A low elo player telling you about Kayle Support
Some Bronze Theory crafting if you will, with more
CMKDestroyer
Quick Kayle AP Support Build
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Kayle
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- Kayle Support?
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Kayle support works very different from other support. Most supports do one of two things, out sustain, or out dps. A normal support will either try to keep the carry alive through heals and shields so they can farm up and carry, or they will try to poke you out of lane and carry the adc. Kayle isnt good at either of these two options. Her heal is laughable, her range until 6 is nowhere to be seen, and even when she's ranged her damage is non exsistent. So what does she do? Simple, you arent a sustain or dps support, you are a utility support. Tanks are the bones of the body, the dps are the muscle and the supports are the organs, your job is to be the legs that gets the body moving. You are not the damage of the team, so dont think you can take a 1v1 unless its against a Yuumi or Soraka, and even then dont expect to get a kill.
During the laning phase, especially early game, you are just used for a quick heal for your adc and thats it. Don't try to fight anyone until at least level 6 and even then you must play it smart and careful since you dont have any attack speed or damage. When the adc is around half hp, give them the heal and then relax, you dont have the mana to keep them topped off so avoid fights as much as possible. This is what most league players (mostly Yasuo mains) like to call the "Play like a little b!tch" strat. You don't have a choice, play safe, don't fight and don't die (Unless the enemy jungle ganks you at level 2 like they always seem to do).
Mid game you should be played like you never left laning phase. Stick to your adc like glue. Unless they are 0/7 again cause they refuse to play safe for longer than 1.5 seconds. If that's the case then find the best player on your team and become their best friend. Give them heals, give them peels, and give them kills. Your ult is only meant to be used on someone that is gettting hard dove in on. Usually try to save it for someone other than you, but if you are in a team fight and they spend all the burst diving you, then dont be afriad to ult your self.
Late game is where Kayle always shine. If you are full build and have all 3 points in R, and have maxed out Ultimate Hunter, then at this stage it should have around a 30 second cooldown. So this is where team fights become your chess board. You are the king, your team is the pawns. Let them run in and do whatever they want, while you provide speed, heals, slows, shreds, and death defiance with your ult. Dont be afraid to flash to your teammate thats getting dove to ult them and save them from death. You are the guardian angel of the game, keep everyone alive as best you can do, but as I always say, "You can't heal stupidity". So if you save someone only for them to int anyways, then don't worry about it cause your ult will be back up in around another 26 seconds or so.
You will not be the star player, you will not be the mvp, you will not be the raid boss. You are the selfless angel that wont get thanks for carrying the team with your insane utility. This playstyle is not for those that throw fits the moment a jungler doesnt one shot the full health enemy adc that is backing off to their tower and proceed to type "jgl diff, ff 15". You must be selfless and understand that you arent the star, just the shadow that makes it seem brighter.
Your Q is meant to be used as a way to slow down the enemy for peeling, or to help engage them. It can however be used in combat for extra damage since it shred armor and magic resist. You can poke an enemy thats in thier minion wave with this, but dont spam it or else youll run out of mana and also take the precious cs from your adc who now wont get to one tap someone cause they didnt get the 14 gold from the ranger minion. Your 1 cs has now thrown the entire game, gj fool.
This is the bread and butter of your Kit. It's a heal and a speed up for both you and whoever is closer to you when self cast (can also just be used on a target you select but be careful since you might heal the full health tank that wont engage by accident). Don't spam this while in the laning phase since youll be out of mana faster than a Riven leaves a game after dying 3 times in the first 5 minutes. Use it for when the adc is getting dumped on by the enemy team to give them the heal, shield from Aery, and the movement speed to get away. This is what you will max first and by the late game with everything maxed out and full build, it should have around a 7 second cooldown. Since this ability has a static 15 second cooldown at all ranks, cutting it almost in half is amazing for this utility playstyle.
Mostly going to be used to poke the enemy during laning phase to get some free chip damage. Late game its great for and auto reset execute for those pesky assassins that always have hacks on to gain a suden 500 movement speed out of nowhere and get out with 2 hp. Not much to say for this ability since its just damage with nothing else to go with it.
