All of your W auto attacks will deal normal damage, except for W4. Make sure to get to your 4th attack to deal tons of damage!

You cannot hide from Kled! Enemies behind minions are not safe from your Q.

This can often turn around fights, since this is rather unknown. Abilities like Malzahar's R - Nether Grasp or Amumu's R - Curse of the Sad Mummy will be fully cleansed.

Using E will give you quite a bit of movement speed, very useful for chasing or running. Keep in mind that only your E1 will grant you movement speed.

Every time your W is up, Kled's axe will start glowing. This is actually very bad when playing Kled, since enemies can keep their distance when it's up.

Flashing your E can give you an surprising all-in, which many enemies will not see coming. You can also use this to recover missed E's and keep sticking on enemies.

Your E1 cannot go over walls, but your E2 can. This is great when chasing enemies with a dash, so be sure to hold your E2 if you think they will hop over a wall.

When trading with champions that have CC, be sure to wait for their CC to be used before using your E. If your E is cancelled, your cooldown will reset and you will not dash any further.

One of my favorite features about Kled, since it's so great for diving. If you manage to kill an enemy under turret, there's no need to flash out of range. Be warned: Allies might ping you when they take over agro!

Enemies typically won't use a spellshield for a dismounted Kled, but they might. When they do, know that your Q will still grant you courage!

If the enemy is close enough to the wall and you have vision of them, you can actually travel over the wall. This is great for chasing or catching enemies off guard.

Keep this in mind while playing against matchups that can block your auto attacks, like Shen's spirits refuge W - Spirit's Refuge or Jax's E - Counter Strike.

Great for champions like Wukong, Shaco or Talon. Most players don't know that Kled's kit gains true vision on them.

Great for champions like Wukong, Shaco or Talon. Most players don't know that Kled's kit gains true vision on them.

If you manage to land your Q before enemies go untargetable, your bear trap will remain attached. This means the damage, slow and pull will still go through, even while untargetable.

Using your E on a spellshielded enemy is only useful when you HAVE to break the shield, if not, just wait it out if possible. This will make you extremely vulnerable.

Kled R running out is so extremely uncommon, that I could not replicate it or find a video on it. I've had it happen 2 times, once while chasing an Akali E - Shuriken Flip and once ulting a Quinn with 1k movement speed.

Matchup

Loading into your game, it's important to know who you're playing against. You should ask yourself the following questions:

➾ What do their abilities do?
➾ What abilities will influence my trades?
➾ What are their strenghts and their weaknesses?
➾ What do their runes do?
➾ Do they want to trade and how?

Let's answer these questions against Quinn, try to answer these questions yourself before revealing my answer.



With these questions answered, we can move on to how to turn it into a win. Once you know how what they do and what your trading will look like, it's time to look at your own champion. Ask yourself these questions:

➾ Which of my abilities are crucial in the matchup?
➾ How important are my summoner spells?
➾ When am I strongest compared to my opponent?
➾ How do I trade?
➾ What do my runes do?

Once again, try to answer these questions for yourself first. No wrong asnwers!



By answering these 10 questions, you should have all the necessary information you would need in any matchup. By playing more, you gain more information about each matchup and won't need to do this every single game. But this is very useful to do, especially when you are facing a new matchup or leaning a champion in general!

Win Condition

Your lane is not the only thing you should be looking at during the loading screen, you have to decide how your team is going to win this game. A few examples would be:

➾ Dragon stacking
➾ Teamfighting
➾ Splitpushing
➾ Getting picks
➾ Siege

Then you look at each of the individual champions. Each of them has a certain quality, like:

➾ Backline access
➾ Teamfighting
➾ Splitpushing
➾ Peel/ Disengage
➾ Frontlining
➾ Damage dealer
➾ Supporting

For Kled, his main qualities would be backline access, engaging and splitpushing. Let's say you're looking at the following team comps, what qualities do they have and miss?

Top Jgl Mid Adc Sup

Top Jgl Mid Adc Sup

So what exactly does this mean for us? Let's look what the enemy team wants, they want to scale their carries and win fight with their range and damage. They are looking for longer fights with Swain and Soraka healing. The team doesn't want to be caught out, since they have no reliable way of disnegaging.

