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Recommended Items
Runes:
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Heal
Items
Ability Order
Second Skin (PASSIVE)
Kai'Sa Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Ezreal
Pretty safe pick, you have to bait his E before you try to kill him as he will otherwise just jump away from your W. Don't let his W hit you or you will get bursted with either an auto attack or his Q. Try to avoid getting hit by his Q's when he's chasing you as if they hit it'll reduce the cooldowns of his other abilities.
Hello Summoner! and welcome to my guide to Kai'Sa. Whether you are new to League of Legends or a knowledgeable veteran, if you have come to learn about Kai'Sa then you have come to the right place! I have poured all of the knowledge i’ve experienced over time and I always keep trying to put in some more. I’ll be trying to keep this guide along with my other guides constantly updated over time with any changes that comes to Kai'Sa, and I'm always trying to make it look as visually tempting as I can to help with reading for you viewers out there. If you have any questions about the guide or about Kai'Sa in general, then feel free to ask in the discussion section and if you like the guide, giving this guide an up-vote or giving me a +Rep will help greatly. My Twitch.tv: Fruxo02 |
My Summoner name is Smoking Bone and this is my hopefully detailed enough guide to one of my favorite ADCs ever in this game, Kai'Sa. I started playing League on the EU West server around the middle of Season 3 and very quickly became addicted to the game. Before League, I primarily played other games that fit my interests, however, League was my first ever experience with a MOBA, which is why I became addicted very heavily towards it. Sadly I wasn’t playing the game during Season 1 or 2 so I have missed out on a lot of things that were in the game at that point, but during Season 3 is where I started to play and quickly fell in love with the game. I mainly played normals either alone or in most cases together with friends as I found that more enjoyable, it wasn’t until the start of Season 4 that I even bothered touching ranked. |
When I started playing League I didn’t really play many champions and in most cases i’d just pick randoms so that I could learn new ones in hopes to find one I like. I started playing Kai'Sa at her release because she seemed very fun, I decided to buy her right as she was released because she got popular and I liked her Void theme that she had. That's where I instantly found a love for the champion. I used to be a good ol’ Ahri main because at the time I was either switching between Ahri or Vi, one for Mid and one for Jungle, both of them was equally as enjoyable to play. During the seasons after Season 4 I only really played for fun and it was mostly just to get a grasp of the game. It wasn’t until Season 6 where I actually started to pick up ranked which is where I ended up at Silver 1, which to me seemed like a pretty bad elo to be in, however at the time I didn’t know that I was actually roughly as average as almost every other player in this game. During Season 7 is where I peaked Gold 3 though, which was a really big accomplishment for me at the time, and as of right now i’m mainly playing for fun in Gold, trying to push myself to new heights. |
Many people think I'm an OTP or “one trick pony” because of the fact that I used to only play Ahri, and yes that is pretty true, I mostly only play Ahri, but it's actually not the case. Other champions that I can play to an identical, or to an average standard are definitely Kai'Sa but it's also Xayah, Vi, Irelia and Lux. So that's a bit of my background and who I am, now it's time for you to dig deep into the treasure of knowledge I have poured into this guide. Good luck, and I hope you find something useful! |
You may be asking the question "why should I even trust this guide?" and yes, that's a completely reasonable statement. While I don't really have all that much to back up my words, I've been Gold every Season since Season 5 where I peaked Gold 3 during the time I was playing a lot during that season, and yet i’m still trying to reach new heights myself to get further with one of the champions that I love the most. I've been playing Kai'Sa since her release with almost all of my games with just her or Xayah. That makes one whole year of Kai'Sa experience from her release all the way to where we are right now. So even though i'm pretty low in a ranked state, I still hope i'm able to help you in some way! |
