How are you supposed to counter a Kayle. She got dicked in lane, they had 2 towers left, but she hit 16 with zero kills, and suddenly is unstoppable. How do you play against something like this. We can't kill her because of her insane lifesteal/ult. We can't cc her because then we can't defend from the other 4 players. We can't play under turret because she melts us then takes turret in 3 seconds. What can I do against a level 16 kayle?
Doesn't matter, Riot realized this and is fixing her. Making her slightly stronger early game and removing true damage late game. Don't worry c:
What can kayle do for lvls 1-10? Focus on beating her then and getting ahead of her early. You're on a clock, similar to playing vs nasus. Exploit her weakness in the early game....
This is getting changed in a patch or two, but yes, right now she has little counterplay late which is kind of the point. She's not even really a champion until level 11, and doesn't hit her real power until 16, at which point the game ends and she can easily 1v3. But she HAS to have this with her current iteration, because her early game is so awful there needs to be some reason to play her.
but even then why play Kayle at ALL when 
is just a straight up safer and more linear version?
Well, as you said: you beat her in lane. That's her counterplay. Beat her, beat her harder, and win the game BEFORE she reaches level 16. It's like a Nasus or a Veigar.