Now that we know what the other team wants, we can deny it. So, our team wants to force fight before the enemy team starts to scale, using our many ways of engaging. Which means our objective this game is to keep the game below 30 minutes. By getting a pick beforehand, we would no longer mind longer fights.

Because our team wants to engage, Kled should be looking for those engages with his R or (F +) E + Q onto the backline. Since Kled is such a strong duelist, it's very good to be looking for picks before fights.

Looking at both teams like this is essential at the start of the game. Now you know what your job and the team's job will be this game, it's much easier to play out a game.

Roamers

The last thing I want you to think about during the loading screen, are the roamers. I am talking about the champions who want to move around the map and get a lead in different lanes. This is usually just the jungler, but can also happen with champions like Bard, Kassadin or Pyke. It doesn't mean they will gank, but it does mean there is a possibility that they could.

If your own team has a lot of roamers, look to hold the wave in front of you turret a lot (more about that in wave management). This way, you create a more vulnerable state for your lane opponent. You can also force dives with Kled really easily. Ping your roamers that you are planning to dive, so they can follow your play.

However, if the enemy team has a lot of roamers, look to ward more and play safe when your wave is pushed in. This is not something that you will have to deal with until you are in the game, but it's a good thing to think about while having the time to think about it.

Level up timers

Level 1 interaction is not something that could be taught in a guide, but rather something you learn by experience. Sure, there are certain level 1 interactions that are straightforward like that, but often it takes specific handles, runes and summoner spells to win level 1 fights. However, this is not the case for level up timers.

Every lane has them and every champion can benefit from them, knowing when you are going to level up can be crucial to winning your lane. Each level will give you about700 gold worth of statistics, which can make a huge difference. So, here is a quick overview from all the level up timers in toplane.


Looking at the table, you can see that level 2 can be hit in the first and second wave, so be sure to keep a look out for any takedowns the enemy gets! The same goes for you, if you were to get a takedown, be sure to abuse your early level up timer.

In most scenario's, you will hit level 2 in the 2nd wave. If both of you got the full 1st wave, you can either play safe and stand back while your opponent hits level 2, or you play agressive and force a level 2 fight. I personally prefer the 2nd option, since with your W - Violent Tendencies, you can remount much quicker level 2. This can give you a HUGE advantage in early fights.

Looking at later levels, we can see that the 3rd wave will give you level 3 by either killing 2 melee minions or the cannon with 1 ranged minion. I strongly suggest going for the 2 melee's, since they have a much lower combined health. This is where you can really start fistfighting. Level 3 will give you your full combo, granting you so much burst. If you managed to get a slow push going (more about that in wave management), you can actually look for a dive. Since your enemy will usually be level 1 or 2 at this point, you should have a big advantage.

Now we get to the more interesting part, level 4! Most people don't pay attention to the level up timer for level 4. But like I explained before, each level gives about700 gold worth of statistics. Try to get priority over the wave, and instantly turn on the enemy once you hit level 4 first.

Wave Management

Where to begin... Wave management is a skill can singlehandedly win you the game. In this part, I will explain how waves work and the different states the wave could be in. Although, if you prefer a video explanation, I would recommend watching Coach Mysterias' wave management guide. This is where I got most of my information for this part, so definitely a great watch. Let's get into it!



How do waves work?
There are two main factors that will influence waves; size and location. The size is determined by how many minions are present in the wave and the location is determined by where the minions are positioned in the lane. Although there is a secret third force nobody really talks about, minion levels. If all of these forces are equal, the wave should remain right in the middle of the lane. So let's take a look at how these forces can exactly influence the wave.

When the location is the only force being slightly higher, this means that the wave is slightly on blue side. If the wave would remain untouched, what would happen to the wave? Answer The wave would slowly move into the enemy turret. This is all because the blue side wave would arrive much sooner, gaining more and more size, eventually overshadowing the location and moving into the red side.

When the location is as high as the size is low, something completely different would happen to the wave. Try to think about what the wave would do before revealing the answer. Answer The wave would remain exactly where it is. Although, it would never remain in this position forever, this is mainly because of minion RNG. When two minion attack the same minion, there's a chance that one minion hit would've killed it. That means one attack is wasted and the balanced is tipped once again.

