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Let's talk about Kayle!

MDCityAPOP··3 votes·1,740 views

Kayle is an amazing champion at what she does well despite her not fitting into the current high elo meta. She can clear the jungle very quickly, consistently and efficiently. Her sustained damage in a team fight can easily be more than an ADC and her utility in a team fight makes her even more of a threat. But despite these advantages, she does have some weaknesses.

What is good about Kayle?

  1.   Consistent AoE Damage

  2.   All around good jungler

  3.   Great utility

  4.   Decent kite ability

  5.   Great duelist

What is not so good about Kayle?

  1. Very vulnerable to hard cc. (Annie, Syndra)
  2. Weak against hard gap closers. (Xin, Panth)
  3.   Vulnerable without ultimate.
  4. Low Burst

Runes

The runes for my Kayle emphasize on farming the jungle and getting gold so that she can shine brighter in the mid game.

9x Greater Mark of Attackspeed 9x Greater Seal of Armor 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

This set up really helps Kayle prepare for the mid game by providing her with a significant amount of AP and the attack speed to farm the jungle.

Masteries

These masteries provide Kayle with max cdr once she gets nashor's tooth and cdr boots which is vital to provide her with 100% uptime of Righteous Fury. They also are designed to help Kayle farm the jungle quickly as well as rewarding her in the mid game with stat increases.

21/9/0

How to build Kayle

In my own personal experiences, I have learned that Kayle does best with attack speed and ability power to increase her sustained damage and increase her utility. Kayle is not a burst mage and she should not be played like one considering that she only has two abilities that do damage to an enemy unit. As jungle Kayle I always start with

item 2003 x2 item 1039

My first back is at level three after clearing both jungle buffs and after looking for an easy gank or clearing one more camp. Kayle's ganking potential is very weak until she gets some ability power to help deal more damage in a shorter time window. For my level three back I get

item 3713

We will be relentlessly farming the jungle with Kayle so this will help us keep our health and mana up. During time to get your second blue, if your mid laner is an AP based champion (or energy) give them blue. Kayle can jungle efficiently without it but you will need it in mid/late game when you start pushing with your group and you have teamfights. My core items are as such in order.

item 3726item 3158 item 3115 item 3085

These items are the staples that create Kayle's incredible sustained damage DPS. The devourer enchantment rewards us for farming the jungle and should be rushed to gain the most benefit from it. CDR boots work with nashor's tooth to give us a total of 35% cdr which is almost 100% up-time on Righteous Fury. When you get nashor's tooth, you will have finally gained a significant amount of ganking potential to start ganking lanes and pushing them to get the turret. Kayle is an amazing split pusher and can easily take down turrets while the enemy laner is in base. Hurricane is a must buy on Kayle because it gives her a massive amount of attack speed and the passive from it will proc Kayle's righteous fury active on up to two additional targets which will also AoE out and hit other enemies. There is a list of situational items you may purchase as Kayle after the core build.

item 3135 item 3146 item 3157 item 3100 item 3153 item 3124

All of these items can be good choices for Kayle depending on the situation. Void staff is good against teams who build MR and it scales into late game very well. Gunblade is a good item because it provides Kayle with more consistent damage output and the active's cooldown of the item synergies very will with hurricane which can reduce the cd of gunblade's active by up to 9 seconds very auto attack. Hourglass will be the most likely purchase for you to make. This just gives you a massive boost to AP and a second invulnerability so that you can stop being selfish with your ultimate :P. Lichbane is good if the enemy team has a champion such as a Riven or Renekton. It allows you to deal more damage while the enemy team is forcing you to kite and it provides a good amount of movement speed. BotRK is a very strong item on Kayle, energizing well with hurricane. It can easily be one of the most powerful on hit effects for Kayle and it is very strong at peeling tanky champions off of you and your ADC. Rageblade is a very strong mid game item for Kayle if you find that you want to conserve gold, otherwise gunblade is certainly worth farming for. Rageblade is good for sustained fights where Kayle can be safe and autoattack.

What does Kayle do in team fights?

With all of this emphasis on jungling, I wanted to cover how you should play Kayle in a team fight. Kayle can carry games but she also plays a supportive role to the team's ADC. Once you start team fighting be careful to stay close to your ADC. You will need to ulti them if they are focused and heal them to peel. Kayle's job in a team fight is so deal AoE damage and peel for herself or the team's ADC by providing damage, healing and slows. Your consistent damage will destroy tanks especially if you have BotRK.

18 Comments

Lil Soybean1 votes

Bookmarked. Do you really not like Guinsoo's on Kayle? Even its passive of increasing in strength at low HP is efficient on Kayle due to her suspending her life at low HP?

I feel like it was really good before, after Nashor's tooth, but now you can forego it due to starting with the jungle on-hit magic damage item. Or, to be more specific, I feel like it is really strong on her, but is better replaced by a heavy AP item (like Void Staff or Zhonya's, as you suggested.) What do you think?

