AboutHello and welcome to my guide on Kayle, the Righteous! I am Qadassa / Qasddsa, a Kayle main from before she was reworked. Although there have been numerous changes in her kit as a result of the rework, I am very well acquainted with her general playstyle, as it carried through her rework.

Kayle is a late game, hard-scaling hypercarry that can shred an entire enemy team if allowed to do so. Not only is she a vital carry, she can also make strong frontline tanks even stronger by giving them invulnerability with Divine Judgment.

I believe that Kayle is still one of the most versatile champions in the game and can be played in multiple lanes and with various builds. The aim of this guide is to give you a feel for what Kayle does and can do and give you an idea of what items to build on her. From there, you're free to experiment and try new builds since there isn't any one definitive build for Kayle.

Pros & Cons

Pros + Strong wave clear later in the game + Shreds enemies' MR and Armor with Radiant Blast + Invulnerability with Divine Judgment + Can build both AD and AP + Great scaling champion + Very satisfying to play in the late game + Very versatile item builds and playstyles + Every skin is a Legendary / Ultimate skin + Strong teamfighter and splitpusher

Cons - Slow early-game - Very weak early-game - Kit can feel clunky at times - Falls behind hard if ganked or dies multiple times - Weak wave clear early game - Susceptible to CC - Not actually a "right-click only" champion

Passive

Divine Ascent

This is a really neat passive and an important part of Kayle's identity as a scaling, late-game carry. In the early levels, you should be playing around the stacking attack speed to set up a good trade. After level 6, you'll have a much easier time in lane in almost every matchup because you'll get access to range which lets you trade better.

At level 11 and beyond, you'll start to really feel the power of late game Kayle as you get access to insane damage and waveclear with waves and higher range at 16.

• The waves of fire are able to apply spell effects and can also critically strike, but DO NOT apply on hit effects.
• The waves of fire can be blocked by Yasuo's Wind Wall
• At level 6 and onward, if you attack at Kayle's melee range, you will not fire a projectile and will attack with the melee animation, bypassing Wind Wall, but this auto attack is still considered ranged!
• You go through the forms based on your level and allocated skill points, which means you don't automatically transform upon reaching one of the target levels, you need to also use the skill point.
• Your passive will add stacks when hitting towers
• For the purposes of runes like Grasp of the Undying, Conqueror, and Fleet Footwork, all attacks regardless of using melee or ranged animations after level 6 are counted as ranged.

Q Ability

Radiant Blast

Range: Cost: Cooldown:

900 70/75/80/85/90 Mana 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

This will be the main way you trade back and poke your enemies in the early levels. You should be careful, though, of spamming this in lane as the cost will eventually add up if you aren't building a mana item.

At level 2, it is VERY hard for many laners to out-trade a Radiant Blast + Starfire Spellblade combo, so if you reach level 2 before them you can abuse this in trades.

Later in the game, the main purpose that Radiant Blast serves is to slow and catch enemies while also shredding their resistances - leaving them open for you and your team to kill.

• Yes this is a skillshot. And yes it can be blocked by Wind Wall.
• This is a great ability to use for harassing enemies in lane, since you can surprise them by piercing the sword through minions and you'll get mana back as well if you hit them.
• This is also a great disengage tool for lane; throw down a Radiant Blast and a Celestial Blessing to get away.
• It pierces until a set range after hitting the first target - which means you can extend the range slightly by hitting an enemy at max range.
• The best way to use this ability is with Starfire Spellblade. Whittle down your laner by using Radiant Blast and use Starfire Spellblade each time if you can.
• To maximize DPS later in the game, you can cast this ability during the backswing animation of your auto attacks.

W Ability

Celestial Blessing

Range: Cost: Cooldown:

900 90/100/110/1120/130 Mana 15 seconds

Very strong heal; great for teamfights and ganks since you'll be able to heal and speed up yourself and an ally. If you are using any rune that requires a takedown to activate its effects, don't be afraid to use this even if your ally will be safe without it, just so you can get the assist.

• Avoid spamming this in lane if you can help it. You'll find yourself quickly running out of mana if you carelessly spam this ability without having some form of mana sustain.
• If you don't target anyone but there are allies in range of your heal, it will prioritize the lowest health ally in range.
• The movespeed boost and heal are both huge assets to have available during ganks / fights.
• Don't be afraid to start off a teamfight by using this on whoever's engaging to give them the movespeed buff!

E Ability

Starfire Spellblade

Cost: Cooldown:

No cost 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds

Realistically speaking, you should only be looking to use this ability in lane at the end of a trade or if you've already chunked out your opponent with Radiant Blast.

• This is a strong skill to use only when your targets have been damaged already - otherwise it will deal mediocre damage early on
• This is blocked by Yasuo's Wind Wall
• This is an auto attack reset and it will scale off your attack speed
• If you attack with this in melee range, it will NOT fire a projectile and will play the melee attack animation
• The best way to use this spell early on is to damage your enemies with Radiant Blast first and then use Starfire Spellblade
• Applies ALL on-hit effects on the splash of Starfire Spellblade
• Using this in melee range AFTER level 6 will still count it as a ranged attack for the purposes of Grasp of the Undying, Conqueror, and Fleet Footwork.

Ultimate

Divine Judgement

Range: Cost: Cooldown:

900 100/50/0 Mana 160/120/80 seconds

The invulnerability makes Kayle a strong teamfighter and duelist, but now with the added damage she is an even bigger teamfight threat. Usually, you'll want to group up and prioritize this on whoever's engaging to ensure you get the damage off and keep them at high HP, but it can still be used on yourself or allies being focused by the enemy.

• Since you're rendered unable to attack for 1.5 seconds during the channel, this ability is best used on a frontline tank or engager.
• You can still use this on yourself, but you'll only be able to attack with 0.5/1/1.5 seconds of invulnerability.
• Cannot be casted under Crowd Control effects (stun, taunt, knockup).
• Can't be used to dive the enemy fountain (that's unlucky).
• When combined with champions who have abilities like Master Yi's Alpha Strike, Kayn's Umbral Trespass, and Zed's Death Mark, the damage can potentially be guaranteed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This is the preferred skill order in every matchup as ranking up Q increases its base damage and slow, which allows you to play more offensively without needing to have many items. The damage on this ability is boosted by any offensive items you buy as well and has really good ratios for both AD and AP, so early on this is how you're going to deal damage. Furthermore, by maxing Q first you'll be able to effectively clear the minion wave before you get access to splash damage or waves. Once you do get access to these, a Q + E splash with your passive stacked will in most cases clear the entire wave.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

3 points into Q and then prioritizing E after level 6 is a strong ability max against enemies that gain power exponentially (that's a figure of speech, power gain cannot be quantified) depending on the wave state by using wave states to their advantage, such as Irelia. With E having no mana cost, chaining together Q and E everytime you use Q or E cannot be punished as hard and will deal much more damage. After level 6, we stop putting points into Q and instead focus on maxing our E because we want its on-hit damage and execute to be maxed out as quickly as possible to effectively abuse our range advantage in melee matchups as well as to add more damage onto our E spam tactics.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Despite E now no longer having a mana cost, this skill sequence is still suboptimal compared to 3 Q > E because by maxing E we lack the waveclear that comes with putting more points into Q. However, in some matchups such as Maokai, Sion, or tank Cho'Gath, you won't be able to easily abuse the poke from Radiant Blast as they have some form of damage mitigation or sustain, and they aren't really able to dive you so we don't need the safety of waveclear from Q. Because of that, if you run Lethal Tempo and max Starfire Spellblade first, you're able to deal more damage to them in early fights. By the time you're level 6 and get access to range, you'll already have 3 points in E, making it really strong once you have Berserker's Greaves and Lethal Tempo activated. This is important because, by itself, it has relatively high damage early on, but now you're combining it with the ability to abuse these tanky melee Top Laners with range. By the time you're level 11 and get access to the waves and splash damage on E, your Radiant Blast will have 3 points in it as well. This is important as using Radiant Blast + Starfire Spellblade on the 3 casters will kill them immediately, making this an important part of your waveclear.

Of course, there is a lot of variety you can do with skill order and you should adapt to each game. If you need some more sustain in the early game, you can spare another point or two into Celestial Blessing.

