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Runes: AGGRESSIVE EARLYGAME (lvl 8 Q evo)
1
2
3
Domination
Inspiration
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+8 Magic Resist
Spells:
1
2
3
4
GENERALLY GOOD
Flash
Teleport
Recommended Items
Items
Ability Order
Second Skin (PASSIVE)
Kai'Sa Passive Ability
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
Welcome to my midlane Mage
Kai'Sa guide. This version of
Kai'Sa relies less on Rageblade and focuses on stacking AP and CDR to spam abilities. In previous seasons, I've hit Diamond playing my AP Kai'Sa build, all streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/SnipyOCE/ and https://www.youtube.com/SnipyOCE/
If you're interested in learning how to play Kai'Sa mid, check out my stream!
My OP.GG - Snipy
My OP.GG - Void Seeker


If you're interested in learning how to play Kai'Sa mid, check out my stream!
My OP.GG - Snipy
My OP.GG - Void Seeker
Which build do I use?
The sniper build is for when you're intending to scale and mainly poke from long range. This build works both mid and botlane and is reliant on you landing your skillshots. It does insane damage if you can land all your skillshots and it works best when your team has multiple ways to apply plasma and/or CC the enemy. You'll be a glass cannon with no self-peel, so I recommend taking a safety summoner spell such as
Exhaust,
Barrier or
Teleport, and the
First Strike rune page to hit lategame faster.
The battlemage build is best midlane where you need to be self-sufficient and want to do mixed damage (more autoattacks). It has roughly a 40/60 physical/magic damage spread and can play much more aggressively at closer ranges since
Everfrost helps you go for picks, kite enemies and prevent people from dodging your W. Additionally,
Nashor's Tooth buffs your E so you'll be more mobile. I recommend taking
Ignite and either
Electrocute or
Hail of Blades.




The battlemage build is best midlane where you need to be self-sufficient and want to do mixed damage (more autoattacks). It has roughly a 40/60 physical/magic damage spread and can play much more aggressively at closer ranges since





Rune page explained (Hail of Blades/Electrocute)
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This build focuses on rushing AD items for Q evolve. ![]() |
This AP Kai'Sa build is all about rushing key items to unlock Kai'Sa as a powerful poke/burst mage. ![]() |
For stat shards I go for attack speed, adaptive force and either Armor or Magic Resist depending on the matchup.
Rune page explained (First Strike)
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This build focuses on rushing AD items for Q evolve. ![]() |
This AP Kai'Sa build is all about rushing key items to unlock Kai'Sa as a powerful poke/burst mage. ![]() |
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For stat shards I go for attack speed, adaptive force and either Armor or Magic Resist depending on the matchup.
Item Explanations
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If you’re against multiple AD champions like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Skill Order
For skill order you want to take Q




