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Recommended Items
Runes:
Precision
Sorcery
+10% Attack Speed
+10 Adaptive (6 AD or 10 AP)
+15-90 HP (lvls 1-18)
Spells:
Flash
Heal
Items
Ability Order
Second Skin (PASSIVE)
Kai'Sa Passive Ability
For suggestions just write a comment. I'll get a mail and answer as soon as possible! Hope you guys like it. I'll update for patches and changes as soon as possible, you can find the latest news and updates in the changelog. Good luck with my guide on Kai'Sa! For every German reader: Ihr kΓΆnnt mir ruhig auch auf Deutsch schreiben und Fragen stellen :) |
Hello there! My name is DasNerdwork. As Kai'Sa got released I became very excited. Her kit reminded me of Pharah from Overwatch and her abilities looked incredible powerful in the trailers. In this guide, I will tell you everything you need to know about her! If you have any suggestions or feedback I'd appreciate if you comment and discuss with me. I'll always have an eye on the comments. I'll try to update this guide as often as I'm able to and give you the best advice to main Kai'Sa. This guide has an ADC part (which is currently WIP). If you have any questions just comment or direct message me and i'll answer as soon as possible. :3
If this guide helped you and you learned something new feel free to upvote and help it to become more popular! I'd really appreciate it ^^
Alright, let the domination begin!
Pros
|
+ Both AP and AD ratios on Q,W,R + En- and disengage possibilities with E and R + Incredible range with Void Seeker + Invisibility with evolved Supercharge + Reengage potential with Killer Instinct + Unbelievable shield amounts in late game + "Damn she is lookin like a snack" ~ Jovy |
Kai'Sa is a champion that is designed to be playable in different ways. E.g. as ADC, midlaner or jungler. Therefore they designed her with ratios that make crit- and attack speed builds, ability power builds aswell as jungler or even assassin like builds possible. Playing as Kai'Sa feels natural in any role. In that case the rockets of Icathian Rain, which are castable while running away or auto-attacking, are a great feature. Also her possibility to get true invisibility with the evolved Supercharge helps to protect yourself from assassins like Rengar. The last thing to mention would be her great reengage with Killer Instinct as long as the enemy has a stack of Plasma left. |
Cons
|
- Squishy as every ADC/APC - No direct control over Icathian Rain - Hybrid build to evolve every ability needed - Killer Instinct doesn't deal damage - Not a single CC ability - Also CC vulnerable - Kassadin could become mad... |
There are times where all of your evolved Icathian Rain rockets split up to hit multiple targets at once. This way they deal less damage and could lead to your death. Also if Supercharge is on cooldown you don't have a direct disengage and probably have to use Flash or any other spell to protect yourself from assassins. Even though your ultimate gives you an unbelievable shield later in the game it doesn't deal any damage. |
Passive: Second Skin Caustic Wounds: KaiβSaβs basic attacks mark enemies with Plasma, dealing increasing bonus magic damage. After a few successive attacks, the Plasma ruptures for a burst of damage based on the targetβs missing health. Nearby alliesβ immobilizing effects add stacks of Plasma. Living Weapon: KaiβSaβs symbiote-suit adapts to her chosen attack style, evolving her abilities based on permanent stats gained from shop items and experience level. |
Q: Icathian Rain KaiβSa releases a swarm of missiles evenly distributed among nearby enemies, with additional hits on the same target dealing slightly reduced damage. Living Weapon: With enough bonus Attack Damage, Icathian Rain fires significantly more missiles. |
W: Void Seeker KaiβSa fires off a beam of Void energy, revealing the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage, and applying stacks of Plasma. Living Weapon: With enough bonus Ability Power, Void Seeker deals more damage and partially refunds the cooldown on champion hit. |
E: Supercharger KaiβSa charges up, briefly increasing her movement speed but losing the ability to attack. After charging up, KaiβSa whips out the big guns to increase her attack speed for a few seconds. Basic attacks reduce Superchargerβs cooldown. Living Weapon: With enough bonus Attack Speed, Supercharger briefly grants true invisibility while charging up. |
R: Killer Instinct KaiβSa dashes at extremely high speed with long range to a location near an enemy champion marked with Plasma and briefly gains a damage-absorbing shield. |
[Passive enhancement]
Press The Attack:Hitting enemy champions 3 consecutive times makes them vulnerable, dealing bonus damage and increasing the damage they take from every source. This works very well with Kaisas Passive Second Skin. After your 3rd stack of Plasma you'll deal more damage so your 5th hit deals even more. Also synergizes well with Supercharges attack speed and attack speed items at all. |
[Little synergy]
Lethal Tempo:1.5s after you damage a champion you gain large amounts of attack speed, that are able to exceed the maximum limit for attack speed temporarily. Possible choice of keystone but Press the Attack and Fleet Footwork are way better for teamfights as well as botlane fights. It still synergizes with Supercharge and your passive procs. |
[Damn boi]
Fleet Footwork:Attack and moving generates energy stacks. At 100 stacks your next attack heals you and provides increased movement speed for a short duration. This Keystone is incredible strong for trades and laning phases. It's lategame opportunities are not as good as with Press the Attack but still paired with Supercharge great to escape or kite your way through the game. |
[You ugly.]
