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Choose Champion Build:
-
Physical DPS
-
Magic DPS
-
Physical-magic hybrid DPS
-
AoE DPS
-
Anti-tank
-
Jungler
-
Support
-
Burst damage
Recommended Items
Spells:
Ignite
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Divine Ascent (PASSIVE)
Kayle Passive Ability
Introduction

"In the night of the life, follow only one light... the ever distant utopia."
Elvàlianor "Moon Follower" Tyr'Gàlad
Despite the title is "Complete Kayle", this is most a guide about what I can do better: optimizing setup and combo of items. Then, here you will see me talking more about runes, masteries, spells and items, which are the main problem when you play a versatile champ like this. If you are inexperienced, I recommend to just read the setup (or set it randomly, a good setup isn't always important and maybe you can't even afford it), read the recommended items and try them, because everything else would just confuse you. If you are experienced, you can help me by reading everything and telling me how noob I am in the comments. For anything about Kayle, visit her LoL Wiki page here: Kayle the Judicator on LoL Wiki. It's always very accurate and people who love her always respond in the comments, me too.


When you and your opponent are in front of each other and beating each other, there are just 2 things which count: attack power (








Cons: no strong CC; not great burst damage compared to other champs,


My ranked statistics with SoloQ Kayle in the last month of Season 3 and pre-Season 4, where I tried to do my best, dedicated to whoever vote "no" without comments... <3

(from LoLKing http://www.lolking.net/summoner/euw/20113972#ranked-stats)
Pros
![]() + One of the bests AA damage at level 1 and 2 + High potential DPS + High versatility with builds and roles + Best defence against burst damage + Good wave clear with the splash damage on-hit + 93 HP per level, the best between ranged champs |
Cons
![]() - No hard CC - No high base burst damage - No good last hit mechanism - Limited mobility - Can't farm in ranged mode without pushing - A few seconds of melee mode without CDR |

Probaly it's useless for you to read this. Unless you want to confuse yourself, you can skip. This is for explain my thought behind the builds, from where I start to combine the kit and a set of items, this is what I see when I look at Kayle. The "+1" are intended as quantity, but beware, quality counts more, just it is more difficult to report as number. I suggest to read "Abilities and stats attributes I use in my valuation of the kit" in the terminology chapter to better (try to) understand.

Base statistics
- 525 range (Range on LoL Wiki) with E = +1 offence
Holy Fervor
- 3%-15% armor and MR reduction = +1 anti-armor, +1 anti-MR
- stacks 5 times with AA = +1 AS
Reckoning
- AP ratio = +1 AP
- AD ratio = +1 AD
- strong slow = +1 support
Divine Blessing
- heal+bonus MS = +1 support
- AP ratio = +1 AP
Righteous Fury
- bonus magic damage = +1 AS
- AP ratio = +1 AP
- AD ratio = +1 AD
- splash damage = +1 AoE DPS
Intervention
- invulnerability that scale with nothing = +1 offence, +1 support
Results of above- anti-armor = 1
- anti-MR = 1
- AS = 2
- AP = 3
- AD = 2
- offence = 2
- AoE DPS = 1
- support = 3

Runes




Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration + Greater Quintessence of Hybrid Penetration
Considering:
•

• her damage output will always be a little of both physical and magic because she have to AA with

• resistance penetration is the most difficult to get with items;
I decided to always use full hybrid pen.
Anyway, there are 2 cons:
1) last hit in early game can be more problematic;
2) since penetration basically increase of a % your total damage output, in the very early game this could mean you will do a little less damage compared to pure AD, AP or AS runes.


These are always good and complete the offensive-oriented masteries, you should use scaling version depending on which damage you don't face in lane.
Other options







A few notes to begin with.
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Follow the sets of masteries quoted in the roles description. I think is enough to say Kayle benefit much from an offensive build. I value very much her offensive and defensive power, so everything that isn't in the offensive tree, goes in the defensive tree.
- AD no crits 21 9 0
- AD utilities no
Warlord
- AP with AS and
Arcane Blade 21 9 0
- AD-AP hybrid 30 0 0












