An actual Guide on AP
Intro
Hello, D3 coinflip ADC main here, love Kai'sa's assassin like playstyle and want to give you some advice to have fun with her as well.
Runes
- Basic option
- also usable
Runes you have two secondary Options, your Main Runes stay the same. Hail of Blades is a must on Kai'sa because it allows you to get in three quick auto attacks. when you hit W and apply its stacks in your burst combo, you proc the passive and do huge damage. Taste of blood sustains you in lane, you activate it when you go for auto Q on the enemy or hit a long range W. Finally there is Ravenous Hunter, it gives you Omnivamp so your abilities also heal, great rune as your items don't give any sort of health recovery.
Inspiration(Light Blue) secondary is the most solid option, it gives you cookies to cast more spells in laning phase, 150 mana towards your Manamune passive and allows you to rush the ad items for fast Q evolve.
The Precision(Yellow) tree can also work as a secondary, especially in an AD build where you profit more from lifesteal.
Summoner Spells
- Flash on D
- Flash on F
Flash is good, take it.
Your second summoner can vary from game to game. Exhaust allows you to take on stronger opponents. You can survive situations no other summoner would make possible. It is basically a support stuffed in a summoner spell.
Cleanse can be useful when the enemies have hard CC spells like a Lissandra or Ashe ult, even Nasus slow could make or break a fight on you. Always consider team comps, is there enough protection for you? Can the enemies follow up on the engage?
Heal for those who want to use it or feel uncomfortable using exhaust.
Skill Path
You go AP? max W second. Your build is AD and AS? Go E second.
Sounds easy, took me a few games to get out of muscle memory, sometimes i still put a point into E but im getting better at it, I promise.
- AP build
- AD build
Kai'Sa
Kai'Sa
Item Builds
- AP
- AD
AP
First of all, why not just go Full AP but start with nashors and a AD item? -> you miss a W and have to wait 10 seconds to be useful in any way, that sucks. this build evolves all three abilities quickly and with AD heavy early you can actually play the game before three items.
AP build you want to get your Q evolve asap. You achieve it by starting with a Longsword and 3 Health Potions (helps you get through weak laning phase). On your first back you want to get Tear or more Longswords, then build a Serrated Dirk out of them. The lethality item gives you early power arround level six to allow for a play or two. You then work straight on your Muramana. As soon as you have both Serrated Dirk and Muramana you can evolve your Q and start bursting people out of their lifes. Arround the time of evolve your enemy will have his mythic done so you are even in damage, maybe a bit stronger when fighting with isolating the Q on one target.
The next step is to upgrade your boots to Berserkers and build Nashors Tooth. completing Nashors gives neatly 100 AP and your W upgrade. Having bought your 3 core items and reaching level 11 you will also have enough to evolve your E and then you can start playing like a real assassin. Crown gives you the safety to not die instantly when getting jumped on or jumping in on enemies yourself. Since you decided to go the AP Kai'sa build now you have two slots left to fill with items and the most damage you will achieve is with Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap. Now is the time to sell your Serrated Dirk. maybe you need some more gold to finish void, there you go. Void before Rabadon's is especially useful when any enemy has a magic resist item (or will buy it soon as they see your damage on W) and Void has cheaper components.
When you hit full item build it is possible to hit two Ws in quick succession and kill lightly armored(MR) targets. With the recent buffs to Kai'sa's W to reduce it's cooldown by 77% instead of 70% you can proc Kai'sa's passive all by itself.
Build vision arround your targets and hit poke them with your Ws. They are an easy target when clearing wards or you know they dont have vision on you. Predict their path, make sure to not hit camps or minions as they dont reset cooldown. It can be tempting to jump in with R after having hit a W, do it on your own risk. Check for Zhonya, other enemy champions arround and who you are jumping on. Half HP Nami is an easy target but more often than not not a worth trade in the lategame to die for. Rather use it to clean up a teamfight or reposition when you get engaged.
AD
Just a quick and basic reminder Kai'sa still has many strong buildpaths that go AD and AS. The simplest is probably Krakenslayer into Berserkers and round it up with a Phantom Dancer. This Item combo allows you to evolve Q and E. By the time you have the items and evolves you are a beast in teamfights from that point onwards. Lord Dominiks and Infinity Edge give you huge damage potential and Guardian Angel makes it a pain for your enemies to shut you down.
There are more variations with The Collector, Rageblade, Wit's End and even some play lethality, but this guide is mostly about the new AP variation.
Matchups and Synergies
Supports decide how well or bad the lane will go for you. A support with CC in his kit is greatly appreciated as he will put a passive stack on your enemy so you proc it more easily. The game becomes fun after your Q evolve because you will outmatch many champions damage wise.
In lane hold your W for all ins by your support(you can W flash) or to secure minions on long range if no fight is about to come up the next 20 seconds. After Evolve make sure to scout bushes to not facecheck and get question mark pinged out of existence. Many people don't know W gives truesight. Try it on a Kha, Talon or Akali when they want to kill you. In combination with exhaust you can sometimes walk up to them. Always funny to see chats poping up afterwards, how they were killed while in shroud, invis etc.
you can quickly trade with the enemy adc by doing auto Q on him and run out immediately. watch out as this will push the minionwave. After evolving Q this will chunk your enemy.
Hold your E for repositioning or dodging crucial spells like a hook, the more AS you have the faster you are. After evolve the invisibility is insanely valuable.
Your Ult works like a Autoattack reset if cast in place. keep in mind that if you can jump to an enemy you can always jump in the entire circle arround it, even when you are just about in range. Your ult can also make for a great escape tool. Enemies close to a wall allow you to jump over it, you can run in one direction and then jump to the other of the champion that chases you.
To optimise DPS always try to AA-Q, AA-W, AA-R.
You are a big threat when an enemy facechecks you in a bush. You get an isolated Q, W and multiple AAs in and before they even know what happened you procced your passive. Only trap in bushes if you know you will kill the enemy that facechecks you, otherwise run away.
- Hard