Conqueror:After 4 seconds in combat, your first attack against an enemy champion grants you 6-35 attack damage, based on level, for 3 seconds, and converts 20% of your damage to champions to true damage. Melee champions refresh this buff though making it unattractive for use to choose. |
[Team-based] Overheal: Healing in excess of your maximum health is converted into a shield for an amount of up to 10 (+ 10% of maximum health). The shield lasts 6 seconds, and then decays over a 2-second duration. Receiving healing, dealing or taking damage will refresh the shield duration to 6 seconds. Very useful if you decide to build a lifesteal sided build. If you don't build any life steal at all it's rather useless. Because of this you should decide during Pick & Ban Phase if you take this rune or switch to Triumph. |
[Possible] Presence of Mind: Champion Damage rating takedowns, after a 1-second delay, restore 20% of your maximum mana and refund 10% of your ultimate's maximum cooldown. Not the best choice, but also possible to go. The fact that you focus on your autoattacks mainly instead of your abilities is reason enough to not taking this rune. Better for a midlane or ability power variant of Kai'Sa. |
[You wanna be Vlad?] Legend: Bloodline: Gain 0.8% life steal, up to 8% with 10 stacks. Every 20 "Legend" points you get 1 stack of this rune. You can get 20 points through champion takedowns, epic monster kills, 5 points for monster kills or 1 point for minnion kills. Therefore you need'd need approximately 200 minion kills only with farming. It get's easier with fighting and helping the jungler. If you already know you want to go for a lifesteal sided itembuild or you take Overheal this rune would fit into your selection. Otherwise stick with Legend: Alacrity. |
[Don't go for HP!] Cut Down: Deal 4% bonus damage to champions with at least 150 more maximum health than you. This increases up to 12% bonus damage versus targets with 2000 more maximum health than you. A perfect rune if you face tanks or a tanky team as enemies. Even more powerful because you're an ADC with low hp and few to none resistances. Keep in mind not to build hp items like Spirit Visage or Thornmail when using this rune. |
[RIP Thunderlords]
Electrocute:Hitting a champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities in 3s deals bonus adaptive damage. Not really the best choice as Icathian Rains rockets only count as one ability. So you have to hit a combo of Void Seeker, an auto-attack and Icathian Rain (W,AA,Q) to trigger Electrocute. Depends on your aiming potential as well as your trade behaviour whilest laning. |
[Tactical useful]
Predator:Add an active effect to your boots that grants a large boost of MS and causes your next attack or ability to deal bonus adaptive damage. Very useful as jungle keystone, especially to chase your targets after marking them with Void Seeker to be able to use Killer Instinct or just to empower Supercharge. |
[It's a choice]
Dark Harvest:Every 45 seconds you can damage a champion below 50% of their maximum health by any mean and deal 20 β 60 (based on level) (+ 5 per Soul) (+ bonus Adaptive damage) and reaps 1 Soul. Very strong on any champion at the moment, possible choice to go and even more efficient, because as soons as you see a target with less than 50% of their hp you can just shoot your Void Seeker and get the stack. |
[Not that great]
Hail of Blades:Gain 75-125% (at levels 1-18) attack speed for the first three attacks made against enemy champions. If more than 2 seconds elapses between attacks this effect will end. Hail of Blades allows you to temporarily exceed the attack speed limit and resets after 4 seconds out of combat. Could be combined with Supercharge to burst your enemies with your passive down, but you probably won't one-shot them after that and as you don't have that great of an escape or disengage possibilities Fleet Footwork would fit more. Even though it's possible to play with depending on your playstyle. |
[Very dependent] Cheap Shot: Basic attacks and damaging abilities deal 8 β 40 (based on level) bonus true damage to slowed or immobilized enemy champions. You should only rely on this rune if you got a stun heavy supporter like Leona or Morgana, as Kai'Sa doesn't have any stuns or slows herself and your item build won't provide any strong usage if this rune. |