Explanation
![]() |
This is a must for a champ with so limited mobility. |
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Combining this with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Usual offensive spell, ![]() |
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Good against AAers, but you already have a great slow and the other choise give better advantages. Better to leave it when you are the support. |
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Jungle control! |
All the other spells shouldn't be considered bad, they are situational, you need general knowledge of the game and an exact idea about how to use them at their full potential... if there is really a way for all of them...
In my opinion, the best build doesn't exist, reality isn't so simple. There are many variables: your playstyle (what you are best suited to do, where you excel, knowledge of your pros and cons), teams composition (how much burst/DPS/physical/magic damage your team needs or your enemies have), ingame items (counter-building your enemies or get items with good sinergy with those of your teammates), game mode etc.
Add you don't know what you want and it's the end for you. I can't tell you what you want or what is the best for you, but I can show you a VERY APPROXIMATE overview between two variables that determine a build, to try to give you an idea about what you would like: AD vs AP and burst vs DPS.
High risk high reward means you are more exposed to dish out more damage.
AD is obviously the best single target late game damage, because the scaling of AD + AS + critical strike (+ life steal). With AP usually you have other strong points than raw damage, like a better heal from
Divine Blessing and a stronger AoE damage of
Righteous Fury.
DPS usually is slow, lower in the begin but higher in the end.
Burst usually is fast, higher in the begin but lower in the end.
The "blue point", where DPS surpass burst, is very much situational.
Add you don't know what you want and it's the end for you. I can't tell you what you want or what is the best for you, but I can show you a VERY APPROXIMATE overview between two variables that determine a build, to try to give you an idea about what you would like: AD vs AP and burst vs DPS.

High risk high reward means you are more exposed to dish out more damage.
AD is obviously the best single target late game damage, because the scaling of AD + AS + critical strike (+ life steal). With AP usually you have other strong points than raw damage, like a better heal from



DPS usually is slow, lower in the begin but higher in the end.
Burst usually is fast, higher in the begin but lower in the end.
The "blue point", where DPS surpass burst, is very much situational.

1# If you master

Starting items
Safe:




Mobility:




General magic damage:



General physical damage:




Boots




About boots enchantments, if you have any combo of







CDR or not CDR?
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If you go for an offensive build, you have to hurt while you are ranged. CDR doesn't really help you to hurt, don't get it only because you want to always be ranged, if you do there is a big basic mistake: no point being 100% time ranged if you give up too much damage because of that. ![]() |
Max


If you max




What after?
If the game is going good, the other offensive ability. If bad,

All n00b builds, mine is better and/or no defensive items
Each build here is specialized in his role, but between all these builds with specifics roles there are unlimited hybrids. And it's a guide to Kayle, not to items. Defensive items are situational and require knowledge of enemy champs and in general of the game, more than the champ you are using. Anyway, remember Kayle benefit very much from an offensive build, she already has good HP per level,



The 8 attributes of Kayle worked out from the valuation of her kit can be used efficiently in the following possible roles, with following dedicated build. Beginning from here means you know what you want from a champ. Every paragraph is divided in:
Key Points
- Masteries.
Explanation.
4 core items in priority order, the 5th is not so fundamental and when it misses it means I suggest to get the right % penetration item (
Last Whisper or
Void Staff) or a full defensive item or an hybrid offensive/offensive one (like
Zhonya's Hourglass or
Maw of Malmortius).
4 core items in priority order, the 5th is not so fundamental and when it misses it means I suggest to get the right % penetration item (






Physical DPS
Hurth with physical damage focused on 1 target.

You can get an early

1) Max

- Masteries: AD no crits.
Get pure AS items first. Since the low range on AAs and the good sinergy between LS and
Intervention (you can heal while invulnerable and keep attacking), I suggest to get
Infinity Edge later and go for a solid LS to better fit her good duelist capability.
Blade of the Ruined King >
Youmuu's Ghostblade >
Infinity Edge >
Phantom Dancer >
2) Max 






- Masteries: AD no crits.
Get pure AD items first. Here you have to consider that early game you deal more magic damage than physical damage, if it was your intention to go on a physical DPS you don't have a good way to surpass the MR of the opponents if they build it, but it could be a very little problem since the physical damage you deal will be more the more the game goes on.
B. F. Sword >
Pickaxe >
Blade of the Ruined King >
Youmuu's Ghostblade >






Magic DPS
Hurth magic damage focused on 1 target.

