.


Auto	-	-	-	Auto	-	Auto

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Tips & Tricks:

Playing As :
- Remember that you can re-engage with if the enemy retreats with stacks of plasma.
- When looking to target enemy champions with , make sure you aren't within range of their minion wave, or you will target them instead of the enemy or enemies you were hoping to hit.
- It's very efficient to trigger before combat with the enemy, gaining a few faster autos attacks during the trade or fight. Once evolved provides a breaking line of sight from targets.

Playing Against :
- Stay near your minions during a skirmish with to avoid taking too much damage from .
- Avoid as much as possible to prevent her from engaging your backline with .
- Disengage once you've acquired four stacks of plasma immediately because the damage from is amplified against targets at low health.
- Even though lacks an escape, she can still effectively disengage with .
- is very good at defeating isolated targets, so grouping will make her assassinations more difficult.

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells

Flash: An integral summoner spell for that's taken 100% of the time in all your games. Another reason it's necessary for her is if you get caught out and can't quickly escape, you can to safety or dodge a very crucial ability from the opponent.

Heal: A must-have spell for since it provides early-game sustain and even some necessary movement speed. An excellent choice for that can give you that little boost needed to escape skill shots or get you and a teammate out of a jam. The downside is that subsequent s applied to you (within 35 seconds) will be 50% effective, so avoid taking this spell if your support is getting it, though if you both take it, coordinate them appropriately for the best results.

Exhaust: Excellent for against champions who could take you down quickly, such as , , or . Also great to use on targets for whom you want to slow down or reduce their incoming damage (includes bonus damage from -related items & abilities).

Cleanse: A reliable summoner spell that can be taken into teams consisting of high crowd control champions like (, , , or ). Won't protect you from abilities that have suppression & airborne effects and can only be activated after the

immobilizing effect has been applied to you, not beforehand.

Wards & Trinkets

Wards & Trinkets:

- s are stored in your inventory (max 2) and can be placed anywhere on the map (limit 1), revealing and disabling enemy wards within a 900-unit radius. s function similarly to the trinket revealing stealth & camouflaged based champions (, , and ) that approach them.

- is your main trinket in all games as , revealing units within a target location for 90-120 (based on champion level) seconds. You get two charges that refresh every 240-120 seconds (based on champion level). The max allowable s to place is three. Great when side laning/placing deep wards in enemy territory or getting vision on objectives ( & ).

- You should only grab when dealing with stealth champions who plant traps such as , , & . It's also very helpful for champions who use stealth as means to engage/disengage like , , or .

- The last trinket we can acquire is (available at level 9). A strong option for in 99.5% of games when side laning or getting vision on objectives or target locations from a safe distance. Effective when side laning (similar to the ), but unlike s, they are visible to the enemy and fragile, meaning they will die the instant they are spotted.

Stats To Consider

- Attack Damage: The best stat to acquire for . It scales with all your damaging abilities and gives you more power in fights.

- Attack Speed: The next best stat you can have. Efficient on and great to acquire when you can.

- Ability Power: Useful stat which can enhance her in combat. Can be useful when looking to build around your passive .

- Life Steal: Excellent stat to have on . Very efficient when applied through auto attacks & on-hit item effects.

- Omni Vamp: We have limited item options when looking for omni vamp, but it's still useful for healing on .

- Health: This stat is essential in the grand scheme, but it's not something you need to focus on when playing as .

- Ability Haste: In certain instances this stat can be effective on . Not something we aim for above all others, but it is still good to consider.

- Armor/Magic Resistance: Only get this stat if it's necessary for your survival.

- Movement Speed: Great for kiting and escaping fights, but not as prioritized when compared with other stats listed above.

Which Boots and Why?

Berserker's Greaves > Attack Speed
are the default option when playing as . They give you plenty of attack speed needed to trade with many other marksman in the bot lane and also provide consistent damage against objectives such as turrets/barons or dragons.

Boots of Swiftness > Slow Reduction
Pick up these boots when dealing with teams who have slowing effects. They can vary from sources such as 's ///, or other movement slow impairing effects that would leave you vulnerable and make it hard for you to escape combat.

