Hey guys, my first build on this site, which is an x/post from MF.
So basically, I used to love certain champions (and I still do), but as it always happens, you play one champ and you'll eventually get bored of it.. so, as time passed, I played less Ryzes, less Karthuses, and tried some new stuff, which involves Kayle. Needless to say, I fell in love with her from the first game.
Of course, I didn't know how to build her right of the bet - instead, I consoled the guides on this site, and came out disappointed - in two words, **** Gunblade. That item is basically trash before the late-late-late-late game, and there is absolutely no reason to build it before your other items. Another problem with their builds is that you either go AD and your CDR rely on pots+blue buff (we'll get to that later), or the hybrid build relies on some bad items, which give you a small bit of sustainability/survivability in exchange for terrible DPS (in comparison to my current build).

Basically, this is the best build I managed to find for Kayle, so, on to the guide!

Pros - Amazing farming potential. - Strong all game long, from early to late. - Good escaping/chasing mechanism - One of the, if not the strongest single target DPS lategame, when properly farmed. - Hybrid DPS, hybrid penetration, so unlike an AD Kayle, your DPS wont drastically fall if enemies stack armour. - Ultimate is useful at all times, and at lv16 with 40% CDR the cooldown is 24 seconds. - In case you got shut down, you can always act as a secondary support.

Cons - Extremely skill based, both micro and decision making. - Farm dependent. - No long ranged pokes, very low sustainability. - Naturally, she's slow as ****. #Currently - Lots of whiny b****es when you say you go mid as Kayle.

So, many people overlook this, and if you're into "I feel like playing this champion and I'mma do it no matter what", you can skip this part.

There are some important things you need to take into account when picknig Kayle:
- Very high DPS, but low range.
- Very low survivability, without skills.
- NO LONG RANGED POKE.
- Low sustainability.
- 2-3 seconds of Invulnrability, at start and sometimes end of the teamfight.

So, from this, comes a very important conclusion - you should only pick Kayle in three scenarios:
- Team is based mostly on heavy initiation with some moderate pokes (Amumu jung, Gargas mid, Blitz+Vayne for example), so in late-game situations you don't wait to be poked, you go right in (or pull) and start the fight.
- Your other 4 teammates have heavy poke potential and sustain - for example Cho jungle, Gargas mid, and Ashe+Soraka bot.
- Your opponent has mediocre sustainability/poke.

Basically, what you don't want to happen is your opponent has considerably higher poke/sustainability, while you can't initiate and your own poke/sustain is bad. Kayle contributes to none of the above, so if you end up with something like Xin jungle, Taric+Tristana bot and Ryze mid, just do the team a favor and pick Cho Gath or something similar (unless the enemy forsakes sustainability for favor of initiation, which Kayle does well against with her ult).

This is the first variation of runes. Basically, attack speed comes to remedy Kayle's early game AS issues, HP/Lv comes to remedy her squishieness, CDR comes to help your cooldowns (later I'll talk why Blue Pot addiction and Blue Buff dependency are bad), and speed helps with your ridiculously low speed, which you'll retain until late game.

Marks: Can also be Greater Mark of Magic Penetration or Greater Mark of Precision, in case you like penetration. I personally use the first one, and it works. I still prefer attack speed though, and if I had those runes on my current account I'd be using them.

Seals: Greater Seal of Armor is also an alternative, but mainly if you are top, since mid champions will be AP based.

Glyphs: You can, if you want, get 3 Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction and 6 Greater Glyph of Attack Speed. I personally prefer my flat CDR, since even though it overlaps a bit with the CDR/Lv mastery (meaning, I waste 3% CDR at level 18), I get to the 40% cap earlier, which make my mid-game better significantly (worth the lack of the 4% AS/8 MR/Whatever).

Glyphs You could, of course, get Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration, Greater Quintessence of Precision or Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed. but from personal experience, you'll NEED the movement speed in an incredible amount of situations, so I prefer to get it.