Without the need of crits and since SV works bad with the bonus damage of








1) Max

- Masteries: AP with AS and

Get pure AS items first, then AP. In the end it would good the big AP boost of
Rabadon's Deathcap, since mostly of your items give AP.
Recurve Bow >
Dagger >
Stinger >
Guinsoo's Rageblade >
Nashor's Tooth >
2) Max 






- Masteries: AP with AS and

Get pure AP items first,
Fiendish Codex last between them, it's better pure AP than CDR in early to improve every single use of
Reckoning, you wouldn't be able to spam it due to the cost. An early
Guinsoo's Rageblade isn't the best here, since you don't have an easy way to keep 8 stacks when it's time to use
Reckoning, so you can leave it for late.
Amplifying Tome >
Blasting Wand >
Fiendish Codex >
Nashor's Tooth >










Physical-magic hybrid DPS
Hurth with physical-magic hybrid damage focused on 1 target.
Difficult to talk about this because the unlimited possibilities, but I find it very difficult to efficiently mix all the stats you would need, that are AD, AP, LF, SV, AS. If you want to consider crits and bonus % AP too, I really wouldn't know what to say, so let's drop these last 2 for now. Remember it's hard to itemize against opponents with both high armor and MR (




1) Typical hybrid items, max

- Masteries: AD-AP hybrid.
The idea here is to maximize the damage of every single attack instead of going more on AS, then get items that grant big amount of AD and AP and leave runes to deal with defences.
Guinsoo's Rageblade as first item could be problematic because you have to manage its stacks mechanism without a great AS, but if you are able to, it's still potentially one of the best cost efficient items of all.
Guinsoo's Rageblade >
Hextech Gunblade >
Nashor's Tooth >
Bloodthirster >
2) Typical hybrid items, max 





- Masteries: AD-AP hybrid.
Get pure AD and AP items first,
Fiendish Codex last between them, it's better pure AP than CDR in early to improve every single use of
Reckoning, you wouldn't be able to spam it due to the cost. An early
Guinsoo's Rageblade isn't the best here, since you don't have an easy way to keep 8 stacks when it's time to use
Reckoning, so you can leave it for late. Instead, an early
Hextech Revolver should greatly improve your sustain in the lane phase, accordingly to the more safe playstyle of a max Q build.
Hextech Revolver >
Blasting Wand >
Hextech Gunblade >
Fiendish Codex >











Burst damage
Spellblade based, hurth the more you can in short time focused on 1 target, max

Always rush

1) Magic damage.
- Masteries: 23 2 5
Wait to upgrade
Sheen into
Lich Bane until you have a good amount of AP unless you need to switch type of damage because of opponents' defences, so that you are investing in very more damage instead of just a little more but magic instead of physical. Your magic damage burst has a base damage of 260 (level 5 Q) + 60 (level 5 E) = 320, plus an AP ratio of 0.6 (Q) + 0.5 (
Lich Bane) + 0.25 (E) + 0.05 (
Arcane Blade
) + 0.15 (
Nashor's Tooth) + 0.4 (
Hextech Gunblade active) = 1.95, so 320 + 195% AP. Remember this is only counting 1 hit of AA. For comparison,
Annie's burst is 895 + 245% AP with no items.
Sheen >
Rabadon's Deathcap >
Lich Bane >
Nashor's Tooth >
Hextech Gunblade >















AoE DPS



This can be very good against a team full of high armor and MR because of






1) Physical-magic hybrid with AD items.
- Masteries: AD utilities no

You can do this because splash damage of
Righteous Fury scale with AD, but since its splash damage and
Statikk Shiv passive are magic damage you need hybrid pen regardless the items.
Runaan's Hurricane >
Blade of the Ruined King >
Statikk Shiv >
Infinity Edge
2) Magic.





- Masteries: 21 9 0









Anti-tank



This is dedicated to my old favourite build of S2, when I was considering Madred's Bloodrazor+Wit's End+Malady+Ionic Spark the best build on Kayle, but one day Riot realized the AS stat was too much efficient.
- Masteries: AD utilities no

Very good against stacked HP, because you combine














Support
Going in a duo lane and leaving all the farm to your partner.

