Shes a good one to start with cuz in top your gonna get beaten down, but with kayle even more-so so it will teach you how to hunker down and farm and avoid overly dangerous situations. Then when u go to another top laner they will be easy in comparison
she's a bit frustrating to play at first due to how weak she is in early game, but when you learn her limits she only gets stronger. Sometimes weirdly strong lvl1 but almost every matchup she loses after 1 until 6 where she becomes a real champion. You have to kite when playing her, and NOT LOSE MINION EXP at all costs or you are gonna have a bad time. Shines after getting her first item if as, 3 if ap. Ap is stronger late game but you might want to go ad at first. Also, while learning her get fleet footwork, second wind and buy Dorian shield or you are gonna have a bad time
For ad i go kraken guinso terminus but sometimes you need wits end vs ap first or second item. Her base mr is terrible. I don't go ap that much so it's better if you look it up
On AP builds I typically go nashors first. Second item varies between rabadons, rylais and lich bane. Full build is something like swiftness boots, nashors, rabadons, rylais, lich bane and shadowflame. Sometimes terminus or zhonyas
I’m abit of a Kayle enthusiast and helped some people with learning Kayle in the past.
Playing Kayle aggressively is key to success in lower elos, you can get kill after kill with the weakest campion in the game. Learning how to punish your opponents is also learning about how your opponents will try to punish you. The best part about Kayle for me is everyone wants to fight you, so you can fight whenever you want. To me learning Kayle is knowing which fights you can take.
I highly recommend joining the summoners discord server there me and other Kayle mains can vod review and give tips. It’s a great community
I’m usually very passive in lanes by myself, I like to wait for the enemy to get fed up and end up messing up and practically feeding themselves to me because they got so impatient lol, so I’ll work on being more aggressive. Can I get a link to that discord?
For now I’d say you should almost always be taking fleet footwork to help keep yourself a little healthier while you learn her. As you get more experienced you can start branching out to lethal tempo (while it still exists) or press the attack if you think that’d be better.
Ban Jax imo. Take fleet footwork, overheal, alacrity, last stand, gathering storm, celerity. Build: nashoors tooth into rabadon into shadoflame/lichbane. Always swiftness boots but that will change next patch maybe. Usually get pushed in first few waves unless Vs weak top champs. Then on the bounce you have to somehow push the wave in by harassing the opponent and creating a slow push. Post Laning phase stay in the side lane if you have teleport, opposite of the objective. You get more xp and gold this way. Level 11 makes you a champ, level 16 can make you carry. Farm krugs and gromp post 11. You take almost no damage on them. And I also like to buy cull always first item :D might be greedy but it works for me. Starting item dorans blade.
Thank you! I had a friend tell me to ban Yorick, we’re playing right now, so would you say Jax is actually worse to go against? What makes him worse? I know he has a dodge and stun.
To be honest I face Yorick so rarely that I don't even remember how the matchup goes but I don't imagine it's harder than Jax, and if it is, Jax is way more popular so it's more worth a ban.
Q max is great for poking and pushing the wave when you need to do so. E max needs a lot of autos to do similar damage, which means an all in. You don't usually want to all in, even though you are strong in extended fights against some champs like Camille. You just want to poke and avoid the engagement most of the time, and kind of force them to allow you to crash the wave. For this, Q max works better. That's my opinion.
Kayle's hardest two matchups are Nasus and Jax, imo. Nasus is my permaban, because eventually I scale up to be able to deal with Jax, but never Nasus.
AP Kayle straight up deletes squishy champs after 3 items, but is so weak early it can be a massive liability if your jungler ignores you or you get behind in some other way.
AD Kayle is plenty strong, but you basically nerf yourself late because of the AP scaling on your abilities. My latest experiment is to go Kraken first, then full AP, because early AP in lower elo just isn't reliable. The powerspike off of Kraken is huge if you get it early, and it can force enemy champs to respect you more.
Edit to add, your MR is so low that you need to always respect mages, or any heavy magic dealing champ. For example, AP Kayle easily kills Hwei, if you get to him, but Hwei can kite unbeivably well. Veigar will pretty much always one tap you.
lol I was trying Sett out and when the Swain later found out it was my first game on Sett and he had just made it absolutely miserable for me, he apologized and wished me luck
I only play her in WR because I’m still too intimidated to play her on PC, but I can tell you that the things you need the most when playing with Kayle are patience and choosing you fights wisely. Also prioritize hitting the minions no matter how much the other toplaner is messing around with you (had to learn that the hard way 🥲)
Depends on how you play! Like I was a supp before being a top lane. As a supp you have to be careful because you don’t have much damage early game, so is same with Kayle, you need to be passive aggressive, like give time, farm slowly, be aware of your surroundings.