/
Ignite is the most common spell to go with Flash on Kayle.
While this spell is good, I found exhaust tends to be more useful in offensive (or 1v1) situations, unless the enemy is regenerating health in an insane pace (aka, Dr. Mundo). Still, there is no shame in taking this spell, but you'll have way less survivability versus ganks.

This is basically the best combo you can have, under normal circumstances.
Flash - I don't think I need to explain why this spell is a must-have on almost any champion in the game.
Exhaust is good because not only is it an offensive spell (and better than Ignite in most cases), but it's also defensive, allowing you to chase, escape, and shut down dangerous enemies, all in the same time.

Alternatives (To exhaust]/[[Ignite])


I haven't used it, but I heard this is an amazing spell. Surge gives you attack speed and AP, and has a relatively low CD, so I'm pretty sure that if the enemy doesn't have a lifestealing/regenerating champ, this is better than Ignite late-game and around as good early game. Needs more testing, though.



Late-game, if their team is stun heavy, using this during teamfights (to get out of a stun, nonetheless) will make you do way, way higher damage in that fight and also potentially to stay alive. However, this doesn't have any offensive capabilities, and you got your ult for survival, so I personally prefer Exhaust. Still, this spell is good.



This spell overlaps with , so I don't think it's more useful than any of the abilities above, but Kayle does benefit from the MS, so I'll leave it here.

Starting Items
You always, always start with Boots and 3 Health Potion. There are just no better items for you to get.
Get back at 950~1060 gold, and get x2 Doran's Ring and optionally a Sight Ward plus some Health Potions. Than, next stop back, finish your Berserker's Greaves.

Mid Game
Build a Blasting Wand into a Guinsoo's Rageblade. Follow up with Daggers into Stinger into Nashor's Tooth.
Next on, get a Zeal and work your way to Phantom Dancer. Congradz, mid game is over. At this point, you might have already won, but if you didn't, here's the followup.
Note: NEVER get Hextech Gunblade or Trinity Force before any of this. EVER.

Late Game
Recurve Bow will turn your insane AS into something completely broken. Now, it all depends on what you feel you need.
If you feel you only need more sustainability, get a Hextech Gunblade first.
If you always get focused down, get Guardian Angel.
Else, finish your Madred's Bloodrazor and go on to buy one of the Above items.
If the game STILL doesn't end, exchange your shoes with a Trinity Force or another Phantom Dancer.



Why Elixirs Are Bad (most of the time)
Potions, for just 250, give you a big advantage for 4 minutes. Is it worth it?
Well, lets take a look:
They are too expensive to be used early game, when you're still getting the basic items.
Mid game, they are great, and this is probably the only time you should buy them as Kayle (if you need them). However, they put you behind on your main items, so use them wisely!
Late game they put you behind on the main items just like in the mid game, however their effects are much smaller relative to your farm than they were before. They're still relatively ok, but I'd use them only if I'm very far behind or very far ahead.
I personally never get potions at all on Kayle, unless I desperately feel we need some fast advantage.

Blue Buff
You need your blue buff early game - you need it badly. The CDR and Mana regen are exactly the issues you'll be having (CDR til Nashor's Tooth, Mana issues til the end of the game).
At mid game, it'll help you alot as well, and as the mid you should have the highest priority to get it.
At late game, you'll not have any CD issues, but you'll have troubles with mana - teamfights will drain most of your full bar, and it'll regen too slow. So basically, a blue buff late-game will save you a few Recalls, which is quite big.

So, has this yielded any results?
Well, I can say I almost never lost a lane (apart from certain champions who either counter Kayle, or you can't kill them while they can't kill you), and I have a solid 62% win ratio with her in Ranked, 2nd to only Jax (out of champions with 10+ games). if you don't include the few times I was forced to support (support Kayle is bad, and I'm not even used to play her like that), you can make that around 70%.
Here are some results:

Firstly, this isn't to put down people who uploaded AD builds or to make me look intelligent or anything like that.

