Caitlyn Build Guide by galnerion

Introduction

Hello everyone! This is guide to Caitlyn. Please, be kind about language, english is not my first. Also, note that this might not be best build for your playstyle. It is not my fault if you don't get resoults you would like. This build works for me and i hope it will be usefull to others as well. If you would care to comment, i'll be glad. Make your comments useful. Thanks in advance.

---

Runes

• Greater Mark of Desolation is used with all carries, it gives you better chance against people using armor.
• I chose Greater Seal of Regeneration, because my Cait is build to outsustain enemies in lain phase. I'll explain it all latter in build
• Greater Glyph of Mana will help you cover Cait's biggest weakness in early game - very low mana pool.
• Greater Quintessence of Life Steal is rare choice for carries, but i use them. As told before this build is making Cait last longer.

---

Masteries

Masteries are usual AD 21/9/0. The only thing worth mentioning is that 1 on Butcher . You need it to go up the tree and in my oppinion it is more useful as anything else, yet i don't see it played. I take defense over utility, mostly because Cait is squishy champion and one would want to cover hear weakness. If you want to play superaggresive 21/0/9 with more mana is also possible. It will make you even harder harraser than Cait already is. Yet you'll have to worry about staying alive more. Alternative masteries:

---

Items

I put only "build" items on cheat sheat on top of this build. It is intended to be checked up, if you don't read in deep guide (or if you just need reminder of what it is about). I'll try to explain my item build in more detail now.

I normaly start with: Vampiric Scepter, no Health Potions or sight wards. It gives me 10% vamipirism, combined with 9% from masteries and runes i am at 19% life steal, level 1. Cait's basic attack deals about 50 damage, meaning i get "free potion" every 14 auto attacks (counting passive as well). Normaly support brings a ward at beginning, so it is ok on sight side(that is if support knows what he/she is doing). Also with Cait you and your support will not have normal positions in lain, but I'll explain that in later chapters. With most common start we see on turnament, ( Boots of Speed) you get 3 Health Potions, but that equals only 42 auto attacks with this build, so i believe (at least mathematicaly) you can outsustain enemies with more regular build.

Other ways to start are also viable. sometimes Doran's Blade is alternative, giving you more life and damage at beginning. With runes and masteries you come to 12% life steal and about 60 damage, giving you free potion every 20 shoots. Downside is of course that you'll have to sell it loosing money.

There are two ways you can continue:

• If you are able to stay in lain long (and that is more than possible with this build) buy B. F. Sword and Boots of Speed on first return (or upgrade it to The Bloodthirster or berseker's greaves already, certenly giving you advantage over enemies). Also make sure you bring some wards this time, your support will more than need his money.
  
  Alternatively, you can go this way:
  • Take Berserker's Greaves and than start building Phantom Dancer, you'll have enough space in invantory to build it by parts. None of parts for this two items is realy expensive, neither are recepies. After that save up for bloodthirster.
    After you got yourself Berserker's Greaves, The Bloodthirster and Phantom Dancer you have 2 options:
  • if your tanks are doing ok and all your team needs just more damage from you to win team fight and bring down turrets faster, go for Infinity Edge and another The Bloodthirster
  • if you get focused and ganked way to many times and your team isn't able to take care of you, go for Frozen Mallet and than another The Bloodthirster, giving you extra life steal and good portion of life.
    After that finish items that are left on cheatsheat.
    If your opponents have tanky team you might want to build Madred's Bloodrazor sooner in game.
    
    This build is fairly expensive, total cost without spare money for potions and wards (and dorans you will sale) is 20645g. You will almost never got so far. make sure you take what you need more first!
    
    Alternatives to this build:
    • Last Whisper is "cheap" alternative to Madred's Bloodrazor
    • sometimes, if opponents have fast character you would want to be able to catch or you want to deal your damage as fast as possible, not caring about life gain (because, for exaple, your opponents are not able to damage you that bad) you can switch second The Bloodthirster with another Phantom Dancer
    • rarely you would want to swich Frozen Mallet for Trinity Force. It does give you some AP and some movement speed [[frozen mallet] doesn't, but you realy don't need that on Cait, at least to my experience.
    • if you need even more survivability i would suggest Guardian Angel instead of Frozen Mallet. Downside of this item is that it helps you only in a team fight you team wins. when cought alone opponents will kill you anyway.
      
      
      if there are other good alternatives, please let me know.
      
      
      

      ---

Skills

In my humble oppinion Cait has extraordinary set of skills.

• Headshot: Amazing ability for an AD carry. Using it is not always easy though. During lain phase try to use it on enemy champions. You'll have to count, lasthiting first 7/6/5 shots, hiting enemy with next one. If possible take your position in grass, while your support can stand behind minions (just swich normal position). This way you'r auto attacks will count as 2 making you shoot your headshots faster. Just an useful tip: opponents see when your passive is up and they'll try to avoid being hit with your 150% damage shot. Most of the time you can push them back simply because your passive is up. Even harder is to find bushes during team fights. You'll make 10% more damage with your auto attack (main source of damage) if you'll shoot from grass, so it is more than worthy. More important is to stay behind your tanks though, since this build is not granting you much defense.
  