The level of minions has a similar effect, since your minion will have more health and damage, they will overpower lower level minions in a 1v1. Again, try to guess what will happen to the wave in this state. Answer Because the red wave is both bigger and stronger, while not being balanced out by location, this will slowly move in the blue side.

A neutral wave is what you should see when you first walk into lane. Same size, same position and same level. If left untouched, the wave should remain right where it is.

What to do with this state?
Did your lane opponent recall and you want to do so as well, but you don't have the time or clear speed to crash the wave? Recall on a neutral wave!





While your wave is pushing, it means that the size or level is HIGHER than the location. Your wave builds up more power, resulting in a push into the enemy's side of the lane. To achieve a Slow Push, you should only last hit the minions. This way, you don't convert your push into a shove.

What to do with this state?
When you are the one pushing, your wave is much bigger, so you have much more damage output with the help of your minions. Since you are slowly moving further up into the lane, make sure to ward for a gank preamptively and try to actively watch the map.

When you are being pushed into, it means that they have the additional damage, so avoid trading in their wave. If your jungler is moving toward toplane, communicate with them that you want a gank. This is the PERFECT setup.









When you shove a wave, it means that you are breaking the current state of the wave as quickly as possible. This is done by dealing as much damage as possible to the enemy minions, quickly reducing the size.

What to do with this state?
This is something you only want to do when you have to move quickly, usually for an objective or dive. If not for these reasons, I wouldn't recommend shoving too much. It's extremely easy for your opponent to catch the wave and freeze, Kled also isn't a good poker, so you can't really poke your opponent under tower.





Probably the most well-known wave state, because it's a sign that you really know how waves work. Well, let me tell you, it's much harder than you might think.

Freezing a wave means that the location is HIGH while the size and level balance it out with being LOW.

What to do with this state?
This is great when you are trying to punish your opponent, since you can zone them very easily. If you manage to get a freeze going, you can also look for plays with roamers, since freezing is great gank setup.

While freezing, make sure not to take too much agro or the freeze will fall apart. You also need to be good at last hitting. If you finish your minions off too quickly, the size will be depleted too much and your wave state will turn into a slow push.





When you are holding the wave, it means that your size is 0. You will forcefully be maintaining the wave by taking agro, which results in the location remaining the same.

What to do with this state?
This is recommended when you are trying to set up a freeze. Typically you would only want to hold 2-3 minions, since more would deplete your healthbar too much. When you want to freeze, but you have to hold 10+ minions for it, your wave state was messed up to begin with. Look to thin out the wave while the enemy is pushing into you, so you can avoid this.





A wave is crashed when it has fully entered the turret's range. If the wave is big enough that it will remain until the next wave arrives, it will hold up the next wave. This will result in a slow push, also known as a bounce back.

What to do with this state?
If the enemy wave crashed into your turret, you should focus on farming. This is where last hitting is essential, since each of the enemy minions will be periodically hit by your turret.

If your wave crashed into enemy turret, you can look for a reset, proxying or moving into the jungle for a ward or invade. If only 1 wave crashed, you can get a quick ward or keep moving for a proxy, but I would always recommend crashing at least 2 waves when going for a reset or moving into the jungle.

Jungle Tracking

Jungle tracking is a very neat skill to have, which even the best players have difficulty mastering. Having the skill allows you to adjust your playstyle based on the information you have. In this part, I will go into a few terms and their definitions. I will also include a ward map, so you know where the best wards are placed.

The enemy jungler is pathing toward you, meaning you will be weak sided. You will have to be extremely careful with trades, since an enemy jungler could be looming around. Try to hold the wave in front of your turret, but don't get stuck on low health. Usually you won't have enough health to contest the wave and you can easily be dove.

This is the most common occurence, both junglers pathing toward botlane. Toplane will become a true island, where it all comes down to skill expression. Your jungler will typically match the enemy jungler's tempo, so when your jungler is top, the enemy jungler will probably be there too.

