STATS

• Base Health Pool

  571 HP (increased by 86 per level)

• Base HP Regen

  3.5 HP/sec (increased by about 1 per level)

• Base Mana Pool

  ~345 (increased by 38 per level)

• Base Mana Regen

  ~8 (increased by about 0.5 per level).

• Base Attack Damage

  59 (increased by about 2 AD per level)

• Base Ability Power

  0 (does not increase by leveling up.)

• Base Armor

  28 (increased by 3 per level)

• Base Magic Resistance

  30 (increased by about 1 per level)

• Attack Range

  525

• Attack Speed

  0.644 (increases by 2% per level)

• Movement Speed

  335 - 586 (does not increase by leveling up)

KIT POWER

• Carry

  5/5

  The higher this is, the more likely this hero can win the game for their team if they gain a significant gold advantage.

• Physical Damage

  3/6

• Magical Damage

  3/6

• Overall damage

  4/5

• Mobility

  5/5

• Durability

  2/5

• Initiation

  0/5

  The higher this is, the better they are at starting teamfights and getting away with it - ending the teamfight in their team's favor.

ROLE VIABILITY

• Support0/5
• Jungler3/5
• Mid Lane2/5
• Top Lane2/5
• Bottom Lane5/5

• Her kit has a mix of Magical and Physical damage, making it hard to counter her with Armor and Magic Resist.
• Incredibly versatile kit.
• Decent burst damage and an adequate escape method via Supercharger.
• Not too difficult to learn. (It should take 20 games to get used to her give or take.)
• Great at 1v1s.
• Very difficult to stop if she gets a good gold advantage.

• Relies heavily on farming to carry into the late game.
• Short attack range and Icathian Range's damage distribution makes her relatively weak during the early game.
• HATES enemy Crowd Control.
• Has no Crowd Control aside from items she might buy.
• Killer Instinct's long cooldown means she has to really commit to a fight if she wishes to start one.

STARTING ITEMS

• Doran's Shield - The default starting item for Kai'Sa. Kai'Sa's squishy HP pool and short attack range makes her early game a bit weak. Doran's Shield helps give her the ability to sustain herself in lane. I recommend buying this when facing enemies that you believe are going to try to put lots of pressure on you in the early game - like Zyra
• Doran's Blade - A popular alternative to Doran's Shield. Doran's Blade is great for "all-ins" thanks to its offensive stats (Attack Damage and Lifesteal). Buy this if you feel you don't need Doran's Shield for this game.
• The Dark Seal- The Dark Seal is, in my opinion, a great starting item for most Ability Power heroes thanks to it's ability to stack up more and more Ability Power for racking up more and more kills. If you're a professional, I suggest you give the Dark Seal a try if you plan on building AP Kai'Sa.
• Doran's Ring - If you're building AP Kai'Sa, Doran's Ring is typically the way to go. It gives you some extra Ability Power and gives you a small bit of bonus damage against minions - like Doran's Shield.

CORE ITEMS

• Stormrazor - A default core build item for Kai'Sa. If you haven't used a Basic Attack in a brief period (that period gets shorter as your Attack Speed gets higher), your next Basic Attack is a guaranteed critical hit (said guaranteed critical hit does more damage if you build items that give you random critical hits). This item can make last-hits much easier, and it's one of the few items that simultaneously improves your Attack Speed and Attack Damage.
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find this item to be a bit of a crutch. It's stats aren't that impressive for its gold cost. Yes, it offers both Attack Damage and Attack Speed (and not a lot of items offer that), but the Rapid Firecannon and the Statikk Shiv arguably have more utility and synergize better with Attack Damage items.
• The Essence Reaver - It doesn't give you crits anymore, but the Essence Reaver gives you 20% Cooldown Reduction and can allow you to use your abilities faster in combat after using Killer Instinct. It's a good item for aggressive players.
• Berserker's Greaves - The default boots for Kai'Sa. They're boots that make you attack faster - what's not to love?
• Sorcerer's Shoes - I personally believe these boots are better for Kai'Sa due to her passive inflicting Magic Damage. With the Magic Penetration offered by the Sorcerer's Shoes, enemies that build Magic Resistance to counter your plasma becomes less of an issue. The Berserker's Greaves let you auto-attack faster, but the Sorcerer's Shoes scales better with your abilities.
• Guinsoo's Rageblade - A must-have for Kai'Sa regardless if you're building Attack Damage or Ability Power. It allows her to attack faster and also allows her to proc her plasma roughly twice as fast. Ability Power, Attack Speed, and Attack Damage all bundled into one little blade.
• Nashor's Tooth - Nashor's Tooth gives you a huge Attack Speed bonus of 40% and gives you 80 Ability Power. It's a core item for Ability Power builds for this very reason. Even then, I find it to be useful for AD builds to help counter enemies that are building Armor.
• Stalker's Blade - The Stalker's Blade is the jungle item you should build as Kai'Sa if you are your team's jungler. Build blue if you're building AP; build red if you're building AD. The Stalker's Blade enchants Smite to steal movement speed from a targeted enemy hero (like the Blade of the Ruined King does) - making it easier to secure kills.