Now you might be wondering, why should I even bother playing Kai'Sa in the first place? And that's fine. There's a few champions that's hard for her to beat as she's very squishy during the early game and doesn't really ramp up that much until later stages of the game. But there's also a few that she can beat easily as long as they doesn't have heavy CC Supports like Braum for example. This alone is going to make the early game much harder because you can't really poke all to much because of your low range. There's always going to be champions that either Kai'Sa can easily win against, or that counters her, but that's still what makes the game enjoyable. Kai'Sa's main weakness though is her early-game as it's one of her main weakpoints that can be abused. If you aren't able to get a good early game, because you either got ganked or killed in lane, then your Mid- and Late-game is going to be much harder because you won't have all that many items. During the Late game is where she shines the best though, but she needs to be able to farm well Early to get to that point. Like said, Kai'Sa's late-game is very strong as she can easily kill opponents when she's grouped with her team, siege towers as well as splitpush. She can also engage / disengage thanks to her Killer Instinct from a really long distance as long as she has some sort of Plasma stack on the opponent already. Her Icathian Rain + the passive does a lot of damage and she can really burst down targets at any given moment. Void Seeker is also one of the most enjoyable abilities for sniping down targets from afar. I think these factors alone is good enough to make up for her early-game weakness, which in itself isn't actually all that weak. But above all, the biggest reason to play Kai'Sa is because she's such a fun champion, and she'll always be. |
Pros+ Very Strong Snowball+ Hybrid Ratios on Q, W and R+ High Scaling+ Really Good Engage / Escape+ High Mobility+ Good Duelist+ Amazing Shield Throughout the Game |
Strengths
Kai'Sa is able to dash in-and out from combat thanks to her Killer Instinct which gives her a lot of different options. She can also peel for herself with her shields coming from her ultimate. This alone makes her a great carry champion during all phases of the game.
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Weaknesses
One of the biggest weaknesses when playing Kai'Sa is if she gets a bad early game, because of the fact that she isn't able to get her items in time for important events like an objective or teamfights. It'll also be harder to be able to carry if you're facing a lot of hard CC as most of the times they'll be focusing you first during teamfights. |
Cons- Doesn't have any CC in her kit- Very weak against CC- Needs Good Positioning- Low Attack Range- R won't deal any damage- Learning to use her E properly can be hard- Mediocre when behind |
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Press the Attack is as of this patch, one of the best runes for Kai'Sa. This because of the extra burst potential especially after you proc the rune. It really makes Kai'Sa a very dangerous treat as having this rune together with her Second Skin passove will be able to make it so that you can burst down opponents super fast. After the proc of the rune it'll also make opponents easier to kill, both by you and your team. |
Triumph is extremely good for you as it's basically health in itself. Everytime you kill an enemy champion you'll get some missing health back, this is great because it gives you the ability to survive trades when you're going aggressive as long as you get the kill. It does also give some gold after takedowns which is good for getting your items a bit faster. |
Legend: Bloodline is great because life steal is really beneficial when playing Marksmen. It can also really help you out in a lot of different situations as long as you can stack it up to max throughout the game in order to make use of it to it's fullest potential. |
Coup de Grace is also a great option for one reason. It gives you a lot more damage as you burst down low health targets which is great to have during teamfights. But it also synergizes well with your Killer Instinct as you can use your ultimate to engage onto enemies and burst them down faster thanks to this rune. |
Magical Footwear: This rune is a great secondary option because it'll help you to be able to use your gold on getting other items instead of worrying about boots. Picking this rune is essentially free gold in itself, the only downside is that you have to wait 12 minutes in order to achieve it, and you can't buy any boots before that. However, the time does get reduced whenever you get takedowns so that's really nice.
Biscuit Delivery: This rune will help you a lot with giving sustain in lane as it's especially good to have for heavy poke or rough matchups like for example Draven and Braum.
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After you get four plasma stacks on the enemy champion, the fifth attack will rupture this into a bunch of damage based on the target's missing health and your ability power. That means you want to attack the enemy champion as much as you can with your abilities and your auto attacks to get those plasma's on the target quickly so that you can proc a bunch of extra damage, which can sometimes lead to executing your target.
Now as said this passive also lets you upgrade your abilities, this is based on your stats from your items and your stat growth so you need to be getting your core items as quickly as possible so you can upgrade your abilities and become even stronger.
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This ability gets much stronger when you upgrade it because the bonus AD and AP Ratio goes through the roof, it'll also release even more missiles which is great for being able to do a lot more damage.
