Kayle champion guide: Delivering sweet justice

Kayle — alongside her sister, Morgana — has been reworked. This guide will be focusing on Kayle. If you want to check out a guide on the other side of the coin, Morgana, we have that, too.

While Morgana has only seen minor changes, Kayle has seen a complete identity shift and been given a new lease of life, including all new abilities and interesting mechanics that we’ve never seen before. I’ll be focusing on Kayle as a solo laner (top and mid) for this guide, but she is definitely still viable as a support and jungler.

Skills

Passive - Divine Ascent

Every time you can level your ultimate, you get a new form. Having Exalted permanently is a game changer and allows you to dish out absurd amounts of damage while also having an incredibly high movement speed. This coupled with the rest of your kit makes it hard for the enemy to escape your wrath.

Q - Radiant Blast

Radiant Blast has a huge slow once maxed which makes it a lot easier for you to kite, engage, and disengage at will. It also deals a ton of damage and shreds the opponents’ resistances. It explodes in an area of effect and every enemy hit gets affected by the slow, armor shred, and damage.

W - Celestial Blessing

Celestial Blessing is similar to Kayle’s old W, but it now heals and grants movement speed to yourself and an additional ally. (This is one of the things that can allow support Kayle to remain viable with the rework, so all you Kayle support mains can breathe a sigh of relief.) The movement speed boost scales with levels and your ability power.

E - Starfire Spellblade

The passive effect grants additional damage on auto attacks, which is nice since you have a lot of attack speed in your kit and build already. The active portion makes Kayle fully ranged and deals damage based of the opponents missing health. This ability also deals damage in an AoE after reaching level six and ascending once.

R - Divine Judgement

This is a tweaked version of Kayle’s old ultimate ability. Divine Judgement makes the targeted ally invulnerable for a few seconds. After a brief delay, swords fall from the sky and deal damage in an AoE. Kayle also cannot attack while casting Divine Judgement, but the ally you’ve cast it on can still attack.

Skill Order

You’ll almost always want to prioritize points into Starfall Spellblade first. This ability is powerful and helps to get through Kayle’s weak early game.

After that, it’s completely situational. It depends on the state of the game and team comps. I’ve seen many people putting three points into Radiant Blast and then switch to maxing Celestial Blessing and vice-versa. While Radiant Blast can be a bit of a one-point-wonder due to the 20 percent armor and MR shred it gives at rank one, the slow scales quite hard with ranks and it’s an AoE now, making it very enticing to put more points into it. I personally like the healing and movement speed provided by Celestial Blessing, so I tend to prioritize a few points into that first.

Runes

I’ve found Fleet Footwork to be a very helpful tool to overcome her sub par early game. I generally grab Triumph for the extra health on kill, Legend: Alacrity for additional attack speed and Coup De Grace for some more kill potential. Coup works well in tandem with Starfall Spellblade’s execute.

Go into the Domination tree next and grab yourself Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter. These runes will help to sustain in the early game while also scaling well into the late game by providing even more healing.

In easier lane match-ups, you can try out Lethal Tempo or Conqueror for some more mid and late game power, if the sustain from Fleet will not be necessary. It can also be worthwhile to trade in Triumph for Presence of Mind if you feel like you’ll be needing your ultimate off cooldown more often. This works particularly well against assassins who want to blow up one target (such as Zed or Fizz). You can also take Sorcery and try out Nullifying Orb against hard AP match-ups, followed by Celerity to get additional movement speed from your abilities.

Build Order

Start

• Doran’s Shield
• 1 Health Potion

Or

• Corruption Potion

Early Game Core

• Boots of Speed
• Dark Seal
• Nashor’s Tooth

Mid Game Core

• Hextech Gunblade
• Rabadon’s Deathcap

Late Game Core

• Void Staff

Situational Items

• Phantom Dancer
• Maw of Malmortius
• Runaan’s Hurricane
• Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre
• Mercurial Scimitar
• Guardian Angel
• Zhonya’s Hourglass

For boots go for Berserker Greaves, but Ninja Tabi or Mercury’s Treads are definitely viable in many situations. I’d advise you to decide which boots you need based on the enemy team comp.

You’ll usually be finishing off your Nashor’s Tooth by the time you reach level 11, making it a strong power spike for when you become a ranged champion.

Hextech Gunblade provides with more sustain and also works well with Kayle’s hybrid scalings. Round off your build with Rabadon’s Deathcap and a Void Staff for more damage and magic penetration.

There are many situational items because Kayle is a hybrid champion, meaning that she gets the best of both worlds and can grab AD or AP situational items. I’d advise getting one of these items at any point you need them, but the most optimal time to get a situational item would be after finishing Hextech Gunblade.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade doesn’t really work on Kayle anymore, as it doesn’t have any synergy with the waves from your Exalted passive, making it a wasted item slot.

Synergies

• Jinx
• Vayne
• Kog’Maw
• Lulu
• Nami
• Morgana
• Braum

Kayle works best with hyper carries that she can keep alive with her ult. She also likes anyone that can keep her alive and provide her with buffs, or anyone who can peel for her.

Counters

• Nasus
• Sylas
• Lulu
• Darius
• Jax
• Renekton

Anyone that can crowd control long enough to be focused down in a fight will always be counters for hyper carries like Kayle. Sylas can also steal your game changing ultimate, which is tough to go against.

Champions like Darius and Jax are in there because of how miserable they can make your early game, but you beat them later in the game, if you can get there.

Conclusion

Kayle is shaping up to be one of the most interesting and, more importantly, fun reworks that we’ve seen in recent times. While her early game isn’t the best, her late game power is unmatched. If you’re looking for a champion who can absolutely decimate a fight and have the ability to 1v5 late game, then Kayle is the champion for you.