Send me a message if this ever happens, 2 junglers pathing top!?!???!? Don't think you have an advantage when your jungler comes for a gank, since it will usually turn into a 2v2. Your jungler will typically match the enemy jungler's tempo, so when your jungler is top, the enemy jungler will probably be there too.

This is best-case scenario for Kled. You can do 2 things with the wave, slowpush and dive or freeze and kill.

Warding
Those are all of the different game states you can face, but junglers, especially in lower elo's, can divert from these states. That's why warding is extremely important, and where you ward can make a huge different in avoiding or getting caught in a gank.

Mentality

If you start to pick up Kled, there's something you are going to hear extremely often.

It's my property! All sixty gazillion acres of it!

This is one of Kled's voicelines, and soon it will be our mentality. While playing Kled, you should see them as trespassers. Whenever somebody walks in YOUR lane, punish them for it. How dare they stand there without YOUR permission. They should obey the High Major Commodore of the First Legion Third Multiplication Double Admiral Artillery Vanguard Companion!

You should be dominant in lane, punish your opponent for any mistake they make and only fight on your terms. When you recall, you're not running from battle, but simply repositioning to return stronger. Every recall should be a promise: you come back to strike down your opponents even harder.

This doesn't mean you should start fighting mindlessly and go in whenever your buttons will allow you to. You choose where you fight, when you fight and who you fight. If anyone other than the toplaner dares to show up, slay them without hesitation. They aren't there to stop you, for you they are mere training dummies.

But while playing Kled, remember one thing:

This was your lane long before they arrived, and it will be yours after they're long gone.

I hope this eased reading this chapter a bit

Snowballing

Now that we know exactly how to play the lane, it's time to push this lead even further, aka snowballing. Some champions excell better at snowballing than others, great snowballers are usually assassins like Katarina, Qiyana or Akali. But skirmishers like Kled, Riven and Gwen can also snowball really hard, due to their high damage and survivability.

Luckily for the skirmishers, they are often played in the toplane, giving them another advantage for snowballing. Their lane opponent becomes extremely weak, because toplane is so punishing. Die once early? Have fun being zoned off for the rest of the game. You want to walk up? Sure, just trade 90% of your health for that one minion.

There are various ways to snowball a lead, but I usually divide them into 2 categories; growing your lead and growing the team's lead. Both have their advantages, but I prefer converting my lead into a team advantage. Winning games solo is hard, especially if your team isn't playing too well. But it's easier to have a bad team that's ahead than being good yourself but the rest of your team is behind.

But just for the sake of it, I'll cover both. So here it is, how do you convert your lead into a bigger lead and how do you convert your lead into a team lead.






Pushing your solo lead is pretty easy compared to pushing a team lead, since you only need yourself. Obviously, you need to get ahead first, but following the steps in this guide will already get you there. Let's sketch the following scenario:

This is a perfect scenario in which you can snowball your lead. Renekton is down600 gold plus another700 gold for the additional level Kled has. Look to dive renekton whenever possible, then try to position yourself between the tier 1 and tier 2 turret as he tries to walk back. If you don't have Tiamat, don't proxy, but make the wave bounce back to you instead.

If you let the wave bounce back to you, make sure to get a freeze in front of your turret. When Renekton tries to walk up for cs, punish him for it. By standing in front of the wave, you can even deny him xp, once you hit level 7 he will still be level 4. If you cannot reach Renekton because he keeps dashing away, either wait for level 6 to engage with R or ping your jungler.

Once you've bought Tiamat, you can start the proxy journey. You can reposition yourself between the tier 1 and tier 2 turrets, so you can catch Renekton while walking back. But something I like a little more, is positioning yourself between the tier 2 and tier 3 turrets. This way, you can still catch Renekton, but you can also say hello to the jungler. By proxying the wave between tier 2 and tier 3 turret, you have enough time to clear the krugs and still catch the wave between the tier 1 and tier 2 turret.

Now let's see how we can boost our team as well. This is much harder to accomplish, since your team also needs to be cooperative. Also, if getting your team ahead fails, the entire snowballing fails. This is because your lane opponent will have all the freedom they need to get back in the game. Personally, I would always advice pushing your own gold lead to at least1000 gold before trying to get your team ahead.