Mercury's Treads > Magic Resistance & Tenacity
If crowd control could impair your survivability and you can't afford to bring , then I would strongly recommend these boots for the tenacity and magic resist. Potent against teams who are magic damage heavy.

Plated Steelcaps > Basic Attack Damage Reduction
Choosing is an optimal selection against auto-attack-based opponents or when you need extra armor in combat. Compared to other boot options, it's not something most players consider on .

Note that & , aren't picked often as when comparing them to the other two choices ( & ). In saying this, they can be viable if you feel the extra armor or magic resistance could benefit you in fights or skirmishes.

Items

Starter Items

If you are dealing with poke matchups where you have to play patient and take a slower approach or need the extra health/healing to sustain longer in the early fight and skirmishes, then I would consider .

In games where you can snowball quickly, it's best to go . Another reason to consider this start is that you'll gain a faster advantage over your opponent when looking to complete your first item (aka mythic rush) or if you want to evolve your abilities quickly.

While isn't the most popular for in bot lane, it can be helpful if you're running low on mana often when farming minions in the laning phase. A great option to choose if you're considering building and getting it stacked and transforming it into early on.

Each of these starts can be very efficient but will depend heavily on who you are facing and what items you need to build for each matchup.

After figuring out your starter item you need to consider the following:

When deciding which mythic/legendary items to grab for in your games, you should consider what abilities need priority/evolution in the build you wish to run. Just be mindful of your decisions since they could impact your performance during laning phases and team fights.

Mythic Items

is very potent when playing crit . Grab this mythic against tanks and bruisers dealing true damage every third auto-attack. With the bonus attack speed gained from the mythic passive, you'll apply its effect to targets more often in fights and skirmishes.

on is effective when looking for an additional escape tool or when chasing down a target. If dashing near an enemy, bolts will target them dealing magic damage based on their missing max health. Combos nicely with when looking to eliminate enemy champions. Lastly, it provides movement speed per legendary item from its mythic passive, which helps when roaming and kiting.

is not something players will typically build as a mythic option, excellent for that mix of damage/sustain & durability. With its mythic passive gain attack damage and health per legendary in your build, in combination with its lifeline passive (triggering under 30% health) providing a shield and bonus attack damage] (90-second cooldown). Great when fighting burst or assassins champions who could eliminate you quickly.

The typical mythic of choice here tends to be by default because it can provide more utility for your active/passive effects & its evolution trigger. Make sure to examine the enemy team before picking your mythic item.

Core Items

pairs nicely for and even more so after you have acquired . Grants an on-attack ghosting effect, movement speed & stacking of spectral waltz (lasting 3 seconds). Upon reaching max stacks, gain additional attack speed in combat.
Very effective in one-on-one combat, providing more duelling potential in extended trading and skirmishes.

Picking up is excellent for clearing minion waves and synergizes with when looking to apply plasma stacks on other targets. Great when the enemy clusters together due to the additional bolts dealing bonus attack damage as physical damage & applying on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness that are affected by critical strike modifiers (aka passive).

Excellent for securing kills on targets for whom you want to finish off. Executes any target you damage below 5% of their max health, netting easier cleanup during fights and skirmishes, acquiring extra gold needed to reach your item power spikes sooner.

Situational Items

Each auto-attack against your target will deal % current health damage, along with stealing movement speed every third hit, making this and great when shredding tanks and certain squishy champions. A good option for when looking to deal on-hit damage to your target.

With , you increase your survivability by creating a shield from excess healing. The bonus shield gives you sustain and the ability to soak up some damage while in combat. Note this shield gained decays 25 seconds after not dealing or taking any damage.

Provides a necessary revive when you want to stay alive longer while carrying in the game, but be careful since dying in a large crowd means you could end up falling again after the passive triggers. Consider your positioning when taking this item.

on is very effective when looking to do formidable damage. The catch is you need to have 40% critical chance before the item passive takes effect. A potent third-to-last item choice.

is a great armor penetration item for when looking to deal with huge health champions (, or ) or armor centric targets. The extra damage applied depends on how much max health your target has compared to you and that target.

is a strong % armor penetration option with a grievous wounds passive that applies after damaging your target. A great option for dealing with enemies with item or ability healing effects.

