Hello, my name is Giannis (John in English), and I am a 19 years old Challenger player from Greece. I used to be a OTP until 2 years ago which is when I started playing and officially became a 2Trick. I am working as a Coach/Streamer and lately I have been Streaming on https://www.twitch.tv/desperatenasus almost daily 7 to 9 hours.

If you like this guide please give it a thumbs up and if you are looking to learn more about Kayle or me, make sure to come by my Twitch channel. After playing for so long and having over 2M Points and looking forward to increase the number, I am making this guide to share my passion about the champion and how to become better at it. Thank you for reading and enjoy your stay!

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I worked really hard on this guide and tried to provide an abundance of information, but you're not going to hit challenger just by reading it. If you really want to master the game and reach your dream elo, consider signing up for coaching with me. Contact me via discord for more info if you are interested: https://discord.gg/gASKweSXP3

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When it comes to this question I have encountered it so many times and now I wanna be clear with it so everyone can have their answer. First of all If you are new to , I would highly suggest to start playing Toplane because it is 1v1 lane and you are gonna learn the trading patterns- when to walk up and when not to, how important not dying is, building confidence, how to snowball after an early lead that you may get and many more reasons.

On the other hand, if you already played a lot and you are familiar with her whole playstyle if you should swap to Midlane from Toplane comes down to only 1 question which is what elo are you? If you are Masters+ with , going midlane is the way to go. The reason for that is because thats when Toplaners start getting better having better wave managment and after Grandmaster majority of Toplane games are nearly unplayable because of the enemy laner either counterpicking or simply having a really good knowledge of the lane. Mostly it is gonna be a combination of both of them and the reason is pretty clear Toplane Kayle has really limited matchups that are playble.

All in all if you are a player who is looking to improve and you are lower elo than Masters+, keep on playing Toplane and FOCUS ONLY ON YOUR MISTAKES and what you can do better in every state of the game.

To simplify this topic
Below Masters, keep playing Toplane
Above Masters, swap to Midlane.

PROS

➜Independent
➜Can recover / play from behind
➜Snowballing / Scaling way better than almost all champs if played correctly
➜Really high benefit from shutdowns
➜High 1v9 potential (Best tactic in SoloQ)
➜Can be strong after level 6 against good matchups and free scale
➜Hard pressure on sidelanes
➜The longer the game, goes the stronger you become
➜Insanely good wave clearing after level 11 and especially 16
➜Spikes really well on and perfect second item which is
➜Very strong itemization / build paths
➜Can have a really high CS per minute count after level 11
➜Synergizes really well with to avoid majority of ganks
➜Flexibility in playstyles (Poke, all in with R, DPS, utility with W, burst)
➜Using your really well can turn a whole teamfight around

CONS

➜Really weak early game and can be punished hard
➜Even the slighest mistake can cost you a lot due to how weak you are early game
➜Really limited winning matchups
➜Has the lowest Magic Resistance at level 1
➜Really hard to break freezes before level 6
➜Cannot take almost any early fight
➜No prio early for scuttle rotations or invades from your team
➜Cannot punish the mistakes of your enemy laner at early game
➜Your spells are really weak early game
➜Limited sustain in the lane
➜Every bad matchup is even worse for due to her weak early game and bad stats
➜Heavy ammount of Crowd control can prevent you from using your
➜Losing your Summoner spells for unnecessary reasons can be fatal
➜Making 1 mistake on is much more punishable than other champions with few exceptions
➜Cooldown on your Ultimate is quite high till level 11
➜Bad Recalls / Deaths / Rotations can cost you a lot of XP which is what you don't want to lose
➜Early 2v2's with your Jungler are gonna be lost due to how weak you are
➜Takes a large number of games to be able to control at a good state
➜Low-economy champion due to the fact that you must give up minions
➜Will almost always be down on gold by default due to Tower plates / Giving up minions
➜Noticeably weaker before even if all 3 components of the item are built
➜Struggles against high gap closers
➜Holding a bad position as Kale can be punished brutally
➜Mastering how to use your takes an incredible amount of games