So of course this is a great ability for single target damage because it'll do a big chunk of damage onto that target, and it's also great for last hitting minons, you'll therefore want to use it to harrass the enemy champion as much as you can in the laning phase, and to last hit minions. You can do this by first auto attacking your opponent and then releasing your missiles in order to hit as many as possible, while also being able to use this if you don't have the time to last hit minions.
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The ability does also apply Plasma stacks so it's great to get off that passive damage really really quickly. Since this ability does apply plasma it's great when combo'd with your Killer Instinct to engage from a very long distance. You can't actually use your ultimate unless there is a champion that is affected by plasma so this is a great way to do it.
Another way you can use this ability to it's fullest to make sure that it hits a target is when an opponent is CC'd. This can either be from a Thresh hook, that way you can easily hit your W along with extra damage to burst that target down as fast as possible.
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Your basic attacks will also reduce the cooldown of Supercharge which means you can use it rather often as long as you're able to auto attack all the time.
When you use this ability properly you'll be a lot harder to keep track of because of the invisibility, it's almost gonna be like keeping track of Vayne's Tumble when she has her ultimate, except you can't use it quite as often. Either way it's a great way to reposition yourself in duels, trades or in teamfights so that the enemy team won't be able to lock you down and delete you.
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The better part of the ability however is the fact that you can dash onto a target location near an enemy that was recently affected by your plasma, this does have a a scaling target range so it's great to combo this with your Void Seeker. This because if you land it from a long distance you can jump in from a pretty long range.
Of course if you're in the middle of a teamfight, you can always use this to reposition onto squishier targets to try and get them out of the game to put the teamfight into your favor. But it can also be to just get that amazing shield so that you can survive the fight.
First you'll be maxing Icathian Rain out of your basic abilities as it deals a ton of damage and it's your main source of damage out of all your abilities. Second you'll max Supercharge for more attack speed so you can increase your DPS and maximize your damage potential. Lastly max your Void Seeker for the increased damage from long range and of course take those points on your Killer Instinct whenever it's possible. |
Doran's Blade is one of the two items you'll be going when playing Kai'Sa. If you're going for a really aggressive lane, then this item is the way to go. It'll give you a decent amount of AD, Health but also Life steal, which is enough to sustain you in lane as well. It's usually against a matchup that should be significally easy for you to win, that way together with this item you'll do way more damage in the early game. Buying this item, will only leave a spot for one Health Potion and that's it, if you play safe, then just having one potion will be enough. |
This item is the other option you can go, mostly used if you are facing a matchup that is really agressive and you need to go more defensive, also a really good item if you have a Support that isn't usually very aggressive either, like Lulu or Soraka etc. Doran's Shield is great for giving you sustain in lane so that you can survive until your first item spikes which will make it very great for laning and/or poking if it's possible. You'll not have the same poking damage as if you went with Doran's Blade but going Doran's Shield is great against matchups like Draven where he wins most trades. |
Health Potions is a really good item for you, as a ranged ADC, you'll always be in danger every single time by the enemy teams ADC because they'll try to poke you down. Health Potions will give you the necessary health needed in order to survive and maybe get a really clutch kill in the end that you got from just being lucky, and that you can be proud of. It'll also make it easier for your Support if you're able to go in for trades whenever they do. |
Stealth Wards is and will always be your first -starting- totem. You'll get this item together with your Doran's Blade or Doran's Shield together with the number one Health Potion at the very start of the game. This totem will let you place down wards all around the map, it can stock 2 wards. Try to use your Stealth Wards to place wards all around the botlane bushes, (that's if your Support hasn't done so already). That way you'll always be aware when the enemy teams Jungler is preparing to gank you. |
Control Wards is really useful for you to be able to keep an eye out in bushes that the Jungler tends to go into in order to prepare a gank. It has five hits before it goes down and it'll show any hidden enemy wards while being in the bush. You can stock two Control Wards at a time of every buy in order to deny as much vision as possible. |
You usually tend to buy Farsight Alteration when you enter the late game. Farsight Alteration is really useful to be able to ward places like the Baron pit, Dragon pit or bushes where the enemy team might go into along with other useful places. It has one use before going on cooldown and it has only one hit before going down so it's useful to place it around bushes as it's gonna take time before an enemy will spot it, giving you a lot of vision. |
Pretty self-explanatory, you buy Elixir of Wrath lastly once you have maximum items and you're going for an AD build. it gives you 30 AD and a buff that'll heal you whenever you deal physical damage to a champion, will only last for 3 minutes so make sure to use it to it's fullest. |