This is one of the main reasosn why I started playing Kayle as support (Plus shes the only character in the game thats coded as a Fighter Support). It's like a Taric ult, but it deals damage at the end and comes out quicker. Usually it has such a long cooldown that its just tragic when its usde and wasted, but with this build and playstyle that wont be too big of an issue. Use this when the enemy fully commits to murdering a high value target on your team, or use it to peel for your adc when that Rengar jumps them from the bush for the 8th time, or use it on the frontline that finally engaes after 6 years but at a horrible time cause they wanted to save the engage for the next game. Either way, its use is to be on a target thats either getting jumped on, or is very important in a team fight. Unless you are the target, no point to use it on yourself. You could use it for the tanks eventual engage, but then your down a very important untilmate that could have stopped the Garen from ignoring all damage to ult your adc.
The best Item option for support Kayle. Positioning with her for this pick is key, so being able to aid in chasing an enemy, runing from a fight, or getting around the map easier is so valuable. Not to mention the passive ability haste this item gives you for every item you fully build after it. Allowing for more usage of your slow, heal, and ultimate. Rush this every game you take it.
This is the most prefered support item to build since it grants more ap and mana regen, all things that Kayle needs. Take this majority of the time.
This is the more safe option when the enemy bot lane is packing heavy poke. Like Sona with Sona 2.0 bot, this will grant you some okay health regen and allow you to assist your ADC in farm with your E in the early game until you hit 6. Then you can help farm without using up your E.
These are the boots you must always take. While other shoes can help you more for survivability, you need that cooldown reduction for yourself and your team way more. Your survivability is linked with your cooldowns, so take these every game.
Originally I said that Staff of Flowing waters was a core item, but since you are going for utility and chaces are your ADC will build a lot of attack speed, this item quickly rose above it. If your ADC doesnt have a lot of attack speed to work with, then you can build Staff in replacement of this.
This item helps ability focused ADC or APCs incredibly well. Keep in mind that the ability haste it grants applies to abilities that are not yet on cooldown. So when using W, your Q, E and even R will gain the benfit of the ability haste, but your W does not. Not to mention that the ability haste buff doesnt last as long to constantly refresh abilities, so again it's best for when your team uses lots of abilities for damage.
Best rune to take since the other two options dont synergize well with your kit. This rune will give free damage along with a shield for your adc to tank just a little bit more damage.
If you dont take this rune you are throwing the game. The free extra mana it gives on top of the passive mana regen that it gives once complete is very important for a mana starving champion like Kayle. Do not take anything else ever under any situation or I will report you for griefing.
Its free ability haste
You are a late game character, this is a late game rune, enough said.
It gives free ap when a ward dies, allows extra vision, and will even ping for you when an enemy comes near it. Very handy and grants great vision score, which is what every good support needs to have. (If your vision score is lower than 40 by the end of a 30-40 minute game then you deserve whatever report you get. Unless your jungler sucks and the enemy jungler has the entire map as a jungle, then thats not on you. If my average vision score as a bronze casual off meta meme building player is 70-80 then you can easily get at minimum 40)
More cdr for your ultimate, which is a very important part of your kit. Nothing much else to say here.
Take this always, its free cdr, and thats what you need more than Irelia needs nerfs. Doesnt seem like much, but you will notcie the difference if you dont take it.
Helps your damage and your heal, best option to choose from right here.
Take this unless all 5 of the enemy team is ad or ap champions. Inwhich case take armor vs all 5 ad or mr vs all 5 ap. The extra health might not seem like much, but once you dont have it trust me you will notice the difference.
For this playstyle it's best for you to start with W. It grants a small heal to both you and your ADC while also giving a minor speed buff. So this can be used to help dodge skillshots or to give your ADC mor flexability to trade with poke. It can also save you from that pesky level 2 gank. If the enemy bot lane is heavy poke, then start with your E so you can collect CS for your ADC using your Relic Shield. While in lane, you do nothing but exsist. Until level 6 you are basically a Yuumi that can take damage. For level 2 go ahead and pick up your E. Some would say to get Q second since it's a slow and also shreds both armor and magic resist, however it can cost a good bit of your mana and at this stage of the game you dont have the mana regen to waste mana. So take E second level and only poke when you know the enemy can't trade back with you, if they do and they sem to want to commit, then use your W heal or to get to safety. Taking Q at level 3 allows you to poke a bit safer since your Q will damage enemies behind the initial target that gets hit. So when you see the enemy ADC going for cs while behind their frontline minons, dont be scared to hit them with a quick Q. Remember, you do not have enough mana regen to spam any abilites, so pick times to use these abiliteis wisely. As you gain levels, start maxing your W heal. As it gains levels it grants more healing and movement speed, which is what we are going for when doing this pick to begin with. Once you hit level 6, take a point into your Ultimate, this will allow you to gain a ranged attack so you may poke a bit more with autoa attack E resets. Make sure to only poke when you have a minion wave backing you up, you don't do much damage and are still a squishy support. Your ultimate is a very important tool for you at this moment because you now have a Taric ultimate for one player that will do pretty okay damage. You can use this for yourself if you are being dove and are going to die, but if they are ignoring you, save this for your ADC so they can either escape and dive attempt, or while they dive under tower to secure a kill.
