Kayle is a champion which I've played to an extensive degree, from top to bottom, if it's possible to play her in the role, I've done it.

To start with, I am -not- a high Elo player, I am also not a professional in any means, I'm someone who has too much time on their hands, and is willing to deal with their boredom by writing a guide to something that probably shouldn't even exist. I will not lie, I'm a Silver division II player and climbing!

However what I have tested, has proven to be highly effective, and overall painful to deal with. With a combination of early game poke, and mid to late game sustain and burst+DPS it has proven to be incredibly powerful.

What exactly is this build?

This is a burst oriented build for Kayle, away from on-hit, shred, attack speed AP setups which hold her back heavily, in my opinion, as an AP caster.



Pros and Cons

These are her Pro's and Cons as a champion at base.

Pros :

• Very good pushing ability, and can easily assist in securing buffs, and larger objectives.
• Good mid game sustain with blue buff and W spam.
• High burst capabilities, and good mobility.
• Even when behind as AP Kayle your W is a very good heal, and you're a very good box of utilities, packing a slow, speed buff, and still having damage.
• Very easy to rebound from a losing lane, even without roaming constantly.
• Survivability, and ability to sit back and farm if you cannot straight up fight your laning opponent.
• Consistent poke, and DPS that is highly constant without being very CDR based, and naturally builds into items that provide max CDR very easily.
• Not blue reliant to fight, only to sustain self early mid game.
• Her overall late game sustain enables her to keep people healed constantly. She's not AP Soraka, but she is damn potent, and can work to assist your team in being mobile and position easily.
• Early and mid game Kayle has quite high mixed damage, especially after Sheen, when opponents build armor, she will most likely finish Lichbane and completely negate it. She's very hard to itemize against.
• With the new Doran's Rings, Kayle has very good lane sustain, even early game without blue buff, and should almost never run out of mana unless heavy committing.

Cons :

• Kayle has connecting issues, Her Q and E's range are lackluster, without having quite the durability to completely just run into your target without caring and disengagement can shut her down hard if you can't avoid it.
• Kayle is heavily reliant on a good frontline and initiation to fight, and is stuck in the backlines healing, and use her ultimate important targets throughout late game and team fights until an initiator -does- go in. She can pop her ultimate, and just dive in hard, but this will result in a lot of deaths, and the lost of an important carry with her mixed bag of damages.
• Requires hard CC to be on the team to deal the most possible damage, otherwise enemies can easily escape before you can really fully utilize your skillset and items. But can still get things done without it. Just not nearly as well.
• A part of this is that if there is a channeled effect, Kayle cannot stop it by herself, all she can do is ultimate to protect herself or her ally taking the channeled efect.
• Not really a flaw in game, but if you do this build, expect negative reactions, and anger from teammates. But we aim to prove them wrong, don't we? (Note : No one minds an AP Kayle anymore, we proved em wrong. <3)

"Hybrid" Kayle

I have severe issues with Hybrid/AS/on-hit builds for Kayle. Note most of these comments are in comparison to AD Kayle, and AP Kayle.

The Bad :

• You rely on sticking close CONSTANTLY while doing minor damage per hit, boasting high damage per second, your range isn't very high, and your ability to stick isn't high enough for you to rely on attack speed alone. Either you sacrifice damage, or the ability to stay close enough to deal the damage.
• Your mid game suffers as you need to build into items that provide little damage at first, or you suffer from the same flaws as AD Kayle of no CDR to keep up constant pressure. (Or you're like someone, who feels that a shred/on-hit building Kayle is a priority for blue buff.)
• Your late game is weaker than AD Kayle. and in my opinion, your early to mid game is still weaker than AP Kayle, even if you hit midgame the fastest.
• You build little to no penetration in most hybrid set ups, therefor rely mostly on your passive for armor pen and magic penetration.

The Good :

• She hits her mid game just about the fastest, and the hardest.
• She has a stronger mid game than AD Kayle, and hits midgame faster than AP Kayle.

I won't lie, I -hate- attack speed/on-hit/APAS/Hybrid builds for Kayle. They are awful in my opinion. Normally I'd be a 'good guy' and link to other guides, but there's a crap load of hybrid builds out there, if you want to read one, you're welcome to look at some of the first posts in the champion related guides section. :P

Comment's on AD Kayle

I have some issues with Kayle as a standard AD Carry type champion. Though they aren't as game breaking, or hated for me, as much as Hybrid Kayle.

The Bad :

• If AD Kayle falls behind, she's stuck there and is a damper on her team, building AD means you have no W AP scaling, and no CDR for the most part.
• AD Kayle doesn't any CDR, 10% at the most with the new therefor she cannot maintain her range constantly, and her R isn't put to it's full utility, with another 10% in Zephyr potentially.
• AD Kayle can only be played top lane highly effectively.

Bottom lane she has issues due to her lack of constant range, mid you sacrifice an AP champion being in this slot, and jungle she get's less farm, as well as less gold, which she honestly needs to prosper.

However, there are a great deal of champions who dominate her toplane, or she simply stops being able to harass. AP Kayle can go top lane, and do the same job against the champions she does dominate.

The Good :

• AD Kayle is stronger than AP Kayle, and Hybrid Kayle late game, if for nothing more than the fact that she deals the highest DPS, and has the most personal sustain.
• AD Kayle is obviously superior at turret destroying due to having AD and not being reliant on Lichbane to deal damage to turrets.
• AD Kayle can build items like Black Cleaver and help her entire team in different ways to AP Kayle, and helps her team more than Hybrid Kayle can.

If you want to deal a ton of damage per second, then you will want to look at Rincent's guide, his guide is the one I read to learn Kayle at first, and helped me fall in love with her.

Why pick her over other AP Carries?

Constant Harass : No other AP Carry has Kayle's early game auto attack scaling on every auto attack. The only champions who get close are Diana, Orianna, and Teemo, and auto attack scaling almost always beats cooldown based poke in my personal opinion.

• Teemo has a trail off after his first auto attack. His first E auto attack has a lower AP ratio than your E, on top of that it's AP ratio is cut down to .1 after the first auto attack. He also has 25 less auto attack range. His range is constant by comparison, but does not have nearly the same impact as Kayle's E.
• Diana is a melee range champion, and has to land 3 auto attacks in order to proc her effect. It has .2 higher AP ratio than your E, however, if we take into account the fact that she builds no attack speed items, usually, and needs to auto attack three times, her passive's -effective- AP ratio is actually about .2 per hit assuming she get's her third auto attack every time.
• Orianna's main auto attack form poke is her passive, which has 10 less base damage at level 1, and only a .15 scaling, however, it's up permanently, and with her passive her auto attacks deal 20% more damage each time you attack up to 40% which counteracts the AP ratio.

Pushing : Only a few champions can push as well, or as constant without blue buff as Kayle. Twisted Fate, Anivia, and Morgana.

• Twisted Fate can push just as well as you can, however if he constantly uses his Q and his red card W he will run out of mana, and needs to alternate between using blue cards and red cards from my experience to keep this up early game. Late game this becomes much less of an issue obviously and the gap between you and him comes down to AP ratio's which you actually win in.
• Anivia -wins- in the pushing wars. There's no better champion post 6 that can push as hard as she can. Versus Kayle she's pretty easy to poke and even kill Early to Mid game, and in my opinion doesn't offer so much utility besides poking and a single skillshot stun that is quite slow moving.
• Morgana is basically impossible to zone and stop from pushing, she's nearly ungankable, and can push from afar with her W being able to kill the caster minions in one cast, and has about as much self sustain in doing this as Kayle does with stacked Doran's Rings. However her damage falls off hard later in the game, and a lot of her abilities rely on her getting close. Against Kayle she's likely to lose if she cannot land Q because Kayle's R will always cancel her's as far as damage goes.

Sustain : A very slim amount of champions can maintain themselves in lane as well as Kayle can. Even those who can, cannot do so as early as Kayle, require more expensive items to do so compared to Kayle, or run themselves out of mana doing so compared to Kayle.

• Swain at level 6 can maintain himself in lane very well, however he is very mana/blue reliant. Versus Kayle he is easy to poke, and kill, and if he's unable to land Nevermove he can't even get away from Kayle even with Decrepify. This has been further enhanced by the new Boots of Swiftness.
• Vladimir can sustain himself in lane if he constantly uses Q, however early game it's on a long cooldown, and he cannot continue to sustain himself through Kayle's damage. He ends up being poked down hard early game and should almost never hit his late game.
• Mordekaiser can be a right pain to deal with if you are a burst mage. Once he get's a hextech revolver he's nearly impossible to get out of lane. However Kayle deals constant DPS, and isn't item reliant on her sustain, so she does win in the sustain wars, and can easily beat him with her DPS mid lane. Top lane she requires wards in order to keep him from abusing the brush to avoid damage.
• Morgana has passive life steal, and with 2-3 doran's rings she's hard to get to leave lane, if Kayle pushes the lane past the minions she W's however she get's no mana and less health. Her regen is also not enough to sustain past Kayle's W.
• Gragas's passive regenerates 2% of his health every ability cast. I had completely forgotten about it, thank you to a commentor for reminding me of it. It still isn't that much regen, and Kayle's W out does it by far, however his W is very good for peeling off damage, and mana sustain.
• Fiddlestick's drain is an annoying sustain move, but it's reliant on him hitting champions or minions, and his laning phase isn't that strong if he recieves any amount of jungle pressure in my opinion.

Utility :

• This is why you cannot entirely shut down a Kayle, so long as one lane wins hard, Kayle provides heavy utility and can carry a game on that. Her W's sustain, and mobility out classes all other healing spells besides Soraka's. Kayle's ultimate is also unmatched as a life saving spell, Zilean's ultimate has a longer cooldown than Kayle's, and almost all other spells that are life saving only provide more health.

While some champions pass Kayle in certain specific aspects, any champion that beats her in one aspect, cannot beat her in all.