Also pretty self-explanatory, you buy Elixir of Sorcery lastly once you have maximum items and you're going for an AP build. It gives you 50 AP, some mana regeneration, and a buff that'll let you do 25 bonus true damage to an enemy champion or turret which'll last for 3 minutes. So make use of that! |
Manamune has actually become a really good first item at the minute on Kai'Sa. It gives you AD and Mana which is good to have in the early game. However, the main important part about this item is that you'll get more AD the more maximum mana that you have, and since Kai'Sa actually doesn't use all that much, it's going to be a lot. It's also so much cheaper than the Infinity Edge and Stormrazor rush, which makes it a great starting item as you can still deal tons of damage with it. Plus, once it transforms into Muramana it becomes even better. |
Pretty standard boots for ADCs. Gives you attack speed and movementspeed. In some cases you can substitute for Ninja Tabi if the team comp is really heavy on AD, but in my opinion this is more important for your DPS, especially in the early stages. |
Very strong item on Kai'Sa after the changes to her on-hit passive. Allows you to get a lot of on-hit damage and it can also evolve your Supercharge really fast. It's a great item because you can get even more attack speed out of it. Kai'Sa becomes really strong with attack speed, so this item is a must have second.[/color] |
I really like Nashor's Tooth because it gives you a ton of attack speed which is great for Kai'Sa. But it also gives you the AP needed to evolve Void Seeker. Because you'll be going for an AP build, then this is one of the best third items for you when it comes to attack speed. |
Rabadon's Deathcap is a really good item overall but takes some time to build. It's great to go on Kai'Sa as a 4th item because it's just raw AP and it's really good to have during teamfights, and it'll help you be able to put out the damage needed during those fights. |
Really good item for giving you the last bit of AP in your build and because Kai'Sa is a champion that scales both off AD and AP, this item becomes really useful. It's also able to give you an item active that can really help in teamfights if you're really getting focused a whole ton. It does also give you some AD protection as the Seeker's Armguard is built into the item to give you some armor against those pesky annoying Assassin champions like Zed. |
This item is really good on Kai'Sa, as it's relatively cheap (2600g), gives her lot's of attack speed and overall increases your DPS a good amount since you are throwing 3 autos instead of 1. Also it gives you more damage, and the Crit chance is always great to have. Great item when you're going for an AD build as it's almost like a Nashor's Tooth because you get the evolved Void Seeker. Only difference is that it's for an AD build and not AP. |
Infinity Edge is a good item to pick up 5th after Runaan's Hurricane when you're going for AD. You'll get AD and Crit Chance which is really good to have during fights, and it'll help you the most with getting the AD damage that you need, much like Rabadon's Deathcap. |
Instead of going for a Zhonya's Hourglass like the AP build, you'll be going for Guardian Angel as it helps a lot especially if you're getting focused down in fights which in most cases happens all the time. It'll save you from death and revive you to fight again once more which is great as you need to stay alive for your team, after that it'll go back on cooldown though. Really helpful if you are insecure whether you'll die or not during a teamfight and it's a better choice then others because it also gives you AD. |
Bloodthirster is a good item that you can pick up if you desperatively need some sort of lifesteal. It's a really good item to build if you're going for an AD build and you're against a team comp that doesn't have that many grievous wounds that can ruin the lifesteal for you, like for example Morellonomicon. The bloody shield from this item is also really good to have during fights. |
Really decent item in my opinion. It gives you a one time use which'll remove all crowd control debuffs from you and it'll give you 50% movement speed for 1 second, then it'll go back on cooldown. Could be a complete life saver in a teamfight if you got hit by a stun in the start of the teamfight and you need a way to get out so that you won't get locked down and killed instead, your Mercurial Scimitar is there to be able to possibly save the day for you. |
Banshee's Veil is the second magic resist option that you'll have. It gives more magic resist to you then for example Maw of Malmortius would. However, it's a great Magic Resist item to pick up if you're going for an AP Build and you really need it. The extra CDR is also great for you. |
Void Staff is good against team comps that are stacking a lot of magic resist and it works well with your AP build. Instead of building the Zhonya's Hourglass you can build this item to ignore their magic resist while also giving you more AP for your build. |
This is another good substitute for your AD Build if you don't need a Guardian Angel yet, and you want the Attack speed + Crit chance from this item. The lifeline passive is also quite handy to have. However, it's really situational so in most cases, Guardian Angel will be a much better option unless you're really ahead. Only build this if you know you can snowball the game with it. |
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Pushing the wave unintentionally is going to be a large reason you need to be careful using her Icathian Rain all early game long, also actively look to avoid unfavorable trades because if you're aggressed on you should quicky evaluate if you can return some damage back. Even if you're on low HP, putting some damage onto enemies puts them at risk of your Jungler to gank. Because you're playing Kai'Sa you'll have a pretty good follow-up to that as well.
