Caitlyn Build Guide by Carikeo

Introduction

Hi there this is my guide to build and play caitlyn:

Caitlyn is a strong adc, her passive grants her a strong 1hit attack, she has high range, she can poke with Piltover Peacemaker and play defensive with Yordle Snap Trap and 90 Caliber Net.
In this guide i will show you how to build caitlyn and why, and also i will explain her abilities and how your items work well with them, plus some tips


If there's something you want to know or you don't understand feel free to send me a PM and i will answer it as soon as i can
IF this guide ranks up in votes i will make some videos about how to play caitlyn

In case you want to know a bit about caitlyn before reading this guide, here is the champion spotlight. IT's a bit old but it will give you a general idea:

Pros / Cons

Pros:
- Higher attack range than many carries
- Headshot boosts your damage
- Good escaping skills
- Very long range kill secure ult
- Good defensive skills
- At late game low cooldown ultimate
Cons:
- Only one damaging skill (apart grom ult)
- Your 90 Caliber Net can't be used to slow and chase enemies
- Ace in the Hole can be blocked by other enemies

Runes

As you can see above, my runes are defense - armor pen - damage
The defense will help you to take less damage from the adc, and i chose scaling mr because in early game you wont need it so much. The armor penetration marks are because i wont build armor penetration on caitlyn, i will get it from masteries and runes. The greater quintessense of attack damage helps you to be stronger in early game and makes the farming easier

Masteries

My masteries are focused in damage as all adc do.
The defense masteries are to have more health in early game, as well as some armor (that combines with the one from the runes) and a point to boost your Cleanse or Barrier spell

Items

In this part i will explain why i build each item and how they work

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: This boots will give you movility as well as atk speed, which is the focus of my build (atk speed + high damage and crits)
: This item will give you some attack damage and critical chance, and also it improves the damage you can do when you crit.
: This item works extremely well with cait's passive Headshot. This item makes you hit 2 bullets apart from your original one, each one dealing 50% of your attack damage (and applying on hit effects such as lifesteal and critical hits). This means you will get 3 of your 6 needed hits to activate your passive, and if you attack while in the bush you will get your passive inmediately (as long as there are 3 targets to hit).
: This item will give you aditional attack damage, and also lifesteal. Since your Runaan's Hurricane apllies on-hit effects, this item will help you to heal faster than others and hive you high sustain
: This item will give you movement speed, atk speed and critical hit chance. This will help you to get to arround 1.95 attacks per seconds (plus the Hurricane aditional hits) and increase your critical hits chance. Its important to know that you can mix your passive with a critical hit, dealing extreme damage
: I chose this item because i prefer to have more health and use barrier to survive. Additionally because of your items you will regain your health rapidly while farming or in the jungle

Skill Sequence and explanation of skills

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This is your passive, and a strong source of damage. Every 6 attacks your next attack will deal 150% damage to an enemy champion or 250% damage to an enemy minion. This passive will help you to make easier your farm and poke your rivals. It charges up 2 stacks if you attack while in the bushes, so try to always fight your enemies while you are inside the bush. Another important tip is that this Skill applies your lifesteal and critical hits, dealing an insane amount of damage This is your only damage-during-fights skill apart from your ultimate. You can use this skill to farm faster or poke your enemies, it has a long range and a high amount of damage so specially if the enemy support has no healing skill you must be spamming this skill, but always check your mana to have enough to use your ultimate and your E at least. This is a scouting skill of caitlyn. Place it on the bushes to escape easily or just wait for someone to fall on them and start hitting them. This traps are not invisible and last for 4 minutes, they reveal your enemy and deal a bit of damage This skill is your main escape skill. WHen you cast it, enemy hit by the net is slowed and you are knocked back, giving you a large distance gap. This skill can me used in a similar way than flash, and also can go across some walls. This is your kill secure skill. It has a extremely long range and if enemies go away from that range but you manage to hit it before, it still will work. This skill doesn't deal enough damage to consider it an initiation tool, but it's really useful to kill those enemies who try to escape. You must know that other champions may block this skill and you can attack while you are casting it, so aim carefully and if you want to kill a closer enemy its better to use your Q and basic attacks. If you activate your skill but the enemy dies before you shoot the bullet, it will be canceled and will have only 5 seconds of cooldown.

Spells

:I chose barrier because its a good taunt spell, they will see you almost dead and will dive you and you can get a kill by using barrier. Also it will be really useful during teamfights to survive, but i find it incredibly useful during the laning phase against another adc (shields you for more than the amount of heal that does
: Flash is the standar escape or follow spell, you can use it while you are being chased down or to secure an enemy kill. Remember you can flash over some walls (like in the dragon place) and escape
: This is anotehr good spell to use with caitlyn, i think this is not really necessairly for caitlyn because of her long range attack, but if you are facing a strong cc support as taric or leona, you should definitely bring this
: This is always a good spell for damage, but you must consider that it has a shorter range that your basic attacks, so you could be fighting and not be able to use it because you are out of range
: This is viable too, however if you want more defense barrier shields for a higher amount, and if you want sustain you should build The Bloodthirster or Vampiric Scepter as the first item

Farming

As any adc try always to farm only by last-hitting the minions, so you get the kill for sure. This takes practice but in time you will be able to master it.
As caitlyn, you can farm faster by using your Piltover Peacemaker, if you want to push or if your minions are too close to the turret. Try to always keep the minion wave by the center of the lane

Teamfights

While you are in teamfights the most important thing is to position in the best place. You must stay near to your team but farm from those champions who can dive and kill you (such as vi)
Never try to focus the adc and risk your life, just focus the best target you can without risking to die (the ap carry or hitting the tank) your team's asasain is the one who must focus the carry.
Your Runaan's Hurricane will help you to deal more damage in teamfight, by attacking up to three enemies at once
Remember to always use your Piltover Peacemaker when you can, save your ultimate for enemies who are trying to escape, and use your 90 Caliber Net if an enemy tries to focus you to slow him and run away. For example, if a voli runs towards you you can slow him and then your team can take him down easily just by using one stun. Always save your ult for escaping enemies or when an important target (adc) is away from the rest of the team
It's also very important to always have red buff during teamfights, this will allow you to hit and slow them so they can't reach you or just follow them easily

Backdoors

Backdoors can be an important strategy which may turn upside down the development of a match
Since caitlyn hast a high amount of atk speed, when you see the oportunity try to go to a turret and take it down, but always remember to place some traps arround you so if they come to get you you can run easily.

Alternative build

This is my alternative build which has 3 different items i will explain down below, depending on the teams you may have to switch only one item or 3 of them
: This spell is very useful against supports with stun (like taric or leona) and to escape if someone stuns and dives you during a teamfight
: This item is another option if you prefer to have less health but the possibility to revive, but you must be aware that it has a high cooldown and if you die and your team escapes, probably you will revive with low health and surrounded by 3 or 4 enemies, which will cause your dead and that's why i dont really like this item for adc's
: This item is a must-have if you are fighting against a strong tank (such as singed) or if most of the enemy champions have a lot of health. The damage this item does increases with the enemies health, but it also decreases when their health does so you must be aware of this when trying to fight on 1v1
NOTE: With this build your mark runes should be of attack damage instead of armor penetration, because by using bork you lose some damage, and it's boost will help the lack of armor pen