Provides a magic shield + bonus physical damage alongside life steal until the end of combat. Great into champions who deal dot damage (, & ) or have strong magic damage output that could instantly kill you.
*Note that this item + are not able to be combined since they share the same unique passive (lifeline).

Great when dealing with crowd control (except airborne) based champion abilities ('s , 's , 's or 's ) that would impair your movement or be hard to dodge. The active effect grants magic resistance & movement speed and ghosting needed for 1.5 seconds to escape fights or dangerous situations with ease. Due to its long active cooldown, careful ability blocking is paramount.

provides mana sustain for to spam your skills and keep pressure on the enemy & pairs nicely with . Once upgraded from , you'll gain extra basic attack on-hit damage and bonus ability damage. Very effective when building on-hit items or when looking to deal more single-target burst damage in fights.

Selecting on is effective for additional magic damage on-hit against your target, along with evolving your ability upon obtaining it. Contributes attack speed towards evolving your ability. An excellent early-game purchase for .

Once at max energize stacks you will deal magic damage, then the target becomes slowed by 75% for 0.5 seconds. Effective when chasing down targets during fights and skirmishes.

A suitable alternative to when looking for more control over your survivability. Very useful when fighting champions such as or that can execute or kill you quickly. Helpful when looking to dodge skill shots or other forms of fatal damage. A great item on if you know your will be ready after the active ends.

Runes

The following keystone & rune choices are great for and will complement her in combat. Always pay attention to the enemy team comp, plus your item builds when selecting your runes to get the most value in each game.

Keystone Runes:

- is very efficient on , granting an additional attack speed upon striking a champion with a basic attack (good for three autos). Very useful for trades in fights and duels with the enemy. Great when paired with tank supports such as or .

- combined with , makes you a threat in combat. Great for dealing extra percent damage to your target after they were made vulnerable (after three autos). Make sure not to switch targets, or you will reset the three-stack chain. This keystone is potent when paired with all-in supports.

- , synergizes nicely with , allowing for more passive triggers on your opponent while gaining extended attack range. After reaching the max stacks in combat, gain the ability to break the attack speed cap and provide increased chase down of your target(s). Great when paired with enchanter supports such as or .

Domination Runes:

- When looking for a decent sustain option for , look no further than , healing you upon damaging an enemy champion. It's a very effective rune option for early lane fights and skirmishes and is effective when getting through the early game.

- can trigger it with her and with her . Once you complete the dash or invisibility animations from either of these skills, you are then granted lethality for the next 5 seconds (4-second cooldown).

- is a formidable rune for . Grants increased attack damage once maxed out, allowing for more damage with autos/abilities & getting closer to the living weapon evolution on .

- The main benefit of is that you can gain bounty gold stacks (per unique takedown), which aids in buying your core/situational items much sooner in the game to make you very strong in skirmishes and team fights.

- is strong for because it allows you to activate more often when looking to close the gap between you and her targets. Very helpful for increased pressure/dominance in team fights and skirmishes.

Inspiration Runes:

- allows to delay building to focus on getting your mythic and core items sooner. Once added to our inventory, gain extra movement speed in your current pair of purchased.

- is effective by accelerating your core item purchases faster. Assists by gaining free base stats that can contribute to her abilities evolving faster, making her more potent sooner in team fights.

- is helpful when you need additional sustain after trades and skirmishes while also giving you more maximum mana per biscuit (max 3). A staple rune taken by in most of her tough matchups.

- offers us more access to summoner spells, active item effects ( items) & trinket wards. We gain access to our survivability tools ( or other summoner spells) faster, providing more opportunities to make game-changing plays during team fights & skirmishes.

Precision Runes:

- can be very useful for restoring missing max health and providing additional gold. Consider this rune option for when looking for extra sustain and faster item purchases after securing takedowns.

- provides mana per second when damaging champions. With this rune selection after scoring a takedown, you'll gain a portion of your maximum mana. This rune helps ensure sure you have mana when entering a new fight or skirmish.

- With on , you'll deal more damage with your auto attacks, allowing for more pressure in fights. Scales nicely alongside when looking to evolve the ability or just for extra movement speed & cast time reduction.

