Hi! Welcome to my Kai'Sa guide. It may be a bit off-meta, but it focuses on maximizing the impact of her passive Second Skin. More on that later; allow me to introduce myself.

I am Cali Bot, an average casual player of League of Legends. I am not high elo, but I have proudly mained marksmen since Season 4 and Kai'Sa since Season 9. I don't claim to be the best Kai'Sa player, I just wanted to create an alternative build for her that suits the playstyle I have the most fun with :-) I hope you will consider trying it out! (This build is currently under construction)

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Why Kai'Sa?

Although I was initially attracted to Kai'Sa for her design, I quickly fell in love with her gameplay. A highly mobile hyper carry that darts around the battlefield capable of bursting as well as sustained damage makes way for a variety of playstyles and skill expression.

Pros Is a scaling champion > has carry potential Deals both physical and magic damage Rewards high mechanical skill

Cons Has the lowest range in the marksman class Relatively weak laning phase (can be improved by a good support) Requires good situational itemization

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Why this build?

My on-hit build focuses on outputting sustained damage to multiple targets via Second Skin. This highly contrasts the current on-meta build that focuses on burst damage to a single target via Icathian Rain. Although it is slightly adaptable, please know that this build will not be your best option every game. I am still personally testing iterations of this build to make it the best it can be.

There are plenty of in-depth guides to Kai'Sa's best runes, so I will be explaining only my keystone choices here.

Hail of Blades

This has been considered Kai'Sa's best keystone rune for a while, and for good reason. It strengthens her laning phase by enabling her to dominate short trades. While early Kai'Sa lacks trading potential, Hail of Blades compensates for that. It almost guarantees a rupture from Second Skin, dealing massive damage in the early game thanks to its % missing HP scaling. Pairing this with Void Seeker at level 2 and a catching ability such as Grand Entrance or Light Binding will surely score an early kill. This rune synergizes with a single target burst playstyle.

Lethal Tempo

In preseason 12, Lethal Tempo's effect was changed from a burst of attack speed to ramping attack speed when attacking enemy champions, granting bonus attack range at maximum stacks. Taking this keystone will sacrifice Kai'Sa's early game pressure in favor of a stronger late game rune that synergizes with my sustained damage build. Please note that I am still testing this rune on Kai'Sa, and I have yet to determine if it is a viable replacement for the dominant Hail of Blades.

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In this section I will be describing key things to remember about each of Kai'Sa's abilities. If you are new to Kai'Sa, I strongly recommend reading the entire description of each ability in order to fully understand her kit.

Passive - Second Skin

• Attacks and Void Seeker deal more magic damage on-hit to targets with more stacks of plasma applied. Landing Void Seeker on someone with 4 stacks of plasma applied can do a surprising amount of burst damage.
• The damage from rupturing a target (attacking a target with 4 stacks of plasma) scales with % missing HP, making it a fantastic tool for execution.
• Plasma can be applied by Kai'Sa's allies through hard crowd control.

Q - Icathian Rain

• The missiles from Icathian Rain will automatically distribute themselves evenly between every target within range at the moment of casting. Therefore, this ability's damage is greatly amplified against isolated targets.
• The range of Icathian Rain is barely longer than Kai'Sa's basic attack range. A common combo is an autoattack immediately followed by casting Icathian Rain.
• The missiles from Icathian Rain will always hit their target regardless of the ending position of Kai'Sa or her target. Their targeting is based solely on their initial positioning.
• Kai'Sa is free to move, attack, or cast immediately after casting Icathian Rain. Use this to your advantage while kiting or comboing.

W - Void Seeker

• Void Seeker grants vision during flight and reveals its target for 4 seconds. Use this to scout the Fog of War or track invisible units.
• Advanced: Flash can be cast during the windup animation of Void Seeker to change the position that the projectile is shot from.

E - Supercharge

• No abilities or attacks can be performed during the windup duration of Supercharge. The windup duration is decreased by Kai'Sa's bonus attack speed.

Ultimate - Killer Instinct

• Kai'Sa may dash to any position around her target as long as the target itself is within Killer Instinct's cast range. (This may be hard to visualize, I will work on a visual representation of this mechanic)
• Use Killer Instinct to make clean escapes by dashing over a wall that your opponent is standing near.
• Icathian Rain, Void Seeker, or Supercharge can be cast during the travel duration of Killer Instinct. Use this to catch opponents by surprise.
• Do not forget that Killer Instinct is a dash and can be interrupted by hard crowd control.

In this section, I will be explaining the theory behind my core item choices for this build.

Kraken Slayer or Galeforce

I believe that Kraken Slayer is overall the best mythic option for Kai'Sa as it gives her a substantial amount of attack damage and attack speed, both much-needed stats on her. I strongly recommend building Kraken Slayer especially if the enemy team has one or more tanks.
On the other hand, Galeforce can provide unique utility with its active ability. In my opinion, Galeforce is better suited for a burst build.

Runaan's Hurricane and Guinsoo's Rageblade

This combination of legendary items creates the perfect synergy with Second Skin in my eyes. With Runaan's Hurricane, Kai'Sa can apply Second Skin to 3 targets with a single autoattack. With Guinsoo's Rageblade, the steep cost of 5 autoattacks to rupture plasma on a target is reduced to 4. These items together can effectively transform Kai'Sa from a single-target burster to an AoE DPS. Nothing is more satisfying than rupturing multiple foes at once.

PLEASE READ: The reason why I choose Guinsoo's Rageblade over Infinity Edge for this build is because Guinsoo's Rageblade is the stronger option for marksmen who want to dish out as many attacks, and by design on-hit effects, as possible. This is the theory of quantity over quality. Kai'Sa's damage will always consistently scale with Second Skin, so I see much more value in procing Second Skin more frequently than beefing up her autoattack with crit.

As for the remaining item slots, please refer to the notes in each item set for detailed descriptions on situational itemization. My personal favorite legendary items to top off this build are Blade of the Ruined King and Wit's End.

I must reiterate that this build was ultimately created for fun. It may not be the most gold-efficient and it may not win you every game, but it sure is satisfying to play. Thank you for reading my guide, I hope I inspired you to have fun on Kai'Sa. Feel free to leave me suggestions, I am still testing this build!