Anivia may beat Kayle in pushing, but Kayle wins in her burst potential and utility for instance.

~~~

Battleborn Kayle All Day Every Day, and now, Into the Fray... Or well. Guide.

12/21/12 World didn't end. Get back to work!

12/24/12 Added a ward map if it's useful let me know, if not, MSPaint OP.

Info on BADlanta/AtIanta, a higher ELO player I -believe- is using my guide, or at the very least is using my build to great effect.

Changed the item section and split it up so it's not HERP/DERP/HERP,DERP/HERP. Added more potential starts. Thanks to LionHeart7 and friends for the theory crafting.

1/09/13 : Am in the process of adding descriptions on Niche items in the item builds section.

1/12/13 : Removed mention of Runaan's applying Rylai's and ect. until I fully, 100% test it, even though I'm sure it's the case.

1/16/13 : Put in my opinions about the Korean Way of building Kayle (used by TPA and NS) and updated my thoughts on Crystalline Flask after it's nerf.

1/17/13 : Proud owner of Aether Wing Kayle!

1/20/13 : I made some major updates, talked about manamune/muramana.

Updated my guide format a little, to make for a more compact item build section, seperating my endless rambling on items, to a more compacted section on item builds themselves, and when to do them, and where to take them from point A to point B.

1/31/13 : I added a new section which includes my thoughts on the patch notes as a whole. If they directly, or indirectly effect Kayle, either way, I'll add my thoughts on them. I'll clear out my last ramble on the patch notes after new patch notes are released.

2/10/13 : I removed Muramana from a 'item build', it was becoming a bit of a trap for people. It has high DPS and high burst potential, but it's not standard at all, and hard to realize compared to Lichbane Deathcap and such.

Also changed my title to remove the 'Underestimated' part. Freaking Kayle bans man.

3/01/13 : Riot tried to nerf Kayle. Didn't quite work.

4/20/13 : I removed 'The Korean Way' section. Not many build Nashor's Liandry's anymore since Kayle lost her damage amp.

06/09/44 : Successfully took over the world, and subjugated all human free will with my army of clones.

Ignite stops all forms of sustain, and adds extra damage after your burst for a single target. Should always be taken.



Flash adds the fastest burst of mobility possible with no travel time in a very short instance, allows you to traverse walls. I recommend this over most other summoner's, despite it's very long cooldown.



Ghost can be used in place of Flash, or Ignite, use it if you plan to abuse your ability to dive at level 6, or if you really want to catch your target. I don't highly recommend it, but it has it's uses since it's got a short CD compared to Flash.



Exhaust theoretically can keep someone in place for a long time, but if you get snared, or stunned, even an exhausted target can get away from you, whereas Ignite will continue dealing damage, and Flash/Ghost will allow you to stick close.

On top of that, it's also been rebalanced to reduce AS more than flat damage this season, making it even less worth while.



Heal is bad in most situations. Let's face it, you're mid to burst/kill. Not to equally trade with someone and bait them. Your ultimate is already enough bait.



I like teleport in certain situations. If you're up against a volitile match up for any lane (Kha'zix top, Leona Graves bot ect) this is actually quite good. Teleport ultimate ganks can be some of the most fustrating things.

It also helps with keeping up against TF and Pantheon. I've also TP ultimate'd against a Karthus for the hell of it.

Holy Fervor

Passive : Kayle's autoattacks against enemy champions reduce their armor and magic resistance by 3% for 5 seconds. This debuff stacks up to 5 times.

This basically means that Kayle can put off magic penetration for a bit, and opt not to use magic penetration marks her runes if the summoner so wishes.

You will almost always proc this with your E, going gungho and melee'ing your targets is not preferred.




Reckoning

Active: Blasts a target, dealing magic damage, slowing its movement speed for 3 seconds, and applies one stack of Holy Fervor.

Missile Speed: 1500

Magic Damage: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+ 100% AP) (+ 100% Bonus AD)
Slow: 35% / 40% / 45% / 50% / 55%



It's your best nuke, it's slow increases in strength each level, and there's no mana cost increase for raising it.

With the recent changes it's lost it's damage amplifier which means you lose around 30-40 DPS, and around 100 damage in burst in return for much greater utility.

The nerfs in my opinion mostly hit DPS Kayle, while it is more of a buff to burst Kayle.

Rank second, max first.



Divine Blessing

Active: Blesses a target allied champion, healing them and increasing their movement speed for 3 seconds.

Range: 900
Cooldown: 15
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 Mana
Heal: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 35% AP)
Movement Speed: 18% / 21% / 24% / 27% / 30%

The utility offered by Kayle's W is one thing Kayle has in this role that she has in no other's, with my standard full build it heals for about 450 damage each use, it has a higher base health per cast than Nidalee's E, and the movement speed is debatable on if it is more useful than the armor granted by Soraka's W.

I prefer ranking Q two times due to the additional burst, then ranking this at 4. I max this second though; due to the higher scaling with skill ranks compared to Kayle's E, however if you aren't taking poke then it's okay to leave this at rank 2 or 3 and max E if you feel you need the extra damage.




Righteous Fury

Active: Kayle harnesses her righteous fury for 10 seconds, granting her bonus magic damage on her attacks and increasing her attack range by 400 (to 525). Additionally, attacks on non-tower units create an area of effect that deals magic damage equal to a percentage of her attack damage plus the same on-hit magic damage to surrounding enemies.

Cooldown: 16
Cost: 45 Mana
Bonus Magic Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 40% AP)
Magic Splash Damage: (+ 20% / 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% AD)
Diameter of Splash AoE: 300


Kayle's E provides AoE on autoattack location magical damage that scales with your AP, as well as working as a proc for Lichbane.

Assuming at late game when it deals 240+ magical damage that you get only 4 auto attacks in, it deals 720 magical damage, and applying the 10% damage amp brings it up to 792 damage, and if I manage to get in all 10 possible auto attacks that's a rather terrifying 2400 damage.

Rank this at level 1, and max it last so you can poke constantly in lane. It's scaling in later ranks is very minor compared to ranking Q and W in my opinion.




Intervention

Active: Kayle bathes a target ally champion (or herself) in holy light, rendering them immune to all damage for a few seconds.

Range: 900
Cooldown: 90 / 75 / 60
Cost: 100 / 75 / 50 Mana
Duration: 2 / 2.5 / 3


Your ultimate is very important, it cancels out burst, heavy focusing, and can actually work as a bait when people dive heavily for kills. With blue buff plus Nashor's Tooth it get's down to a 36 second cooldown. This will always be useful, even if you are shut down.

Who you target, is entirely dependent on the situation. Generally, you want to ultimate someone who will be taking damage. A lot of damage. a 3 second duration means that you have a slight window to abuse.

Do you want to use those 3 seconds blocking a few auto attacks, or blocking a Veigar's full combo?

That said. Don't think this means using your ultimate to stop a few auto attacks is a bad thing in the right situation. Sometimes when doing this you can bait important damage dealers into over extending for a kill and instead of them hurting your back line, they ruin their own by going after a low HP champion that Kayle has officially 'Noped.'

Heavy Utility

It gives me just about everything I need to support and assist my team, I can max my CDR out very quickly with just a stinger and blue buff, and it increases my lane sustain a bit with Strength of Spirit and Vampirism, along side the mana regen masteries.



Offensive

Honestly, the utility page does take away a bit of early game pressure, and it can be hard to win your lane if your team doesn't put itself in a position to abuse your high CDR.

Meaning you rely more upon your jungler, making this a more viable option if you don't have a DPS jungler you can trust ganking your lane.

Marks

Attack Speed Marks : I use these in place of AD marks in Season 3. However I prefer going flat penetration in most situation.

Magic Penetration Marks : If I use attack speed marks, I use around 4 of these, because mixed with your passive it actually allows you to ignore quite a bit of magic defense.

However I feel it's better for the purpose of late game scaling to stick to just pure penetration

Hybrid Penetration Marks : I've tested these quite a bit and in my opinion they're plain and simply weaker than just normal magic penetration, unless you rush sheen you're cutting your magic damage too much.

Attack Damage Marks : If you want to lose out on some mid game scaling, then feel free to use these, they provide a tiny bit more flat damage on your Q and E, but if your opponent get's armor seals and MR glyphs, you can't really damage them too much, even with a mix of attack speed marks.

Seals

Scaling Health Seals : I use these almost all the time. They are your best line of defense against magical damage in the Seals department, and out-scale flat HP at just level 5.

Armor Seals : I use these whenever I'm up against an AD mid, or if I'm legitimately more afraid of minions than I am of my laning partner.

Gold Per 10 Seals : As funny as it is, if you legitimately are not afraid of your mid opponent, and are not afraid of minion damage, you don't need mana regen seals at all and can go this to accelerate your late game carrying.


Mana Regen Seals : Almost worthless on Kayle. With 2 doran's rings, 3 if you want to overkill it, you can infinitely refill your mana by simply clearing out the caster minions with your E, and the rest of it is just profit. However I do like scaling mana regen for the purposes of late game, after selling your doran's rings.

Glyphs

Ability Power Glyphs : I prefer flat AP in 9/10 situations, it adds the most damage to your Q and E in Glyphs.

Magic Resistance Glyphs : I use these if I'm up against a trouble mid such as Zyra, Cassiopeia, and Teemo but you can use these in any situation if you'd rather have survivability than a scary level two.

Scaling Ability Power Glyphs : They increase your damage highly by late game, however it takes 7 levels for them to actually out scale Flat AP, I do not recommend these.

Quintessences

Ability Power Quintessences : An additional 15 damage on your Q for three tiny slots. Almost no alternative to this.

Movement Speed Quintessences : Adds an extra 16 or so movement speed at level 1 with tier 1 boots, very good versus skill shot champions such as Zyra and Lux.

Attack Speed Quintessences : You can opt to use these versus Mordekaiser, but I feel it kind of hurts you once you get some items and Mordekaiser is easy enough mid lane, and other tanky AP mids shrug off your DPS anyways.

AD Quintessences : They offer half the Q damage, and about the same damage on your E. (.3 more or so.) Do not use these on AP Kayle.

This section, I go over specific build paths, rather than specific items. I'm going over the build paths at specific points, not the specific items themselves.

First Back

[Standard Path]



You aren't taking much harass and your opponent feels your hits, but you are running out of mana keeping up the harass, and aren't quit killing them or putting them under turret the moment they walk into lane.

[DPS/Spell Pen Path]



You're ahead in gold by quite a bit, but your opponent is smart, and got a good amount of magic resist in either their runes, or items.

It's less about keeping up constant harass, and more along the lines of actually catching them, you aren't running out of mana, and blue buff is pretty much a given.

If you can't afford the haunting guise fully, just pick up what you can of it, so long as you leave room for wards. You will also want to pick up a crystalline flask in a while, just to make sure that you don't run out of mana

[Anti-Poke/Spell pen Mobility path]



It's less about the actual damage dealt, and more about sticking close, and ignoring what they throw at you for you.

You obviously lose out on HP, and AP with this, but for some lanes the early magic penetration and movement speed is enough to win a lane this early on. I recommend picking up a flask with this early game set up mainly because you don't get any HP or mana regen with your item choice otherwise.

Starting Sorcerer's boots is pretty good against most skillshot champions. However I would swap them out for mercury treads against mids like Zyra, Fiddlesticks, and Lux.

[DPS Path]{PREFERED}



You are in a situation where your opponent is outright tanking you.

Generally, this is a good option against Mordekaiser, Diana, and Morgana. It's good for working down shielding champions.

If you can't afford the stinger outright, don't just buy daggers. They are honestly worthless to you, and it'd be better to just rush a pair of Sorcerer's boots.
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Early-Mid set-up
~~~~~~~~~~


Pretty general early-mid game set up. Your opponent has little armor, and is pretty easy to hit with everything the moment you touch him with this.