You can also take E level 2 if you feel like you can chase the enemy down for a heavy trade without taking too much damage in return.
Combos & Animation Cancels
Q+W
- QW is the most basic combo. It’s faster than using WQ, and the Q also hides the W animation somewhat, giving the enemy less time to react. You can also sneak in an autoattack when you press Q since it doesn’t cancel your autoattack animation.
- Example combo: AA QW AA
W+Flash
- W+Flash is extremely useful. It helps you get around enemy minions if they are in the way, surprise people, and you can also use it to change the direction your W
Void Seeker goes. Early game it’s usually used as a finisher unless you managed to land the W
Void Seeker at the start.
- If you flash at the end of your W animation, you can actually make your real W invisible.
R+W
- Another way to land your W
Void Seeker on people is to combine it with your R
Killer Instinct.
Kai'Sa is free to cast any of her abilities during her R
Killer Instinct, so you could ult up to somebody and have your W
Void Seeker come out as soon as you arrive. Click the links below for examples:
- Example 1
- Example 2
R Autoattack Reset
Killer Instinct is an autoattack reset, which is super helpful in applying your passive
Second Skin during fights since this build doesn’t include any attack speed outside of runes.
- You can take advantage of this with this combo: W AA R AA
- In this combo you can Q
Icathian Rain anytime since it has no cast animation.
5-stack Combo without W
Void Seeker Evolve
- This is a quick way to get all your damage off and pop your execute from your passive, but the enemy needs to be in autoattack range first: AA Q W AA R AA
Fast Combo with W
Void Seeker Evolution +
Flash
- This combo is slightly slower but has a longer range: W flash Q AA R AA.
Assassination combo with
Hextech Rocketbelt
- This makes use of the autoattack reset that
Hextech Rocketbelt gives ranged champions, letting you proc your execute passive
Second Skin with W R AA+proto+AA.
- example
Playstyle
EARLY GAME
- Since Kai'Sa is AD and ranged, she'll have the push advantage vs many midlane champions (except Lucian/Akshan).
- With the earlier level 2, you usually can gain control of the lane minions and go for an early recall after clearing the 3rd wave (cannon wave). You should have enough gold to buy a
Tear of the Goddess.
- Focus on farming for your
Manamune and
Pickaxe to get Q evolve. This is your first powerspike since you'll be able to clear minion waves very easily. 1 evolved
Icathian Rain is enough to delete the first 3 melee minions, and you can autoattack and/or Q the leftover ranged minions.
- Since you will often have lane priority at this point, try to roam and help your jungler in skirmishes, establish deep vision, or gank a side lane.
MID GAME
- Once you have W evolve, you become really strong in teamfights due to the low W cooldown.
- Catch out stragglers with your W and R. By the time you ult in, your W should almost be off cooldown.
- Q evolve is enough to easily solokill enemies by yourself while W evolve makes you a strong teamfighter due to your low W cooldown.
- Look to poke the enemies from far away, and use any friendly CC to ult in and R+W squishy enemies.
- Try not to miss your
Void Seeker, since it heavily affects your total damage output if you don't get a cooldown refund. Sometimes it's better to E
- Make sure to proc your caustic wounds with W and autosttacks whenever anyone has multiple stacks of plasma on them.
- Learn how to walljump with Kai'Sa ult. It will help you. A LOT.
LATE GAME
- Your W can easily 2-shot carries if they have no MR, with a W, R+W combo.
- Try to rely on your W for constant damage. Only get close to autoattack enemies when it is completely safe, or when you have your team near you. With this build you won't have E evolve to rely on for self-peel.
- Don't worry about only trying to hit the backline carries, your W will chunk the frontline too. Sometimes it's better to get constant damage on the enemy frontline instead of trying to snipe the enemy backline who are far away.
- You can use the enemy frontline to bunnyhop over and burst people behind them. To do this, W the frontline, wait 2-3 seconds for your W cooldown, then ult over the first enemy and aim your W at the person behind them.
Quick Tips
- You can position yourself so that your Q
Icathian Rain only hits one minion (usually on a melee minion or cannon minion) but kills it immediately. It helps get waves pushing. Cannon minions need to be missing some hp to die from Q
Icathian Rain. This trick + her autoattacks give
Kai'Sa pretty good early pushing/waveclear ability.
- Your Q
Icathian Rain missiles do double damage to minions below 35% health. Make use of this by autoattacking multiple minions and Q’ing at the end to execute them.
- Try to stand in a position where if the enemy walks up, they will tank more Q
Icathian Rain missiles since less minions are in range.
- Your W
Void Seeker will continue to cast even when CC’ed. The W
Void Seeker animation gets cancelled when you get cc’ed as well, making it harder for the enemy to notice you're casting it. Useful against champions like
Twisted Fate,
Zoe,
Annie, etc.
- If running ignite, try to ignite early so that your passive execute will do more damage.
- After you trade with someone, you can back off a bit and if they walk back up while still having 2 or 3 plasma stacks, you can surprise them with a W+flash or W+flash+AA. Like this.
- Your W
Void Seeker hitbox is very fat so you can even hit someone who’s hiding in a minion wave if you W+flash right next to or on top of them.
- You can hide your W
Void Seeker by aiming it through walls.
- Your W
Void Seeker has 3000 range, also the same as Lux’s R
Final Spark.
- Try to aim your W
Void Seeker at enemies that are (or going to be) cc’ed as they won’t be able to dodge.
- Use your R
Killer Instinct to escape over walls.
- You can flash to cancel your R dash early.
The Raptor Start
- You can take a small
Raptor at the start of the game in order to hit level 2 off the first wave, possibly resulting in an easy first blood. Just make your Q
Icathian Rain hit only one Raptor and kite it around the
Crimson Raptor camp wall towards your lane. For your own raptors kite them around the wall but for enemy raptors kite them towards the river. Raptors spawn at 1:30 and a small raptor will die from 6 Q
Icathian Rain missiles + 4 autoattacks. With the attack-speed stat shard in our runes, we can do it easily, consistently, and barely take any damage from doing so.
Video Explanation here, old but still applies:
Ending Notes
Well that’s the end of the guide, so go out and have fun topping the damage charts with my build! Just a reminder that I post League/Kai'Sa-related content on my YouTube channel such as montages, Tips/Tricks and stream highlights. Click here to subscribe, it's much appreciated!
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the guide so here's a little-known secret that will 100% boost your Kai'Sa skills:
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the guide so here's a little-known secret that will 100% boost your Kai'Sa skills:
Snipy's Diamond AP Kai'Sa Guide (MID/BOT)
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