Flash is undeniably the most important Summoner Spell to have and you really cannot substitute it for any other Summoner Spell, regardless of whether you're Top or Mid. Without Flash, Kayle becomes even more susceptible to ganks in the early game than she already is. You also wouldn't be able to do any Flash plays with your ultimate.		Teleport is also a really important spell to have, but the only lane it's really "required" in is Top Lane because of how long the lane is, which means if you die early on you may need to use Teleport to get back to lane to not miss XP and CS. Later on, Teleport is also important as it gives you the ability to pressure the opposite side of the map, relative to where the next important objective is. For Mid Lane Kayle though, Teleport isn't as important, and in some cases Top Lane Kayle can forgo Teleport, covered down below.

Top - Alternatives to Teleport

Ghost has really strict conditions for when you're able to take it Top. First of all, the highest priority condition that needs to be met is that your Mid has Teleport. This is because without having a Teleport at all on your team and assuming the enemy team has at least one, your team will be at a disadvantage in terms of moving around on the map which becomes really important later on when objectives like Baron and Elder Drake are up. You can actually use Ghost to rotate to fights instead of using Teleport to get there as soon as possible, depending on how close you are to the fight.

The second condition is if you're in a matchup where you need to optimize your setup for lane or need movement speed . The ONLY matchups where Ghost is viable include: Irelia, Tryndamere, Darius and Cassiopeia.

The third and least important condition is if movement speed is important. This means that the enemy team has spells you need to dodge, such as chain CC, or you need extra movement speed to help you space during auto attacks and fights.

Mid - Alternatives to Teleport

Barrier is a really underrated Summoner Spell on Kayle. If it weren't for how important Teleport is Top Lane, it would be the perfect Summoner Spell to run on her Top. With Barrier Mid, you get to play slightly more offensively and fall back on Barrier if you need to. You can also hold onto it in fights and time it to bait the enemy into taking a bad fight.		It might seem weird to be running Ignite on Kayle Mid since it seems as though it would be a useless spell until she's 6, but Ignite can be quite useful and deceptively strong in early skirmishes when combined with your Starfire Spellblade's execute. Ignite allows you to play much more aggressively and combines really well with Kayle's playstyle of poking with Q and waiting for all-in opportunities with a full spell rotation.
Exhaust is very strong against assassin Mids because of its damage and attack speed reduction. If you run this, you're most likely going to get ridiculed by the enemy team in chat, but just know that it's all worth it when you can Exhaust the enemy assassin and save yourself or a teammate by reducing their burst potential. This summoner spell, on top of your Divine Judgment, really just ruins the enemies' day.		Cleanse is a super situational Summoner Spell. Only look to take it in lanes where the enemy Mid has lethal hard CC (meaning if you get CC'd you're definitely going to die). This includes champions such as Twisted Fate, Cassiopeia, Annie, and Ahri, and Lissandra.
The conditions to take Ghost are much, much more loose compared to Top. You can take Ghost as long as your Top Laner is running Teleport and you aren't against assassins or against matchups where you need to Cleanse CC.

Press the Attack is a great rune if you are against an enemy champion that you want to trade against and win most trades against but you can't because they just run away from you using a dash, such as Camille. In essence, PtA is a rune that lets you play more aggressively early on by amplifying the damage that you deal while also allowing you to just back off after activating it. This is also a great rune if you're against HEALTH STACKERS because it allows you and your team to do more damage on them later in the game due to the damage amplification.

Lethal Tempo is a good rune if you expect to get into extended trades early game often, especially against melee champions. You should also consider running LT against a team with a lot of tank champions that look to stack resistances, as you'll want the increased attack speed to deal with their increased resistances. However, you should consider other options if the enemy team has a lot of heavy CC, as that will interrupt your ability to DPS if you get CC'd.

Fleet Footwork is a really safe rune choice when you're up against heavy poke since it'll let you sustain in lane with its healing. As the game progresses, this rune will be doing a lot of work for you with its movement speed boost and heal that scales very well off AP and AD. Generally, the Fleet Footwork page is a more defensive setup that allows you to sustain through the early game through a combination of lifesteal, Fleet, Overheal, and Second Wind/ Revitalize.

Conqueror is an interesting rune on Kayle because of the way it interacts with her abilities. This is a rune that will amplify your damage and sustain, but it requires time to ramp up, which means that this is not the best option if you're against squishy targets that will take a few hits to take down. So you can CONSIDER taking this only if you're against 3 or more TANKS. In most cases, the best choice is Press the Attack anyway.

Example Rune Pages

The majority of the time, we actually want Overheal instead of Triumph because in most cases, we're building something with lifesteal ( Hextech Gunblade or Blade of the Ruined King) and Overheal's shield is just an added layer of defense that's extremely useful.

While Presence of Mind is not that great, the occasional mana refund and mana increase can be a huge help throughout the game as your spells cost more and more mana, especially if you're playing a build that relies more on spells such as AP. With Divine Judgment's mana cost being pretty high in the early game, activating PoM will be really useful. Additionally, the power of the mana restore comes out in teamfights. With the mana you get back, you'll be able to spam Celestial Blessing and Radiant Blast more, which is a better deal than Triumph in some cases.

Legend: Alacrity gives you some attack speed to start off with and as the game goes on, you get more attack speed. Sounds great for Kayle!

Legend: Tenacity is an alternative to Alacrity. Tenacity will help you get out of your enemy's hard CC, so you should only be taking this rune if your enemy does have a lot of CC.

With Coup de Grace, as your enemies get lower, you'll deal more damage! Great for finishing off enemies like Fiora, Sylas, etc, who can get a burst of healing, especially at low health.

Cut Down is a really useful rune against tanks / champions that will stack health. However, I would really only recommend bringing this if you're up against 3 or more health stackers (not necessarily tanks), since you will already have execute damage from Starfire Spellblade and penetration from Radiant Blast.

Manaflow Band helps to control your mana costs early on by providing more mana when you hit Radiant Blast or Starfire Spellblade. Generally a good investment for players that like to spam Radiant Blast or in matchups that require more spell usage.

Gathering Storm is a pretty strong option on a scaling champion like Kayle. It may not seem impactful early on, but if you're in for the long run you'll be getting a lot of damage from this.

Triumph will be clutch in situations where you're taking damage over time or delayed damage ( Zed's Death Mark, Darius' bleed, etc) It'll also keep you relatively healthy during and after fights since all you need for it to activate is an assist or a kill.

Legend: Alacrity gives you some attack speed to start off with and as the game goes on, you get more attack speed. Sounds great for Kayle!

With Coup de Grace, as your enemies get lower, you'll deal more damage! Great for finishing off enemies like Fiora, Sylas, etc, who can get a burst of healing, especially at low health. Really useful for Starfire Spellblade.

Taste of Blood just gives you some more sustain to help you get through the laning phase. It can easily be activated by hitting someone with Radiant Blast or Starfire Spellblade.

Ravenous Hunter is a very good investment for the late game. You don't have to rush to stack this, since you'll easily get all 5 stacks by late game. Once late game hits, you'll be healing from all kinds of sources; Ravenous will heal off your abilities, execute damage, and any items that have on-hit damage or built-in damage effects. Provides incredible healing during teamfights where you'll be hitting everything and allows you to heal up to almost full by hitting minion waves.

Overheal is an interesting rune to take on Kayle because of all the healing she has access to. With Fleet Footwork and Celestial Blessing early on, you'll typically have an Overheal shield up, meaning you can take some trades you would other wise not be able to. Later on, with access to some sort of lifesteal/sustain item such as Hextech Gunblade, the Overheal shield will become much, much stronger and be available more often.

Legend: Alacrity gives you some attack speed to start off with and as the game goes on, you get more attack speed. Sounds great for Kayle!

With Coup de Grace, as your enemies get lower, you'll deal more damage! Great for finishing off enemies like Fiora, Sylas, etc, who can get a burst of healing, especially at low health. Really useful for Starfire Spellblade.

Bone Plating is really useful early on against champions that can play aggressive into you. Bone Plating will allow you to take 3 hits from the enemy at reduced damage, which is really good especially if you can't trade back into them. If the enemy is more poke-reliant than trades, then you should look to use Second Wind instead.