OFFENSIVE ITEMS

• - The Abyssal Mask gives Kai'Sa HP, CDR, and allows her to regain HP simply by using her spells. It also gives her heavy resistance against Magical Damage, while applying a debuff to nearby enemies (via an aura) that does the exact opposite.
• - The Black Cleaver tears through enemy armor with every instance of physical damage - turning Icathian Rain into an armor-shredding nightmare for tanks. It also gives Kai'Sa some HP and CDR - allowing her to use her abilities faster and helping compensate for her frailty. I also shouldn't have to mention that it gives Kai'Sa more AD.
• - The Blade of the Ruined King is a decent tank-killer that can be used on an enemy to steal some of their movement speed - making it easier to secure kills. It's one of the few items that simultaneously improves your Attack Speed and Attack Damage, making it a decent item to build if you're a fan of Stormrazor.
• The Bloodthirster is raw AD that allows your basic attacks' lifesteal to overheal you. It's arguably one of the best items you can invest in if you have a serious gold advantage.
• Infinity Edge is a must-have for any crit build. It's currently the only item that gives you AD and increases your crit ratio, and it's passive ability gives your crits more power overall.
• Luden's Echo greatly improves Kai'Sa's AP, gives her 20% CDR, and allows Void Seeker to apply plasma to multiple targets at once.
• - An upgrade for Dark Seal, Mejai's Soulstealer can potentially give you 145 Ability Power, so long as you keep racking up kills and not die. That means the only item in the game to offer anywhere near as much AP is Rabadon's Deathcap, and it comes at a fairly cheap price.
• - A very powerful late-game item for any AP item build, Rabadon's Deathcap passively increases your current AP by 40%. This can turn Void Seeker into a deadly nuclear missile, essentially.
• - Runaan's Hurricane is great for most games, as it allows Kai'Sa to attack multiple enemies at once.

DEFENSIVE ITEMS

• Banshee's Veil - A must-have when fighting an enemy team with 3 or more Ability Power heroes.
• Death's Dance - Death's Dance works a lot like Bloodthirster, the main difference is that it heals for 15% for ALL physical damage dealt - that includes your abilities. It also gives you 10% ability Cooldown Reduction (CDR), and mitigates some damage you take by turning it into damage over time.
• Guardian Angel - Guardian Angel is a good item for aggressive players that offers a decent amount of armor. Its passive effect allows you to revive upon dying, but it has a REALLY long cooldown.
• The Maw of Malmortius - The Maw of Malmortius is great against an enemy team that heavily focuses on Magic Damage (that doesn't always mean they rely on Ability Power, mind you). It gives you Magic Resistance, CDR, some good Attack Damage, and a unique passive that gives you Lifesteal and a shield if an enemy spell lowers your HP to 29% or less.
• [item=mercurial scimitar size=50] The Mercurial Scimitar - The Mercurial Scimitar gives you Lifesteal and Attack Speed, but it's most important feature is that it can be activated to immediately purge most forms of Crowd Control. This includes Stuns, Sleeping, Slows, and Stasis. Activating the Scimitar also gives you a brief Movement Speed buff - making it good for getting yourself out of sticky situations.
• The Phantom Dancer - The Phantom Dancer is an item that gives you a 30% random crit ratio that gives you more Attack Speed than any other crit item. It also has two very potent passive abilities that improve your mobility and chances of winning fights. Spectral Waltz gives you the ability to ignore unit collision - allowing you to move through units - but only when an enemy hero is in your face. Lament causes your target to deal less damage to you, but it can only affect 1 enemy hero at a time.
• The Rapid Firecannon - The Rapid Firecannon is a crit item with a passive that charges up by moving and dealing damage. Once fully charged, your next basic attack has greatly increased range and is a guaranteed crit. I think it's a good item to use if you're using items like Stormrazor and runes like Fleet Footwork.
• Zhonya's Hourglass - An item I recommend for experienced players. Zhonya's Hourglass can be activated to trigger Stasis - rendering you immune to ALL damage and Crowd Control for a brief period, but also rendering you immobile and unable to use your spells or basic attacks. It can save you from an otherwise fatal situation if used correctly.