Two doran's rings, and a sheen pretty much is all you need to maintain yourself in lane, and have a bit of an early burst, and can be devastating if you get a nice double sheen proc in, and Sorcerer's Shoes are what you need to maintain it.

[Spell Pen Path]



Your opponent built magic resist early. Because you invested in a set up that would get you thirty flat magic resist, you might aswell abuse it yeah?

You mainly want to focus on poking with your Q, while farming with your E with this set up. Your E isn't too great at the moment. Not having attack speed, or sheen takes down it's usefulness a little, but you can still pack a punch with your near true damage.

[Mobility/Rush AP Path]



This is generally the next best step. You didn't invest in any AP items and chose to rush your tier 2 boots. Might as well go all the way.

It's a good early-mid set up honestly. You continue to lack mana regen obviously, so I hope you listened to me and picked up a flask. You pack quite a punch, and due to the fact that you got a lot more extra AP your E deals good DPS, and your Q packs quite a punch.

[Flat DPS Path]{PREFERED}



Generally my favorite progression on a stinger build. Unlike most I honestly hate rushing Nashor's Tooth, and finish it last even if I enjoy rushing Stinger.

Focus on poking and last hitting constantly, your DPS is incredibly hard to deal with midlane so long as you aren't behind your midlane partner.

~~~~~~~~~~
Mid Game Set-up
~~~~~~~~~~


Standard as white bread for me.

Your Q and E pack a punch, your DPS is pretty decent, and your sustain is pretty damn good if I may say so myself. Your W heals for about 1/8 to 1/6 of your HP each cast, and you can chunk atleast 1/5 of your opponent's HP each Q and E cast, and aren't too far away from nabbing your deathcap.

[Spell Pen AP Path]



Your Q is pretty good poke, your E's DPS has finally gotten back on track, and your burst is actually rather good at this point. You ignore your opponent's magic resist like it's nothing combined with your passive, and item path, and are well on your way to hitting your mid game strength, just shy of getting a deathcap.

[Mobility AP Path]



Well. This is honestly the best option. I mean we rushed everything else, why not deathcap? Your Q damage is pretty damn powerful, and your E's DPS is pretty high. Natural ways to continue from this is to either pick up your sheen, or pick up a stinger, and a blasting wand, and rushing Lichbane either way.

[DPS AP Path]{PREFERED}



Now that you've gotten your deathcap your damage is pretty high, your Q takes a pretty big bite out of their healthbar, while having very good DPS, I like to get a sheen next, but other options include Haunting Guise, or even rushing a voidstaff or Deathfire's Grasp if you need them.
~~~~~~~~~~
Core Items
~~~~~~~~~~

[Burst Path]



Here we are, you've hit your sharp increase of power. You can knock most people to half HP or lower, your sustain is phenomenal, and your utility is pretty good, but not fully utilized due to being at 20% CDR max with blue buff. Don't go out of your way to hit someone. It's better to hang around and wait until you know a target will be caught off guard, or you have a clear shot from your team's crowd controls.

From here you have a lot of options. If the enemy team has quite a bit of magic resist, you can turn around and pick up a voidstaff, haunting guise, or simply pick up your Nashor's Tooth like normal.

[Spell Pen Burst Path]



Your sustain is a bit lower than if you'd gone a doran's ring set up, but anything that isn't in the 100+ magic resist market is taking your full burst in the face, and it really isn't pretty.

You'll want to focus on picking up a stinger, and then finishing Liandry's, or just finishing Nashor's Tooth completely. At this point really there is really not much to say, no real other options.

[AP Rush Path]

/

Obviously straight rushing your midgame, without worrying about your early to early midgame will net you with the most of your core build, and leave you with a lot of options open if you can pull it off without a hitch.

[DPS Path]{PREFERED}

/

You pretty much fall back into your standard build, with Nashor's, Deathcap, Liandry's, and Lichbane from an early stinger build.

~~~~~~~~~
Final Items
~~~~~~~~~~
Honestly, if you want my opinions on final items past Nashor's Tooth for most of these builds, you'll have to consult my wall of text down below. After Nashor's Tooth, Rabadon's, and Lichbane there's really an infinite amount of variables for all these builds.

+

Boots and Potions

Let's face it, this is as standard as white bread, movement to keep close to enemies, and dodge skill shots, with sustain rolled into it.

Boots are also 25 gold cheaper so you can get a 4th health pot without waiting.

+

Doran's Ring and 2 Potions

Now that Doran's Ring only costs 400 gold, you can go into lane with very good mana sustain, a bit more of a health pool, and 2 potions for health sustain to boot.

If you go MS quints, the loss in mobility is almost easy to ignore.

++

Flask and Assorted Potions

With the increase of cost in the flask, I now don't recommend starting Flask and potions anymore. It's not as safe as it was. Honestly the loss of movement, makes you too easy to gank, and you can't even get that many potions and wards anymore since it's now only a 5 gold difference with boots.



+

Two Doran's Rings

VERY IMPORTANT to get these, with two doran's rings, you can pretty much infinitely farm with your E, and never lose mana, simply make sure you kill atleast 3 minions with your E and let your base mana regen do the rest. However it's more than likely you will kill atleast 4-5 with your E so you only stand to gain!



Seeker's Armguard

It's pretty gold efficient, however even if I'm against an AD mid I don't like to build it simply because I don't like getting Zhonya's on Kayle.

+

Flask and one Doran's Ring

I'm starting to prefer this on my first B, the flask is still a great item, even with it's increased cost it's still an extremely good regen item, and was even slightly buffed with it's cost increase.



Haunting Guise

If you build Liandry's, pick this up instead of two rings, this will provide you with a decent chuck of early HP, and early AP. I wouldn't bother with rings after the Haunting Guise, and simply pick up an amplifying tome with your extra gold if you have any.



Tear of the Goddess

Kayle stacks the tear itself quite slow, but moderate pace. It speeds up after you upgrade it into my prefered item, Manamune. More on that later.

Boots

Upgrade your after picking up two Doran's Rings or a Haunting Guise.



Sorecer's Shoes

I prefer these as this choice provides the most damage for obvious reasons, AP Caster, Magic Pen, match made in heaven.



Mercury's Treads

You can opt to get a pair of mercury treads if you are against a mid that can disengage, or pile on sufficient amount of DPS, however if you are completely dominating your lane, or the enemy team has no CC and not much DPS, Sorcerer's Boots are the way to go.



Ninja Tabi

If against an AD mid, if they are giving you trouble, picking up a pair of Ninja Tabi is never a bad idea.



Boots of Mobility

I avoid grabbing movement speed boosting equipment because they offer you nothing -but- movement speed. You can grab them if you're in a trolly mood, or if you really want to roam, but I would avoid Mobi's because you are usually always taking some form of damage and only serve you to get to lanes.



Boots of Swiftness

They reduce the effects of slows by 25%, and increase movement speed, making them more useful than Boots of Mobility in my opinion.

Also, this effect is not tenacity. So, unlike tenacity items, they actually help against slows like Singed's Mega Adhesive, Swain's Decreptify, and Nunu's Total Zero.



Berserker Greaves

If you are up against a tankier mid this can be okay, like if you're against a Mordekaiser, but you lose out on mid game strength, for a small amount of early game pressure in my personal opinion. I opt to not buy them even in situations where they could be good.



After getting Needlessly Large Rod, you should enchant your boots, as your opponent may have done so already, and you need it to keep close, if not, it ensures your dominance in lane as your opponent cannot get away. So long as you got the right enchantment.



Furor Enchant

+12% movement speed whenever in combat, and you are -always- in combat. You are constantly hitting with your E, wanting to use your Q, and it stacks with your W. Preferred enchantment.

(in combat 425 MS)



Alacrity Enchant

+15 base movement speed.. Honestly, I feel you get more out of Furor, with tier 2 boots you hit 380 movement speed, which means, with this you hit 395 in and out of combat. Less than Furor, you can pick it up if you want to roam more, but otherwise.. Not Preferred.



Captain Enchant

You already push the lane incredibly hard, you shouldn't be moving in front of your entire team, and overall this is better for a champion like Amumu or Malphite who rush in ahead of their team and initiate.



Distortion Enchant

Stacks with Mastermind and Summoner's Insight, but not enough to make me want it more than +45 movement speed or even the +15 of Alacrity.



Homeguard Enchantment

Sell your current boots, and get a pair with this enchantment if you can afford it easily when you are being sieged, they provide a 200% movement speed steroid for a short duration, and fully heal you when you go the summon fountain instantly.

Core Items Focus

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Sheen + Needlessly Large Rod

I focus on Sheen then Needlessly Large, because of the fact that, obviously, they build into two items I -always- build as Kayle, Lichbane, and Rabadons, it just also helps the fact that Sheen and NLR also provide a lot of damage to you as well. Nothing special here.