The main reason we take Revitalize is because we're already picking Fleet Footwork and Overheal due to a bad matchup, which means Revitalize will simply amplify the power of these two early on. Most of the time, we'll also be building AP, which means that the healing from Celestial Blessing will be boosted from this on allies and yourself.

All Viable Secondaries

You should be changing your secondaries out depending on the match up; the runes above this are just examples of what a typical rune set up looks like.

Inspiration offers both offensive and defensive capabilities. By combining Time Warp Tonic and Biscuit Delivery, you'll get a lot more sustain in lane, which is nice if you're running Arcane Comet. With Future's Market, you'll be able to reach your item spikes slightly faster. Take Perfect Timing if you think their Top Laner and Jungler will look to dive you early. Approach Velocity helps you engage fights with its bonus movement speed that you can get from CC'd enemies and allies.

Resolve gives you some more tankiness and sustain in lane. Second Wind and Revitalize are good to take into poke lanes, such as many mid lane mages and Pantheon. On the other hand, Bone Plating will give you some extra defensive power in trades.

With Sorcery secondary, you can strengthen your early game with Scorch or Manaflow Band and your late game with Transcendence or Gathering Storm. Celerity is an interesting option as well in games where movement speed matters, but I would not recommend taking it every game.

The best options to take in Domination are Ravenous Hunter and Taste of Blood for the sustain they give you. However, you can take Ultimate Hunter to reduce the CD on your ultimate to make it available for every fight. When combined with Presence of Mind and 40% CDR, you'll have your ultimate up in no time.

Precision is the tree with the most amount of options as a Secondary path. You should pick your secondaries based on the way you want to play that game and what type of enemies you're up against.

Adapt to the Matchup

While the pages above are the basic rune combinations and will work in every situation, changing up these pages to better fit a lane matchup can make it much, much easier for you to get through the lane.


Against Poke / Ranged Laner

Core Runes

OR

Explanation

The core runes to have into any poke or ranged matchup are Fleet, Overheal, Second Wind, and one armor or MR shard depending on the damage type of the enemy. Since Kayle is a melee champion before she hits 6, the enemy will have more chances to poke you with abilities and auto attacks. Because of this, we take Fleet for the sustain, Overheal for extra defense, and Second Wind for more regeneration after getting poked. Second Wind is especially strong into enemies with Damage over Time abilities such as Teemo or Cassiopeia, but still works great into regular ranged matchups.

Against Early Duelist

Core Runes

Explanation

I am defining an "Early Duelist" as someone that wants to take trades early on and can deal a lot of damage in a few seconds. For the sake of the guide, I'm including champions like Renekton, Irelia, Fiora, Camille, and so on into this category. The main rune to look at here is Bone Plating, which reduces the damage of the next 3 attacks after you've been hit once. This rune is really strong into these kinds of champions because they look for these short trades and reducing the amount of damage they deal is really important if you want to win the trade.

Against Tryndamere or Jax

Core Runes

Explanation

Although this is technically a champ-specific matchup adaptation, these two champions are a big enough threat that they warrant an addition here. Although these two champions have gap closers, Glacial Augment has the ability to slow them down. And by layering it with Radiant Blast, you'll be able to kite them much easier. The real big highlight of this rune setup is actually when you complete Bilgewater Cutlass and Berserker's Greaves, as you'll finally be able to utilize Glacial Augment's freeze ray that activates on using an item that slows. With this, you'll have an extra layer of slowing that'll make it extremely hard for them to run or to chase you.

Against Nasus or Tryndamere

Core Runes

Explanation

This is an alternative page you can run if you're against Tryndamere that works just as well, especially if you're in a game where you cannot go Blade of the Ruined King. This page is also really good into Nasus because Phase Rush can mitigate the slow for some of Wither's duration, which makes it really good for keeping the distance and repositioning to wait for Wither to end. The same applies to Tryndamere; at level 6 Tryndamere players tend to try and dive you but with Phase Rush you can kite around the tower. This rune is also really good later into the game as you'll be able to reposition in teamfights really well.

Manamune Build

Core Runes

Explanation

The core runes for the Manamune build should be self-explanatory: Presence of Mind and Manaflow Band for more mana and to stay topped up during fights/lane. Since going this build requires that the conditions be met, tank matchup/scaling matchup, we're able to go Press the Attack because we don't need to change to Phase Rush, Fleet Footwork, or Glacial Augment to deal with an annoying matchup. We also don't actually want to go Lethal Tempo because the damage amplification that comes from PtA is really strong for you and your teammates and should not be underestimated.

Starting Items

Corrupting Potion is one of the go-to starting items for Kayle. Since Kayle kind of plays like an AP caster in lane and wants to poke with Radiant Blast and Starfire Spellblade, the mana regeneration from Corrupting Pot will feel very good. On top of that, it also provides a good amount of healing to help you through your relatively weak laning phase.

Doran's Ring is always an option to start with. It provides a nice balance between health, AP, and base mana regen, things that Corrupting Potion doesn't give you. I would recommend taking this in easier match ups where you won't need the sustain or extra poking power from Corrupting Pot to help you through the lane.

Boots

Berserker's Greaves is the standard option for Kayle because it gives you that juicy bonus attack speed. However, it's not that great to rush this item since you won't be able to make full use of it until level 6 and onward. You'll want to get this around the same time you finish your first item, since sitting on only Boots for 15 minutes feels really bad and slow.

If you need to build defensively for an aggressive physical damage or AA-oriented laner, then you can and should rush Ninja Tabi. They provide you with a little bit more safety against these AD threats.

Mercury's Treads are a great buy into champions with a lot of CC or when you're against a magic damage laner. Many magic damage laners will run Sorcerer's Shoes or eventually buy Morellonomicon, so you can get this early to counteract that. Since your ultimate is crucial in fights, Merc Treads prevents you from being locked down by CC for too long and can be the difference between a win and a loss.

First Back - Top

As a first back option, Stinger is okay if you're maxing Starfire Spellblade and it'll start building towards Nashor's Tooth. Typically, you'll want to pick this up alongside Boots, but if you can't afford it, then just Stinger is okay. This item is also really important because it gives you 10% CDR, knocking off 16 seconds from your R at rank 1.

In contrast to Stinger, you can go for a Fiendish Codex and Boots on your first back. Like Stinger, it'll also be building toward a Nashor's Tooth, but Codex on your first back is best for when you're maxing Q, which adds more damage to Q and makes up the lost damage on E. This item is also really important because it gives you 10% CDR, knocking off 16 seconds from your R at rank 1.

A Hextech Revolver accomplishes almost the same thing as a Fiendish Codex but lacks the CDR, and similarly should be bought if you're planning to max Q and go Hextech Gunblade first. While you do get some extra AP, this is a relatively risky first back since you may run out of mana quickly if you aren't able to hit Q.

If you need the early sustain, you can opt for a Vampiric Scepter to start building towards a Hextech Gunblade. However, if you aren't really taking damage in lane and don't need the sustain right away, then you should almost always go for Hextech Revolver if you can afford it.

Core Items - Top

			Going Nashor's Tooth first boosts the damage of your auto attacks by increasing the damage of Starfire Spellblade's on-hit damage while also giving you 20% CDR, which is vital for reducing the high early CD of Divine Judgment. With range being unlocked at 6, you'll be able to take advantage of this item right away once you complete it.
			Guinsoo's Rageblade is a REALLY good item to build after Nashor's Tooth if you're going Top Lane, as many champions will build some form of health or some form of resistance, meaning you'll need DPS to kill them. Guinsoo's gives you bonus attack speed at 6 stacks and doubles on-hit effects every 3 auto attacks, so your E passive damage and the damage of your Nashor's Tooth will receive huge bonuses. As an add-on, this item even has 15% armor and magic penetration.

			Going Hextech Gunblade gives you a lot of sustain while also increasing the potential of your burst damage. While it might not be optimal in every matchup to go for a Gunblade first, against a squishy laner this is one of the best options to go as your Q + Gunblade + E will almost always chunk them for over half their health.
			Nashor's Tooth is a pretty good follow-up item for Hextech Gunblade since the two items together will increase your overall DPS as well as the healing you get from Gunblade. The CDR that you get from Nashor's makes it an extremely valuable buy in the early game, as having a long R cooldown isn't very fun. These two items makes you a very powerful duelist at two items.