Also, what do you think of Hybrid pen runes on her? Or are those wasted in the jungle? What about top/mid Kayle with hybrid pen marks?

Graidon3 votes

Guinsoo's is great on Kayle, it's just not as great as other items. In particular Guinsoo's requires a sustained fight and Kayle is fairly squishy minus her ult. Guinsoo's is a luxury item that you would really only ever get while you are ahead.

I think trailblazer's is definitely the best option for Kayle jungle at the moment. My ideal build for Kayle looks something like this:

item 3726 - item 3257 - item 3115 -item 3085 - item 3157 - item 3089

Of course it's situational and you can swap out an item here or there but generally speaking this build pretty much melts the entire enemy team. You can also safely ult anyone on your team and still hourglass yourself in the midst of a team fight.

Edit: Forgot, hybrid pen I think works great on her anywhere but the jg. In jg you really want damage or attack speed for the clears.

MDCityAPOP1 votes

Yes I agree that hybrid pen works very well on her as well. I noticed that you don't have cdr boots in your build which would really hurt when you can't attack from a range in the middle of a fight. Also I forgot about deathcap but its a good item since kayle's abilities scale very well with AP.

Graidon2 votes

CDR boots helps you a lot in sustained fights. But Kayle isn't a sustain champion. She's a burst champion. You want to melt the team with one q-e-r combo. The magic pen helps you add to your passive and Hurricane and utterly melt the team without having to worry to stay alive for another round of e-q.

MDCityAPOP1 votes

Kayle is definitely not a burst champion. She successes the best when she is able to sit and AA.

Graidon1 votes

Kayle is definitely not a burst champion. But she is not a sustain champion. One Q. Maybe two. ONE E. That's what she gets in 9 out of 10 team fights. Don't downvote me because you play Kayle wrong please. That's offensive.

Duke Anax1 votes

Oddly enough I tend tovget rageblade Ehen I'm behind, because it's kinda cheap.

junglerboy161 votes

Rageblade is excellent on Kayle because no matter what, her damage will always ramp up in a fight (because of her passive shred) and just having it ramp up harder makes it that much scarier. It is an early-mid game item, so if you already have three items and it is past 25 minutes, it is better to skip it. Before then though, it makes her dueling exceptional and gives her a load of burst (and it makes her DPS increase doubly efficiently because she uses AP scalings on AAs).

MDCityAPOP1 votes

Guinsoo's is a good item on Kayle and it should be considered depending on how much gold you have. Gunblade is more expensive but more powerful so if you find yourself to be fed go gunblade and if you need cheaper items go guinsoo's. As for n.tooth, its a must buy sadly, overall it isnt that good of an item for kayle but we get it because of the cdr it brings. the stats on the item are stronger than morello. I am still testing out options to trash the item. Hybrid pen are good but I think the attack speed is much more crucial because they are the strongest runes for jungling. Kayle top/mid is an interesting idea but Kayle will lose to a lot of burst mages and assasins with hard cc such as annie, liss, xin, rene, syndra. You may be able to predict their stuns with your ulti in lane but then you just end up cced and they wait to use their burst on you until your out of the cc

AquariusGine1 votes

I simply can't make her work, I'm not a pro so that makes it even harder.

calforrai1 votes

Why not play Kayle top? feel like as a jungler you usually won't get that much gold to complete that "end game fantasy" build.

MDCityAPOP1 votes

I have 900 gold for my first back as jungle Kayle and then I have no problems at all clearing wave after wave of respawns. I can get full build at 35 mins in. Kayle top is interesting but you would need a mana item because she goes oom very quickly with the high cdr that she needs as a champion.

Darth Pixy Misa1 votes

How about this?

item 3726 item 3115item 3006 item 3091 item 3157item 3190

MDCityAPOP1 votes

Well hurricane is pretty much where Kayle gets her massive mid game damage. That is a must have. The cdr boots are so that your Righteous Fury will have a 100% up time with n.tooth as well. Wits end is a good item but a rageblade can do more damage.

junglerboy161 votes

That and a Rageblade gives you that one last burst of sustain and extra DPS in a fight that isn't going your way.

Duke Anax1 votes

Berserkers are probavly the wirst boots in the game and don't make mich oft a difference in that build. You rather want ionian for range vor the others for defense.

Graidon1 votes

I have always loved Wit's End on Kayle. It really is the "OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO MY LIFE BAR" item on her. But unless you're facing a heavy AP comp, you really don't need it. It doesn't offer as much as other items out there to fill an offensive or hybrid item slot. Same goes for Locket. But the two can be used very situationally.

Solidair31 votes

While I think this is an excellent guide on Kayle, don't you think this is more of a Tips & Tricks sort of thing rather than gameplay and balance?

Either way, great thread!

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