[4.3] Kai'sa Guide - Kai'Sa one of the best carries to play
Kai'Sa one of the best carries to play
Pros
- Hard to itemize against you, becaue you can build AD or AP (Hybird build deals AD and AP damage and you get all evolves)
- insane lategame scaling
- high burst dmg (even more burst if you build her Hybrid)
- Can splitpush as ADC, without risk of getting cought out and die in a 1v1 against an assassin or bruiser.
- Kind of assassin and ADC combinatione
Cons
- Has a weak early game
- Short range ADC
- Requires good game knowledge (positioning, itemisation)
- Hybrid build is a bit slower (no fast evolve befor 300 stacks on tear)
Kai'sa Build
Best Build Guide for Kai'sa
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
Start
Sapphire Crystal
if you go for a "Hybrid Build", else start with the
Long Sword
Crit:
Your core objective on this one is to get
Icathian Rain
evolved as fast as possible.. commonly its known with
B.F. Sword
+
B.F. Sword
After that finish
Stormrazor
. Once you have this you got multiple options for your
Supercharge
evolve:
-
![Recurve Bow]()
Recurve Bow
+
![Dagger]()
Dagger
: cheapest choice for the evolve. With the bow you can go for a
![Blade of the Ruined King]()
Blade of the Ruined King
or Runaan and the dagger is great for
![Phantom Dancer]()
Phantom Dancer
-
![Recurve Bow]()
Recurve Bow
:
![Runaan's Hurricane]()
Runaan's Hurricane
for the heavy front line or melting the backline fast by diving into them with your
![Killer Instinct]()
Killer Instinct
or
![Wit's End]()
Wit's End
-
![Stinger]()
Stinger
on the other hand is great if you snowball into the game to build a
![Solari Chargeblade]()
Solari Chargeblade
.
Recurve Bow
Dagger
Runaan's Hurricane
As 3rd item you can usually finish
Infinity Edge
but if you choose the first option i suggest to finish
Phantom Dancer
because with bork and
Stormrazor
you tend to have an already high dps, which means: time for a defensive item.
On Hit:
The core objective remains, evolve
Icathian Rain
as soon as possible. On this build you rush
Manamune
and get 300 stacks on
Tear of the Goddess
and
Vampiric Scepter
. Second item remains the same
Blade of the Ruined King
(it's basically the highest damage item in the game due to the current health damage) and is the base for the evolution of
Supercharge
yet again.
After these items and boots you have 2 options:
Void Seeker
evolve for which you either build
Nashor's Tooth
and
Amplifying Tome
or
Riftmaker
. This option gives you more burst damage (if you hit your ability of) and is great if you are ahead. In case you build
Nashor's Tooth
first, you will unlock
Supercharge
evolve.
Supercharge
evolve for which you rush the
Stinger
and build then
Riftmaker
. This is a more defensiv order due to the unlocked invisibilty. It gets really great with
Riftmaker
due to the added on hit damage and omnivamp.