Core Items - Mid

Going Nashor's Tooth first boosts the damage of your auto attacks by increasing the damage of Starfire Spellblade's on-hit damage while also giving you 20% CDR, which is vital for reducing the high early CD of Divine Judgment. With range being unlocked at 6, you'll be able to take advantage of this item right away once you complete it.

			Rushing Hextech Gunblade is the current best build for both Top and Mid Kayle simply because of the damage, sustain, and utility that it offers her early on. The sustain and damage are even more useful Mid due to the number of squishy champions you'll be up against.
			Following up Hextech Gunblade with Nashor's Tooth is the natural next step. The attack speed and AP from this item will really complement the high damage already on Gunblade.

			At first glance, this item is really odd to build on Kayle. However, once you consider the fact that most of the champions that are played Mid have high burst damage in their kit at some point throughout the game, going Rod of Ages first makes a little bit more sense. This is the item to go against lanes you need more survivability against. With the early health and mana, you'll be a bit healthier after trades/getting poked, and you'll be able to heal up with Celestial Blessing and the RoA passive. RoA also ends up giving you 100 AP in the long-run, which is definitely not a bad investment when it comes to your ratios and Nashor's Tooth.
			Nashor's Tooth and Rod of Ages can be a deadly combination. With RoA, you'll get some tanky stats, and with Nashor's, you'll get the DPS to back up your health bar. Additionally, the 100 AP that comes from RoA goes a long way in scaling the on-hit damage from Nashor's.

Offensive Items - General"Pick things from this list and it'll work out somehow"

Guinsoo's Rageblade is no longer a mandatory purchase on Kayle. There are a LOT more build paths open that don't require this item, but the two scenarios that you would want to buy Guinsoo's are if you're going an on-hit build with Nashor's Tooth or if the enemy team is building MR. Take note that waves are not doubled by Phantom Hit.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a godsend of an item for Kayle. Everything on our kit will apply the slow from Rylai's after level 11. This makes it incredibly easy to kite melee champions and chase enemies. When paired with our bonus movement speed at max stacks, very few champions can touch you or escape from you. The HP that you get from this item is an overall nice bonus to have against any team comp as well.

This is an overwhelmingly powerful purchase on almost all champions that rely on AP to deal damage and is great as a 5th or 6th item. Once you put on this hat, you'll complete the late game Kayle fantasy and become the final boss of the game. If anyone on the enemy team is lacking in MR by the time you complete this item, you'll be able to easily delete them with a quick Q + E combo if they're caught out.

Probably one of the best Zeal items to get alongside Phantom Dancer. With a Runaan's in your inventory, not only will your waveclear be stronger, but your DPS-output in teamfights will receive a significant boost as well.

Lich Bane further adds to the one-shot fantasies of Luden's Tempest Kayle or Nashor's Tooth + Rabadon's Deathcap Kayle. Because of its nature, Lich Bane is the most optimal choice when you're playing against squishy enemies or if you have easy backline access to kill priority targets. Lich Bane is suboptimal in builds where you're looking to DPS because you won't be able to efficiently use it in fights as it requires casting a spell, attacking, casting a spell, attacking, etc etc.

Gunblade is a pretty good pick up in most builds later on. It adds more burst for burst builds while giving DPS builds the sustain they lack. However, due to its high cost, this item is really a "win harder" item, and many other items are simply better for the cost.

Offensive Items - Tank Shredding

If the enemy team is itemizing against you by building MR (that cursed Adaptive Helm) or the enemy team has a lot of health stackers, then consider going Blade of the Ruined King to ruin their days with the synergy between its %current HP damage and Starfire Spellblade's %missing HP damage.

Killing tanks and enemies with high health is an area that Guinsoos shines in. When combined with the on-hit effects of Nashor's Tooth and Blade of the Ruined King, tanks simply just melt. Note, however, that you should NOT combine this item with Void Staff.

If your enemies are stacking MR and have acquired over 150, then consider purchasing this item, otherwise don't buy it as Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives better stats for around the same price.

Liandry's is a very situational item. If two or more of the enemies are stacking health and you aren't able to buy a Blade of the Ruined King for whatever reason, consider picking this up to help deal with them. The 10% damage boost on this item is not to be underestimated either, shining in teamfights the most. Do NOT combine this item with Blade of the Ruined King; if the enemy has Adaptive Helm then purchase BoRK instead of this.

Defensive Items"Pick things from this list and it'll work out somehow"

Banshee's Veil allows you to escape from an ability one time. If you're against pick comps or comps that depend on landing CC to win a fight, then Banshee's will completely mess up their plans. Also a great buy against magic damage-heavy team comps.

Although this item has been downgraded from a strong pickup to a "meh" pickup, it's still a great purchase for magic-damage heavy comps. The potential of getting 50 MR, 5% mvspd, 50% aspd, and the potential of healing off its damage with only 2900 gold is a decent gamble.

Zhonya's Hourglass is your insurance, basically. You can escape so many things with this without having to sacrifice Divine Judgment for it. If you're against an AD laner, especially Renekton, Camille, Zed, Talon, etc, you should consider sitting on a Seeker's Armguard and buying Zhonya's early on to mitigate their burst.

In my opinion, Phantom Dancer is the best Zeal item to get if you're considering it. It ghosts and gives you movement speed whenever you auto attack enemies, it empowers your dueling and gives you more survivability by giving you a shield, and on top of all that it gives you the ability to crit.

This is the other option that you can go with besides Phantom Dancer if you're up against an AP assassin or AP mage, such as Akali. In some cases, getting an early Hexdrinker and sitting on it, not completing Maw until much later, will allow you to fight many of these types of champions early on by giving you the defensive power of MR and a shield.

First Back

Backing and getting a Vampiric Scepter lets you build towards Blade of the Ruined King or Death's Dance while also giving you sustain - a VERY flexible first back item. We prefer this first over Recurve Bow or Pickaxe/ Caulfield's Warhammer because the lifesteal from this item is a huge help to our laning phase.

Core Items

			Rushing a Blade of the Ruined King gives you a lot of beneficial stats: attack speed, attack damage, and lifesteal. The %HP damage passive does A LOT of damage, even early on, and should not be underestimated. And because of this, picking up a BoRK is ideal in games where you're up against multiple enemies that stack health or tanks. Its active also helps you kite and chase more easily when combined with Q, W, and your passive.
			Going Guinsoo's Rageblade next will allow you to take full advantage of Blade of the Ruined King's on-hit passive, which will be applied twice with Guinsoo's Phantom Hit. Guinsoo's can also be stacked very quickly when combined with your AA reset and the attack speed your passive gives you.

			Death's Dance is a really efficient item to rush as it has a mixture of flat MR and Armor, AD, and CDR. The most important part about DD, however, is the passive. DD not only gives you healing on just about all types of damage you deal, but also essentially gives you damage reduction because of the bleed passive. This combination makes DD a great defensive tool and heavily underestimated offensive tool.
			The combination of Death's Dance with Phantom Dancer is scary, to say the least. This combination makes you pseudo-tanky and makes you nearly unkillable when ahead and very hard to kill when even. Phantom Dancer is the perfect Zeal item to go alongside Death's Dance because of the shield passive and the movement speed/ghost passives, giving you the ability to play offensively and defensively.

Offensive Items"Pick things from this list and it'll work out somehow"

Infinity Edge provides an insane boost to your AD and auto attacks early on. Going Infinity Edge means that you'll be dedicating yourself to a crit path, giving you the ability to burst squishy enemies and transforming your damage metric from DPS to BPS (burst per second).

Pick a Zeal item for that game. If you need to push or clear waves, then consider Statikk Shiv or Runaan's Hurricane. If you feel like you need extra range to poke or siege with, then Rapid Firecannon. If you need to play more defensively, then Phantom Dancer.

Death's Dance is a really useful item because of the AD and the CDR it gives. It can be picked up as a 4th or 5th item after you've already stacked up on some more offensive / crit items. The sticking point of this item, though, is really its bleed passive which essentially protects you from burst by delaying it and giving you the opportunity to heal up.