In an ideal trade scenario you would want to land your Void Seeker to apply the plasma debuff and deal damage, the reveal effect of the spell also negates any bush advantage that your target will have. Follow-up with your Supercharge and attempt to reposition yourself to be able to use your Icathian Rain effectively and to dodge some skillshots. You'll want to be close enough to chain auto attacks with the buff as well. The final part of the most ideal trade would be to use your Icathian Rain and land all of your missiles onto one target. You should be looking to farm up to get yourself ready for the Mid and Late game since most of your power will come in those stages of the game, when you have more items and your abilities are evolved. Don't just roll over in the Early game, you are fully capable of following up on good plays made by your Support with your abilities. You'll have to play a bunch of games with Kai'Sa to be able to learn her flow and to be able to apply all of your prior ADC knowledge to make the learning curve seemless. After the Early game and when Kai'Sa has a few items she starts to become very deadly because of her ability to find isolated targets inside lanes and assasinate them. This means that you'll need to actively find fights where you can win, because you can force them. In these isolated fights it's very key to use your abilities in a particular way. Your Icathian Rain should be used so that most of the missiles will hit one target. The Void Seeker should be ideally used to initiate and your Supercharge should be used to dodge abilities and to reposition. Of course you want to use your Killer Instinct so that you actually take advantage of the shield and possibly the mobility to dodge a spell as well.
First things first, kiting is moving in between your auto attacks to keep distance from your opponent. This can also be called Stutter stepping or Blocking, but we'll call it Kiting for short. Every champion has a delay in which they can auto attack, during this time it's very efficient to keep on walking because you can't auto attack anyways and it keeps distance from the enemy player. While this can be used to create distance between you and your opponent it can also be used to stick onto someone while trying to deal damage. For example if you're chasing someone and you want to be able to deal damage to be able to kill him, it might be better to fit in some auto attacks while you're chasing your opponent which is way more effecient and it'll have a higher chance of not letting him get away. This because the more time you waste, the more time your opponent is going to have to get away. There is a spot during your auto attack animation that is not necessary to dealing damage as part of the animation is called the rewind animation, it's the ending animation of your auto attack. This is where your character sets up for the next upcoming Auto attack animation. It has to reset back to it's original attack animation state. So, you can use that little bit of time to walk away from your opponent while still dealing damage in the meantime. The basic kite is that you auto attack and while the rewind animation is going, you proceed to walk away from your opponent. For an example lets say a random melee champion like Riven is going very aggressive on to you, you want to be able to deal damage to her while not letting her get close to you. You auto attack her and while the animation is about to rewind, you walk away from Riven to keep distance from her but also to be able to avoid her specific abilities. After that you'll start over again, so you continue to auto attack and move away from Riven until she either dies, or she catches up to you so you die instead. The time you have to walk away is something you'll have to get used to, sometimes you got more movement speed so you can keep your distance by just taking one step, or you got less movement speed so it'll take longer for you when moving. Practice tool is something that is the best way in order to train on how to kite, just put in a dummy and train your auto attacks and movement onto it. It's only practice, practice and more practice in order to become better with it. Fighting is one of the most important skills of any Marksmen in the ADC role to practice, because this is one of the core-mechanics of the role. Keeping distance from a bruiser that tries to chase you happens all the time, and being prepared for that is the key to winning the game for your team.