PROS

➜Enemy laner cannot freeze your wave forever and it is easier to break it when he does
➜Shorter lane
➜Cannot get zoned out of wave at level 1 90% of the time
➜Better lane for short trades which is how you want to trade
➜Takes less time to get back to Midlane than Toplane
➜Waves arrives faster at Midlane
➜Higher chances to impact the map after level 6
➜Since it's a shorter lane you are way closer to your tower and less likely to get run down
➜Can crash waves faster
➜Can get both Jungle and Support attention in early game
➜Majority of times really bad matchups can have counterplay on Midlane unlike Toplane but not always
➜Can have access to both rivers for honeyfruits
➜Since your Ultimate is 1 of the best for teamfights you can use it in skirmishes which happen around Midlane

CONS

➜AP matchups can be really bad due to 22 Magic Resist
➜Cannot learn advanced spacing in Midlane
➜Your jungler can get invaded and you cannot follow the enemy laner
➜Cannot cover Botlane dives without Teleport

There are plenty of bad matchups but some of them can be unplayble or only nearly unplayble. If you are Midlane you want to ALWAYS ban . The reason for that is because she does not have mana issues at all and her Poke / Burst is too much for your sustain and 22 Magic resist. Her kit is also way stronger than yours in every state of the game and you are simply outclassed. Her zoning potential is really high so really there is no counterplay to this matchup and it is even worse the higher elo you play in.

On the other hand, if you are Toplane you must ALWAYS ban . The reason is pretty obvious which is his E that ban block your Auto Attacks and the huge gap-close that he has thanks to his Q. All in all, it's an unplayble matchup and you should ban it. Lastly, his zoning ability is one of the best, so yeah, no counterplay for that matchup unless the game is played in really low elo where he is not gonna use his kit efficiently.

This topic is mainly focused on Mid and Higher elo games but you can always use it if you find it efficient. Dodging a game can be really time saving but most importantly, LP saving.

I wanna start off by saying that sadly you cannot dodge every single bad matchup but you can always dodge some unplayable ones.

In Midlane, since is banned, dodging lane is a MUST. Pretty similar playstyles but with being ungankable due to his E. Both are unplayable matchups but the only reason you ban instead of is because 's pickrate is 3% higher so you can save yourself from dodging as often. Another must dodge matchup is and another good dodge is the matchup but is not a needed one.

For Toplane, sadly things are a bit worse when it comes to matchups. Assuming you already banned , a really good dodge is the matchup and it is mainly due to her high multiple gap closes that she gets from her Q and her simply standing on top of you and stat-checking you. Her W is also a great tool for her so yeah, not much counterplay vs .

NOTE

It is only worth to Dodge once every 12 hours.

As you can't change from summoner spells. For your second summoner spell you mainly go but there are occasions that you will need to swap teleport for either or . I would like to start by listing every matchup that you need for. The matchups are : . Lastly there is that you will need when you are facing .

Precision is by far the strongest tree on . It has amazing scaling at all the states of the games and all of her Rune sets are based on it.

Press The Attack is the best option with this playstyle. Since you are maxing Q, you are looking for short trades on the laning phase and really helps on that.

Absorb Life cannot be replaced ever. It simply provide you a lot of free sustain and its easily the best option you have. is pretty much a waste just like .

Legend: Alacrity Is simply the best out of every option that you have. The extra attack speed that you get feels really strong and in reality you really dont need extra Tenacity from nor Lifestreal from .

Last Stand provides you with a really good amount of damage while you are below 60% maximum health and it scales down to 30% (The lower the HP you are the more damage you are going to deal). It synergizes insanely good with your assuming you press it when you are Low HP to burst your enemy.

Sorcery Can be really greedy as second runes on but it is really rewarding if played correctly. Since you play withtout you are missing defense runes such as and so making 1 mistake can be even more painful but in the end you are playing to scale, get your items, and be a 1v9 machine. With that being said if you get to that point which is the point you are aiming either way, tree is by far the best secondary rune option for .

