Hello and welcome to my Caitlyn guide. I'll start the gude off by briefly introducing myself - I'm MissMaw and I'm a platinum player on the EUW server. I main support and ADC and Caitlyn is one of my favourite picks for ADC. Caitlyn is a ranged Marksman, or ADC, a role that focuses on dealing large amounts of physical damage, usually to individual targets. Typically Marksmen scale extremely well with game time, and deal devastating levels of damage during the late phase of the game. Compared to other ADCs, Caitlyn has considerably longer range. The average ADC has a range of about 550, whereas Caitlyn's auto-attack range is 650. This allows Caitlyn to hit her opponents without placing herself at much risk. Caitlyn's supposed to be a sniper and her abilities compliment that - she excells at killing her enemies from long range, and often surprises her enemies doing tons of damage with her Headshots!

As mentioned in the introduction of the guide, Caitlyn's AA range is superior to that of other ADCs. Although it isn't just her AAs that are long ranged, but her abilities as well. This means Caitlyn is a fairly safe champion to play as she can stay at a distance and nearly all times even in battles. Caitlyn's E ability - 90 Caliber Net - is a gap closer. Her net will also slow enemies it hits, which makes it especially good as an escape. You can use the net to jump over smaller walls too and escape from your enemies in that way. In addition to the slow you have from your E, your W ability - Yordle Snap Trap - allows you to snare enemies. You can place several traps around the map and whoever steps on one will be snared for a short amount of time and you will gain vision of them. Using this in combination with your support/team you can CC-lock your enemies! Caitlyn's range and passive - Headshot - make her an exceptional trader. Her range helps because you can attack your enemies even when you are not in their range, and her passive makes every 6th attack of yours way stronger than your opponents, at least during early levels. You can also trigger your passive by hitting your W or E on enemies, which also will make for a good trade.

Like every other ADC, Caitlyn severely lacks in the defence department. Some of this can be remedied by using the correct runes and masteries, but you'll be squishy even so unless you build full tank. Which you shouldn't do! You just need to keep in mind that you're squishy and play safe. Although great at trading and at poking, Caitlyn falls short when duelling with enemies 1v1. Vayne is an example of an ADC who can take on bruisers or assassins, such as Jax and Zed. Caitlyn on the other hand, needs to be more tactical, utilise kiting and her CC in order to win battles. Preferably, Caitlyn should stand behind her team and attack from a distance, rather than get in the thick of a teamfight. Caitlyn's ultimate is a long ranged attack that deals a lot of damage. It's targetted ability, so your enemy cannot dodge the attack (though some can negate it with use of a spellshield or by temporarily being invulnerable). Which is great when you've just beaten a 1v1 and the enemy is fleeing with nobody around for miles. But if they have an ally with them, your ultimate can and in most cases will be blocked. Which sucks.

I go 18/12/00 because every ADC does that. Though also 12/18/00 is fine I think.

marks

Attack damage marks are a must have for all marksmen, and Caitlyn is no exception. Most of your abilities scale with AD and AD obviously ups your auto-attack damage as well, which will make last hitting easier and will improve your trades. You can exchange one of these marks for a crit mark, but it's unnecessary. This would give you a very small chance at critting your opponent, which in early laning phase could be very valuable.

seals

As you'll be laning versus another marksman, having some source of armour to protect you from their attacks and abilities is necessary. Without these every little auto-attack you take will inflict a lot of damage, and that may very well ruin your trades.

glyphs

Most of the time you'll also be laning versus some sort of magic damage dealer - the enemy support. These will nullify some of the damage these supports do, and they'll be handy later on in the game as well.

quints

Attack speed is a crucial stat for marksmen as it will make it easier for you to last hit and because it will improve your trades. These quints are still useful later on in the game and there's basically no better alternative.

I take standard ADC summoner spells - Flash and Heal.

Flash is a must-have spell for most champions in League. It can be used to reposition yourself during teamfights, escape from enemies or chase enemies (i.e. flash into range on your enemy to finish them off) and for much more.