+ +

Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome + Needlessly Large Rod

This is an alternative to the Sheen set up, you wind up with just about the same costs, but you have more AP, which makes for more DPS and more Q damage

The trade off is you lose the mana from Sheen, and if your target is low armor, which they usually are, you lose out on 50-70 physical damage to your burst.

In return you get an extra 10 magical damage on E, and 35 more Q damage, and blasting wand builds into Rabadon's Deathcap so there is a pay off there as well. I still prefer going Sheen NLR but it's up to you and your situation.

Also, if you are going Haunting Guise, don't worry about a needlessly large so much, with an amplifying tome, and a blasting wand, on top of Haunting Guise, you have plenty of AP for your early game, and it's a better idea to work towards Lichbane to abuse the magic penetration.

+

Stinger + Needlessly Large Rod

This set up is prefered by me if I'm up against someone I cannot burst, or if my opponent is hiding underneath turret as it actually is better for the purposes of roaming, the extra attack speed pushes people underneath turret whilst the CDR works well with keeping me mobile with my W.

Obviously this set up delays your Lichbane, but it provides better DPS if it's what you need, and more CDR. Prioritize Lichbane next as usual after Deathcap.

Needlessly large is irreplacable, especially with a stinger as it provides absolutely no AP, and no magic pen beyond passive stacking. I do not recommend going haunting guise if you go this set up.

Mid Game

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Rabadon's Death Cap + Lichbane

Even in Season 3 these two are your best items to rush.

DFG is 200 gold cheaper, but provides less burst with the active, compared to using Rabadon's, and Lichbane is still incredibly powerful with you and that's only been increased.

Final Items



I build Nashor's Tooth because of it's CDR and the fact that it's AP is higher than Athenes now, the attack speed is nice, I can't deny that.

Now that it adds a .15 to my AP ratio, I highly prefer it over burst oriented builds, and go Boots two doran's rings, Nashor's and Rabadons, getting Lichbane as a third big item. Nashor's before deathcap unless you get fed. :P



Deathfire Grasp

This item is to be built after Lichbane Deathcap, and before Nashor's Tooth in most situations, however if you feel you can get more out of DPS than burst, then by all means, build the tooth first, but this item is almost unmatched.



Rylai's Crystal Scepter

You can build this as a defensive item instead of DFG if you need it, it provides a good slow, HP, and ability power, you obviously lose out on flat burst, but this can help if you want to go for more of a DPS route without completely skimping on burst. *cough*Hybrid*cough*

Get this only if you plan to get Liandry's Torment, only get Liandry's Torment if against a squishier team.



Liandry's Torment

I'll deal with this right off the bat, get this after Nashor's and -Rylai's- if you build DFG, do not get this, you won't get your money's worth. It is amazing for it's DPS potential with Rylai's and Nashor's, even with it's decreased damage due to the fact that E is AoE and hits fast.

Get this, and Rylai's when the enemy team is mostly squishy, otherwise it's not worth it in my opinion.



Void Staff

Works obscenely well against high MR targets. If a target has 200 MR or more, pick this up otherwise picking up Abyssal will be much more worth your time.



Abyssal Scepter

Get this if the enemy team is sub 200 MR, it shreds magic resist for your entire team, gives you more durability against AP, and gives AP. Match made in heaven.



Runaan's Hurricane

As a commenter has pointed out, Runaan's DOES apply Kayle's magical damage. SINGLE TARGET MAGICAL DAMAGE TO TWO TARGETS! Making this the ultimate AoE DPS item for Kayle, as if a target is in the range of her splash, and get's hit by Rylai's, they're being hit for .9 AP damage, and your main target is getting hit for 1.2 of your magical damage with Lichbane.

Why would I want anything else?

Adjacent targets. And this range is just barely, if even, outside Kayle's E range sadly. Unless you have allies than draw enemies into a circle (Orianna, Diana, Jarvan, Gallio) for whatever reason, it requires fatal flaws to be made in the enemy team's positioning. Obviously this will make any team fight at Baron a breeze, and if you have such draw ins, your E provides some STUPID AoE DPS, but that situation definitely varies from team to team, situation to situation.



Hextech Gunblade

If you didn't get Rylai's and the enemy team is very squishy, this is a good alternative to Abyssal, or Voidstaff as it provides the most Q damage, and the most E damage overall, it's active also now scales 40% with your AP so it's definitely worth a buy. A second slow is Megusta.

Despite this, you're getting this more for the damage and active, not the spellvamp. Which is why I do not build the Hextech Revolver at any point in my build.

Why not?



You would think that Kayle's E would have very good scaling with spellvamp, it deals consistent magical damage, and doing a little math shows that her 100 magical damage attack with just a small amount of AP would give her 12 HP on hit, for just a 1200 gold item!

There's an issue present here however... Attacks on non-tower units create an area of effect that deals magic damage equal to a percentage of her attack damage plus the same on-hit magic damage to surrounding enemies.

Kayle's E only offers .33 of the .12 spellvamp. That 12 HP on hit has just dropped to about 3 HP. You're getting less than a doran's blade worth of HP per hit, for 1200 gold.

How about when hitting single targets you ask? Well, it still takes the .33 of .12, even when you're only hitting one target for whatever reason. I don't know if this is a glitch, or intentional, all I do know is it makes spellvamp very much not worth it.



I don't really need to say much, it applies the full 12% spellvamp, but it's on an 8 second cooldown, even then 300 or so damage means Kayle's only recovering 36 HP each cast. So if you're using your Q to sustain yourself, you're better off getting more Mana, and using your W anyways.

What about item X Y Z?

Malady

Still not preferred even if it does have scaling. I have to chose between this, or more Q damage and more lichbane damage. This just... Doesn't win.

It only gives 40% attack speed, and MR shred on hit, with a 10% additional AP scaling on my E.

It's AP is abysmal, which mean's it's only useful for the 10% AP scaling, and MR shred, how much do we really get out of this?

AP Scaling

Let's assume we do our full build, and switch this out for one of our penetration items, which it costs as much as. (200 less than Voidstaff)

Max AP with this build is 602, 45 less than if you went void staff.

E with spellblade deals 296 magical damage each hit before resistances, 391 with Malady's scaling.

E with voidstaff/Abyssal deals 358 damage.

Q deals 862 damage.

Q with Voidstaff/Abyssal deals 924

W heals for 250.

W with Voidstaff/Abyssal deals 472.

Lichbane deals 502.

Lichbane deals with Voidstaff/Abyssal 548.

For an increase of 264 DPS, you are losing out on 34 burst damage.

This may not seem like a huge deal, but how close, at a constant can you stick to your target? Unless I'm against a tanky bruiser, people tend to get out of my face rather quickly, meaning my burst will help me more than my DPS will in my personal opinion.

Magic Pen

Malady offers 28 magic penetration after 7 auto attacks, 8 more than Abyssal Scepter, and assuming your target has 100 magic resist, 7 less than Voidstaff.

This may seem like a great deal, however in order to fully apply 7 stacks of Malady, you need to auto attack 7 times, this means staying close to your target for 5 second give or take, meaning that by the point it's fully stacked, you will have dealt 2737 damage to your target, without it getting away.

Anyone who's willing to take 2737 damage from your auto attacks alone has to have way more magic resist than your Malady can really help with.

In my opinion no matter what, either the target is too evasive to take your DPS, or the target is too tanky to care about your magic resistance shred for this to replace voidstaff or Abyssal in almost any situation for me.



Athene's Unholy Grail

In my opinion, outclassed by Nashor's on Kayle. Because Kayle's cooldowns are so long on most of her abilties, CD hits her the hardest, as does CDR.

For instance, a 1 second cooldown gets cut down to a .6 cooldown, for 40% Cooldown reduction you only get .4 seconds. However for someone like Kayle, who has two 15+ cooldown abilities, she actually get's the largest benefit from CDR, which Nashor's provides more of.

For instance, W get's it's cooldown cut from 15 to just about 9 seconds, while E get's it's cooldown cut down to 9.4, what this means is, in team fights, I can constantly apply damage, as well as constantly proc Lichbane.

8 second cooldown, cut down to a 4.8 second cooldown, with a 4 second duration (if you could get a damage amp -on- your damage amp it'd be over powered :P) means there's only a .8 second window where your opponent is not slowed.

15 second cooldown, cut down to a 9 second cooldown. 500 health or so every 9 seconds, with a 30% speed bonus? Yes please sir.

16 second cooldown, cut down to a 9.4 second cooldown. This is the big one, because E is your reason for even building Lichbane, and Nashor's. I really dislike being auto attack reliant, but Nashor's superior CDR has turned me towards it, with the DPS on it just being tacked on. Either way, every E activation is a Lichbane Proc, and consistent DPS in team fights.

It still can be an alternative to DFG if you need the mana regen and CDR.



Guinsoo's Rageblade

Either you run yourself out of mana keeping it up, you push your lane hard keeping it up, or you realize it's just not worth it from a burst-stand point.

People have noted to me that it's worth more than the AP granted.

However, considering my build style, this is 2600 gold, whilst Abyssal, 70 AP, and a 20 flat MPen aura, which is 50 gold cheaper, and Voidstaff which is 400+ gold cheaper, for 35% MPen and 70 AP, which makes for stronger burst.

Other replacement alternatives include Lichbane, which removes .75 AP scaling on my E in return for more attack speed, which further cements this as DPS instead of burst, or Nashor's Tooth, which Guinsoo's offers 7 more AP than, less attack speed, and no CDR to the alternative.

The life steal and spellvamp aspect of it when you're sub-50% HP sounds interesting for a true AD AP hybrid, or someone who can maintain the stacks to make the item fully beneficial. I've already gone over why spellvamp especially in such a low amount is not worth your time.



Rod of Ages

Kayle has no mana issues, is quite happy in the HP department for a ranged champion, and along side Nidalee, Jayce, and Elise, actually has MR scaling.

Kayle's durability mostly comes from the fact that she's considered Melee, with ranged abilities.

She easily hit's 3k HP off very little HP items, and for a ranged champion has some of the highest durability you'll see that even while building pure squishy; so this item is entirely unnecessary as it's gotten purely -for- durability and mana.

Getting Rod of Ages just delays your mid game, or is gotten too late to make full use of it sadly.



