Watching Phreak's champion spotlight on Caitlyn, I immediately knew she was the champion for me. As a Miss Fortune main in ranked, girls with guns are just something I'm familiar with, and all of Cat's skills really impressed me. Keep in mind that this is a rough build, as I'm writing the guide the day after Cat's release. From what I've seen, she's a great solo laner because of her range, and can team up with a partner to make good use of her snare and net. I would really recommend you take a solo if possible, although some champions are trouble for you, and you'll probably want to avoid them. See later in the Playing Against section.

Pretty standard physical carry runes are what I have chosen. Marks and Quints are pretty self explanatory; one can't really argue against the power of Armor Penetration on a physical carry. Mana Regen on the glyphs are great, as in really increases your laning durability. Peacemaker doesn't take that much mana, but you will run out if the enemy champions are giving you opportunities to use it with any consistency. The attack speed Seals are an taken from the Miss Fortune rune page I use for ranked(mostly taken from the Miss Fortune Killzone build by Yukimika, and seem to work well on her. I'm continuing to test out new Seals, but I'm pretty impressed with how the attack speed runes work, so I doubt I'll be making the commitment to change these in the near future.

Pretty standard physical carry masteries. One point in Archmage's Savvy to get to the second tier, as I don't really consider Exhaust a great option on Cat (but more on that in the Summoner Spells section.) I chose to put max ranks in Alacrity, Brute Force, and Lethality and only 3 in sorcery for a few reasons.

First, really powers up Cat because it lets you charge Headshot faster, and lets you get the most out of your attack damage. I think it's a great thing to put spend your points on for the boosts it gives you in early and late game.

just gives a headstart on AD. The extra little bit on the start really counts for something. If you want to max out , I would suggest taking one point out of this, as the Cooldown Reduction should fuel your early game just as well; it all depends on your playstyle, and I think 3 points in Brute Force fits my more assertive playstyle nicely.

is there because it works wonders on critical headshots. The extra damage bonus from this and headshot can make for some truly impressive hits.

The item build I put up is to use against teams with more carry than bulk. That is, if the other team is something like

this is what I would use. It provides a good combination of movespeed for chasing down and killing enemy carries, as well as enough life steal to keep yourself alive when fighting them, and double bloodthirsters give you a huge amount of Attack Damage. The damage output of this build against carries is quite large, and the armor penetration from your runepage should poke through a tank decently well after his team has disappeared around him. Guardian Angel is there to keep yourself alive after they inevitably focus fire you in a teamfight. Because this is the kind of team I see the most, the is the item build I've chosen to display.

However, if you're against a more bulky team, something the likes of

you would do much better off with a different build. I suggest

and then or

The extra attack speed from and really help your punch holes through tanks. If you can't get through bulky armor, I suggest grabbing a , but I really think the extra bit of bulk from Frozen Mallet and the slow to kill straglers is the best chose for a bulky team. Your starting items should be a Doran's Blade and HealthPot, then build into Berserker's Greaves, just like in the posted build.

I think this skill sequence should be pretty standard for Caitlyn players, although the choice between and at level 2 may be a bit different. I personally like to take the Net first because of the mobility it provides as well as the extra bit of damage from long range when you just have to finish someone off. If you chose to get Mana Regen Seals over my suggestions, I would pick Snap Trap at level 2 instead, just for an extra bit of harassment.

Recommended

Gives you a good escape move when you need to leave a team fight or multi-player gank, and keeps you running for a while. A great escape and mobility move. Can be used offensively as well, although almost does that for you.

Absolutely perfect for getting that last little bit of damage, killing someone though a HealthPot early on, or biting through a tank's defenses with true damage. Really does quite a lot for Cat and makes her laning phase that much stronger.

Plausible

Another great escape move and wonderful mobility. The only reason I don't run this is that gives you a small innate flash, and I think ghost is better for escaping on Cat.

Great carry killer and possible single-target escape move. This can work really well to get Cat extra kills against more aggressive players. If you have a more passive playstyle, I would recommend this over .

The option for farmers and carries that want to quickly get to the action. Cat is a great farmer and can really clean up a lane, as well as port up to some minions and push a tower quickly. I think this summoner spell is a little difficult to use on physical carries and can get you killed through overconfidence, however. If your playstyle is heavily team-oriented, I would suggest this over .

Not Fitting

are all spells for other players on your team. You shouldn't have them because, for the most part, it is not your job to bring these spells to the match.

I find doesn't really fit Cat's playstyle. Even if you run out of mana, you can simply autoattack until you have enough mana for Peacemaker, which is bargain bin in terms of mana cost. If you really have mana problems I would suggest running Mana Regen Seals over running Clarity.

doesn't help Cat escape from sticky situations. Her base move speed is simply too low for you to escape, even with all of your slows removed. Might be possible to run over Ignite, but I really wouldn't suggest it.

should probably not be used just because of their underpowered nature. If you feel the need to have one of these spells though, I would put it over Ghost.

A lot of champions are very straight-forward and easy to play against with Cat, so I'll just discuss the ones I consider most important here.


Can be a pain at mid, but with good spacing you can beat him. Only grab last hits if you can help it, as Vlad feeds off your minion wave and has little tower-pushing power, which makes it much easier to fight him under a tower than anywhere else. Peacemaker outranges him nicely, so run forward and smack him with it and an autoattack, than quickly run away if he targets you. If you see him target you, run out of his range so he can't poke you with Transfusion. Then, autoattack him a couple times while his transfusion is down. He's going to be hard to kill in lane, but at least you can stop him from harassing you.


I have a lot of trouble with Taric in a lane, mainly with his stun and heal. Your harassing power goes out the window with his heal, and pulling up to autoattack with his stun up is probably going to be dangerous. I find the best way to deal with him is to aggressively attack his lane partner. If the stun comes, the lane partner usually panics and pulls back, allowing you to get a bit of harassment in with minimal damage. In the unlikely event that he is in a solo lane, just space and farm. It's unlikely that he will do much to stop you.


With Rammus, staying away from him is the best you're going to do. He's going to be trouble in team fights for you without a doubt. Do your best to stay behind the initiator and pick off his carries quickly, before he can disrupt you. If Rammus has a team with him DO NOT attack him if you can in any way help it. It's almost always going to be better for you to focus someone else down and then deal with Rammus later.


Another big pain for you. The best time to nab a kill against him is before he hits level 6; afterwards, a stun is all he needs to blow his ult and kill you. If he has his stun up, make sure you stay far enough away from him that he can't catch you before you break stun. Set up Snap Traps between you and him, as he does need to close to start wacking you. Always know where your traps are in relation to both you and him.

Other Physical Carries
You're going to beat other physical carries with your range. With the amount of lifesteal in this build, you should be able to beat them one on one unless they have a stun or exhaust to blow on you. Just space them to try to bait the disable out, then 90 Caliber Net away, wait for the disable to wear out, and engage. Don't forget to use Ace in the Hole to grab kills after they retreat.

I had tons of fun making this guide and playing Caitlyn for the first few times this week. I hope you find this helpful. If you have any problems, post it down in the comments section and I'll try to answer. Constructive criticism please, just saying "This build suck two bloodthrister wtf" or something similar isn't very helpful, and I have no problem with you not liking the build, so voice your opinion and I'll consider it.

Special thanks to SixSonatas for providing me with some basic information to make my guide look pretty and giving me the ever-common blurb for the introduction.