SUPPORT HEROES

• Soraka

BOTTOM LANE HEROES

• Caitlyn
• Jinx

MID LANE HEROES

• Ahri
• Irelia

TOP LANE HEROES

• Irelia

December 31st, 2018

• Added "Pros and Cons", "Riot's Champion Spotlight", and "Changelog" chapters.
• Added some heroes to the "Threats" tab.
• Added some heroes to the "Synergies tab.

January 1st, 2019 (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

• Added "AP Build" Item Set.
• Added some heroes to "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.

January 2nd, 2019

• Added some heroes to "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.
• Added the Blade of the Ruined King to the "Offensive Items" tab.

January 3rd, 2019

• Added a Summoner Spell build and an item build set for junglers.

January 5th, 2019 (Took a day off. :) )

• Added a new Rune set.
• Added some heroes to the "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.

January 7th, 2019 (Chores kept me busy yesterday)

• Re-organized the "Offensive Items" and "Defensive Items" tabs - putting them into several sub-categories so that readers can better understand their item purchases.
• Added some more heroes to the "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.
• Changed the title of this guide. Hopefully that'll attract more traffic. :)

January 8th, 2019 (1,000 Views! :D)

• Added some of my social media contacts - including my Twitch channel and Twitter.
• Added some heroes to the "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.
• Added some videos I watched that helped teach me what I know today. I hope they'll help you as much as they helped me. :D
• Added a link to my new guide for Soraka. I plan on also doing this for my future builds.

January 9th, 2019

• Added a new rune set in light of the recent patch. Give me your feedback to let me know if this rune set works for you! I just might keep it if it works. :)
• Added some heroes to the "Threats" and "Synergies" tabs.

• Added a chapter to the guide: "Late Game Help". Over time, as I play the game more and more, I plan on making more detailed guides that'll have advice similar to these chapters. As time goes on, they should become more detailed.

• Added a new (and pretty damn long) chapter to the guide that goes over pretty much every item I've put in this build. (I wish you could do this by default without having to make a long chapter in the guide like they do in DOTA 2's guide building system.)
• Edited "My Build"
  Removed Essence Reaver as a core item and replaced it with Blade of the Ruined King
  Removed Berserker's Greaves as a core item and replaced it with Sorcerer's Shoes
• Added Dark Seal to the build.
• Added Mejai's Soulstealer to the build.

January 20th, 2019

• Added new item builds for people who play Kai'Sa in the top and mid lanes.
• Added Black Cleaver to the build.
• Edited my item build, including the order to buy items.

• Edited my item build.
  Re-added Essence Reaver as a core item for my build.
  Re-arranged the build order. Essence Reaver is built first, then Guinsoo's Rageblade, then Sorcerer's Shoes.
• Added a list of Kai'Sa's stats, which has started to become a staple for my other guides.
• Added links to my newer guides.
• Updated Kai'Sa's detailed item list to be more consistent to the designs of my newer guides.
  You won't see the names of the items in bold next to the items' icons, as you can easily gloss your cursor over the icons to see their names anyways. Looking at it now, it was redundant was only useful for taking up more time in my day to finish my guides.
  The text detailing the usefulness of these items will follow the light blue - dark blue pattern to make the list easier to read.