Trinity Force

This is something that's kind of funny in theory, but not really viable, she procs a slow, and has good AS scaling, but in return you lose a massive AP scale addition to your first E strike, and it's stuck in a situation of are you really going to auto attack enough to make use of the slow from trinity, plus it's freaking expensive to get for just the novelty of a slow, and small crit chance.



Spirit Visage

Now in Season 3, this is actually the highest magic resist giving item, if you get this, you gain a lot of sustain, and a lot of magic resist, you can get this as a defensive item if you lose your lane, or really just feel like telling all magic damage dealers to go cry in a corner.

Beyond the CDR and extra 20% W health gained, it's not too worth while and is more of a tanking item.



Doran's Blade

This is an interesting concept, getting 2 doran's blades, instead of 2 doran's rings, it offers you less Q damage, and less mana regen, in return for more DPS and no real change sustain wise.

Once again, pointing to some math, 10 HP per physical attack means that it takes 10 auto attacks to regenerate 100 HP.

10 mana per minion slain means that it takes 7 minions slain to use your W at rank 2 which out does Doran's Blade's health regen.

Damage gained on your auto attacks is 6.5, and if your opponent builds armor in their runes and masteries, you gain little to nothing because you don't build armor penetration.

Interesting Niche Items
This section highlights items that are good specifically for certain match ups, and certain Niche situations that don't apply to the wide spread of a specific class of champions.

- Mejai's Souleater - It has obvious strengths, but when do we build it you may ask? Well, the situations you get it are against champions that are extremely ideal for you, NOT JUST when you are winning your lane.

Examples of 'winning your lane but not ideal' are champions like Anivia who is easy to kill pre-6 but becomes nearly impossible for you to kill post 6.

Other ideal situations are mids who can't kill you, but leave windows for you to roam, such as Karthus. Kayle's very good at assist fishing, and staying alive meaning that beyond simply getting kills, you can also get assists to farm up Mejai's quite easily, your W and R have fantastic range, why not abuse it?

This replaces any early game AP item, and instead of building something like DFG, you obviously have Mejai's.

Champions I consider this good against are :

- Quick Silver Sash - QSS has it's obvious applications, it removes every CC, this includes Malzahar ultimate, Fiddlestick's Fear, Veigar's Stun, WW's Ultimate and ect. while you can ultimate before and shrug off most of the damage during this time, it still disengages, and can be quite annoying making QSS very good against champions with long duration crowd controls.

However, just because something is helpful to clear, does not mean that you should get QSS. Obviously, it cuts into your damage, and it's build path further, while helpful to you, does not scale with your masteries, and deathcap.

This generally replaces something like DFG.

Champions I consider this good against are :

- Frozen Fist - The implications are obvious. CDR? Good. Armor? Good. Mana? Good. AP? Good.

However the flaws are the fact that it's not Lichbane, and you can really only get one or the other, as the Spellblade Passive is a unique one. You lose out on burst, however if you intend on being a bit of tanky, and going more of a DPS route, and are against a lot of walking escape artists/divers, this is an obvious item for you.

Obviously replaces Lichbane.

Champions I consider this good against are :

Obviously getting the chain vest early is helpful against every AD mid, however! Remember to watch what your opponent builds. Too many times I see people desperately stack armor against someone building armor pen, getting a Giant's Belt can actually be better in those situations, as bulk HP counters true damage, and the earlier the armor pen, the closer to true damage they get.

- Executioner's Calling - Yes. An AD item, why would I recommend this when you can get Morellonomicon you ask? Well it's quite simple honestly. Morello's only works when your opponent is at or under 40% HP, if said target were to be able to sustain to the point that doesn't help, or your target is someone like Master Yi, who can quickly make you miss your 40% health window? I think the implications are obvious.

Champions I consider this good against are :

- Zhonya's Hourglass - It's your standard doublefuckyou lock. It's a back up if your ultimate fails, or you're forced to ultimate a second target. You don't apply any damage while Zhonya'd but it works in certain team compositions, where you can't protect everyone and you are an obvious priority, generally any AoE damaging abilities that hit you and another carry can make Zhonya's worth your time.

It also allows you to ignore push, or draw in effects.

This replaces DFG and such.

Champions I consider this good against are :

[NOTE : SECTION IS A WORK IN PROGRESS]

Nashor's Tooth and you!

Nashor's Tooth, and inexplicably Stinger are key items for Kayle. They effectively double her DPS by increasing her attack speed, and decreasing the cooldowns on her abilities, meaning that for what Kayle get's out of it, the items are insanely cheap.

The attack speed is important because it is effectively a second form of CDR for Kayle decreasing her E's CDR by increasing her attack speed causing her to have an effective damage increase of 50% DPS of her E, and a 20% DPS increase of her Q

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Effectively, attack speed can act as not only a double CDR on your spells, but also an effective MR shred increase from Stinger and Nashor's Tooth, as the more you Q and the more you auto attack, up to a cap of 15% your opponents get squishier, meaning Nashor's Tooth essentially gives you 4 effective stats with a cheap 2270 price tag.

Deathcap, Lichbane, and burst all together.

Everything Kayle has, has an AP ratio. Her Q in particular has a 1.0 AP ratio and is a powerful slow.

In order to take the highest advantage of Kayle from a burst AP mid standpoint on top of getting Deathcap, I also pick up Lichbane because it gives me the possibility of casting 4 1.0+ AP ratio abilities in a duration of time with this skill order.

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After first using your E, wait two seconds, then activate your Q, wait two more seconds then activate W for a chain of high damage attacks.

Do note however that this is highly difficult to pull off, especially against squishier targets, meaning this is anti-baron/dragon/bruiser artillery only.

What is she even capable of with all this?

With a full standard build of :



DPS = 469
= 760, 6.4 second cooldown, magical damage
= 415, 12 second cooldown, healing
= 390, 12.8 second cooldown, 260 Magical, 130 Physical
= 425, 2 second cooldown (lining up with your ability cooldowns), magical
Maximum Burst = 2815 over 4 seconds.
Realistic Burst = 1445 (Quick Q + E)

Kayle obviously isn't bottom lane with this build, however there are certain supports/champions in the support role whom work very well with Kayle.



Janna

Janna is at the top of my list for supports because she provides you with damage, a knock up, slows, knock backs, and overall provides Kayle with everything good and sacred in the world late and mid game.

Her E provides AD and a shield, Kayle does have AD scaling, and it can prove very powerful when you do get the shield.



Blitzcrank

ANY champion that can take a champion on the enemy team, and put them right into range for you to hit and ultimately kill makes my list of champions you work well with, while there are a few whom perform this task very well Blitz get's my notable mention because of the fact that Kayle assists with his positioning so well with her W and can keep him very mobile to land his grabs.



Leona

She is one of the infamous tanky supports, that can hold your enemy in place for a long time, and her passive slightly augments, and adds to your damage, with an AoE slow-stun, and single target supression, with natural tankyness, she is your go-to support if you need hard CC and survivability in your support, and once again works very well with Kayle's W for mobility.



Sona

Sona here is very, very, very good to have, she grants you mobility, she assists in sustain and durability, on top of her ultimate AoE CC, and her mix of AD and AP buffs, actually amplify your skills dramatically, along with her massive AoE initiation allowing for some serious alone time with the enemy team if she's good. There's very little ways for you to help her beyond mobility, and assisting with her survival, but she is still always a nice friend to have.



Lulu

Lulu is a very funny support to have on your team, in combination with your ultimate, you essentially have two big fuck off survival moves, while still maintaining a powerful poke support with decent engagement ability, and sustain/survivability, and her abilities also augment your's, while your W helps her stay in range for glitter lance if you're relying upon it to catch an enemy.



Nami

She gives you everything you want/need : Sustain with her W, hard CC with her Q and R, and even gives you a slow on your auto attacks with her E, all with a pretty bow of movement speed on top. So far, in my opinion, she's an absolute joy to have on your team if she lands her abilities.

Junglers

Mid is one of the more ganked lanes in the game, with it's central position on the map, it's proximity to both buffs, and both big jungle objectives, Kayle get's a lot of personal time with junglers, and also can assist them in a few ways as mentioned in the jungling section of my guide.



Udyr

He slaps shit, but he has a fatal flaw of being kited horribly later on, and has issues slapping shit. Kayle assists in his endeavor by providing a massive speed boost, and sustain. He assists Kayle in her endeavors by proving a stun, and assisting DPS in his ganks, very good partner to have throughout early and mid game especially.



Warwick

Not too common anymore, he has great jungle sustain, and his ganks can actually be quite powerful, he's another champion who benefits heavily from Kayle's W, and his suppression proves highly invaluable for Kayle to take out targets, suppression along side Kayle's love and affection turns most preferred target into mush.



Hecarim

A very powerful friend to have, providing two CC's to assist with catching targets, and you also assist him greatly with your W behaving not just as a heal, and movement speed buff, but also an attack damage steroid as well with his passive.



Nocturne

His ultimate, plus your ultimate makes him an insane diver, and his W enables him to stay close enough for his fear to go through, he's not the strongest, but he's definatley in the top 5 for my favorite junglers to have when I play AP Kayle.



Nunu

I never really played with many Nunu's until recently. Let's just say the level 2 gank with Nunu as Kayle with my main AP rune and mastery setup is incredibly terrifying. 90+ damage a second, as well as two potent slows is scary stuff... It's first blood or a Flash for sure, and late game it continues to be scary, although there are better target's for blood boil. *cough**cough*

He's not as strong -for Kayle- as a support, as he is as a jungler. As a support he's bottom lane, and the only time he will be able to BB you is if you gank bot before the AD carry's attack speed to AD scaling out scales you, or if he's jungling. Either way his synergy is extremely, extremely good with you early to mid game, and late game his power with your AD Carry is unmatched for the most part, and the movement speed stacking, by using blood boil and your W will turn your speed-targets into quite the roadster, making him a very nice champion to have on your team along side you, yourself.

(Other notable champions include Amumu, Malphite, and Maokai, but I feel I already gave all of their praise to Blitzcrank, and Leona.)

This is a short section on leashing and damaging small camps, as well as jungle objective securing.


