Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Runes Explained
  • Lethal Tempo vs. Hail of Blades
  • ALL Kai'Sa Build Paths for Season 12
    • Beagle's On-Hit Hybrid
    • Full AP Assassin
    • Turbo Snowballing Korean Lethality
    • Phantom Dancer Kite Build
    • Snowballing Galeforce Build
  • Kai'Sa's Matchups
  • Kai'Sa's Support Synergies
  • Combos
  • Final Tips

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Beagle's ULTIMATE Masters Kai'Sa Guide

The complete Kai'Sa guide from one of the best Kai'Sa players in NA

Beagle

August 1st, 2022 ⸱ 24 min read





Best Overall Runes

Spells

Skill Priority

Q

E

W

Best Overall Build

Introduction

Hey guys. Im Beagle, Beags, whatever floats your boat. Im a current High Diamond ADC main. 

Kai'Sa
 has been one of my personal favorites since her release in Season 8. She's one of the champs im most comfortable on, alongside 
Lucian
and
Vayne
. I overall fell in love with 
Kai'Sa
because of her high skill ceiling and overall great carry potential in all elos. Not only that, she has SO MANY build options, making her so adaptable every game. She also plays best with some of my favorite supports. Combine her aggressive playstyle with her high DPS output and you have yourself one hell of a carry.





If by any chance you guys have any questions, i'd love to answer them all, I also do OP.GG reviews to help you guys out. Please, check out my STREAM! I try to be as informative as i can and I'm trying to grow and help out all of you

Runes Explained

  • Go-to Rune Page
  • Vs. Multiple Tanks/Bruisers w/ Enchanter Support



  • Go-to Rune page Breakdown
  • Lethal Tempo Rune age Breakdown

Lethal Tempo vs. Hail of Blades

When it comes down to 

Lethal Tempo
 vs. 
Hail of Blades
, its all about what the enemy team comp looks like for the most part. Are you against hard tank champs like Zac, Darius and Leona, thats where 
Lethal Tempo
 comes in clutch. All of those champions i just listed take a while to cut down and kill, which means its really easy to stack up 
Lethal Tempo
 and keep it stacked which means more overall attack speed which also means MORE OVERALL DAMAGE. Lethal Tempo's fullest potential comes out when you have an enchanter support such as 
Lulu
 or 
Nami
, champs that enhance your auto attack damage. Remember, Lethal Tempo is a very hard rune to get the hang of when playing it with a low range champion like Kai'Sa. As for 
Hail of Blades
, you can genuinely get away with taking it every game as 
Lethal Tempo
 is a VERY hard rune to get the hang of, especially on a low range ADC like Kai'Sa. If they arent overly super tanky, take 
Hail of Blades
, trust me, it makes your laning phase WAY more tolerable. For a more In-Depth rundown, please watch my video above. I go over the best scenarios of when to take the two runes!



ALL Kai'Sa Build Paths for Season 12

Beagle's On-Hit Hybrid

Early Q Evolve

So this build is BRAND new for season 12. This is MY personal build. I came and hopped on PBE and tested this out immediately the second I heard of AP/Passive scaling

Kai'Sa
buffs and this build has been my GO TO BUILD since then. In my personal opinion, this build has some of the MOST CARRY POTENTIAL out of all the builds ive listed. From the survivability with 
Wit's End
 and 
Zhonya's Hourglass
, the kiting potential, attack speed and on-hit from 
Nashor's Tooth
paired with 
Wit's End
makes this build the PREMIER build for 
Kai'Sa
currently. This is truly the build for 1V9ing. When do I use this build? Realistically you can get away with using this build almost every single game if you really want to. But this build truly gets its MOST VALUE when you need to kite a LOT and need some extra magic damage. But as i stated, you can go this build in all of your games if you truly want to! The MR from 
Wit's End
helps you sustain from AP mages and 
Zhonya's Hourglass
 saves you from annoying assassins like 
Zed
 and 
Talon
. Overall, this build is one of the best suited for almost every game.

Use the video below to see me literally take inting teammates and PUT THEM ON MY BACK and completely 1v9 the game using this build.