Since usually



1) AoE debuff DPS, max

- Masteries: 10 3 17
Best used in lanes where your ADC has low range and is really aggressive.
Spellthief's Edge >
Wit's End >
Runaan's Hurricane
Mikael's Blessing
2) Magic anti-tank + burst, max 





- Masteries: 10 3 17
Best used in lanes where your ADC is poke based or need to farm safe.
Spellthief's Edge >
Liandry's Torment >
Rylai's Crystal Scepter >
Mikael's Blessing






Jungler
Jungle/counterjungle/ganks, Devourer based.

Devourer on


1) Safe farm for lategame, max

- Masteries: 25 2 3
You are here to rush Devourer, so I suggest to focus on a safe early and to get
Red Brambleback buff when you start to gank, following this jungle order:
Krug >
Raptor >
Gromp >
Blue sentinel >
Murk Wolf >
Rift Scuttler. I recommend
Stalker's Blade - Devourer, because of the addictional mobility, and
Sorcerer's Shoes over
Berserker's Greaves because of the already high AS, but don't get them early, they won't help you to deal more damage to monsters since you can't reduce their MR below zero with mPen.
Hextech Gunblade is just a luxury item, I choose this because there are no other offensive valid choises with AS and magic damage on-hit, it gives a little of heal on-hit (the only thing magic damage on-hit builds miss) and because of the good CD reduction its passive have with
Runaan's Hurricane.
Stalker's Blade - Devourer >
Wit's End >
Runaan's Hurricane >
Nashor's Tooth >
2) Counterjungle?















3) Gank, max


Bad notes
I sometimes see the following items on her like they were a core, yet... I don't say they are totally bad, but you can't have them in an "usual" build. Let's say they are situational or need a dedicated build to be better used. A common thing to remember is:

Slow on-hit items
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Offensive Spellblade items
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Good notes
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I take ranked games so seriously that... I never play them because I never feel ready enough. Except when there are only 10 days left from the end of the season. I haven't that diamond thing near my name to prove that I'm good, so how can I prove it? This is the reason of this section.
An
Intervention used right at the start of the animation of
Lux's ultimate let my teammate survive to a dive that went wrong, plus a lucky survive to the minion's attack who defended
Diana from my
Righteous Fury.
A very well timed
Intervention to counter
Garen's ultimate exploiting its 0.5 second channel time.
A good awareness of the range of
Intervention, which let me save my teammate. With the help of
Flash, I'm able to reach a desperate
Fizz nearly out of range who got a bad counterattack after diving
Lulu.
Use of Intervention