Leashing

With the changes to Leashing and the fact that buffs go after the closest target now instead of actually leashing, it's better to stick around and just damage the buff, use your E, and hit it 3-4 times, then leave. If you see your opponent in lane, leave immediatley, you winning your lane without jungle support is more important than a bit of extra damage sadly, and sacrifices have to be made.

Enemy Wraiths.

Kayle isn't exactly a hit over the wall kind of girl. She needs to spend personal time with the big wraith, but with her burst that isn't an issue, a Q and a few auto attacks after getting double doran's, or her early game core with NLR and Sheen, she can quickly knock out the big wraith and make Amumu cry. Hint : Don't make allied amumu's cry. If you take his wraiths, clear the camp. :'(

Blue Buff and Red Buff

Kayle actually works pretty well with both, red increases her chasing capability, and blue increases her sustain in lane drastically allowing her to W sustain, as well as constantly poke and push with her E, and is capable of soloing buffs quite easily even with just double doran's, in the case of blue buff, she can easily take it out solo and not lose much HP so she can avoid calling her jungler away to baby sit her blue buff gathering especially once she hits mid-to-early game core.

At early-mid, once you have your core, be a nice Kayle to that buff providing gank factory, if you see them taking wraiths, abuse your W's range, and give them a heal and a speedboost to their next buff, and keep them healed when they help you with your own buff as best you can, and when they walk near you.


Larger Jungle Objectives

Once Kayle hits her mid game core. she actually deals significant damage per second to dragon, and baron. Obviously they're immune to debuffs therefor no shredding, but she can sustain a jungler, and work over the big guys at a moderate pace with her team, and in the case of dragon, can duo it quite easily with certain junglers.

Core Warding Positions



This is just a small thing I made to show positions for good warding in my opinion throughout the laning phase.

Safe ward spots : These spots should generally be warded constantly, a small amount of map awareness will let you place these safely.

Solid Blue : Blue Side
Solid Purple : Purple side

Dangerous Ward Spots : These spots are more risky, but the reward is obvious, controlling the enemy's blue can help you dominate your lane even harder as you deny them mana regen, and cooldown reduction. You should see the enemy jungler near toplane, at his wraiths, or at his red before even considering these spots.

Red Outline Blue : Blue Side
Red Outline Purple : Purple Side

I rate these by a few categories, and their most annoying/dangerous trait to you, will be highlighted below the portrait.

Also, I do not rate champions from 'easy' to 'hard.' Though you can generally guess that if a champion has a large amount of annoying traits, that they have a POTENTIAL to be annoying. This is not always the case.

Disengagement

Disengagement champions are click on, or easy to land (on Kayle) skillshot champions that stun, root, snare, or massively slow Kayle to the point that she cannot keep aggressive against still try to go on the aggressive, just because you're snared, and stunned, you are still forcing your opponent back off of minions.

Pusher

These champions stop you from roaming with constant pushing strength, and can also be their greatest flaw if you win your lane hard enough in some situations.

Narrow Ultimate Window

It's a hard, or very niche/hard to telegraph window for you to ultimate yourself against these champions, and a second too early or a second too late can lose a fight.

Damage Per Second

These champions have very consistent damage much like yourself, either early or mid-late game, and can be hard to trade with if not fought properly.

Gapcloser

This champion cannot be kited, and can quickly get within melee range of you.

Escape

These champions have a very good ability to escape from you, and leave your E range, without directly stopping you.

Survivability

These champions are very bulky, and have good sustain, allowing them to somewhat ignore your poke, and eat your burst.

Roaming Threat

If this champion cannot defeat you in lane, they will in turn punish your friends by roaming around the map and ganking. They generally have high mobility, or mobility abilities.