Full AP Assassin

Early Q Evolve

This build is on par with my On-Hit Hybrid build listed above when it comes to CARRY POTENTIAL. This build you're going a FULL AP route, not prioritizing ANY AD physical damage. Remember, this is important: WITH THIS BUILD, ALWAYS PUT 3 POINTS INTO YOUR Q AND THEN MAX YOUR W FOR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL. Its extremely important to get your max order correct as it defines this build, getting your 

Void Seeker
 to level 5 as quick as possible out of laning phase is important to minimize your 
Void Seeker
 cooldown and maximize its damage. This build is all about hitting your 
Void Seeker
 constantly from range for poke and then using 
Killer Instinct
 + 
Void Seeker
 combo to finish them off and completely one shot them. Figure out how to do/pull off the R+W combo in the "Combos" section of the guide. Also, use the skill order chart below to see how this build makes it change.

  • Full AP Assassin ONLY

Kai'Sa

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When do I use this build? This build is FANTASTIC against ranged squishies when you have little to NO AP damage on your team. Take note that this build loses value if they have healing champs like

Soraka
or
Senna
. Or you're up against a spell shield champion like
Galio
. Its not UNBUILDABLE, but it's a bit harder to pull off than typical. Remember hitting your 
Void Seeker
 is absolutely MANDATORY. Its all of your damage. In the example below, i showcase full gameplay of the AP Assassin build and show its raw potential in a high elo Diamond 1 game. Please feel free to check it out to adapt your playstyle!

Turbo Snowballing Korean Lethality

Early Q Evolve

This is ANOTHER brand new build for Season 12 that the Koreans cooked up. This one is all revolved around getting A HUGE early game lead and snowballing through the roof with the insane amount of burst this build offers on your

Icathian Rain
. This build does tend to fall off, this is an early game oriented stomper build, so use it to that strength and try to end the game quick with your insane damage and pick potential. Keep in mind, your auto attack speed is SLOW. It's all about hitting your isolated
Icathian Rain
s in this build as it's the majority of your damage.

When do I use this build?

I typically only run this build when I'm duo'd with someone and garner a huge lead (3/0, 4/0, etc.) before first back as its snowballing potential and early game damage is unlike any of the builds here, its actually insane. So, only go this build with an overly large lead to end the game quick.

Unfortunately, I dont use this build a TON so i dont have full footage of it. Will update it when I do!

Phantom Dancer Kite Build

Early Q Evolve

Ok so, this build is centered around

Kai'Sa
's great DPS potential. With this build instead of prioritizing your early Q evolve like you would with the majority of
Kai'Sa
's builds. You prioritize full buying kraken. For the earliest Q evolve in this build, you need
Kraken Slayer
and 2
Long Sword
s. Once you get to your
Phantom Dancer
this build really starts to power on.
Phantom Dancer
is such a fantastic item for
Kai'Sa
. It gives movement speed from attacks, it ghosts you, allowing you to move through units and most importantly, you get an insane amount of attack speed on max stacks of its passive.

When do I use this build?

To start off, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BUILD FOR NEWER

Kai'Sa
PLAYERS AS ITS BY FAR THE EASIEST TO UNDERSTAND AND USE. Now, you typically want to prioritize this
Kai'Sa
build when you're against a lot of tanks/melee champs that you need to kite and dish out tons of DPS, hence why most of the time I'm going this build, im building
Lord Dominik's Regards
as a third item and then an
Infinity Edge
, most tanks and bruisers love armor, and the innate shredding potential with this build mixed with
Kai'Sa
passive makes for an insane damage dealer.

Here ill showcase a clip of me killing a full build

Garen
while I'm an item down. I know this isn't the best example but, trust me, this build is great for beginners and gets the job done!

Snowballing Galeforce Build

Early Q Evolve

This build is similar to the Korean lethality build listed above and is great for SNOWBALLING your lead against RANGED SQUISHIES.  

Galeforce
 to finish off kills and combo with 
Killer Instinct
, 
Rapid Firecannon
 for easy access to your 
Killer Instinct
 reposition and for assassination capabilities. And adding 
The Collector
 and 
Infinity Edge
 for hard hitting burst power.