Celerity Might not seem like the best option but trust me, it is. All movement speed bonuses increase in effectiveness by 7% and you also gain 1% bonus movement speed which seems small but altogether it is a really huge boost. Kayle's Passive + W + + + will drastically make you way faster than you were and the benefits are a lot. You can escape ganks, chase, poke then run, get to lane / sidelane faster and pretty much any distance you travel.

Gathering Storm will provide you with some extra Ability Power every 10 minutes. Since you are going full AP / Burst build that extra Ability Power from in combination with will increase your damage output by a lot and especially your burst damage. With that being said it is the best option since your goal is to get to the Late game and dominate.

Fleet Footwork Absorb Life Legend: Alacrity Last Stand are never replaceable with anything at all. The only runes that you can change are the secondary tree which is Sorcery. You might want to do it only when you are facing really hard Mage / Poking matchups. If you end up seeing a bad result in Poking / Mage matchups you want to swap Sorcery with Resolve tree. Both rune pages have their ups and downs. Going with Resolve option is gonna guarantee you more sustain in the laning phase and might be game-changing and that is because starts the game with 22 Magic Resist which is the lowest possible, so it is obvious how Resolve tree can be useful against hard matchups. Still, you sacrifice a huge amount of ability power from Gathering Storm and a lot of movement speed from Celerity

Second wind is gonna be the the replacement of Celerity. Some extra sustain in the laning phase can be game changing even if you sacrifice a high amount of scaling due to that option. Since laning phase is BY FAR the most important phase of the game, you want to perform and use everything for your own benefit. Just dont make the mistake of going Second wind on every matchup. These changes are meant to help you only in the worst matchups- they're not meant for you to rely on the safety of the runes permanently.

Overgrowth is gonna be the the replacement of Gathering Storm. Not a huge fan of that change but really there is not a better option on Resolve tree. Overgrowth will provide you with some extra HP depending on how long the game goes for.

These changes work better with which is going to be the go-to option in Poking matchups. All in all combining , , , , can give you a high amount of sustain in the lane if used correctly so do not underestimate their value.

Nashors tooth is the most important item on and should never be delayed nor skipped. Its components are amazing on and once the full item is built the difference is insane. To start with, the item provides you with 45 Ability Power which is an insane spike for short trades using your . Then it is which can be better than in some cases. Whenever or is better depends on the matchup and that only. If you play against a melee and low gap-close champion, is gonna provide more value if you are able to apply a lot of Auto Attacks. On the other hand, is better into ranged champions because it gives you the ability to take short trades using your which is gonna deal a lot of damage thanks to the extra AP and because you also max this ability. All in all, has further benefits such as boosting your 's both healing and movement speed and also your 's damage.

Rabadon's deathcap Is the strongest and most consistent item on this setup. You always want to build it second as it gives flat 140 Ability Power and increases your ability power by 35%, and if you add on top you will be having an insane amount of Ability Power. Once you buy every single thing on 's kit becomes 2 times stronger and if you are at least level 11, you are pretty much at a point that you scale twice as hard. You always want to buy as your second item. The only downside of building it as your second item is if you recall with less than 1250 gold and that is because 's components are 2 and sometimes you will be recalling with less than 1250 gold and be forced not to buy anything at all so pay attention to your gold as you complete .

Shadowflame as your third item is the best option you have. It gives you flat 120 Ability Power and 12 Magic Penetration. It has a cheaper and more flexible build path than although it is still an expensive item but it is 100% worth to build. The high ammount of Ablity Power that you gain from that item works really well with the combination . lastly Magic damage and true damage critically strike against enemies below 35% maximum health for 120% damage thanks to the passive of .