Wave state: crashed After you've crashed at least 2 waves into enemy turret, you can either decide to recall or apply jungle pressure. I would always recommend recalling to get an item advantage, but if ahead enough, you can definitely go for jungle pressure. This would include going for an invade (with your jungler) or securing an objective or scuttle. You lane opponent can either choose to clear the wave, where you can always be a man up, or they choose to chase you, where they will lose 2+ waves ofgold and xp.

Wave state: crashed If you choose to recall instead, we can actually start looking at the botlane. Typically, the botlane is too busy focussing on their own lane, that they won't even pay attention to your R. So, instantly run out of fountain and look to use your R whenever in range. Before making this decision, look where the enemy botlane is currently at. If they are under turret, you can only decide to give when your botlane doesn't want to reset. If the wave is about to crash, don't even bother, since they will most likely recall. But, if they are slow pushing, gogogogogogo!!

Wave state: proxied Now, this is my personal favorite, but requires Tiamat. Get yourself in a proxy angle, where you ultimately clear the wave between tier 2 and tier 3 turret. Then run between the tier 2 and tier 3 turret in midlane, and you will have arrived at your desitnation. This is where you can start looking for an invade, or get extremely unexpected R angles. Don't spend 5 minutes fistfighting though! If you proxy -> gank -> recall, you can actually make it back in time the enemy wave moves into your turret. Even if you don't make it, you will only lose about 1 wave tops, unless you die of course.

Side Lane

The side lane is a great place for Kled to be, since you can take turrets really fast. Especially if you have Demolish, Hullbreaker and your W4. But knowing when you be in the sidelane and when you have to leave can be crucial in some scenario's. This is why splitpushing is typically theorized by the Line Theory. Let's say all lanes are neutral, nothing is going on in the jungle and all towers still stand. In that scenario, the pressure line is going straight through the middle of the map.

Another example would be in the following scenario, where your team is doing a dragon botlane. We don't see the midlaner, but we do see the rest of the team.

In this scenario, you are over the pressure line and can be played upon. Whether it's by a flank Teleport, you simply cannot be this high up in lane. Try to avoid crossing this line. I have a few more examples down below, there will be an answer down below. All of these examples are assumed both team are equally strong. Try doing them yourself before revealing the answer.

Ultimate usage

There any many ways Kled's R can be utilized. You can take your entire team to an objective in seconds, or you can use it as a CC buffer. I will explain a few ways how you can use your ultimate to get the most value Mid/Late Game.

First of all, when you are level 16+, you should have 3 ability points in R. This means that you will have an insane amount of range on your ability, where you can create amazing flanking opportunities. This means you can be split map, while still being able to enter a teamfight relatively quick. This map shows a few examples of how you can move when being split map.
As you can see, there's loads of ways to go. When using your ultimate in a flanking position, make sure to focus the backline rather than the frontline. This way, you can force the backline into awkward positions, leaving them extremely vulnerable.

If you are not in the sidelane, but moving with your team instead (usually for objectives), you can use some of the following paths.
These paths will give your team increadible mobility toward objectives. You don't necessarily need to focus the backline here, since your job is merely to engage. However, it can't hurt if you "accidentally" hit them and "oopsie" killed them... right?

Don't forget that when you are trading objectives (e.g. your team takes drake while the enemy team takes baron), you can ult toward the other objective once you've finished it. This can actually ensure quite a few steals!

Objectives

When playing for objectives, there are a lot of factors that you have to keep track of.

➾ Where is the jungler?
➾ How much health does the objective currently have?
➾ Can my Pyke hit his Q's???

Luckily, we are toplaners, and we have only one goal: zoning the enemy. This is assuming there's enough damage being dealt to the objective by the rest of your team. Usually, you only need the jungler and adc on the objective. In some very rare cases, the midlaner has to help out as well.

Your job will not be to fight the enemy, but merely to prevent them from getting close. This shouldn't cost you your life, which is why usually you do this with the support and midlaner. Unfortunately, this typically won't be the case, especially in lower elo's. In that case, ping your team for help zoning or stay closer to your team.

There are two scenario's which are most common, assuming you have an ideal 5v5. For each of these scenario's we will pose as the blue team, so just flip the map if you want to imagine yourself playing on the red team instead.