If you're going a more crit-oriented build, then finishing off your build with Essence Reaver should be something you want to consider. It gives you 20% CDR, something really beneficial in a build that's otherwise lacking a lot of options that give you CDR. It gives you AD and crit, which may be what you need to reach 75%/100% crit chance. Late game, the passive of this is also really good in helping you sustain your mana pool throughout and outside of teamfights.

If the enemy team has 2 or more health stackers, then consider going Blade of the Ruined King before or after Infinity Edge if you haven't already rushed it to ruin their days with the synergy between its %current HP damage and Starfire Spellblade's %missing HP damage.

Defensive Items"Pick things from this list and it'll work out somehow"

The lifeline passive is great for surviving burst or just teamfighting in general since it gives you a shield. Also helps you kite because of the movement speed and ghost it gives after attacking an enemy.

If the enemy team has a lot of CC, you should seriously consider buying this straight out or rushing an early Quicksilver Sash and waiting to finish this item.

Alternative to Phantom Dancer, except it's more magic damage oriented. If the enemy team is stacked on magic damage, then you can consider going this.

Guardian Angel gives you a second (or third) life. Great against champions with burst or champions that like to dive the backline. Be careful of this item if the enemy team has a lot of CC, as the downtime between your death and your revive can let them set up chain CC and stop you from making use of your revive.

First Back

With a Pickaxe rush, you'll still be building towards Manamune. The reason that we don't actually want to rush Tear of the Goddess is because doing so would provide little to no benefit in terms of damage and would actually weaken us. Furthermore, going Tear first wouldn't significantly speed up the stacking time.

Core Items

			The neat thing about Manamune is that it's very cheap and scales really well into late game. Manamune can be stacked through auto attacks, so we want to have this item completed around level 8 or 9 to ensure that we stack it as fast as possible. Since we gain mana per attack and Manamune converts mana into AD, this is a really good first item. Once it transforms into Muramana, we'll start dealing tons of damage because of the on-hit effect. Furthermore, the Shock passive will apply on Starfire Spellblade's splash damage, applying the effect to all champions hit.
			As a second item, Death's Dance goes pretty well with Manamune, simply because Manamune being really cheap offsets the high cost of Death's Dance. The healing that you receive from DD can be activated by any type of damage. Furthermore, the bleed effect is essentially damage reduction because you're given the opportunity to negate the bleed with healing. These two passives make DD a great defensive item and a great offensive item.

In contrast to Death's Dance, getting BoRK second gives you the ability to melt enemies that are stacking health or beefing up resistances. This is due not only to the %HP passive from BoRK but also due to the Shock passive coming from Muramana adding over 100 phyiscal damage per auto attack. The combination of BoRK and Muramana will make any HP stacker melt while also keeping your late game damage relatively high.

This is the AP version of the Manamune build and it succeeds in partially combining the best aspects of AD builds with the best aspects of AP builds. With this build, you'll get access to the high damage that comes with AD builds and the high utility that comes with AP builds. Because of this, we go for Nashor's Tooth second for the CDR as well as the extra AP and on-hit damage.

Offensive Items - AD

This item should ONLY picked up if you have Blade of the Ruined King and the enemy team is itemizing heavily with Armor. Otherwise, skip this item and go onto building crit. The penetration that you get from Guinsoo's Rageblade provides a huge boost to your DPS against tanks especially when its Phantom Hit passive is combined with Blade of the Ruined King.

Pick any two of these Zeal items according to the situation. If you need more pushing power, then consider Statikk Shiv or Runaan's Hurricane. If you need more range or want to hit towers safely, pick up a Rapid Firecannon. If you need a defensive option, take Phantom Dancer. If you want to increase your DPS in teamfights, try Runaan's Hurricane.

All good Crit builds typically have an Infinity Edge in it - and this one is no exception. The increase in crit damage you get from this only adds to your ability to one shot squishies later on.

While Essence Reaver is not an optimal item on Kayle even if you're building Muramana, the stats you get from it are still beneficial. The +20% CDR is great, especially in a build where you're not building any other CDR besides for maybe a Death's Dance. I would not recommend replacing Infinity Edge to pick this up. Instead, drop one of your Zeal items.

Offensive Items - AP

For an AP build, Guinsoo's is perhaps the biggest trap item you can build. However, if you're able to reliably DPS the enemy team, then you MAY consider picking up a Guinsoo's if that fits your preferences more than Liandry's Torment, which is the more optimal buy.

Liandry's Torment is the item you want to go if the enemy team has tanks or HP stackers. By going Muramana but then having multiple sources of AP damage, you become a nightmare to itemize against. Liandry's provides health as well, which makes it an even better purchase if you need help surviving.

If the enemy team begins stacking a lot of MR against you, then you can consider picking up a Void Staff. Take note, though, that it's only really effective against enemies with more than 150+ MR (generally), and that if only one or two low priority enemies are stacking MR you can skip this/build it later.

Rylai's is a really reliable item to pick up later on in the game because of its slow effect and the bonus health it provides adding to our ability to survive. When paired with the bonus movement speed we get from our passive, very few champions will be able to touch you or escape from you if caught out.

This is an overwhelmingly powerful purchase on almost all champions that rely on AP to deal damage and is great as a 5th or 6th item. Once you put on this hat, you'll complete the late game Kayle fantasy and become the final boss of the game. If anyone on the enemy team is lacking in MR by the time you complete this item, you'll be able to easily delete them with a quick Q + E combo if they're caught out.

Luden's Echo is an interesting pick up for this build since it's mainly bought for the CDR and the huge amount of mana it provides. Although you generally don't want to build a Luden's later on in the game, it's acceptable IF you need more late game damage and you don't need any of the other items listed here, OR if you're already ahead and want to maximize damage.

Defensive Items

Phantom Dancer gives you a shield after taking damage that would take you to less than 30% health. This is a great item that helps you survive enemy burst and DPS without having to use Divine Judgment on yourself.

It is best to go Mercurial Scimitar only when they have big CC threats, such as Skarner, Malzahar, Braum, etc. You can drop a Zeal item to pick this up, or you can get a Quicksilver Sash early on and sit on it until later on to complete.

TAKE NOTE: The shield effects of Maw and Phantom Dancer do not stack. If you decided not to go Phantom Dancer but you still need a defensive option against magic damage, then you can consider buying this item. If you don't want to fully change your build path to get this item, then you can get a Hexdrinker early on and sit on it until later.

If you're going AP and the enemy team has just a spell or two that you need to survive, then you can consider this if you don't want to invest in a Hexdrinker or Quicksilver Sash.

Zhonya's is a useful item in AP builds because of the stasis effect allowing you to buy time or dodge key abilities.

You can pick this up as a 6th item against full physical damage comps or against assassins where you'll need a second life.

Laning PhaseIn general, you have three goals for laning:

1. Don't get pushed under your turret too often or at key points - if you get pushed, you'll be forced to CS under tower, which may be easier with Starfire Spellblade, but you'll be using a lot of mana to CS, plus they can harass you more easily under tower without you being able to retaliate.

2. Obtain a minion advantage and play around them so you can obtain a health advantage.

3. Crash the wave into tower to force the enemy laner to use spells to help them CS and then look for opportunities to get a good gank in from your jungler.

To get a minion advantage (and slow push the lane), you can harass the enemy laner by piercing Radiant Blast through or into the ranged minions, and achieve two of your goals for laning phase. To get the wave to fully push, you can Radiant Blast the entire ranged minion wave to get them very low and repeat once you have it up again. This resets the wave, forces the enemy to use mana to CS, and opens up opportunities for your jungler to gank. When paired with a jungler who has a lot of burst or a lot of CC, Kayle becomes a huge threat because of her shred, speed up, and execute.

Do not play aggressively if you know your jungler is preoccupied or if the enemy jungler/support is near before you get level 6. You'll want to sustain a health advantage as much as you can throughout the laning phase, which is where Fleet Footwork comes in handy for the hard lanes and Press the Attack in lanes where you can play a little bit more aggressive.