Lich Bane after the buffs is 1 of the strongest core items on . It provides you with 100 Ability Power which is gonna be more thanks to , 15 Ability Haste which is not so amazing but it might help you when you need your abilities ready, especially your and lastly it gives you 8% Movement Speed which is amazing because that 8% movement speed is gonna be way more due to and works really well with which is your main rune, which are the boots you will always be buying, your and lastly your . To finish talking about this item, 's passive is amazing on . After using an ability your next basic attack within 10 seconds gains 50% bonus attack speed and deals 75% base AD (+ 45% AP) bonus magic damage on-hit which can make your Burst / Poking damage even stronger.

Boots of Swiftness is the most effective choice with this setup. Since you are not playing with the playstyle and items of On-hit / DPS / you do not need extra Attack Speed. provide you with 60 Movement Speed and 25% slow resist which is amazing because you can outrun almost everyone and everything. Adding up the Movement Speed from your items / runes / passive / W is a huge boost on your total Movement Speed. All in all this is the best choice for your boots.

Farsight Alteration is important in your item set. This is because it is dangerous to face-check a specific bush / place / objective. You should rather just get vision from a distance by using . This ward has 4000 range so you can place it from a really big distance and can save yourself from many situations as in an attempt by the enemy team to rotate towards you, someone that might be waiting in the bush etc.

Banshee's Veil is a great item for defense purposes due to the 50 Magic Resistance that you gain from this item but it also gives you 120 Ability Power which is a lot. It is by far the best item if you need some extra Magic Resistance and some more Ability Power at the same time and lastly the passive of the item is really good. It provides you with a Spell Shield that blocks the next hostile ability with a cooldown of 30 seconds after the Spell Shield has been used.

Void Staff is an item that you want to build when the enemy team stacks a lof of Magic Resistance. grants you with 80 Ability Power which is not the best but it gives you 40 Magic Penetration which is insane. Sadly it is a bit overkill since the highest amount of flat magic penetration any champion can obtain is 47 and is more than enough due to your second core item that gives you +12 Magic Penetration which is . Even if in total you have more Magic Penetration that you can obtain, it is way better to deal damage to enemy champions than not at all.


Zhonya's Hourglass grants you 120 Ability Power just like but the only difference is that it gives you 50 Armor instead of Magic Resistance. This item is really useful into Assasins / Flanks or high Attack Damage champions on the enemy team. Not only that, it gives you 50 Armor and has one of the best Active effects. It puts you in Stasis for 2.5 seconds, rendering you untargetable and invulnerable for the duration but also unable to move. Overall the best anti Assassins / Flanks / Damage item you can build on .

Statikk shiv used to be one of the best First items to build on Kayle. However that changed after the multiple nerfs that the item got. It only used to be good when you could 1-shot the backline 3 caster minions with 1 Auto attack and claim prio over the lane. Since this is not possible at the moment, the item is completely useless and a waste of gold which also delays your item spikes. Sadly this is a high bait item for some people that still think it is a good item so please dont build it.

As everything that you do matters- even the smallest thing. There are some Statistical Goals that you want to have in mind and apply to your in-game performance. With that being said here are your goals:

➜Don't die in laning phase especially in 1v1 as it can be game-changing
➜Try to have atleast 8.5/9 cs per minute on average.
➜Don't have many deaths in general as you are gonna lose a lot of time, which means delaying your level 16.
➜Avoid bad trades which result in you recalling as you are going to lose a lot of time again
➜Try to Learn / Understand / Spot when you can punish your enemy even with a short trade.
➜Do not try to make 's Build / Runes flexible- only 2 setups exist.
➜Understand that is not only about farming and try to impact more on the Map / Game.