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NOTE : Anything non-highlighted as a trait, is simply my opinion. I will state champions are easy/hard/annoying, if you do not feel the same, then I understand. Their base abilities to push, roam, disengage ect. are however, not my opinion.

~~~~~



Kha'zix

Escape/Pusher/Roaming Threat/Gapcloser/DPS

Kha'zix is easy to poke and harass in lane, and you can negate most of his damage when he goes in to commit.

Dodge his W's and focus on Q+Eing him in order to win every trade. Don't bother itemizing armor, in runes or masteries for he is easy to avoid.

Buy plenty of pink wards when you are nearing his level 6 so that you can keep fighting him when he uses his ultimate.

Always call MIA.



Zed

Escape/Pusher/Roaming Threat/Gapcloser/DPS

He's pretty easy to fight so long as you don't let him get ahead.

He's worth taking armor seals for because he can be hard to avoid and can chunk you if you just go scaling health/mana regen.

Remember when ulti-ing his R to ulti after the mark has landed, and not before, otherwise you're spending precious ulti time blocking him gap closing on you, and not actual abilities or the mark explosion itself. It's worth it to dodge the damage after the mark lands, and not the mark explosion, because it decreases the damage of said explosion significantly, while also blocking his burst.



Lux

Disengagement

Overall annoying to deal with as Kayle.

Her snare, slow, and shield can keep you away from her and stop damage.

She can farm with her ranged attack, and abilities combined with her passive making her difficult to punish for farming.

She has a hard time killing you but is almost impossible for you to kill without great effort.



Anivia

Push/Disengagement

A skill shot stun, pretty good burst, and an AoE slow with a passive that makes her quite hard to dive.

Overall a potentially annoying champion to deal with if played against incorrectly.

Her stun is easy to dodge, and you shouldn't stand close enough for her to just double tap activate it.

Poke her as much as you can pre-6, and hope you do enough to continue to be able to dominate post 6.

At post 6, she can shove the lane much harder than you can, and makes roaming difficult, with a combination of her passive, ultimate, pushing capabilities, you lose the ability to deny her, if you haven't denied her well enough pre-6, and the lane goes into her favor.



Annie

Narrow Ultimate Window/Disengagement

Not too threatening, she has a blockable ultimate, but is worth mentioning based on the fact that she can stun you, therefor disengage, and is easy to underestimate. Do -not- pop your ultimate until she uses her's. There's a grace period where you can actually hear tibbers yell, before he spawns and deals damage, if you master that timing, you can dominate Annie hard throughout most periods of the game, be mindful of her shield though. It -does- hurt if you hit her with it up too much.

Overall, read for her ultimate, and never let her get free spells off, most she can do is Q and W you pre 6, after that, don't get afraid, Q and start auto attacking until she's lost more than you have.



Brand

Disengagement/Pusher

Dodge his skillshots, he becomes ridiculously easy, he's highly telegraphed with his flame pillar, and stun skillshot, as well as his ultimate, easy to abuse and poke with good positioning.

If you don't dodge his skillshots, then he provides pretty consistent damage, and constant pressure, in the form of pushing, and a disengaging stun. Don't underestimate his crowd controls, or his damage output post 4.



Cassiopeia

Disengagement/DPS/Burst/Narrow Ultimate Window

Do -not- underestimate snake lady, and do -not- fight her when she's 6 unless you've got a fucking hair-trigger and can quickly read the wind up for her ultimate, poke her like crazy 1 through two and dominate her hard enough so her level 6 doesn't matter, if you don't she will eat your soul with rice and dumplings.

If you don't, the best you can do is dodge her, and keep farming, and wait for her to engage onto teammates, and ultimate them. If you can get ganks, this is a very good opportunity, she will want to roam at some point with her move set, and a few wards, and awareness of where she goes can allow for a shutdown post 6.



Diana

Pusher/DPS/Gapcloser/Survivability

Poke her like crazy pre-6, but don't underestimate her post 6.

Her skillshot is actually pretty interesting, if you stay on the opposite side of which it sweeps (always the right side of the map I believe) you get quite a bit of reaction time to it, and can make it easy to dodge with good enough positioning, and activeness.

Don't underestimate her when she hit's 6, test the waters a bit, don't go diving her. She does have periods where she's hard to click/target with her R and her shield is very potent in melee range, giving her good trade skill against you.

On top of that, her passive allows for her to keep fighting while her cooldowns are up, and is a condensed version of your E, so it's very much worth your while to kite her as best you can.

Her ultimate cannot simply be spammed, she needs to Q first, or deal with a 17 second cooldown.



Evelynn

DPS/Roam/Narrow Ultimate Window

Yes. Evelynn, she's a powerful mid as many knows, not as powerful after the basic halving of her ultimate's scaling.

Either way for Kayle she's cake.


Kayle can easily out damage Evelynn even with constant Q spam from her 1-5 at the very least, but Eve has her escape which removes all slows which is very annoying to deal with for the blood thirsty.

Ultimate her ultimate and you can win easily, even if it isn't easy to do so.

Also try and keep your lane warded, and always call mia even if you saw her just go B. Last thing you need is your team unprepared for a Evelynn gank.

Your best option is to either push your lane hard, or tail her as best you can when you see her leave your lane and counter gank.



Galio

Push/Disengage/Survivability

A lot of AoE, pushing strength, and he likes his magic resistance, he -is- a pretty damn good counter to you. but don't fret, like most champions he can easily be poked, and even shut down if you work hard enough, if you can dodge his abilities, you have the potential to knock him out before he becomes too much of an issue. If a full HP post 6 Galio Flashes on your face, ultimate, as fast as you possibly can otherwise it probably won't end well for you.

His bulwark can make him difficult to poke, as he actually sustains as you hit him, so aim to hit him while it's down, and avoid his skillshots as best you can, and keep consistently auto attacking him as much as you can early game.



Gragas

Pusher/Disengage/Survivability/Gapcloser/Escape

Chubby here is all skill shots, but he has very good sustain as well as durability. That can make him hard to kill, but easy to trade with. With a few skins, he flings out his Q sort of identical to the way he uses his R at 6. Get used to listening for his type of grunts when he uses both, and ultimate his ultimate and you should be able to survive, if not beat and kill him.

His belly flop enables him to escape you quickly, and drunken rage allows him to regen his mana as well as peel off a percentage of your damage.



Heimerdinger

Pusher/DPS/Narrow Ultimate Window/Disengagement

Issue with Heimerdinger is the fact that his turrets can easily be set up, and used to proxy you away from him, as well as his blind and stun stopping your E's lichbane proc, and overall, he's obnoxious to deal with, but not impossible with enough early game pressure, and being mindful of his turrets.

He's a hard champion to ultimate against, because of the fact that he's got very short cooldowns on his main damaging abilities, and his turrets are pretty much auto attacking you, while it isn't necessarily a 'narrow' window, it is a very hard decision on when and how to ultimate against him.



Karthus

Disengagement/DPS/Push

Easy as hell to poke, harass, and kill. Be mindful of his defile, and don't take free hits when harassing him, Q + E puts you just on the border of his AoE, and he can start Qing you before you get into Q+E range, and his wall is a very good disengage/dive preventer/dive punisher. Be mindful of his passive, and troll him with your R.

Do not underestimate the damage output of Laywaste, he can and will hurt you if you do not avoid them, and can easily kill you.

If you leave lane, he can easily push hard, though not as hard as Heimerdinger, or Anivia.



Kennen

Disengagement/Escape

Easy as hell. Be mindful of the passive stacks, and his ultimate, you out trade, out damage, and can easily out farm Kennen, his lightning rush can be annoying for disengagement, but if you land Q pop your W and chip away at him because the slow plus the speed boost, allows you to outweigh his escape.

In larger fights, he becomes more of a threat, and while his ultimate is easy to block, be mindful of who it is you should be ultimating, and who his team is focusing. Just because you and your AD Carry I caught in it, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't ultimate your tank/bruiser/support taking the rest of the team's flak.



Leblanc

Escape/Gapcloser/Disengagement/Roam/Narrow Ultimate Window

Despite the fact that she has a lot of annoying traits; she is actually very easy to deal with. You out trade, and out farm her 1-5 and so long as you dodge her chain, and activate Q and E before she Sigil and jumps on you. She ss very simple to deal with, at 6, try not to hair trigger your ultimate, keep an ear out for noises she makes, if she makes two fast, repetitive noises matching with Sigil, pop your ultimate and you will win the engagement hard.

She can easily get away, and roam and you should always follow her especially early game, usually it's okay to just push hard, and punish them for leaving, but a Leblanc really doesn't care, as she only has her early game, and she can't get it from you.



Morgana

Push/Survivability

Huehuehue BR?

But seriously. He's incredibly easy to fight, consistant DPS keeps his shield down, using your Q after taking down his shield allows for some serious punishment on him, be mindful of his ultimate and the fact that it heals and shields him. Try and ultimate for atleast part of it's duration to stop it.

He's very hard to roam against, he is a very effective pusher, and can punish roaming, however you are also a good pusher, and he cannot roam either.

Mordekaiser -loves- Wraiths, if you communicate with your team, and ambush him at them, he will away from minions to shield himself, and if you catch him after he starts hitting them, they will help in chipping away at him. Be mindful of the enemy jungler's position.



Morgana

Disengagement/Pusher/Survivability

She's another annoying champion who can easily disengage you, but her Q has a much slower movement speed, and doesn't go through minions/first target like Lux's Q so proper positioning and dodging and she actually becomes cake really, constant poke, not entirely magic based damage, basically means you can eat her soul quite easily with proper playing. And always her ultimate. It won't stop the slow and stun but it will stop the damage.

She is can be hard to zone if not denied hard enough, and will start W'ing the caster minions, your best course of action is to push the lane hard after she uses her W, so she can't farm with it.

(Note : She's your sister. Be mean anyways.)



Nunu

Disengagement

Funnily enough. You're a Nunu with range and a lichbane, but he's easily more annoying for you to deal with than you'd think concidering that.. He can stop a lot of your damage with iceball, but you both can trade evenly for the most part, if you manage to get a good Q+E off on him you can win trades.

Note : You CANNOT cancel his ultimate, most you can do is ultimate to stop it's damage, but it still slows you and takes down your attack speed, making him nearly impossible to kill in lane, and he will always out sustain you.



Orianna

Push/Disengagement

She's actually rather simply to deal with so long as you're mindful of her ball's positioning, if you
can keep away from it, and avoid dissonance's slow, and block her ultimate, you out trade, and out damage her hard enough to dominate her.

She's another champion whom even if you shut her down her ultimate still is powerful if for nothing more than the crowd control, so remember to ultimate based on the enemy focuses, not just on who is more squishy on your team.



Talon

DPS/Roam

You dominate him. Hard, like most anti casters, he's reliant on his silence to hurt you, however if you keep E active, and Q him you can stop him from farming, and getting to a point he can kill you, as well as deny him pretty hard, and stop his burst.

He -can- get his full combo off in 1 silence, therefor negating your ultimate, but he shouldn't get so strong as to be able to 1 to 0 you, get enough farm, or even harass you at all and overall isn't a threat. Follow him when he roams, or push hard.

Being AD he has follow up auto attacks obviously.


Disengagement/Roam/DPS

With a stun that has a 5 second cooldown he is a big disengaging terror.

With his Q and 5 second cooldown AoE slow he is a good pusher.

With his ultimate can easily counter gank, and gank where you cannot.

Fight him like you will any other, and don't take free harass, and at the very least you should win your lane with no exterior interference (him getting kills or assists in other lanes for instance)

You should win most early game trades with him, but be mindful of his cooldowns, if you see him activate red/blue card, immediately press on him hard, he cannot out trade you with his Q alone.

You cannot follow Twisted Fate, you can only push to counter gank. He also has follow up damage with his E, and you should never underestimate his stacked deck.



Veigar

Disengagement/Push/Narrow Ultimate Window

Very easy to bully. He has a powerful disengage but it can be quite easy to avoid, however he can hurt you a shitload if you get caught if not outright kill you even while behind. I recommend getting a QSS even if you feel you've shut him down.

His ultimate without QSS however is very hard to block, which means once he hits 6, Whatever you do, do not get caught in his stun. You will regret it.



Viktor

Disengagement/Pusher

Solid disengagement, easy to poke and bully, not much of a threat really, his ultimate is easy to block, and his disengage is easy to bypass. Avoid the invisilaser.

Not much noteworthy, I just remember a friend having issues against him as Kayle, don't walk into his slow-stun and you will be perfectly fine.



Vladimir

Pusher/Narrow Ultimate Window

Vladimir is very difficult. Do not pick Kayle against him.

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.
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HAHAHAHA Good joke. Easy to poke and harass, every hit you make on him is as if you're stealing his mana, don't let him get farm, and overall, show no mercy.

If you don't you will regret it, you need to go as aggressive as possible, he does out-scale you, and becomes very hard to fight if you don't deny him. You really can't roam against him, not because he necessarily punishes you, but because of the fact that you don't want him getting strong, try and stay in lane, and follow him when he leaves lane.



Ziggs

Push/Disengage

He's the interesting specimen where he can actually out trade you in short fights. With his passive, and a well placed Q he can actually really hurt you early game if you give up the fight too fast, the longer the fight goes on, the harder you win it 1-2.

Later on, when he gain's his satchel charge, and slow he becomes a bit hard to constantly fight, do -not- take his slow, his satchel is weak damage, and you can pretty much juggernaut his early game skillshots and out trade him.

Once he hits 5+ do not do this without your ulti.



Zyra

Push/Disengage/DPS/Narrow Ultimate Window

