Once upon a time, prior to season 4, Kayle was an immense secret and always played AP.

She could scale to about 350+ damage on her E with proc easily, carry an entire team, and without even being very fed at that to start with.

So like all of the most blessed champions, she was nerfed.

I still see most people playing AP Kayle. It's not dominant anymore.

Kayle falls off hard by midlate if built as pure AP now. Other champs get more burst damage. Kayle's dominant role is a support proc damage utility build hybrid. After countless games of postnerf frustration, I had a flawless win playing like this and endorse it. The idea that you can scale AP into the top levels of power anymore is gone.

Kayle is a "pure hybrid" as champs go. She's not strictly ranged. She's not strictly melee. She's not strictly a mage but can control a battlefield like one with magic. She can't tank, unless you get overfed relative to the entire enemy team and then she can tank and blast everything.

Her old core item was Nashor's. AP and Attackspeed and Proc. It's still good on her.

But I'm convinced - it's no Wit's, or Blade of the Ruined King. And without a full build, Nashor's proc damage isn't all that incredible now.

So the idea behind this build is; you take attackspeed and you run with it. You buff all hybrid buffs, damage and magic both.

And you swallow your pride and play support, where you can carry, and your ADC if good is almost unkillable.

It's the kit. Not the numbers. Slow on the Q. Heal and speed on the W. Damage and fearsome strikes on the E. Kayle is one of the few champs that can slow AND heal, providing exceptional survivability to her ADC.

You won't put up pre-S4-nerfs numbers.

Except in the number of games won.

Think "safe pair of hands". Because it's pure hybrid, you're not THAT strong. Not THAT fast. Not THAT tanky. You can easily be killed.

But if you ward and don't chase in hard early and you get your ADC fed, you rarely will be.

You will, if playing this build right, draw the jungler. You may draw the entire enemy team. This build, plus a top ADC player, pushes right through a lane and loses to very few combos whatsoever. You protect your ADC with power, not auras; though you can certainly buy them. You are out in front as often as hovering, initiating, ulting yourself, taking the damage, and calling retreats if you lose it all and they're not hurt enough yet.

You are a brave, fearless, selfless battlefield angel.

You bring healing to your teammates, slows to your foes, and a fire sword that cleaves enemies from their heads to their toes.

It wins.

But you have to put your ego aside. Play a full support. Get the wards.

And do what you must to save your team with angelic compassion when "fools rush in".

Wit's and Bork and Ionian and Talisman are your only real core. Why Wit's? Because Wit's DOES STACK with your passive - last I heard, anyway. Once you have Wit's and Bork, you're siphoning 15 magic resist a hit and stealing 8% health per hit, plus 90% attack speed and 42 proc damage per hit on top of your other bonus damage - and you're more survivable than the pure ADCs doing this. It eats up champions and means very few can go toe-to-toe with you one on one.

You can build anything else you like.

ALTERNATIVES: Guardian Angel is awesome if you are ahead enough to mind not building more AP/AD/AS. Guinsoo's is for the insane only! (But play it if you play insanely and win, already.) Iceborn is a good substitute for Mallet in tanky-needs games. As for Maw, it's VERY techy; but if you save yourself with your ultimate with only a few bars of life it's yet another failsafe and your strikes are fury. Nash is Nash; it's still great on Kayle but don't expect it to give you as much power as Wit's or Bork per gold - get it if you need to be a VERY fast healer (post nerf, AP affects mostly Kayle's heal, and the others scale harder with AD). Muramana is nice if you think the game is going very long. Ohmwrecker is one of the MOST UNDERRATED ITEMS in the game, buy it for sieges - but prepare to take heat from a misled community if you lose. Randuin's is best stacked on other tank items for a "full tank hybrid". And Rylai's turns you into a ranged splash-slower and healer; but don't expect it to save you from a full teamfight. (I had this brilliant thought but it didn't pan out; you may have more luck than I have had so far.) I enjoy Mallet because Icy is great on Kayle; much better than Rylai's post nerf. Zhonya's gets your W nice and fat and gives you a last ditch save when your ult fails; you will be a tank support here without tank support numbers, but remember that active.

Even though playing support, the hybrid damage tree is your core. You only need everything up through the middle rectangle, after that, season to taste. I advise keeping the mana regen. I like the health regen as well to salvage hard cases, but your W may be enough.

Why don't you take utility support masteries instead? Because the enemy has to fear your strikes; this is a case where the best defense is a tremendous offense. See below.

I am convinced that m-regen is possibly the most underrated stat in League. As long as Kayle has mana, she can heal herself, use her E, keep enemies off her with her Q, and control a battlefield with magic. Once you're dry - you are nearly the squishiest fighter in the game. Most players don't realize just how often they go dry and have to return to the nexus or get wiped, and sustained lanes make for very buffed midgame champions who level faster than their lane partners.

Yes. If the enemy doesn't fear your E-strikes you're dead on the battlefield.

You can substitute Exhaust. But you don't need it. All mana is damage or healing for Kayle. You are only useless on a battlefield if out of mana.

Until they've been fine tuned enough to win them and surprise in the pros? I can't count how often I see alt meta dominate the pros when someone finds a good one.

Direct all criticism to the complaints department, located in my shiny metal ***. If you don't like it, find another one. There are hundreds of AP would-be carry guides for Kayle that are hard to play since the nerf. This build makes you feel like you have complete control of your botlane.

Now you go to botlane with a friend - public ADCs can still lose you the lane, and while this build can salvage a lost lane, nothing can salvage a really green ADC. Play it in pubs if you have to.

And you hover, initiate, taunt, strike hard, DON'T chase, take your tower, heal your ADC, W him/her if he/she needs to chase, and prepare to ult often and learn when you need to - for you will draw the enemy team. This is a build to make a botlane 5 champions strong. You will draw the jungler. You will scare the hell out of them. Stand your ground, call retreats if you have to; you're not invincible.

Until you are.

You'll know it when you feel it and your ADC hits 15+ kills with 0-2 deaths. That's when you did it right. You'll have quite a few yourself by then if you're really on point.

Good luck, angels.