I'm simply putting some math I did earlier, when just designing this build, to show why Hybrid Kayle has significant pros and way lesser cons compared to AD Kayle. All this assumes you didn't have to waste money on Elixirs, and that somebody else (your AP carry) has gotten blue.
This is the exact math I did in my notepad, way back:

DPS per Reconing, and other stats

Runes: 13 Armor/ 1.08 HP-Lv, 5.9% CDR, 8.5 MPR, 4.5% MS Masteries: 3 AD, 0.04 AS, 10% APR, 4% CDR, 10% MPR, 0.5% Damgage, Standard Tank Tree, 3/5 HP Per Sec, 0.45% CDR Per Level. 10.5k Gold: Berzerkers, Dorans, Guinsoo, Nashor's, Phantom, Recursive Bow CDR:40% Lifesteal:0% Spell Vamp: 0% MPR: 8.5+10%. APR: 10% Mana Regen: 4.05/sec Armour:80 MR: 44 10.752 Attacks per 4.8 Sec Ad=219 Per Attack (crit included) Bonus=110 ap Nuke = 425 Phys Damage - 2354 / 490 Magic Damage - 1607 / 334 Total - 3961 / 824 Link: http://leaguecraft.com/lnk/b0m

Runes: 0.21 AS, 13 Armor, 6% Lifesteal Masteries: 3 AD, 0.04 AS, 10% APR, 0.5AD/Lv, 3% Lifesteal, 6 APR, +10% Crit Damage, +6% Damage Below 40%, Standard Tank Tree. 10.5k Gold: Berzerkers, IE, Phantom, BT CDR:0% Lifesteal:29% Spell Vamp: 0% MPR: 0% APR: 6+10% Mana Regen: 2.05/sec Armour:80 MR: 44 11.384 Attacks per 8 Sec Ad=624.16 Per Attack (crit included) Bonus= 60 ap Nuke = 450 Phys Damage - 7103 / 888 Magic Damage - 683 / 85 Total - 7787 / 973 Link: http://leaguecraft.com/lnk/Hzm

Q Wait, but the damage is higher for AD Kayle! How is hybrid better?
1. First of all, you have permanent E. Even if an AD Kayle gets a blue elixir, they'll still have 4 or so seconds during which they are melee, and therefor can't do a thing in the 2nd half of the teamfight, or can't chase/finish of an enemy, or so on. Their DSP for those few seconds is 0, while as Hybrid you have consistent Ranged DPS.
2. Second, your Q has a way shorter CD. That means, even with blue, and AD kayle will have the slow, and most importantly, +10% damage, around 35% less than you. That means, for 33% of the time your DPS is +10%, which already makes it closer to the AD Kayle in pure damage.
3. Speaking of utility, your freaken ULTIMATE takes 60% of the time to recharge - 36 seconds at level 16. This means that, as oppossed to AD Kayle, you can sometimes use it at the pre-start AND very end of the teamfight. Or shield the tank at Baron, and have the ult up by the time the enemy comes. You name it.
4. Last, but by far not least, half your damage is magical! And on top of that, you got penetrations for MR and Armor same as the AD Kayle has for just armor. However, if the enemies stack armor against an AD Kayle, that'll be way more effective than stacking it versus you, since half your damage ignores the armor, strikes them right in their MRless face.
5. Attack Speed - your Attack Speed is about 165% of an AD Kayle attack speed, at least following the build I compared to. That means, it'll take you around 2 seconds to apply all your Armor/MR reduction, while it'll take around 3.5 seconds for an AD Kayle. That's not enormous, but significant.
6. More magic regeneration, means more sustainability (albeit, it's still very low)


Q What's the advantage of AD Kayle than?
Probably just one thing - Lifesteal, which allows you to survive longer. The reason I don't really care about this is because when you get focused, you'll melt anyway, while otherwise Lifesteal doesn't change a thing. I could go into details, but if you want, try the other build, and you'll see that Lifesteal doesn't really help you replanish your HP in 3 seconds during teamfights, but rather heal in between fights without having to recall (which you'll have to do anyway once you run out of Mana).

On lane, you just use Reckoning and attack him (with E on) while he's slowed. When you're far and you know he can run back, you can sometimes catch him with Divine Blessing - use it, rush to him, and do your harass combo.