Situational:
 Mortal Reminder
| it kinda is a lie to say this item is "situational" since i prefer it a lot over
 Serylda's Grudge
on
 Kai'sa
. The grievious wounds are great against adcs and heal champions and the armor pen helps against any armor. If you go for an AD build, this item is a must have. |
 Lord Dominik's Regards
| Crit Armor Pen enables bork in a full crit build so chose this over Mortal Reminder if the enemy has no heavy healing champs. |
 Edge of Night
| I would rarely get this one. Just get it on an AD build if you constantly get targeted by some Malphite + Yasou ult combos, which you wouldnt survive due to the knockup. |
 Death's Dance
| Reduced damage which is dealt as truedamage over time and removing that + gain a heal in %total hp? Thats awesome. Makes you more durable. Takedowns will come pretty easy lategame so cleansing the DoT will be kinda easy. |
|
Phantom Dancer
| Crit item that gives you an shield when you drop low on HP... good defensive option when you want the crit and don't like
Death's Dance
|
 Rapid Firecannon
| Extra range for an auto which then gives you an engage with your ultimate. |
|
Stormrazor
| Since this was buffed in 3.1 it is a really considerable addition. The slow might be nice to be able to catch better up to the enemy and land an isolated
Icathian Rain
. On the other hand i think it is still worse than
Rapid Firecannon
since it gives extended range to just ult on your target. |
 Wit's End
| I talked about this in the AD section. I consider the item pretty good due to the fact that it gives a high attack speed, decent magic damage and also (based on your level) high magic on hit damage in addition to your passiv. A nice benefit is lifesteal when on low hp to make you surprisingly tanky. |
Since a while i am not a fan of this item because it is pretty bad on Kai'Sa. Yes the upside is it spreads
 Second Skin
marks, but on the down side it is completly useless in a 1v1 sitatuation (and you basically want to create those constantly) or rather islate champions for the full damage of your
Icathian Rain
. This would make kiting way more extreme, cause you need to get into range of only 1 champ, use the skill and get back into the range of two more champs to make use of the item... => not really great | |
 Guardian Angel
| The classic defensive item for ADC's.. I tend to hate it, because it just delays your respawn. Sure if you die on a DoT effect like brand passiv, a shroom or anything else out of a teamfight to take a objective like baron, this item can save the team fight/secure the objective, if you die in the middle of the enemy team it is basically troll.. so yea i have mixed opinion on this one. |
 Bloodthirster
| Additional lifesteal with an shield which "increases your maximum HP". overall a fine item, which should never fall under your radar. |
 Maw of Malmortius
| This exists? Actually yea and it has fallen long time under my radar due to the existance of
Wit's End
. Due to the recent rework of the item in League of Legends PC version i noticed that the lifeline passiv has omnivamp which makes it an solid choice to pick up. Sure it has less magic resistance than its counterpart, but i would definitly pick
Maw of Malmortius
against burst heavy mages like
 Diana
or
 Veigar
|
 Void Staff
| Must have if you go for the Hybrid build. Magic pen is needed. |
|
Riftmaker
| Hybrid build version of
Bloodthirster
i would rarely build it but the extra omnivamp can be nice. Also great in the on-hit build |
 Infinity Orb
| Ok.. this is an interesting one.. Your passiv ability counts as empowered attacks, so each basic attack to an enemy below 35% hp will crit your on hit magic damage.. if your enemy team runs no tanks get this over void stuff to burst those squishies. Also works well as
 Luden's Echo
replacement as Mid Kai'Sa. |
 Banshee's Veil
| Same as what i wrote for
Edge of Night
just as AP option. |
Kai'sa Runes
Best Runes for Kai'sa
Use this setup if you play an Crit build
Keystones:
Lethal Tempo
is basically a must have. Due to you being able to close gaps quickly to enemies and having a high attack speed you can quickly stack it up.
Dominance:
Hunter Vampirism
is a really nice rune for the build because of the early lifesteal you gain. you can exchange it for
Triumph
Brutal
or
Gathering Storm
as you like/dependent on your team.
Gathering Storm
is best when you look to scale.
Resolve: In the resolve tree you also got a lot of options. I know that i pick
Conditioning
is a bit weird, since wild rift is really fast and
Adaptive Carapace
is a good choice earlier. The fact i dont like is about carapace is that you only gain the bonus resistance after you are below 50% hp,
Conditioning
gives you these permanent. Against CC heavy comps i would suggest play
Hunter Titan
.
Inspiration: I mostly use
Manaflow Band
since Kai'sa struggles early with Mana problems, but alternatively
Nimbus Cloak
and
Sweet Tooth
are great choices.