[You wanna be Vlad again?] Taste of Blood: Damaging an enemy champion heals you for 18 β 35 (based on level) (+ 20% bonus AD) (+ 10% AP). Just a little more healing and very strong combined with Overheal, Legend: Bloodline or just a vampiristic build style with a lot of life steal e.g. Bloodthirster, Blade of the Ruined King, etc. |
[Synergetic :>] Sudden Impact: Going in combat by affecting an enemy champion within 3 seconds of using a dash, blink or Teleport, or exiting from invisibility or camouflage, grants 7 Lethality and 6 Magic Penetration for the next 5 seconds. Incredible synergy with our evolved Supercharge and probably the best rune to take out of the first row of the domination runes. |
[Only with lifesteal] Ravenous Hunter: Heal for 1.5% (+ 2.5% per Bounty Hunter stack) of the damage dealt by your abilities, on-hit effects and items, up to 14% at 5 stacks. Benefits from Heal Power. You earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion. Again a good rune for a lifesteal heavy build combined with Overheal, Legend: Bloodline or life steal items etc. |
[You wanna be Vlad?] Ingenious Hunter: Reduces the cooldown of item actives by 15% (+ 5% per Bounty Hunter stack), up to 40% at 5 stacks. This effect also applies to trinkets. You earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion. Not very useful as you don't have that much of items with actives. Only Blade of the Ruined King and probably Mercurial Scimitar. |
[MopsgΓ€schwindischkeit!] Relentless Hunter: Gain 8 (+ 8 per Bounty Hunter stack) out-of-combat movement speed, up to 48 at 5 stacks. You earn a Bounty Hunter stack for champion takedowns, up to one per unique enemy champion. Useful if combined with Supercharge for faster follow-ups, en- and disengages, etc. |
[You are not Rakan]
Summon Aery:Your attacks and abilities send Aery to a target, damaging enemies or shielding allies. Basically it's just a weaker Arcane Comet because your only shielding ability is your ultimate Killer Instinct and the shield is only for yourself, therefore this keystone has no great benefits. |
[Is it a bird?]
Arcane Comet:Damaging a champion with an ability hurls a damaging comet at their location, or, if Arcane Comet is on cooldown, reduces its remaining cooldown. Very useful to poke in lane, especially in combination with Void Seeker because of it's extreme range. Also synergizes well with Icathian Rain because once you are able to use it on a target (that is not next to minions) they will hit with 100% precision, making use of the comet. Also Icathian Rain is casts every rocket regardless of your distance to the target once you were able to stand in range. That means neither a Keeper's Verdict nor a Buster Shot interrupts the cast of your rockets. |
[THE FAST]
Phase Rush:Hitting an enemy champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities grants a burst of MS. Really useful for AP-AS builds to make use of your passive and be sure to get the Phase Rush. Synergizes perfectly with her kit and is definetly a recommended choice as sorcery keystone. |
[Not today!] Nullifying Orb: If you would take magic damage that would reduce you below 30% of your maximum health, you first gain a shield that absorbs 40 β 120 (based on level) (+ 15% bonus AD) (+ 10% AP) magic damage for 4 seconds. This effect can occur once every 60 seconds. Great against AP heavy enemies or AP assassins like Diana or Elise. |
[Faster than Sonic] Nimbus Cloak: Casting your ultimate ability, after a 1.5-second delay, grants ghosting and 100 bonus movement speed for 2.5 seconds. The movement speed decays over the last 1 second. Very useful combined with Killer Instinct and Supercharge as it gives you an incredible burst of movements speed after casting your ultimate, making it easier to catch or follow up. |
[Vrooooom...] Celerity: Movement speed bonuses are 8% more effective on you (excluding boots). Very strong if combined with Supercharge, Nimbus Cloak, or Youmuu's Ghostblade as examples. |
This section is sorted from A-Y (Abyssal Mask to Youmuu's Ghostblade). The items are not always recommended but to show you on the first look which are the good choices and which aren't I colored their names from good choice over situational to not recommended.