Before we go into anything else, I'm going to try to list and explain all possible Kai'Sa combos that i've experienced over time. However, if you want to skip this section then you can click Here to get to the Tips & Tricks section instead.
In this combo section, AA stands for auto attack and Q, W, E, and R are abilities and shows with icons. mW is Melee Void Seeker from a short distance like right next to someone and rQ is ranged Void Seeker from a long distance like hitting someone from afar. mR is Melee Killer Instinct from a short distance to get a fast shield and rR is ranged Killer Instinct from a long distance to catch up with someone, or engaging a fight. NOTE: You'll always be able to fit in an Auto Attack in the beginning as well as the end of every combo that you do in order to effeciently proc your passive all the time. ANOTHER NOTE: If this long list of combos confuses you, then just focus on the first combo from each variation as well as the full combo + chasing combo until you master them and get a hang of how Kai'Sa works, then you can move onto the rest. Combo #1 Combo #2 Combo #3 Kai'Sa is able to move or cast another ability during the animation of her Icathian Rain. Kai'Sa's Icathian Rain determines the targets that'll be hit at the spot that it's casted. Therefore, Icathian Rain + Killer Instinct or Icathian Rain + Flash will still damage your current surrounding targets. Combo #1 Combo #2 Combo #3 You can cast an ability during the start of your Void Seeker's channel in order to shave off it's casting time. As long as you Flash or use any other ability before Void Seeker's channel ends. While using Flash you can also change the trajectory of Void Seeker towards your target. Combo #1 Combo #2 Your Killer Instinct is technically an instant cast so even if you're in the super speed animation, the next skill can already be casted. By using Killer Instinct + Void Seeker, you'll guarantee that the Void Seeker will land on the desired target. Combo #1 W+R+Q+E NOTE: Start with an AA to proc your first passive stack, which is also linked to your Killer Instinct's usage. Cast your Void Seeker, then use your Killer Instinct at the end of the channel of your Void Seeker. Use your Icathian Rain during the super speed animation of Killer Instinct to start dealing damage ASAP, follow up with your Supercharge to reposition yourself. End it all off with an AA to proc your passive. Combo #2 Full Combo NOTE: The highest amount of damage that you can put out at once. Combo #3 Chasing NOTE: This is a great combo when you're trying to catch up with someone running away. Start by casting your Void Seeker and once it hits, you'll use your Killer Instinct so that you can easily get to them in order to burst them down.
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It has been a blast making this guide and i've enjoyed it completely, and I hope you've had a good time reading it too! I also hope that you've been able to learn atleast something new from one of my most favorite ADCs out there!
If you enjoyed the guide like I mentioned before, an Up-vote will always help me greatly, but if you don't agree with something i've mentioned or you feel like you're confused about something then don't hesitate to leave a Comment down in the Discussion section or PM me about it! I try to respond whenever I can.
Continue to have fun out there in the rift, and I hope you'll be as successful with Kai'Sa as I have been! :)
But also a very special big thanks to these people down below:
jhoijhoi: For making an amazing BBCoding guide that has helped me with building all of the guides that I own! You can find her making a guide tutorial here. |
Jovy: For making all of the amazing banners and the ToC / Back to ToC used in this guide and in most of my other guides! Also for the coding on the Combo section mentioned by Yamikaze when I asked for permission, thank you so much! You're the best. ❤ You can find her signature shop here. |
Maintained: For his great reviews which made me be able to improve this guide a lot. But also for letting me use his coding in the Pros & Cons section of the guide. You can find his guides here. |
IceCreamy: For making a columns guide that helped me with getting to know what columns are for and in order to make my own guide look really cool. You can find his guide here. |
Foxy Riven: For making a table guide that helped me a lot with understanding what tables are and how they work in order to make my own guide look really neat. You can find his guide here. |
jamespongebob: He made another nice BBCoding guide that also helped me on my adventure with this and my other guides! You can find his guide here. |
Cheers, Fruxo
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