- The life steal from is low early on but builds up nicely into the late game. Helpful for when against poke lanes or when you need some healing in the early game. An excellent option in duels and skirmishes/team fights.

- for allows us to do more damage to targets under 40% heatlh. This damage amplification can be very impactful when we are looking to secure kills and dish out damage in team fights and skirmishes.

- Good against tanks/bruisers (, , ) & some bot lane champions (, , . When choosing , be mindful of your starter item ( or ) and other health based items, as it will affect your damage output with this rune.

Resolve Runes:

- is a niche rune choice for because of how well it can pair with the shield gained from . This rune effect also synergizes with the shielding effects from , & .

- is a good durability rune choice for , getting increases to your armor and magic resist. Helpful when fighting assassins such as , , , or other champions that make it hard for you to survive fights.

- , while not the first choice for , can be very effective as another layer of durability that can help you survive duels and trades when selecting as our secondary. This rune offers max health per / death, then gaining a % max health bonus once 120 minions are absorbed.

- for , increases the total value of shields gained (from . Improves the healing & shielding effects of other runes, life steal & omni vamp items (, or ) in your build path.

Sorcery Runes:

- increases your maximum mana pool, along with providing regeneration of your missing maximum mana. A good rune option since it will prevent you from having to back multiple times for mana and allow for more ability casts in the lane.

- For , provides additional ability haste, then grants another passive that will reduce the cooldowns of your non-ultimate abilities after scoring takedowns on the enemy. This rune is potent in matchups where skill casting is ideal for best success, thus granting more impact in fights and objective control.

- is effective for by increasing your overall damage (autos and abilities) against targets every 10 minutes and scales indefinitely. A great scaling rune option for games that you know will last long.

Rune Shards

When deciding on what rune shards (whether offensive or defensive) to pick for in each of your games, you have to factor in a few things in champion select:

Offensive Shards
- Do I need extra attack speed? Assists in making farming a little easier.
- Do I need additional damage? For , we always take one adaptive damage shard.
Grabbing another damage shard is risky since she has a low base attack speed out of the gate, so I'd suggest avoiding double adaptive damage shards as for best success.
- Do I require any ability haste? We don't take this option, so it's best to skip it.

Defensive Shards
- Do I require more armor? Your default choice for most games in the bot lane.
- Do I require magic resist? Better picked when the lane is double mage bot or heavy in magic damage.
- Do I require more health? We don't often select this option as . It's still viable when going against mixed damage team comps.

Always pay attention to the team compositions you are fighting when mixing and matching the rune shards listed above, in conjunction with your & items. It's a sure way to improve your overall survivability in games.

Summary

There are plenty of ways to build , but hopefully, this guide made it easier for you to understand what abilities/items and runes work well together and how to make the most of her kit.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and will refer this to your friends and fellow gamers looking for tips & tricks.

For any questions or thoughts, you wish to share, contact me in the discussion section. I'll be happy to talk things over with you and see how I can make sense of anything you need answers for to the best of my ability.

13.1 Stay Alert, Stay Aggressive

13.1 Stay Alert, Stay Aggressive

Runes: Lethal Tempo

Spells:

Flash

Heal

Exhaust

Flash

Cleanse

Flash

Recommended Items

Items

Ability Order Standard

Second Skin (PASSIVE)

Icathian Rain (Q)

Void Seeker (W)

Supercharge (E)

Killer Instinct (R)

Second Skin (PASSIVE)

Icathian Rain (Q)

Void Seeker (W)

Supercharge (E)

Killer Instinct (R)

Threats & Synergies

Aphelios

Ashe

Caitlyn

Draven

Ezreal

Jhin

Jinx

Kalista

Kog'Maw

Lucian

Miss Fortune

Nilah

Samira

Sivir

Tristana

Twitch

Varus

Vayne

Xayah

Zeri

Alistar

Amumu

Ashe

Bard

Blitzcrank

Brand

Braum

Galio

Janna

Karma

Leona

Lulu

Lux

Maokai

Nami

Nautilus

Pantheon

Morgana

Pyke

Rakan

Rell

Renata Glasc

Senna

Seraphine

Sona

Soraka

Swain

Taric

Thresh

Vel'Koz

Xerath

Yuumi

Zilean

Zyra

Alistar

Amumu