Abyssal Mask: Not useful for an ADC Kai'Sa because there are better defensive items for an ADC like Spirit Visage or Thornmail. Still useful for an AP Kai'Sa because it provides you with a lot of sustain through hp and mana aswell as magic resist against other AP midlaners like Orianna for example. With an autoattack range of 500 you are able to apply the unique passive of this item and deal 10% more magic damage to enemies causing your Second Skin stacks to deal more damage. All in all if you start struggling in lane against an AP midlaner use this item to sustain! Very recommended if you play against an AP midlaner AND an AP Jungler like Elise. |
Adaptive Helm: Again as a defensive choice this item counts as useful against repetetive magic damage. Especially useful against damages over time such as Teemos Toxic Shot or Brands Blaze aswell as low cooldown abilities such as Cassiopeias Twin Fang. There are a lot more useful times for this item and if you realize that your enemies make your life hard with repetetive damage then use this item. |
Archangel's Staff: Very effective for AP Kai'Sa. After the weak early phase of this item through the Tear of the Goddess you are able to stack a lot, especially with Icathian Rain and Supercharge as their cooldowns are not too high. Also after transforming into Seraph's Embrace it provides you with 1400 mana on it's own. This combined with Kai'Sas standard mana pool of 991 results in 2391 mana. Therefore the passive providing you with 1% of your mana (on Seraph's Embrace 3%) as AP comes to around 70 AP. All in all this single item can give you over 120 AP when fully stacked and a gigantic pool of mana. If you are able to sustain and get over the weak early phase without high damage or health and especially if you can dodge properly this item counts as recommended. Do not forget to stack as much as possible though! |
Banshee's Veil: Again a very useful item especially against assassins like Rengar or all-in midlaners. Watch out for the enemies ultimates. If they have a lot of ultimates like Enchanted Crystal Arrow for example and a lot of AP or just a strong ap midlaner in general you can consider buying this item. Great possibility to prevent crowd control and counter some poke damage. |
Blade Of The Ruined King: In terms of synergy a perfect item for Kai'Sa. The passive damage counts as on-hit effect which is sadly not factored into critical strikes but synergizes well because the heal gets applied even if the damage is dealt through other items/abilities, such as Guinsoo's Rageblade or Runaan's Hurricane. "Very effective, such usefullness, wow." ~ Flo | DasNerdwork |
Duskblade of Draktharr: It synergizes very well with Supercharge to trigger the passive "Nightstalker" even though it will deal less on-hit physical damage and not apply the slow as Kai'Sa counts as ranged champion. The raw damage aswell as the lethality still makes it a really big deal for your enemies. |
Edge Of Night: Lethality and attack damage on the one hand, health and a spell shield every 40 seconds on the other. Combined with Supercharge very easy to use. For a lethality build and/or an assassin build a perfect all round item. |
Essence Reaver: The three main stats of attack damage, cooldown reduction and critical strike chance fit perfect for an ADC. Depending on your personal preference of more damage Infinity Edge or a bigger mana pool Essence Reaver you should choose the item. Also very interesting to handle with it's non-ultimate cooldown refunding, which makes you spam your abilities after casting your ultimate. |
Frozen Mallet: As the basic attack counterpart of Rylai's Crystal Scepter this item is the best for tanky champions who prefer to use basic attacks and want to stick to their opponents like Shyvana and Gnar. With 700 health it provides you with a lot of sustain on e.g. the top lane. Sadly it gives only 30 attack damage and is nearly a full tank item. Jaurim's Fists bonus health gets lost when upgraded to Frozen Mallet as well as the reduced slow of only 20% for ranged champions make this item only useful for top or maybe in some cases jungle, but definitely not for an ADC or APC. |