When you get to mid game, not much for you changes. Stick with your ADC while they farm and try to help secure them kills. Using your W to move them around the map faster, dodging skill shots, chasing, or escaping the enemy. Use your Q to slow an enemy or multiple enemies so they can't chase or so your ADC can catch up and deal extra damage. Use your E to help with dealing damage to the enemy and to secure kills since it does more damage the lower the enemy gets. Save your R only for when the enemy has fully commited to trying to kill your ADC. You can use it for yourself, but only if the enemy is ignoring your ADC to kill you. If multiple of the enemy team is jumping your ADC for quicks instants of burst, you can use your ultimate a little bit early to mitigate the initial burst. Just make sure to use your W heal and your Shurelya's to get them away from the enemy since now they are a free kill without your ultimate ready. Your playstyle is to be akin to a Soraka with Shurelya's. Your positioning is very important in every fight you and your ADC get into.
Late game your Utility is the strongest thing for your team. At this stage you should all be grouped as one, so use your movement speed from your W to help the tank engage better or to help the backline reposition better and catch up for the team fight. Throw out Q's at the enemy for minor poke and so your engage can catch their engage easier and deal more damage thanks to the armor and magic resist shred. E is great for poke since once you are max level it is an aoe. Your ultimate at this stage of the game, with full build and max levels should only be around a 35-38 second cooldown. While extremely low in terms of cooldown, almost on par with an Ashe or Lux ult, it is still the most powerful ability in your kit. Beware that if you use it at any point, the enemy will know it's on cooldown and will look to hard rush engage you or your strongest teammmate since they can now be killed. Hopefully this wont be the case and the enemy has tried to engage but couldn't kill whoever they jumped fast enough and are now out of position with no abilities to save them. Make sure to place vision as much as possible around heavy traffic choke points, objectives and always make sure to ward the enemy teams inhibitor when it gets destroyed. While you yourself don't do much damage, you can still assist with okay damage and againe, your E is great for executing low health eneimes that try to escape.
You are meant for the insane utility that you bring to the team, so expect that there will be times your team will just not utilize it and blame you. I personally laugh and enjoy seeing teammates and enemies rage. I never type, just watch and enjoy and I recommend anyone that wants to try this do the same.
Personal favorite perma ban since she can burst you from half a screen away without issue. The champion should be removed from the game. If you can play into her and know your ADC can as well, then let the Lux main that is always in the game have thier precious main, otherwise make them suffer.
I've played against every support champion with this pick, even the non support champions like Vel'koz, Xerath, Teemo, Lux, Pantheon, Ashe, etc. I can't really give a good ban option since I've been able to deal with each one with relative ease (Havent played against a Lux in over a year since she's perma banned so I can't say if she's easy or hard) so I reccomend you ban the support you hate the most to play into. Even against a Pyke/Jhin we were able to pull out a win so I leave the ban options up to you.
If you still need some help understanding how it works then you can watch this video that somewhat discribes what the goal is and how to play. While the video is old and does take options that i don't, it can still be a good way to get a better understanding of the playstyle and build.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhUXKzpPRik
This video helped give me the idea to spam Kayle as support, but I felt that the video didn't give me a good way to play since the player in question is way above my skill rating. So I've decided to tweak it a bit so us lower elo players can use it a bit more easily.
Here is a Youtube video of me playing as Kayle support if you you need to see it in action to understand how you should play it out and how it works out. Warning, early game is a heavy snooze fest, but the build up and the value it brings is well worth it. Keep in mind I don't play to win, I'm playing for fun, so you will see me do things that are "WTF are you doing" moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7GqTv6HTkk