Utter. Terror. Amazing disengage, pretty much has 3 separate ways to do it. Snare, Plants spawned from Snare that slow, and a knock up ultimate, if she get's blue buff you're going to be spending a lot of time dodging... Constantly dodging.. Do as much as you can level 1, be mindful of her level 2. A lot of Zyra's like either starting snare, or plant, if a Zyra starts W, poke her as much as you can. If she starts snare, be wary of the skillshot, and keep mobile, but always move towards her and force her back, if not kill her. If you get first blood, rush tier 2 boots as fast as possible in this situation. She is one of the biggest threats mid to you.

Her damage is very hard to ultimate, because on one hand she has her spells but on the other her plants can do severe damage if left unchecked and her ultimate is rather instant, and hard to predict before you take the damage.

Walking into Lane

So you just bought your boots and potions and didn't start with a dagger, doran's ring, or an amplifying tome. Good job.

Now you need to put yourself dominant over your lane partner, your level 1 is stupidly powerful at this stage in the game, attacking constantly with your E and chasing your laning partner away from farm and XP is vital, especially against champions like ect. Because they quickly gain the ability to disengage, after that trading with them becomes a bit more challenging but not impossible you still have a high potential to out damage them, and fight them throughout most of early game, and mid to late game if you do your job right.

How to harass and Deny

Immediately start using your E and auto attacking, make sure you never run straight at someone, unless you know for sure what they took, for instance, if you know Lux took her slow, and not binding, there's not much you can do but zone her out, and try and waste the cooldown on it.

The more you hit your target, the more they hurt essentially, so constantly auto attack, your enemies' damage is based around cooldowns, whereas your damage is a constant auto attack, giving you the advantage of an AD Carry mid, with the AP scaling of a standard AP caster.

What is the reason for such early agression?

You want to hit level two before your opponent, the more of a skillset your enemies get, the more powerful they become early game, you start off at a high strength, but lack what you need to truly commit, once you get your Q you can effectively execute your laning partner.

How?

Assuming by this point you've knocked your opponent to atleast 3/4 of their HP, you may even be able to commit right away. At this point with my setup your E should deal around 30+62 give or take, and your Q around 90. Most mid champions, excluding a select few, won't be able to take much punishment, and you can easily commit, using Q and E and continuously auto attacking. Always wait to Ignite after you use your Q to get the maximum amount of damage out of it with your damage amp.

Can't I just farm?

You are not a classic or standard mid, Kayle is a champion who starts off at a high strength in lane, and can maintain that strength throughout the entire game.

But that isn't why you send her mid, her E early game is such a powerful denial source, and her very good scaling allows her to fully abuse it compared to champions like Teemo for instance. If you don't deny your opponent, harass, or kill your opponent, you will be mostly there for utility and minor burst, without having an incredibly high impact mid game.

An intro to the mid game

You've hit mid game, we'll assume you hit the ground running so to speak, at this point I'm going to assume you had your core of Boots Double Rings, NLR and Sheen, by this point your burst is very high for who and what you are, in combination with your Q and E you can knock a lot of champions to half or lower, especially if they're unprepared, you are hard to build against, a simply negatron, or null magic mantle is not enough to deal with Kayle's damage at this current point, and it actually requires both armor -and- magic resist.

My status on sustain and what I should be focusing on

At this point you're getting blues, and your W is a potent speed boost, you can gank lanes, help secure dragons, and can relax into a support-ish role until you get your hands on a target and can suitably wring it's neck like a wet towel.

Overall Mindset

This -is not- early game, at this point you want to spend a bit less time trading, and more time outright bursting and running, and your ultimate is to be used on yourself, or a champion that is recieving a massive amount of damage.

Your W is to be used on initiators that need to get close, and to help position and sustain your team.

Focus on farming, and only roam as needed, you are a very good pusher with this setup, and can quickly take out caster minions in 2-3 hits, and melee's in 4-5, keep your lane warded, and keep yourself farmed, always be mindful of ganks, for both enemies, and allies, and keep your eye on your laning partner, if you see them leave, try and cut them off, if you see them go for blue, or know their blue will be up soon, inform your jungler, and keep tabs on it so you can try and ambush them and the enemy jungler at it. Obviously depending on who your jungler is and who the enemy jungler is.

Late game and what it means for you and your team

At this point the lanes are starting to converge, but not entirely, mid is sometimes top more than they are mid, the AD Carry is now focusing more on objectives than farming, and overall the game is turning from a series of 2v2s, 1v1s, 3v2s and 3v1s, into the eventual 5v5s that the game is entirely based upon.

Objectives, and how to secure them

At this point you should be securing dragons, you can work them over quickly, especially while abusing lichbane and your burst damage, and turrets with lichbane procs.

It's important to note when taking turrets, only activate E if you wish to proc lichbane, it will not deal any additional damage. Also. Hitting turrets will -not- splash onto targets near turrets with E up, however, hitting a minion that stands next to a turret will apply magical damage to it.

State of farm, and the milestones you should reach, and how

You should have your core Rabadons Lichbane, and a part at least of your defensive item, (negatron, chalice of harmony, chainvest, another needlessly large rod, giant's belt ect)if not, farm as much as possible, take jungle, and push out any lane in the middle of the river, or further going towards you. Always be mindful of enemy positions. AP Kayle can quickly push minion waves hard, knocking out massive waves in a few slashes especially with near to full build. But be mindful that you have others on your team. You aren't 1v5ing. If you see a malphite that needs farm, or an amumu, AD Carry, ect. let them farm as well. There's nothing to be gained by wiping out waves of minions, and leaving your team to starve, only tend to lanes not currently being tended.

Decision making and things to watch for

Keep aware of allies health, and what is happening to them. I've turned around 'Yep. GG' situations many times by Flashing to get into ultimate range or W range to save someone. Just make sure they're worth saving as far as their overall team value. Don't waste a Flash, or even an ultimate on a Taric or Soraka. They aren't worth keeping alive compared to saving those summoner's to save yourself, or initiators/carries. Some supports are definitely worth the weight though such as Sona, Janna, Leona ect. with amplifiers on items such as oracles or how close a teamfight is.

Surprise Kayle Love and Affection!

Kayle has a very scary habit of scaring the crap out of people. Especially when she gives herself good ward coverage, ambushing at wraiths, buffs, and while navigating the map can be a fun thing to do, and it's also possible to Flash Q E to knock someone to damn near critical if not outright kill them. Be mindful that using Flash this way -can- be a waste, take into consideration the value of an escape, and the possibility of not catching a target without the summoner spell blown, as well as this character's value to the team.

Support without Oracles or an AoE crowd control for instance isn't worth a Flash Q and E while an AD Carry, the enemy jungler, AP carry ect. can all be worth it. Just weigh in the risks, and costs. Last thing you need to do is to assassinate a Teemo, then see a charging Hecarim, and Kassadin and wishing you had a better escape than your 30% speed buff and 3 second invincibility.

Important mindset to have, and decisions to make

You are not the chosen one, you are not the sole carry, and let's face it, getting close enough to Q E most of the enemy team causes pain and is potentially fatal. You have fallen into a 1v1ing support clean up. Keep allies healed, your carries protected, speed em up and tell your counterpart on the enemy team to go to hell with your ultimate, Q enemy divers, keep them off your team, and bide your time, and be patient until your own initiators, and divers set up a window for you to go in and fight, your W is mainly for sustain, your ultimate is there to protect the important targets of your team, and your Q and E are at the ready to push back bruisers, and clean up the enemy team after your own bruisers go in.

When your team does go in, W the initiator, be sure you know who the hell that is. Don't sit there W'ing an Olaf when there's an Amumu who would love so very much to be the center of the attention for once. 30% movement speed is nothing to joke about, and nothing to squander and waste. When fighting, you want to focus those whom deal damage first. Focus your counter part, or the enemy AD Carry, preferably the latter. Your counter part has items they can easily build which grants them survivability to your burst, athene's, lichbane, abyssal ect. all provide very decent protection, while AD Carries are mostly squishy, but be mindful of your positioning, if you push out too far, you push your tanks out and backline out with you, and you, and you alone can ruin a team fight.

Always be prepared, and always do what is best for your team

Before team fights, keep stocked in elixers, you never know when a small amount of attack speed, or even just a hundred health will mean the difference between a won teamfight, and a failure. If your team is not warding, and you have space. Ward. I don't care who you are, or how special mommy say's you are. >_>

Who to focus, and why

The focus is -not- always a 'carry' if your enemy has a 0/20 Twisted Fate and a 0/9 Twitch. DON'T FOCUS THEM Let's face it, they can't do anything, focus the one who's strongest, this won't always be the case, and the ones with the most damage will most likely be a 'Carry' but always be aware of when they -are not- a carry. 20/0 Sona is always more scary than 0/1 Twitch.. Usually.

If you can't get to your enemy's backline before the risk increases again, focus on a frontline champion who hasn't blown important abilities yet, if you can knock a ultimate available Malphite down to half or lower HP in a fight, you can remove a deadly diver, and peeler from your enemy team. Do not waste time considering targets, or trying to catch a target who's running from the fight. Clean up who is in the fight, and deal with stragglers later. Ones in the fight are still dealing damage, the ones running, aren't. Be smart.

Top Lane

AP Kayle does in fact work top lane, this guide isn't about top lane, therefor I won't go into great detail, but in certain situations Kayle can dominate top lane versus champions such as Vlad, Talon, Rumble, and Tryndamere. She's not quite as strong as AD Kayle against tops like Olaf, Singed, and Darius simply because she can't consistently auto attack with this build, solo top Kayle relies on AS from her marks, in order to shred armor and MR of the bigger top lane tanks/bruisers, however squishier tops, or tops that can't go tank and still deal damage, without being easier to poke (Malphite) are very good for Kayle.

Obvious drawbacks include not always being close enough to get blue, not being able to roam botlane, or roam much at all, and being separated from most of your team, therefor losing out on a lot of utility abuse.

Other drawbacks are the fact that people just get very tanky toplane, or out trade you at range (AD Nidalee out trades AP Kayle for instance) and you're generally more squishy than a standard AD Kayle, with only your W to sustain you compared to AD Kayle's ability to get life steal.

Jungle

AP Kayle can in fact work in the jungle, however adjustments need to be made, you need attack speed marks, armor seals, and an attack speed-AP item such as Nashor's Tooth a bit early, but the clear time is actually okay, along with her jungle sustain, but don't expect to get strong as AP jungle Kayle, I don't recommend it but it can work, and it can get strong if you get lucky with ganks.

Once again, not going into detail, just giving you the info that you are capable of it. Only top lane really works, jungle is mostly just a fast clearing AOE AP jungler, but if you want that, go Diana, she does it better in my personal opinion.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/patch-36-notes-1

My thoughts are based upon that ^
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Thank god. The sustain 9 potion starts are gone, now when you harass someone's HP down to below half they can't just refill it. Honestly beyond that I have no comments really that directly effect Kayle.

Sejuani and Trundle seem to be better from what I've seen, but I am not 100% sure yet, I've yet to play a game on the new patch.

Lissandra looks to be an annoying match up.

As a final disclaimer. I am NOT a professional player. You can even look me up I'm silver division II and was sub 1.2k last season. Nor do I claim to be a good player, or some sort of expert.

I just feel this style of Kayle is (no longer) underestimated, and undervalued, and I hope that my guide inspires people much better than me, or that it proves to be the nail in the coffin for my idea. In my current state-of-the-game it has proven effective, and an absolute stomp in lane, and I hope you at least have fun trying.

Summoner name CorsairUlciscor

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/20291433

Some gameplay footage I'm starting to scrounge up for S3, requires LOLReplay, unless someone wants to stream/broadcast this for whatever reason :

The Ranked that wasn't. I thought this game was ranked, but it turns out it was just a normal that I tried a bit too hard to win. I made quite a few micro mistakes, but it shows you Kayle's utility and damage potential.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/2623641/
(PS LolReplay be busted for me)
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This build may not work for you, and it may be difficult at first, before first trying this setup I already had several games. Over two hundred Kayle games, not counting bot matches obviously, before even attempting the build.

So far I've had success in teaching a friend to do it, and even with complete lack of knowledge of Kayle, and he even built trinity instead of lichbane, he was still able to carry a game by himself.

I can't say the success will go for everyone, I can't say that my way of building Kayle is best, what I can say is : She hurts, provides a lot of utility, and a lot of damage overall and works in a large amount of team compositions, and against a very large amount of AP mids.

I'm not great at Kayle, or even at this build I created, but it's proven effective for me.

That said, I plan to take this build into ranked, once I can honestly say I trust myself with it 100%, and once I can make my team trust me with it. And I shall update this guide as much as possible. I'm always learning new things, and finalizing parts of my guide in draft.

For further match ups, If there's a match up you feel is worth mentioning, or that you've had issues with that I haven't mention, or you feel I have not discussed in enough of a degree, let me know in the comments, and I will update my guide accordingly.

Read, Review, and criticize!

Special Thanks to :

Old Hermit Master Roshi JR : If there's less, or a lack of dodgy spelling and grammar, it's due to him!

LionHeart7 : He's been theory crafting with me, and if I make major/minor changes to the guide, it's probably because of what he say's for the moment.
(Hybrid Penetration, Crystalline Flask starts)