Laning vs MeleeIf you are a midlaner or you don't have to leash your jungler, then you can get to lane quickly and do a little bit of damage by zoning the enemy off from minions using Radiant Blast - only if they are champions with a very weak level 1 ( Fizz, Ekko, Renekton, Shen, etc) Since your level 1 is relatively weak compared to the majority of champions you'll be facing, you should be playing safe and letting the enemy push slightly. However, you should make sure to push back a little bit less than they push, to make sure you're not forced under your turret early on and can make use of your level 2 powerspike. Once you do hit level 2, you are able to gain a lot of pressure in lane by consistently landing Radiant Blast + Starfire Spellblade on the enemy laner. Once both you and the enemy reach level 3, you should start playing more carefully since you are generally weaker than most champions once they have all 3 abilities unlocked. All through laning phase you should be looking to create a slight minion advantage so you are able to trade back safely. This can be done by using Radiant Blast to hit both the enemy laner and their ranged minions. Otherwise, you need to play safely and keep the wave close to your side of the map, as Kayle does not have many tools to escape a gank besides her Q and W.

Laning vs RangedEarly on you do not want to be pushed up too far. You should get a small one or two minion advantage so you get an early level 2, which allows you to get off your poke combo on your unsuspecting enemy. The third wave is when you will both hit level 3, so watch out for that. Into most ranged matchups, your three general goals will change slightly: 1. Keep the wave in the middle of the lane or slightly toward your side - the reason you shouldn't push is that it gives the opposing laner a chance to freeze the lane on their side early on, which makes it extremely hard for you to walk up and grab CS. Kayle also can't really push that well early on, even with Radiant Blast. 2. Don't take too much harass - this is a pretty simple goal. Identify windows where you can walk up and take CS without being damaged yourself, such as when they're focused on killing minions. You can also waste their mana if they are a poke-oriented champion by baiting their abilities by moving forward a little and then back before their poke hits you. 3. Identify windows to trade - if the enemy uses their spells to push the wave or you've successfully baited out a few of their key abilities, it's time to move in for a small trade. Move in, auto, Radiant Blast, auto, Starfire Spellblade, and finally disengage with Celestial Blessing.

Mid & Late GameIn the Mid Game, you'll have a lot more options as to what you can do. Kayle will generally want to keep pushing a lane, whether that be mid, bot, or top. By splitting like this, you are able to pressure the enemy team and creating space for your team to take objectives like Rift Herald and Dragon. Of course, you shouldn't be split pushing and giving up your life for it; play safely, set up vision, and play around the map. You can also group with your team during this time to teamfight, take objectives, and/or siege towers. With access to Starfire Spellblade's splash and Divine Judgment, Kayle already has the tools she needs to be a key part of a teamfight. You still cannot play too aggressively your ultimate at this point is relatively weak in damage, has a long cooldown, and your damage isn't as high as others. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you aren't losing out on experience and CS. It is crucial that you keep up in CS and experience so you can stay relevant.

If you've reached the Late Game, then congratulations! You've made it to THE late game fantasy. Assuming you've established a lead for yourself and are way ahead of everyone else or your team has been stalling the game and waiting for you to reach full power, it's time to close out the game or stage a comeback.

At this point in the game, you are at peak power and should be grouping up with your team as much as possible. Just like in the Mid Game, you're an invaluable part of any fight because of Divine Judgment, but unlike in the Mid Game, you're 6-slotted and can deal tons of mixed damage in a fight in close quarters. You need to survive teamfights as best as you can, or else your team's chances of winning that fight decreases greatly.

With your team, you should look to move as a unit toward one of three goals: taking Baron Nashor, sieging towers, or teamfighting and then completing all these goals. Baron Nashor is a huge priority this late into the game; you can assume if a team takes Baron uncontested, your chances of losing the game skyrockets. To secure Baron Nashor, it is best to first kill the enemy jungler, win a teamfight, or gain Mid priority by shoving it. If you siege towers, make sure you've purchased an Elixir of Sorcery beforehand as it increases your pushing power immensely.

Splitpushing 101Splitpushing on Kayle is pretty sub-optimal unless you're far, far ahead of anyone that can come to deal with you. The main goal of splitpushing is to pressure the map and draw the enemy team to the opposite side of the map of wherever your team is trying to go and do things. For example, if your team is trying to take Baron Nashor, then you would look to push in Bot Lane. If your team is trying to take Dragon, you can opt to push Top or Mid depending on whether or not you want to rotate and help them. If your team is looking to take Rift Herald, swap lanes with your Bot Lane and push in their lane. Splitpushing is harder on Kayle because her dueling potential is not as strong as other real, pure duelists in the game since she is locked out of attacking for 1.5 seconds during Divine Judgment. Because of this, you'll generally just want to hard shove the lane until you see the enemy team rotating to stop you, and then retreat. Rinse and repeat until you've reached the point where the enemy needs to send more than one person to stop you.

The golden rule of splitpushing is that you do not want to be seen; if you're seen, you're doing it wrong. In other words, you need to play around vision and the Fog of War; make the enemy question where you really are and what you're doing.

Teamfighting 101If you've ever been interested in playing ADCs, you've most likely heard of the Golden Rule of ADCs: focus whoever's closest to you. Although Kayle isn't an ADC, this idea still somewhat applies to her. Generally, in teamfights, you should be staying in the back and attacking whoever's closest to you. However, since Kayle has the ability to deal damage to multiple enemies using her waves and the splash damage from Starfire Spellblade at once, you're a much more potent threat in teamfights compared to many ADCs. Since there'll usually be more than one person closest to you and one/two high priority targets you need to kill, target selection comes in handy here. Good target selection is what separates experienced players and boosted players. In teamfights, you want to keep your calm and assess the situation: who's closest to you, who can deal the most damage to you/your team, and who can interrupt you from doing Kayle things. Generally, the priority list from highest to lowest is: ADC/Bot Lane, Mid, Top, Jungle, Support. If a high-burst champion/assassin like Zed is rushing at your team with Youmuu's Ghostblade, Flash, and Death Mark, you're actually pretty safe given that you have Divine Judgment or a Zhonya's Hourglass and maybe a teammate with CC. If he's rushing at you with your ultimate up, you need to first slow him down with Radiant Blast and kite him so he's low enough for you to kill him quickly before/as he ults you. This is so you don't waste Divine Judgment as it is a very important tool to have in a teamfight.

If a Bruiser/Duelist like Renekton is rushing at you with Slice and Dice and Dominus up, you should keep your distance since the threat he brings with his CC and damage from Cull the Meek is not to be underestimated. If you end up getting caught by champions like him ( Renekton, Jax, Irelia, Camille), you're most likely going to have to stay and fight with Divine Judgment. If you catch any of these out of position in a teamfight, you need to kill them.

On the other hand, if a huge tank like Cho'Gath or Maokai is in front of you and you can't immediately kill them, you should ignore them most of the time and let your team deal with them. This'll open up an opportunity for you to rush the enemy's backline especially if they're focused on their tank, which creates pressure and space for your team to kill whoever's frontlining. If these tanks are becoming an issue, you do have tools in your kit to deal with them: the resistance shred from Radiant Blast and the execute damage on Starfire Spellblade will open up ways for your team to deal damage to them.

By assessing how much of a threat the enemy is to you, you'll start to see who you need to kill and be wary of.

Example:

Enemy

Ally

In this game, you'll come to the conclusion that the two biggest threats are Vayne and LeBlanc, who take top 2 priority.

However, since they also have a bunch of engage and CC from Braum, Skarner, and Sylas, you'll need to keep your distance as much as possible from them while receiving peel from your team. In this situation, you actually want to weave in and out of the frontline and backline while letting your team engage/peel for you, but if you see an opportunity to attack any of the two highest priority targets, you should be doing so. If not, you should be focusing down whichever enemy is closest to you so that they don't get an opportunity to lock you down.

In this specific scenario, if their team engages and the Vayne does Vayne things and uses Flash, Final Hour and Tumble to follow up on the engage, and she just happens to be clumped in with her tanks, you can choose to keep hitting their tanks and deal damage to both targets, but the best option is to switch targets and focus her so she can't carry the teamfight. This can easily be done by piercing your Q through her tanks and dealing an immense amount of damage to her by following with an E.

