Caitlyn Build Guide by ImThrilling

Introduction

Hello this is a guide on Caitlyn in Season 4. Caitlyn is a high damage ADC. She is easily one of the best ADCs. Caitlyn is a "God-Tier" ADC. I am a Silver III ADC and Support main so I am obviously not the best person to be taking advice from but I hope this guide does help you out in anyway possible.

Pros / Cons

Pros High Damage Strong Poke God-Tier ADC Easy to farm with Strong in Team Fights Strong Kit

Cons Mana hungry Squishy One Escape

Runes

The runes are just standard runes for an ADC. They allow you to sustain in lane with the 4% life steal. They also allow you do damage with the AD quint and the 8 AD marks. The crit chance mark is to give you the edge when poking. The 9 health yellows are to shield you from the other ad's damage. The 9 Magic resistance blues are to stop a support or mage from hurting you.

Masteries

These masteries are standard masteries for a auto attack damage and mana hungry ADC. Like Varus & Sivir. I put 21 in Offense tree to get a good amount of damage for Caitlyn in the early laning phase. I put 6 in Defense tree to get some magic resistance and armor for early lane fights and for poking. I put 3 in the Utility tree to give Caitlyn the mana regen to help spam Piltover Peacemaker to get kills.

Items

The Infinity Edge is one of the best items you can get on Caitlyn. Infinity Edge gives Caitlyn a huge advantage in poking and early teams fights. She gets a crit chance that works with her auto attacks and her Headshot and it does insane amounts of damage. I rush Infinity Edge if i am winnning lane. If i am losing lane I rush The Bloodthirster.



phantom A huge debt when building Caitlyn is whether to get Statikk Shiv or Phantom Dancer. I am going to tell you why Phantom Dancer over Phantom Dancer. Statikk Shiv has an amazing passive, the passive sends out a static shock that hits enmeies. Phantom Dancer gives you 10% more attack speed and 10% more crit chances. Statikk Shiv gives you the passive and 1% more movement speed.



The Bloodthirster is the second best item for Caitlyn. The Bloodthirster gives Caitlyn a high amount of damage and life steal and it stacks. Rush The Bloodthirster when you are behind in lane.



Phantom Dancer is very strong on caitlyn but I believe that Statikk Shiv is more gold efficient than Phantom Dancer. Phantom Dancer gives you 10% more attack speed and 10% more crit chances.



Blade of the Ruined King is a good item for Caitlyn. But it is not that good on Caitlyn. I gives Caitlyn some mobility and mass attack speed. I would only get Blade of the Ruined King to substitute for Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv.



Mercurial Scimitar is a great defensive item for Caitlyn. I mainly build this item when there is an Ahri on the enemy team to stop the charm. To be honest the best standard defense item is Guardian Angel. It gives Caitlyn armor and magic resist and a second life.

Skill

Headshot- After a certain number of auto attacks (7,6,5) you will get a headshot stack. A headshot does increase damage on an auto attack(50% More). This a huge factor for Caitlyn's laning phase. You want to allows use your Headshot to finish a siege minion or poke an enemy.



Piltover Peacemaker- After a 1 second casting time, Caitlyn fires a projectile that deals physical damage to all targets it passes through. You should use this ability to clear waves and to poke or to land a fatal blow to kill an enemy.



Yordle Snap Trap- Caitlyn sets a trap at target location that arms after a brief delay. When an enemy champion steps on the trap the target is stunned for 1.5 secs. Caitlyn can set up to 3 traps and each lasts 4 minutes. You should try to set traps behind enmeies and in the beginning of brushes that way they willl unexpectedly step on them allowing you to get free suto attacks and abilities off on them.



90 Caliber Net- Caitlyn fires a net, knocking herself back in the opposite direction. The net sloes anybody that is hit by the net. You want to use this ability to escape and slow trailing/chasing enemies.



Ace in the Hole- After a brief delay, Caitlyn locks onto a target enemy champion and channels for 1 second. This ability does a great amount of damage. You should use this ability to either get free damage down the enemies or to finish off an enemy that is out of your Piltover Peacemaker and auto attack range.

Skill Sequence

As Caitlyn you want to max your Q Piltover Peacemaker, Piltover Peacemaker is one of Caitlyn strongest and most useful abilities. You want to max 90 Caliber Net next because you want to use it as an escape and maxing 90 Caliber Net will lower the cool down on the ability that will allow you to escape sooner. You want max your E Yordle Snap Trap last because it is not as useful maxed second as 90 Caliber Net is. Yordle Snap Trap only needs to be leveled once because you mainly only trap bushes so you an snare enemy champions.

Spells

Barrier and Flash are standard spells for an ADC.

You get Barrier because it grants you a shield that allows you to either keep fighting or to survive an autoattack or a Trueshot Barrage.


You want Flash because you need an escape, or use it to juke fatal hits from abilities not auto attacks.



You only want Cleanse when against a team with hard cc.