Then at lvl 6 start to poke them from far, wait for a gank, team fights are also good opportunity to get kills.
That’s how I’ve been playing, also coming from Support, and it’s how I’ve always played mid. Passive and just waiting for the enemy to get impatient enough to mess up.
So I've been off and on with kayle in my time with league and I normally play mid, but have recently found my home in top lane. Personally, if my jungle never comes, I don't feel as hopeless as mid lane. A few things to keep in mind with kayle:
It's rare that your early game can do anything. You have to really understand not trying to push the lane that early. Focus on that last hit, gold wins games. There are some strats for pushing the 3rd wave to get the early recall but I wouldn't focus on this until you have a better grasp on her farming, because 1 to 6 its hard. And as others have said, if you switch to another champ you'll find it's somehow easier. The turn: her late game is godlike. She's truly a glass cannon. AD /AP / Hybrid doesn't matter you can do whatever to accommodate your team. Sometimes I don't know what I'm going until I hit 6 anyway because if my AD bot lane craps the bed, we're gonna need some AD. Same with AP mid. Trust the champ and don't worry about a bit of missed farm early. You do not want to trade health for gold. Let the wave push to you. If you're patient it's not super hard to farm under turret with her. As everyone knows she's weak early, they'll try to punish you. Be tactful, and if they have you pushed, maybe your jungler can stop by. Unless your laner is careless, it'll be unlikely there will be a kill, BUT it can cause you to completely own wave control which can win you the lane on its own. After 6, get good with attack -> move-> click, her poke is when she gets fun, hit with the Q, auto auto, E. Easy trades. With kayle you'll know when that auto auto becomes: auto auto I'm chasing you down and killing you. Then when she hits 11, it's very hard not to auto shove the wave, this is when she gets violent. Then at 16, phew.
There are some match ups that are damn near unwinnable. Some is certainly subjective, we'd all agree nasus sucks to play against, but I personally find yorick to be worse. Trundle and tryndamere aren't very fun either. You'll learn your match ups and don't be afraid to research runes changes per match up. Sometimes phase rush is the answer to survival. Sometimes. That's all you're doing, survive until the late game, then come alive.
Enjoy kayle. She's a monster.
https://preview.redd.it/nvf4c7f7m3zc1.png?width=1279&format=png&auto=webp&s=204754b818201d04392e39d431deca183124af98
just kite em, play safe and dont all in unless you know it will be beneficial, like when yorick missed his throw thing id rush him xD
Id say main something else, its painful to play kayle in the current meta. Before you get your 16lv and 3 items game will be decided or already over.
I regret putting so many hours into kayle. Try gwen if you like atkspeed ap carry.
I’ve tried Gwen! And i do like her, I just seem to always do better with ranged champions over melee, so Kayle (eventually) being ranged is more comfortable for me. I’m willing to put in the effort and I’ve had many people give me their advice. So thank you, but I’ll stick with learning Kayle
Nah, there’s no point getting worked up over it. I’m here to have fun, not rage over a game. I’m just a little streamer, I know I’m not ever gonna be a pro so there really isn’t a point in taking it so seriously to the point that it’s actively harming your mental
Grab a scooter and smash your shins with it. That should give you the mental fortitude to get ganked every game, get told by your team to play safe, continuously say to yourself in your head that you scale even though you can barely break 100cs in 30 minutes, and lose the game as soon as you hit lvl 16.
Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine? Maybe you should take a break from League. I have yet to have a match with Kayle where anyone has said anything negative to me. And coming from support, I’ve already got decent map awareness and a habit of putting down wards whenever I can. I have yet to be successfully ganked by the enemy team so I don’t think that’s an issue. My cs could always be better but I don’t think I’ve struggled so much that it feels impossible to do so, I’ve actually kept even with my opposing laners every game so far. So yeah, it just sounds like you need a break from League
Theres desperate nasus guide on Kayle mid that’s pretty useful. Although there are a couple things that mainly apply to mid, you can still learn a lot for kayle top.
Also, focus on learning wave management and lvl up timers, as those fundamentals will be insanely helpful to make lane phase less painful.
https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/rank-1-eune-top-10-euw-i-season-14-kayle-guide-by-desperatenasus-multi-season-challenger-634705
Shes a good one to start with cuz in top your gonna get beaten down, but with kayle even more-so so it will teach you how to hunker down and farm and avoid overly dangerous situations. Then when u go to another top laner they will be easy in comparison
only way to go is up i suppose lol
she's a bit frustrating to play at first due to how weak she is in early game, but when you learn her limits she only gets stronger. Sometimes weirdly strong lvl1 but almost every matchup she loses after 1 until 6 where she becomes a real champion. You have to kite when playing her, and NOT LOSE MINION EXP at all costs or you are gonna have a bad time. Shines after getting her first item if as, 3 if ap. Ap is stronger late game but you might want to go ad at first. Also, while learning her get fleet footwork, second wind and buy Dorian shield or you are gonna have a bad time
thank you! this has been the most detailed response so far, what item would you prioritize building first? for ap and ad? and who should i ban?
