In August 2011, Kayle got a remake and then a buff a few weeks later. One of the parts of the remake was to increase the radius of her Righteous Fury to 300 (the same size as Akali's Twilight Shroud). This extra radius made her viable as the only ranged AoE AD carry.

AD?!?
Yes. She scales much better with AD than AP (more below). People who put a lot of AP on her simply haven't done the math.

Her most important stat is attack speed.
Her 2 viable builds require a lot of attack speed.
1. + Runes & Masteries
2. + Runes & Masteries


Kayle always had nice utility in her kit, but now she's absolutely amazing in team fights.

• She has one of the best support ultimates in the game (when used correctly)
• She can quickly melt single targets, while steadily melting anyone close to them
  (bring the rest of their team to half health while killing one of them)
• She can speed up teammates (with a tiny heal attached)
• She has a nuke that also slows people

Kayle has slightly better stats than Ashe

• much better health and mana
• slightly better damage
• slightly less attack speed.

This means:

If you build Kayle like Ashe, her auto attacks will hurt like Ashe's
+ she'll AoE at the same time.

My last 6 games: 3 Wins / 3 Loses (I guess I'm in the right Elo...)
56 kills / 27 deaths / 45 assists

Imagine Ashe with 40% of her AD splashing in a 300 radius (the same size as Akali's Twilight Shroud).

Also, give her a free 60 damage (the same as Bloodthirster with no stacks) and that 60 damage splashes too. Imagine Ashe's auto attack AoEing half the other team in team fights. Some people might think that's over powered.


Kayle's base stats are slightly better than Ashe's.
Base Stats
Health

• Level 1: =511 =438
• Level 18: =2092 =1781

Damage

• Level 1: =56.1 (76.1 with ) =49.15
• Level 18: =103.7 (163.7 with ) =97.6

Attack Speed

• Level 1: =0.638 =0.658
• Level 18: =0.909 =1.031

DPS

• Level 1: =35.8 (48.6 with ) =32.3
• Level 18: =94.3 (148.8 with ) =100.6

A few things keep Kayle balanced.

• less attack range
• the need for good timing with Righteous Fury
• a less reliable slow

Attack Range
Ashe: 600
Corki: 550
Kayle: 525 with
Teemo: 500
Sivir: 425


Kayle is melee like Gangplank (125 range) and has to turn Righteous Fury on for range. 10 seconds is usually plenty of time during a fight. Try to make sure the 6 second melee time happens outside of a fight.


Slowing a target
Ashe's Frost Shot can be toggled.
Kayle's Reckoning is a spell cast with an 8 sec CD.

Ashe's Frost Shot is 15/20/25/30/35%
Kayle's Reckoning is 35% at level 1

Ashe's Frost Shot lasts 2 seconds.
Kayle's Reckoning lasts 4 seconds.


Upfront burst
Ashe's Focus gives extra crit percent for upfront burst on the first shot.
Kayle's Reckoning does similar damage but is more reliable and can be cast every 8 seconds.


Farming
Ashe has more reliable farming early game because of her consistent range, but Kayle easily makes up for it mid-game by quickly AoEing minion waves and forest creeps.

The more difficult farming early game is what makes Kayle feel underwhelming to many people. To make it go smoothly:

• Try to last hit with melee, if you can, to save mana and to keep Righteous Fury ready.
• Use Reckoning if you can't reach and Righteous Fury is on cooldown.
• You may want to put a 2nd point into Divine Blessing early. Healing for 85 instead of 45 will save you mana.

Other carries also have abilities that buff attack damage or speed. Her single target damage is on par with them.
The AoE is truly what sets Kayle apart.
Consider this
Upgrading a Chain Vest and Giant's Belt into a Sunfire Aegis costs 800 gold.
That 800 gold gives 20 HP and 35 damage a sec in a ~325 radius.

A level 18 Kayle with no items, runes, or masteries does 85 damage a sec in a 300 radius.
With , she does 203 damage a sec in a 300 radius.

Different abilities work with different teams.
Holy Fervor raises damage on the target by a few percentage points, but everyone focusing the same target will benefit from this.
Divine Blessing is a great, short, burst of speed. The heal is weak, but better than nothing.
Intervention is just amazing when used at the right times.




Because of Righteous Fury, Kayle is a better farmer than Ashe after the laning phase. Ashe needs the gold from Hawkshot to balance it.

Hawkshot's true strength lies in its scouting ability. Kayle has nothing similar.


versus

Balance
Volley and Divine Blessing can both be used for closing gaps (offensive) or widening gaps (defensive).
Volley can hit more than one target, but can be wasted if creeps are in the way.
Righteous Fury's AoE more than makes up for this.