If she runs away and leaves your range, you can Flash, Ghost, or Celestial Blessing to chase after her as long as you've held onto Divine Judgment or have another way out. Otherwise, the moment she leaves your range, you need to switch back to hitting whoever is closest to you.

Since your team has a decent amount of peel and CC as well from Malzahar and Thresh, you should be able to safely frontline to take down anyone they catch.

In the case of LeBlanc trying to assassinate you, you should be staying safe with Kindred who shouldn't mind using Lamb's Respite to save the two of you.

You should prioritize using your ult on Ashe, Malzahar, or yourself since you're lacking hard engagers/tanks in this example. If you do have a tank or strong frontliner like Camille, Shen, Irelia, etc, who can make use of the AoE damage and invulnerability from your ult, prioritize it on them so they don't lose too much health while engaging.

End of Top & Mid Guide

Flash is undeniably the most important summoner spell to have. Need to escape a gank? Flash. Need to save your teammate? Flash. Need to pull off some insane jukes? Flash.

Exhaust is the standard support summoner spell to use. It's great to counter burst champions and DPS champions because it slows them and reduces their damage.

Ignite is the alternative to Exhaust. I only recommend playing this in aggressive lanes, such as if you're laning with Draven, or when you need to reduce healing early on, such as if you're against a Soraka.

W Max 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This ability order emphasizes empowering your main support aspect, Celestial Blessing, so that it is at its strongest as early as possible. This will pretty much be your default ability order in many matchups because of how strong your heal gets at max rank and one Forbidden Idol item.

3Q > W Max 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

While it might seem odd to not max Celestial Blessing right away, it makes sense when you run the numbers. With the addition of the mana refund mechanic on Q, the 80-mana cost can turn into a 40/0-mana cost. That means you're essentially getting this high damage ability off for free. In comparison when you look at Celestial Blessing, its healing values are VERY low early on compared to other healers. This is simply not enough to justify increasing the mana cost to 80 for a ~120 HP heal that can be reduced by Ignite or other forms of Grievous Wounds. When you look at it this way, it is more reasonable to put 3 points into Q early on for a better laning phase and then shifting towards maxing W after level 6 once you've been able to back and start building towards a Forbidden Idol item.

Summon Aery will be the standard choice you want to run. It has both defensive and offensive capabilities with the shielding whenever you buff an ally and the little bit of poke damage you get whenever you use Radiant Blast or Starfire Spellblade. It is a very reliable keystone that you should look to take in almost every matchup for these reasons.

Guardian is a decent defensive rune to take, especially since you'll be melee and most likely near your ADC for the majority of laning phase. It gives you a shield, movement speed boost, and gives you access to more runes from Resolve. I wouldn't take this in every match up because it is not as reliable as Summon Aery. It is useful against champions you need to disengage from early on, such as a Braum Thresh Blitzcrank Alistar etc.

Glacial Augment is a very, very situational keystone to take. It allows you to be a little bit more offensive by utilizing the slow, but is only really useful if you have a strong early game ADC that can follow up on it reliably.

For obvious reasons, Manaflow Band is the only choice in this row that makes sense. Manaflow is easily stacked and it gives you more mana to use your abilities

Early on, Transcendence will get you the 40% CDR you need. This is a great boost to your power since it'll your high CD ultimate will be able to be used more often. After you complete some of your support items, you'll be over the 40% CDR limit, which means that Transcendence will now be giving you AP. Even better!

Just for some more lane power, you'll take Scorch for more poke damage with Radiant Blast.

Alternatively, you can run Gathering Storm if you think you'll need late game scaling on your heals.

This is the 1 rune you MUST take as Support Kayle, as it invaluable and boosts your healing and shielding immensely.

Font of Life is a pretty nice rune you can take for when you slow enemies with Radiant Blast since it'll allow your teammates to heal by hitting them.

Against aggressive lanes, you can take this instead of Font of Life so you'll be able to be a little bit safer when 2v2ing.

If you're against a poke lane, then you'll want to take Second Wind to heal back up after getting poked.

Font of Life is a pretty nice rune you can take for when you slow enemies with Radiant Blast since it'll allow your teammates to heal by hitting them.

This is the 1 rune you MUST take as Support Kayle, as it invaluable and boosts your healing and shielding immensely.

In most lanes where you'll be getting poked due to being melee early on, you'll want this to help recover some health.

Against lanes where you'll be getting hit more than once at a time or in lanes where you want to play more aggressively, you can take this instead of Second Wind to trade/mitigate damage better.

Manaflow Band is a really important rune for Support Kayle to take due to her high mana costs and spell usage.

Early on, Transcendence will get you the 40% CDR you need. This is a great boost to your power since it'll your high CD ultimate will be able to be used more often. After you complete some of your support items, you'll be over the 40% CDR limit, which means that Transcendence will now be giving you AP. Even better!

Perfect Timing provides both defensive and offensive capabilities. When it's up, you can use it to survive being ganked or dived and possibly pick up kills by surprising the enemy. You can also use it offensively to dive by tanking tower shots and then using it to make the tower switch targets.

Future's Market gives you the ability to back with ~200 gold less than how much you need to complete an item, but buy it anyway. Future's Market helps you reach important items faster, giving you an edge over the enemy support.

Biscuit Delivery gives you some more sustain in lane, especially if you can't reliably hit Radiant Blast for the mana refund.

The most obvious choice to take. Synergizes really well with Glacial Augment's slow, your teammates' CC, and Radiant Blast. You can become super fast with this rune and a maxed Celestial Blessing.

For obvious reasons, Manaflow Band is the only choice in this row that makes sense. Manaflow is easily stacked and it gives you more mana to use your abilities.

Early on, Transcendence will get you the 40% CDR you need. This is a great boost to your power since it'll your high CD ultimate will be able to be used more often. After you complete some of your support items, you'll be over the 40% CDR limit, which means that Transcendence will now be giving you AP. Even better!

If you take Resolve, this is an essential rune you NEED to take. It invaluable and increases the potential of your heals and shields.

Font of Life will basically be useful the entire game because of Glacial Augment and the slow that comes from Radiant Blast.

All Viable Secondaries

There are A LOT of viable secondaries you can run as a support. They all have their advantages and disadvantages as well as times and places you should be running them. What you want to take depends on the game, who you're up against, and your general playstyle.

Domination gives you a lot of aggressive choices with Cheap Shot and Zombie Ward. You can also choose to run either Ultimate Hunter if you think you want to play with a lower ult CD or Ingenious Hunter if you're going to buy a lot of support items with actives, such as Redemption Twin Shadows Locket of the Iron Solari etc.

Inspiration gives you a mix of defensive and offensive options as well as overall good utility. With defensive options like Biscuit Delivery and Perfect Timing, offensive options like Approach Velocity, and utility from Magical Footwear, Future's Market, and Cosmic Insight, there are a lot of ways to build the Inspiration tree.

Starting Items

Spellthief's Edge is generally the best item out of all the support items to start with since you'll be looking to poke with Radiant Blast.

First Back - Defensive

On your first back, you should look to fully complete Forbidden Idol to help boost your Celestial Blessing's heal. It is best to also pick up Boots as well, but if you're unable to then you can get one/two Faerie Charms. Make sure you get a Control Ward.

First Back - Aggressive

If you're looking to play aggressive and want extra movement speed on top of it, pick up an Aether Wisp. This will start building towards an Ardent Censer.

If you want to prioritize all the AP you can get early on, then this is for you. Blasting Wand will also go towards building a Luden's Tempest as your first item.

Boots

Pick one of these two boots if you need to buy a defensive pair. Even if you're against a majority of AD champions but the enemy has a lot of CC, you can consider buying Mercury's Treads still.

These boots are your offensive boots that you'll want to go if you're maxing Radiant Blast. With the AP you're building early on and the high base damage of Radiant Blast combined with the MR penetration on these boots, you'll be dealing tons of damage to the enemy bot lane.

These are a nice pair of boots to get, even if you'll be going over 40% CDR with them. They also provide 10% CDR to your summoner spells, which can make them a good early pick up.

These boots will give you a little bit more overall mobility, but I generally don't pick these up unless I am ahead or against enemies with slows.