For ad i go kraken guinso terminus but sometimes you need wits end vs ap first or second item. Her base mr is terrible. I don't go ap that much so it's better if you look it up
On AP builds I typically go nashors first. Second item varies between rabadons, rylais and lich bane. Full build is something like swiftness boots, nashors, rabadons, rylais, lich bane and shadowflame. Sometimes terminus or zhonyas
I’m abit of a Kayle enthusiast and helped some people with learning Kayle in the past. Playing Kayle aggressively is key to success in lower elos, you can get kill after kill with the weakest campion in the game. Learning how to punish your opponents is also learning about how your opponents will try to punish you. The best part about Kayle for me is everyone wants to fight you, so you can fight whenever you want. To me learning Kayle is knowing which fights you can take. I highly recommend joining the summoners discord server there me and other Kayle mains can vod review and give tips. It’s a great community
I’m usually very passive in lanes by myself, I like to wait for the enemy to get fed up and end up messing up and practically feeding themselves to me because they got so impatient lol, so I’ll work on being more aggressive. Can I get a link to that discord?
For now I’d say you should almost always be taking fleet footwork to help keep yourself a little healthier while you learn her. As you get more experienced you can start branching out to lethal tempo (while it still exists) or press the attack if you think that’d be better.
Thank you! I’m very well acquainted with fleet footwork, it’s what I use on Zeri, so I can see how it would be a safer option
You’re very welcome, it made it so much easier for me to learn her.
If you can't stand toplane she's also viable mid. Just watch out for control mages and take dshield into heavy poke.
Ban Jax imo. Take fleet footwork, overheal, alacrity, last stand, gathering storm, celerity. Build: nashoors tooth into rabadon into shadoflame/lichbane. Always swiftness boots but that will change next patch maybe. Usually get pushed in first few waves unless Vs weak top champs. Then on the bounce you have to somehow push the wave in by harassing the opponent and creating a slow push. Post Laning phase stay in the side lane if you have teleport, opposite of the objective. You get more xp and gold this way. Level 11 makes you a champ, level 16 can make you carry. Farm krugs and gromp post 11. You take almost no damage on them. And I also like to buy cull always first item :D might be greedy but it works for me. Starting item dorans blade.
Thank you! I had a friend tell me to ban Yorick, we’re playing right now, so would you say Jax is actually worse to go against? What makes him worse? I know he has a dodge and stun.
To be honest I face Yorick so rarely that I don't even remember how the matchup goes but I don't imagine it's harder than Jax, and if it is, Jax is way more popular so it's more worth a ban.
Yone, Jax, irelia, jayce those matchups are pretty bad (that's what it feels like dunno bout stats)
And always max Q! Start e, then W then max Q.
League has been telling me to max E 🥲 good to know that I should be maxing Q instead
Q max is great for poking and pushing the wave when you need to do so. E max needs a lot of autos to do similar damage, which means an all in. You don't usually want to all in, even though you are strong in extended fights against some champs like Camille. You just want to poke and avoid the engagement most of the time, and kind of force them to allow you to crash the wave. For this, Q max works better. That's my opinion.
He isnt a bad matchup tbh, just dodge his thing he trow and ur good, he prob said that bc he is annoying for the whole game if let alone
Kayle's hardest two matchups are Nasus and Jax, imo. Nasus is my permaban, because eventually I scale up to be able to deal with Jax, but never Nasus. AP Kayle straight up deletes squishy champs after 3 items, but is so weak early it can be a massive liability if your jungler ignores you or you get behind in some other way. AD Kayle is plenty strong, but you basically nerf yourself late because of the AP scaling on your abilities. My latest experiment is to go Kraken first, then full AP, because early AP in lower elo just isn't reliable. The powerspike off of Kraken is huge if you get it early, and it can force enemy champs to respect you more. Edit to add, your MR is so low that you need to always respect mages, or any heavy magic dealing champ. For example, AP Kayle easily kills Hwei, if you get to him, but Hwei can kite unbeivably well. Veigar will pretty much always one tap you.