Use this Setup for an Hybrid Build
So since i explained a lot of the runes aready in the AD part i will skip this here and explain the difference why i definitly go
Gathering Storm
and
Manaflow Band
here (those aren't exchangable, only the Resolve tree is)
Gathering Storm
gives a more AP than AD. If you go Riftmaker after your 3rd evolve you permanently get more AP from it than AD which therefor increases your burst with [kai'sa:2].
Manaflow Band
is necessary because of the bonus AD which is added to your
Muramana
. Once you finish
Vampiric Scepter
and
Manamune
is at ~320 stacks, you can evolve your
Kai'sa
. I also tested
Sweet Tooth
to compare, but i needed 600 stacks on
Manamune
to evolve my first skill, and that takes way to long.
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
Ult Engage combo
Mid fight combat. This works better if you have
Solari Chargeblade
stored with procs
Kai'sa Matchups & Counters
Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters
Her slow and range in lane are annoying but as soon as you hit 5 and play around her ult you win that matchup.
Jhin
Piercing Arrow
League Of Draven
Headshot
Explosive Charge
Lost Chapter
Lightslinger
Relentless Pursuit
Piercing Light
Deadly Plumage
Clean Cuts
Bladecaller
Why on-hit/Hybrid Kaisa?
So many people say now "Why going hybrid instead of full AD since you lose crits"
Technically.. you are right, but what if you whole comp is AD? Example: You have a
Fiora
top,
Lee Sin
jgl,
Zed
mid,
Leona
Sup and then you as ADC...
Kai'sa
... Well easy for the enemy tanks to just build Armor to block your damage which will make the game way harder for your team. On hybrid build (or on hit) you get a lot of mixed damage due to
Second Skin
+ all 3 abilities can get evolved, which means the enemy tanks can build pure armor and you just melt them due to the missing magic resistance (also who even expects AP damage on Kai'Sa? thats like the spanish Inquisition)
"Why you lose crits, you still can build Stormrazor > IE for evolve?" - technically... yes, practically on the other hand its horrible. Crit is a state that gains valueable the more % you have and if you don't aim for 100% you waste a lot of damage. If you already plan to go hybrid, build on-hit dmg, because those items don't stack up that much on each other (yes based on each others AS, but thats it)
Synergies
This part is still WiP and will be continued.
Leona
is the first support coming to my mind which pairs well with
Kai'sa
. Whenever she engages an enemy with either
Zenith Blade
or
Solar Flare
the enemy gets marked by
Second Skin
and you can follow up with
Killer Instinct
. Due to her cc heavy kit
Leona
can always peel for you some dive champs like
Zed
. You also have a really solid laning phase with her and should be able to run down the enemy lane at 5.
Alistar
kinda same as Leona.
Thresh
kinda same as
Leona
but i think he is a saver pick due to
Dark Passage
. He does not bring as much cc to the table as
Leona
but almost the same safety due to his
Flay
knockback and the slow of
The Box
can give you some space as well. Really good thresh players are able to pull of amazing
Death Sentence
and even catch jumping
Rengar
.
Blitzcrank
is sadly a worse version of
Thresh
.
Lulu
,
Soraka
,
Janna
and
Nami
also work really well with you due to your weak early game. They keep you save during laning phase with healing or shielding and have still great peeling options. Heck
Nami
is also amazing to play really agressive since
Tidal Wave
marks targets for you aswell over long range.
Sona
i am kinda unsure about.. she has a great lategame but feels like she offers less to the laning phase (
Soraka
comes with great poke due to her
Starcall
winning normally every trade). I also like
Yuumi
as support, she offers a lots of stats lategame and is also being able to build
Morellonomicon
for anti heal, so you dont have to.
Orianna
in your team.. you get her ball with
Command: Protect
ult into their team (watch out to not lose the ball due to range) and
Command: Shockwave
+
Command: Dissonance
will deal a huge burst of damage.
Braum
works decent. He doesnt offer much engage options with marks.
WiP
ABCD?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mxHR2Sm_L5z0FbNrFoC100ALumQ0WA1uubmugaNC2gY/edit
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