  
  
• Piltover Peacemaker: Such a great q ability! It does good amount of damage, has amazing range and has area of effect. It is also not too expensive if you don't spam it like crazy. Do not use it to farm! Use it on minions only when pushing lain or when you hit enemy champion in process. If possible shot enemy chempion as first target because it deals less damage to every next target. Range of this skill is greater than turret's so you can harras even enemies already hugging turret. Just a tip. Most enemies wont retreat further than just behind their turret when on low health and porting home. Your peacemaker can get them there and finish them even if your ultimate is on cooldown or you have no actual vision of area. Before team fight engages you can harras your enemies with it, making some damage. Remember that you have one of the longest ranges in all the league. Do not use this skill in 1v1 fight! it takes some time to fire and during this time you cannot autoattack, actualy losing damage you could have done (you lose 2 - 3 autoattack depending on your attack speed. That is way more damage). When in teamfight do use this skill on as many enemies as you can.
  
  
  
• Yordle Snap Trap You should take this skill first except if 1st level fight breaks up (than take q and w as second.). I normaly wait with skill selection until everybody is safe in lain. Your traps are visible to the enemies when placed on open. So how to use them to actualy get something from them? When placed in bush you get short view of who is inside, so you don't have to facecheck (never facecheck with Cait, you'll die in matter of moments). Also when in bush they are very hard to spot, so there is high probability opponents will fall in sooner or later. As you should be bottom laining put 2 of those traps in bush you are currently standing in to protect you from invades (remember it is you in the bush, support behind minions). Place third one in that small bush on top of lain as gankers will always hide in it. When they walk into trap you'll get vision of them alarming you and saving your life. Remember your traps are caped at 3 and last only few minutes.
  
  
  
• 90 Caliber Net Another great skill in Cait's arsenal. You shoot net in one dirrection while being thrown in another. Net also slows it's target. You should put this skill on smartcast as it is often moments that counts when using this skill. Most of time you'll use it as your escape plan. When being in trouble shoot it at your enemies making distance between them and yourself and slowing them in process. One good hit will take one of your enemies out of hunt as distance that resoults from this skill is normaly too big to be crossed (if you are not stoping when on the run that is). Rarely you can use it agreesively, firing it behind you to shorten distance to your enemies that are on run. This way you can often land one last hit. On some places in the map you can shoot yourself over the wall. If you find all of them and have a map let me know and i'll try to place in this guide.
  
  
  
• Ace in the Hole Caits ultimate is more of a finisher than high damage dealer. It takes quite some time to fire so never use it on 1v1 fight. You'll just die before you get it to work. Also never use it in team fight as your auto attack does a lot more damage in same time, plus your bullet can be intercepted by opponents you didn't want to hit. Use this ability to finish enemies that are on the run with life so low you are certenly goning to kill them. One of proper uses is in gank. When there is an enemy with low health on a lain even when hidding behind turret you can finish him with your ulti without even showing from grass. This ulti will, expecialy on low levels grant you a kill at level 6 as your opponents will not retreat fast enough when on low health. You'll get a chence to use your ulti just a few times in a game, but don't worry it is not at all bad thing to have it ready as your opponents will be scared to stay in lain. With more retreats they will stay behind in levels and gold. Make it a psyhological weapon.
  
  Also notice that great range Cait have on auto attack. Make use of it any way you possibly can.
  
  

  ---

Summoner Spells

For first summoner defenetly take Flash it will save you many times no doubt there.

With experimentation i found Heal best second summoner for Caitlyn (or any other AD carry
for that matter) Why? In most games Carry take Ignite or Exhaust with Flash while supporter brings Heal. But is this realy best way? If you take Heal and your support takes Exhaust you get healed more while still having this usefull summoner on "your" arsenal. You only profit from that.

Of course, if you don't have support or you don't know your support you can take Ignite or exhoust. All other summoners are not all that useful.

Just a notice. If you don't have Flash yet, you can take Teleport to help you come to the lain faster.

---

Summary

If you'll ever see opponent's Caitlyn farming in lain phase with her Piltover Peacemaker, spaming it all around, never placing her Yordle Snap Trap or not taking it at all until forced. If you see her attacking you with her 90 Caliber Net as it was another damaging skillshot and spaming her Ace in the Hole whenever from cooldown, using all her skills in 1v1 combat, than be sure this Cait is a free kill feeder. Do not be one of those except when playing against me.

Also try to do as many things as you can from the grass. It builds your passive a lot.

This is when I finish my guide to Cait's vampire build. After more than a week of work it is over. I'll try to come back to this guide, keeping it fresh whenever something changes. Special thanks goes to jhoijhoi. Her guide helped me a lot. It is go to for all who would like to make an useful guide on mobafire.

Yours galnerion, Nordic east.