Pros for Volley in fights
Volley hurts for 80 + AD
Divine Blessing heals for 205

During a fight, once Ashe's AD is over 125, Volley is worth more than Divine Blessing.
hurts for 205 (at 125 AD)
heals for 205
Kayle's Reckoning hurts more and makes up for this.

Volley also has a shorter cooldown.
CD = 4 seconds
CD = 15 seconds

Volley can be used to scout bushes.

Pro for Divine Blessing outside of fights
Divine Blessing balances these points by being constantly useful as a speed boost and heal outside of fights.



versus

Enchanted Crystal Arrow can stun to initiate fights, stop runners, and provide an escape. It's a great ultimate.
Intervention is trickier to use but can often grant a bigger advantage in many situations.

The main objective of a good enemy team during a team fight, is to focus down the most important guy on your team (usually a carry or support). They will throw tons of CC and damage at him. When you see their focus about to die, throw Intervention on him. He may be CCed, but he'll live an extra 2 to 3 seconds and he'll be able to fight after the CC wears off. Meanwhile, the enemy team wasted time and abilities while your team didn't.

I have used this to turn so many team fights around.
Don't be afraid to throw it on yourself if you're the guy going down.

Intervention is also great for tower diving.

I use attack speed Marks instead of armor penetration Greater Mark of Desolation because it boosts both the magic and physical portions of her auto attacks. Note that her entire splash is magic damage, even though it's calculated using 40% of her AD.

Other attack speed runes are also viable on her because she gets so much out of it.
32.34% Attack Speed = x3 + x9 + x9

Both Armor pen and Magic pen must be taken in the masteries.


I usually focus on a little extra survivability with both runes and masteries, because she does need to get closer than other carries and is more susceptible to AoE splash damage. Her base health is decent and with the HP runes Greater Seal of Vitality she has 2446 at 18. Besides survivability, the HP synergizes with Atma's Impaler giving 48 damage.

Standard carry build

and


Other items

These are cheap and attack speed scales really well with Kayle. You don't need because Divine Blessing speeds you up when you need it. As long as you have good positioning, you don't have to worry about Mercury's Treads, however, I'll often get Quicksilver Sash after Phantom Dancer if I'm having CC trouble.

You shouldn't need Ionian Boots of Lucidity if you're timing your Righteous Furys correctly. And Intervention's CD is short enough to be up once a fight.

If you really want CDR, The Brutalizer, Stinger, and Spirit Visage are good on her. The problem is, while The Brutalizer and Stinger are great mid-game items on her, the money spent upgrading to Youmuu's Ghostblade or Nashor's Tooth is MUCH better spent elsewhere.

I often get Zeal before Infinity Edge. It's cheap, the movement speed is important because of her less reliable slow, and the attack speed synergizes with the +60 damage from Righteous Fury.
+ + + Masteries = 75% crit chance

+ give good survivability along with the Armor + MR masteries, and HP from runes.



The final 3 items can be substituted for anything to counter the enemy. If you're not already melting faces by the time you have , you're doing something wrong. Once is upgraded to you're golden.


Other situational items

Either Last Whisper, Sword of the Divine or Black Cleaver is necessary if they are stacking armor.

Great armor penetration and attack speed. Especially useful against Jax or Sivir dodging.
A cheap way to get 40% attack speed and 10% cooldown reduction which work very well with Kayle. You don't need to upgrade to Nashor's Tooth in my opinion. Nashor's Tooth is too expensive. You don't need the mana or AP. 10% attack speed is not going to improve DPS that much at this point. The extra 15% CD isn't necessary if you're timing Righteous Fury correctly.
is better than
Bottom line, Bloodthirster does more DPS, is cheaper, and gives back more health.
Hextech Gunblade has a useful slow, but I'd rather have DPS, gold, and health.

• AoEing minion waves makes it very easy for Kayle to stack Bloodthirster to full.
• Hextech Gunblade adds 75 damage to auto attacks, 135 to Reckoning, and 39 to splash.
• Bloodthirster adds 100 damage to auto attacks, 100 to Reckoning, and 40 to splash.
• Hextech Gunblade has as small nuke and slow.
• Bloodthirster costs 625 less gold. After very few stacks it has a better gold/damage ratio.

Why the spell vamp isn't worth it

• Hextech Gunblade has spell vamp, but 5% less life steal.
• Spell vamp doesn't work on the main target of Righteous Fury, only the splash damage.
• The splash is a multi-target spell, so it only gets 8.3% spell vamp (1/3 of the 25%).
• The 25% spell vamp from Reckoning doesn't give back enough to compensate.
• Bloodthirster gives back more health in every case, except clearing a huge number of minions all packed together.

Great MR and amazing active.

A good defensive item.
MR, HP, CDR, and it's passive all work well with Kayle.