When do I use this build? So this build is great for a decent number of scenarios. Up against 

Caitlyn
 and 
Xerath
? Maybe 
Ezreal
 and 
Lux
? 
Galeforce
 is GREAT here as long as there's 1 tank or less on the enemy team. Using 
Galeforce
 to get into range of those champs and then ulting to them is a great way to deal with them during laning phase. Once you walk out of laning phase into the mid game, that's when this build turns on once you get 
The Collector
. You switch up your playstyle to more of a pick/assassin type and look for 
Void Seeker
 snipes into a fast 
Killer Instinct
 >  
Icathian Rain
 >  
Galeforce
 combo for a quick kill. This build is all about snowballing and punishing those squishies for being out of position, so play to that!

In the example below, it's a full gameplay video of how to ACTUALLY play the build out of laning phase and punish people for making positional mistakes. Please take a look!

Kai'Sa's Matchups

WORST MATCHUPS

  • Breakdown

HARD MATCHUPS

  • Breakdown

EVEN MATCHUPS

  • Breakdown

EASY MATCHUPS

  • Breakdown

Kai'Sa's Support Synergies

BEST SUPPORTS

  • Breakdown

GOOD SUPPORTS

  • Breakdown

OK SUPPORTS

  • Breakdown

WORST SUPPORTS

  • Breakdown



Combos

R+W Combo

In my personal opinion, I believe, this is ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT things to master on 

Kai'Sa
It surprised your opponent with burst and kills in situations you typically wouldnt be able to. Its basically a guaranteed way to land your  
Void Seeker
 for surprise burst and finishing power. To do it, you press W mid 
Killer Instinct
animation and flick your mouse cursor to the direction you'd like your 
Void Seeker
 to go.

Check out all of these in-game examples

R Auto Attack Reset

This one should be like bread and butter for you, I use it all the time. Its practically muscle memory for me and can make or break a fight for you. Dishing out damage as fast as possible is important. You're using 

Killer Instinct
 as an auto attack reset. I could probably find far more examples, but they're all over the place in my replays, so i found one that you may like and provided a quick presentation!



Final Tips

  • When by herself with one singular enemy,
    Kai'Sa
    's  
    Icathian Rain
     does more damage as it doesn't spread around to multiple enemies, instead, focusing all the little rockets on one singular target. AVOID FIGHTING IN MINIONS WHEN POSSIBLE. Try to fight isolated as often as possible.



  • Much like 
    Jinx
     
    Zap!
    ,
    Kai'Sa
    's 
    Void Seeker
     comes out even when CC'd. Use it before hand!



  • Use 
    Killer Instinct
    Instinct to escape over walls, doing so could save your life and not force you to use valuable summoners like 
    Flash
    . Here's an EXAMPLE



  • 
    Kai'Sa
    's level 1 is really strong. Try to look to fight if the matchup favors your level 1.



  • Your 
    Supercharge
     ghosts you. Meaning, you can walk through creeps without getting creep blocked.

    • Conclusion

     

    Kai'Sa
     overall is an extremely fun and rewarding champ to play (most of the time). Her skill ceiling can is high and her more in depth stuff is harder to learn but I can in all honesty say it's worth the journey!

    If you have ANY QUESTIONS regarding Kai'Sa or any ADC, go ahead and stop by my stream. Id be more than happy to answer them.

    Also, i do have a YOUTUBE channel as well, if you'd be willing to check out that, i have more Kai'Sa content on there as well! My peak rank is Masters 20 LP and RANK 11 Kai'Sa in North America, both stats not the absolute best, but it's definitely some credibility.



MarksmenBotKaisaADC
AUTHOR
Beagle
ABOUT

Hey guys, i'm Beagle! I'm a Master Tier ADC player and Streamer.

1 Comments

Share your thoughs, feedback, comments...

0
levin903 4 months ago

Hi! Nice Build, what do u think about Collector in general? good item on kaisa or are some items more worth on her?

main build:

Kraken slayer, Collector, AS Boots, IE, Phantom Dancer, Lord Dominiks or Blood Thirster

Beagle
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