Advices, criticism, error reports, requests for clarification, insults like this guide is s**t and I don't get a s**t, all are welcome. Although Kayle is my main and I am the embodiment of perfection, unfortunately, I am still a human being for now and something I don't notice may be there.
In any case, ANY NEGATIVE COMMENT IS APPRECIATED AND WILL HELP ME! I don't care if you would give a negative vote, but if you do and don't comment, it won't help me to understand if I need to improve the aesthetics part or clarify the concepts or revise/test again something.
I often play Kayle since she is my main champ, I suppose I'll need this chapter. You will never end to improve yourself.
24 Feb 2015
• Updated Burst damage with the removal of Death Fire Grasp.
• Fixed a mistake in Jungler, it was
Stalker's Blade the right jungler item, not
Poacher's Knife.
• Revision of Physical DPS,
Phantom Dancer should be there.
• New image for Introduction and new icon for Jungler.
• Added more specific terms in Pros / Cons about AA damage and versatility.
25 Jan 2015
• New Jungler build.
24 Jan 2015
• Complete revision of Mastery chapter and all set of masteries.
• I notice now
Sword of the Divine got removed, so I hid Burst physical damage.
• Overall cleaning.
14 Dec 2014
• Changed
Athene's Unholy Grail with
Mikael's Blessing in Support role (thanks to Slyder).
• Changed items order in Physical-magic hybrid with AD items AoE DPS,
Blade of the Ruined King is best used in lane.
• AP with AS and
Arcane Blade
set of masteries change to 22 8 0 to 21 9 0, that +2 armor/MR is more needed if you don't buy defensive items.
• Start of tests for Kayle jungler.
19 Aug 2014
• Changed items order in Physical DPS about
Avarice Blade, now is just a side case to get it early.
• Remake of Support role.
08 Jul 2014
• Updated to patch V4.11, big nerf to Magic DPS, but IMHO needed, like I said here http://community.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/7BjBdGkQ-411-live-gameplay-patch-forecast:
Riot: "does anyone know why Kayle's this hybrid damage-support champion who also happens to be top tier at both?"
Me: "Look at her patch history since her last remake (http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Kayle/Background at Patch History) and you will know why. Since that, it was a continuous general buff, on top of all her E AP ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.4, with this motivation: "Kayle is not a toxic champ, we don't mind making her viable". Totally no sense buff and reason IMHO, because she was already perfectly good, but just unpopular. A buff against the main reason of her last remake, which was to nerf her late and to buff her early. Now she got her early buffed and her late too. I could quote other buffs I didn't like, but this is the main one. What I love of Kayle over all LoL champs is being a hybrid like that, (always IMHO) she is supposed to be good at everything and master of nothing, therefore she hasn't a really specific weakness like a specialized champ. Therefore, if you think her power is no longer acceptable, maybe it's time to bring back the old numbers?"
22 Jun 2014
• Updated to patch V4.10, what a pity they removed the heal on-hit of
Doran's Blade and now
Bloodthirster has no longer the big cost efficiency with max stacks and it's useless to buy more than one, but good buffs to AS items and
Blade of the Ruined King and now it's easier to use
Youmuu's Ghostblade.
31 May 2014
• Updated Starting items paths and added one.
• Added a good note about
Doran's Blade in Item notes.
28 May 2014
• Updated Starting items with
Doran's Blade.
• Removed personal favorite/recommended from Burst magic damage, nerf to AP ratio of
Reckoning and
Lich Bane is bad.
27 Feb 2014
• Updated to patch V4.2, an hard hit for the AP ratio of burst damage builds, but good news for the support part of the skillset.
Older
24 Feb 2015
• Updated Burst damage with the removal of Death Fire Grasp.
• Fixed a mistake in Jungler, it was


• Revision of Physical DPS,

• New image for Introduction and new icon for Jungler.
• Added more specific terms in Pros / Cons about AA damage and versatility.
25 Jan 2015
• New Jungler build.
24 Jan 2015
• Complete revision of Mastery chapter and all set of masteries.
• I notice now

• Overall cleaning.
14 Dec 2014
• Changed


• Changed items order in Physical-magic hybrid with AD items AoE DPS,

• AP with AS and

• Start of tests for Kayle jungler.
19 Aug 2014
• Changed items order in Physical DPS about

• Remake of Support role.
08 Jul 2014
• Updated to patch V4.11, big nerf to Magic DPS, but IMHO needed, like I said here http://community.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/7BjBdGkQ-411-live-gameplay-patch-forecast:
Riot: "does anyone know why Kayle's this hybrid damage-support champion who also happens to be top tier at both?"
Me: "Look at her patch history since her last remake (http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Kayle/Background at Patch History) and you will know why. Since that, it was a continuous general buff, on top of all her E AP ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.4, with this motivation: "Kayle is not a toxic champ, we don't mind making her viable". Totally no sense buff and reason IMHO, because she was already perfectly good, but just unpopular. A buff against the main reason of her last remake, which was to nerf her late and to buff her early. Now she got her early buffed and her late too. I could quote other buffs I didn't like, but this is the main one. What I love of Kayle over all LoL champs is being a hybrid like that, (always IMHO) she is supposed to be good at everything and master of nothing, therefore she hasn't a really specific weakness like a specialized champ. Therefore, if you think her power is no longer acceptable, maybe it's time to bring back the old numbers?"
- Fixed all maths about AP ratio.
- Changed items order in AoE DPS,
Bloodthirster is the last one now.[/color]
22 Jun 2014
• Updated to patch V4.10, what a pity they removed the heal on-hit of




- Removed
Doran's Blade from everywhere.
- Removed
Youmuu's Ghostblade and
Sword of the Divine from Item notes
- Revised all builds with
Bloodthirster.
31 May 2014
• Updated Starting items paths and added one.
• Added a good note about

28 May 2014
• Updated Starting items with

• Removed personal favorite/recommended from Burst magic damage, nerf to AP ratio of


27 Feb 2014
• Updated to patch V4.2, an hard hit for the AP ratio of burst damage builds, but good news for the support part of the skillset.
- Updated Magic burst damage.

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