Finally, we come to the most important topic that requires a proper and careful execution. After thousands of games that I played with I can 100% guarantee you that Laning Phase and Early game are BY FAR the most important phases of the game. As I mentioned in the beginning we are going to talk about Midlane fundamentals in this guide. When the game starts, levels 1-6 are the most important for . You want to maintain a good amount of HP, preferably more than 75% because you play Midlane and there are most of the poking matchups. Playing against those matchups requires you to be 100% focused on everything that is happening from level 1. When it comes to early levels, try not to take a lot of damage for 1 minion because as I mentioned you start the game with 22 Magic Resistance and in general it is important to save your sustain for when you need it. Farm from distance using your and and try to get as many minions as you can. You need to understand since you are weak early game that you won't always have the perfect farm and sometimes you need to give up Minions / XP. It is way better to give up some minions than lose all your HP, lose your , or even dying so try to at least take the XP from the minions if not the gold. After you get to Level 6 without dying and losing a lot of minions and XP you should be fine, and now is the time where you should look to recall if you already haven't. If you went back on 750 gold which is and try to farm as much as you can while maintaining a good distance and poke a bit using your until you save up more than 1000 gold to take another reset. If you backed at which is the best buy against Ranged / Poking / Mage matchups you want to start taking short trades using your AA+ and lastly your to run out of your opponent's range. If you get a more expensive recall as in and or and which is the best recall against Melee champs you want to Auto Attack them as much as you can using your insane amount of Movement Speed that you get from , , , and your PASSIVE which is an important part that is going to help you massively into these melee matchups. So for those that don't know what 's passive does, each time Auto Attacks she gains 6% Attack Speed per Auto Attack up to a maximum 30% Attack Speed which means you only need 5 Auto Attacks to fully stack your Passive. After you fully stack your Passive, you will gain 10% bonus Movement Speed which is amazing if you already have a good amount of Movement Speed. So after you fully stack up your Passive you want to maintain it because getting 30% Attack Speed and 10% extra Movement Speed is helpful to say the least. The only part that you have to be careful about is not to lose your stacks and that happens if you dont Auto Attack for 5 Seconds so keep an eye on it because it's really important. Many people don't know this but is only strong if you play around her Passive. After you play some games and realize / understand and get familiar with how strong 's Passive is, it is time to get more confident and start taking more short trades or even extended trades with good spacing and items because as I mentioned is not only about farming. It might be hard to adapt and leave your safe zone which is only farming from distance until 16 but if you dont adapt to a more aggresive playstyle when you have to, you are not going to take a kill which would give you a lot of XP or take a plate or two, or burning the opponent's ultimate or and maybe forcing them to take a bad recall resulting in them using their if they have it, otherwise denying them a wave. Just because is a scaling champion doesn't mean she can't get a lead and eventually snowball with her lead. Scaling is pretty much farming until the point that you are aiming for without doing anything and playing safely, not going for some risky / semi-risky 1v1 / 2v2's and giving up objectives, dragons, baron and simply just being inactive in the game. On the other hand, Snowballing requires you to be more active in general. Playing more confidently, looking for a potential window to punish your enemy, going for more trades, taking a plate, pushing the opponent out of the lane, zoning them off of their wave when you can, pushing the wave first and looking to ward a good spot or going to an objective first and maybe a potential roam after obviously level 6+ and some items etc. So in general it's pretty much being more active in everything that you do and as I said it can be a little hard to adapt to a new playstyle but that is the most rewarding and it is totally worth it to at least give it a try.