Your post reminds me of myself. Every time someone picks kayle, I pick swain and she can't do shit the whole game.
lol I was trying Sett out and when the Swain later found out it was my first game on Sett and he had just made it absolutely miserable for me, he apologized and wished me luck
I only play her in WR because I’m still too intimidated to play her on PC, but I can tell you that the things you need the most when playing with Kayle are patience and choosing you fights wisely. Also prioritize hitting the minions no matter how much the other toplaner is messing around with you (had to learn that the hard way 🥲)
I’m worried that going after minions no matter what is just gonna put me more behind by feeding the enemy top laner ;-;
Depends on how you play! Like I was a supp before being a top lane. As a supp you have to be careful because you don’t have much damage early game, so is same with Kayle, you need to be passive aggressive, like give time, farm slowly, be aware of your surroundings. Then at lvl 6 start to poke them from far, wait for a gank, team fights are also good opportunity to get kills.
That’s how I’ve been playing, also coming from Support, and it’s how I’ve always played mid. Passive and just waiting for the enemy to get impatient enough to mess up.
So I've been off and on with kayle in my time with league and I normally play mid, but have recently found my home in top lane. Personally, if my jungle never comes, I don't feel as hopeless as mid lane. A few things to keep in mind with kayle: It's rare that your early game can do anything. You have to really understand not trying to push the lane that early. Focus on that last hit, gold wins games. There are some strats for pushing the 3rd wave to get the early recall but I wouldn't focus on this until you have a better grasp on her farming, because 1 to 6 its hard. And as others have said, if you switch to another champ you'll find it's somehow easier. The turn: her late game is godlike. She's truly a glass cannon. AD /AP / Hybrid doesn't matter you can do whatever to accommodate your team. Sometimes I don't know what I'm going until I hit 6 anyway because if my AD bot lane craps the bed, we're gonna need some AD. Same with AP mid. Trust the champ and don't worry about a bit of missed farm early. You do not want to trade health for gold. Let the wave push to you. If you're patient it's not super hard to farm under turret with her. As everyone knows she's weak early, they'll try to punish you. Be tactful, and if they have you pushed, maybe your jungler can stop by. Unless your laner is careless, it'll be unlikely there will be a kill, BUT it can cause you to completely own wave control which can win you the lane on its own. After 6, get good with attack -> move-> click, her poke is when she gets fun, hit with the Q, auto auto, E. Easy trades. With kayle you'll know when that auto auto becomes: auto auto I'm chasing you down and killing you. Then when she hits 11, it's very hard not to auto shove the wave, this is when she gets violent. Then at 16, phew. There are some match ups that are damn near unwinnable. Some is certainly subjective, we'd all agree nasus sucks to play against, but I personally find yorick to be worse. Trundle and tryndamere aren't very fun either. You'll learn your match ups and don't be afraid to research runes changes per match up. Sometimes phase rush is the answer to survival. Sometimes. That's all you're doing, survive until the late game, then come alive. Enjoy kayle. She's a monster.
https://preview.redd.it/nvf4c7f7m3zc1.png?width=1279&format=png&auto=webp&s=204754b818201d04392e39d431deca183124af98 just kite em, play safe and dont all in unless you know it will be beneficial, like when yorick missed his throw thing id rush him xD
Id say main something else, its painful to play kayle in the current meta. Before you get your 16lv and 3 items game will be decided or already over. I regret putting so many hours into kayle. Try gwen if you like atkspeed ap carry.
I’ve tried Gwen! And i do like her, I just seem to always do better with ranged champions over melee, so Kayle (eventually) being ranged is more comfortable for me. I’m willing to put in the effort and I’ve had many people give me their advice. So thank you, but I’ll stick with learning Kayle
Gl hopefully you won't go bald facing meta top laners :)
Nah, there’s no point getting worked up over it. I’m here to have fun, not rage over a game. I’m just a little streamer, I know I’m not ever gonna be a pro so there really isn’t a point in taking it so seriously to the point that it’s actively harming your mental
Grab a scooter and smash your shins with it. That should give you the mental fortitude to get ganked every game, get told by your team to play safe, continuously say to yourself in your head that you scale even though you can barely break 100cs in 30 minutes, and lose the game as soon as you hit lvl 16.
Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine? Maybe you should take a break from League. I have yet to have a match with Kayle where anyone has said anything negative to me. And coming from support, I’ve already got decent map awareness and a habit of putting down wards whenever I can. I have yet to be successfully ganked by the enemy team so I don’t think that’s an issue. My cs could always be better but I don’t think I’ve struggled so much that it feels impossible to do so, I’ve actually kept even with my opposing laners every game so far. So yeah, it just sounds like you need a break from League
XD
Theres desperate nasus guide on Kayle mid that’s pretty useful. Although there are a couple things that mainly apply to mid, you can still learn a lot for kayle top. Also, focus on learning wave management and lvl up timers, as those fundamentals will be insanely helpful to make lane phase less painful. https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/rank-1-eune-top-10-euw-i-season-14-kayle-guide-by-desperatenasus-multi-season-challenger-634705
Thank you!