This is more or less how you're gonna roll all game long, only exceptions are when you're low on mana. At those points, your skill/expirience with Kayle will show, as you'll have to make the right decision on whether to use E, maby help chase with W, or hope you can cath him and use Q, or maby you need to save mana for the Intervention? That's all situational, and what you decide defines how good of a Kayle player you are.

Your most important skill, and when to use it:

Tower Diving
To use: When somebody is taking too much damage, and would otherwise die, use it. You can also dive an enemy that is low hp and doesn't have blinks/stuns/heavy slows left, than use the Intervention to survive.
Not to use: Don't think this grants you CC immunity - the duration is very short, so if he slows/stuns you, or blinks away, it'd be a waste of ulti.

Skirmishes
To use: Your teammate is escaping, with very low hp. If you know he only needs an extra sescond to get to safety, but the enemy{ies} has a nuke, you can shield your ally. You can also use it when you know somebody is gonna eat a **** ton of nukes in the next second.
Not to use: Your teammate is on low HP, trying to escape, but he's getting chased by too many enemies, and is getting slowed so he's going to die. Thus, it wont matter if you give him 2 extra seconds, he'll still die, only that you'll also waste an ulti.

Teamfights
To use: In big teamfights, you shield only the main damage dealer. This means, you'll only be using this on either yourself or the AD carry (or AP carry, if you were top), depending on the situation.
Not to use: Your tank is initiating, and is going to eat all the enemy nukes! Should you shield him? Absolutely NOT. The more the enemy focuses the tank, the better. That's his job. You only save your ult for the carry or yourself, and in 9 out of 10 situations it'd be completely ******ed to waste your ult on a tank.

(Early-Mid Game)
F**k Akali. This is the most annoying champion you can lane again. Her sustainability, burst, invis, and on top of all no mana will make you unable to kill her on the lane, while the way she works you can't really beat her with the ult, since her damage is fully done in bursts. If you see her against you, either go to another lane or only farm, trying not to die.


(Lane)
You can't do anything versus him on the lane, but he can't do too much against you either. I remember one time I was just hitting him (with E), while he was just hitting minions, and his HP didn't move.
If you lane versus him, just focus on lasthiting and wait for ganks.


(Early Game)
Laning versus her is always gonna be bad, especially if you're Kayle. Your ult also wont cover all of her ult, and absorb 2 shots at best. Don't go top if there is an Irelia there.


(Lane)
You'll have very, very hard time laning versus this guy. Luckily for you, he'll be pushing, so you should request as many ganks on him as you think you need, and shut him down this way. Don't let him snowball and you'll be fine.


(General)
Her ranged silence can really, really **** you up sometimes, especially if you need to ult or re-use E. Nothing to do against this, but it doesn't completely shut you down either, so just live with it.


(Lane)
Few are the ones who can beat him 1v1 top, and Kayle is not one of them. Just use the bush to kite his ghosts, try to lasthit and wait for a gank.

All in all, Kayle is a very strong pick versus certain mid heroes, and generally good versus the rest.

Her early-midgame is solid, her late game is incredible, and she scales well with early farm (meaning, if you get fed early, you can easily snowball and rape the **** out of the enemy team in 2v1 and sometimes even 1v3's).

I can't really add much, apart from saying that if you do pick her, make it very clear to the team - in advance - that you're going mid, to avoid misunderstandings.

That's it, hope this guide helps you, and cya on the battlefield!

1/10/2012 - Final version posted on Mobafire.
1/20/2012 - Added the Blue Buff topic I forgot to paste.
1/20/2012 - Added another forgotten part, the counters.
2/10/2012 - Re-Submitted this version, old one was apparently bugged to not appear as a full guide.
2/10/2012 - F**k me. I really had to get used to the UI here... I didn't see the summoner spells in the top of the guide.
2/10/2012 - Edited the Elixirs part.
6/10/2012 - Edited the cons, added Picking Strategy.
11/10/2012 - Added AD vs Hybrid Kayle comparison.