Heal is your second spell and although there are some alternatives, it's the best spell for an ADC, aside from Flash of course, in my opinion. It's a great spell to keep you safe as it not only heals you (and a close-by ally) but also gives you a movement speed boost for a short amount of time. Although it's mainly used to save you and/or your ally from dying, the movement speed boost can help you chase an enemy should you deem that necessary/worth it.

Passive is headshot - every 6th attack does lots of damage, Q does damage in a straight line, W is a trap that snares enemies and lets you headshot them, E is a gap closer that slows and lets you headshot enemies, R is a long range damage that can be blocked.

6/11/16

Ace in the Hole is Cait's ultimate. You put a point in it whenever you can, like with every other ultimate. So, at level 6 then 11 and 16.

1/4/5/7/9

Q is Caitlyn's main harass tool. You'll be using it a lot in laning phase and thus should max it as soon as possible. Putting points in Q ups the damage and lowers the CD, but slightly raises the mana cost. Using it too much will lead you to going oom, so be careful and pay attention to your mana pool.

2/8/10/12/13

Maxing traps will increase the damage you do to snared champions, lower the charge CD and increase the amount of traps you store. This is why I recommend maxing it right after Q.

3/14/15/17/18

Although a useful spell, I suggest maxing E last. The main use of E is to either hit an easy Headshot on an enemy, or as a gap closer. Maxing it will not contribute to either of these things, and instead it'll lower the CD and increase the damage. Although more damage is good, E does magic damage and scales with AP and since we don't build AP, that's kind of useless.

I recommend you start Doran's, then get IE then Runaans. After that BT if wanna do dmg or want lifesteal, Dominiks against tanks. After that get Scimitar or Banshees. For boots get Berserkers.




In laning phase you should farm and try to pick up some kills if you can.



Try to stick with your team but also don't forget to keep farming. Pick up kills too.



Stay with your teams for fights and objectives but also farm don't forget to farm.



Stay behind the front line and do as much damage as possible. Don't die, be peeled.



In general, what you're looking for is a support who can protect you and poke along side you. A support that specializes in burst damage is not a terrific fit for Caitlyn, but they can also work out in certain situations.

An example of a meager support choice would be Blitzcrank. He's a support who will hook an enemy towards you, CC him and expect you to delete him off the face of the Earth. The problem is, Caitlyn's not really a bursty ADC, is she? But if you've previously poked down the enemy with your AAs and Q and etc, him being hooked in can be very good. Blitzcrank's knock-up and hook also synergise with Caitlyn's W, as you are almost guaranteed to snare a target that's just been knocked up by placing a trap underneath them. Similar to Blitzcrank are also Leona, Nautilus and perhaps Braum and Thresh.

Better choices are supports that deal their own damage through either burst or poke. Zyra, Brand and Vel'Koz are AP supports who deal tons of damage and have CC as well. You synergise with them well because you two can unleash hell on the enemy by just outharassing them until you eventually kill them. The downside of these supports are that they're not great peelers, and if you get in a tight spot they can't protect you as well as the supports mentioned above.

A third "type" of supports are low-damage-dealing healer-y types. Janna and Soraka come to mind. Lulu and Nami are somewhere between this type and the AP-pokey type. Basically, these supports don't offer much themselves in terms of damage, but vastly improve your trades either with various buffs - Eye of the Storm, Tidecaller's Blessing, Help, Pix! - or by continously healing and shielding you during fights - Eye of the Storm, Astral Infusion, Ebb and Flow.

In conclusion Cait's a safe and solid pick for both fun time normals and serious time ranked games. Thanks to just me since nobody really helped me out on this one. Well and thanks to you readers as well, hope you enjoyed reading the guide and learned a thing or two. Good luck on the Rift, friends!

If you have any questions or comments or anything like that, message me on MOBAFire or comment in the comment section. And if you liked the guide, an upvote would be very appreciated!

I've written several other guides, checking them out would also be appreciated!:


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11/22/63 - Guide published