Hextech GLP-800: Works best for an AP build because the active frost bolt scales with AP. Provides Kai'Sa with a high amount of mana as well as a slow that brings more effectiveness to Second Skins stacks. If you decide to build a hextech item this is the choice to for slowing enemies that have high movement speed or can easily escape your stacking process. |
Hextech Gunblade: No mana but instead attack damage and life steal. The lighting bolt passive also scales higher with AP but only slows for 40% for 2 seconds. Healing for 15% of all damage dealt and for 5% for every area of effect unit effected works extremely well and is pretty strong. As Kai'Sa deals damage with her auto attacks as well as her passive itβs really effective. |
Hextech Protobelt-01: Seven fire bolts scaling with AP, a dash, HP, cooldown reduction and some AP too. This item is an all around item and is able to give you more HP to survive longer or the dash to hit your last Second Skin stack or auto-hit. Definetly recommended for an AP build. |
Infinity Edge: It's literally Yasuo's passive. It doubles your critical strike chance, converts 10% of your critical strikes to true damage which ignores armor and magic resistance and also pops with 70 Attack Damage. It's just a lot and combined with one of the critical strike chance items gives you instantly 60% crit chance aswell as a lot of armor surpassing. Normally the must-go choice for every ADC player. |
Liandry's Torment: This item is best for champions that deal magic damage over an extended period of time like Amumu, Brand or Teemo. We as Kai'Sa want to stack our passive Second Skin and don't really deal damage over time. Also we can't make use of it's passive "Torment" as Kai'Sa has no abilities to slow or immobilize someone on her own. Even though it's stats are pretty good with ability power and health there are better AP items to choose from than this. |
Lich Bane: Some AP, some cooldown reduction, some movement speed and some mana. But the cool thing about this item is it's potential to poke. The passive is considered as on-hit effect and scales perfectly for Kai'Sa with base AD and AP. Sadly the bonus damage doesn't stack with Trinity Force, Iceborn Gauntlet or Sheen. |
Luden's Echo: A perfect synergy item for Void Seeker as every hit with 100 charges deals bonus damage. Also providing Kai'Sa with a lot of cooldown reduction and mana to use her abilities even more and a high amount of ability power that can lead combined with Rabadon's Deathcap to even higher numbers. |
- 20.02.2018 - Guide created after seeing her incredible trailers
- 21.02.2018 - Some more information about Kai'sa added to the guide
- 22.02.2018 - Designed the headers of some sections and created the table of contents
- 23.02.2018 - Added they main keystones for precision, domination and sorcery and tested some stuff on the PBE
- 24.02.2018 - Changed some designs and removed some pixel "mistakes"
- 25.02.2018 - Nothing, was lazy today and watched the whole day netflix :>
- 25.02.2018 - Added the itembuild finally, thanks to PsiGuard for adding her to the database <3
- 01.03.2018 - Added the Mid (On-Hit/Gunblade) Options to her builds
- 05.03.2018 - Added the official Kai'Sa description video of league of legends
- 07.03.2018 - Kai'Sa finally got released and I updated her builds a little, enjoy!
- 08.03.2018 - Added Hextech Gunblade as optinal item to evolve Void Seeker
- 10.03.2018 - Updated the beginning video of the guide with my own, put some effort in it and tried to compromise the most helpful tips and tricks. :)
- 12.03.2018 - Added the items from A-D, don't have that much of time because of my final exams.
- 14.03.2018 - Added the items from D-L, have to write and learn for my final exams now!
- 18.04.2018 - Updated for Patch 8.8 and edited the description for Archangel's Staff. Also this guide is going to get a big update at the end of this month!
- 04.12.2018 - Updated for Patch 8.23, added some more rune details and fixed outdated information throughout the guide.
- 06.12.2018 - Fully updated for Patch 8.24!
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