Zoning the open pit If you are playing on blue team, this will mean you are playing for dragon. For red team, this would be baron. It's a scenario where the enemy team comes from the side of the map where the pit is open. Try not to cross the line indicated, if you do your team will not be able to follow up. The yellow spots are ideal wards, until then, you can wait at the position indicated on the map. Once you see an enemy, you can move toward the position.

Zoning the pit wall If you are playing on blue team, this will mean you are playing for baron. For red team, this would be dragon. It's a scenario where the enemy team comes from the side of the map where the pit is closed. Try not to cross the line indicated, if you do your team will not be able to follow up. The yellow spots are ideal wards, until then, you can wait at the position indicated on the map. Once you see an enemy, you can move toward the position.

Exceptions
Zoning is not always the best option, since you won't always get your ideal 5v5 situation. These are the most common exceptions you can find:

High mobility enemies
No matter what side of the pit you have to defend, highly mobile enemies can always get in. Think about Kayn, Talon or Zed, who all have movement abilities to move around you and your team without any issues. So, how can you zone them? You can't. The best way of zoning is by sending them back to base, and definitely don't flip the objective.

Rushing
Usually, you will have to rush objectives when you're on a timer. For instance, when the enemy team is about to respawn or when you are sneaking the objective. In this scenario, always try to help out your team to clear the objective as quickly as possible. This doesn't mean you can't zone at all, just be sure to keep hitting as long as there's no enemies nearby.

Fighting
Kled's R is a great way to engage onto the enemy. Do you see their adc slacking while doing an objective, don't hesitate to click your buttons onto them. Make sure to ping your team that you want to fight.

Leads

When I mention leads, I don't mean the same as "pushing a solo or team lead" I mentioned in the early game. Instead, I want to talk about Kled's overall Mid/Late Game potential. It isn't great, you are a champion that falls off more and more as the game goes on. That's also why it's so hard to play Kled when behind, you HAVE to get ahead in the early game.

However, there are a few workarounds to this. We all know there's very few games where both teams are going to be full build, games usually have to go on for 45 minutes if we want that to happen. So, let's say you're full build and enemy team is looking like this:



Since I am full build, I will start falling off soon. So I want to know two things, can I kill them, how long will the fight take and what is the enemy's key ability that I have to play around. So this is how I look at this comp:



So what can I do with this information? First of all, I know that I do NOT want to play against Ahri, ever. If she goes bot, I go top, and vice versa. As for Darius, Nunu & Willump and Nautilus, I'll only want to face them in a 1v1 situation. In a team environment, they are simply too tanky for me. Then there's Tristana, she is a coinflip with her ult up. So, unless I get a good angle onto Tristana, I should be looking for 1v1's against the others.

By analysing teams like this, you can predetermine who you want to fight against. If you spot Ahri, Nunu & Willump and Nautilus botlane, while Darius is hitting tier 2 toplane, run top!

There is one exception to looking at teams like this, and that's when you are the only person in your team that fills a certain quality. Let's say your team has no reliable engage, then it's your job to do so. But this is a great start how to stay online in the Mid/Late game.

Hi there and thank you for taking the time to read my guide! This is the most detailed guides I've written thus far, and it's been so much fun. I had sessions of several hours, writing and writing. Even though it's "finished" now, there's still a lot of things I can improve. Every time I scroll through the guide, there's several things I want to adjust.

This is also the first time I've tried adding various visual elements, from Skaarl's footprint to full banners. I'm extremely inexperienced when it comes to creating visual elements, and especially using them correctly. I plan to give the guide a complete overhaul once I've trained more with these visual elements.

I would like to thank a few people:
- Thomas078 for still being hardstuck, so we can keep playing together.
- A person who will not be named for legal reasons, for helping me out with some of the visual elements.
- inFinem with The Unbroken Faith - Yunara Guide and Autolykus with Autolykus's Challenger Sett Guide were great inspiration for this guide, which really gave me new insights to guide creation.
- My knowledge wouldn't have been where it is if it wasn't for lolalytics.com. Whether it's matchups, items or runes, this has given me all the information I needed throughout my league journey. (not sponsored btw)