What exactly is Kai'Sa's role in League?

Forhonor321·Feb 22, 2018·1 votes·2,408 views

So this might be a super dumb question to some and they'll say "SHE'S AN ADC YOU DUMB SILVER SCRUB" but here's the thing.

Trying her in the practice mode on the PBE a bit she feels like she has a few playstyles. Yes obviously she can be an ADC but she also can build some AP and even has a pretty decent jungle clear from what I can tell:

src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K8cxqfuo9z0"

This is just getting into my head of what exactly she could be capable of. Can she possibly be played as a marksman top lane, a marksman mid like Lucain for a while or maybe even a caster, what exactly can she be capable of?

12 Comments

RenownedWheat42Feb 22, 20182 votes

I think, so far, it looks like she can be played in more than just the bot lane, which is awesome. Riot said they want to try and diversify what champs can do and if the new champ fits into more than one role, it's a damn good way of following that.

She seems like she's got multiple viable roles depending on how you want to play first and foremost. If you want to build her more standard attack speed/crit and focus an E primary Q secondary build, you can. If you want to go higher on damage at first then focus attack damage and Q. W doesn't seem like a very viable priority but easy to get as a secondary and is great for long-range engage/assassination opportunities.

MagicFlyingLlamaFeb 22, 20181 votes

She is going to repeat the horror that was jungle ekko S5.

nm1010Feb 22, 20181 votes

Building a standard adc build is really underwhelming. So far I think her "core" items are rageblade + cutlass upgrade, after that you can basically build anything. Her passive feels like the ap scaling is ridiculous to the point where I only want attack speed, ap, and enough ad to get q upgraded.

For example a build with rageblade, gunblade, hurricane, AS boots, death's dance, and wits end was like 26% missing health damage from her passive. Literally w r gunblade q auto auto is enough to instakill squishies while you also have high consistent damage. Oh and it solos baron in like 15 seconds.

Forhonor321Feb 22, 20181 votes

26% health you say? I'll have to test that build out.

nm1010Feb 22, 20181 votes

If nashors didn't suck so much I would go for it and get it up to ~30%. Also should note I actually had some gathering storm ap (only 20 minute proc) so that build is 24% if you don't take gathering storm.

The more I play her the more I just want straight ap items after rageblade and bork/gunblade, it is really weird to try to figure out what is best on her (though I am almost certain crit is awful).

Lintu PuckFeb 22, 20181 votes

her purpose, as stated by the roadmap, was to be a marksmen like Vayne. meaning, a Marksmen that can and wants to get into the fight instead of sitting back behind their team.

Forhonor321Feb 22, 20181 votes

Yes I know that, but that doesn't mean a marksman is limited to being in bot lane. We've has some go top (as cancerous as that is to people who don't play ranged), some jg and even some mid. The playstyle isn't what I'm asking, I'm more or less asking about what roles she could fill.

Lintu PuckFeb 22, 20181 votes

again "like Vayne" We have seen Vayne bot, jungle, and top, thus Kai can also go various lanes. Now given that she has lines specifically for Support Riot has probably geared her more to the ADC role, but with her kit they have left her reasonably flexible to have potential in other lanes like say Jungle or Mid

thecowleyFeb 22, 20181 votes

I don't know what she is intended for, but if that q hits monsters im taking her into the jg

Truly PridefulFeb 22, 20181 votes

She looks like a jungler to me. Kind of seems like she could go anywhere though, really depends on how weak her laning is.

PeritheusFeb 22, 20181 votes

Sup all the way, just stack shields all with the ult item 3114 item 3190 , both your team and their will freak out since they have no idea what you gonna do with that big fat juicy shield but prob ban 99% anyway unless they horribly feed like release broken ornn.

Karn BishopFeb 22, 20181 votes

She will most likely be a jungler based on how her Q targetting works + the fact that her item build for unlocking all 3 evolves is not something you can get away with in bot lane, she also wont really have much actual trading power vs most other adc and most importantly will have trouble with wave control given the nature of Q.

She is an marksmen but not in the traditional sense of one, to me its like they took pre rework eve removed perma invisibility with temp invis fused into E took Q increased its CD but also increased its total damage with W being good raw damage / catchup tool once they blow their flash or whatever you follow up with R and gain a decent shield and kill em.

i like How she plays is so much like pre rework eve which i dig because that was my favorite champion before they ruined her.

i see her core being gunblade + nashors definitely with starting jungle item depending on which evolve you want to unlock first blood razer + nashors for E evolve, ludens smite + gunblade for W evolve, or warrior smite + gunblade to unlock Q evolve. From here you fill in the gaps for your next evolve depending on what you need.

General rule of thumb will likely look like this Q evolve vs champs that like to invade, W evolve if everyone is tower hugging for some tower harass, E evolve for some early invade aggression / gank potential.

Still testing out the runes on pbe however its looking like precision primary + sorc/inspiration so far.