After laning phase is done and you are level 11+ with at least you have to get out of Midlane and go to a sidelane to farm up, apply more pressure and look for that 1v1 or simply just apply pressure. You prefer to be on the opposite side of the Map from the action and that is because at level 11 you get an insane spike to your kit which is the upgrade on your Passive. Now after you fully stack your Passive with 5 Auto Attacks the next Auto Attacks are gonna fire a wave that is going to deal extra damage and also hit the targets that stand behind / close and that is a great benefit for pushing the sidelane waves in 0 time and applying pressure. Since you are on the opposite side of the objective, you need to prepare to use your in case a fight occurs. If you decide that the fight is lost or that there is no need for you to there, use it to your advantage and either get T1 (1st tower of that lane) but even better if you take T2 on the sidelane which gives 700 gold if you are the only person close to that tower and as you can understand it is an high amount of gold to give to a champion like . If you are wondering about how worth it is to be in a sidelane instead of grouping I can tell you that it is generally really beneficial for you. Farming at least 3 waves on the sidelane around minute 15 is gonna give you at least 500 gold which is more than a kill and a lot of XP. Not only that, but if you take a T1, it is more than a kill +50 gold to everyone which is good income for your whole team. If T1 is already down and you manage to take T2, you have high chances of winning that game since you get 700 gold alone + at least 500 from the waves which is 1.2k gold. Lastly while you are leaving the sidelane that you just pressured, you can always take the enemy jungle camps as well for example golems / raptors since you can farm them really fast thanks to your level 11. This is the best scenario, and it depends on if your enemy will be making a rotation towards the teamfight or using to get there. If not, it is still worth being in the sidelane and not taking random fights that are not gonna guarantee 100% that you will get something out of it. When you play you are an immobile champion with 0 dashes and only 1 speed-up (W) which is weak until you buy a lot of Ability Power since it scales with it. On the other hand, sticking to sidelanes is gonna guarantee 100% a lot of Gold / XP. In other words and League Of Legends in general is all about good decision-making and awareness / understanding / mechanics and having the right approach towards the game. With that being said you dont want to randomly go in a fight that is not gonna provide you anything 100% when you can do something else that is gonna be beneficial to you and yes is about you and only YOU

Finally, we have reached Late game which is the point of playing . At this point you should be looking to group with your teamates or pressure really hard the sidelane with your level 16 and your items but mainly which allows you to take down a tower in 5-6 AA's. However if you decide to group, you need to remember that positioning is BY FAR THE MOST important thing that is mostly gonna decide the outcome of the fight. Every game you should position differently for example in games against assasins like , , etc you need to either be aware of them where they and the vision around and not to fight in random places that you wont have space to kite and run. There is 1 thing that doenst change no matter the game and that is to stay close to someone especially against ***ains. Something that you need to know and is really important is that the value of your will be decided on how well you positioned the fight. For example many players get overconfident after level 16 thinking that the game is over and they either get caught or they waste their or their . To simplify this topic level 16 doesnt guarantee that the game is won because you dont get any extra stats like Armor, Magic resistance or Hp you only get some extra range that can be usseles if you dont position well. That doesnt mean that level 16 doesnt have a lot of benefits. Most important when you hit level 16 your Passive is fully stacked ( Attack Speed + Movement Speed ) which means you dont need to AA 5 times to fully stack it up plus the extra free range that you get. Assuming that you are already at 5 Core items which are . , , and you already have a lot of damage but especially a lot of burst damage which you can take advantage of by using your which gives you a huge amount Movement Speed to get closer to an enemy champion resulting into a quick but safe trade which is AA + E which is going to do insane damage thanks to your items. If the enemy team has a tank and you dont have your , you want to take a position which you can bypass the enemy tank ad burst the enemy backline. Lastly against a team with a lot of Crowd Control, you need to be aware on when to press your Ultimate. You mostly want to press it before you get CC locked by the enemy team ( Large amount of stuns for a lot of seconds ) so they cant burst you down while you are on your Ultimate. It can be really hard in the beginning to unerstand when you should press your Ultimate and when not to and trust me it takes a lot of games to get really good at it. All in all Position / Confidence and Reaction are the most important factors of late game .

Before getting into the conclusion, I want to give credits to those whoe made the guide possible: Dudez4real and Keylogan

Playing is the perfect example of the mindset you should have to climb in Solo Q. It forces you to adapt into a playstyle that makes you independent and to rely to your self and only.

I am going to be honest here playing is not easy at all and patience is the most important key to become better at her and to keep improving. I am not disagreeing with the fact that can be a really strong champion but it all comes down on how well you play since the champion has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. Take small steps each time and show patience if you want to become a better player and not give up. The champion has an insane potential and i have already proved it multiple times so take this as a motivation to yoru games.

I hope this guide was useful and helped all of you that read it till the last word. Every new patch that Items / Runes change i will be updating the guide so stay tuned and might also make a guide about TOPLANE ONLY.

If you have any further questions add me on my personal Discord: desperatenasus

Thank you all amd Best Regards,

Desperate Nasus