Ranked Play (Counters & Match Ups)

When playing ranked as Caitlyn you want to mainly pick Caitlyn against short range and squishy ADC's like Vayne, Quinn, Ezreal, Graves, and Corki. Caitlyn is a good pick against these chmapions mainly because she can straight up out poke them from a greater distance and out farm them.


Counters:
Sivir is a major counter to Caitlyn. Sivir is a very strong ADC. Sivir has a high burst damage with her Q Boomerang Blade and her W Ricochet and her auto attacks. Caitlyn can win this lane only by out farming and out poking Sivir but you will need to try your best to avoid her Boomerang Blade because it overall deals more damage than Piltover Peacemaker.


Jinx is a huge threat to all ADC's. Jinx naturally has damage and can chunk you with her Zap!. Jinx's Switcheroo! ranked 3 times will grant her more range in rocket form then Caitlyn. One way to beat a Jinx is to just straight up out poke her and dodge Zap! and level faster than her. Try you best to beat Jinx to lane and farm up because Jinx will pull ahead fast. Make sure to poke Jinx down while she is in mini-gun form.


Varus is a strong ADC. Varus has an amazing kit, Varus counters Caitlyn because Varus can easily out poke her using his short cooldown Piercing Arrow and the true damage from Hail of Arrows. Blighted Quiver with the 3 auto attack proc. Varus's ultimate is something to worry about when fighting against Varus, Chain of Corruption when hit snares the first target then spreads to the next one. To counter Varus you need to dodge the Piercing Arrow and Chain of Corruption, if your support is hit by Chain of Corruption try to get away from the support but still stay in auto attack/poke range. Varus doesn't have any escape abilities (not including Flash) so abuse that and use 90 Caliber Net to either slow him or catch up to him.


Tristana is not that strong of a ADC in this season but due to her insane late game damage and range, Tristana counters Caitlyn. Try to out farm and poke the life out of Tristana. Try not to all in Tristana becasue she has an escape Rocket Jump that seems to always be up. Try end the game ASAP before Tristana gains more range than you with her passive Draw a Bead, at level 18 Tristana has 703 range. Also avoid using Ace in the Hole while Tristana has Buster Shot off cool down because she knock you right out of it and then you will have to re channel it after 3 seconds. Since you're Caitlyn abuse your range early game and don't stay behind low minions becase of the passive on her E Explosive Shot does splash damage to enemy creeps so you don't to take free damage from Explosive Shot.



Supports:
They very few supports that don't work with Caitlyn. Caitlyn works well with almost every single support.

Nunu is great with Caitlyn, even after the nerfs. Nunu can Blood Boil Caitlyn when fighting/poking/engaging and give her the upper hand because Blood Boil gives Caitlyn a movement speed boost and an attack speed boost. Nunu has a two slows to allow Caitlyn to get free poke with auto attacks and abilities.


Taric is a great support overall. Taric has an extremely had to miss stun Dazzle. Taric has a great heal Imbue that has a short cool down. Taric has an AoE magic damage ability Shatter that if use correctly can allow you to finish off champions. Taric's ultimate Radiance turns him into a good and can allow you to kill champions faster and dive towers to finish off enemies. Taric is a good match with Caitlyn in a lane against Ezreal and Jinx


Sona is a great support for Caitlyn because Sona has insane poke and a mid range stun and a short cool down heal and a movement speed boost. When playing with a Sona try to use Piltover Peacemaker and Hymn of Valor on the same enemy to get maximum poke. When Sona lands a Crescendo on enemies that is the perfect time to get free damage down on them. Sona is good support for Caitlyn agaisnt Jinx, Ezreal, Draven, and Varus


Annie is currently the best support in League of Legends. Annie does an unbelievable amount of damage and has a stun that takes 4 abilities to get it. Annie can land easy 3 & 4 man stuns with Summon: Tibbers and Incinerate. When Annie lands a good stun that you can react to, poke away at the enemy team. Annie is good with Caitlyn is good against enemy compostion just like Nunu

Team Work

Teamwork is always key in a game of league of legends. Caitlyn works well with almost all team comps. Caitlyn has a long range ult that deals a great amount of damage. Caitlyn has a medium range skillshot Piltover Peacemaker that deals a great amount of damage. Caitlyn has a slow 90 Caliber Net. Caitlyn has a stun that is not exactly impossible to land but it is a stretch of luck, Yordle Snap Trap. So if you combine all of those with Caitlyn's range and item damage it is hard to not do great.

Farming

Farming with Caitlyn is very easy. Caitlyn is a strong farmimg champion, she can clear waves very fast using Piltover Peacemaker. You can auto attack minions to stack you Headshot and use your head shot to poke the enemy .

Thank You!

Thank you for reading my guide. I hope it helped you with Caitlyn. I will be making guides for all of the ADC's so be looking out for those. Here is my Youtube. Here is my Twitch. Good Bye!

Sources

League Wiki
Experience