Core Items - Full Support

Your first core item will be one of the following Forbidden Idol items because of the heal/shield boost it gives as well as all the stats that come along with each item. If your ADC is heavily reliant on auto attacks, such as Jinx Kai'Sa Vayne Sivir etc, then you should look to build Ardent Censer first to boost their auto attack damage.

Redemption is a more teamfight-oriented item because of the AoE heal. It also provides you with HP and health regen which the other options don't give you, so it can be a defensive option as well.

If you're against a bot lane with hard CC like Morgana Alistar Braum etc or if the enemy team has a lot of CC outside of bot lane, then a Mikael's Blessing can be a great item to rush. Getting this early can let your ADC wait until later in the game to pick up a Quicksilver Sash and can surprise enemies when their CC is removed.

Make sure you've swapped to this trinket once your support item has been completed and you have access to wards on it. You'll need this for denying vision from your enemies as well as making sneak plays with it.

Situational Items

Another item that'll boost your healing! Great pick up most of the time because of its desirable stats and healing passive. Since you'll also be building a lot of items with % additional base mana regen attached to them, the passive from this will start giving you a lot of AP.

Zeke's Convergence has decently strong synergy with your ultimate, has desirable defensive stats, and gives a nice boost to your ADC's damage.

Locket of the Iron Solari is a great pick up to provide defenses to your team and yourself. If you get this early on, the shield will be relatively low since you won't have access to many items with bonus HP. In teamfights, getting a team-wide Locket off can mean the difference between winning and losing the fight.

Twin Shadows boosts your ability to engage fights and chase enemies with its active effect. It also gives you a nice boost to your AP pool, making your W and Q even more relevant as the game goes on.

Zhonya's Hourglass is useful for if the enemy team has a lot of burst, but you can't risk using ultimate on yourself. You can also buy a Stopwatch early on if they have a dive comp and you're at risk of being dived bot lane.

Example Builds

Build with AA-heavy marksman

Build with AA/spell-reliant laner

Build vs. heavy CC

Early GameDuring Laning Phase, you should look for opportunities to harass with Radiant Blast and Starfire Spellblade, especially if the enemy support is melee. Usually, you shouldn't be hard engaging until you have more points in Celestial Blessing. If your marksman is pushing, then you need to make sure to set up vision in the river and watch out for ganks.

Do not stay back behind your minions or ADC all the time. When your ADC walks up, you should be paralleling them and matching their movement.

On your first back, you'll want to get your tier 2 support item, Boots, a Control Ward, and a Faerie Charm if you've got gold left over.

Mid & Late GameYou'll want to stick with your teammates throughout the mid and late game. For ultimates, prioritize your ADC or whoever is frontlining for your team and taking the most damage. However, if you're being focused and bursted, then you should use Divine Judgment on yourself since you can't heal or help anyone if you're dead!

With Baron Nashor and Elder Dragon up, you'll want to stack up on Control Wards and clear out any vision in the pit.

Enemy supports with strong CC such as Nami, Lulu, and Rakan are hard to play into because they can essentially negate your Radiant Blast + Starfire Spellblade poke with one ability. These types of supports are also dangerous to play into because of their CC, which can potentially prevent you from using Divine Judgment if timed correctly.

On the other hand, going against relatively immobile supports like Soraka and Janna and engagers like Pyke and Alistar will generally be an easier time since you can deter them from engaging with a quick Radiant Blast.

She's also great to pick against ADCs without many escapes / mobility in their kit, so Ashe, Jinx, Jhin, Vayne, etc.
In general, Kayle has good synergy with high, continuous DPS champions such as Vayne, Ashe, Kai'Sa, Sivir, etc. She has especially good synergy with Vayne and Kai'Sa because of their tendency to play aggressively, a playstyle that is aided by your engage with Celestial Blessing and Radiant Blast and your safety with Divine Judgment.

You don't really want to be paired up with ADCs like Ezreal, Jhin, and Miss Fortune who rely on their abilities a lot.

When looking at the game as a whole, Kayle support is a really useful pick when your jungler has strong engage, is a diver, or is a tank or your top laner is a duelist, bruiser, or tank. The enemy team will eventually throw everything they have at these two beefy targets, but you can negate all of that with Divine Judgment.

End of Support Guide

Thanks for giving this guide a read and I hope you enjoy playing Kayle! Feel free to ask me any questions and give me any feedback you might have. If you're interested in joining the Kayle community, check out the Discord server/subreddit:
If you have any questions you'd like to ask me personally, feel free to ask in the comments!

Special thanks to:

• Limonada for commenting on builds, the Laning Phase, and for being a great person.
• Maintained for giving me feedback on the guide's style.
• Chromuro for helping me with some of the formatting.
• Kayle Mains Discord for theorycrafting some of these builds with me.

Other Guides


October 28, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.22

October 14, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.21

September 30, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.20.

September 16, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.19.

September 2, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.18.
  • Radiant Blast no longer restores 50% mana/champion hit
  • Celestial Blessing's mana costs have increased to 90/100/110/120/130
  • Starfire Spellblade no longer costs mana, has a scaling cooldown instead of flat, and has 5000 missile speed (up from 2000).

August 19, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.17

August 5, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.16.

August 4, 2020:

• Expanded the Runes section by adding rune pages that adapt to the situation.
  • Added were: Poke matchups, skirmisher matchups, Trynd/Jax, and Nasus/
    Trynd.

July 22, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.15.

July 9, 2020:

• Removed Elixir of Skill from the ability descriptions section.
• Clarified how Kayle's passive works: "you don't automatically transform upon reaching one of the target levels, you need to also use the skill point"
• Clarified wording on Celestial Blessing's description.
• Updated the formatting of the Summoner Spells section to be cleaner and match the rest of the guide.
• Removed Absolute Focus and Demolish from the cheatsheet (TOP & MID AP)
• Fixed coding and spelling errors
• Updated skill sequence explanations
• Made Q max the standard ability order for Top and Mid (AP & AD)

July 8, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.14.
• Slight buff to Ghost that increases its movement speed buff to 24-48% (up from 20-40%), which moves it towards being a possible option if you're Mid.

June 24, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.13.
• Death's Dance was nerfed for Ranged champions, but it's still a pretty good item to build if you're going AD
• Conqueror was slightly nerfed by increasing the number of stacks, but the nerf doesn't affect Kayle too much, since the nerf was targeted at assassins using it to get more damage quickly.

June 10, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.12.

May 29, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.11.

May 19, 2020:

• Updated to patch 10.10.
• TOP AP BUILDS:
  • Removed Flash Ghost spell set
  • Removed Core Items #3 (Nash, Ludens)
  • Swapped Item #s
  • Removed Kleptomancy & Arcane Comet
  • Added a page for Conqueror
  • Reordered rune page orders in order of relevancy - PTA / Fleet / LT / Conq
• MID AP BUILDS:
  • Added Flash + Exhaust/ Ignite as Defensive/Aggressive spell sets
  • Added Hextech Gunblade item path
  • Removed Luden's Tempest item path
  • Removed Kleptomancy and Arcane Comet
  • Added a second Fleet Footwork page
• TOP AD BUILDS:
  • Removed Triforce path
  • Added in Sanguine Blade and Stormrazor as situational offensive items
  • Made E Max the default ability order
  • Removed Kleptomancy
  • Added Conqueror
  • Made Press the Attack the default page
• MURAMANA BUILDS:
  • Modernized.
• SUPPORT BUILDS:
  • Updated gold income items
  • Updated first backs
  • Updated rune pages
• Guide
  • In general, the guide has been updated to current patch and to match changes in Cheatsheet
  • Runes:
    • Updated the layout of runes
  • Items:
    • Layout is now easier to read
    • Updated to match changes in cheat sheet.
  • Matchups:
    • Matchups within the guide are currently outdated for now as they are being updated. If you'd like to view them as they're being updated, check out the matchup spreadsheet
• Support Guide:
  Major overhaul is in progress, for now here are the changes:
  • Runes:
    • Updated the layout of runes
    • Updated runes in general
  • Items:
    • Updated gold income items; removed Ancient Coin
    • Updated first back items
    • Updated final build examples